There are lots of ways to make a duck house and the one you build is based on any combination of the following factors: safety from predators carpentry skill level time money portability In our case, we are currently renting our homestead while I finished grad school. (So excited to get back to our permanent plot in Portland…) So what we build has to move
Poultry-Proof Garden
We love having our chickens free-range in our backyard. They eat a wider range of food, which saves us some money on chicken feed and also makes their eggs taste ten times better. But they can be really destructive in the garden beds – trampling seedlings in search for the next great worm. It’s even more important for backyard ducks to have some free-range access,
Unsustainable Choices
A few weeks ago I started to second-guess our decision to keep our house in Portland, rather than selling it when we had the chance before starting grad school down in Eugene. A weekend of back-breaking labor in Portland though cured me of that feeling. When we say we’re “going home”, we still think of that house as our home. The house smells like our
Plant a Teepee
Constructing a simple teepee in the garden is a very simple and fun way to work vertically. Living in the city, we are all space-challenged and I have found the teepee a welcome edition every year. You can use old tree branches or visit your nearest nursery for bamboo stalks. Tie your teepee at the top with some twine to hold them together. I also
Driveway Project Complete
The driveway is done! This project would typically take about two weekends to build, but we had a snow storm roll through town and my grandfather passed away. Now that we have had a couple weeks to recover from those things, it took very little time to finish up the job. My goal was to build a permeable driveway surface that would absorb rainwater, rather
Snow Delay
It’s a winter wonderland in Portland right now. Yesterday we made tremendous progress with the driveway using pavers. I had about 1/3 of the concrete blocks set into place when it just got too cold, with this biting chill in the air, for me to continue. I assume that 90% of the time when snow is forecast for Portland, the news channels are just trying
Diggin the Driveway
One big step in our future driveway project is now complete: the driveway has been fully dug out. It took a couple weekends, but we finished up right before the rains came in. Rather than feeling very satisfied though, I am feeling really annoyed. Our older neighbor Dan stopped by for a chat while we were out working. He expressed some concern over whether the
Building Garden Paths
My garden is very much a work in progress. One of the elements lacking in the landscape are clearly defined pathways. They just seem like so much work to build though, especially for something I won’t actually receive any direct benefit from. Afterall, I know where everything is, where to walk and not walk, etc. But my lovely friends, and sometimes even Jay, are not
Garden Tour
The Fo-Po Garden Tour was a lot of fun, and it was some serious motivation for us to get things wrapped up and the yard looking good! We met some really nice people and I am always happy to talk about plants with anyone who will listen. There is so much to recap… where to begin? First off, the patio is now complete! The final