Table of Contents
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6 Build This Cozy Cabin
Anyone with basic carpentry skills can construct this classic one-room cabin for just about $6,000.
12 Cob Construction:
Build With Earth & Straw
Hand-sculpt your custom, mortgage-free home from dirtcheap local materials.
18 How to Build a
Grain Bin House
These simple metal structures can be used as houses, backyard retreats, storage sheds and more!
22 Do-It-Yourself
Pole-Barn Building
Put up a pole building for a fast, solid and cost-effective workshop, storage space or livestock shelter.
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28 A Solar Cabin in Two
Weeks for $2,000
After finding himself without a home, LaMar Alexander moved onto inherited land and built a 400-square-foot cabin by himself.
30 Build a Basement
Root Cellar
While a spare refrigerator may work in a pinch, a real root cellar is better and even more spacious for preserving foods.
32 Build Your Own Home
and Be Debt Free
Achieve the dream of your own home using recycled materials, the help of friends and family, and your share of sweat equity. Hundreds of people have done it, and you can too!
18
36 Build an All-in-One
Outdoor Oven, Stove, Grill & Smoker
For about $350, you can build M’s versatile and durable cooking unit. It adds beauty and practicality to any backyard.
40 An Inexpensive and Easy
Homemade Wine Recipe
Gary Miller shares his easy homemade wine recipe using fruits or honey to create a delicious wine in your own home. Throw a party and share with friends!
41 DIY Outdoor Cookers
With these easy-to-follow, stepby-step directions, you can build a fire pit or assemble a clay-pot smoker in just one weekend. Let’s get cookin’!
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: SYLVIA FERRY SMITH
Turn your plot into a lush garden with free or inexpensive organic fertilizers.
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48 44 Build Your Own
Wood-Fired Earth Oven
With this nifty, easy-to-make oven you can bake crusty breads, tasty pizzas and even roasted meats.
48 Build a Solar
Food Dehydrator
Preserve your harvest with free energy from the sun using this weekend DIY project
51 5-Minute
Homemade Mayo
Craft this creamy condiment with five natural ingredients.
52 Make Your Own
Hard Cider
Using a simple process and sweet cider, you can create an inebriating end product that is as delicious as it is discombobulating.
54 Got Cabbage?
Make Sauerkraut!
This fascinating fermented food is delicious, easy to make and good for you.
56 How to Start a
Home Bakery
If you are a good baker and have the right kitchen setup, look into starting your own food business.
70
54 60 Drying Herbs:
Easier Than You Think
You’ll never buy dried herbs again after you try one or more of these six methods for drying your own herbs at home. Turn to Page 5 for a video on drying herbs.
64 Grow More Food
in Less Space (With the Least Work!)
Blending the best principles of biointensive and square-foot gardening will yield a customized, highly productive growing system.
70 Perennial Vegetables: Grow
More Food With Less Work
Combine permaculture gardening techniques and edible landscaping ingenuity to grow perennial vegetables. You’ll harvest food year after year — with less work than growing annual crops.
74 8 Strategies for
Better Garden Soil
Use these natural methods to build healthier soil and increase your harvests every year.
80 Best Tips for
Starting Seeds Indoors
Save money and grow superior varieties by starting your own seeds.
84
56 84 The Best Tomatoes to
Grow Where You Live
Enjoy bumper harvests by growing the top varieties recommended by in-the-know organic gardeners in your region.
91 Build Better Soil With
Free Organic Fertilizer
Avoid expensive fertilizers — here are your best organic options, including two that you won’t even have to pay for!
96 Easy DIY Garden
Shed Plans
Anyone can build a small, simple and sensational shed! Add a touch of beauty or whimsy to your garden plot.
100 Start a Quick and
Easy Food Garden
This season-by-season planting plan for a no-dig, easy-care bag garden features 25 of your favorite crops.
104 The Best Homemade
Tomato Cages
Forget flimsy, store-bought products. Build your own sturdy, low-cost tomato cages with these four terrific designs, each as easy to make as it is practical.
106
116 106 Vertical Gardening
Techniques for Maximum Returns
You can grow bigger, better cukes, beans, tomatoes and cantaloupes with simple, sturdy trellises. You’ll also be able to grow more on a smaller plot of land.
110 The 10 Most Useful Knots,
Hitches and Bends
Whether it’s a simple overhand knot or the more complicated sheepshank knot, this knot knowhow is sure to come in handy.
