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Page 1: DIY WOODWORKING PROJECTS FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD

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DIY WOODWORKING PROJECTS FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD

RICH MURPHY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4

Building a Workshop ....................................................................................................... 5

Some Solar Power ................................................................................................................ 7

Solar Oven/Still ................................................................................................................... 8

The Reflectors ................................................................................................................. 11

Setting it Up to be a Solar Still ....................................................................................... 12

Making a Solar Dehydrator ................................................................................................ 17

The Solar Collector ......................................................................................................... 18

The Drying Cabinet ........................................................................................................ 20

Reflectors........................................................................................................................ 21

Using the Solar Dehydrator ........................................................................................... 22

Fresnel Cooker ................................................................................................................... 23

Making the Lens Frame ................................................................................................. 24

A Stand for the Frame ................................................................................................. 24

Stand for the Food.......................................................................................................... 26

Using the Fresnel Cooker ............................................................................................... 28

More than Just Solar ......................................................................................................... 29

Simple Raised Beds for Gardening ................................................................................... 30

A Simple Wood Greenhouse ............................................................................................. 33

A Couple of Thoughts About Using Your Greenhouse: ................................................. 36

Garden Slat Wall ............................................................................................................... 38

A Simpler Slat Wall ........................................................................................................ 40

Planters for Your Slat Wall ............................................................................................ 40

Compost Bin ...................................................................................................................... 42

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DISCLAIMER PAGE

This book is designed only to provide information. This information is provided and

sold with the knowledge that the publisher, editor, and authors do not offer any legal or

other professional advice. In the case of a need for any such expertise, consult with the

appropriate professional.

This book does not contain all information available on the subject.

This book has not been created to be specific to any individual’s or organization’s

situation or needs. Every effort has been made to make this book as accurate as possible.

However, there may be typographical and/or content errors. Therefore, this book should

serve only as a general guide and not as the ultimate source of subject information.

The authors, editor, and publisher shall have no liability or responsibility to any person

or entity regarding any loss or damage incurred, or alleged to have incurred, directly or

indirectly, by the information contained in this book. You hereby agree to be bound by

this disclaimer, or you may return this book within the guarantee time period for a full

refund.

Some products described in this book do not comply with FDA, USDA, or FSIS

regulations or local health codes.

The instructions provided have not been reviewed, tested, or approved by any official

testing body or government agency.

The authors and editor of this book make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied,

regarding the safety of the final products or the methods used. The use, making, or

consumption of any products described in this book will be done at your own risk.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of

individuals.

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INTRODUCTION

One of the true joys of homesteading is being able to do things for yourself. Whether it’s

growing your own food or making your own furniture, homesteading is all about self-

sufficiency; doing things for yourself. For over 200 years, our country has been built in a

large part by this same independent spirit; first expanding the frontier and now returning

back to it.

There’s just something satisfying about making things for yourself. I’ve been a

woodworker for years and I always like sitting back and looking at a job well done. I truly

never get tired of it. Nor do I get tired of using the things I’ve made, knowing that it has

been though my own efforts that I have that tool or piece of furniture to use.

Woodworking, like many other things we would consider to be part of the building trades,

used to be something that fathers passed on to their sons, working on projects around the

homestead or farm together and turning each of those opportunities into a teaching

moment. I grew up that way, with my dad teaching me many things that I’ve used all my

life. Sadly, that part of our social fabric seems to be something that has been lost, with few

sons being interested in learning the skills of their fathers’ anymore. They’d rather play

the latest video game.

Nevertheless, there’s been a resurgence in interest in homesteading over the last few

years, not to conquer new lands and expand the frontier, but rather as part of the prepping

movement. It is made of people who have decided that being dependent on the

government for everything isn’t a good idea. Abandoning that, they have accepted

responsibility for their own lives.

It’s important to note that most of these people who have made this decision were not

raised on a farm or homestead themselves. Rather, they’ve decided to take on this

lifestyle, knowing that it would require a lot of hard work to learn how to become a

successful homesteader.

As daunting as this task may seem, it’s really not all that bad. Tens of thousands of people

became homesteaders in the 1800s, many of whom had no prior experience. Nor did those

people have the advantages of automobiles, power tools and the internet. Yet they did it

anyway. It seems to me, that if those people could succeed with their limited resources, it

should be possible for us today to be quite successful in our efforts at homesteading.

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Each skill you learn in this process will make it that much easier to learn the next, as there

will always be things that carry over from one to the next. Cutting material with a saw is

still cutting material with a saw, regardless of the kind of saw you’re going to use and the

material you’re going to cut. So, while each saw may have its own particularities of use,

they’re still all saws.

But you’ll also gain the joy of having your homestead filled with things you’ve made

yourself, with your own hands. You’ll have a sense of satisfaction, as you step back and

look at your work, knowing that it has been through your own efforts that you have the

things you do. There’s nothing else quite like that feeling of satisfaction which comes from

enjoying something that you yourself have made.

Building a Workshop Woodworking, especially fine woodworking, requires having the right tools and knowing

how to use them. If you set out to build a set of tools from the ground up, you can invest

a lot of money quickly. Quality tools are not cheap and cheap tools usually aren’t quality.

Generally speaking, cheap tools are made with lower quality materials, so they don’t last

as well.

Even so, there are times when it might be logical to buy a low-cost tool, rather than a more

expensive one. This determination is based mostly on how much you’ll use the tool. It

makes no sense to spend a lot of money on a contractor or professional grade power tool

that you’ll use once a year. On the other hand, it doesn’t make sense to buy a very cheap

cordless drill; probably the most used power tool in anyone’s workshop.

But you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money on quality tools. I’ve found a

number of high quality, professional grade tools at garage sales and flea markets. It just

takes the patience to wait for that tool, while you are looking. Of course, that doesn’t work

out too well when you need the tool for a project that you’re working on.

