The institute’s tagline is “housing, clothing, and feeding ourselves in a post-fossil-fuel world,” but we give short shrift to the “clothing” part as we work on gardening and construction projects. We were lucky enough to be offered some growing space near the institute and in addition to growing chicken feed, we thought it would be … More How Hard Could It Be to Make a Shirt?
Last weekend we had Kelly Larson, an artist from St. Louis, in to teach a workshop on shibori, a Japanese indigo-dying technique. The word means resist dying because patterns are made by pressure on the fabric keeping the dye out, that is, resisting dye intrusion. Kelly gave us a brief background on indigo dying. In … More Shibori Workshop
Are you interested in learning basic carpentry skills for putting to use in your home or garden? Have you been uncertain about using hammers, saws, drills, or power tools? Do you have little to no experience with these things but want to learn? … More Upcoming Workshop — Shibori Fabric Dying, Jul. 28, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., $60-65
In Part I, yesterday, we met the four ways we lose heat: radiation, convection, conduction, and evaporation. Today we’ll look at the three W’s, which work together to combat each one of these heat thieves. The Three W’s: Wicking, Warmth, and Wind Layering is the watchword of keeping warm in the winter. Wearing one … More Keeping Warm in Winter — Part II: Dress for Success with the Three W’s
I grew up in northern Minnesota, the coldest part of the continental United States. I remember playing outside when school was canceled due to extreme weather — the coldest I specifically remember was when my friends and I built a snow fort at -40°F (-40°C). That was the winter when we hit -60°F (-51°C). I … More Keeping Warm in Winter — Part I: How We Lose Heat
While hunting for deer this last fall (we do not buy meat, only eating what we butcher ourselves; hear more about this in Episode 8 of the Low Tech Podcast), I had a little run in with a beaver pond. I had decided to hike a large circuit around the Badfish Creek Wildlife Area one … More Anecdotal Winter Wool Experiment: Wet Socks or No Socks?