American "Urban" Gothic...

Kinda looks like "She and I" to the right.

I have started reading "The Urban Homesteader" by Coyne and Knutzen. It is billed as the "bible" of urban sustainability. They discuss everything form cleaning your house with dangerous chemicals, growing seasonal crops in the backyard, and how to raise bees in your yard so that you can make mead.

The book seems to be written in easy conversational tone with a gentle sense of humor. I'm looking forward to trying some of the projects in the book and will keep you posted.

After having thought about it for a minute, I wonder how hard it will be to convince the neighbors, who already have a problem with our dog that barks on occasion, that I really need to keep bees and that they are absolutely safe. Probably easier not to just not tell them.