My personal tool collection consist of a combination of tools I bought new, tools I bought

used, high quality tools that I paid a premium price for and some rather inexpensive tools

that I bought from a well-known low-cost tool retailer. The trick is in deciding how good

a tool you need, for each purchase.

Of course, my collection keeps growing. I’ve discovered that you never really reach the

point where you have all the tools you need. That’s especially true, if you’re like me, and

are constantly tackling new do-it-yourselfer jobs. Many of those jobs require specialty

tools that I don’t already have, giving me both the excuse and the need to buy them. That

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pays off in most cases, because I invariably end up using the tools for more than just that

one project.

As for the workshop itself, I’ve seen workshops built into any nook or cranny that people

can find. More than anything, I’ve had mine in my garage; relegating my cars to the

driveway. But then, my workshop is rather extensive. At the beginning, there was still

room in the garage for my cars as well.

Currently, I’m living in an apartment, which means that I don’t have a garage for my

workshop. Instead, I’m using a 10’ x 15’ rental storage space as my workshop. It gives me

at least some space to work and doesn’t cost all that much. In order to be able to use my

power tools, I’ve got a generator for power.

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SOME SOLAR POWER

I like the idea of mixing off-grid living with homesteading. As both a prepper and a

survivalist, self-sufficiency has become a part of just about everything I do. Part of that

self-sufficiency is to generate my own electrical power. While I don’t have the capability

to fully cut myself off from the grid yet, I’m gradually working towards that.

There are three main sources of off-grid power: solar, wind and hydro. I’m making use of

solar and wind wherever I can. Since I don’t have any groundwater on my property, it’s

more or less impossible for me to use hydropower to generate electricity. But if you can

buy some property with a stream running through it, I would highly recommend adding

hydropower to your homestead.

Interestingly enough, hydropower is both the oldest form of “green energy” there is, as

well as being the largest provider of green energy today. Even with all of the efforts put

into pushing wind and solar power worldwide, the United States produces more “green

energy” than any other country, not because of our solar or wind power production; but

because of hydropower. Yet, this technology is largely ignored by those interested in

renewable energy, because it is not “high-tech” enough.

Sadly, I must ignore it as well; so I’m stuck with wind and solar. Of the two, I use solar

more, simply because it is easier to work with. While I recognize the limitations of solar

power, I also try to harness it for my own use, whenever I can. These first few projects will

show that.

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SOLAR OVEN/STILL

The solar oven is one of the simplest ways of harnessing solar power for your homestead.

It works by concentrating sunlight into the oven’s cabinet, and then trapping it there. A

glass front on the oven allows the sunlight to gain entrance and then traps the heat inside.

Aluminum reflectors help to increase the amount of sunlight that gets into the oven,

increasing its efficiency.

The solar oven I made can also be used as a solar still to purify water. The only real

difference between the two is that the solar still requires a way of catching the water vapor

that evaporates from the pans put inside. I added tubes to fill the pans with water, as well,

rather than having to open the solar oven to refill them.

The solar still’s case is made of 1/2" plywood. If you can get it, I would recommend using

marine grade plywood for the project, as that doesn’t have any voids in it. I used normal

softwood construction-grade plywood and eventually had problems with it delaminating

from the moisture.

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This drawing provides overall dimensions for the still, especially the left and right side

panels. Please note that there is a lip all the way around the front opening. This is there

for the glass to rest in and seal against. Take care in installing this lip, as it needs to be flat

and level all the way around, so that there will not be any gaps underneath the glass, when

it is installed.

The ¾” square wood dowels were cut from 1”x 4” dimensional lumber, rather than using

commercially manufactured dowels. The 1”x 4” is cheaper and you can cut several from

one board. By using these to glue and nail the oven together, joints are stronger and more

resilient to warping from the heat that the oven will be subject to.

The angle of the top edge is important. If you make the angle too slight (too flat), the water

won’t run down the glass to the catch tube, when using it for a solar still. On the other

hand, if the angle is any steeper, it’s difficult to position the solar oven so that sufficient

sunlight gets into the unit.

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This is the back of the cabinet, with the opening for putting food and the water pans into

the back of the unit. The remaining pieces, specifically the bottom, front and top of the

back, are the same width. You can determine the length of them from the side panel.

Assemble the pieces of the cabinet, gluing and nailing or screwing them together. It is

important to eliminate all gaps between the pieces. Caulk all seams with acrylic painter’s

caulk to ensure that the cabinet is sealed. Once assembled, cover the entire inside of the

cabinet with ¾” aluminum faced Styrofoam insulation, with the aluminum side visible.

Paint this surface with flat black paint, to help absorb sunlight and turn it into heat.

The doorway in the back of the cabinet needs to have a tightly fitted door made for it. It is

important that this door seal well, so that heat and moisture can’t escape the oven. I would

recommend putting a foam rubber seal, of the type used for window weatherstripping,

around the edge of the door to help it seal. A sturdy latch is needed to hold the door firmly

closed, compressing the weatherstripping.

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The glass is installed against the lip shown in the middle photo above. Seal it in place with

caulking, window glazing or quarter-round molding.

A drip edge must be installed to the bottom of the glass, at the bottom, just above where

the catch tube will be located. I used a strip of rubber, of the type that is used to install

glass into cabinets, glued to the bottom side of the glass. While it is possible to install this

after the glass is installed, I recommend doing this before installing the glass, as it is much

easier to install that way.

The Reflectors As is, there isn’t enough glass surface area for enough sunlight to get into the solar oven.

We solve this problem by adding reflectors. You can either make these out of sheet

aluminum or you can use thin plywood, like lauan, covering it with aluminum foil. If made

from lauan, paint the substrate on both sides and the edges to protect it from moisture,

before gluing the aluminum foil to it.

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Aluminum-coated wood reflectors should be cut to the inner dimensions on the drawing

below, without the “ears.” Those ears are only necessary for aluminum reflectors.

If making the reflectors out of aluminum, it is best to cut the aluminum per the drawing

below, including those ears. The ears are then folded over 180 degrees, making a stronger

edge for the panel. Without this, the aluminum panel tends to flap in the wind too much.

