Make your own lumber with a chainsaw mill
By Jacqueline Tresl
Issue #39 • May/June, 1996
Milling a board with a chainsaw lumber-maker.
Figure1: The pieces.
Beams, joists and walls were made with a chainsaw mill.
Figure 2: The frame.
Figure 3: The surface to which the chainsaw...
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...
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,...
Our Unconventional House
By Judy Zent
Website Exclusive • December, 2002
Fig. 1 - Tire walls with roof framing.
Need a prolonged workout? Want to do some major recycling? Want to stay warm and cozy with the help of the...
Build your own log home in the woods
By Jackie Clay
(Photos by Bill Spaulding and Jackie Clay)
Issue #72 • November/December, 2001
This is the third part of a three-part series.
The first two parts appeared in issues 70 and 71.
In the last two issues...
Eye-catching signs with mirrors
By David Lee
Issue #144 • November/December, 2013
The reflected image in the mirrored letters give a "see-through" illusion
to the sign and the tree. Stained glass nuggets add flashes of color.
Need a sign? Do you want...
Building a Ferro-Cement Shed
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By Robert Van Putten
Issue #162 • November/December, 2016
For a year and a half, we lived in an 18-foot travel trailer while building a straw bale cottage. There isn't much space in a travel trailer,...
Build a Concrete Root Cellar
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #168 • November/December, 2017
I should have been a mole — it feels so safe and cool and quiet to be underground. So when my house burned down 20 years ago and...
Build a Vertical Storage Rack for Cans
By Monika Williams
Issue #155 • September/October, 2015
I am always trying to come up with different ways to utilize the small space I have to store food. Then there is the problem of rotating my...
Build a cistern out of corrugated road culvert
By Joe Mooney
Issue #146 • March/April, 2014
Using a corrugated road culvert as a cistern is an economical way to add to your water storage. Here is the finished tank with PVC pipe directing water...
Life-long siding with fiber cement board
By Jay Stoler
Issue #117 • May/June, 2009
Fiber cement board siding is one of a number of siding materials that is replacing wood these days in new and remodeled home construction. It is essentially a...
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...
A cabin for one
By Lee Greiman
Issue #109 • January/February, 2008
Between 1989 and 1990 I built a 20 by 20-foot log house on the Musselshell River in Montana. The next year I built an addition on it that...
Build a wood crib with free materials
By Mark R. Roach
Issue #156 • November/December, 2015
Trying to stack wood so it stays up without falling can be a challenge. Just when you think you've got it licked, down it comes (or months...
Build a barrel stove
By Nick Weston
Issue #133 • January/February, 2012
This stove kept me warm and provided an excellent cooking surface for more than six months while I lived in my treehouse.
With a bit of nip and tuck...
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...
