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Everything on the site in one index — guides, package solutions, courses and project spotlights.
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Guide · Energy Independence
Sizing an Off-Grid Solar Array From Real Load Data
Panel-count rules of thumb put people in the dark every January. Here is the metering-first method we use on every system we help design.
Guide · Energy Independence
LiFePO4 vs Lead-Acid: What Six Winters Actually Cost Us
We ran a flooded lead-acid bank for six years, then replaced it with lithium in the same enclosure. Here are the real numbers on both.
Guide · Energy Independence
Building a Drain-Back Solar Hot Water Loop for Freezing Climates
Glycol systems degrade, leak and need servicing. A drain-back loop uses gravity and nothing else to survive −12°F.
Guide · Energy Independence
Is Your Creek Worth a Micro Hydro Turbine? Measure These Two Numbers First
Head and flow decide everything. Two afternoons with a hose and a bucket will tell you whether to keep reading or go back to panels.
Guide · Resilient, Healthy Home
Four Natural Cleaner Formulas That Replace an Entire Cabinet
One acid, one alkaline, one solvent, one disinfectant. Mix these four and you can throw out eleven bottles.
Guide · Resilient, Healthy Home
Excluding Mice From an Old Farmhouse Without a Single Poison Bait
Trapping is maintenance. Sealing is a fix. Here is the autumn walk-around we do every year, in order.
Guide · Resilient, Healthy Home
The Foundation Ring: Planting the First Ten Feet Around Your House
The ground touching your foundation controls moisture, pest pressure and summer cooling load. Most of it is planted exactly wrong.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
Building No-Dig Raised Beds That Last a Decade
Most raised beds fail at the corners in year three. Here is the joinery, the wood and the fill sequence that gets you to year ten.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
Designing a Seven-Layer Food Forest Guild for a Small Lot
One 30-foot circle, seven layers, and a planting order that gets you fruit in year two instead of year seven.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
Growing Shiitake on Oak Logs: An Afternoon of Work for Six Years of Harvest
Cut in winter, inoculate in spring, harvest from the following autumn. The whole system fits in the shade behind a woodshed.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
Keeping Chickens Through a Mountain Winter Without Heat Lamps
Cold does not kill a healthy flock. Damp air and 3 a.m. predators do. Here is how we winter eight hens at 3,000 feet.
Guide · Water Security
Sizing a Solar Well Pump for a 300-Foot Well
Total dynamic head, not depth, decides your pump. Here is the arithmetic and the array size it lands on.
Guide · Water Security
Developing a Mountain Spring for Gravity-Fed Water
Nine years, no pump, 43 psi at the barn. The full build: finding the vein, boxing it, and getting the water downhill clean.
Guide · Water Security
Gravity Drip Irrigation That Actually Runs at 4 PSI
Standard drip hardware chokes below 10 psi. Here is the layout, filtration and emitter choice that waters 1,800 square feet off a tank on a stand.
Guide · Energy Independence
Is Solar Still Worth It in 2026? The Honest Post-Tax-Credit Math
The 30% federal credit is gone for most homeowners. Here is the payback math we ran on three real quotes, and the DIY paths that recover what the credit used to cover.
Guide · Energy Independence
How Long Can a Battery Run a Refrigerator? Measured, Not Estimated
We metered four refrigerators across a week of outages. Here is the runtime math that actually holds up, and how to size a bank you can trust in January.
Guide · Energy Independence
How to Heat a House Without Electricity (Tested Through Three Ice Storms)
When the line goes down in February, your furnace goes with it. Here are the four heat sources we rely on, ranked by what they actually cost to run.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
How to Fill a Raised Bed Cheap (What We Use After 30 Years)
Bagged soil turns a $60 bed into a $300 one. Here is the layered fill we have used on 40-plus beds, with the cost per cubic foot of every layer.
Guide · Food Sovereignty
How Many Chickens for a Family of 4 — Real Egg Math
Six hens sounds right until February. Here is the flock-size math using actual laying rates, molt gaps and what a dozen eggs really costs you to produce.
Guide · Water Security
Rainwater Harvesting: What Your Roof Actually Yields
One inch of rain on 1,000 square feet is 623 gallons. Here is how to turn that into a tank size, a first-flush setup and water you would drink.
Package · Renewable Energy
The Blackout-Proof Basement
Eight 415W panels, a 60A MPPT controller, 5 kWh of LiFePO4 storage and a 3 kW inverter — the exact stack running our workshop.
Package · Water
The Never-Dry Water Kit
Helical rotor DC pump, controller, safety rope and drop pipe sized for deep wells with no grid connection.
Package · Garden
The Year-Round Harvest System
Four 4×8 rot-resistant cedar beds, corner hardware, landscape cardboard and a full season of drip line.
Package · Water
The Gravity-Fed Spring System
Spring box, screened intake, overflow assembly and 300 ft of buried-rated line for a true gravity system.
Package · Renewable Energy
The Free Hot Water Retrofit
Two evacuated tube collectors, an 80-gallon exchange tank and the drain-back controls for freezing climates.
Package · Natural Home
The Chemical-Free Home Kit
Amber glass bottles, base ingredients and our four printed formulas that replace a cabinet of commercial cleaners.
Package · Garden
The Six-Year Mushroom Harvest
Sawdust spawn for 20 logs, an angle-grinder inoculation tool, wax and a marking system that survives the woods.
Package · Water
The No-Hand-Watering System
Low-pressure emitters, filtration and headers designed to run off a tank at 4 psi — no pump anywhere in the loop.
Package · Garden
The First Flock Starter
Insulated coop panels, a solar door opener, deep-litter ventilation kit and predator-rated hardware cloth.
Package · Garden
The Ten-Year Food Forest
A seven-layer planting guild: two fruit trees, nitrogen fixers, berry canes, herbs and ground cover with a planting map.
Course · 34 lessons
Off-Grid Solar Design: Power You Own
Size, spec and wire a system that carries a household through the worst month of the year.
Course · 28 lessons
Backyard Food Forest Bootcamp: Groceries That Grow Back
Design and plant a seven-layer perennial food system on a quarter acre or less.
Course · 22 lessons
Gravity Water Systems: Pressure Without a Pump
Develop a spring and deliver pressurized water to a homestead with no pump and no power.
Course · 19 lessons
The Non-Toxic Home: Nothing Harmful Comes Through the Door
Replace the cleaning cabinet, shut out pests and green the first ten feet around your house.
Spotlight · Saguache County, Colorado — 8,100 ft
Four Years Off the Generator: A High-Desert Cabin in Colorado
Dana and Rob Mercer ran a 900-square-foot cabin on gasoline for two seasons. Then they spent one summer building a hybrid solar and storage system that has not needed the generator since October 2022.
Spotlight · Addison County, Vermont — Zone 4b
240 Pounds of Fruit From a Quarter Acre: A Vermont Food Forest at Year Four
The Okonkwo family turned a mowed suburban backyard into a three-guild food forest. Four seasons later they harvested 240 pounds of fruit and berries and stopped mowing entirely.
Spotlight · Blanco County, Texas — 32 in. average rainfall
Three Droughts, No Well: A Rainwater-Only Homestead in the Texas Hill Country
The Alvarez family was quoted $34,000 for a 620-foot well with no water guarantee. They built 30,000 gallons of rainwater storage instead and have not hauled a drop in five years — through two burn bans and a record dry summer.