112 Living Fences: How-to,
Advantages and Tips
Sustainable living fences can hold animals, protect soil, provide livestock fodder, offer food or compost, and will last generations. It simply takes planning and a bit of patience to reap the rewards of your labor.
116 Build Your Debt-Free
Dream Home
Readers of M E N share how they paired patience with resourcefulness to craft their ideal abodes — without going into debt. Tailor your own plans to fit your dream of owning your beautiful dream home.
132
122 122 Zero-Turn Mowers: Best
Rides and Best Buys
Zero-turn mowers are faster and more efficient than other riding mower designs — but how do different models compare? To find out, we assigned 14 riders to evaluate 27 machines.
126 Choose DIY to Save Big
on Solar!
Consider installing your own solar electric system. Doing the work yourself can add up to serious savings in addition to a lower cost for your energy consumption.
132 How to Raise Honeybees
If the draw of fresh honey has given you bees on the brain, learn how to raise honeybees for excitement and sweetness for years to come. Become a beekeeper for fun and profit.
139 How to Restore Old
Wooden Furniture
An expert offers his techniques to introduce you to the art of antique furniture restoration.
142 Portable Chicken
Mini-Coop Plan
With this unique design, anyone can keep a few chickens, even in small backyards.
144
126 144 Raising Pigs for Meat
Learn how to raise livestock on your homestead; this article contains information and advice on housing, feeding and slaughtering pigs.
146 Start a Self-Sufficient,
1-Acre Homestead
Live off the land with these strategies for establishing selfsufficient food production, including tips on crop rotations and raising livestock.
151 Handmade Braided Rugs
Create a work of art with practical applications, just like Grandma used to make, using those fabric scraps you’ve been saving for a ‘someday’ project.
152 Raising Guinea Fowl
Compared to chickens, guinea fowl are low-cost and lowmaintenance, and they also do a standout job as chemical-free pest control.
158 Home Wind Power: Yes, in
My Backyard!
Considering residential wind power for energy self-sufficiency? Find out whether a home wind turbine is right for you.
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158
163
163 Instructions for Raising
Bottle Calves
You don’t need a lot of money or pasture to get started raising bottle calves. Discover a means of keeping the freezer stocked.
170 The Guide to Raising
Rabbits for Meat
One of the simplest steps you can do on your homestead is to breed and raise rabbits.
172 Fish Farming
It’s a lot like vegetable gardening, only wetter.
175 Best Chicken Breeds
for Backyard Flocks
Our survey results can help you choose the best chickens for eggs, meat, temperament and more.
Discover the favorite breeds of other readers and select one that’s best for your backyard.
178 12 Strategies to Strengthen
Your Immune System
Bolster your immune system naturally with these easy tips! When cold weather arrives, and all those germs roam everywhere you go, you’ll be glad you did.
181 Six Natural Allergy
Remedies
Breathe easier ‒ and help your family stay healthy ‒ with medically proven allergy treatments using natural ingredients.
184 Make Your Own
Homemade Soap
Follow along as we make decorative bars of soap using herbs and flowers. Use these simple steps to create beautiful works of art for your home or for gifts.
170 186 Grow Safe, Natural
Mosquito Repellents
These naturally mosquito-repellent plants and homemade mosquito traps will help you have a less buggy summer.
189 Ways to Get Rid
of Flies, Naturally
Learn how to create a couple of old-time flytraps to stop these little buzzers in their tracks.
190 Give Chiggers the Brush
Avoid the pesky ‘red bugs’ and discover an easy way to take the itch out of summer.
192 Tips for Safe Flea Control
Deter fleas the natural way with these non-toxic remedies. Your pets will thank you.
