93 million Americans are descended from the “homesteaders” of the late 19th Century. The United States on Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln signing the Homestead Act, the law that gave away 270 million acres of land and transformed the vast American interior. The Act led to a rush of European settlement of Plains states. (more…)

Keep reading on the move, when hiking, or a long sea journey.

This winner of a Consumer Electronics Show innovation award for 2012 is a first of its kind — a solar-powered e-reader cover. It’s not cheap but for Kindle devotees who want to be able to read late in the night while they’re on a camping trip or otherwise away from a charger, the SolarKindle promises to deliver three months of reading time under normal sunlight conditions without drawing on the Kindle’s battery.
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For Vancouver residents who want to eliminate the global industrial food complex from their diet, help is on the way. Rick Havlak’s Homesteader’s Emporium, is a new store set to open in June servicing aspiring beekeepers, permaculture growers, home brewers, cheesemakers, disaster survivalists, backyard egg farmers, and front porch food growers will find equipment, ingredients and tools as well as practical advice.
The 1,700-square-foot store-front will offer a range including beehives and honey extractors, chicken coops, cider presses, food dehydrators, vertical small-space growing systems and home cheesemaking supplies for what Havlak believes is a burgeoning market of organic food purists, sustainable lifestylers and post-apocalyptic preppers. (more…)

Abrams: raising the profile of off-grid life

If trailer does not appear above click here to see. (more…)

We have run many articles on how to get cheap, non-toxic cleaning products for your home as well as how to make your own soap, A DIY washing machine and a solar powered clothes dryer.

Check out this article from Frugal Living containing 23 PAGES of useful tips on how to make your own cleaning products for next to nothing. In this article, published just a few weeks ago,  you will find tips on how to clean your home with eco-friendly homemade cleaning products. You will find more than 45 fun and easy to follow recipes to make almost every room in your house sparkle. These recipes are all done with non-toxic economical ingredients that can be found in your kitchen. (more…)

Is it Vaporware?

A decision by Samsung to sell solar powered laptops in Bangladesh at low prices could be the first of  a new generation.  For mobile users and those living without utility power in the West, the 3G products could give long-term Internet access on the remotest mountaintop.

In a display of cultural ineptitude, the Seoul based company with an annual turnover of more than $220 billion says it will launch the new product next month, right at the start of the Bangladesh monsoon season which  would make solar powered portables unusable.

Samsung had announced plans last year for a solar powered laptop to be launched (improbably) in Russia. But this product has yet to appear. The new development seems more realistic as part of a strategy to target the young professional market among the 160 million Bangla population.

“We will launch solar notebooks in June for young professionals,” said Choon Soo Moon, managing director of Samsung Electronics (Bangladesh operations), in an interview with Dhaka’s Daily Star. (more…)

Its fun in Conwy

Looking for free solar power and live in North Wales?

Farms and rural businesses without mains electricity in Conwy, a costal community at the tip of Snowdonia National Park North Wales, are being invited to take apply for free solar power installation in a trial funded by the local government.  (more…)

Charles Baird - jolly good sport

Is he secretly being sponsored by Remington?

A 40-year-old oil rigger and filmmaker from Anchorage will spend the next year on uninhabited Latouche Island in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.  Charles Baird will live in a shed, and plans to feed off catches from hunting and fishing.

He’ll send short updates via a satellite to http://www.facebook.com/AlaskanPioneer with no way to receive any inbound messages.  He calls his experiment more modern-day homesteading than a survival game, and he’s heading into the adventure well-armed. (more…)

Hard work, but at least you can look good

Urban homesteading, growing or raising a portion of your own food, has become so fashionable that upscale cookware company Williams-Sonoma introduced the Agrarian collection, a line of tools and supplies for activities ranging from beekeeping to cheese making, delivered to 75 countries.

Photos of gardening beds thick with leafy greens, heirloom chickens strutting around picturesque coops and shiitake mushrooms growing on a log make the homesteading life look beautiful and delicious, while also playing down the hard-work aspect of these chores-turned-hobbies. Copper gardening tools are so shiny and pretty they seem more like rustic decorations for a farm-to-table restaurant than tools for working in the dirt. (more…)