Once upon a time, everyone had gardens. The soil was fertile and healthy, weeds and bugs were free to roam, and all sorts of heirloom varieties were grown. There was plenty of acreage for every family, and your neighbors were way down the road, not 10 feet away. Nowadays, with most of us living in […]
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6 Reasons You Should Have Flowers in Your Vegetable Garden
With self-sufficiency as the someday goal, my first gardening days were purely practical. I browsed through seed catalogs with an iron will, bypassing the flower sections with a steely gaze — and a resolved set to my jaw. I was convinced I didn’t need that flouncy, frivolous, floral frippery in my veggie patch. I was […]
Entrée Exchange Groups
If there is economy in scale, an entrée exchange group embodies it. The idea is that if five families participate, each family makes five of the same meals, meet up and trade, and go home with four meals plus your own. By making multiples of the same meal you can save on preparation time and ingredients. Forming an entree exchange […]
Seattle Resources
Here’s a never-quite-complete list of the local businesses & organizations we support. Almost all of the businesses on this list support sustainability, organic practices, or other environmental issues we’re concerned about. There’s also a few listed that are just good local businesses that we like. Please email or tweet or leave a facebook comment if […]
Like Mushrooms? You Could Grow Your Own House
A truly green home should use materials that are benign, from the factory to the 30th year of habitation. Impossible you say? Planetary ONE begs to differ.
Grow Your Own: Top 5 Yard-Sharing Websites
If you don’t have your own yard space, but still want to grow your own food, yard-sharing is the solution offered by the collaborative consumption movement.
🏠 Tiny Houses
The more you find out about the tiny house lifestyle, the more questions you have. What you need is one reliable place to get basic answers. Then, if you need more info, links to sources you can trust. Our Tiny House Guide has both. We had a blast researching everything about tiny houses—from why people choose the […]
🔨 Green Building
It seems like nowadays every time you look around there’s another large suburb or apartment complex being built. Often times they replace large forests, greenbelts, and other natural ecosystems. Aside from that, the large construction machines emit carbon emissions for months at a time and all nearby residents have no other choice but to deal […]
Tiny House Books
While we’re pretty happy with the tiny house guide we’ve put together here at Insteading, we also recognize that it’s great to have a physical book of photographic inspiration to look at when planning your own tiny house. Here are some of our favorite tiny house books and links to their Amazon reviews. Jump To […]
Bamboo Furniture
Bamboo Furniture
Masonry Heaters with Ovens
Masonry Heaters with Bake Ovens
Integrated Solar
building-integrated photovoltaics or BIPVs
Savin Couelle
Savin Couëlle
Tiny House, Big Living
One look at this tiny house and you feel as if you are about to enter a doll house! With bright pink walls, Villa Hermina clearly stands out from the rest of the cottages in the area. Situated outside the southern Czech town of Černín, it was created by HSH Architekti, which unfortunately is now defunct. […]
Your Apocalypse Could Be a Wet One – Be Ready!
The apocalypse can come in many forms – and one of the most traditional end of times horrors is one that is with us today: the flood!
$5000 Budget Bug Out Ride: Honda CR-V
So you need a bug out vehicle, but you’re on a budget? Check out the first generation Honda CR-V for cheap, capable travel to safety!
