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Do-It-Yourself Water Well 18 y
If you can drive a nail into a board, you have the skills to augment your water supply. Drilling companies charge thousands of dollars to tap ground water sources that you can often reach yourself with a few common tools and about two weekends of work.
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm
An Inexpensive, Do-It-Yourself Water Well
If you can drive a nail into a board, you have the skills to augment your water supply. Drilling companies charge thousands of dollars to tap ground water sources that you can often reach yourself with a few common tools and about two weekends of work.
Methods ranging from digging to blasting are used to reach the underground layer of fresh water that lies beneath dry land. Most of these are too technical, expensive, or dangerous for the average person. However, at the turn of the century the U.S. Army developed a fast, effective method to pr ... read more School Built of Straw 18 y
I have looked at building a strawbale home for years. Moisture and mold are concerns. I am considering moving to a less humid climate and strawnale design came back into one of the projects I would like to complete. Strawbale nomes have are most insultated above ground homes a homeoner could build and despite the big bad wolf story, strawbale homes are the most fireproof homes made(exception- a metal bilding).
Better than Bricks: A School Built of Straw
By Laurie Guevara-Stone
Issue 116, Jan/Feb 2003
http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/education/straw_school.html
Parents want schools to employ great teachers, but what about the building itself? Does it welcome their children? As many educators and parents are beginning to realize, the physical space students occupy contributes greatly to their emotional and educational experience. That is why students at the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork, in western Colorado , spend their days in a beautiful, nurturing, passive-solar, str ... read more Summer Cooling 18 y
Cooling my home is an expensive proposition in the hot climate where I live. Building a passive cooling system can help reduce the cost of my summer utility bills. On only warm days, a passive cooling system may even eliminate the need for using electric powered air conditioning. If I can find affordable well drilling equipment, I will use the equipment to drill holes in the ground and bury PVC pipe as deep as I can to provide inxepensive cooling. Another option is to build cooling towers.
Cooling my home is an expensive proposition in the hot climate where I live. Building a passive cooling system can help reduce the cost of my summer utility bills. On only warm days, a passive cooling system may even eliminate the need for using electric powered air conditioning. If I can find affordable well drilling equipment, I will use the equipment to drill holes in the ground and bury PVC pipe as deep as I can to provide inxepensive cooling. Another option is to build cooling towers. http://www.i4at.org/lib2/aircool.htm
Building a tower on the roof with vents and opening windows ... read more Well Drilling 18 y
Why should I start here? I am concerned about the quality of my tap water. Flouride and chlorine and who knows what else is in the water I use to shower and wash my dishes with. I am going to purchase a filter for my shower and I will look into that more but to create living water, I would like to know where my water came from. What is in my tap water might change dramatically from day to day but well water would be more stable. I want to be as self sufficient as possible. Having my own well would allow me to water my garden and provide my familes water needs. I would also like to learn a skill that could provide a living or barter during uncertain times. Last but not least, I believe there may be ways to drill and draw water to the surface that may enhance its quality. Controlling the process from beginning to end will allow me to fine tune improve the quality of my water.
Lots of these resources are old -- some more than a century old. This is NOT because appropriate technology is nostalgic, it’s because old references often contain valuable and useful information that simply is not available now.
It’s not nostalgia, simply stating a fact, to recognize that a hundred years ago people were a lot more independent, had a much higher general level of practical skills, and were much less wasteful than we are today.
These old resources are a goldmine of appropriate technology. That so many of them are being reprinted today acknowledges this -- and that ther ... read more |