Yazan: Andy Hamilton | 29 October 2009 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
I love the idea of using the sun’s energy directly, no pollution, no waste and no (energy) cost, it’s fun to experiment with to dry or cook food or generate electricity and helps you become more independent from the power grid. A couple of years ago I became interested in solar cookers, the obvious answer [...]
Yazan: admin | 04 January 2009 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips, Recipes
Here on this site is an article for making a box solar oven and in that article I expressed doubt that it would be capable of baking bread in winter (Australian Winter). Well, I proved myself wrong and very happily so! I have developed a bread recipe that can be used as sourdough or conventional [...]
Yazan: admin | 04 January 2009 | 2 Comments
Categories: Nevs tips, Reference
Most retirement strategies focus on “wealth creation” or providing you with enough cash to maintain your pre-retirement extravagant lifestyle. This is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but it is worth knowing that there is a better way – doing it yourself – self sufficiently! Complete self sufficiency is difficult if to impossible to [...]
Yazan: admin | 04 January 2009 | 3 Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
The story of how I grow and spin my own cotton is still continuing, this years crop looks like it will be a big one (relatively – how much can you expect from three or four plants?). I still spin the cotton direct from the boll and have not gotten around to building a cotton [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
Editors Note – In England we might also call this potting compost! Nev has also found a substitute to peat that can be used! I recommend using this mixture in conjunction with biodegradable newspaper pots. Ingredients, compost, peat moss, sand,Vermiculite or Perlite, warning For most of the past 20 years I have grown veggies in [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | 1 Comment
Categories: Nevs tips
I am interested in processes, how things are made from start to finish like growing the wheat to grind to make flour to bake the bread sort of thing and I suppose that this is where this idea started out. Being your average city slicker, I had never seen cotton growing, except in those old [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
While reading and old book on sheet metal work, (How to Work Sheet Metal by H.J. Dyer, first published over 50 years ago), I came across a bench modification for folding sheet metal. The idea is simple, based on a piece of angle iron, let into a bench and a length of flat steel strip [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
Earlier I sent an article to Andy for a crude set-up that could be used to dry food using the sun’s rays (and incidentally raise seedlings if required). It worked, but because the food was exposed to the sun directly, there was a loss of nutrients and in some cases colour/texture, eg the onions went [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
Bill Mollison of Permaculture fame refers to the suburban lawn a “green cancer” due to its lack of productivity and the amount of resources required to maintain it. I can’t help but agree in general terms, however, having been a prisoner of suburbia for many years, I also understand that to keep the peace (especially [...]
Yazan: admin | 02 July 2008 | No Comments
Categories: Nevs tips
So having now found out how to make a solar oven work, it was time to get serious. A cardboard no-tech oven is one thing, but I wanted something that would last and would be more efficient. I had picked up a book called “The Solar Cookery Book” by Beth and Dan Halacy yonks ago, [...]
