114 Will of The Weekend Homestead on Fire Safety

On the podcast this week I talk to Will of the The Weekend Homestead about fire safety and life on his rural Wisconsin getaway. Will is a former firefighter and avid YouTuber and reached out to me to respond to a post I did on open floor plans and fires. During the podcast we talk about: Christmas fire safety–keep that tree watered! Smoke detectors Fire extinguishers and how to use them Common causes of residential fires What it’s like to be a fi...

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Steal this Book!

...family! Blog, twitter, friend, digg and yell! From the press release: The Urban Homestead is the essential handbook for a burgeoning new movement: urbanites are becoming farmers. By growing their own food and harnessing natural energy, city dwellers are reconnecting with their land while planting seeds for the future for our cities. Whether you’d like to harvest your own vegetables, keep heirloom chickens, or become more energy independent, this...

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Build a Solar Dehydrator

...Issue #57 and Issue #69. You need to download and read through both before building this dehydrator. . Alternatively, the always excellent Build it Solar website has a whole bunch of solar dehydrator designs, including a nice cardboard version. And while you’re in the library there’s also a book by Eben Fodor, The Solar Food Dryer. As an added bonus to the tinkerers out there, take almost any of these designs, remove the top box, stick it in a win...

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How to Build Walls with Pallets

...a use for these objects other than as art. For utilitarian needs, such as building walls, we must turn to the many pallets that also litter our streets. Sketchup model by Ron S. But pallets can be tough to work with. The wood splinters easily making disassembly a tricky proposition (watch the Garden Fork TV pallet breaker video if you want to go down that route). Famed internet pallet guru Michael Janzen, of Tiny Pallet House, proposes leaving yo...

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Saturday Tweets: Crowbox, Urban Walking and the War on Cars

...l along. https://t.co/4cEfXR7GVB — Erin (@ImpatientGarden) August 25, 2018 Build a Crowbox kit and become friends with your neighborhood crows https://t.co/RhH5ZuGS5Z — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 23, 2018 A 2016 survey found that 72% of Americans rated coconut oil as “healthy,” though only 37% of nutrition experts agreed. @HSPHnutrition examines the science behind this popular food https://t.co/fckOTnFqnb pic.twitter.com/YqGqW20JkL — Harvard...

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