Have you heard of guerrilla gardening, where folks toss flower seeds into vacant lots, or sometimes sneak in at night and plant flowers in unkempt highway medians or strips along city sidewalks? One of their tools is seed bombs — little clumps of dried mud laced with seeds that can easily be tossed over fences into vacant lots. Top choices [...]

Headin’ back to the land (or making any move toward greater self-sufficiency) will, sooner or later, mean a return to the use of ropes. Without simple hitches (single ropes tied to objects) and bends (ropes joined together), loads fall off trucks, an expensive cow or goat escapes, a boat goes adrift, and hoisting hay from [...]