Home, Farm, Ranch

Ag (Sustainable):

Links & External Sites:

  • Organic & Sustainable Farmers Can Feed the World
  • Mercola: Promoting Sustainable Agriculture
  • American Feast Blog

Bees & Pollinator Habitat (honeybees & native bees)

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

=>Native Bees, including Mason Bees

  • Listing of Montana Natve Bees (Montana.edu site)
  • Farming for Pollinators (www.nrcs.usda.gov site)
  • Home Made Mason Bee Paper Liners that Work, by Randy Person (on WSU Extension, Snohomish County website)
  • Modular Housing for Orchard Mason Bees, by Randy Person
  • Orchard Mason Bees, on WSU Extension’s Gardening website
  • Foraging Behavior of Orchard Mason Bees

=>Plantings, including Native

  • Montana Pollinator-Friendly Plantings (pdf reduced file size, 840 kb)
  • USDA:  How to Attract & Keep Wild Bees (www.nrcs.usda.gov site)
  • Enhancing Nest Sites for Native Bees (Pollinator.org site)
  • More resources & articles (Pollinator.orgsite)

Cleaning Supplies

See also: Soapmaking and Candles, below

ESP Files:

The EssentiaList: Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Other sites:

  • Terre Essentials: Ingredient Guide (for personal and body-care products; deciphering an ingredient list)

Communication:

See Files: Communication

Computers, Electronic Devices and email:

  • The EssentiaList: Online & smartphone security: Fraudulent Email

Cold Storage, Root Cellars, etc.:

ESP Files:

  • Gathering Summary: Root Cellars, Gardens & Greenhouses, 062409 (496 kb)
  • EssentiaList Handout: Storage of Produce (128 kb pdf) includes tips for storing fruits, vegetables and grains, and cold storage options for root veggies
  • The EssentiaList:  Storing Vegetables for Winter, updated  (112 KB)
  • The EssentiaList: Refrigeration without Electricity (92 KB)
  • Veggie Keeping-Time in Cold Storage, and Winer Storage Chart: Optimal Conditions, two 1-page charts for hanging in your root cellar:

Links & External Sites:

  • Backwoods Home Magazine: Successful Cold Storage, by Sylvia Gist
  • Fridge-Less Living, from Mother Earth News includes root cellars, gardening concerns, preservation, catalogues and supply sources, etc
  • Spring Houses:  Stone spring house at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve,  Wikipedia,
  • Ice Houses – Stone Construction: Ice house at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Cool-it: Off Grid, Build an Ice House and Mother Earth News: Build an Ice House
  • Ice Houses:  Plank Construction: Old and Sold Antiques Digest: Building an Ice House and Planet Green: How to Build an Eco-Friendly Ice House
  • Ice Houses:  Brick Construction: Garden History: How to Build an Ice House (1828)

Books

  • Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Bubel 1991

Emergency Preparedness:

see Emergency Preparedness Files

Fibers:

ESP Files & Articles:

Links & External Sites:

  • Wool:  Combing Wool Fleece (video)

Food & Food Preservation

moved to Food & Food Preservation Files page

Garment Creation

See also Fibers, above; Leather and Leather Goods, below.

  • #1: Making Simple Garments
  • #2: Garment Creation: Supplies
  • #3: Garment Creation: Basic Fitting Patterns, The Sloper and Block
  • #4: Garment Creation: The Basics of Fitting
  • #5: Garment Creation: Common Fitting Issues (not yet published)
  • PDF files
  • Cat’s Bodice & Sleeve Sloper
  • Japanese Hippari (Jacket): Design and Construction
  • Japanese Monpei (Pant): Design and Construction
  • Turkish Coat-Layout
  • Cat’s Shirt Block
  • Drafting a Sleeve Block (also applies to drafting any sleeve)
  • Prepare your garment or muslin for fitting

Health & Remedies

ESP Articles & Files:

  • Ancient Healing Remedies for Every Home (Rectal Enema; Nasal Enema (Neti Pot)
  • The EssentiaList: Administer an Eye Wash
  • Gathering Summary: Herbs & Their Traditional Uses, July 28, 2010

Related Files (pdf)

Links & External Sites:

Homemaking, General

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • A Manual of Home Making(1919)  (http://chestofbooks.com/food/household/A-Manual-Of-Home-Making/index.html

Home Energy

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • Flathead Electric Co-Op on net metering for alternative energy applications.
  • Build it Solar:  Lots of good off-grid ideas, including root cellars and refrigeration alternatives
  • Rep. Ted Poe (Texas) on CFL Bulbs (video)

Leather and leather goods:

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • Sinew: www.sparrowcreek.com/Sinew.htm for a photo discussion of making sinew into thread; or “Charlie Tadano, bowyer, demonstrates sinew thread technique”, a 1-minute video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQMAgngplLM

Livestock:

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • Cows:  Keeping a Family Cow, by Ron Schmid, N.D
  • Chickens:  My Pet Chicken,  My Pet Chicken Guide to Chicken Care(ebook),  The Farm: Chickens,  Home-Made Living: Chickens, Mississippi State University: Best Poultry Breed, BackYard54.com: Raising Chickens in your Back Yard

Native Habitat, Plantings

See also Bees & Habitat, above

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

Miscellaneous (Low-energy Living)

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • Food n Stuff Blog from Australia:  Composting Toilets & Worms; Bean Teepee
  • The Green Guide:  Mainstream newsletter and tips on living green.
  • Organic Consumers Association on:  Composting, Laundry without electricity, and Canning 101.

Pumps:

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:

  • Hand Pumps from Lehman’s (cistern pumps) that generally lift up to 20 feet.
  • Deep-well hand pumps from Survival Unlimited (lift up to 300 feet)
  • Bison hand-powered water pumps for deep wells
  • Hand & solar-powered water pumps from Solar4Power: (for deep wells)
  • Guzler hand & foot pumps from RealGoods

Sewing

see Garment Creation, above

Solar Cooking/Drying

Links & External Sites:

  • FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):  Solar Cooking.com or Solar Cooking Archive (from Wikia Green) (with photos)
  • Make your own:  Solar Ovens Made from Pizza Boxes
  • Build it Solar:  Lots of good off-grid ideas, including root cellars and refrigeration alternatives; Solar cooking, Food drying, stills, heating, cooling;
  • Solar vs wood discussion (in-depth project in South America)  http://designserver.rit.edu/Archives/P05301/Documents/P3Phase1.pdf(broken link)

Soapmaking and Candles

See also Cleaning Supplies, above

ESP Files:

  • Gathering Summary: Making Soap at Home, by Kathy Mansfield of Snowbunny Soap, January 26, 2011 (9 pages)
  • Handcrafted Soap (Slideshow for ESP by K. Mansfield, Snowbunny Soap) (2 slides per page, 10 pages total)
  • The EssentiaList: Soap Additives, by Kathy Mansfield
  • The EssentiaList: The Basics of Soapmaking
  • The EssentiaList: Making Your Own Soap Bars
  • The EssentiaList: Making Liquid Soap from Scratch
  • The EssentiaList: Working with Lye
  • The EssentiaList: Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Links & External Sites:

  • Summer Bee Meadow for Online Lye calculator.
  • Brambleberry.com: from Bellingham WA, supplies and resources
  • Candle & Soap
  • Candle and Soap video on goat milk in soapmaking: video.about.com/candleandsoap/Make-Soap-Using-Goat-Milk.htm
  • Teach Soap.com: soapmaking recipes, tips and tutorials
  • Terre Essentials: Ingredient Guide (for personal and body-care products; deciphering an ingredient list)

Water Conservation:

ESP Files:

Links & External Sites:
  • Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Montanal (from MSU Extension)  Lots of really good info, including cost estimates.  More sites on rainwater collection:  Oasis Design; rain barrels and cisterns.
  • Gray Water, for irrigation (not potable):  Source Book for Green and Sustainable Living; New Mexico State University; Colorado State University;Montana State University; Montana Watershed Coordination Council
  • Harvesting Rainwater.com, by Brad Lancaster.  Lots of information on rainwater and graywater harvesting.  Focus is on Arizona, but ideas apply most everywhere.

Sourdough & Grain Ferments

see: Culturing & Fermentation Files

Sprouting & Juicing

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