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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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Architect David Wright helped pioneer the concept of passive solar architecture, and his thoughts and experiments have helped shape the evolution of solar design throughout the world. His years of exploration are distilled in this comprehensive book, which provides simple graphics and language to illuminate concepts including greenhouse effect, heat storage, surface-to-volume ratio, ventilation and cooling.

Tips, rules-of-thumb, regional characteristics and many other considerations are presented to help readers, from initial site selection to visionary design. Written for architects, designers and others who seek to tap the free resources offered by earth and sun, this invaluable tool will help reduce dependence on outside energy sources. You will be inspired.

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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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Master gardener Barbara Pleasant takes the guesswork and anxiety out of growing food, explaining in simple language exactly how to start, maintain and eventually expand an organic vegetable garden, even in the smallest of spaces. Choose one of 24 no-fail, small-scale garden plans and find out how easy it is to enjoy your own fresh food all season long!

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Drip irrigation is the best way to help any plant flourish and survive tough times, especially during short or long droughts. Pick the wrong "stuff" and you easily can feel overwhelmed. Robert Kourik's Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates clearly explains how to use less water yet increase the yields of vegetables and promote the growth and flowering of all plants — trees, shrubs and container plants — in any climate, even where it rains irregularly.

In the tradition of the original groundbreaking book, this fully revised edition incorporates new information essential for gardeners, including how to manage limited water supplies with precision and efficiency, without the clutter of hundreds of widgets and gizmos, and the knowledge is shared in Kourik's inimitable, friendly, down-to-earth and easy-to-understand style.

Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates reveals how to:

• Utilize drip irrigation for everything you grow — trees, shrubs, hanging plants, container plants, and vegetable and flower gardens — and save up to 50 percent of your water compared to sprinklers.
• Use a streamlined configuration of hardware and tubing.
• Choose the best, sturdiest hardware that will last for decades in your home landscape and vegetable garden.
• Pick tubing that has no emitters punched on the outside — these have a tendency to break off — and use this tubing buried beneath the surface to irrigate without losing any water to wind or evaporation.
• Roll out a drip system in a very short period of time, avoiding tedious hours punching in emitters or adding smaller tubing to reach each plant.
• Capture and reuse gray water and cistern water for irrigation.
• Construct a system in which the main parts are effectively hidden or can be simply attached to an existing garden faucet.

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You don't need to live in the country or own a large farm in order to be self-sufficient. You can practice many basic country skills in a small town, the suburbs and even in the city! The Mother Earth News Guide to Country Skills has the information you need to be more self-reliant, from ideas to implement in your home, to stories from those who have made a successful homestead for themselves.

Read about a woman who lives on a "renter's homestead" where she cans, gardens and keeps livestock. There is also the story of a couple who moved to the country, started a market garden and built their home by hand.

This Guide includes instructions for several DIY projects, including:

• Easy Bread
• Building a passive solar water heater
• Canning fruit, meat and vegetables

You'll also find tips for buying land, choosing the right homestead vehicle and more.

Start your dream of becoming more self-sufficient, with Mother Earth News Guide to Country Skills.

INSTANT DELIVERY ITEM: When you order this e-book* we will provide you with a link for the e-book on the confirmation page. Simply click on the link and save the file to your computer — no more waiting for delivery or paying expensive shipping and handling fees.

*E-Books are Eco-friendly! By supporting digital products like this one you help conserve resources and energy that comes with printing standard books. Order your downloadable E-book and start reading today!

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Compact Cabins presents 62 design interpretations of the getaway dream. Whether it be a small cabin on a sparkling lakefront, a breath-taking mountaintop, an expansive beach, or some other peaceful location, there is something here to please every taste. Best of all, these small-footprint designs are affordable and energy-efficient without skimping on comfort and style. The cabins range in size form a cozy 150 square feet to a more spacious but still economical 1,000 square feet, and all include sleeping accommodations, kitchen and bath facilities, and a heat source. Complete chapters on low-maintenance building materials, utilities and appliances, and alternative energy sources supply you with the options for living efficiently in small space.

For every design, you will find floor plans with detailed suggestions for designing the space for optimal use. These plans are flexible: many feature modular elements that can be mixed and matched to accommodate your particular needs or hobbies. Features such as an outdoor fireplace, covered porch, or external storage locker might work nicely in several cabin designs. It's all about enhancing and maximizing small spaces to your individual needs and preferences.

• Need plenty of sleeping space for visiting friends and family? Jean's Run Cabin sleeps six in 501 square feet.
• Do you own a shallow plot on a beautiful lake? Glass House Cabin offers terrific views, a large deck, and a wide-frontage floor plan.
• Is your priority a romantic getaway? A Cabin for Two features a fireplace, a spa tub, and a cozy sleeping nook.
• Love hosting parties? Clerestory Cabin with Dining Room has a dedicated dining space right next to the porch, which is perfect for cocktails or coffee.

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In the 1970s, Dolly Freed lived off the land dirt cheap and plum easy. Living in her own house on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia for almost five years, Dolly and her father produced their own food and drink and spent roughly $700 each per year. Thirty years later, Dolly Freed's Possum Living is as fascinating and pertinent as it was in 1978. This reissue of the survivalist classic has a foreword by David Gates and an afterword by the author.

After discussing reasons why you should or shouldn't give up your job, Possum Living gives you details about the cheapest ways with the best results to buy and maintain your home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy and keep up a middle-class facade — whether you live in the city, in the suburbs or in a small town. In a delightful, straightforward style, Dolly Freed explains how to be lazy, proud, miserly and honest, live well and enjoy leisure. She shares her knowledge for what you do need — your own home, for example — and what you don't need — such as doctors, lawyers and insurance. Through her own example, Dolly hopes to inspire you to do some independent thinking about how economics affects the course of your life now and may do so in the coming "age of shortages." If you ever wondered what it would be like to be in greater control of your own life, Possum Living will show you — and help you do it for yourself.

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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This book gives you all the information you need to start your own local foods business. You'll get plain-English advice from a self-proclaimed farm-girl-turned-entrepreneur on:

• Trends in niche agriculture and local foods
• Creating a business plan for a small-scale or hobby venture
• Assessing your home marketplace and uncovering niches not yet served
• Financing options, especially grants and cost-sharing programs
• Free or low-cost marketing ideas
• Basic strategies for surviving the first year in business
• And more

About the author

Sarah Beth Aubrey was born into a family of farmers and was raised to believe, like Scarlett O'Hara, that it is land that sustains after all else. In addition to operating her company, Aubrey's Natural Meats, Aubrey writes and speaks extensively on agriculture, the rural lifestyle and small farm development.