Category: Environmental

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

By , July 1, 2008 9:55 pm

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

Low-tech is the new high-tech, and the best example of the low-tech revolution is the miraculous rocket stove–a stove that makes it possible to cook with small twigs–no logs needed! Best of all rocket stoves are easy to build. We liked the idea so much that we decided to build a permanent one just off our back deck for entertaining and as a backup to our gas stove should an emergency take out our utilities.

Interesting build. I’m still looking at building one but haven’t decided on the design yet. May build one like this to try it out.

Natural Insect Pest Control

By , July 1, 2008 12:50 pm

Natural Insect Pest Control

Insect pests are an intimate part of every home. In the air, carpet, counter or cupboard, every home shares it’s resources with these tiny, often unseen invaders. Pesticides are available for most common household insect pests, but these potent chemical compounds may be more harmful to you and the environment than the pests.

Here are some natural, non-toxic ways to control household insect pests.

Don’t think I have posted this link before, but if I have here it is again. πŸ˜‰ Good stuff!

*** Natural wood glaze, esprit cabane, eco-friendly DIY and decorative arts

By , April 13, 2008 6:08 pm

*** Natural wood glaze, esprit cabane, eco-friendly DIY and decorative arts

Interesting article on making your own wood stain with pigment and beer. Cool stuff! 😎

Update on Organic DIY Flytrap – Ecobites.com

By , April 12, 2008 9:07 am

DIY Organic Fly Trap – Ecobites.com

They posted drawings to go with the article! NOW it makes sense! And is also what I thought it was on first quick read through, but not what I got on further reading, which I posted about in the previous article which can be found here.

Just received two comments from supposedly two different people, who’s posts have the same tone and are posted from the same IP address, so I’m assuming that I have stepped on some toes with my post about not understanding the article and the subsequent remark about the the author. I feel these comments have such literary merit that they should be granted a place where everyone who ventures to this blog can see them so instead of condemning them to the spam pile or just deleting them, I’m going to answer them here. need to be addressed in a manner other than simply deleting them or trying to discuss them in the comments section of the blog. The above section that I struck out was written prior to coffee and in the heat of my first anger at the tone of the comments. I started to remove it completely but decided to leave it as an example (to myself if no one else) of how not to reply to this type of comment.

First comment:

The first one came in from xxxxxxxxx@bigpond.com | 121.222.14.110 on 2008/04/12 at 1:26 AM local time (CDT USA) and is as follows:
Hey guys, I only had to read this once and have the idea. Very simple and easy to do. I thought it was us females who are supposed to have trouble reading descriptions.
Although, I must admit, my Dad had fly traps made from bottles around his organic fruit farm. They sure do work and a great way of avoiding chemical poisons. A photo of a cut bottle with tape ???, the dead fly photo tells the story.
πŸ™‚

Glad you understood it that quickly without a drawing to assist you or without seeing one in person before. Though from what you say in the comment you have seen these on your Dad’s farm before πŸ˜‰ so you already had the idea while reading the article, which allowed your mind to fill in the blanks, which the article by its self didn’t do for me, or Steve, and I am sure quite a few other folks out here on the internet who read the article sans pictures/drawings. And NO the dead fly didn’t tell the story at all, it merely emphasized the idea that this device would kill flies.

The second comment came in from xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com | 121.222.14.110 on 2008/04/12 at 3:20 AM and is as follows:
Wow, this site or Steve must be so dense. I donÒ€ℒt normally respond to stupidity, but here goes.
Firstly, I visited the link to ecobites.com. The article is so informative, that blind freddy could understand it.
Secondly, a quick surf of the website, indicates to poor dumb me that the site is photo intensive. More than most websites so what is the issue here. DidnÒ€ℒt you guys go to school. It pays to read to understand.
It is one thing to be critical or sensational in the hope it will attract surfers, but please be accurate or you just look stupid.

As I said earlier I guess I stepped on some toes with the earlier post πŸ™ but I call it as I see it and when something doesn’t make sense I WILL say so. So lets take this comment one section at a time.

