Category: Sustainable Living

A Simple, Strong Fence Corner

By Ben Hoffman I happened to meet a U.S. Forest Service engineer who worked on fences and structures for range lands. He introduced me to a fence corner that had been tested in both the United States and Australia that outperformed other designs with multiple posts and cross and angle braces. The key is that

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Homestead Maps

Ben Hoffman threshing wheat. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hoffman Map 1 – Base map Map 2 – Base map with contour lines Map 3 – Map with soil types Map 4 – Map with forest cover types By Ben Hoffman Maps showing land boundaries and vegetation are among the most useful tools a landowner can

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Recycle Your Greenhouse Plastic

By David McDaniel Rick Kersbergen, Paul Gallione and Sam MacDonald remove plastic from a greenhouse at Moosehead Trail Farm in Waldo. Thanks to a new program, they’ll be able to recycle the plastic. Photo by David McDaniel. Beginning in the spring of 2020, farmers and gardeners will be able to recycle their waste greenhouse and

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Tips Winter 2012 2013

Recycled Pallet Check Pallets are popular for making compost bins easily and for other uses in and around the garden, but be sure the pallets you use aren’t contaminated with insecticides, fungicides or other chemicals. Some pallets are treated with wood preservatives; some may have residues of toxic materials that were stored on them; some

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Humanure: It’s Not a Four-Letter Word

A comfortable, practically fly-proof humanure privy. Photo courtesy of Will Bonsall. By Will Bonsall For much of modern history, we humans have not assumed much personal responsibility for our own body wastes. Instead, we’ve had collective solutions that have always created more problems than they’ve solved. We’ve had lower class people emptying our latrines and

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“Common Throne” Composting Toilets

Volunteers built the first Common Throne in 2004 in the North/Rose Gate volunteer camping area. Volunteers, bicyclists and vendors at that end of the grounds quickly discovered its convenience. English photo. … at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center: Recovering a Resource from the Waste Stream by Nancy Rosalie The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

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Spring Growth 2005

By Jean English Local and Organic: A Path Toward Permanence The Spring Growth Conference held by MOFGA in March asked what roles farmers, consumers and citizens may play in the global food economy. Lawrence Woodward, director of the Elm Farm Research Centre in Berkshire, United Kingdom, brought his perspective from that leading institution of organic

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Good Life

Writer, professor and homesteader Linda Tatelbaum amid the beauty and bounty of her garden, harvesting tomatoes growing in the south-facing, luxuriant hillside garden she and her husband, Kal Winer, have created in Burkettville, Maine. Every year she cans 300 quarts of vegetables and fruits for good winter eating. by Jean Ann Pollard © 2005. For

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Firewood

John Howe’s firewood cutting operation is entirely solar powered, from the sun that grows the trees to the tractors that move the trees and firewood, to the solar panels on the golf cart that power the chainsaw. Debbie Howe photos. by Joyce White John Howe’s solar-powered firewood operation is unique in using the sun directly

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