Ever picked up a self-help book, building renovation manual, or even a home maintenance/D.I.Y handbook, and it all looks terribly straightforward and presented to appear within the scope of us all? When you reach the realms of environmental projects or eco-homes, the enthusiasm verges on gushing.But if you have ever taken, or intend to take, the bold step beyond dreaming, planning and visualising, onto the rollercoaster of actually doing it, then you may find that things aren't as s...

Chronicling nearly nine decades of life and work on a Maine farm, this memoir by Will and Minnie Penney presents a wonderful look back at rural life before and during the Depression, in the heady post-war years, and late, as family farms began to give way to larger industrial farms. The Penney's adapted to change by adjusting the way they farmed, focusing on fewer crops, adding dairy cows to their stock, even harvesting trees from the woodlot and cutting them into lumberwith the farm's lum...

Eric Layton, a well-known solar expert, wrote this guide for readers that are trying to build their own solar or wind system.Using pictures, this do-it-yourself (DIY) solar and wind system was built with a battery back-up system. His new book is a comprehensive guide on the design, thought process, equipment, and technique on designing this DIY system. Using photographs taken throughout the building process, he covers why he chose certain components in addition to any issues buildi...

When the power goes out, you need to be prepared. A solar powered generator is a great way to have electricity during an emergency, but buying one can be expensive. Fortunately, you can build your own solar powered generator for a fraction of the cost, often less than $300. This handy, step-by-step guide will show you how.

Disasters come and go each year. It is through developing a self-reliant mindset, having essential survival gear and a handful of critical skills, that you and your family will be able to prevail in an urban crisis. Jammed with field-tested information from real-world applications, survival instructor Tony Nester covers how to prepare for both short-term survival ranging from 24-72 hours as well as long-term situations resulting from a grid-down emergency or pandemic. When the Grid Goes Do...

This book describes the basics of the Stirling engine, as well as some of the most promising alternative models, how to go about building them and how they can be used to generate power for home use. Home power generation is not new. You can buy home generator kits and solar panels by the ton. The main problem is they cost so much. The Stirling is astonishingly easy to make and can be built from scrap or commonly found components at a fraction of the cost of a home solar kit and yet produc...

So what do you do when the power goes out? Do you fumble around in the dark looking for candles or a torch to light the way? Is it an inconvenience or a major disaster when you lose the mains?Well, look no further.This eBook is a how to guide, with comprehensive instructions that will enable you to benefit from my experience and research, and build your very own small solar power system even on a modest budget.So discover how easy it is to make your own small solar ...

If you want to introduce alternative power supplies around the house and garden or even live totally off-grid in your boat, caravan or yurt and need a practical introduction to solar power and 12 volt supplies, here is the essential eBook guide to the subject.

Bioplastics is one of those areas that the home inventor has the advantage. The raw materials are cheap, readily available and easy to work with. There has been relatively little study done so far as the field is still quite new and there are a significant amount of discoveries to be made.What you have to realise here is that you are not attempting to synthesise polymers from monomers or synthesis new monomers. What you are trying to do is source and extract existing polymers from b...

The stunning story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation’s burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive sum...

Originally edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth, and revised and updated by Martha White. With a foreword by John Updike.These letters are, of course, beautifully written but above all personal, precise, and honest. They evoke E.B. White’s life in New York and in Maine at every stage of his life. They are full of memorable characters: White’s family, the New Yorker staff and contributors, literary types and show business people, farmers from Maine and sophisticates from New York-Katherin...

Open a copy of the Information Please Almanac and turn to the chapter on famous people. 4000 names and you won't know hardly any. But what about names everyone knows? Pillsbury, Kellogg, Gerber. Nowhere to be found. How many names are more famous than Howard Johnson or Oscar Mayer? But who were these folks? Let's take a look at the men behind the names we see keeping up the house.