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October 2014

People

Living in a Fire Truck

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Forester Simon Danant started living in his 1980s Bedford truck last summer. Its a former Army fire engine.

He moves it around Cambridgeshire, living behind hedges or down green lanes for a week or two at a time.

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Community

A DIY survival sling shot with big game capabilities

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Could you survive in the wilderness with only a sling shot as your weapon?

Lots would depend on your survivability. Having a means to harvest protein and animal fat would surely increase your chances.

In a perfect world, the sling shot would not be my first choice. But having options makes one more robust.

When Dave Canterbury first talked about hunting big game with a sling shot, I thought he’d lost his mind. But then again, I’ve seen him do amazing things with common, everyday items. [Note: Check your local hunting regulations before hunting with a sling shot.]

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Community

LED technology and DIY

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Off-Gridders have been around for a long time, but it’s just been recently that technology has been available to make living off-grid as cushy as any grid connected home, not only available but affordable as well. One thing everyone needs is light, we have several different options to light the darkness, candles, oil lamps, Coleman lanterns, flashlights, incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs and most recently, LED lights.

I think all of us have used many of these options at some point in our lives, I can remember camping as a kid and having Coleman lanterns and flashlights, but most of these are either expensive, use up too much power, or they are risky to use (specifically the ones that use fire).

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Permaculture in Colorado - needs a water permit
Food

Permaculture in Colorado needs a water permit

“A forest full of food” has a nice ring to it, and the concept is realized using permaculture farming techniques.

Grant and Kathy Curry of Dolores are creating an innovative farm at the head of Trail Canyon in Dolores, Colorado that they hope will produce food for generations while skimping on water.

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Community

Pizza pizza

This past week was a hard one, my work partner and I worked extra long days so that we could have a few extra days off over the weekend, that meant 12 and 14 hour days, I’m not complaining though, it’s work, I enjoy doing it and I get paid well enough to be happy with it. I don’t have to go back to work until Tuesday, so that gives me a few extra days to catch up on some needed rest and chores.

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Batteries not improving, so gadget efficiency is goal

WSJ 5th Oct – There is no Moore’s law for batteries. That is, while the computing power of microchips doubles every 18 months, the capacity of the batteries on which ever more of our gadgets depend exhibits no such exponential growth. In a good year, the capacity of the best batteries in our mobile phones, tablets and notebook computers—and increasingly, in our cars and household gadgets—increases just a few percent.

It turns out that storing energy safely and reliably is hard in a way that miniaturizing circuits is not. A pound of gasoline contains more than 20 times as much energy as a pound of lithium-ion batteries. And then there’s the expense: The battery pack in a Tesla Model S costs approximately $30,000.

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Off-=Road best in a Chevrolet
Mobile

Great Autos for the Boonies

Getting away from it all – really away – is harder than most would like to think.

I went to an off-grid festival last month at Thoulestone Park, and all I could hear was the hum of the nearby freeway. Escaping completely from roads while hauling all the gear you will need requires the right auto. Too big and you will have trouble on mountain tracks.

Here’s my pick of the new off-roaders for any action excursion.

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Community

Off-Grid update

Winter is coming, it’s well into fall and the season is definitely changing. The air is cooler, especially in the mornings, crisp, I can smell the smoke from a nearby woodstove, with the cooler weather comes dryer weather, I noticed I am getting static shocks when I get out of a vehicle, which is something I am doing a lot more often lately. Right now, I am about to get up and get into my sleeping clothes, something warmer than I have been wearing all summer long.

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Freezing food

For the longest time, I’d buy my produce at the farmer’s market over the weekend. When the next Friday rolled around and I hadn’t used everything, I’d regretfully throw away the excess.

Now I’ve invested in a low-energy freezer, powered from my local year-round creek. It was a big budget item but its changed my life and as I learn how to properly freeze produce, I’m giving new life to my budget — and my cooking.

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IEA confirm mega-trend to off-grid power

Energy harnessed from the sun is predicted to displace fossil fuels by 2050 as the cost of solar cells plummets

Solar power will reach commercial “take-off” within a decade and displace fossil fuels to become the world’s biggest source of electricity by 2050, according to stunning new forecasts from the International Energy Agency.

The IEA said the cost of photovoltaic panels would continue to plummet, falling by a further 60 per cent for household rooftops and 70 per cent for power companies even after the dramatic gains of the recent years.

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Water-cooled solar panel

A new solar harvester that can provide power and clean water is in the works. Its hardly suprising that panels can overheat in the very sun that powers them, and the innovation is a way of cooling the panels.

Its manufacturers claim that the Sunflower could soon become the first “drop-in” machine to provide renewable energy, water and heat to off-grid communities in remote regions.

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