First – The IP adress is the same as the earlier comment so either it came from the same person or at least the same place. I had 3 folks sign up for accounts on the site last night, all from the same IP address but so far only 2 of them have tried to comment.

NOTE – No one gets to comment here without having their first comment approved by the site owner, which is me. Steve gets to comment since I have known him for 40 + years now. He can also write posts. I trust him. New signups have to earn that trust. But I digress. On to the second bit.

Second – Wow, this site or Steve must be so dense. I donÒ€ℒt normally respond to stupidity, but here goes. Firstly, I visited the link to ecobites.com. The article is so informative, that blind freddy could understand it.

Let’s see, you start off calling us dense and then stupid. Then go on to advertise the site the article came from and then to plug the article as being so informative that even blind freddy could understand it. Well not being from Oz I had to look up the reference to Blind Freddy and I found:
Blind Freddy
1. (Australia, informal) Imaginary incapacitated person. Used as a standard or archetype of incapacity, in the sense that if Blind Freddy can see or know something then it must be obvious.

Sorry, but as I said in the original post and have reiterated above the wording of the article in question was NOT obvious without either drawings or pictures or having seen the device in question and saying that I and Steve are dense and stupid is NOT going to change that FACT.

Third – Secondly, a quick surf of the website, indicates to poor dumb me that the site is photo intensive. More than most websites so what is the issue here. DidnÒ€ℒt you guys go to school. It pays to read to understand.

The site may be photo intensive (and in fact IS. Which is not always a good thing but I’m not here to critique the designers ideas of a “good” website) but the article WAS NOT. The one picture of the dead fly didn’t help me to visualize the device in question at all. Sorry.

And yes, as a matter of fact, Steve and I did both go to school (graduated from two of the same ones in fact, both high school and college), can read, write, and even count to 20 if we take our shoes off. πŸ™„ We also know how to both read to understand and ALSO how to write to be understood, which is something that I am not sure you and/or the author of the article have quite learned as of yet. It pays to reread any article or post you write with the idea in mind that someone in a culture different from yours may read it and want to duplicate it. So you need to try to use words in such a way as to paint pictures of the device in the persons mind. The article in question did not do that for me, and I am usually pretty good at visualizing things from words in print or verbal descriptions and attacking me is NOT the way to achieve understanding. Oh, well, onward and upward as it were.

And last – It is one thing to be critical or sensational in the hope it will attract surfers, but please be accurate or you just look stupid.

Excuse me? I should be accurate? Or I look stupid?
I’m truely sorry that you feel that me trying to understand the article in question and posting my attempts at visualizing the device was an attempt to attract surfers. About that I could care less. What I did (and still do) want to do was build some of the flytraps for use here on my farm, so I don’t have to use poison, but the written description without aid of drawings or pictures was not enough for my stupid dense mind to follow.

Please, next time you want to comment on my site (or any other) attempt to be constructive. If you had commented in such a way to help me understand what the article was getting at OR commented to tell me that the author of the DIY Flytrap had posted drawings, I would have welcomed you and your comments. As it is I am going to delete your comments from the original post though I will leave your user name(s) should you wish to reply to my post here.

Best,
Dave AKA Techno

“Green Gasoline”: Like Gasoline, But Made from Cellulose : TreeHugger

By , April 10, 2008 9:23 pm

“Green Gasoline”: Like Gasoline, But Made from Cellulose : TreeHugger
Though they may share many of the same compounds and properties, “green gasoline,” the creation of UMass chemical engineer George Huber, differs from regular gasoline in one important respect: it can be produced from biomass sources. And, unlike the various forms of ethanol that have been bandied around, green gasoline can take advantage of the existing gas infrastructure and be pumped into cars as is.

To produce this biofuel variant, Huber and his students heated plant cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts and then rapidly cooled the products – leaving behind a liquid that already contained many of the compounds typically found in gasoline, such as naphthalene and toluene. The whole process takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish and needs only moderate heat; the final liquid can be further refined or immediately used as an alternative to a high octane gas blend.