186
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How to Build a
By Troy Griepentrog
GRAIN BIN HOUSE
O
These simple metal structures can be used as houses, backyard retreats, storage sheds and more!
n thousands of farms across the continent, round metal grain bins (called “grain silos” in some regions) are standing empty or being torn down and sold for scrap because they’re no longer in use. Architects and builders have started to use these durable, inexpensive structures to construct grain bin homes, storage buildings, offices and barns. After the bin is in place, it requires virtually no maintenance. There are all sorts of interesting ways to use individual bins or group them together to make an attractive, comfortable home. We encourage readers to explore unique uses for metal grain bins — especially used bins — and we talked with several people who live in these structures to learn more about why they like their grain bin houses. Earl Stein, of Summit County, Utah, says, “My grain bin home, ‘Montesilo’ (inspired by Monticello), is designed to be energy efficient. After ‘talling’ (raising) the silos, we cut our way in and framed the interior with 2-by-6s on 1-foot centers. To insulate, we sprayed 2 inches of low-VOC foam against the metal and followed that with blown-in fiberglass insulation. Montesilo is easily one of the strongest and tightest buildings in the county.” (See photos above and left. — MOTHER) Stein’s structure utilizes passive solar heat assisted with computer technology. The windows allow winter sun to warm the rubbercovered concrete floor. A computer controls draperies to retain heat at night. For added comfort, Stein installed electric radiant heat in the floors. “Even when indulging myself with warm morning floors, my heating bills have been a fraction of what it would cost to heat an 1,800-square-foot house in this harsh Utah environment at 7,100 feet,” he says. “Experimentally, when no extra heat is applied, the lowest recorded interior temperature was 62 degrees F in midwinter.” Stein chose steel because it’s unique, ecofriendly and low maintenance. “My main motivation in building a house from a galvanized steel bin was that I never wanted
Above and left: Two bins create this energy-efficient home in the Uinta mountains of Utah.
to pick up a paint brush again,” he says. “In 50 years, my shiny steel home will only mellow to a gray patina, but I won’t have to paint it.” After moving in, he realized there were also advantages to living in a round structure. “There’s a certain non-empirical value,” he says. “It does something to your head — it’s soothing and inspirational. We’ve had incredible brainstorming and musical jam sessions in the house.” And building the house, even using new steel bins, turned out to be a good financial decision. “Even with all the custom work, Montesilo came in below $200 per
live and work. It serves as a scale house (where grain trucks are weighed) on their farm near Healy, Kan. “Our grain bin office/scale house/residence is just cool,” Louise says. “It turned out far better than our expectations. Everybody who comes here — including the Governor of Kansas — says it is one of the neatest things they have ever seen. The structure itself, a real grain bin, is clearly unique, but the rustic and high-tech interior takes it off the charts!”
A Bin Within a Bin Mark Clipsham, an architect from Ames, Iowa, is working on a new technique for using steel grain bins to produce strong, energy-efficient homes. His main concept is to put one round steel bin inside another and fill the space between them with foam insulation, which creates a single, monolithic structural insulated panel. Following is an interview with Clipsham in which he describes the idea, where to find bins, insulation and more. Why would anyone use a grain bin as a house? Metal grain bins are strong, inexpensive — especially if you buy used bins — and can be recycled when you’re done using them. Plus, they’re round and have conical or domed roofs. Ironically, these attractive curved forms are used in either the most expensive and prestigious buildings or the most utilitarian and primitive ones. These forms have evolved out
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My grain bin home is easily one of the strongest and tightest buildings in the county. square foot — well below average building costs for the area,” Stein says. Brian Liloia lived in a straw-bale-insulated grain bin at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Rutledge, Mo. “Living in a grain bin was a pretty novel experience,” Liloia says. “For the most part, it worked pretty well, but careful consideration is needed around designing windows and doors. Overall, it was great living in a round structure, and telling people you live in a grain bin makes for some great reactions.” Louise and Vance Ehmke turned a steel grain bin into a structure where they can
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Do-It-Yourself
POLE-BARN BUILDING Put up a pole building for a fast, solid and cost-effective workshop, storage space or livestock shelter.
Story and photos by Steve Maxwell Illustrations by Len Churchill
I
f you need to add shelter to your homestead easily and economically, pole barns are right for you. They’re the fastest, most cost-effective way to build permanent, solid shelter to store equipment, house livestock, or function as a garage or workshop facility. You can even use the pole barn approach to build a year-round home. A big part of the attraction is simplicity. There are only four steps involved in pole-barn building, and the first one’s even optional! None of the work requires fancy tools or finely honed skills. The steps to pole-building success are simple: Create a level base pad (if you want more than just the earth underfoot), set poles vertically into holes in the ground, connect them across the top with beams and braces, then put roof trusses on top. No need for a complicated foundation, either. Even in regions with cold, frost-prone winters, pole barns endure well with nothing more than the simplest connections to the earth. And if this weren’t advantage enough, pole barns also offer the option of using your own logs and rough-cut lumber for many parts of the job. The only thing wrong with pole barns is the name. This building approach is useful for so much more than just barns. If you’ve never constructed anything large before, then a pole building is a good place to start. The illustration and information you’ll find in this article will equip you to custom build your own durable pole barn based on universal design and building principles. Most building authorities require simple plans for project approval, though many will accept handdrawn versions. Agricultural extension services across the continent also offer basic pole building plans for free. You can buy fancier ones online. Either way, success ultimately comes down to the kind of handson know-how you’ll find here.
