I’m going to try and recreate them for Halloween and holiday gifts in place of pumpkins and candles. Maybe add a stencil designs to them like the word "Boo" or a picture of a star or ornament. The only concern I have is the toxicity of the glass frosting spray that I used. The spray definitely made me feel a bit faint at the end of the day and I couldn’t help but hum the tune from Macgyver.

Sun jar instructions:

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/homemadesunjar

Supplies needed: Handy assistant, frosting spray, jar, solar lamp, iced mocha to keep up with the excitement.

Don’t blink!

Oh you blinked and missed the set up because it was that quick!

See more here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earth2joy/sets/72157602337039519

*The title of my flickr set "How to make a BOMB ass sun jar" was in reference to me trying to get through security for my flight home. They did search my bag and instead of saying "science project," I told them it was my solar lamp gift per my smart cousins’ husband’s suggestion.

Whether you desire to buy trees to help the environment for personal reasons, for investment purposes or you simply refer others to buy trees through our Affiliate Program,  PanAm BioFuels has made the process so simple that everyone can find a way to participate in it.

1) Purchase Trees for Investment

Jatropha trees can be bought directly from Pan-Am Biofuels for only $4 each in lots ranging from 250 trees for $1000 to 25,000 trees for $100,000.  Though delivery is possible for larger volumes, we will believe most people will take advantage of our Contract Farming Program where we will actually plant your trees on our plantations. 

With our Contract Farming Program we do all the work from planting to harvest to sale of the oil.  The only fee for all of this is a 10% fee from profits.  Then 90% of the profits are passed on to you, the tree owner.  All you have to do is purchase your trees in lots for only $4/each.

If you have priced trees at your local nursery you will see most prices range from $10 to $25. So now you may be thinking…

"How can you produce, plant and sell these trees at only $4 each?"

There are several reasons, including, but not limited to,

• Because the cost of living as well as labor is much cheaper in Central America where our nurseries are located.
• The efficiencies and economies of scale we enjoy by the huge volume of trees our nursery outputs allow us to save a tremendous amount of money passing the savings on to you.
• Our nursery is in close proximity to our Jatropha Tree plantation in Costa Rica where our Contract Farming Program is being implemented so there are minimal transportation expenses.

"So how much money do I stand to earn by buying your Jatropha Trees? What is the return on my investment?" 

Your trees can potentially bring  as much as 45% PER YEAR calculated  from your original investment once the trees start producing within 3-4 years.   Jatropha trees start bearing seeds the second year and reach maximum production at about 4 years.  You can review the full details and Financial Projections once you register and login.

Pan-Am Biofuels has truly created a unique situation and opportunity for the average person to take advantage of.

Now you can participate in an industry that has produced the wealthiest individuals and corporations in the world. The only difference is, instead of drilling for oil and destroying the environment, you will be growing oil and restoring the environment by owning oil producing Jatrpha Trees

2) Sell trees for Commissions as an Affiliate

We will pay you to refer customers! Pan-Am Biofuels has created a lucrative opportunity for webmasters,  business owners and individuals alike. By becoming an Affiliate you can help promote our Jatropha tree project, earn commissions and at the same time you’ll be doing your part to better our environment.  Learn more about how our Affiliate Program works.

User "Tool Using Animal" created a ‘Green Roofed Dog Veranda‘ that we were immediately drawn to as a project we wanted to feature on Green Options. While this wasn’t the overall contest winner, vegetated roofs (or green roofs) are a regular feature in some green buildings (and even more green building discussions).

Green roofed structures are appealing to many people, but they aren’t necessarily willing to take on putting one on their own home without more information. So there are growing numbers of green roofed doghouses and green roofed garden sheds and green roofed garages as people who are interested in green roofs try them out in less vital places where they have an opportunity to try it and see without putting their personal comfort at great risk.

This project doesn’t require any special materials or skills beyond those necessary for some of our other projects. A hammer and a saw and a few other woodworking tools are about all that is needed.

I personally would look for alternatives to using ACQ treated wood, even for a doghouse. A doghouse is not going to need decades of longevity, and cedar or some other naturally decay-resistant wood would seem to be a better choice. It should last as long as the structure is needed, but without the need for chemically treated wood.

I should also point out that this is not a complete green roof system. Commercial green roofs are more involved, but this should produce a working version that replicates some of the same principles. While it should function fairly well, even treated wood will eventually break down when in constant contact with wet soil, as is the case with this roof. But "Tool Using Animal" wasn’t trying to replicate a commercial green roof, and I think this is a great project.

The entire project can be viewed on one page here on the Instructables site.

Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius

Gavin also shared his thoughts about Evil Geniuses, solar power, and more in an interview with EcoGeek.org as part of the EcoGeek of the Week series, which was also presented here on Green Options. The following project is an excerpt from this book:

It’s the same old story—just when you want to talk on your cellphone, the battery goes flat and the conversation is irretrievably lost! Invariably, you haven’t got your phone charger on you, and even if you did have it wouldn’t be an awful lot of help as the chances are there is no power for miles around . . . At the Centre for Alternative Technology, U.K., there is a solar-powered phone (see picture at right); while this is powered by clean green energy, it can’t claim to be very portable!

In this project, we are going to build a circuit that will provide a supply capable of powering either a cellphone or PDA charger. A PDA is about the limit of what you can charge using small cells, a laptop charger is probably a bit ambitious.

One of the problems with trying to build this circuit is that finding a suitable connector for many mobile phones is a real problem. While Nokia makes life easy by providing a simple jack that can be readily obtained from many component suppliers, many other manufacturers rely on proprietary connectors which are nonstandard and awkward to source.

For this reason, we have based this project on hacking a cellphone car charger.

There are two schematics here for projects that tackle the project from slightly different angles. The first method involves creating a solar array that will provide above 12 V—regulating this supply to 12 V, and charging the device via a hacked “car charger” (Figure 1). The other device is suitable for where a USB type charger is available—this is ideal for USB mp3 players, PDAs and mobile phones, most of which now come with a “data” lead. We have an array of solar cells, which charges a couple of batteries when there is spare power; a voltage regulator then turns this into a clean 5 V, which can be used to drive the device (Figure 2). The advantage of this circuit is that even if there is not a lot of sun— or it is night-time, you can pop a couple of freshly charged batteries in (maybe from your solar charger?) and things will start working.

Standard charger wiring diagram (Figure 1)

Car chargers are designed to allow you to plug your phone into your vehicle’s cigarette lighter or accessory socket. They are cheap and readily available; however, they rely on having a car present to allow you to charge your phone!

There are a couple of ways of making this project. You can either build the project as a box into which you plug your car cellphone charger, or, if you are a little more adventurous, you can take apart the cellphone charger and integrate it properly into the box. The plus side of keeping the two pieces separate is that you can use the car cellphone charger as a stand-alone item, or, you can power it from the “solar box.” The plus side of integrating it all together is that it makes for a neat, stand-alone project and the two parts cannot become separated.

USB Charger wiring diagram (Figure 2)

Note: A note on cigarette lighter sockets—the usual wiring scheme is that the casing of one of these sockets is connected to the negative terminal of the battery.

Excerpt from Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius: 50
Build-It-Yourself Projects by Gavin D.J. Harper, copyright McGraw-Hill,
2007.

If you aren’t already familiar with it, Instructables is a website that offers step-by-step instructions on creating all kinds of DIY projects, ranging from relatively easy crafts to complicated robotics projects. While they are focusing on green projects for this current contest, they regularly have all manner of do-it-yourself projects. The site’s focus is on not just making things, but on showing other people how to make the cool things you have made, and how you did it.

There are many green projects on the Instructables site, beyond those that are already entries in the current ‘Go Green’ contest. Anything that you can create, and more importantly, that you can show someone else how to create, is a candidate for this contest:

"You can reuse vintage floppies, make your own cloth grocery bags, build some recycled modular shelving, a sun jar, a solar heater, or a wind generator. Move onto solar energy, worm compost, or even ditch your car for an electric bike!
Need more ideas? Check out TreeHugger’s great list of simple ways to Go Green, and the green coverage on PopSci.

"So, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle, and rebuild, then show us what you are doing to make your life a little bit greener!"

The contest is open through August 19, 2007. If you have submitted an entry to the contest, be sure to let us know about it in the comments.