If you have the capability, polish the face side of the reflectors with tripoly and jeweler’s

rouge to give it a smoother surface and reflect light better. This will allow more sunlight

to be reflected into the cabinet and increase the temperature inside.

You will need two of the larger reflectors and two of the smaller ones. These reflectors are

connected together at the corners, making a rectangle, with split rings of the sort used for

cheap key rings (like what the keys for a padlock come on). To hold them to the cabinet, I

used small bungee cords.

Setting it Up to be a Solar Still In order to use your solar oven as a solar still for purifying water, a few further

modifications need to be made to your solar still. You’ve already done the first, in

attaching the drip edge to the bottom side of the glass, before installing it. The next is to

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drill the holes shown in the drawing below. These holes are used, from left to right, for

the outflow tube, fill tubes and a thermometer in the little hole at the top.

The fill tube, like the catch tube, is made of PVC pipe. You’ll need to make each fill tube

in two sections, leaving the horizontal tube disconnected from one fitting or the other,

until the tube is installed into the side of the oven’s cabinet.

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Obviously, the solar oven/still can’t be used for both purposes at the same time. When

using it for a solar oven, there is no need for the bucket shown. A pan of food is inserted

into the oven through the door and the still is left in the sunlight, pointed south. This type

of solar oven is a slow-cooker, like cooking with a Crockpot. You’ll need to leave the food

sitting in the sun for several hours to cook.

When using it for a solar still, two 9”x 13” oven-proof glass baking pans are set inside the

still and filled with water. You can either fill them with water before placing them in the

still, or place them in the still and fill them with water through the fill tubes shown above.

In either case it is best to refill the pans with water through the tubes, so as to not allow

the heat to escape from the still by opening the door.

It’s a good idea to use pre-heated water to fill the still. I did this by leaving the water sitting

in the sun, in dark-colored pitchers. If you don’t have dark colored pitchers, cover them

with a piece of dark cloth and allow them to sit in the sun, the cloth will absorb the

sunlight, warming the pitchers inside.

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Never leave the oven/still sitting without any water or food inside. Without anything to

absorb the heat, captured heat will begin to attack the Styrofoam insulation, then move

on to warp the wood. You shouldn’t leave it in the rain either, as that can warp the wood.

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MAKING A SOLAR DEHYDRATOR

The solar oven/still we just talked about can also be used as a solar dehydrator for

dehydrating food, but it’s a bit small for it. What some people have done, to overcome

this, is to just make a wider version of the same thing. I’ve seen some as big as four foot

wide; the width limit for the glass they could buy. While workable, that’s not an ideal

solution.

If we want to go even simpler, we can forget about the angle on the box face and just make

a glass-topped box. That isn’t quite as efficient, as it’s not built with the face pointing

directly at the sun; but for people living in the far south of the country, in the summertime,

the sun is directly overhead anyway.

Even so, the problem with any of these designs is that they are limited in space. Having

dehydrated foods for years, I’ve found that you never have enough space. Even the largest

consumer-grade dehydrators get full all too quickly, limiting what you’re able to do. So to

me, the number one requirement of any solar dehydrator is that it offers more rack space

than what I can get out of a flat, one-level dehydrator.

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Fortunately, those commercially manufactured dehydrators have shown us the way, with

multi-shelf units. Building a cabinet which allows for those multiple shelves is easy. The

trick then is getting heat to them, so that the food will be dehydrated by it. To do that, we

need to separate the heat portion of the dehydrator from the drying cabinet, allowing the

heating portion to heat air, which then passes through the drying cabinet.

By the way, this is how the better dehydrators work as well. They have a heating element

and fan which heat up incoming air and then blow it through the drying cabinet. The one

main thing we’re going to do different, is that rather than a fan run by electricity, we’re

going to use convection to move the air.

The overall size of this solar dehydrator is about six feet tall and seven feet long. But the

size isn’t as critical as the relation of the parts to each other. As you can see from the

diagram above, the drying cabinet is higher than the solar collector. This allows the air

that is heated in the collector to travel upwards, into the drying cabinet. Fresh air replaces

that at the intake, which is located at the lowest point of the collector. To ensure air flow,

there is also an air outlet at the top of the drying cabinet.

The Solar Collector The solar collector is basically nothing more than a sealed glass-topped box. It is made of

a 1”x 6” frame and a plywood bottom. The box should be roughly two feet wide for

stability. If it’s much narrower, the unit can fall over too easily. If it’s much wider, it’s hard

to keep the drying racks from sagging.

There is a piece of wire mesh screen inside the collector. Avoid fiberglass screening and

stick to aluminum, as aluminum is one of the best heat conductors there is. The screen

needs to be black in color, so that it will absorb the most possible sunlight and convert it

into heat.

All it takes to install the screen is a couple of wood strips, ½” x ½” or ½” x ¾”, attached

to the inside of the collector at an angle, from the top to the bottom. This strip is not shown

in the diagram above, as you wouldn’t be able to see the mesh screen if it was shown. It is

important to angle it, as shown, so that all the air passing through the collector must pass

through this screen. It is also important that the entire inside of the collector be painted

flat black, so that it will absorb sunlight, converting it to heat.

This screen is the main “heating element” of the solar dehydrator, absorbing sunlight and

converting it to heat. The aluminum-faced foam insulation does the same, although not

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as efficiently. Air passing through the collector is heated, causing it to rise, following the

angle of the collector, up to the drying cabinet.

The diagram above shows how the air intake is made. It is integral to the frame of solar

collector, with three 3-1/2” holes cut right through the frame. They are covered on the

inside with screening to keep bugs out. On the outside, a simple wood track has been

attached, allowing small sliding doors, made of masonite, with drawer pulls attached, to

be installed.

This is the temperature control for the solar dehydrator, which works by allowing you to

control how fast the air moves through the cabinet. You can see that there is a

thermometer mounted through the side of the drying cabinet in the first diagram.

