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Homesteading & Sustainability
We've recently put out quite a few articles on ways that you can build an oven to cook food with the most ancient of methods: fire.So far, we've got articles on Outdoor Brick Ovens, (largely …
Continue Reading about Outdoor Stone Ovens: What Are They, How Do They Work, And Photos →
There's something about an outdoor fire that speaks to us humans on a basic wiring level. It doesn't matter if you are from the most technologically-advanced city, backwoods, dirt-road country, or …
Continue Reading about Outdoor Earth Ovens: What Are They, How Do They Work, and Photos →
Folks on the street may call them "hobbit houses" in reference to J.R.R. Tolkien's work, but earth-sheltered homes have been around for far longer than 1937 when the novel was published.Though the …
Continue Reading about Earth-Sheltered Home: An Eco-Friendly, Passive Housing Alternative →
In the realm of natural building, you have many different options. From rammed earth to straw bale to adobe, there is a building method suitable for almost any situation within the United …
Continue Reading about The Basics Of Cordwood Construction →
When it comes to building an outdoor oven, you may start feeling like one of the proverbial three little pigs when you try to decide what type is best.Will you build it out of mud? Concrete? …
Continue Reading about Outdoor Brick Ovens: Types, Uses, And Photos →
Let’s say you want to build a cozy reading nook in your house, or maybe a room-warming heater for your tiny house. What if you want it to be heated with off-grid heat?What if you want it to be …
Continue Reading about Rocket Mass Heaters: What Are they, How They Work, And Photos →
When most Americans think of a stove, they think of a collection of heating elements that sits atop an oven.In modern times, this stove and oven combination is usually a box made out of thin sheet …
Continue Reading about Masonry Cook Stoves: How They Work And Photos →
When you think of heating with fire, the first image that might leap to your mind is a crackling wood stove, the mainstay of cozy homesteading living rooms everywhere.But despite it’s current …
Continue Reading about Masonry Heaters: Benefits, How They Work, And Photos →
Let nature clean the water...Chemical-free water garden and swimming pool. The plant portion, or regeneration zone, is separated from the swimming area by the wall seen a few inches below the …
Continue Reading about Swimming Ponds: A More Natural Approach to Swimming Pools →
Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide use have decreased butterfly populations.Unbeknownst to many butterflies do not live on nectar alone, some species prefer, even require, overripe fruit …
Continue Reading about How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden →
Much of the glass we throw out is not recycled because different glass has different melting points and recyclers only melt the most common containers. Artists use old and new glass to create …
A moon gate rises out of the earth, like the moon rises in the sky; both spheres celebrate the continuous cycle of birth and death...rising and falling...A circular passageway designed to welcome …
Continue Reading about 38 Eye-Catching Moon Gate Designs For Your Garden →
First made popular in Africa, the keyhole garden is catching on in Texas and other hot, dry places.Keyhole gardens hold moisture and nutrients due to an active compost pile placed in the center of …
Instead of putting those small branches, leaves, and grass clippings in bags by the curbside...build a hugelkultur bed.Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, …
Continue Reading about Hugelkultur: What It Is & Inspiration For Your Permaculture Garden →
The Fibonacci spiral appears not only in the perfect nautilus shell......but in events and objects viewed from afar.An energy system in the shape of a fibonacci moves with limited losses. …
Upcycled, recycled, reused eco-friendly Christmas trees are a sustainable alternative to chopping down a living tree or buying a tree that's been chopped down and shipped to you.Christmas tree farms …
Old Clothes Quilting By Luke HaynesAmerican GothicMade from Old Clotheswww.lukehaynes.comClose up of aboveMade from old clothes...Old Clothes Quiltwww.lukehaynes.comDetail …
Step outside. You could be standing on the building materials for your next home. Earthbag homes—the concept is as simple as it sounds.Earthbag Homes With SandbagsThe sandbags are filled …
Sand grains magnified 110-250 times reveal each grain is unique.The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral …
Cob Fireplaces...Cob fireplace.americanclay.comCob fireplace inHilde Dawe's house, British Columbia.onelessbrickinthewall.comCob fireplace by Charles …
Every year about 109 million bicycles are produced, and 140 million people are born. That adds up to lots of extra bikes to make art with.Burning Man Festival 2007 by Mark Grieve and Ilana …
A green roof—essentially, a garden atop any office building or home—helps save energy, promote drainage, and feed you.Why Build a Green Roof?Sod roofs are common on the Faroe Islands, west …
