Speaking of handmade stuff, as we did a couple weeks ago, here's a brilliant book that absolutely everyone will love: Mark Frauenfelder's MADE BY HAND. (Which we hope you will purchase at your local independent bookstore.)
Mark is the co-founder of BoingBoing and editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine. So already we love him for his hipster geeky wonderfulness, but it turns out that he's quite the gardener, chicken-tender, beekeeper, etc. Really! He is!
Here's Mark telling Stephen Colbert about beekeeping and automatic chicken coop doors.
What I love about this book is that Mark writes about earthworms, his kitchen garden, his chickens, and his bees with real warmth and genuine interest. (Oh, and he rips out his lawn, y'all. That's Chapter 2, called Killing My Lawn, which comes right after Chapter 1, The Courage to Screw Things Up.) While his Colbert interview focuses more on the kinds of groovy gadgets that appeal to BoingBoing and MAKE fans, the book itself is, at heart, a homesteader's book. Mark is clearly one of us.
Do go out and pick up a copy for yourself or grab one as a last-minute gift. It's just come out in paperback, and it's a real delight.
Let the geeks lead the way! :-) It would be great if he inspires a bunch of people to rip out their lawns and keep chickens...
Posted by: Raffi / Gardenology.org | December 21, 2011 at 06:10 AM
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Posted by: Lillian | December 21, 2011 at 06:18 AM
FYI, he doesn't keep chickens anymore because or all the predators in the hills of LA. But bees he does keep still.
Posted by: SKR | December 21, 2011 at 09:40 AM
Regarding the chickens, you can't win 'em all. But kudos to him for trying...
Posted by: Raffi / Gardenology.org | December 21, 2011 at 04:42 PM