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This comprehensive guide provides detailed information on three natural plasters-earthen, lime, gypsum and natural finishes. Extremely well-illustrated with drawings and photos, this book teaches the principles of plastering and plaster techniques, and describes the tools you'll need for a successful plaster job.

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This book is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions for building your own earth oven. This easy DIY project can be completed with a few tools and in one day. If you have a scrap pile you can build this for free — or buy materials for less than $30. Kiko Denzer's book includes directions on how to tend the fire and how to make sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition.

Good building soil is often right in your backyard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing-dragon oven or any other shape that you can dream up.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $22.99. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

You can sew beautiful and useful crafts with the guidance of Home Sweet Sewn. With the more than 20 sewing projects contained in this book you'll turn your house into a warm and inspiring home.

Sew beautiful crafts, from bedroom linens and dolls, to aprons and book covers, using the instructions and patterns included with each project. Take in the beautiful crafts and get inspired to sew your own designs.

The sewing projects in this book are not only beautiful, but they are also practical. You'll want to use your spring-inspired apron over and over, and the children in your life will enjoy many afternoons playing with their sewn "snakes and ladders" game, which they'll be able to play indoors or out.

About the Authors: Alice Butcher and Ginny Farquhar share a common love of vintage and recycled fabric and enjoy creating original textile projects that add that unique homespun look to interiors and accessories alike. They have been designing together for the last eight years and have exhibited their work at various high profile shows and fairs. They are the authors of Sew Fabulous Fabrics.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $29.95. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Learn to make smart energy improvement decisions when you perform an energy audit with this Basic Energy Audit Kit.

Geared toward the home, condo, town home or apartment dweller, this energy-use diagnostic tool will guide you through a detailed inspection of your structure and its potential energy problems. All the forms, instructional materials and tools you need are included along with a clipboard to give you a writing surface as you complete the forms and a carpenter's apron to keep the tools handy. Educational presentations are available on the accompanying CD to shorten your learning curve. Sample images help you determine your specific building's construction and components.

As a bonus, the Basic Energy Audit Kit includes REScheck as well as easy-to-follow instructions on how to determine if your structure is compliant with energy codes and how much better or worse it is than code.

Once you have completed your audit, you will have a good amount of knowledge of where energy problems occur, not only in your home specifically, but in residences generally. And, with the included program, you will be able to compare scenarios for cost-effective changes you can make to reduce your energy consumption.

The Basic Energy Audit Kit is worth more than its price tag because you learn how you can save that amount many times over. Use it and learn to:

• see your house from an energy rater's point of view.
• proceed through an energy audit safely and efficiently.
• find the common places where your energy dollars could be escaping.
• diagnose your energy use (or misuse).
• detect where your energy dollars are being least effective.
• pinpoint overlooked energy problems.
• transfer your findings into scenarios for problem-solving.
• manipulate those scenarios to discover cost-effective solutions.
• make home improvement decisions based on cost-to-results ratio.
• decide where best to spend your money to save your money.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $49.95. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

The Green Building Decision Kit — containing prioritizing software and more than 300 pages of information — educates and aids you with the decision-making process of "green" construction: residential or small commercial, new or remodeling. Plus it helps you conduct your own Design Charrette.

The Green Building Decision Kit is the only product you need to get started building green. It takes you step-by-step through each part of the construction process and is organized in the general order of the process. It educates and informs you about green considerations, materials, alternatives and even programs to help you make critical decisions and ensure your priorities are incorporated throughout your project.

The Green Building Decision Kit is designed for ease of use. The presentation of information is broken down into common-sense sections and easy to understand language. Rather than make you search through a massive book or database to find information, the kit incorporates a unique, patent-pending matching tab system that allows for easy retrieval of pertinent details. The Display and Companion Pages are provided digitally in a fully searchable Acrobat Reader format so the user has the option to minimize (or eliminate) what is printed on paper.

The Green Building Decision Kit facilitates the use of a design charrette. The modern definition of a charrette refers to any collaborative session in which the group drafts a solution to a designated problem. It provides a forum for ideas and offers the unique opportunity for upfront planning, feedback and decision-making while integrating the aptitude and interests of a diverse group of people.

The Green Building Decision Kit includes information about traditional construction in addition to various green alternatives. In this way, you have what you need to make comparisons and, therefore, informed decisions.

