Build a Rocket Stove Mass Heater with Homemade Mortar & Cob

 

Off Grid and Lovin’ It

Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Most of us have wondered what it would be like to pack bag and baggage, move to a remote area of the country, be able to cut all ties to the outside world if necessary and live off-grid. Quite a daunting task, and a bit scary. But it can be done, as evidenced by Bud and Judy who did just that around 9 years ago, and are thriving today because of it.

I asked Bud what their motivation was, and he said: “We just wanted to do things on our own.” Well, they are doing just that. Isolated from the artificial existence of city life, cocooned in the warm glow of self-sufficiency and ready to cut the ties to civilization at any moment, Bud and Judy are living a life that most of us only dream about, and I was about to get a peak at their hideaway…  READ MORE

 

Soap Making In The Bush

Graphic: Mother Earth News

By Paul D. Matteoni
January/February 1972
Source: Mother Earth News

Soap making in the woods can be an almost automatic thing, with hickory, sugar maple, ash, beech and buckeye as the best producers of lye plus a bucket of rain water and some left-over cooking fat – you can easily brew up enough soap to clean everybody and everything that need it.

If it hadn’t been for the help we got from the native old-timers . . . my friend, Dennis, and I would have starved or just plain quit the winter we settled into that abandoned miner’s cabin in Alaska. The sourdoughs came to our rescue, though, and soon taught us how to survive on less than $10 a month cash money by trapping, tanning, foraging food and dipping candles from our own tallow and lard. With their generous assistance, we also quickly mastered the fine and easy art of recycling hardwood ashes and left-over kitchen fats into clean, all purpose soap.

 

Old Pallets

This oughta give you some ideas regarding those old pallets!

 

 

FREE Plans for an arched PVC pipe GREENHOUSE

PVCPLANS.com  Where you can get FREE plans for PVC pipe projects!

FREE Plans for an arched PVC pipe GREENHOUSE. 13ft wide and as long as you want it. Try this inexpensive hobby greenhouse in your garden. .

Click HERE to view and print plans in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat).

 

Earth Building: for Free

Thank you Rebecca, for this find!

 

How to make the Sling-X-Bow at home, with common tools

After the huge success of the Sling-X-Bow, The Slingshot Channel received many requests for a how-to video tutorial. Making this powerful and accurate weapon without welding and turning gear meant a total redesign of the construction, which took a while. The outcome is spectacular: Entirely out of wood and off-the-shelf screws, everybody with basic tools and skills can follow these instructions.The video contains a shot at sheep shoulderblade bones that are attached to a cat food can. See the bullet smashing through both the bones and the cans!

The blueprints for the board cutouts can be downloaded from here: SlingXBowBlueprintsV2

 

Farm Wars

Check out our latest website at http://farmwars.info. This site is dedicated to taking the war on farmers to the streets. NAIS, GMO, RFID, Monsanto, intrusive government legislation; if it affects farmers and the food we eat, we cover it.

Barb

 

Shearing time again…

Once again, it is that time of year. We just had the sheep shearer out, and the wool is ready to go. If you are in the market for raw wool, I sell my Navajo Churro and Jacob Sheep raw fleeces on eBay. The first one I have listed is a Jacob Sheep fleece from Mama. She has a wonderful, soft and bouncy multi-colored wool, perfect for spinning. Here is a pic, and a LINK to the listing:

Barb