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Alternative Energy Secrets focuses on overlooked fuels. In its pages, you'll find extensive information regarding waste oils and their inexpensive conversion to useful fuels. Also included are plans for a super fast oil collector trailer that picks up 200 gallons in a few minutes and does not form water emulsion like a gear pump will. Author Stephen Chastain describes oil cracking, blending, filtering, testing, and the construction of centrifuges to clean waste oils and make them suitable for use in home heating or as diesel fuel. Also covered is the construction of waste oil burners and heaters, tips on off-grid power generation and converting your car to diesel. This book is a practical how to text containing very unusual material. A must have for alternative energy users!

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Masonry Heaters is a complete guide to designing and living with one of the oldest, and yet one of the newest, heating devices. A masonry heater’s design, placement in the home, and luxurious radiant heat redefine the hearth for the modern era, turning it into a piece of the sun right inside the home. Like the feeling one gets from the sun on a spring day, the environment around a masonry heater feels fresh. The radiant heat feels better on the skin. It warms the home both gently and efficiently. In fact, the value of a masonry heater lies in its durability, quality, serviceability, dependability and health-supporting features. And it is an investment in self-sufficiency and freedom from fossil fuels.

The book discusses different masonry heater designs, including variations extant in Europe, and explains the growth of their popularity in the United States beginning in the late 1970s. For the reader who may be familiar only with open fireplaces and metal woodstoves, Masonry Heaters will bring a new understanding and appreciation of massive heat storage and gentle-but-persistent radiant heat. Masonry heaters offer a unique comfort that is superior to that from convection heat from forced-air systems, and more personal than that offered by “radiant” floors. As author Ken Matesz demonstrates, the heat from the sun or from a masonry heater is genuine heat instead of just insulation against the loss of heat.

Those who are looking to build, add onto, or remodel a house will find comprehensive and practical advice for designing and installing a masonry heater, including detailed discussion of materials, code considerations, and many photos and illustrations. While this is not a do-it-yourself guide for building a masonry heater, it provides facts every heater builder should know. Professional contractors will find this a useful tool to consult, and homeowners considering a new method of home heating will find all they need to know about masonry heaters within these pages.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $24.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Growing a Garden City offers compelling photographs and personal narratives of community garden members, graduate students and first graders, a low-income senior and troubled teen, a foodie, a food bank officer, and many more. They describe their setbacks and successes involved with community gardening and show how to build on and emulate their achievements anywhere across the country and around the world.

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Fences, Gates, and Bridges, Second Edition, is your practical instruction guide to the best methods of building an incredible variety of fences, gates, and bridges for all regions and weather conditions.

Originally published in 1900, Fences, Gates, and Bridges, Second Edition features a section on fences that boasts an impressive medley of materials and designs, including the zigzag fence, the cheap and portable barbed-wire fence, and a sampling of sod and stone fences.

And what is a fence without a gate? The second segment of this fully illustrated book guides you through the making and setting of posts, as well as the construction and installation of swinging gates, sliding gates, pulley gates, and more.

The final section consists of information on a number of bridges, depicting a wide selection, designed for crossing gullies and culverts, as well as ornamental bridges for gardens and walkways.

Fences, Gates, and Bridges, Second Edition is a functional pocket manual and a testament to American ingenuity for all of your fencing, gating and bridging needs.

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Shelters, Shacks and Shanties, Second Edition presents lively, step-by-step tutelage on building all types of temporary and long-term accommodations from both natural and man-made materials. Originally published in 1914, this practical classic is as essential a guide for today's modern homesteader as it was at the turn of the 20th century.

Included are instructions for dozens of worry-free shelters for you to choose from, including a sod house for the lawn, a treetop house, over-water camps, a bog ken and much more. Satisfying the builder's need for the creature comforts of home, it also provides tips on how to build hearths and chimneys, notched log ladders, and even how to rig a front door with a secret look. Illustrated throughout with a bounty of helpful line drawings, Shelters, Shacks and Shanties, Second Edition harkens back to the can-do spirit of the American frontier that still thrives today.

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Handy Farm Devices, Second Edition, is as useful and pertinent for homesteaders and small-scale farmers today as it was when it was first published nearly 100 years ago. A wealth of labor- and money-saving projects fills this century-old guide to low-tech property maintenance along with easy-to-follow instructions and practical illustrations. Within the pages of this book you will learn to make:

• Spill-proof chicken wateres
• Portable chicken coops
• A lightweight orchard ladder
• A small truss bridge
• An easy fence-post and stump-puller
• Gates that don't sag
• Gates that lift over snowdrifts
• A handy wood splitter
• A bicycle-powered washing machine
• And much more

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It's the perfect gift for anyone who wants to grow the best garden ever and take the guesswork out of garden planning. This new revolutionary, one-year gift subscription software makes vegetable gardening so much easier.

Use the Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner to:

• Create a personalized planting schedule - just enter your zip code and the software adjusts to your area!
• Experiment with bed designs and plant placement.
• Create a personalized planting schedule based on your local frost dates.
• Plan succession sowings to maximize the amount you can grow throughout the year.
• Plan crop rotations to prevent pests and depletion of soil nutrients.
• Keep track of plant varieties and other notes.
• Get biweekly e-mail reminders for what to plant and related information.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $22.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Chock-full of practical, thoughtful advice from seasoned crafters, Homemade contains more than 100 craft projects that require you to look no further than your very own home. As economic and environmental factors start to play a greater role in consumer decision-making, authors Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson suggest an alternative to buying. Taking everyday objects from around their homes, they transform these objects into beautiful works of art, which reflect the love and care they put into their projects.

Divided into seasons, Homemade provides a year's worth of activities to improve your home. It gives sound advice on how to restore a garden table, make a patchwork wall, cook delicious pumpkin soup, and more. It also includes a section on homemade basics, which details how to sew, knit and crochet using a variety of patterns!

Homemade is the perfect gift for a friend interested in crafting, or a delightful treat for you and your family. With advice from Badger and Thompson, little additions to your home — like summer troughs full of flowers and natural cleaning products — will make all the difference. Your home and your family will thank you.

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With so many attractive stock cabinetry designs available, creating the kitchen of your dreams no longer involves the budget-busting price tag of custom-made cabinets. In fact, you'll be amazed as cabinetmaker Jonathan Benson shows you how to beautifully — and affordably — transform your kitchen by using money-saving stock cabinetry and a well-thought-out plan.

From having a solid design that meets the needs of everyone using the space, to advice and lessons on what to know before going cabinet shopping, or how to live in a construction zone, Benson and his wife, Sherry, a former chef and restaurant owner, show you how a little teamwork can make a kitchen remodel go more smoothly.

Transforming Your Kitchen with Stock Cabinetry will put you right in the heart of a remodeling project, which happens to be the Bensons' own kitchen, and guide you through the complete process. The inspirational gallery at the end of the book is filled with beautiful photos and gives true meaning to the term "dream kitchen."

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $19.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Natural is trendy, part of the wide-ranging cultural shift toward homemade and handcrafted. Discover the latest in candle making techniques with this complete, contemporary guide to the green side of the craft. Using soy, palm wax and beeswax, these 30 projects create beautiful, eco-friendly pieces perfect for gift-giving or home display. Fragrance, color and wax additives are explored along with a range of basic techniques including dipped, rolled and molded methods.