Additionally, the Green Decision Matrix software included with the kit provides a comparison of options in each area of discussion based upon the user's input. The Matrix software begins with input regarding your priorities (such as costs, living style, embodied energy, environmental impacts) and uses these priorities during the "weighting" process to provide a most favorable-to-least favorable list for each component.

The Green Building Decision Kit Workbook is a helpful tool for keeping track of your priorities. Instruction pages, Display pages, Matrix software and extras are provided on the accompanying CD.

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The romance of the farm calls to all of us at some point in our lives. For some, the appeal lies in the promise of a simpler lifestyle marked by honest work and results you can hold in your hands. For others, the farm is a lineage to our past. It conjures images of dewy meadows, Mason jars, ripe tomatoes and the pure companionship of a trusted horse or dog.

Usually, our dreams of going back to the farm remain dreams. But in growing numbers, today's enterprising city-dwellers are finding ways to make it happen. Whether your dream farm is just a few acres with a big garden and a rabbit hutch or an 80-acre tract with a horse corral and big red barn, John Deere's Hobby Farm is just the guide you need to get started on your adventure. With full-color photos and step-by-step projects it will give structure to your dream and take you one big step closer to achieving the real thing.

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Nothing adds more warmth and charm to a home than the simple, rustic beauty of natural wood. Now, thanks to the inspiring and creative ideas of woodworker Chris Lubkemann, bringing the natural elegance of the outdoors into your home is easier than you think. With little effort that can produce amazing results, twigs, branches and fallen trees can be transformed into artfully designed candleholders, coat racks and coffee tables that will flavor your home with an eco-chic style.

If you're creative, have an appreciation for wood, and can work with a few basic tools, you can create these 35 unique and practical projects using the easy-to-follow instructions and some found wood.

Among the distinctive projects in Tree Craft, you'll find:

• A gallery of knotted-wood photo frames to hold your favorite pictures
• Attractive table lamps in a variety of styles
• One-of-a-kind décor items such as curtain rods, clocks and planters
• Beautiful and practical coasters, napkin rings and spoon holders

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There has never been a better time to make and sell great cheese. People worldwide are consuming more high-quality, handmade cheese than ever before. The number of artisan cheesemakers has doubled in recent years, and many of the industry's newcomers are "farmstead" producers — those who work only with the milk of their own animals. More than ever before, the people who choose to become farmer-cheesemakers need access to the knowledge of established cheese artisans who can help them build their dream.

Few career choices lead to such extremes of labor, emotion and monetary challenge. In The Farmstead Creamery Advisor, respected cheesemaker, instructor and speaker Gianaclis Caldwell walks would-be producers through the many, and often confusing, steps and decisions they will face when considering a career in this burgeoning cottage industry. This book fills the gap that exists between the pasture and cheese plate. It goes far beyond issues of caring for livestock and basic cheesemaking, explaining business issues such as:

• Analyzing your suitability for the career
• Designing and building the cheese facility
• Sizing up the market
• Negotiating day-to-day obstacles
• Ensuring maximum safety and efficiency

Drawing from her own and other cheesemakers' experiences, Caldwell brings to life the story of creating a successful cheesemaking business in a practical, organized manner. Absolutely essential for anyone interested in becoming a licensed artisan cheesemaker, The Farmstead Creamery Advisor will also appeal to the many small and hobby-farm owners who already have milking animals and who wish to improve their home dairy practices and facilities.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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Keeping an illustrated nature sketchbook can be eye opening, and anyone can do it, at home or while traveling. This step-by-step guide to painting by the ocean, near rivers, and in valleys, forests, desert, and mountains offers dozens of practical tips for combining watercolor and ink to create pages rich in personal meaning. With her gentle humor and low-key approach, popular teacher Jude Siegel encourages everyone to venture outdoors with sketchbook in hand to try their artist's wings. Lavishly illustrated with more than 140 of the author's stunning original watercolors of Oregon and Washington.

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Whether building a summer cottage in the woods, planning the hunting cabin of your dreams or homesteading off the grid, this handy reference provides a logical and sensible approach to building permanent shelter in out-of-the-way places. Including everything from choosing and clearing a site and creating an electrical power source, to clearing the land and creating a foundation, this book offers instruction on building an A-frame cabin and a rustic log cabin with a framed roof. There is also a special section on designing small buildings to cope with Mother Nature, including earthquakes, heavy snow, high wind and flooding.