Blog

23.4 Degrees and Falling

It's not the temperature, as they say: it's the obliquity. And yet, the connection with winter weather and decreasing temperatures is very real.

At this point, you may be wondering what on Earth I am writing about, and in fact, you would be very close to answering your own question. Our planet Earth is tilted, or rather, the Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to the ecliptic, and the degree of tilt is referred to as obliquity. If you're wondering what that means, it means ...

Read More

70 pounds and Counting

70 pounds and Counting

It’s November, cooler temperatures have set in, summer is a distant memory, and most gardeners have called it quits for the vegetable growing season.  Being the intrepid Square Foot gardener that I am, I continue to protect the plants, collect and weigh the produce, hoping to reach a self-imposed harvest of 100 pounds, before I call it quits..

Read More

A Kid’ll Eat Ivy, Too

This Iranian jar is almost 6,000 years old. It depicts the Persian, or Bezoar, Ibex – the ancestor of our domesticated goat. While our modern goats have horns, the bezoar ibex has the largest horns, considered in proportion to body weight, of any animal in the world. The enormous horns, and the characteristic beard (from which we get the word "goatee"), are beautifully represented. The ibex's distinctive form and trophy-worthy horns have made it the object of hunters for millennia. Today, t...

Read More