Michael Janzen

Rediscovering square foot gardening. I remember my dad reading this when I was a kid. Looks like it has gone through a great refresh and they offer lots of free info online.

This is just weird and fun. It’s a web tool that lets you flip text upside down. Might be cool for wacky blog posts or tweets. While it hampers usability it does make text stand out. FlipText.net

A reader on my blog Tiny Free House sent me a link to this website on grey water systems. The website has a lot of good info and they sell a couple books on how to build grey water systems.

I saw this ‘tweeted’ by Technomadia. It’s a website dedicated to pointing out all the places you can park and stay overnight in your RV, or tiny house. Overnight RV Parking

I saw this ‘tweeted’ but thegoodhuman one day. It’s a book on living without all the things depend on. It’s called When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability and Surviving the Long Emergency. You can find the book at chelsea green and read an interview with author, Matthew Stein, P.E.

Every time we flush the toilet we turn 3 to 5 gallons of fresh drinking water into sewage. Yeah yuck… it’s not sustainable and requires enormous water and water treatment systems to maintain. The best solution I’ve run across is the sawdust toilet… a bucket + composting pile. You can read all about building and maintaining sawdust toilets at Joseph Jenkin’s website.

I also recently ran across a non-proit organization operating in Haiti that is turning a huge human waste problem into safe fetiliizer. The organization is called SOIL, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods. Also see them in this New York Times Video.

Just spotted this on RowdyKittens, Growing Potatoes in Small Spaces. Looks like the perfect little thing to build out of pallets.

A little cardboard box won a solar oven contest recently and thegoodhuman.com made this solar oven for $1.50. You could probably make one with stuff in your house right now. I think I’m going to make one too. Follow thegoodhuman on twitter, I do.

Spotted this recipe for steel-cut crockpot oatmael on The Greenest Dollar this morning. Julia and I have had steel cut a couple times and wanted to try it this way. Sounds tasty.

Here’s their recipe:

• 1 cup steel cut oats (DO NOT substitute old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats)
• 4 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• cooking spray

1. Start by spraying your crock pot with cooking spray- This was a reader tip in the comments section, and it really helped cut the clean-up time the next morning because the oatmeal didn’t stick a bit! So, don’t forget to do this.

2. Pour in the water, oats, salt, and butter

3. Cook on Low for 6-8 hrs.- The first time I made mine I did it for 8 hours with no problem. I even left it on warm for another hour after that until my husband woke up, and it still tasted great. I think you could easily get away with cooking these on low for 10 hrs., but I’m not sure if longer cooking time would impact the nutritional value.

Heather at The Greenest Dollar found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com.

This sounds tasty and easy to make. Definitely a recipe to try… no-work bread recipe. Just in case it disappears offline I’m going to quote the text here.

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is browned. Cool on a rack.