Finally, the solar collector is topped off with a piece of glass, allowing the sunlight into the

cabinet, while helping to keep the heat inside. I haven’t shown it, but you’ll need

something to mount the glass to, much like in the solar oven/still. The same sort of ledge,

made of ¾” square pine, works well. Be sure to paint it, before installing the glass, to

provide some protection from moisture.

Just a note on that ¾” square pine. I use a lot of ¾” square, ¾” x ½” and ¾” x ¼” pine

strips in my projects. Rather than paying the high price for buying square dowel rods or

architectural moldings, I buy #2 grade 1”x 4”s or 1”x 6”s (whichever I can get at a good

price) and rip strips from them, to these dimensions, which I keep in my materials stock

in my workshop. I then have them available for use, whenever I need them. The #2 grade

lumber has knotholes, so I end up with some short pieces, but it always seems to work

out. If I have to have long pieces and don’t have enough, I’ll rip a select board, but I try to

avoid that.

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The Drying Cabinet The drying cabinet portion of the solar dehydrator is literally a cabinet. If you’ve ever

made a cabinet before, you already know what to do. The major differences between this

cabinet, and any kitchen cabinet you might have made are the sloping top and open

bottom.

You’ll also need a screened air outlet, above the level of the drying racks. The total area of

this opening should equal the opening of the three air inlets that are at the bottom end of

the solar collector. So, if you use three 3-1/2” holes for the air inlet, you should have an

air outlet that’s about 10” x 3”. Cover it with a screen to keep bugs out and make sure that

the roof overhangs it enough to keep the rain out.

The inside of the cabinet is where the real changes are. Rather than having shelves inside

the cabinet, you want to have a bunch of removable racks. How many racks you build for

it will depend on your personal preference and how much dehydrating you do. I’d

recommend going for more, rather than less, as you can always use less than all your

racks, but you really can’t add more than the amount of space that you have available to

you.

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The inside of the cabinet needs to have rails to hold the drying racks on both the right and

left sides. Since there won’t be much weight on these rails, it is not necessary to use drawer

slides. Rather, simple runners, made of 3/4” pine, cut on the table saw, as I discussed

earlier, are sufficient. I’ve spaced these 1” apart, to give more space than the drying racks

will need, just to make it easier to put the drying racks in and out.

If you want to make it even easier to put the racks in, bevel cut the underside of the rails,

as shown in the drawing above, so that if you hit the rail above, while putting a tray into

the dehydrator, it will naturally slide down to meet the rail below.

You’ll need as many drying racks as you make space for when you put the runners into

the drying cabinet. The easiest way to make these is out of ¾” square pine strips, lap

jointed at the corners. The lap joint will provide a much stronger joint than either a miter

or just butting the pieces together. You can either just glue them together, clamping them

while the glue dries or glue and nail them, allowing the nails to provide the clamping while

the glue dries.

Route a groove into the drying rack frame so that you can use standard rubber screen

insert to hold the wire screen in place. I don’t recommend using fiberglass screen, as small

pieces of the fiberglass can come off into the screen. For this reason, aluminum is better.

However, aluminum can be eaten up by the acid in tomatoes and citric fruits. Therefore,

it’s best to use a coated or anodized aluminum screen.

Reflectors The same sort of reflectors that are used for the solar oven/still can be used in conjunction

with the solar dehydrator. The only difference is that you need to make them longer. The

actual length of the four reflectors should match the four sides of the solar collector on

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the dehydrator, with the upper or outer edge of the reflector about seven inches longer,

so that the reflectors will sit at an angle.

Reflectors are important with both of these projects, because they allow more sunlight

into the collector early and late in the day. They really aren’t as effective during the noon

hour. But when the sun is farther to the east or west, they greatly increase the amount of

sunlight that is gathered.

With that in mind, you could make reflectors for just the sides of the solar collector,

leaving out the top and bottom. If you choose to do that, you will need to use some sort of

a bridge between the two reflectors, to hold them in place, in relation with one another

and keep them from collapsing. A piece of aluminum channel or angle, cut to length, will

work for this. As with the panels in the solar oven/still, these spacers and the reflectors

can be held to each other with split rings.

Using the Solar Dehydrator The dehydrator is obviously used outdoors. It is important to point it due south, starting

early in the morning. With the reflectors in place, it should begin heating up about an

hour after sunrise and stay warm until sunset.

It is normally recommended to only dehydrate one category of food at a time in a

dehydrator. This is because of the difference in temperature needed for the various types

of food. For example, fruits and vegetables don’t need as hot a dehydrating environment

as meat does. The other concern with dehydrating multiple types of food at one time, is

juices from one item dripping down onto another. You wouldn’t want meat juices dripping

down onto a tray of fruit.

Be sure to cover your dehydrator at night or bring it indoors. It should not be left sitting

in the sun, when you are not using it, as excessive exposure to the sun can cause the parts

to warp, split and break down quicker.

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FRESNEL COOKER

The third kind of solar cooker that we can make is a Fresnel cooker. Fresnel lenses are the

thin, flat plastic lenses you can buy for making it easier to read small print. They typically

have concentric circles molded into the back side of them, which provide the

magnification.

Did you ever use a magnifying glass to burn a leaf when you were a kid? That works

because the magnifying glass concentrates the sun’s rays, much like we were trying to do

with the reflectors in the solar oven. However, you actually get much more concentration

from a magnifying glass, than you can from those reflectors; maybe not from the cheap

plastic magnifying glasses we used as kids, but definitely from a Fresnel lens.

You can actually get a lot of heat out of a Fresnel lens, if the lens is big enough. I’ve melted

pennies with my Fresnel cooker, which means that it got to 450°F (the core of a penny is

tin, not copper). I’ve also fried an egg with it, in about a minute and ten seconds.

What makes my Fresnel cooker able to do that is that the lens is about 24” x 34”, not

something you can carry in your wallet or use for reading a phone book. That large a lens

focuses a lot of light into what works out to be about a two inch circle.