I guess the big questions are: what is the cost of the catalysts and are they a reusable or expendable agent? This sounds wonderful, but if it’s this simple why is it gonna take them 5 years at a minimum to get it to the pumps? I realize that scaling up is gonna make a difference and building the infrastructure will take a while but still sounds like there are things about this process or the resultant fuel that they don’t bring up.

That said I hope this works out and results in a viable fuel making process using biomass. 😎

DIY Organic Fly Trap – Ecobites.com

By , April 10, 2008 9:05 pm

DIY Organic Fly Trap – Ecobites.com

Update – They have posted drawings and rewritten the original article so that it is MUCH clearer now! Thanks folks, it makes a LOT more sense than what I was getting from the text the first time around!

Looks like what I was visualizing was upside down which I wondered about at the time, which is why I kept going back and rereading and trying to get some picture in my head of what they were doing.

Please note that I was NOT attacking the article or author but simply trying to understand how to build this device and having trouble understanding the original textual instructions without having some visual aid to assist me.

Thanks again for taking the time to clear up the text and for adding the drawings of the construction of this inexpensive and easy to construct fly trap. I’ll be building several of these asap.

———

Had a couple of comments on this article since the one of Steve’s, that I am moving to another post all their own so I can discuss some of the points they bring up in more detail than is possible in the comments section of this blog. The new post is located at – Update on Organic DIY Flytrap – Ecobites.com

Original post follows –

Okay, I’ve read this article about half a dozen times now and without pictures or drawings I only vaguely understand what they are talking about and what I do get isn’t making sense.

What I seem to be getting is that the bottle bottom is now the top with the wire Y piercing it to hang by and the top of the bottle being inside the bottom with the cut off neck facing the round bottom. Then the seam where the two meet is taped together and the water and bait is supposed to be held in by the taped seam.

Do we cut off the screw neck so they don’t have a place to land? Yellow tape? What kind of yellow tape is gonna make a water tight seal? I’d think some kind of glue or caulk would work better. That is if I am visualizing this correctly.

Guess I am just being dense tonight. Will reread it tomorrow and see it there is a light bulb lit then. Of course if the author had bothered to include pictures or even a basic drawing I (and all the other really dense folk out here in reader land) wouldn’t be having to try to figure out what the hell they are talking about.

Organic Fire Ant Control – DirtDoctor.com – Howard Garrett – The Dirt Doctor

By , April 9, 2008 10:23 pm

Organic Fire Ant Control – DirtDoctor.com – Howard Garrett – The Dirt Doctor

Gonna have to do something, cause the little suckers are over running us this year. Some of the stuff on this page sounds good, some not so good.

Have had success with pouring boiling water into the mounds before and that’s what I’m gonna do for right now at least around the immediate area. As soon as the Airsofters get the rest of their stuff gone I’ll work on those areas too. Got a couple of wash pots that I set over a fire, fill with creek water and boil, open the mounds up and pour it in. Never had to do it more than once to a mound to kill the queen and most of the workers and never had one come back either. 😈

*** esprit cabane, the magazine of crafty & green living ideas

By , April 6, 2008 9:00 pm

*** esprit cabane, the magazine of crafty & green living ideas

A really neat French magazine (now in English too) that has all kinds of projects and craft ideas with a focus on homemade and non-toxic. From how-to’s on making wallpaper paste and rice glue to upholstering furniture and making your own paint they cover a wide range of projects for anyone interested in doing it yourself.

I was surprised to find that glazers putty was simply a mixture of chalk power and linseed oil. They give the proper mixture and explain how to use and the curing time.

Good stuff! 😎

A Low Impact Woodland Home

By , April 6, 2008 8:12 pm

A Low Impact Woodland Home

I know I’ve posted about this house before but I think he’s got a new site, and I know that some of the stuff on the site is new. Good stuff! And I still want to build one!

