This season draws to a close and the garden needs to be tucked in for next year. Among the many tasks on the to-do list are creating new beds and cleaning up old ones. … More Raised Beds and Cleaning for Next Season
The timber-frame chicken coop saga is coming to an end. The last update showed much of the work through plastering. This can also be seen in video form here. Since then, the plaster has been finished, clapboards wainscoting went on the bottom, and the whole structure has been coated in whitewash or linseed oil. Yakisugi … More Another Chicken Coop Update
We’ve been making reusable wax-coated pieces of fabric to replace cling wrap and tinfoil in our kitchen. This reduces plastic waste and is a fun, easy project to do on a rainy day. These wraps are simply squares of cotton fabric covered with 15 g beeswax, 11 g pine resin, and 2 g jojoba oil … More New Video: No. 14 — Bees Wraps
I’ve been working on a chicken coop over the last year, first felling the trees and then hewing the timbers. In this video, I show the process through erection of the coop’s frame. In the next video, I’ll show the roofing and wall construction. Please remember to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! You can find … More New Video: No. 13 — Timberframe Chicken Coop, Part I
Many of you will remember that I’m building a timber-frame chicken coop from dying spruce trees downed on the institute grounds, shown in the video below. After felling, these trees were turned into timbers and put together into a boxy 6-×-6-ft coop. The roof was covered with scavenged cedar shingles. Right after getting the structure … More Chicken Coop Update
Just in time for all your summer projects, we’re opening the tool library this-coming Saturday. The Low Tech Tool Library works just like a book library, but instead of Poe and Austen, we have hammers and saws. This Saturday morning, we’ll officially open the library with some light refreshments and an open house from 9 … More Tool Library Grand Opening — Saturday, June 23, 9 a.m.–noon
Last year I profiled a bienenhaus (“bee house”) at the New Glarus Swiss Historical Village & Museum in two blog posts (part I and part II). This is a purpose-made building that holds bee colonies in cabinets with frames attached to the sides of the cabinet. The bees enter and exit through small doors in … More Introducing den Bienenstall
Holly Dressel is one of our regular contributors. She is a well-known author, filmmaker, speaker, and researcher (see more on the about us page). The book reviewed, The Mudgirls Manifesto ($29.99), is available for preorder from New Society Publishers. The Mudgirls Collective can be found at their website, https://mudgirls.wordpress.com/. If you can get up to … More The Mudgirls Manifesto — Book Review from Contributor Holly Dressel
We recently built a few chairs to increase the seating area for workshops and meetings here at the institute and it was an easy choice to use the bench design of Aldo Leopold, a pioneering ecologist and local folk hero here in Wisconsin. These triangular benches are seen all over the area, from back yards … More Leopold Bench or Chair Plans
This spring we will be opening the Low Tech Tool Library. Much like a book library, a tool library allows users to check out tools for free. This is a great use of seldom-used tools. If you’ve done much home improvement, you’ve probably bought tools that get used and then stored away. Tools are built … More Introducing the Low Tech Tool Library