So, where do you get a lens like that? You could look on eBay or you could keep your eyes

open for someone throwing away an old big-screen TV. I’m not talking about the flat-

screen TVs we have now, which you can hang on the wall; I’m talking about the old ones,

which took up a whole corner of your living room. Those all have Fresnel lenses in them;

they are used to focus the image onto the back side of the screen.

All you have to do, in order to have a Fresnel lens that’s big enough for one of these

cookers, is to take apart one of those televisions and scavenge the lens out of it. Of course,

the television won’t be usable for anything once you do that, but hardly anyone is using

them now anyway. If you find one that’s on the curb, waiting for the trash man to pick it

up, it won’t matter if it works after you take the Fresnel lens out of it anyway.

Typically, the focal length of these lenses is about 24 inches, which means that whatever

you want to cook or heat with the lens, needs to be located that distance from the lens,

allowing the sunlight to concentrate on that distance. So that position needs to be

adjustable. You’ll also need the angle and position of the lens itself to be adjustable, so

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that it can be positioned for maximum effectiveness, depending on the sun’s position in

the sky.

Making the Lens Frame To start with, we’re going to need a frame to hold the lens stiff and flat at the right angle

for cooking or heating whatever we want. Since it’s going to sit out in the weather, we

want something stronger and more durable than a picture frame; so I’d recommend

making one out of 1”x 3”s; if you can’t find those, you can always use 1”x 4”s.

In order to end up with a strong frame, it’s best to do a lap joint, like we were talking about

for the drying frames for the solar dehydrator. However, there is one major difference

between the two. That is, we need to make it possible for this frame to grip the Fresnel

lens and hold it in place.

All that is necessary to make this possible is to route a rabbet or step into one side of the

frame, which is as deep as the thickness of the lens. I made mine ¾” wide and about 1/16”

deep, all the way around. Rather than have to put the frame halfway together, than rout

it, I routed the individual pieces, than assembled the frame. This left a small gap at the

corners, which I filled with caulking. The only other precaution is to make sure that you

don’t cut the step too deep or you’ll have to put something in there, along with the lens,

so that it fits tightly.

A Stand for the Frame Once the lens is mounted in the frame, you’ll need a stand for it. There are many different

ways you can make this stand, but I decided to make a simple H-frame for it.

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As you can see from the picture above, the H-frame is rather simple in construction. I

made it from 1”x 2” lumber, with the exception of the feet, which are made from a 1”x 4”

and the two triangle pieces used as braces under the horizontal bar. These pieces are

extremely important, whether you use triangle pieces like I did or use longer pieces of 1”x

2”, running them across from the horizontal bar to the legs.

These two pieces are critical, as a square or rectangle is not a stable structure. Even your

home, which is probably rectangular, incorporates pieces of plywood in the corners of the

structure to give it stability and keep the framing from twisting sideways and collapsing.

Obviously the H-frame stand needs to be built so that it fits the lens frame; however, it

should be built ¼” wider to allow for the rubber friction washers that will be put between

the two frames to hold the lens in position, once it is adjusted.

While not a requirement, I went ahead and painted my Fresnel cooker, caulking all the

seams between pieces of wood, so that moisture could not seep between them. I also

covered all the exposed end grain with caulking, before painting it, to ensure that there

would not be any end grain exposed. Moisture seeps in more rapidly through end grain;

much better than it does through the side of the grain.

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It is necessary to connect the lens frame to the H-frame in such a way as to make it

possible for the angle of the lens to be changed. This connection also needs to be able to

be tightened, so that once the correct angle is set, it can be maintained.

In the diagram above, there is a threaded insert set into the lens frame, centered halfway

up the frame, so that it will be balanced. A 1/4” or larger threaded insert should be used,

but a T-nut is not appropriate for this application. Obviously, the size of the insert needs

to match up with the size of the screw knob used for clamping the frames together.

The final important part is a rubber washer, placed between the lens frame and the H-

frame stand. You can find these in the plumbing section of your hardware store or home-

improvement center. The ones I used are intended for use between a toilet tank and bowl.

This washer provides friction to help ensure that the frame won’t turn, once it is set to the

right angle.

While it is possible to build the Fresnel cooker without this washer, in my experience, it

is better to have it in place. Otherwise, the screw knob needs to be tightened excessively

to hold the frame in place.

Stand for the Food As I mentioned earlier, the focal length of most of these Fresnel lenses is 24”. You can

check this easily enough by setting up your Fresnel lens outdoors, in its stand facing south.

Take a piece of cardboard and hold it under the lens, moving it nearer and farther, until

you have the smallest possible point of light. Note the distance, as that’s your focal point.

Then you might want to douse the smoldering cardboard with water.

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You’ll need something to hold the cooking pot or pan at that distance. While a stack of

concrete blocks or bricks will work just fine, I decided to make a stand for the pot out of a

combination of steel and wood. The steel is needed, because the pan or pot may very well

get hot enough to singe a wood stand.

The hard part about making this stand is making the steel ring for the pot holder. I used

a piece of 1” steel strap and bent the circle in small increments. So what looks like a circle

in the picture is really a whole bunch of short straight lines, which curve together to make

a circle. The “X” in the middle is made of 1” square steel tubing, like the column of the

stand. Overall diameter is 8”.

You can’t see it in the picture, but there is a ½” square nut welded to the bottom side of

the “X”, for the ½” allthread to go into. Using the nut gave me a way of ensuring that the

allthread would be mounted perpendicular to the pot holding ring. Had I not used the nut

or had I not ensured that the nut was exactly flush up against the bottom side of the “X,”

the pot would have sat at an angle. While that would have still worked, there would have

been a better chance of it slipping off.

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Another square nut is used at the top of the column, giving the allthread something to go

into. Once again, it is important to make sure this is mounted exactly perpendicular to the

square tube being used as a column. A ½”-13 threaded square nut has an outside

dimension of 1”, making this easier.