After the competition results are announced, we are planning to feature some of the most appealing finalists as part of our Weekly DIY series here on Green Options. The top prize winner is going to be featured in a brief write-up in Popular Science magazine. But we are going to offer our own Green Options highlights and a bit more coverage to some of the most intriguing projects we see, as well.

To encourage bats to settle near your house and bring their insect devouring prowess to work for you, a bat house is a relatively easy project that provides a place for the bats to nest. In order to be attractive to bats, a bat house needs to be narrow. In the wild, bats like the spaces between bark and a tree trunk. So a space that is narrow and dark is ideal.

Carla Brown from the National Wildlife Federation has put together her own, very well illustrated, step-by-step process for building a bat house for her home. So, rather than repeating what she has already done, I’m just going to point you to her project page for the step by step details.

Carla’s descriptions are excellent, and she writes that she had never before used a circular saw, so this is not an overly-challenging project to do. The plans she used are from Bat Conservation International’s website. The house doesn’t look like some of the commercial bat houses I’ve seen for sale. But I believe this design is more likely to attract bats to actually live in the bat house.

My seven year-old son and I are going to try to build our own bat house to put on our house this weekend following these directions. It’s a small project, requiring only a quarter sheet (2′ x 4′) of plywood, an 8′ long 1×2 board, and some miscellaneous hardware and building materials. It should be very possible to use some salvaged lumber for this if you happen to have some pieces you’d like to use.

The project requires only a couple of cuts to cut the plywood into three pieces for the house. The finished house is only a couple inches deep, but that is sufficient and cozy space for the bats. The narrow size also helps to keep other predators and animals out of the box, and keeps the bats safe.

The most unusual step of the project is probably running the circular saw in horizontal bands across the plywood to make a surface that the bats can get a grip on. Cutting rough grooves makes the plywood more like the bark that bats would expect to find. It is also important that the interior of the bat house be stained to help make it as dark as possible to appeal to the bats.

Good locations for bat houses include a southern orientation, especially in more northerly locations, and proximity to water. Sothern orientation helps the box reach the temperatures bats seek, and proximity to water makes it more likely that the insects the bats love to eat (such as mosquitoes) will be available for them. We are fortunate to have the side of the garage facing south, so it’s easy to mount the bat house at the peak of the roof to get good southern orientation. It’s less well suited for other solar projects, but it’s good for the bats. We are also quite close to the Huron River, so proximity to water is also taken care of.

Bats seek really warm nesting places, so the bat house needs to be painted or stained a dark color in order to absorb solar radiation and get as warm as possible. Bat Conservation International even has a map with guidelines on recommended colors for your bat house. Black or dark gray is usually best in northern regions.

It is unlikely that our bat house will be occupied until next year. The NWF says that bats are likely to be looking for a home in the spring, so the bat house may sit unoccupied until then. But hopefully we’ll have bats. We’ve seen bats out at nearby parks, so hopefully they’ll find our bat box and move in.

Links:

National Wildlife Federation

Bat Conservation International

BCI Plans

Color selection map

Currently, there are no regulations on the fragrance industry resulting in a lot of unnecessary airborne pollution, or VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Chemicals such as toluene are abundant in the fragrance aisle; they’re also abundant in auto parts stores. Toluene has been proven to cause cancer and nervous system damage, and is designated as hazardous waste in large amounts. Now, that doesn’t sound very refreshing or romantic does it?

Oftentimes these harmful chemicals in our everyday environment, from cleaning products to air fresheners, contain hormone disruptors, which are toxins that fool our body by imitating our natural hormones. Hormone disruptors bind to the sites in our body where our natural hormones usually bind, and block those sites from our natural hormones. This often results in low sperm count, high breast cancer rates, prostate and testicular cancer, thyroid problems, and behavioral abnormalities in children.

Now I’m not saying that one cleaning product a day is going to steal your health away. But, exposure to many products through out the day containing toxic chemicals can lead to an unhealthy state. So, I am encouraging you and helping you to use cleaner, safer, homemade products that perform just the same!

Following is my All-Purpose Cleaner Contents 101 just for you!

• Rule of thumb # 1: if it burns your nostril, it shouldn’t be topical.
• Rule of thumb # 2: if you can’t pronounce it, denounce it!
• Rule of thumb # 3: If the scent is strong and synthetic, keep in mind that it is probably present to mask the scent of another equally harmful chemical in the product.

Below is a recipe for an All Purpose Cleaner, and although you certainly could clean your body with it I am recommending it for windows, countertops, mirrors, sinks, tubs, even use it as a weed killer, or in a bowl to remove unwanted odors from a room!

The active ingredients are:

Vinegar: originally a French word meaning “sour wine”. It is simply made from the fermentation of ethanol (the alcohol commonly found in alcoholic beverages) in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice…basically anything that has an alcohol content. The active ingredient is acetic acid, which is usually between 4-8% of the liquid volume. At a PH of about 2.4 the rather acidic liquid helps to kill bacteria, prevent bacteria from growing in the first place, and cuts through grease.

Visit these pages to find millions of opportunities to substitute vinegar in everyday cleaning and even weight loss.

The Vinegar Institute: Uses and Tips
Hints and Things: Vinegar

Borax: an umbrella word for a few closely related natural mineral compounds that differ in content and structure. Commercial borax is usually sodium borate decahydrate. It is very water-soluble and uses that property to convert water molecules into hydrogen peroxide, thereby becoming a great natural, yet mild, bleach and cleaning agent. At a PH of 9.5 the alkaline, the basic compound uses it’s salt, and/or oxygen content to disinfect and kill unwanted pests/organisms. Borax is used in many detergents, fungicides, preservatives, and disinfectants.

Now that you have the facts, here is how you make it!

Ingredient list:

• 4 T Vinegar
• 2 tsp. Borax
• 10-20 drops of the essential oil of your choice (optional)
• 32 oz hot water

Step 1: Find a spray bottle that will hold about 32 oz or more. If you want to use an old spray bottle, which is a great idea, first disinfect and clean it. How? Put in 4 T Vinegar, 2 tsp Borax, and fill it about 1/3 with boiling hot water (if your bottle is plastic, reduce the heat of the water a bit). Shake it real well, let it sit for a day or two and rinse it well.

There you have it!Step 2: Add the 4 T Vinegar right into the bottle

Step 3: Add the 2 tsp of Borax right into the bottle

Step 4: Add 32 oz of hot! Water

Step 5: Add 10-20 drops of your chosen essential oil if you please

Step 6: Put on the top/lid and shake it up.

Step 7: Clean away to your hearts fancy and be breath deep. It won’t hurt you!

Isn’t it refreshing to know that having a cleaner home requires less: less ingredients meaning less harmful disguises?

Source articles:

No Perfume Means Healthier Air
About.com: How Does Borax Clean?

In honor of the holiday and the American Dream of freedom and exploration, I am going to help you declare an “energy independence” today (at home anyway). Today, we are going to decrease our dependency on finite natural resources such as coal and natural gas used to generate much of the energy we consume in this country. The interesting lesson is that these finite resources are burned to generate steam that drives a shaft through magnets, resulting in an electromagnetic inductive reaction that generates electricity; the same principles on which wind power is generated.

Today’s topic to shout from the mountaintops is how to make your own affordable wind turbine. Did you know that the energy in the wind more or less follows the human 24-hour power consumption cycle? So I’m here to say, lets utilize that wind while we simultaneously use up the electricity.

I have personally not built this mechanism, but being a declared experimental designer, I like to rig things up and love to figure out how things work. Thus, I have reviewed many instructions and debriefed for you an informative and simple process from a Do-It-Yourselfer in Arizona who built his for under $150. If you crave more specific instructions, visit his site or one of the many options at the bottom of the page. There are hundreds of ways to build each sub-construction, so get creative and think about efficiency in weight, size, and aerodynamics.

Without further ado, following is a simple and cheap process of instructions on how to build your own wind turbine at home!

The bare necessities that every wind turbine has in common:
1. A Generator
2. Blades
3. A mount and wind vane to keep it turned to the wind
4. A tower to put it up in the sky
5. Rechargeable batteries and an electronic control system

With that said we will follow these 5 recommended steps to simplify your way to a great affordable turbine.

