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:
Creating A Simple And Inexpensive Rain Water Collection System | The Farm - Old World Garden Farms Our barn’s metal roof is our supply of water for the entire farm Visitors to the farm are usually surprised to learn that we water the entire garden and landscape with reclaimed rain water. Our system, which collects and stores rainwater from our barn’s metal roof, provides 100% of our annual watering needs. We spent the past week hooking our tanks back up from winter storage – and within 24 hours - we had just over 150 gallons stored from a single rain. It gives us access to free water, and with our two plastic tote tanks, can collect as much as 550 gallons from a single downpour. How it works: Through a simple in-line diverter – the rainwater is carried to our main capture tank The system collects rain water from a simple adapter made to fit our existing barn’s gutter. The front downspout (not used currently), runs down and out to the field for normal drainage. This is from one single rain last week – about 125 gallons Here is a look at the system’s components and cost: Happy Gardening!!
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
How To Become Water Self Sufficient The following article has been contributed by Lucas Patriotus, a special services veteran with years of survival training. It has been published with permission of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of PreppingToSurvive.com. Water Is Life I don’t need to tell you why your family needs safe potable water as well as long term food storage, first aid kits, and other survival gear to survive the aftermath of an emergency or disaster. People can live for days or even weeks without food but no one survives past 4 or 5 days without water. “…Drinking, sanitation and hygiene constitute the basic human survival needs for water. Including drinking, sanitation and hygiene that same family of four would require 1560 gallons of potable water to survive for 30 days. Water Availability is not Guaranteed What if one day after an emergency or disaster you turn on the tap and either nothing comes out, or what comes out is unsafe to drink? Rain Water Harvesting Purifying Stored Rainwater
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.
Cheapest DIY Rain Barrel (Works Better Than Most) So I found a way to build an effective rain collection barrel for around $40. All parts were purchased at the local Ace Hardware store. I used a trash can (32 gal) for easy cleaning and construction. 1 trash can with lid2 plastic downspout extenders (accordion style), fitted to the size of your downspout1 bulkhead fitting1 boiler drain valve1 tube silver gutter sealant At first I tried silicone to seal the seams, but it wouldn't stick the the trash can material. Since using Seamer Mate, I found the Lowe's version. This stuff has a million waterproofing uses, and what great adhesion! Here is a close-up of the bulkhead fitting. The best part about this design is that every drop of rain is directed into the barrel, and once full, all rain is redirected into your drain system. During winter, the barrel can be removed. If the trash can is too much of an eyesore, you could always build a little house like I did here. I put hinges on the front for easy access,
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.
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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.