The bottom end of the square tubing I used for the column fits into a wood base, which is

made much like the one for the lens, just smaller. By making the base fit snugly around

the tubing, you won’t have to worry about it falling over or falling out, even with just using

friction instead of fastening it to the wood.

Using the Fresnel Cooker Unlike the solar oven, the Fresnel lens cooker is a fast cooking device. As I mentioned,

you can fry an egg with one of these in about a minute. I only use cast iron cookware with

mine, both to prevent damage to the cookware and because the black color of the cast iron

will absorb more sunlight, converting it to heat.

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MORE THAN JUST SOLAR

While many homesteaders are trying to go off-grid; that’s not really what homesteading

is about. More than anything, it’s about growing your own food and being self-sufficient.

While that makes a natural tie-in with going off-grid, we wouldn’t want to ignore the other

parts of homesteading, especially raising food.

Having grown my own food in an extensive garden, I’ve built a number of different

projects which are associated with homesteading. Most of these are fairly easy. But they

served me well, helping me to grow nutritious organic food for my family. More than

anything, I appreciate that growing my own food kept my family from safe from eating

GMOs.

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SIMPLE RAISED BEDS FOR GARDENING

The number one factor in homesteading, for most of us, is usually growing out own food.

Whether you are homesteading as part of your survival plan, because you don’t trust

GMOs or just because you want to return to a simpler form of life, growing your own food

is a major part of your homesteading activity.

If you’re going to be growing food, I highly recommend using raised beds. There are many

advantages to growing in raised beds, including being able to achieve a higher plant

density, which makes your gardening efforts more efficient. But perhaps the biggest

reason to use raised beds is that it allows you the opportunity to make good soil for your

plants to grow in.

Good soil is the single most important part of any garden. Your plants receive their water

and nutrients from that soil, so good soil is going to have a major impact on how well your

plants grow and how abundant your harvest is. It will affect your harvest in both quantity

and size of the fruit.

Literally anything can be used for raised beds. I’ve seen a wide variety of interesting

options. However, if you’re serious about growing your own food or even a large part of

your own food, you’re going to need a sizeable garden. That’s going to take more than an

old bathtub or a few old tires for your raised beds. You’re going to be better off building

your own, so that you can make them consistent and make them big enough for a big

garden.

With that in mind, I’d recommend making your raised beds out of wood. I’ve tried making

raised beds out of cinder blocks and bricks before, but unless the ground you’re going to

build the garden on is absolutely flat, you’ll find it extremely hard to make an even bed

wall out of cinder blocks.

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It’s much easier to make a raised bed out of wood; specifically, dimensional construction

lumber. In the drawing above, we see a simple, yet common, design for a wood raised bed,

made out of dimensional lumber. This can be any size from 2”x 6”s up to 2”x 12”s,

depending on how high your want your raised beds to be. The higher they are, the deeper

a bed of quality soil you can create, but that will require hauling in more soil, mulch and

other items, mixing them together and filling your raised beds.

For the longest-lasting raised beds, you might want to consider using pressure-treated

lumber, even though it is more expensive. Modern pressure-treated woods use

preservatives which are not harmful to plants, nor will they leech chemicals into your

food. Another option, if you can’t afford the high cost of pressure-treated wood, is to use

normal construction dimensional lumber and coat it with linseed oil or some other wood

preservative. It won’t last as long as pressure-treated wood, but it will last quite a few

years.

Assembly of this sort of raised bed is extremely easy, as all you need is to cut the pieces to

length and bolt them together with lag screws. The 2”x 2” posts in the corners are there

to run the lag screws into, because if you run them into the end grain, they will eventually

rot out and you won’t have anything holding your raised bed together. You can also nail

the boards, but it’s the lag screws that provide the bulk of the strength.

If you want to go even deeper than what a 2”x 12” will allow, you can always stack your

boards; you can even do this at a later date. When stacking, stagger your corners for

maximum strength, as in the drawing below.

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A taller raised bed like this is much easier to work with, especially for older gardeners,

whose backs might not enjoy being bent over all day long. It also provides you with a

deeper bed of good soil that you have created, giving your plants more to draw

nourishment from and insulating them from whatever soil you might have in your yard.

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A SIMPLE WOOD GREENHOUSE

Unless you live far enough south that you don’t know what winter is, you probably need a

greenhouse to go with your gardening efforts. For that matter, the farther north that you

live, the more you need that greenhouse. Having a greenhouse allows you to extend the

growing season, by providing a warm environment for starting your seedlings, before the

weather is warm enough to plant outdoors. It can also extend your growing season in the

fall, allowing you to grow past the first freeze and up until the weather stays cold.

The greenhouse is the original passive solar structure. First used by the ancient Romans

to grow cucumbers for the emperor Tiberius in 30 AD, the greenhouse overcame the

problem of not being able to grow produce in the wintertime. While the design has been

improved since then, the basic concept is the same.

Greenhouses have been used for commercial operations and private gardens for

centuries, but there was a surge in the building and use of greenhouses in the early days

of the industrial revolution, when plate glass became more accessible.

Today, many gardeners and homesteaders build their own greenhouses, using thin,

flexible plastic sheeting, rather than glass. While this plastic will only last a couple of

years, it is inexpensive and easy to replace, making it a practical solution.

These greenhouses are also often made of PVC plumbing pipe; but that doesn’t last well

either, especially if you happen to live in a hot, sunny climate. PVC is not UV stable, so

will degrade in the sun and heat, becoming more brittle. Cold temperatures will also make

it brittle. So the chances of having to make some repairs to the structure increases with

every year and the need for replacement can come about in as little as three years.

On the other hand, a wood greenhouse structure can last for many years, especially if it is

made out of a wood product which is not greatly affected by the weather. The obvious

material to use for this is pressure treated wood, but you can do quite well, for much less

money, by using cedar fence pickets.

Wood greenhouses can be very attractive. But keep in mind, the more attractive you make

it, the more it is going to cost. Adding a stem wall, which is common to keep animals out,

will more than double the cost of the greenhouse. In order to keep the cost down, you’re

probably going to want to forego that feature. Likewise, it makes sense to avoid adding in

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operable windows and other features that will make the greenhouse more complicated to

build and more expensive.