1. The Generator
First, the heart of the whole mechanism: the generator. An electric generator is quite simple when you refer back to your knowledge of physics. To put it simply, the generator will convert the mechanical energy in the wind intercepted by the blades and into electrical energy. If you want to learn how a common generator works inside, refer to this site. To get the basic principles of electromagnetism, refer here.
Electric generator: image courtesy of wvic.com

Generator Shopping:
Many electric motors work as generators, as they function the same fundamentally only in reverse. Instead of outputting a voltage from the crank of a shaft, a motor would crank the shaft from an applied voltage. The only problem is that many motors have to be driven much faster as a generator to reach their rated voltage.

I am told that Ametek motors are the best for home built turbines. The Ametek 99 voltDC, although large, is the best one they make. But word on the street says it’s a hard one to find, so if you can't find the top dog, don’t worry, they make many alternatives as do other companies.
The best advice for motor/generator shopping I can give you is look for a motor that is rated for:
1. High DC voltage
2. Low rpm’s
3. High current

If you’d like to leverage the properties of the different Ametek generators visit this site!

Another great motor I’ve heard a lot about is the MiniGen Motor. Although it doesn’t have a huge power output, it is small and can serve as your hub to attach your rotor blades to directly. It outputs AC power so when you get to the electronic controller stage you will need a rectifier instead of a blocking diode.

MiniGen Motor

Once you’ve acquired and decided on your generator we are ready to move on to the blades.

2. The Rotor Blades and Hub

Many people use ABS, or PVC piping. You can carve your own out of wood, which I have done, but be sure to use as light a wood as possible. If you want to get real slick and sexy, you could use styrofoam and carbon fiber, but those materials are neither sustainable nor healthy. A great site to refer to while constructing aerodynamic efficiency is the Danish Wind Industry Association.

With a plastic pipe 6” in diameter and 24-36” long depending on the intended scale of your project. This is what you want to do (scale is set for 24” blades).
1. Cut the pipe into 4 equal parts around the circumference (you only need 3)
2. Cut the blade at the angle you prefer (usually about 20 degrees)
3. Sand the edges to maximize the aerodynamics
4. Next you need a hub to bolt your blades onto (4-6” diameter hub will be perfect) with a hole in the center that will fit the motor shaft.
5. Mount the ends of the blades onto the hub with screws and bolts each 120 degrees from the other.
6. If you can find a plastic half sphere to cover the front of this construction, it will improve the airflow therefore the efficiency of the unit by directing air into the rotor blades.
Hub and Blades: Image courtesy of Mike Davis

3. The Mount

The mount and wind vane are important because they hold all the parts and direct the blades into the wind. The wind vane or tail is the balancing tool of the mechanical energy operation. It keeps the turbine from capsizing, therefore sacrificing harvestable wind.

1. It is easiest to use a 2×4” piece of wood about 35” long. This measurement can be imprecise as long as it fits the motor and is long enough to allow the vane to work with ease, so feel free to use any scrap lying around. Again, it is important to keep this whole construction light. This will facilitate movement of the mount in the direction of the wind.
2. Mount the motor to one end of the 2×4 so that the motor shaft is fully extended beyond the end of the wooden mount. (It is a good idea to cover the motor with something to insulate it form weather conditions-metal electrical boxes work as well as a piece of PVC pipe.)
3. Mount the rotor blades and hub construction onto the motor shaft.
4. Next, Wind Vane: All you need is a rigid piece of material to stand up about 8 inches and extend down the mount about 14 or longer. This is the mechanism that really controls the direction of the turbine. It is very important. Although the rotor blades can catch the wind and aid turning the construction in the right direction, the vane does this with much more ease. (Common materials are sheet aluminum, plastic, or even a thin wood. If you want to go green and creative- find a piece of flashing that’s laying around, cut up an old plastic binder, or cut up the lid to an old Tupperware container. [Note: all these materials are very light].)
5. Cut a groove in the wooden mount just wide enough for the thickness of your chosen vane material.
6. Slide it in. If it’s not tight enough, glue it into place to secure stability and function.
7. Add a weight of any sort to the bottom of the wind vane end on the 2×4. This will be your counterweight to the generator. You can use a lead weight (although not a magnet), a sand filled balloon…

An alternative to this construction is to find a 2 ¼” pipe or something large enough to fit the generator into. Insert the generator. Attach the hub to one end. Cut a slit in the other end in which to insert your wind vane. You can also place your counterweight inside the pipe. This construction is a bit sleeker in appearance.

4. The Tower

The height of your tower will be highly dependent upon your location in this world. If you live amongst many a canopy of tall trees, you will have a lot of interference to compete with. If you live on the plains, the wind will “go whipping o’r the plain” freely and quite low in the sky.

What you need for the tower is a long pole with something that functions as a bearing at the top to allow the mount to turn freely towards the wind. These are the step-by-step instructions from Michael Davis of Arizona who scratched his head at the local home center store over this for a couple hours. I think his solution is quite functional yet the resistance/friction on the bearing could be lower and more efficient.

1. Attach a 1” pipe fitting to the bottom of the generator end of the mount about 7-8” in.
2. Screw a 1” diameter, 6-12” long pipe nipple into the pipe fitting
3. Slip the pipe nipple into a 1 ¼”, 10-20’ conduit (depending on your locational interference).

With this construction you can drill a hole in the 2×4” mount and feed the wires from the generator right down through the pipe fitting, through the nipple, down the conduit, and out to the control system.

4. Find a scrap piece of wood that is about 2×2’. This will serve as your base.
5. Make a U shaped assembly out of 1” pipe fittings and pipes.

The Tee construction will function as a hinge that will allow you to raise and lower the tower.

6. In the center of the assembly put a 1 4” Tee. Insert in it a 1 ¼” close nipple, a 1 ¼” to 1” reducing fitting, and a screw into that a 1” diameter, 12” pipe nipple.
7. Drill a hole in pipe nipple, large enough for the wire to come out from the conduit.
8. Next drill holes 1” in diameter in the base platform that line up with the pipe fittings. This will allow you to drive shafts into the ground to stabilize your platform. The shafts will extend from the earth into the parallel components of the U construction, thus grounding the tower!
9. Attach 4 guy-lines to the conduit about 10’ up. Tie a rope to each line. Anchor each rope 90 degrees from the other in the earth with some stakes. Make sure these are secure, as you don’t want your turbine to come tumbling down. If you see this unnecessary then skip the whole u construction and anchor the conduit directly into the ground.
Mike's Base Construction

5. The Controller System

Here comes the interesting part that takes a bit of research, but once you do it step by step it all begins to make sense. The controller stores the power created by the spinning turbine and sent down by the generator.

Here are the items you need, what they do, and how they work:
1. First the power sent down from the generator is stored in one or more small batteries.
2. The surplus power is sent out to a larger storage/load when the primary batteries get fully charged, because they will.
3. A 40 amp blocking diode. These are one-way valves that allow the charge to be pumped in but not back out. This prevents the batteries from powering the generator as a motor and spinning the turbine voluntarily. If you use an AC motor you will want to use a rectifier instead. Rectifiers capture the peak and trough of an alternating current. I referred to this earlier in the generator section.
4. A charge controller. The controller monitors the voltage in the batteries and decides where the power from the turbine is needed and should be stored. If you are savvy with wiring up your own electronics this site will show you detailed diagrams of circuit construction and a couple links to help you out. If you don’t want to go there, then search eBay or some of the sites below for a wind power controller. Our friend Mike in Arizona built a fully functional controller, check it out.
5. The cord. If you have an old extension cord, dysfunctional on one end, perfect! If not find some insulated electrical wire with a decent size gauge (¼ – ½”). Attach a couple spade lugs to each end. Attach one to each output on the generator. Then thread the chord through the conduit and connect the spade lugs on the other end to the controller unit.
6. A 120-volt inverter. This is very important because it allows you to use the DC power generated. You will connect this to the battery load unit. It converts the 12V DC power stored in the batteries and into 120V AC power. From this you can plug in any household device you would plug into the wall: your computer, a toaster, a lamp…
Going Further Bonus: you can get a digital or analog computer-interface multimeter (can be found at Radio Shack or your local Electronics supply shop) that will connect to you computer for data logging!
Ahhh, I think I pretty much covered it all. Now that you have all the parts put together, you have yourself a beautiful turbine that initiates or enhances your independence from the communal electric power grid!