Create a Base Besides the fact that you’ll need to locate your pole building on flat, well-drained ground, consider adding fill to create a raised base area. Unnecessary for all applications, it provides a more level floor
space that’s raised enough to keep water from draining in, even during wet seasons. There are four reasons crushed rock screenings are my favorite choice for a raised base. Screenings are usually less expensive than other types of aggregate because they’re a byproduct at many quarries. Screenings also are small — typically less than a quarter-inch in diameter, with lots of stone dust mixed in. This makes screenings easy to rake and level accurately. They pack down firmly, too. And screenings don’t ruin the future growing potential of soil forever. When your pole barn needs to come down after its working life is over, scrape off the screenings and use them somewhere else. Unlike larger grades of crushed stone, the leftover screenings that the loader can’t remove will disappear when you till the soil. Before you order any fill for a base, you’ll need to mark out an area to guide the location and level of material required. Read “Stake Your Ground,” Page 24, for tricks that speed this process and the work of laying out wall post locations later.
Installing Poles Page 25 shows the 8-foot pole spacing that’s common for enclosed walls on most pole-barn designs. You can stretch that to 12-foot spacing on open sides where animal and machine access is required. Pressure-treated timbers make good poles for small designs, and reclaimed utility poles (as long as they’re in sound condition) or rot-resistant logs cut from your own forest are good for large ones. The key is to select the right diameter poles for the height and spacing you’re planning (check with your local building inspector). If you have health and environmental concerns about using pressure-treated lumber, there’s good news. Today’s most common wood preservative compound, abbreviated ACQ, replaces the arsenicbearing substance called CCA that was used to preserve wood until 2003. ACQ is one of a handful of new preservatives that are thought to be significantly safer than CCA. But all these new products do have a downside. They’re much more corrosive to nails, screws and support brackets than CCA ever was. And as you’d expect, this corrosive action is WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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8
STRATEGIES FOR BETTER GARDEN SOIL
Use well-aged humus and compost.
Keep your compost pile going all year-round.
S
tarting a new garden isn’t difficult. Most people begin by going out into their yards with a shovel or garden tiller, digging up the ground and putting in a few plants. Add a little mulch or compost, and you’re well on your way to homegrown vegetables. But, in the long run, the success of your garden depends on healthy soil. The more you can do to keep your soil healthy, the more productive your garden will be and the higher the quality of your crops. I often discuss the value of soil care methods that imitate natural soil communities. These include protecting soil structure, feeding the soil with nutrients from natural and local sources and increasing
the diversity and numbers of the microbes and other organisms that live in the soil. In this article, I’ll focus on specific ways to achieve these goals. There are many ways to do this, but they all revolve around two basic concepts: For more fertile soil, you need to increase organic matter and mineral availability, and whenever possible, you should avoid tilling the soil and leave its structure undisturbed.
Add Organic Matter For the best soil, sources of organic matter should be as diverse as possible. 1 Add manures for nitrogen. All livestock manures can be valuable additions to soil — their nutrients are readily available to soil organisms and plants. In fact, manures make a greater contribution to soil
aggregation than composts, which have already mostly decomposed. You should apply manure with care. Although pathogens are less likely to be found in manures from homesteads and small farms than those from large confinement livestock operations, you should allow three months between application and harvest of root crops or leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, to guard against contamination. (Tall crops such as corn and trellised tomatoes shouldn’t be prone to contamination.) However, because some nutrients from manures are so readily available, they are more likely to leach out of the soil (where they’re needed) into groundwater and streams (where they’re pollutants). Also, if manures are overused, they can provide
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FOTOLIA (4)/YELLOW, JBPHOTOGRAPHYLT, CURTO, JOHN BRAID
Use these natural methods to build healthier soil.