There are many styles of greenhouses you can find on the internet, with most of them

having a typical peaked roof. But the problem with that roof style is that you either have

to put in columns to support it or make trusses for the roof. While that’s not really all that

hard, there is a simpler way; go with a barn style roof.

This greenhouse is made of all cedar 1”x 4”s. If your lumberyard doesn’t carry cedar 1”x

4”s, you can rip down some fence stakes, which are inexpensive and usually six feet long.

The material you cut off doesn’t even have to go to waste, as you can use it to make trellises

for use in your garden.

As you can see from the drawing above, each frame consists of five pieces, which are

overlapped at the corners, allowing you to nail or screw them together. The overlap of the

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joints makes the structure solid and stable. The frames should be spaced every two to

three feet apart, depending on personal preference. Remember, you will need one more

frame than you would calculate by dividing the finished length by how many feet you’ll

space them apart, due to needing both end frames as well.

A greenhouse like this can be easily enlarged, by extending the center roof span, if you

need a wider garden, or by adding additional frames to make it longer. In the house I used

to own, I had a greenhouse made this way, which was 15’ x 30’.

Once your frames are made, they should be held together by 1”x 4” stringers, located at

the centerline of the roof, at the transition from the wall to the roof and at ground level.

In the case of the stringer at ground level, I would recommend using pressure-treated

lumber for longer life.

You’ll need to add some additional structure to the frames at both ends. At one end, that

structure will consist of a door frame, which will need to be attached to the rest of the

frame. At the other end, it’s nothing more than something to hold the plastic. Pretty much

anything can be used at that end.

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Don’t forget the angled braces, shown in the drawing above. These are essential to give

the greenhouse structural stability. If you don’ have them, then a strong wind from either

end could collapse the greenhouse, laying all the frames over to one side. Be sure to stake

the structure down as well, so that strong winds can’t blow it over or send it skidding

across your back yard.

The final step is to cover the entire thing with sheet plastic or “visqueen.” This can most

easily be installed with a staple gun. However, strong winds can cause the plastic to tear

through the staples. You’re better off if you use washer-head roofing nails, although they

will be a bit hard to drive into the structure, due to the flexibility of the structure. An even

better solution is to use those washers with exterior-grade drywall screws. If you can’t find

washers like that, you can use water or soda bottle tops as washers.

Using a double layer of plastic sheeting will actually help to keep your greenhouse

warmer, even though it doesn’t seem like much in the way of insulation. You can further

insulate your greenhouse on the north side, by attaching Styrofoam house sheathing. If

you paint the inside of that black, it will help to convert sunlight to heat for your

greenhouse.

A Couple of Thoughts About Using Your Greenhouse:

• The whole idea of the greenhouse is to be a passive solar structure. So it needs to

sit somewhere where it will receive direct sunlight, preferably from the south.

• If you live in a warm climate, the inside of your greenhouse may get too warm for

your plants in the summertime.

• Greenhouses work well when used with both raised beds and pots.

• Having the pathways inside your greenhouse covered with dark mulch or gravel

(preferably black) will increase the amount of sunlight that is converted to heat.

• If you live in a cold part of the country, you can add additional solar collection

capacity to your greenhouse by placing black plastic barrels, filled with water,

inside your greenhouse. Sunlight will warm the water during the day, which can

release its heat into the greenhouse at night. Just be sure that your barrels don’t

block the sunlight from reaching any plants.

• Greenhouses do a pretty good job of keeping flying insects out, although not a

perfect job. Due to this, your plants probably won’t pollinate while in the

greenhouse.

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• Even though your greenhouse will keep your plants warmer than the ambient air

will, they are not a perfect solution. You may need to put a heater inside the

greenhouse on particularly cold nights.

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GARDEN SLAT WALL

Vertical gardening has become a craze; not just in the prepping community, but with

gardeners in general. It’s even being touted by some as being the form of the farm of

tomorrow, making it possible to grow a lot of food close to major urban populations,

rather than having to truck that food halfway across the country. Vertical gardens allow

you to get the most out of the space you have available, whether that is an entire

homestead of just a patio garden.

There are certain places where these vertical gardens are especially useful, such as

building an herb garden right off your patio. By using a vertical garden, you are able to fit

the most number of plants in the least possible area, while keeping them all accessible.

These vertical gardens can take on a lot of different forms, limited only by your

imagination; but perhaps the best form for a vertical garden, is to do a slat wall.

Slat walls are commonly used in retail stores, being part of a mounting system on walls,

for shelves, racks and hangers. It is also used for some island fixtures. The big advantage

of a slat wall is its versatility, allowing you to hang things just about anywhere you want

with just about any spacing you want. But slat board, the material hung on the wall is

expensive and really isn’t weatherproof. So we’ll have to come up with our own.

The materials I’d recommend using for this are either cedar fence pickets or pressure-

treated wood. Cedar does a pretty good job of withstanding the ravages of the weather,

much better than just normal “whitewood.” However, it is not as good as pressure-treated

lumber. Another option is to use 5/4 decking material. That will give your slat wall a more

solid look, but it will be strong enough even with the thinner material.

You’ll also need a couple of 4”x 4” posts. Again, you have the choice of whether to use

pressure-treated ones or normal ones. In this case, I’d definitely recommend the

pressure-treated ones. Otherwise, your wood posts will eventually rot in the ground.

One decision you’ll need to make is whether or not you want to stain your slat wall. If so,

it’s much easier to stain the boards and posts, before assembling everything. It’s real hard

to stain between the slats, after assembly. If you want to use that construction-grade

whitewood, then be sure to treat is with some sort of oil-based sealer (oil-based exterior

stain can work for this); even linseed oil will extend the life of the wood.

