How to Can, Freeze, Dry and Preserve Any Fruit or Vegetable at Home Home canning, freezing and preserving, whether it is jam, salsa, applesauce, apple butter, pickles or whatever, is easy; with these simple, fully illustrated directions with detailed tips and tricks. Save money, eat healthier, with no additives or chemicals... and with much better taste! This page provides the links to our illustrated recipes and canning* directions - so easy ANYONE can do it, along with a multitude of other recipes, guides and canning instructions. For safety, these recipes closely follow the USDA recipes, Ball Blue Book and/or those provided by major university extension services. Whenever possible, instructions also are provided to allow you to choose the options that are important to you; such as types of cooking equipment or choices in sweeteners: honey, Stevia (in a prepared form like Truvia, it measures same as sugar; if you use another form, you'll need do your own conversion) - or Splenda, if you prefer, , Stevia, fruit juice or sugar. United States Contents:
What about Cob Building Codes and Cob Permit Requirements When people first learn about building homes and structures out of cob they get really excited and their imaginations go wild with creative ideas and all the possibilities that the material offers for creating things. Then at some point in our excitement we get a rude awakening to the thought of how we might actually go about building a cob building in our bureaucratic, twisted society. We tend to worry about how we’ll make it past all the laws, regulations, and building codes required to build according to our own imaginations. Not to mention the expensive inspections! In the United States, we follow the International Building Code. The fact is that our current scale system is flawed, behind the microscopic codes money has become the ultimate measure for everything. According to the International Code Council (ICC), the purpose of the International Building Code is to “safeguard public health, safety and general welfare… from hazards attributed to the built environment.”
How to Build a Food Dehydrator - DIY When I first took up self-reliant country living in the 1960s, I tried drying foods in a sandwich of old window screens laid at a sun-facing angle across a pair of sawhorses, but found that Mother Nature dries slowly in our changeable New England weather. I also tried an antique sheet-metal wet-heat corn dryer designed for wood-stove-top use, but its single, rusty-hardware cloth tray left barbecue-marks on the apple slices. Plus, it was too small to keep up with our kids' hearty appetite for dried delicacies. In the 1970s I gave in to progress and got one of the MacManniman's big yard-square electric food dryers. But in time the plastic screen on the racks snagged and frayed, and the oversize box got creaky from being hauled from cellar to kitchen and back. Being of dark-stained plywood, it absorbs solar energy for sun-drying and works with stoveheat and electricity as well. Ready-Made Drying Racks Know those telescoping half-window screens? Materials Trimming the Screens The Base
The year in small: A world tour of 13 tiny houses we loved in '13 From Maryland, pint-sized rustic retreats that are custom-built from recycled and locally-sourced materials and that “speak to the art of the small building movement." They're a little bit Thoreau, a little bit Tolkien, if you catch our drift. From Ontario, a traditional Canadian bunkhouse — the beloved "bunkie," if you will — that's been reimagined as an oversized piece of furniture. From Germany, a self-sustaining, single-occupancy shack designed by starchitect Renzo Piano and inspired by onion-eating Greek philosopher/proto-minimalist Diogenes. From Beijing, a super-compact modular dwelling inspired by the tetromino-based thrills of a certain iconic arcade game. From Mexico City, a petite prefab dwelling for resident artists that's tucked behind an eye-popping mural/billboard. From Spain, an unfussy and uncluttered hideaway that can easily go wherever you need it to go … provided that you have a flatbed truck, a crane, and a full day to assemble the entire thing.
Build a Wood Burning Stove ....................-- Build Your Own Wood burning Stove --..... Here is a wood burning stove you can build yourself and it works good. I heated my house in Wyoming (sole heat source other than solar) for years with this stove and now heat my house in Utah with it. I used a hot water tank and some flat sheets of steel and a big nut and some bolts to add some character to the door.. ............... I wanted a horizontal stove that I could also cook on if needed. The top left arrow is the chimney stack. It is thick enough that it hasn't ever warped and fits snug against the stove, since the handle assembly (arrow) and pulls it tight against the front of the stove.
Step-by-Step Earthbag Building This Instructable explains each main step of construction for building vertical earthbag walls. Videos on my Earthbag Natural Building YouTube channel demonstrate the process. For those who don’t know, earthbag building uses polypropylene rice bags or feed bags filled with soil or insulation that are stacked like masonry and tamped flat. Barbed wire between courses keeps bags from slipping and adds tensile strength. The final plastered walls look just like adobe structures. Thousands of people are now building with bags to create their dream homes, home offices, shops, resorts, rootcellars, storm cellars and survival shelters. I got involved with earthbag building when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Southeast Asia in December, 2004. Our websites at EarthbagBuilding.com and Earthbag Building Blog explain just about everything you need to know for free.