I challenge you to get as creative as possible in your project. In my research, I saw project constructed of 100% reused materials. It isn’t difficult, you just have to dig a little bit deeper. Maybe the shape or material you need is in that object you just put in the recycling bin, or even better in the trash. I also saw collapsible and portable turbines to take camping and on road trips. Here are a couple sites that I hope will inform and inspire your project:

Science Fair Wind Generators
Minigen
Otherpower.com Discussion Board: My First Wind Turbine
Otherpower.com Discussion Board: Wind
How I Home-Built an Electricity-Producing Wind Turbine

Also, get creative on how you hook up the power supply. You could connect it to your water heater or your electric oven. You could rig it up so you have multiple removable secondary loads. Use the secondary battery packs to take inside and power your computer throughout the day or your telephone (but don’t forget to take the inverter too). If you think you are harvesting enough power, look into connecting it to the power supply in your home. If you are not quite there yet don’t worry, the experiments have just begun. Have fun, and please let me know if I can direct you to additional information.

I've been wanting to put in a couple of rain barrels at my house this year. We put in some garden plants this weekend, and they are going to need to be watered. Rain barrels are great because they help conserve water and cut down the amount of potable water that needs to be used. Rain barrels are commercially available for around $100 (or more). These are more "decorative" (if you find a piece of plastic molded with a wood barrel pattern decorative), but with a drill, some silicone sealant, and a couple of basic parts, you can build a rain barrel of your own.

It is important to remember that this is not drinking water that you are collecting. Without further treatment, there are too many possible problems, from dust and dirt to chemicals (from roof materials) to microorganisms that may colonize an available water supply. There are rainwater catchment systems that are designed for potable water use. These are more involved, and need to have other elements in the system beyond what is being discussed here.

It is also important to make sure to prevent the standing water from becoming a mosquito breeding facility, either by closing the barrel with a screen (like a window screen) or by using mosquito dunks (a time release tablet that contains a bacterial agent that kills mosquito larvae, but do not affect people, fish, animals or plants).

Rain barrels can collect a surprisingly large amount of water. "For every 1000 square feet of roof space being used to capture rain you can expect to catch around 600 gallons from one inch of rain fall (at a theoretical 100% catch rate). Some larger roofs can easily be 2000+ square feet." (The Sietch) Conversely, if you have a 100 square foot garden, you can figure that you will want to supply 60 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall you are trying to make up. So if you collect and use five 55-gallon barrels of rainwater, that's approximately 5" of additional effective rainfall that you've supplied to your garden. With a typical 55-gallon barrel size, you are only likely to capture a fraction of the total water that falls on your roof. But this could be increased by putting barrels at several corners, to capture the rainfall at multiple downspouts.

Photo Credit: Elizabeth RedmondBuilding the barrel is mostly a matter of cutting plastic. Using a wide bore drill bit or a hole saw is the best way to cut the plastic. A good silicone sealant for submerged use can seal the spigot installation if it leaks excessively.

You need to install a hole in the lid as an inlet for the water coming from the downspout, a hole in the side with a valve, near the bottom, so that you can drain the water out when you are ready to water your plants, and a hole near the top, for an overflow, to control the water if the barrel gets completely full.

The following instructions are taken from the Center for Watershed Protection directions:

STEP 1. Cut Holes in Barrel

• Cut lower drain hole

Measure about 1 inch above the bottom of the barrel where the barrel side begins to rise toward the top. Using a 3/4" bit (or hole saw), drill a hole through the barrel.

• Cut upper drain hole

Mark the upper drain hole according to where you want the overflow to be located in relationship to the lower drain. Use a 1-5/8" hole saw to cut out the overflow hole.

• Cut top hole for atrium grate (filter)

Using the atrium grate as a template for size, mark a circle at the center of the top of the drum (locating the rainwater inlet in the center of the barrel lets you pivot the barrel without moving the downspout). Drill a 1/2" hole inside of the marked circle. Use a router, jigsaw or coping saw to cut until the hole is large enough to accommodate the atrium grate, which filters out large debris. Don’t make the hole too big – you want the flange of the atrium grate to fit securely on the top of the barrel without falling in.

• Cut notch to hold hose

Using a 1/2" bit or hole saw, cut out a notch at the top of the barrel rim (aligned so that it is above the lower drain hole). The notch should be large enough so that the end of the hose with the adapter will firmly snap into place.

STEP 2. Set Up Barrel and Modify Downspout

• Set up barrel

Since water will only flow from the garden hose when the hose is below the barrel, place the barrel on high ground or up on cinder blocks or a sturdy wooden crate underneath your downspout.

• Modify your downspout

Cut your existing downspout using a saw so that the end can be placed over the top of your rain barrel. Use a 3” vinyl downspout elbow to connect the two downspout pieces (or use a downspout adapter and a piece of corrugated plastic pipe). Trim the end of the downspout if necessary.

STEP 3. Assemble Parts

• Attach garden hose to lower drain hole

Screw in the 1/2" PVC male adapter to the lower drain hole. The hard PVC threads cut matching grooves into the soft plastic of the barrel. Unscrew the 1/2" PVC male adapter from the hole. Wrap threads tightly with teflon tape (optional). Coat the threads of the coupler with waterproof sealant (optional). Screw the coated adapter back into the hole and let it sit and dry for 24 hours (optional). Attach 5’ foot garden hose to the PVC male adapter. Attach the 3/4" x 1/2" PVC male adapter to the other end of the hose (this can be readily adapted to fit a standard garden hose).

• Attach drain hose to upper drain hole

Put the 1-1/4" male threaded coupling inside the barrel with the threads through the hole. From the outside, screw the 1-1/4" female barbed fitting onto the threaded coupling. Use silicone on the threads (optional). Attach 5’ section of drain hose to upper fitting.

• Place atrium grate and screen in top hole

Using PVC glue, secure a piece of fine mesh window screen inside or outside of the atrium grate to filter out debris and control mosquitoes (optional). Place the atrium grate into the hole (basket down).

• Position the downspout

Position the end of your downspout so it drains onto the atrium grate on the rain barrel.

Photo Credit: Elizabeth RedmondIt is possible to increase your storage capacity by connecting two (or even more) barrels together at the bottom, so that they fill up equally during a rainfall. Unless you are in an area subject to strong downpours, this is probably not a concern for most uses, and the water will evaporate faster if there is more surface area, as having the water in two half-full barrels instead of a single, full barrel.

Getting the barrels can take a little digging, but there are many sources for finding them. Rain barrels have been getting a lot of local attention recently, and I'm still waiting to get a barrel from my source. Some possible sources for free or inexpensive barrels include soda bottlers (syrup), car washes (soap), and food preparation facilities (bulk foods). The local water treatment plant here gets bulk loads of chemicals which they use for treating the water. The leftover 55-gallon plastic drums are then available to local residents for use as rain barrels. Bio-diesel enthusiasts are also looking to get the same barrels to store their stock, so the competition for these barrels is heating up. Our bio-diesel maven, Ryan Thibodaux, was very helpful in pointing out some of these suggested sources for finding barrels. And Elizabeth Redmond provided the photos of her own rain barrel setup.

Further information:
Center for Watershed Protection
The Sietch
DIY Network
Leavesdance

The dryer is the easy part. A clothesline is about the simplest, cheapest alternative to a clothes dryer you can find. But the washer is harder. Hand-washing clothes is a difficult task. And wringer washers are a hand-operated option, but they aren't very efficient. A bicycle powered clothes washer is a more efficient, and much more ambitious project. While it's not likely that most of you will rush out to build one of these for yourselves, it offers a wonderful insight into how far you can take DIY if you are inclined to.

The pedal-powered washer was designed and built by Homeless Dave (who is not really homeless, but whose real name is Dave), a local advocate for community and for human-powered tools in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His website, Teeter Talk, features interviews with "folks from Ann Arbor … Detroit … and beyond" which are conducted on a teeter-totter in his back yard.

