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Britesea, you're lucky you can point and have it done. I have to make my husband think it was his idea. he's a really capable guy, but I'm the project person, which can overwhelm others at times! :D Thanks for the plans, Moolie. That is what got me started on this hunt, a cute little cedar...

The only thing that lets me sleep at night is an 8' chicken wire fence with the bottom turned out 6 inches so the rabbits can't dig under it. But before I had that I used an egg yolk spray that worked well against anything that wanted to eat the veggies. The only thing that makes this need...

I ran across a relish recipe, but haven't tried it. Glad to hear it's good. The Zucchini pasta sounds great! The tromboncino squash, it looks like in the picture they hang down in the shade? Do the squash need sun, or should they be in the shade like that? Is the flavor comparable to...

Hahahaha. Yeah, foam insulation. I wish I were more artistic! Does your husband want to start a side business? :)

Denise, yes, those strips are what I have been using. Interestingly, I put one at knee level across from the back door that they are coming in, on a kebab skewer stuck under a book on a book shelf, and I've caught way more than I saw flying around. It doesn't seem to be in the way of walking...

I've tried searching here and can't find anything. Do you guys make a bug spray that will kill those hover flies that hang out under pine trees? Maybe even gnats that are troublesome in the summer? I read somewhere that spraying rubbing alcohol on them will do it, it kind of works, but it...

Remember, if you don't want to use batteries, you still need a controller between the panels and your appliance. But if during the summer it doesn't cool off at night, won't you need those fans to keep going? Then you'd need to use batteries to be the source of power during the night. Then...

Nifty, wow, total bummer about the tree and the fuse! But there's always something going on with these setups! Great information about in your story! There are alarms you can install for these sorts of issues. We are completely off the grid, so our inverter would start howling if anything...

Thanks for the suggestions. I have so many ugly, practical sheds, I was looking for something with a little pizzazz! If anyone is considering a plastic shed, I fell prey to one of those. It warped in the sun, parts of the melted seams separated in the sun, mice and rats chew right through it...

The other important thing is that the panels only pull in their full amount if the sun is shining directly at them, which might be 3 hours in the summer, 2 hours in the winter. If the sun is angled at all, they can only pull in about half. There are trackers, but they have a reputation for...

Redneck Cowgirl, our place is entirely run by solar, and there are so many more variables to consider. There's all that math involved of all lights and appliances, computers, and it should be calculated to the shortest day of the year. You have to find out what kind of wattage those...

i need a small tool shed for a protected spot in the shade. Seems like there's a lot of these around, and they have interesting designs, better than I could do with plywood, but has anyone been able to paint/seal one of these to be really water tight? Or would it be a maintenance nightmare?

Great photo! I don't mean to be preachy about this, but I've been where you are, and if my experience can help at all.....the two main hard lessons we learned was always....always do overkill on foundations and solar. If they say supports should be 1.5 meters apart, put them 1 meter apart...

You guys are inspiring! I sell everything I grow, so I have to wait 'til the end of the season to have the time to can things. Moolie, what kind of pretty jars?

Oh, I bought one of those plastic spinners, they are a total waste of money and time. They are too big to store when you're not using them, you can't spin them fast enough to do it well, and it's tiring. I can do better with my hands, especially with smaller items, which is about 50% of the...

Are you short of water? Why do you want to use the water again? It doesn't really take that much water to wash and rinse clothes. I do a lot of laundry by hand, and it's not the washing that's difficult. I use two large, pretty plastic containers and a normal bathroom plunger. The plunger...

PS....don't you always want to use treated wood on the floor beams so it won't decay? So many insects love to eat pine. Is cedar an option? We are now at the 15-year point of having replaced wood that wasn't treated, and some of it we'll have to do again! No fun! Here's a good forum...

Neiklot, what a totally great project and a wonderful place! We did projects like that, stripping things back to basics. I love the tearing apart part...the trying to put it back together can be slow and frustrating, the weather, critters and material things will give you grief. But it's...

Actually, kapok comes from the kapok tree, a tropical tree of the Malvaceae family. It is being considered as a down alternative. The cattail fuzz is sometimes called down, and can be a down alternative. The seeds in the cattail head can kill mice (but should be kept away from pets, other...

Food cans corrode and aluminum doesn't, food cans expand and contract too much in cold and heat creating cracks and openings, aluminum cans are lighter and when you use several hundred you don't have to build a complicated support, the openings in soda cans are small so sealing them up to hold...