Cloud EV – Home

By , April 6, 2008 11:54 am

Cloud EV – Home

The motors and controllers aren’t cheap, nor are the batteries, but with the cost of fuel skyrocketing with no end in sight I’m looking at converting something to electric or building it from scratch. Going to have to spend some serious time doing research as to the how, which, and what… πŸ˜‰

Do nothing Saturday

By , April 5, 2008 9:12 pm

After a rainy start the day got better but I stayed in a very do nothing mode.

Finally got up the energy to get a shower so decided to try out the olive oil for shaving. It worked (I guess) but with my year and a half old razer blade it took a while. Not much razer burn even though the stubble was a quarter inch long so guess it did it’s job. Will have to try it again Monday and see how it works with less hair. πŸ™„

Also decided to try out the baking soda instead of shampoo. That I like. Kinda strange not having the suds but it cleaned the hair and took very little to rinse out. Fewer tangles when combing afterwards too so am gonna use this rather than the store bought smelly stuff. I think that was what I liked best, no stink in the hair afterwards.

Not that late but am gonna read for a bit then call it an early night. Till tomorrow… 😎

DIY Electric Kawsaki Motorcycle : TreeHugger

By , April 4, 2008 9:33 pm

DIY Electric Kawsaki Motorcycle : TreeHugger

This is freaking awsome! Has a 15 mile range and a top speed of 40 mph. Gonna have to look through the bits and pieces of several motorcycles that I have in the barn and start looking for a motor and pricing batteries. 😯 😎

Portable Yurts from Go-Yurt : TreeHugger

By , April 4, 2008 8:41 pm

Portable Yurts from Go-Yurt : TreeHugger

Goyurt

This is just too cool! 😎 Canvas skin and about 45 minutes setup. I want to see one in person.

Tapping the Power of the Mighty Mississippi: Thousands of Hydrokinetic Turbines Could Generate 1600 MW : TreeHugger

By , April 4, 2008 8:26 pm

Tapping the Power of the Mighty Mississippi: Thousands of Hydrokinetic Turbines Could Generate 1600 MW : TreeHugger

Makes a LOT of sense to do it this way vs the huge dams and massive turbines. Instead have a LOT of small units. One goes out just put another in it’s place. Hope they get the permits and go ahead.

Shave with Olive Oil : Planet Green

By , April 3, 2008 10:46 pm

Shave with Olive Oil : Planet Green

Aimed toward women but I’m gonna have to try this one though on my face and neck instead of legs… πŸ™„ πŸ˜‰

Kickstart Your Morning with Cider instead of OJ : Planet Green

By , April 3, 2008 10:24 pm

Kickstart Your Morning with Cider instead of OJ : Planet Green

Sounds good and makes a LOT of sense. I need to get off the old arse and build a cider press and grinder so we can use the apples instead of letting them go bad every year.

Know Your Cosmetics Ingredients: Toluene : Planet Green

By , April 3, 2008 10:05 pm

Know Your Cosmetics Ingredients: Toluene : Planet Green

So nice to be reminded once again how the FDA is working for big biz and not for the people. ArseHats! πŸ‘Ώ

Use Baking Soda to Strip Paint, Shampoo Your Hair : Planet Green

By , April 3, 2008 10:02 pm

Use Baking Soda to Strip Paint, Shampoo Your Hair : Planet Green

More stuff I didn’t know. Gonna have to try both. Cool! 😎

In Chicago, a secret garden cools a concrete jungle

By , April 3, 2008 9:02 pm

In Chicago, a secret garden cools a concrete jungle

Cool! In several ways… πŸ˜‰

You Are Not A Consumer, You Do More Than Consume

By , April 2, 2008 6:09 pm

The Sietch Blog » You Are Not A Consumer, You Do More Than Consume

Interesting video which kinda, sorta but really doesn’t go along with the post.

I’m getting around to a serious (several thousand) backlog of posts in my feedreader, so a lot of the stuff I am (gonna be) posting/linking to is older stuff.

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