50 Years of Truely Sustainable Agriculture to be Celebrated Next Year
There is a sub-set of farmers who have been practicing a much more sustainable form of agriculture for decades and we are coming up on the 50th anniversary of it’s beginnings. I want to start writing about this event early because many environmentally-conscious folk are not aware of this hugely significant “revolution” that has occurred in […]
Mirrored Buildings
Mirrored Buildings
Stick Sculpture
The materials for your next project are just lying on the ground. The Stick Sculpture Of Patrick Dougherty Combining his carpentry skills with his love of nature, Patrick Dougherty began to learn about primitive building techniques and to experiment with tree saplings as construction material beginning about 1980. He quickly moved from small single pieces […]
Barbed Wire And Galvanized Wire Sculptures
At least you know it’s sturdy—barbed wire was the first manufactured fence able to restrain cattle. The Barbed Wire Sculpture Of David Oliviera Wire Sculpture by David Oliviera of Portugal. www.davidmigueloliveira.blogspot.pt Wire Sculpture by David Oliviera. www.davidmigueloliveira.blogspot.pt Wire Wolves bounding down a stair by David Oliviera. www.davidmigueloliveira.blogspot.pt Wire Sculpture (Imoto, 2012) by David Oliviera. www.davidmigueloliveira.blogspot.pt […]
Auto Parts Art
Car Henge 38 Autos – Carhenge was built in 1987 by Jim Reinders and his family. The project was a memorial to his father, who had lived on a farm on the site. It is a faithful full scale reproduction, and accurately replicates the astronomical alignments of the original Stonehenge. Alliance, Nebraska. Visit Nebraska. Flickr: […]
Green Home Plans
Stone Furniture
No more plastic! Or vinyl, or PVC! Stone Couch at Chanticleer Gardens, Wayne, Pennsylvania Image by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens, Bryn Mawr, PA. carolynsshadegardens.com Stone chair at Chanticleer Gardens, Wayne, Pennsylvania. Image by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens, Bryn Mawr, PA. carolynsshadegardens.com Stone seating group at Chanticleer Gardens, Wayne, Pennsylvania. Image by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens, Bryn Mawr, PA. […]
Best Electric Cars For City Drivers
Wheego Whip Life All 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 for electric vehicles.) Final assembly in California. Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia. www.wheego.net MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) Mitsubishi’s electric version […]
Wood Fired Pottery
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 fired pottery is again becoming a highly appreciated art form throughout the world. (The Japanese have always held wood fired ceramics […]
Eco Sports Cars
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 kilometres (equal to 94 mpg imp). Acceleration from a standstill to 100 km/h in just under 3.2 seconds, top speed of 320 km/h […]
Tiny House Living
As more people downsize and choose to “live small”, you have to ask: Why are tiny houses so popular? People are joining the tiny house movement for many reasons. The increase in environmental concerns, financial constraints, and the overall burden of having so much “stuff” are just a few reasons people downsize their homes. Why […]
Cereal Box Art
Cap n Crunch by Michael Albert. www.cerealism.com Lost in my Life (boxes), by Rachel Perry Welty, 2009, Pigment Print, available: 30 x 20 inches, Edition of 6; 56 x 35 inches, Edition of 6; 90 x 60 inches, Edition of 3. www.rachelperrywelty.com Hayes Trotter paints on recycled cereal and snack boxes. jordanartpartners.com The Pledge of […]
Solar Roadways
The Solar Roadways project is working to pave roads with solar panels that you can drive on. Their long range goal is to cover all concrete and asphalt surfaces that are exposed to the sun with Solar Road Panels. They plan to start off small: driveways, bike paths, patios, sidewalks, parking lots, playgrounds, etc. This […]
Minnesota Homesteader Grows Beans From 1,500-Year-Old Seed
Homesteading expert Jackie Clay achieved a minor miracle in her garden this summer—growing pole beans from a 1,500-year-old seed. Obviously your local garden store doesn’t stock such a thing. Jackie says she got her hands on it when she was living in New Mexico. She emailed me with the full story: When we lived in […]
Sweden Has The World’s First Electric Road
The inevitable stop at the grimy just-off-the-exit gas station will eventually be a nostalgic memory. Tomorrow’s roads will fuel our electric cars as we drive over them. A new electric road in Sweden—the world’s first—employs the magic of inductive or wireless charging. An induction coil embedded in the road sends out electromagnetic energy. A vehicle […]
Kansas Solar
Going solar? Good call. It’s the right choice for your pocketbook and for the climate. If everyone in Kansas used solar power, it would take 71 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year—according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, that’s the equivalent of planting a forest that would cover more than half […]
New York Solar
Going solar? Good call. It’s the right choice for your pocketbook and for the climate. If everyone in New York used solar power, it would take 76 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year—according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, that’s the equivalent of planting a forest that would cover nearly all […]
Ohio Solar
Going solar? Good call. It’s the right choice for your pocketbook and for the climate. If everyone in Ohio used solar power, it would take 210 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year—according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, that’s the equivalent of planting a forest that would cover an area nearly […]