HD explains the origin of the concept for the washer began after he had been using a wringer washer for a number of years, but was finding it awkward and unpleasant to use. He wanted to come up with something like a salad spinner that could be used to spin out the clothes more efficently than the wringer was able to. And, as he writes, "the engineers at General Electric, Maytag, or really any manufacturer of automatic washers, have already invented this wheel." So, the inventive portion of the project was just figuring out how to connect an old washing machine tub to a stationary bicycle to provide the motive power for the system.

Image Credit: Homeless Dave

The basic idea is to use a stationary bicycle stand as the power source, and use an assembly of belts and pulleys to connect it to an old, salvaged washing machine tub. Rather than reiterate all of the details here, I will instead direct you to HD's website, which contains extensive details about how he worked out the connection. HD did tell me that, in the intervening time since he first put together his page about the project, he has now replaced the front chainring with a much smaller one, which makes operating the assembly a much more reasonable task. He has also hooked up an assembly that runs a permanent-magnet electric motor backwards, serving as a electrical generator, as well.

I have removed the magnetic resistance unit opposite the pulley driving the laundry spinner and mounted a pulley on that shaft, which drives a permanent magnet DC motor backwards, generating DC current, which is fed through a capacitor and then an inverter, into which ordinary household appliances can be plugged. I managed to fry the inverter (for reasons not fully understood), but when it's replaced, the vision is that I can power an electric fan aimed at the freshly spun clothes hanging on their rack and reduce drying time further.

There are several benefits to this system, in addition to the electricity savings. The grey water from this washing can be recycled for filling toilet tanks or for watering plants. It puts moisture into the air, which is especially good in the wintertime. It also provides an aerobic workout for the rider, which also puts heat (and some additional moisture) into the air, which is also a good thing in the wintertime.

Dave also offered a DIY Challenge idea:

Design a replacement toilet tank lid that accommodates an inverted five-gallon drinking water plastic jug with the bottom cut out plus a mechanism that allows water to fill preferentially from this additional five-gallon reservoir, but if it's empty fills the tank from the water line. Why? I'm tired of recycling the grey water, by waiting to flush the toilet until I have a filled drain bucket from the laundry spinner, then moving the tank lid, dumping the gallon or so of drain water in there.

If you have a suggestion for a DIY mechanism that can allow for automatic refill of a toilet tank from a grey water supply, let us know, and we'll feature your idea in a future Weekly DIY article.

We've created a submission form for Weekly DIY suggestions, and we invite you to send us an overview of your project. Ryan will go through submissions on a regular basis, and pick the best of the bunch. If we choose your project, Ryan will get in touch for details and photos. We'll then feature the project under your byline: you'll be the Weekly DIY guest blogger of the week.

No project is too big or small: as long as it helps people "green the good life," we're interested. We look forward to your submissions, and, as always, thank you for participating in the Green Options community!

Solar hot water systems are a little more complex in cold weather locations where they need to be filled with anti-freeze fluid for heat collection and then use a heat exchanger to transfer heat to the water, or valves and mechanical systems in the plumbing in order to prevent damage from freezing. But even with these elements, the payback period for a solar hot water system can be just a handful of years, even in a northern state.

But if you want to do some experimentation with a hot water system without going to a whole house system, this project will provide an inexpensive demonstration project that gives you a useful device.

I must preface this with the caveat that, unlike some other projects I've written up, I have not built this one myself. However, I've been gathering information for a few weeks, and I have several resources for you to use to look further into this project. And, in the middle of writing this article, I found another commercial example (in case you want to buy something like this rather than making it yourself, although there is no price listed as yet) on The Sietch Blog. (They have posted earlier examples that are being used for more extensive hot water needs, as well.)

The materials list for this project are as follows:

PhotoCredit: Path to Freedom

• 75-100 feet of 5/8" inside diameter black garden hose
• a low flow showerhead (and possibly an adapter to connect it to the hose)
• a piece of plywood or some other support for the coil
• and some hardware for mounting the coil; the photo here shows some plumbing strap being used to keep the coil nicely organized and flat.

You will also need to have a place to mount this assembly overhead and in direct sunlight. (5 gallons of water weigh more than 40 pounds, so be sure it is securely supported.)

FrontStepDesign is where I first came across the concept for the solar shower. (Of course, she's in Florida, where an outdoor shower is more useful fixture than it is further north.) Her inspiration came from a similar project at Path to Freedom (a couple of whose photos I've borrowed for this article. The whole set begins here) I recommend that you take a look both at those photos and the FrontStepDesign article for further information about the assembly. Basically, you need to make a flat coil of the hose, and then fasten it to a supporting board or surface. A few small bolts through some plumbing strap, as shown, makes a neat and efficient assembly. Then it is simply a matter of connecting the showerhead to the hose (you may also need a plumbing adapter for that), shutting off the showerhead and filling it with water, and then setting it in the sun and allowing it to heat.

Let me leave you with some comments from Sarah at FrontStepDesign. She's a fellow architect, so I trust her numbers about the project:

"A low-flow showerhead ($15) from the local big box uses 1.4 gallons/minute. A 5/8" interior diameter black garden hose ($30) holds 5.1 gallons of water. That's only 3.5 minutes per change of water in the hose - can it really heat up the water? All sorts of people say they've done this, but clearly not enough geeks. I want 'time to heat a 5/8" hose to 120F' data! Of course, if you switched to the not-yet-available Aqua Helix, at only .5 gpm, you'd get a 10 minute heating period in the hose."

I'll be especially interested in feedback from any of these that you build.

Homebrewing biodiesel has many advantages: it usually costs well under $1 a gallon to produce, it eliminates trips to the gas station, and it makes a hell of a hobby.

I've been making biodiesel in my garage for almost two years with equipment that I built myself from instructions available for free online and with used vegetable oil that I pick up for free from a local restaurant. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Like most homebrewers, I started my bio-adventure by making small test batches of biodiesel in my kitchen.

Before we go any further, the Green Options legal team has asked me to include a short note about safety:

Almost everything you'll be dealing with when making biodiesel can be very dangerous. You'll be handling hot oil, methanol (which is poisonous and potentially lethal if consumed, if it gets on your skin, or if its vapors are inhaled), and sodium hydroxide (lye, which is poisonous and corrosive if consumed or inhaled, and which will burn your skin quickly and painfully immediately upon contact). Always wear heavy-duty, chemical-proof gloves, eye protection, and a dust mask during every step of the process. With methanol, not even cartridge respirators can protect you from fumes. Always minimize the time that anything containing methanol is unsealed. Literally, hold your breath for the few moments that you're working with open methanol containers. Above all, use common sense.

Biodiesel is simply heated vegetable oil mixed with methoxide (methanol + lye). The lye in the methoxide breaks apart the vegetable oil and allows a methanol molecule to recombine where a glycerin molecule used to be (methanol and glycerin are both alcohols). When the reaction is finished, the darker glycerin settles to the bottom, and the lighter biodiesel is left on top.

Here's what you'll need to make your own test batch at home:

• Safety equipment listed above

• 1 Liter of any virgin, unused vegetable oil (non-hydrogenated!)

• 1 bottle of "Red Devil Lye" drain cleaner, available at most grocery and hardware stores. Red Devil is very close to pure NaOH (sodium hydroxide), and is perfect for making small batches of biodiesel. If you can't find Red Devil, contact a local chemical supply house and ask for sodium hydroxide.

• 1 bottle of "HEET" brand antifreeze (the yellow bottle) available at most auto supply stores. HEET is close to 100% pure methanol. If you can't find it, look for a local racing fuels retailer that sells methanol.

• 1 large sealable glass jar or bottle, like a mason jar (at least 1.5 liters)

• 1 small sealable glass jar or bottle, like a mason jar (at least .5 liters)

• 1 glass (not plastic!) measuring cup (at least 250 mL)

• A scale that measures in grams

• 1 funnel

• 1 thermometer

• 1 paper cupcake wrapper

This "recipe" only works with virgin veggie oil. If you want to try making a batch from used oil, check out the external resources provided below. You'll need to do a titration to determine how much lye to use.