Angled louvers were first used in ancient Greece. They've fallen out of fashion, making them a perfect candidate for upcycling. Creative designers have turned shutters into tables, headboards, …
You can find free pallets at flooring and furniture stores, lumber and stone yards, etc. Resourceful folks have turned them into cost-effective chairs, tables, beds—even entire houses.Pallet …
Shipping container homes seem like a no-brainer. Approximately 30 million steel shipping containers are in existence, filled and floating, or standing empty in a port. 8 feet wide by 8.5 feet high, …
Calling all used awning windows, bay windows, storm doors, and clerestories back to service.1) Recycled Window Greenhouse, MinnesotaGreenhouse made from recycled windows by Jan and Ed …
Continue Reading about Greenhouses from Old Windows and Doors →
Porsche 918 Spyder Plug-in Hybrid prototype (all of Porsche's concept cars have been brought to market) has emission levels of just 70 grams CO2 per kilometre on fuel consumption of three litres/100 …
It takes no observational feat to notice that people enjoy birds. As human developments dominate the landscape and evict so many of our wild neighbors, we spend a disproportionate amount of our …
Continue Reading about Noise Pollution Alters Bird Behavior →
Humans have been enamoured of wood fired ceramics for thousands of years. Yet since the invention of electric and gas kilns, wood firing was pushed aside by many. Fortunately the unique beauty of wood …
A study out of Finland has found that plants fertilized with urine performed four times as well as nonfertilized plants and just as well as plants given commercial mineral fertilizer.Urine plus …
The future looks wedge shaped...The 3 Wheeled Elio. Order yours now. More than 50,000 have already been pre-ordered...Made in America. Costs $6800.Designed for a 6’1” 220 lb person in the …
The diversity and intricacy of shapes and sizes of seeds is extraordinary. Even more amazing is that within even the tiniest of seeds lies the complete genetic information required to birth …
Julia Heliconia Butterfly Egg in a tendrill of a Passion flower creeper. The Julia Heliconia is an orange butterfly found along the periphery of the Gulf of Mexico. Image by Martin …
Tear em, decoupage them, fold them, paint on them.Many Rivers, 2009Inlaid maps, acrylic, on panel, 48 x 78 inches.By Matthew Cusick, mattcusick.comBonnie, 2004. Maps on wood panel.By …
Microalgae Street Lamps (in prototype stage).French biochemist Pierre Calleja has invented a streetlight that is powered by algae AND which absorbs CO2 from the air. Pierre reports that one lamp …
"Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far. We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool …
Telephone wire as an art medium.Telephone cord sheep by Jean Luc Cornec.jeanluc.cornec.deTelephone cord sheep at the Communication Museum, Frankfort, Germany. …
WheegoWhip LifeAll electric. 100 miles per charge, 5 hours to charge, top speed 70 mph. MSRP $32,995. Qualifies for Federal and possibly State and Local Tax Credits. ($7,500 federal tax credit …
Continue Reading about Best Electric Cars For City Drivers →
The artist Henrique Oliveira uses old plywood, fencing and PVC as his medium. Recycled from dumpsters and landfills from his home city, São Paulo, Oliveira shapes plywood around PVC forms.Casa …
This sculpture is constructed of thousands of steel nuts.By Park Chan-girl, South Korea.blog.naver.comSteel Nut SculptureBy Park Chan-girl, South Korea.blog.naver.comPark …
No more plastic! Or vinyl, or PVC!Stone Couch at Chanticleer Gardens, Wayne, PennsylvaniaImage by Carolyn's Shade Gardens, Bryn Mawr, PA.carolynsshadegardens.comStone chair at Chanticleer …
www.greenhomebuilding.comGreen Home Building. Info about Earth, Wood, Straw, Bamboo, Stone, Manufactured, Lightweight Concrete, Organic, Domes, Earth Sheltered, …
"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain." Unknown.A pebble and stone …
Firewood Sculpture By Jaehyo LeeWood ring. By Jaehyo Lee. leeart.nameWood chair. By Jaehyo Lee. leeart.nameWood chair. By Jaehyo Lee. leeart.nameWood Stool. By Jaehyo Lee. …
The ancient Vietnamese technique of crushing and then applying egg shell with lacquer to a surface is beginning to find favor with some contempoarary artisans.Mother of Pearl, Egg Shell & …
Illustration by Arthur Rackham. Alice was feeling bored while sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she noticed a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a pocket watch run past. She follows it …
Continue Reading about Arthur Rackham’s Illustrations And Hugh Comstock’s Carmel Cottages →
A butterfly's iridescent coloring is a result of the intricate patterning of thousands of microscopic scales, attached to thin wing membranes. Those scales scatter light in complex ways. Iridescence …
Consumers in developed nations live in a world dominated by gadgets. In our pockets, iPods and Blackberries have taken up permanent residence; in our homes, laptops and televisions are considered …
The 3-D portraits of Bernard Pras - Look Closely!Tom Murphy - Limited Edition of 8.Pras sets up his camera at a well-defined angle so that the objects themselves merge and a portrait appears …