Virginia Solar
Going solar? Good call. It’s the right choice for your pocketbook and for the climate. If everyone in Virginia used solar power, it would take 58 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year—according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, that’s the equivalent of planting a forest that would cover 85% of the […]
10 Awesome New Inventions For Homesteaders
Handy Camel Bag Clip The problem: Most bag clips are cheaply-made and used for light stuff like bags of chips. The solution: A hardy clip that seals bags without puncturing them, since the plastic “teeth” aren’t sharp. The tech: A handle on the clip lets you carry the bags around by the clip rather than […]
About The Insteading Marketplace
We built the Insteading Marketplace to curate products from across the web that our readers will love. We manually select every product on the site from vendors on Amazon, Etsy, and other top tier online retailers. We specifically look for products that meet the following criteria: High quality non-disposable products: We advocate for paying more for […]
Writer’s Guidelines
About Our Audience: Insteading readers are active gardeners, beekeepers, chicken herders, permaculturalists, environmentalists, and many other things. Our readers range from newbies looking to plant their first raised bed, to advanced homesteaders who live in earthen homes powered by solar panels and produce most of what they eat. Our readers make sustainable and organic choices whenever […]
How To Start Transplants
Winter’s almost over. Have you started your plants yet? This gardener can proudly say yes! In the late winter months, serious gardeners begin asking one another this question. As the daughter of a serious gardener, I learned at a young age that if you want to grow your own peppers and tomatoes here in Minnesota, […]
Campine
Characteristics These medium-sized chickens are active, flashing in and out of beams of sunlight with a metallic gleam. Their gold or silver heads dramatically transition to a beetle-green, pencil-feathered body, so it’s easy to see why they are darlings in chicken shows. They’re not all looks, however! The original design for these chickens was as […]
Faiyumi
Characteristics With its silvery head, large single comb, onyx-dark eye, and trim, black-speckled body, this chicken is visually quite similar to the Silver Campine breed, but built a little more like a forward-leaning roadrunner. Those bright, dark eyes of theirs are excellent at scanning the skies for predators–with such alert personalities, it’s hard to take […]
Best Water Purifier
Not all public water supplies are thoroughly purified before getting to you, the customer. When you really want to be sure that your family is not ingesting harmful contaminants, invest in one of these water purifiers. A good water purifier will also filter out unwelcome odors that some public water has. Before we go over […]
Best Electric Chainsaw
Chainsaws are a modern marvel that turns clearing trees and brush from a lengthy team effort to a simple one-man job. If safely operated, they are extremely efficient, and make the job almost effortless, compared to the axes and two-man crosscut saws of old. Get The Safety Features You Need Since chainsaws are a powered […]
English Garden Inspiration For Your Yard
As homes become more condensed, an English garden may be the perfect solution to a homeowner’s planting needs. Twenty years ago, we moved into a small, two-story, three-bedroom house in the suburbs. The front yard consisted of a large driveway leading to the garage, a path to the front porch, and a small ground space […]
My Chickens Survived A Montana Winter Because I Broke The Rules
One of the most pressing concerns for me, when I began raising chickens, was what to do with them in winter. Living in northwest Montana, I’m accustomed to plenty of snow, some nice arctic wind, and temperatures ranging from the high 20s to below zero. If we have a chinook in January or February, then […]
Outdoor Coffee Tables
Not only are coffee tables one of the biggest focal points of any room, but they’re a highly functional piece of furniture that should be chosen wisely. They serve countless functions; holding books, magazines, cups, glasses, dinner, and let’s be honest, sometimes laundry. Related Post: Rustic Coffee Tables There is no reason why we shouldn’t […]
Shower Heads
The shower is the place you do your best thinking, relaxing, and unwinding. A good (or bad) shower head makes a huge impact on the quality of your shower. It’s time to finally get rid of that leaky, low flowing shower head and make a serious upgrade. Chances are you won’t realize how weak your […]
What I Did When My Compost Got Smelly
“Ugh! What’s that smell?” I still remember the exclamations that came from our next door neighbor, back in the day when we lived nestled way too close together in not-so-blissful suburbia. Over time the exclamations continued, “I can’t sit out here. It positively reeks.” After that came the pointing and glaring. The Source Of The […]
Best Circular Saws
A circular saw is an essential piece of a home builder’s power tool arsenal. Circular saws cut clean lines and are easy to handle. However, circular saws range in design, size, and strength so it’s important to consider what you’re planning on using them for before picking your weapon. Also, keep in mind that a […]
Best Router Table
A router table is an extremely useful woodworking tool if you plan to apply a specific edge, slit, or groove to your building material. The table creates a stationary surface for your router to spin, and a stable plane to pass your material over. The bottom-line here is that a router table gives you better […]