By Harvey Ussery
Planting in rows with a variety of trellises in place will help as the gardening season continues (above); at right, a well-tended garden showing off its blooming splendor. 74 THE BEST OF MOTHER EARTH NEWS • COLLECTOR SERIES
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EASY DIY GARDEN SHED PLANS
Build the Floor
By Steve Maxwell
A
lmost all of us need a little place to store outdoor stuff — garden tools, recycling bins, the lawn mower, bicycles or other outdoor gear — and building a shed is one of the
best ways to create additional storage space. Our garden shed plans are simple and require only basic carpentry skills. A garden shed can be strictly functional, but it can also be a decorative focal point around which you design your garden or yard. These plans will help you build a ba-
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sic shed, but don’t stop there! To customize your shed, create a combination toolshed and greenhouse, put a martin house on top, or use part of the shed for a chicken coop or rabbit hutch. If you’re feeling even more adventurous, you could create a living roof of moss or succulent plants.
ELAYNE SEARS ILLUSTRATION
Anyone can build a small, simple and sensational shed!
The best spot for a shed is level, welldrained ground close to where you work in your garden or yard. The location doesn’t need to be perfectly flat; the foundation design shown in the plans on Page 98 allows for adjustments to make the floor level. Small sheds require only a top-of-soil foundation, even in locations with freezing winter temperatures. Precast concrete deck blocks work perfectly for this. To eliminate the need for any kind of floor beams, you’ll need a deck block at each corner, with two more blocks equally spaced along the 8-foot sides and one in the center of each 6-foot side. If you expect to store particularly heavy items, consider installing three deck blocks between each corner on the 8-foot walls, instead of two. Deck blocks include a central pocket sized to fit the standard 4-by-4 vertical posts that typically hold up a deck. In the
case of this shed, pressure-treated 4-by4s function in a similar way, but in short lengths — just enough to compensate for any variation in the shape of the ground (see illustration above). Start by setting deck blocks on the ground, positioned as shown in the plans. While the area doesn’t have to be perfectly level, you should make the ground roughly level where each block will rest. Temporarily place some straight 2-by-6 lumber on edge in the top grooves of the blocks to orient the blocks in a straight line. Arrange two rows of four blocks parallel to each other to form both long walls, then measure diagonally across the outside corners to determine how square the arrangement is. If the two long walls are parallel, and diagonal measurements taken across corners are equal, then each corner is guaranteed to be 90 degrees. Finish up by placing one deck block in the middle of
each 6-foot wall after you have aligned and squared the 8-foot walls. Remove the 2-by-6 lumber guides, then put a 12-inch length of 4-by-4 lumber into each deck block, positioned vertically in the central recess. These 4-by-4s will be slightly too long right now, but that’s exactly what you want. The 2-by-6s that form the outer perimeter of the floor frame rest on the outside top edge of the deck blocks, tight to the outer faces of the 4-by-4 posts. Use a 4-foot level and an 8-foot 2-by-6 to determine the highest deck block in the group, then use this as your starting point for installing the floor frame. Use a single galvanized 31⁄2-inch deck screw to lock the 2-by-6 to the 4-by-4 on the highest deck block, then raise the other end of the 2-by-6 so it’s level before locking the other end of the 2-by-6 to its 4-by-4. The 2-by-6 won’t rest on all the blocks, but should rest on at least one. Continue working all around the floor frame in this manner until all perimeter 2-by-6s are in the same level plane. Trim all excess 4-by4s flush with the top of the 2-by-6s using a chain saw or reciprocating saw, then add 2-by-6 floor joists running between the two 8-foot walls. Make sure each joist fits tightly within the outer edges of the floor frame, and then fasten the joists to the side of the 4-by-4s with screws. Complete the floor frame by driving three 31⁄2-inch deck screws per joint, then custom-cut spacers out of 11⁄2-inch-thick construction lumber to fill the gap between the underside of the 2-by-6s and the top of the deck blocks. You can’t rely on screws alone to hold up the floor frame in the long term. Finish up by installing a pressure-treated, five-eighths-inch-thick plywood subfloor on top of the floor frame, secured with 21⁄2-inch deck screws driven every 6 to 8 inches.
Frame the Walls This shed’s walls are built in the same way that the walls of most full-size homes are built. The plans show how 2-by-4 top plates and bottom plates extend horizontally around the perimeter of the building, with vertical studs defining wall surfaces. Notice that the two short walls fit inside the two longer ones, fastened together at WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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