How to make methoxide:

1. First, go outside. You'll want to do this in a well-ventilated area. Measure out 250 mL of methanol (HEET). Pour it into the small glass jar and seal it.
2. Measure out 6 grams of NaOH (Red Devil). Don't let the lye touch anything plastic or anything living, including you. You can use a paper cupcake wrapper on the scale to hold the NaOH if necessary. Lye tends to stick to anything and everything else.
3. Unseal the jar containing the methanol and carefully pour in the NaOH. Re-seal the jar.
4. Gently swirl the jar to dissolve the lye in the methanol. This may take a few minutes. The jar will probably become slightly warmer. This is normal. A small amount of pressure will also be built up. Gently vent this pressure outside by opening the lid, but do not breathe the fumes!
5. Leave the jar outside for now, but not in the sun.

Unwashed Biodiesel (with glycerine removed)How to make biodiesel:

1. Begin by heating the liter of vegetable oil to 140-145 degrees Fahrenheit on the stove or carefully in the microwave.
2. Pour the heated oil into the large glass jar using the funnel if necessary.
3. Take the oil jar and the funnel outside. Carefully but quickly pour the methoxide into the oil jar using the same funnel. Re-seal the jar.
4. After ensuring that the jar is completely sealed, shake the mixture vigorously for 20-25 seconds.
5. Set the jar down in a well-lit area and watch the magic happen!

You'll notice immediately (probably even while you're shaking) that the mixture turns a much darker color than the original oil. This is the dark glycerin molecules being broken off of the original veggie oil molecules by the lye. After just a few minutes, you'll begin seeing the glycerin fall to the bottom of the jar. Within an hour or two, if all went well, all the glycerin should have separated out and you should have two clearly separate layers: dark glycerin on the bottom (20-25% of the volume), and cloudy looking biodiesel on top. Success!

Washed BiodieselCan you run back outside and pour the biodiesel directly into your diesel car or truck? Well, it's probably not a good idea. The reason the biodiesel layer looks cloudy is because there is still some leftover lye and other impurities floating around in there. Though some homebrewers do use this "unwashed" biodiesel, most of us choose to take a few extra steps to "wash" the fuel of all the impurities before putting it in our tanks. You can see the clarity difference in the two images. The reddish unwashed biodiesel above is too cloudy to see the text behind the jar. The washed fuel on the left is almost perfectly clear. (Don't worry about the color difference: they're just two different kinds of vegetable oil.)

If you're ready to learn more about making biodiesel, here are a few of the resources that helped me move from making small test batches to making 30 gallon, road-ready batches in my "Appleseed Biodiesel Reactor", wash tank, and dry tank:

• The Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial - Everything from building your own processor to using the leftover glycerin to getting restaurants to give you their used oil.

• InfoPop Biodiesel Forums - The greatest and most helpful homebrewers in the world hang out here. If you're planning to become a homebrewer, trust me, you'll need their help.

• Yahoo! Biodiesel Basics Group - More great information and knowledge from experienced homebrewers.

• Green Options Resources: Check out our biodiesel archives, biodiesel in our Green Guide, and our residential biodiesel expert Clayton Bodie Cornell.

• My collection of posts about going biodiesel at The Higher Pie.

Utah Biodiesel Supply photo by Jack Jones, courtesy of Graydon Blair.

Now, if you are thinking to yourself, "I can't solder copper pipe; this is too advanced for me!" don't worry. This project requires nothing more than some straight copper pipe, some copper connectors (tees and elbows), and some strong two part epoxy. I also used a couple of steel reinforcing bars (rebar) to help fix the trellis in place. The only tool you'll need is a pipe cutter or a hacksaw to cut the pipe into the size you need.

I can't offer you process photos for this project as I have for some other DIY projects, because we completed this several years ago, and we didn't take pictures of it at the time it was going up. However, I do have a picture from last summer so you can see how it has aged into place, and how the roses have climbed all over it.

This list is for the trellis as diagrammed below. (The diagram and the photo do not match; many variations are possible.) You can adjust the design and get much more decorative once you understand the general idea here. You can also simplify things by using all 3/4" diameter pipe, rather than using both 1/2"and 3/4" as I have done.

Determine your configuration and make all your cuts before you begin putting anything together. Since the pipe comes in standard lengths, working with even divides of the pipe will help to minimize waste. Cutting six 2' long sections from a 12' long pipe makes good sense, for example. As with the cold frame DIY a few weeks ago, this is another project where the dimensions listed are approximate, and should be adjusted to your own needs.

Materials list:

• 1/2" diameter copper pipe - 24' length total, cut into 12 pieces each 2' long
• 3/4" diameter copper pipe - 40' length total, cut into 16 pieces each 18" long, 12 short connector pieces each 6" long, and 4 gable pieces each 30" long
• 3/4" diameter, 90 degree copper elbows - 2 needed
• 3/4" diameter, 45 degree copper elbows - 4 needed
• 3/4" diameter to 1/2" diameter copper tees - 24 needed
• two-part epoxy suitable for outdoor exposure

To cut the pipe you can either use a hacksaw or a tube cutter. The tube cutter is an inexpensive tool that gives you nice straight cuts. Just tighten it onto the pipe at the point you want to cut. When you turn it around the pipe, the blade scores the pipe. After a complete turn, tighten it slightly more and wind it around the pipe again. Repeat a few times until the cutter has cut through the pipe. You can quickly make all the cuts you need, so you'll have a set of tinkertoy parts.

You can do a dry fit of your trellis parts before you put it all together to check the configuration. The best approach to take is to assmble smaller sections as sub-assemblies, and then put those together (after the epoxy has set) to get the larger whole assembled. Put together one rectangle and let it set. Then add the next rectangle to it, and again let it set. That way you can keep the verticals as straight as possible. When working with epoxy, you should only mix up as much as you can use in a short period of time. To make the connections, spread the epoxy around the pipe and then slide it into place in the connector. Some epoxy will ooze out, but don't be too concerned about that. Having it stick out like that helps keep water out of the joint.

Copper starts out shiny like a new penny, but oxidizes to a brownish patina after a while. In time, it will potentially go even further and take on the greenish hue that old copper gets, but that takes decades to develop, so don't set your hopes on having that look anytime soon. Most copper pipe you get at a hardware store will have printing on it with identifying information about it. Don't be too concerned about this, since it will all but disappear as the pipe ages and oxidizes. Find an epoxy that finishes in a brownish shade, so it blends in nicely when the trellis has aged in place for a while.

If you are going to use steel rebar to fix the trellis in place, just drive it into the ground like a nail so that it is buried a couple of feet, but with some bar still sticking out of the ground. I also wrapped some paper around the rebar before I lifted the trellis and set it on top to keep the dissimilar metals from coming into contact with each other.

Copper might not immediately seem to be the most environmental of choices. But it will withstand the elements extremely well. (Ours has already lasted through 5 Michigan winters with no problems and the joints are still secure.) When the trellis is finally taken down, the copper can even be recycled. A wood trellis would probably not be good for anything besides scrap ot the end of its useful life, and would not last nearly as long. Copper has a lot more embodied energy in its manufacture, but it wears and weathers extremely well, and can be largely reclaimed.

Instead of tossing them out I looked up a few recipes for banana bread and got cooking. I checked out my favorite cooking sites (Epicurious.com and FoodNetwork.com) and found a few banana bread recipes. I picked one that didn't require butter (because I didn't have any in the fridge) and made a few variations to make use of some things I did have on hand. I substituted yogurt for buttermilk, brown sugar for white sugar and threw in a handful of walnuts. The result is a light, moist, golden banana bread (and a much more pleasant smell in my kitchen.)

Of course bananas aren't the only thing lying around about to expire that you could transform into something yummy. A little creativity and a recipe search can rescue some foods that would otherwise be wasted.

And when cooking remember to set aside those egg shells and banana peels for your compost bin (another DIY project).

