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December 2013

Community

Stock up on LED lights now!

halfoff

Christmas is over and the after Christmas sales have started, one thing to grab up now before they all vanish is LED light strings, yes the ones that are sold for Christmas lighting, they are being marked down right now, stores have to make room for the next big holiday, meaning that you can get some major bargains right now.

All month long, I have been looking at my local Alco store (it’s like a small Target/dollar store with less stuff), I have been eyeballing the LED Christmas light strings, but have been biding my time knowing the price would drop dramatically after Christmas. Sure enough, a few days ago when I dropped in, I made a beeline to the back of the store for their Christmas section, I saw the sign, ALL CHRISTMAS DECORATION 50% OFF, that’s all I needed.

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Fleece jackets for the cold snap

They may not be the statement jacket of the season, yet a fleece pullover or jacket is a great investment for your winter wardrobe. It could save you up to a hundred bucks in the first year of use alone – the extra layer can cut your heating bill when you are home as well as keep you warm when running out to meet friends.

There are many great fleece jackets out there, and the prices vary widely – the main differences are in the level of warmth they provide and how good they look.

One of the lowest priced on the market does both – looking good and having a high warmth level – at under $20 plus delivery, Dickies Men’s Polar Fleece, Dark Gray, Medium offers value.

Its not super-stylish, but its not ugly either.

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Community

Grilling in the sky castle

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I love cooking, nearly anything, but until very recently I have kept my cooking adventures within the walls of the sky castle, a few weeks ago I got bit by the BBQ/grill bug. It all started out innocently enough, we had a small, very small table top charcoal grill, it wasn’t really large enough, but it was a good start. Next we dusted off the tall smoker that could be used as a grill by moving the charcoal pan up to the top, it wasn’t much better than the smaller grill, but by then I knew I really wanted to have a more permanent setup so PB went to work building a grill for me.

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Community

Nine last minute DIY Christmas gifts

christmas-presents

In this last weekend just before Christmas, some of us are still behind on gifts, and often there are extra friends, family and such who would appreciate a heartfelt, handmade gift. Thanks to the internet, there are loads of ideas on making quick and inexpensive DIY gifts, and more importantly, there is still time to put some of these together before the big day!

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Frank Lloyd Wright design is rejected by Somerset council
Land

Frank Lloyd Wright home thwarted in UK

Frank Lloyd Wright design is rejected by Somerset councilPlans to create a low-lying zero-impact, off-grid villa 
originally designed for a Californian hillside amidst the rolling fields of Wraxall in South-West Britain have been given the boot by narrow-minded local politicians in North Somerset.

The property, designed by the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright, had been proposed for land at Tyntesfield Springs, Somerset.
However the planning application attracted opposition from Nimby neighbours. One online objector branded it an unwelcome ‘museum piece’, adding: ‘A design from the 1940s is not what a contemporary and innovative eco-friendly architect would propose.’

It has been proposed by Dr Hugh Pratt, a Wraxall and Failand parish councillor, who had obtained the rights to the design from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation after eight years of negotiation.

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reduce, reuse recycle WRAP
Spirit

Recycling for fun and profit

reduce, reuse recycle WRAPThe circular economy is being talked up at the moment. The safeguarding of valuable resources by keeping them in use for as long as possible through repair, refurbishment, re-use and recycling is a motivating force for many non-profits and individuals.

It could also make you a good living as part of a low-cost lifestyle.

If you are tech-savvy you could tap into the market for hazardous electronic-waste recycling. ecoATM’s(R) self-service eCycling kiosks, found in malls across the country, provide consumers with an easy, eco-friendly, and economical way to convert unused and outdated phones, MP3 players, and tablets into holiday spending cash.

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People

Jesse Ventura Daily Mouth-off

Jesse Ventura Off The Grid ORA TV talk showJesse Ventura is launching a daily talkshow on Internet-video.The libertarian rant, to debut next month, will focus, Ventura told Variety, on the hypocrisy of America’s political leaders.

The novelty-politician and former wrestler is a part-time off-grid dweller himself, and an accomplished rabble-rouser. We always enjoy featuring him on the web site and look forward to hearing him sounding off on a range of current events in a show to be titled “Off The Grid.”

Ventura has a difficult time getting his trenchant point of view across in the media (don’t we all). “What we have with Ora.TV is a means to express myself uninhibited. I can say what I feel without censorship.”

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offthegridnews survival,prepping
Spirit

The Yearling

offthegridnews survival,preppingIts “The Year of The Yearling,” the seventy-fifth-anniversary celebration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s 1938 novel about a young boy whose pet deer unwittingly threatens the survival of his family farm.

The Yearling has been described as a magnificent, transparent, slow-moving river. Its style is direct and free of fireworks, its subjects planted at the beginnings of the sentences, solid as potatoes.In 1945 it was made into a motion picture starring Gregory Peck.

The Yearling reflects a world we’re losing, and does so in an orgy of carnage.

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Battery storage company

A US startup aims to lower energy costs by balancing the power grid with batteries charged during cheaper non-peak hours. It just received $15 million in funding from General Electric and the Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola.

Stem, an energy storage company in San Mateo, CA, is part of a trend that will lead to cheaper, better batteries and load balancing kit that will assist the off-grid movement.The premise of Stem’s business model is the inefficiencies in the current utilities industry.

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Community

How to make a frugal and festive Christmas dinner from the pantry

Christmas-dinner

Aside from the gifts under the tree, one of the big expenses of the holidays is the food.  Nearly everyone finds that their grocery bill is up this time of year.  You’re hosting parties, putting together a no-holds-barred Christmas morning breakfast, and making a gigantic feast for friends and family.

Stop!  You don’t have to go broke to enjoy the holidays!  It doesn’t matter what the neighbors are putting on their table this year.  Particularly if the money is stretched thin, there are lots of ways to make your dinner frugal, but still festive.

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Happy Christmas? Yes, living in a car.

woman-living-in-carA DISABLED mother of five has been living in a car for more than a year after being told she is not vulnerable enough to be housed by the council.

Sarah Wakeman said she has to endure freezing cold and constant fear while staying in an old Volkswagen Golf.

She is surviving on £70 a week in disability living allowance.

Her council in Spelthorne, Surrey, said the 41-year-old meets criteria for housing but she is not a priority, despite having lived in the vehicle since June 2012.

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ethnography of candlelight
Off-Grid 101

Pools of light and off-grid comfort

ethnography of candlelightThis site is dedicated to showing how you can live off the grid in comfort and style without costing the earth. Lighting is fairly crucial part of that. Being able to snap on the light when you come home is just as important to off-gridders as to those who are grid-connected.

Light is expensive, energy-hungry, and vital to our happiness – especially at this time of year. And there is a large degree of unanimity amongst off-gridders about what makes good lighting and how to achieve it.

When you live off-grid, electric lighting is not something you can take for granted. The means for controlling natural and artificial light and thus achieving visual comfort are not as well-established in the Unplugged community. But the off-grid aesthetic is now spreading to the plugged-in community.

So how do off-gridders light their homes to maximise the gain and minimise the cost?

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