Learn how to build solar panels from scratch You will need a power inverter to make your solar power system do anything useful in your home. Batteries push out DC energy. All modern home electrical equipment uses AC current. The power inverter is what will take the DC power from your battery bank and convert it into AC power for home use. Building solar panels from scratch is simple and completely doable. If you know where to get the parts and equipment to build the parts cheaply then you will be looking at spending less than $200 to get your home made solar system up and running. So if you think you have what it takes to build your own solar panels from scratch then by all means do it and save some serious money while you're at it.
Tennessee Department of State: Contact Us ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue 8th Floor, Snodgrass Tower Nashville, TN 37243-1102 Phone: (615) 741-2078 Email | Web site BUSINESS SERVICES 312 Rosa L. Apostilles & Authentications (615) 741-0536 Corporate Certification (615) 741-6488 Corporate Filing and Information (615) 741-2286 Motor Vehicle Temporary Liens (615) 741-0529 Trademarks (615) 741-0531 Summons (615) 741-1799 Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) (615) 741-3276 Workers’ Compensation Exemption Registrations (615) 741-0526 CHARITABLE SOLICITATIONS AND GAMING 312 Rosa L. ELECTIONS 312 Rosa L. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES 403 7th Ave. Reference and Government Services (615) 741-2764 | reference.tsla@tn.gov Archives and Legislative Recording (615) 741-2561 | reference.tsla@tn.gov Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (615) 741-3915 | tlbph.tsla@tn.gov Microfilming and Photographic Services (615) 741-2997 | preservation.tsla@tn.gov Public Libraries (615) 741-3158 | PlanDev.tsla@tn.gov
How to Build a Rotating Compost Bin in 4 Easy Steps November 30, 2007 12:00 AM Composting can be incredibly simple: Just pile up some food and yard scraps, and turn it with a pitchfork now and then. But if you want to speed up the process and keep it rodent-free, a rotating bin is worth a weekend of labor. Once assembled, fill it two-thirds full with scraps, moisten with water and rotate every few days. Step 1 Mark an opening on the side of a food-grade barrel using masking tape. Step 2 Attach the door to the barrel: Use screws or bolts to fasten metal hinges or make a flap hinge from scraps of bicycle inner tube. Step 3 Make two X-shaped stands using pressure-treated 2 x 4s or scrap lumber. Step 4 Attach a wooden turning lever to the end of the barrel using large sheetmetal screws or a couple of bolts.
Donating Property to Charity: Dos and Don'ts Last Updated Aug 17, 2009 1:28 PM EDT A recent article about real-estate donations in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (subscription required) advises charities to be extra careful when accepting donations of property, because in this lousy market, real estate can be more work than it's worth. However, the article notes that 2 to 3 percent of all charitable donations involve property -- and many of those are win-win. Do: Consult with a financial planner to gain the maximum tax benefit. © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc.. Plastic Bottle Homes and Greenhouses Homes made from Plastic Bottles + Greenhouses, too! plastic bottle house plastic bottle house Eco-Tec's Ecoparque El Zamorano, Honduras. Ecological House: Constructed with 8,000 bottles with composting toilets and a solar water heating system. The green roof can weigh 30 tons when wet and has been supported by the walls without any extra reinforcement. It is the first house in the world made from PET bottles without using cement in the walls. plastic bottle house The same home seen from the inside. plastic bottle house Eco-Tec's Casa de la Fe. plastic bottle house Casa de la Fe (Faith House) Honduran Foundation for the Rehabilitation and Integration of the Handicapped. plastic bottle house Eco Tec's Sky Field House under construction. plastic bottle house Eco Tec's Sky Field House: The first vaulted ceiling using PET bottles. plastic bottle house An Eco-Tec home in Bolivia. plastic bottle house This home in Bolivia incorporates lots of wine bottles as well as PET bottles. A painted wall.
The Urban Homestead at a Glance | The Urban Homestead® - A City Farm, Sustainable Living & Resource Center, A Path to Freedom towards Self-Sufficiency Jules Dervaes sold his 10 acres in rural Florida and purchased this "fixer-upper" home in the mid-1980s at a reasonable price by California standards. Sorely neglected by years of being occupied by renting tenants and located in a low income neighborhood, the home was in bad need of repair (and, heck... we ain’t kiddin‘... it still does in most places! Just sayin’) and the yard was a combination of broken asphalt, large concreted areas, weeds, Bermuda grass, chalky "adobe-type" soil, and a few rather pathetic “landscape” plants. before and after photos You will not find movie stars on this set, but we do have our own cast of characters and enough daily dramas here on the Urban Homestead model to be more than interesting. Thousands of people zoom by on the freeway in their own little automobile cocoons. Over the years, we have documented our progress in our journey towards becoming self-sufficient in a densely urban setting with charts, diagrams and stats. House Size: 1,500 sq. ft. Animals