Banana Walnut Bread

2 large eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 mashed overly ripe bananas
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease and flour loaf pan. Beat eggs and sugar together; mix in bananas, yogurt, oil and vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt over mixture. Stir until blended. Stir in walnuts. Bake about one hour, until top is golden brown and tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

We got a tip from the folks at marthastewart.com pointing us to an article Martha Stewart had published several years ago about making natural dyes for coloring eggs. I took a look and, after reviewing the directions, decided to give it a try.I initially thought that using natural dye to color eggs would give results with colors that are paler and subtler than the colors you'd get from a food coloring box. But if you look at the final results, you can see we got some pretty deep colors. They are also more variable. Because of the long soak times needed, these will work best if you don't try for elaborate decorating schemes, and just do solid colors.My helpful assistant and I were working to get things prepared and getting the dyes on the stove as we went along. At one time, we had all four burners of the stove going with various stages of the project. You can be less ambitious than we were and just try out one of these, to see how it works. Or, if you feel like tackling a project, you can try all of them.Each dye uses the same basic recipe:one (1) quart of watertwo (2) tablespoons of white vinegarand the selected dyeing agent (just one per pot):

• 4 cups chopped red cabbage (half a head; save the other half to make slaw)
• 4 cups of chopped beets (three beets)
• 3 tablespoons turmeric (a good opportunity to use up the rest of that old bottle on the spice shelf and get a fresh one)
• (Coffee, spinach, and onion skins can also be used for other colors. You can find details for some of those on the Martha Stewart website listed below. I didn't find a recipe for spinach, but I expect about 4 cups chopped spinach would be the recommendation.)

The red cabbage dye actually ends up making the eggs blue. Beet dye yields pink to red eggs. And the turmeric dye makes yellow. Coffee gives a brown coloration, spinach makes green and onion skin produces orange (though we didn't try any of these this time).To make each dye, put all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, then turn back the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the chunks and pour the dye into a dish deep enough to cover the eggs. You can also put eggs in while you are boiling the turmeric dye to get a stronger gold color.

If you want to boil the eggs in the dye while it's boiling, you can do that with the turmeric (yellow) dye, and get some great golden yellow color on those. Boiling in the other dyes didn't produce a lot of color on the eggs we tried there.Hard boil eggs as you would normally. Then, when they are ready, set them into a dish of the dye and let them soak for half an hour to an hour. There are some combinations that can be tried, as well, but I had good results just with the basic colors. Martha's recipe called for a half-hour soak, but I wanted to see if I could get stronger colors, so I did many of mine closer to an hour, and was really pleased with the results.

If you want to go beyond a solid colored egg, you can draw a pattern on the egg with a white (or very light colored) crayon before dyeing it. The wax from the crayon will resist the dye and leave the white egg showing through. This is how we achieved the spiral patterned eggs you can see in a couple of the pictures.

After making our dyes, our used materials were able to go into the compost pile. This is a great project needing only minimal ingredients and a few hours time. Have fun, and let us know if you try this and how it turns out.

Links: Dyeing Eggs Naturally (Martha Stewart)

More dyeing pictures (Flickr)

Well, okay, almost never. Giving up the meat was far easier than I ever expected. Eggs? Never liked those much anyway. Milk? Soymilk made de-dairying a breeze. Even ice cream, you ask? Let me introduce you to Turtle Mountain and Tofutti. All was well in our vegan world, except for one thing: cheese. Even vegans have a recommended daily intake of pizza!

At first, we decided we would cheat with cheese and pretend we were vegans anyway. This became harder and harder to do as we learned more and more about the environmental harm dairy farms can cause. We tried vegan soy cheese alternatives, but found that most brands (but not all) were mouth-numbingly bland, didn't melt, and/or tasted like wet cardboard marinated in that water you pour out of tofu packages. Mmmm.

Clearly, it was time for something new. I first read about cashew "cheese" when I read Eric Marcus' excellent book Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating (now available as a free e-book download!). I thought the idea of vegan cheese made from cashews sounded crazy… Crazy enough to try!

Fast forward a few years, and I've now refined my own version of a cashew cheese recipe to the point where I actually prefer it over cow cheese. It's also one of my favorite DIY projects because I get to use my favorite power tool: the food processor.

As with anything you put on your plate, cashew cheese can be made even greener by using ingredients that are grown locally and grown organically.

Vegan Cashew Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup cashews (raw is best, roasted is still great, and try flavored cashews too)

• 1/2 cup water (or slightly more)

• 1/4 cup red bell pepper (raw or roasted)

• 1/4 small red onion (if you're cooking for a date, or more otherwise!)

• 1/4 cup yeast flakes

• 2 garlic cloves (see "red onion")

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• 2 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos (on the health food isle everywhere, or use lite soy sauce)

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp sea salt (optional) if the cashews are unsalted

Put everything in a food processor and blend it until it's creamy. If it's too thick, add more water. If it's too watery, add more cashews. It should have a Cream of Wheat-like consistency, or just a bit thicker. For a pizza, spread it thinly over pizza sauce (it's very rich, so a little bit goes a long way), top it off with your favorite vegetables, and pop it in the oven. If the cashew cheese becomes golden-brown more than a few minutes before the pizza crust is done, cover the top of the pizza with foil.

This recipe is plenty for a medium-sized pizza. I like making larger batches and keeping leftovers in the fridge.

Cashew cheese is also great in quesadillas, toasted sandwiches, or just about any other dish that calls for cheese. Lactose intolerant? You're welcome.

Enjoy! If you try the recipe, be sure to let us know how it turns out.

You can easily build a low-tech box like this for your garden for very little money and with very little construction experience. These raised planter boxes can be as large or as small as you can find doors for. It keeps our dog out and I don't have to kneel to tend to the plants in the box, plus we kept the doors out of the landfill. You could also use this for a compost bin, although you would have to use doors with vented slats, like our long doors, to maintain air flow.

Materials Needed:

• 4 salvaged wooden interior doors or cabinet doors, roughly the same width (solid wood or vented slats)
• 16-24 nails or screws
• electric drill or hammer

We visited our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, where you can buy salvaged building materials for next to nothing (and give your money to a worthy cause) and found two cabinet doors that were roughly the same width as our old closet doors for a few bucks. We left the doorknobs on because that made the box easy to carry to our chosen location after we finished building.
Construction is so simple that my husband and I were able to build this in about fifteen minutes.

1. Lay all doors out on flat surface in roughly the same arrangement that they will be in your box.

2. Stand one end door up (the shorter cabinet door here). Stand one side door up so these two doors form an L. Make sure both doors are evenly on the ground

3. Use nails to join these two pieces together. Nail the face of the short door to the edge of the long door. Three or four nails down each side should do it.
End View
4. Repeat, attaching the other long door to the shorter side, keeping all pieces evenly on the ground.

5. Attach the final short door to the longer two on the opposite end from which you started.

6. You can reinforce by drilling screws on each cabinet face through the long doors, but ours was sturdy with just the nails.

After you are done, you can paint it, then move the box to where you want it in your yard. We then filled ours with layers of mulch, compost, and topsoil. This will settle over time, so go ahead and fill all the way to the top. We also surrounded the box will mulch to keep weeds from popping up. This particular box held 2 tomato plants, three basil plants, and multiple carrot plants.

If your garden has a spot with good access to the sun throughout the day, you can use a cold frame to start your plants earlier in the year than you would otherwise. A cold frame is a very simple item. It is really just a small greenhouse. Daytime sun will warm the air and the ground inside, making it easier for plants to start growing. Nighttime temperatures inside the cold frame may fall back close to outdoor ambient temperature, but the extra heat gained during the day and the wind protection the encosure provides will help keep the plants alive even if there is an overnight frost.

Building a cold frame should be a simple project. An elaborate structure is not required. It should cost little or nothing to build and nothing to operate. Plants can be started close together while they are small, and then, as they get bigger and the weather gets nicer, they can be moved out of the frame and put into the garden.

Last year, I built a pair of new windows for my garage using architectural glazing samples. When I took out the old windows, I salvaged them rather than breaking them up and tossing them in the trash, so now I have two windows which are the basis for my cold frame. You can also build a cold frame using acrylic or other plastic sheets held in a wood frame. As I said, cold frames don't need to be elaborate.

This article explains how I built my cold frame, but you should be able to easily adapt it for your own materials and needs. I would be very interested to hear from other DIY builders about their cold frame projects. It would be very useful to gather other hints and compile them for a future edition.

Materials:

• (2) salvaged windows, 22" x 28-1/2" each
• 24" x 24" sheet of plywood, 1/2" thick (for sides)
• 18" x 44" sheet of plywood, 1/2" thick (for back)
• (3) 1×4 or 1×6, cut to 43" long (2×4s or 2×6s would also work well)
• scrap wood or 2×2s for corner blocking
• nails or screws
• (2) 1×2 strips, about 12" long (for cleats)

Assembly:

1. Cut the sides for the cold frame from the 1/2" plywood. The window needs to be angled toward the sun to gather the light. My plywood had already been ripped with a 6:12 slope. But cutting a 24" x 24" sheet of plywood at an angle with the smaller side matching the height of the front cross piece makes efficient use of the material.

