I experimented with an indoor garden for about a year and had some really good results. We moved recently and most of it has since died, but I plan on restarting it soon. The indoor garden was made from a metal shelf that we mounted two 100w CFL lightbulbs in. We lined the shelf with solar curtains that we mounted on cardboard to make them less likely to tear.

With this setup we successfully grew all of the following: Green Onions, tomatoes, radishes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, peas, green beans, spinach, carrots, and strawberries.

The biggest thing that I learned from this experience is how important it is to give plants enough space! I was growing everything in about 5 square feet, but the containers for each plant were not the size they needed to be. As a result the peppers were not as large as they could have been, and the peas and tomatoes kept snaking their way around the other plants, causing problems. When I restart this garden I plan on making full square foot boxes for the larger plants, and I will build a shelf for the milk jug pots to sit around the side so we still have 5 square feet of growing space.

Cookies in the Solar Oven

Made some chocolate chip cookies in the solar oven last week, and they were fantastic! Our second batch didn't cook as well because we had some cloud cover move in. But we still maintained between 150 and 200 degrees F. Each batch took about 2 hours to bake.

With a solar oven you need to adjust the direction it is facing about every 15 minutes to maintain your maximum heat.

Tuna Can Alcohol Stove

He uses Heet in the video, but you can also use rubbing alcohol as long as it is higher than 50%, but it will make the bottom of your pot black. Obviously the higher the percentage of alcohol, the more efficient the stove is and the less black will get on your pots.

Original "Cat Stove" Design:
http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html

Terra Cotta Pot Space Heater

These work really well to heat a small room and they don't cost much to put together, just make sure you have a safe container/surface for the candles. I have seen people put the candles in a pie tin to contain them a little better.

Lee Hite Biomass Briquette Press

Neat idea to conserve wood, or if you don't have a lot of wood at your disposal, you can use shredded paper, leaves, etc. to build up your fuel supply. Combined with a high efficiency stove, like the rocket stove mentioned in the previous post, you could cook and heat for a long time and never need wood. On their website there are diagrams for different shaped molds, including sticks which would be ideal for most rocket stoves.

Clay Rocket Stove

I have known about rocket stoves for quite sometime, but this was the first time I saw one made out of native clay:

Here is the rocket stove I built:



5 Things- A guide to editing your life

Too Much Stuff

I have been maried for seven years now, and I regret to admit that I brought more boxes of "stuff" into the marriage than anything else. We have moved 3 times during that time and each time we had to move boxes and boxes of my stuff. During the last few years, since we moved into our present home, I have come to the realization that I have used almost nothing from all those boxes of stuff.

So what is the big deal you ask? I have had to store all those boxes the past seven years and haven't used ANY of it. Those boxes have cost me time (each time I did try to find something), money (we had to buy a shed to store them in when we moved into our current home), and energy (each time we moved). This week I have determined that I will get rid of as many of those boxes as I possibly can, so I can use that space for things we do use that are crowding the house and yard (my tools, bicycles, etc...).

As I see it less stuff should equal more time, money, and energy.


My plan to accomplish this:

Keep 5 things or less from each box, then photograph/document the rest and throw it away.

Really all I am storing are memories. Memories don't have to take up that much space! A picture of some project I made in Cub Scouts or 4-H is just as good as the project itself. Pictures can be stored on a computer or in a scrap book which takes up much less space than the dozen boxes my memories currenly occupy.

I didn't learn to live without clutter until I was in college. I served a two year mission for my church after getting my Associate's Degeree and lived in some very messy appartments. When I returned to college I tried to live with as little clutter as possible, but my past was sitting in all these boxes still filling up my life. In order to focus on the present and plan for the future, I need to take care of my past. So that is the plan for this week, to take care of my past so that it can stop haunting me.