Woodbarrow
By Setanta O’Ceillaigh
When I first abandoned a slum town and fled back to the countryside I gathered and carried firewood with a laundry basket. Later on I acquired a collection of salvaged tools like...
Making a wooden kitchen countertop
By Patrice Lewis
One of the advantages of living a homesteading lifestyle is participants can kick aside the ever-changing concepts of what constitutes “classy” home interior design. Those model-perfect suburban abodes often hold no appeal...
Yurt Magic — Building an Enchanting Instant House
By Claire Wolfe
Issue #76 • July/August, 2002
I awoke last night to a circle of moonlight reflected on a wall. It was so vivid I could almost see the dark-and-light patterns of the moonface in...
Build a Composter
By Charles Sanders
Issue #170 • March/April, 2018
As with most of the other facets of homesteading, composting can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish to make it. One of the easiest ways...
Choosing a chain saw
By Steven Gregersen
Issue #119 •September/October, 2009
Winter will be here soon and along with winter comes cold weather and high heating bills. Obviously there's nothing new about any of this but with the current economic...
Build a deluxe barrel stove
By David Lee
Issue #108 • November/December, 2007
Winter is coming again, pretty much on schedule in spite of global warming, and it will be cold, just like always. Having a reliable heating system makes winter...
Building and Using Wattle Fences
By Kathryn Wingrove
Issue #139 • January/February, 2013
Wattle fences are made by weaving material in and out of posts in the ground. They were often used on the small farms of Victorian England. In fact,...
Build a log crib
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #69 • May/June, 2001
Baby Zane is probably the only newborn in Hollywood sleeping in a log crib made by his grandmother in Oregon, but it was inevitable.
The finished log crib.
Dorothy uses...
Building Eric’s house
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #112 • July/August, 2009
This is the first in a series of several articles documenting the building of a stud-frame house from start to finish by an amateur owner/builder, using the pay-as-you-go...
Build a stone wall
By Charles Sanders
Issue #70 • July/August, 2001
The natural beauty of a stone wall has been romanticized in poem and picture for hundreds of years. There is a soothing permanence that can be seen in...
A simple backwoods hay baler
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #82 • July/August, 2003
During the winter months, Steve and his wife Tandy feed between 120 and 150 bales of hay to a herd of pretty high-quality dairy goats on their...
A recycled dresser makes a useful bathroom vanity
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #152 • March/April, 2015
Here's the finished vanity with our unfinished dresser
that will store our extra towels and linens.
We've had our log home built for more than eight years now, but until...
A river rock shower
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #77 • September/October, 2002
The finished shower weighs a ton
and cost about $800.
Cultured stones, made of pumice and portland cement, weigh about half as much as river rocks.
Notched-trowel texturing in the mortar...
Build an inexpensive but durable jackleg fence
By Dynah Geissal
Issue #45 • May/June, 1997
When we moved to our land in the summer of 1994, we were fortunate that open grazing exists where we live because we had to build shelters for...
Build a compost tumbler
By Joe Mooney
Issue #151 • January/February, 2015
A few years back, I caught myself becoming a bit frustrated with my compost pile. It seemed that I just couldn't produce compost as easily as I'd seen...
Make a Quick and Easy Tipi
By Bob Van Putten
Issue #174 • November/December, 2018
The native peoples of North America were a very practical lot. Over the centuries they developed some very efficient tools. Yet, perhaps because of their appreciation of...