2. Nail or screw the blocking to the ends of the long pieces of wood.

3. Nail or screw the long pieces to the side pieces. If you are using 2×4s or 2×6s it is possible to omit the corner blocking and directly fasten through the side pieces into the middle of the 2x. But nailing into the end grain of the wood is not a strong connection, so screws should be used.

Cleat holds window onto frame4. Fasten cleats to the top of each window with 2 or 3 screws. The cleat needs to overhang the window frame at the bottom so that it will catch the top of the cold frame and hold the window in place. I prefer using cleats to hold the windows in place because this way they can be completely removed and set aside in order to work inside the frame. The windows can also be attached with hinges, which makes it easy to crack the windows open to allow ventilation and prevent overheating.

5. Prepare the soil in the garden. It is also possible to set the frame over seedling trays or starter pots, particularly if you plan to relocate all of the plants elsewhere in your garden.

6. Set the frame in place. Most wood exposed to ground contact will start to rot, and most gardeners don't want to use treated wood near the soil they are using for growing food. Even painting the wood can help protect it somewhat. I used paver bricks set in the ground around the garden to keep the frame from direct contact with the soil. Other options would be to use cedar or another wood that resists rotting.

7. Plant your plants.

Diagram 2

Alternatives:

Optional materials:

• corner brackets

• hinges

• thermometer

• rigid insulation

Metal corner brackets and screws, instead of nailed connections, could be an alternate way to put a cold frame together. This could also make it possible to disassemble the cold frame for storage when it is not needed, and then quickly reassemble it later on. Hinges can be used to fix the windows to the frame and still allow access to the plants.

Hinges can be used to connect the windows to the frame. But, as noted above, having windows that can be completely removed makes it easier to work inside the frame.

If there are clear sunny days, it is quite possible for a cold frame to overheat during the day. To help moderate the temperature inside, you can prop one window open slightly to let the warmest air out at the top. Just be sure to close it back at night, especially if cold overnight temperatures are expected. Also, since you are putting a roof over the soil and heating the air inside, you have to remember to regularly check and water the plants in your cold frame.

If you want to do some data gathering and monitoring, you can put a thermometer inside the frame to measure interior temperature. It's best to put this on the front of the frame (on the inside) where it will be shaded as much as possible, so that your readings will not be affected by direct sun on the thermometer.

Put the cold frame into storage during the summer, but the cold frame can also be used in the fall to help extend the season for some plants as frosty nights return.

Putting insulation on the sides of the cold frame doesn't do much for it, because so much of the heat captured during the day will be lost through the uninsulated window once the sun goes down. However, building a back wall for the cold frame from stacked bricks can serve as a heat sink to store more heat gathered from the sun, to help keep the temerature up through the cold night. Building a cold frame against a wall, or into a hillside, where there is more thermal mass to store the heat, can also be a strategy to push it even further. But for the purpose of just extending the season for a few weeks, a simple cold frame will be more than adequate.

If you want to try growing hardy, cold tolerant plants throughout the winter using your cold frame, you could put insulation on the sides of the frame and leave space for an insulated lid which could be installed inside to cover the plants during overcast days. I recommmend looking at the Brines Farm site (which I wrote about earlier) for more information and suggestions about year round food growing. Shannon has also posted a video in the Convenient Truths contest where he discusses some ideas about growing local food.

Sources for further information:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/oldwindowuses
http://www.newsobserver.com/385/story/222309.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h137seasonextenders.html

When most people hear the word "solar," they automatically think "expensive." Gary Reysa, the publisher of BuildItSolar.com, has demonstrated again and again that this doesn't have to be the case; with the right (easily-available) materials and a little time and elbow grease, almost anyone can add useful, valuable solar features to their home or other building.

Gary's $350 Solar Heater plan has gotten quite a bit of play both on- and off-line — I was one of a number of bloggers to write about it, and Home Power magazine and Mother Earth News have also featured the project. That's not surprising — for a really small investment in time and money, Gary now has a clean, green heater for his workshop. Keep in mind that he lives in Montana, too; if this works for him there, it will likely work for you, too.

Materials

Please note: I've included the dimensions from Gary's plan, but you'll probably need to adjust them. As he notes in the article from Home Power, you'll want to have as big a wall space as possible.

• 10 Suntuf corrugated polycarbonate panels, 2 x 8 ft.
• Black window screen, 4 x 70 ft.
• Lower sill & studs, 2 x 6s, 68 ft.
• Paint, caulk, lag screws, etc.
• Upper sill, 2 x 8s, 22 ft.
• Glazing 1 x 1 in. supports, 130 ft.
• Suntuf “wiggle” closure strips, 40 ft.
• 200 Screws with EPDM washers

Build Your Solar Heater

Gary's the pro here, so rather than trying to excerpt or edit his instructions, I'll let him take over… from the Mother Earth News and Home Power articles:

It took me about three, eight-hour days to build and install the collector. Follow these suggestions and you may be able to do it in less time!

1. First, measure your building’s south wall to determine what changes you will have to make to the collector design. Pay particular attention to the vertical height available and to stud spacing. Next, lay out the vent locations. They should be offset enough from the wall studs to allow the verticals to be lag-bolted from inside the building. Mark the vent locations on the inside and outside of the building to ensure no conflicts exist. After you are certain the layout is correct, take a deep breath, and cut all of the vents.
2. For the frame, cut the top sill long enough to lap over the end verticals by at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). Bevel the back of the top sill so that it slopes about 10 degrees when fitted against the siding. Next, cut all the verticals, noting that the two end verticals are longer because they extend below the lower sill. The tops of the verticals must be cut to match the slope of the top sill. Gang the verticals together and cut the notches for the two, 1- by 1-inch horizontal glazing supports.
3. Prime and paint everything. Although you do not need to repaint the siding under the collector, painting it a dark color will improve the collector’s efficiency slightly. Keep in mind that a muted version of this color will show through the collector screen, so be sure it meets your aesthetic sensibilities. After the paint has cured, mount all of the verticals to the siding. Take care to keep everything level, plumb, and straight—this will save you a lot of four-letter words later. I fastened the verticals to the wall sheathing and siding from the inside using lag bolts. If your siding is not strong enough for this, consider mounting the verticals from the outside, using lag screws through the verticals and into the wall studs.
4. Next, attach the top and bottom sills. Use flashing above the top sill if desired. Then, seal the collector frame with silicone caulk. Mount the battens that will support the screen absorber. Staple the window screen onto the battens. You can fold the edges of the screen to make it fit in the slightly less than 48-inch (122 cm) bay widths.
5. Make five 4- by 8-foot (1.2 x 2.4 m) glazing panels by joining pairs of the 26-inch-wide by 8-foot-long corrugated panels. Overlap the panels by one corrugation, and apply a light bead of silicone between the overlapped sheets. Fasten the overlapped corrugations to a 1- by 1-inch wood strip using screws with EPDM washers.
6. Install the horizontal 1- by 1-inch glazing support strips to the collector frame. The surface of the strips should sit flush with the surface of the collector’s frame when installed in the notches of the 2 by 6s. Do any cleanup, caulking, or other work you need to do inside the collector frame now! You won’t be able to get to the inside after the glazing is applied.
7. Next, mount the glazing panels. Install the “wiggle” closure strips, which fill in the contours of the corrugations, on the top and bottom sills. Run caulk beads on the first set of verticals and mount the first glazing panel section. (You’ll quickly find out how square your frame is.) Fasten the panel sections to the frame using screws with EPDM washers. Install the rest of the sections in the same way. Overlap each new section over the last section by one corrugation, using a bead of caulk in the overlap. Make the flapper valves for the ten inside top vents. I used two thicknesses of plastic garbage bag for each flapper. Before attaching the flapper, attach 1/2-inch hardware cloth over each vent. Then, staple the flappers along the top edge of the vent, just above the vent opening.

That's it! Want to find out more about the science behind this, or the performance of the unit. Check out the article.