Make adobe bricks
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #110 • March/April, 2008
Last winter I got a phone call from an old friend in Arizona. One of his sons had fallen in love, gotten the girl in trouble, and...
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 a pallet fence
By Clay Sawyer
Issue #69 • May/June, 2001
If you have access to various sizes of free pallets, consider this idea for your next fence. Now I know for a fact that I would rather dig...
Five building tricks for super strong framing
By Don Fallick
Issue #49 • January/February, 1998
I was standing on the edge of the roof overhang, holding two bundles of asphalt shingles, when my boss's son drove up. He looked at me, then took...
Free pallet wood and birdhouses add up to big country dollars
By Rick Brentlinger
Issue #53 • September/October, 1998
If I could show you how to manufacture a product anywhere in the country and if I offered to find you the raw materials free, would you be...
Dorothy Ainsworth update: Out of the ashes
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #38 • March/April, 1996
I got the dreadful call from my son Eric at 2 p.m. on June 29th, 1995, an hour after I'd gone to work at the restaurant. "Your house...
Build a chicken house in a day
By Anita Evangelista
Issue #136 • July/August, 2012
We built our chicken house for around $200. We could have done it for less if we were dedicated scroungers. Three of us put up the 7x18-foot structure...
For summertime baking needs, build yourself an outdoor horno
By Rev. J.D. Hooker
Issue #57 • May/June, 1999
My family has always been big on birthdays and holidaysincluding Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, New Years, and so on. Every holiday is a major...
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...
Build your own home in two years — Get a PhD in homebuilding
By David Lee
Issue #115 • January/February, 2009
There is an old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Curse or not, times are interesting. We have world crises, national troubles, state level problems, county...
Build a Simple, Inexpensive Greenhouse
By Jennifer Poindexter
Issue #157 • January/February, 2016
Since my family is homesteading on a budget, the task of building a greenhouse had to be done as inexpensively as possible. Luckily, my husband is extremely crafty;...
Build a 6500-gallon concrete water tank for $1500
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #101 • September/October, 2006
When I bought 10 dry barren "affordable" acres back in 1981 I got what I paid for: No electricity, no septic system, no well, and no water. What...
Build Your Own Hoop House
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #171 • May/June, 2018
I’ve had my own garden for more than half a century, and I have learned a few things after all these years. One of the most valuable things...
Build Your Own Car Wash
By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
Issue #133 • January/February, 2012
Completed car wash in operation
If someone told me a year ago that I would have a commercial car wash behind my garage, I would have laughed....
Claw Hammers
By R.E. Rawlinson
Scottish writer and philosopher Thomas Carlyle observed that “Man is a tool using animal … without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.” In the modern world we are awash...
Build a cold smoker so you can make delicious squaw candy
By Jane Duquette
Issue #148 • July/August, 2014
For delicious squaw candy, start with the freshest fish.
One fresh July evening at our summer cabin in Soldotna, Alaska, my husband, Tom, and I sat with friends around...