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Keep in mind that your slat wall needs to be located so that it is facing south, so that your

plants will receive adequate sunlight. Mounting it in a north-south direction, so that one

side receives sunlight during the day and the other side at night isn’t as good, unless you

are planning on populating it with plants that grow well in the shade.

To start with, dig holes large enough in diameter for the posts to go into the ground and

two feet deep. Four-by-four fence posts are usually 8’ long, so this will give you enough

depth to make a very sturdy wall that’s six feet tall.

Set the posts into the holes and brace them to hold them vertical. Typically, bracing

consists of 2”x 4”s which are nailed to the top of the post and attached to stakes in the

ground. You want to make sure that both (or all) of your posts are vertical. Even more

important, you want to make sure that they are exactly parallel to each other. You’re better

off with them both being a bit off vertical, if they are still parallel. If one is tipped one way

and the other is tipped the other way, it will be real obvious when you attach your slats.

Fill the remainder of the space with concrete, stopping just below ground level. Stopping

below ground level allows you to push some dirt back into the hole, hiding the concrete.

Allow the concrete to set, then remove the bracing.

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Installing the slats is much like installing fence pickets, with the exception that they are

installed horizontally. You’ll want to cut all your slats to even their length and you may

want to round or chamfer the ends, depending on personal preference.

Leave a few inches of extra space below the bottom slat, so that it is not sitting right on

the ground. This will help prevent water damage. Install that first slat using a level, then

space all the rest of the slats off of it, using a spacer to align them and pushing each slat

up tight against the spacer when attaching it. The spacing between slats can be anywhere

from ½” to 1”, as you prefer, just as long as it is consistent. Check the level of your slats

after every few that you install, just to ensure you’re not getting off.

As you can see in the drawing above, your top slat may not work out exactly level with the

top of the posts. That’s okay. Allow the top slat to run past the tops of the posts, attaching

it just like the rest. That will look better than having the tops of the posts sticking up past

the slates.

A Simpler Slat Wall If you want a slat wall for your garden, but really don’t want all the work that it takes to

do what I’ve just talked about, then you can go for a more rustic style, using pallets. For

this, you’ll want to find pallets which are in good condition and which have a large

percentage of the deck covered. Some pallets have very wide spacing between the boards

on the deck, which won’t work as well.

The pallets can be stood on edge, with the decking slats horizontal. Then you can drive

metal fence stakes, of the type used for barbed wire fences, down through them. The metal

fence stakes will provide enough strength to keep the slat wall from tipping over, although

it might move slightly.

Planters for Your Slat Wall You can buy planters that will hang on your slat wall or even hooks for hanging planters.

IKEA, the furniture giant, manufactures and sells a wide variety of hangers and planters

which will work with slat walls; as well as a number of other companies.

You can also make your own planters, out of just about anything you want. All that’s

needed, to make your planters work with a slat wall is to either have a hook for them or

to have what’s known as a “Z-hook”. You can make either of these out of 1” wide x 1/8”

thick steel strap.

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When making your hooks, be sure to take into account the thickness of your slats on your

slat wall. You may be better off with a smaller or larger horizontal dimension, rather than

the 1.00” shown here.

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COMPOST BIN

Any experienced gardener believes in composting. Taking the clippings from your garden,

leaves that you rake up and scraps from the kitchen and turning them back into usable

fertilizer for your garden is probably the ultimate in sustainability. Composting allows the

essential nutrients that are stored up in plant matter and even in animal waste to be

recycled, much as it is in nature.

The process of composting is an entirely natural one if you think about it. When leaves

fall off trees, plants die or fruit falls from trees it immediately starts back into the process

of being broken down into the nutrients that it was made of. This continuing cycle is part

of what allows continual growth to occur. If plant matter didn’t break down and return to

the soil, it wouldn’t take long before the soil couldn’t sustain plant life anymore.

Theoretically, you could just let plant waste fall wherever and begin decomposing; but

that’s highly inefficient and probably won’t get those nutrients into your garden, where

you need them. Rather, they’d probably end up on your lawn. Using a compost bin allows

you to get all of that decomposition work going on in the same place, making it more

efficient and making it possible for you to use it to top your garden beds when it’s ready

(hopefully in the fall).

As with other things we’ve looked at, there are many different ways of making a compost

bin. I’ve seen some great ones made out of plastic barrels. But we’re doing woodworking

projects, so we want to make our compost bin out of wood.

One such way is to make it much like the raised beds we talked about earlier. The basic

difference would be that we’re talking about a raised bed that’s about three to four feet

square. It also has to have space between the courses of boards, so that air can circulate

into the compost. One final difference is that it can be extremely helpful to have the front

of the bin able to be opened, so that you can remove the compost when it is ready.

In order to do this, you would need to make the front corners with tracks for the boards

to go down into, as shown in the diagram below (compost bin shown from above).

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Putting the boards into tracks like this is much more effective than making a swinging

door, in that it always seems there are problems with closing the door, because of the

compost within pushing on it. With this method, all that needs to be fitted is one board at

a time. Considering that the compost bin doesn’t need to be opened often, having to fit

them in the track really isn’t much of an issue.

There’s an easier way to make a compost bin though; that’s to make it out of pallets. Four

pallets, stood on edge and tied together at the corners, make a very effective compost bin,

even though it doesn’t look as nice as one that you make. The spacing that normally exists

between the deck boards on the pallets provide for the necessary air circulation, without

creating a problem with the compost falling out.

A few things you need to keep in mind with any compost bin:

• You really don’t want to put the compost bin near your home, even though that is

convenient. Compost bins tend to smell bad and you don’t need that aroma wafting

into your home, when the window is open.

• A compost bin needs to be kept moist, in order for decomposition to occur. Worms,

bugs and bacteria all need moisture to survive. If you allow your compost bin to

dry out, you may need to add worms and bacteria to kick start it again.

• Compost bins work best when sitting on the ground, giving access for

subterraneous insects to get to your compost and help with the decomposition

process.

• Composting generates heat. If you run copper tubing through your compost bin

and pump water through it, it will actually heat the water.