Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Crockpot Apple Butter Recipe – No Sugar Added!

September 30, 2013

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If like us you are lucky enough to have an apple tree, you probably have an abundance of apples right now and you’re wondering what to do with them all… Every year we have the same problem – too many apples all at the same time.  What makes things worse is the variety of apple our tree produces, do not store too well.

Anyway if you have an abundance of apples, or you have found some going cheap at the store, I highly recommend you check out the crockpot apple butter recipe below.  Everyone loves apple butter and it’s a great way to use up and preserve some of those apples. If you don’t have a crockpot, why not? This Crock Pot 4-1/2-Quart Slow Cooker costs just $16.99 on Amazon. Once you get a crockpot, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one.

 Crockpot Apple Butter Recipe – No Sugar Added!

(Photo from: Old World Garden Farms)

Filed Under: Cooking, Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency

How To Make A Simple Adobe/Horno Oven

September 25, 2013

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You guys loved the:  How To Build A Clay Oven (Tutorial) post we did a while back, so when I saw this awesome tutorial on how to build a simple Adobe oven, I knew it would go down well too!

This DIY Adobe/Horno oven couldn’t be simpler to build – it has an internal structure of old bricks, which is then covered with a mixture of mud and grass. Check out the tutorial below for step by step photos.  I am not sure if this oven would stand the test of time, but it is so quick and easy to build, you could build a new one each year. Also, be sure to check out Peter’s Etsy store: NorthernWoodsCrafts.

How To Make A Simple Adobe/Horno Oven

(Photo from: Peter.paleoplanet69529)

Filed Under: Cooking, DIY, General Prepping, Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency

How To Build A DIY Water Wheel Generator

September 25, 2013

How To Build A DIY Water Wheel Generator

Who wouldn’t love free electricity? I would love to live completely off-the-grid and not have to worry about rising electricity costs. It would also be a nice feeling to know that if the SHTF one day, we would still have power… If you live by a source of running water, one option for electricity generation is a water wheel generator. I think a lot of people assume it needs to be a fairly sizeable source of running water, but if you watch the video below, you will see a water wheel generator built, running, and generating electricity from a tiny creek.

With a water wheel generator, electricity is generated when the flowing water runs through the water wheel and makes it spin. It is exactly the same principle as the old dynamo lights we used to have on bicycles, back in the day, where the electricity was generated by the revolving wheel. As I remember it used to make stopping at lights interesting, as no revolving wheel equalled zero electricity, and zero electricity equals no bike lights!

Here is a link to a tutorial on ‘Build It Solar’ which shows how to build a DIY water wheel generator from mostly recycled parts, making this an affordable DIY project if you can source the recycled parts required to build the generator. Additionally using recycled parts also allows you to source free backup, replacements part to stockpile and store in case an existing part fails. It also includes a FREE PDF with the build instructions, that you can download and print out. If you are lucky enough to have running water on your land, this would be an awesome project.

Below is an excellent video from ‘Off Road/Off Grid’ detailing their DIY water wheel generator.

 

The ‘Build It Solar’ and the ‘Off-Road/Off Grid’ DIY water wheel generators are just two examples of water wheel generators. There are several different varieties of generators that utilize running water sources in different ways. Basically, the running water still turns the wheel on each model, but the wheels are positioned differently in the running water. There are ‘stream’, ‘undershot’, ‘breastshot’ and ‘backshot’ water wheels to choose from… Here is an excellent explanation of each type of water wheel, together with the pros and cons and efficiencies etc.

Below is an undershot water wheel, similar to the one used for the ‘Build It Solar’ DIY water wheel generator.

UNdershot water wheel

Below is an example of a stream water wheel

Stream water wheel

Below is an example of an overshot water wheel.

Overshot water wheel

BONUS Tutorial: How to Build A 5 Gallon Bucket Hydroelectric Generator

Here is an awesome 35 page PDF instruction manual on how to make a low-cost hydroelectric generator, in a 5-gallon bucket. I’ll be honest, it is not the simplest thing in the world to build, but if you are competent, technically-minded DIY-er, this shouldn’t present too many difficulties.

(Photos from Wikipedia and Off Road/Off Grid)

Filed Under: A.K.W.N, DIY, Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency

New to Food Preserving? Start here

September 25, 2013

food-preserving

Do you know what? Even if you are not new to food storage and preserving, you should STILL check out the excellent post below. It really is a goldmine of food preserving information and advice…

The post covers: cold storage, drying food, canning, freezing, lactofermentation, preserving in salt and sugar, pickling in vinegar and immersion in oils and alcohol. There is even advice on which methods are best for preserving nutrients. Check it out and get canning and preserving!

New to Food Preserving? Start here

(Photo from: Common Sense Homesteading)

Filed Under: Food & Water, General Prepping, Homesteading, Recipes, Self-Sufficiency

How To Make Your Own Canning Equipment

September 20, 2013

Green_beans_in_a_pressure_cooker_ready_to_be_processed

I think lots of people are put off canning because they think you need a load of expensive equipment to get started.  This is just not true… Sure, if you are going to be doing lots of canning on a regular basis, you’ll probably want to invest in some canning equipment. However if you are only going to can infrequently, or if you’re just starting out, you can easily make/adapt kitchen equipment you already have.

How To Make Your Own Canning Equipment 

Books weigh something, but the knowledge they contain doesn’t; once learnt you carry that knowledge with you, wherever you go and whatever you face… Check out the: K.W.N Recommended Book List

(Photo from: Wikipedia)

Filed Under: Food & Water, General Prepping, Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency

101 Uses For Vinegar

September 18, 2013

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We have covered how useful vinegar is previously, but today we are going to demonstrate JUST how useful and versatile vinegar is, by giving you 101 uses for it…

The 101 uses are broken down into the following categories: cleaning, laundry, health & beauty, home & garden and misc. Seriously, if there are five products every household should have they are vinegar, baking soda, duct tape, WD40 and hydrogen peroxide. Check out the 101 uses for vinegar below.

101 Uses For Vinegar

(Photo from:  AndyRobertsPhotos)

Filed Under: General, General Prepping, Homesteading

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