Green Building
Explore all kinds of natural building, including timber frame, straw bale, earth-sheltered and more.

• Your Green Dream Home: First Things To Consider
  Before you hire a contractor or start building, read this expert advice.
• YOU CAN LEARN STOCKWOOD CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER!
  

  YOU CAN LEARN STOCKWOOD CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER! March/April 1978 The ''Stockwall'' or "cordwood" or "stovewood" method of construction has been around a long, long time. But It wasn't until this magazine began to publicize the Idea (see "We Built a $75,000 House for Only $10,000" In MOTHER NO. 45, "The Return

• You Can Cure Your Own Porkless Hams!
  

  You Can Cure Your Own Porkless Hams! November/December 1975 by KEN JOENS Like many homesteaders, we try to live as self-sufficiently as possible without relying on the chemical and plastic crutches of contemporary society. We still have several obstacles to overcom

• YOU CAN CATCH 'EM AT HOME!
  A 30 year old reprint from Mechanix Illustrated on building a farm pond.
• You Can Build Your Own Add-On Greenhouse
  It's a snap to design and build your own attractive conservatory from loe-cost new and salvaged materials.
• YOU CAN BUILD WITH SOIL-CEMENT BLOCKS
  How to utilize the CINVA Ram tool to make a home, including five basics of blockmaking, soil composition, mixing the bricks.
• YOU CAN BUILD A CONCRETE POND IN YOUR BACK YARD (AND HAVE AGREAT TIME DOING IT)!
  

  YOU CAN BUILD A CONCRETE POND IN YOUR BACK YARD (AND HAVE AGREAT TIME DOING IT)! July/August 1978 You can have that homestead pond . . . even if your soil is too porous to hold water. "All you have to do," says Garberville, California's Ruthanne Boggs, "is make a big depressi

• Wrapping It Up
  Brick veneer and energy costs; using a fireplace insert as the firebox for a masonry stove; saving the red sassafras tree in Indiana.
• WORLD ECOLOGY YEAR 1972
  A manifesto on the world ecology year 1972 at a meeting held in San Francisco in July 1969.
• WORKING UP TO IT (A GUIDE FOR WOMEN AND MEN)
  

  WORKING UP TO IT (A GUIDE FOR WOMEN AND MEN) May/June 1982 Heading the following advice might help you avoid some of the "labor pains" of heavy work. STAFF PHOTOS Lindsay Cobb Getting a new farm up on its feet, or remodeling that city home, or eve

• WOODLOT MANAGEMENT ION A SMALL SCALE)
  

  WOODLOT MANAGEMENT ION A SMALL SCALE) January/February 1984 by Alden Stahr (and MOTHER's staff) A small woodlot has the potential to provide a homestead with firewood, lumber, sawdust, compost, paths for wandering, and nature study opportunities for the whole

• WOOD HEAT UPDATE, PART II
  How to buy, use and repair a crosscut saw. Also a home-made sawbuck design.
• WINTER GARDEN- Cold Frame, Hot Bed, Small Greenhouse
  Economical greenhouses for a have-more plan. (from the Have-More Plan)
• Will's Mini-Greenhouse
  Building a small wooden structure for plants, including diagrams, materials list, instructions.
• WILD AND WOODY
  Twig furniture blends the natural grace of the growing tree with the personality of the builder, including choosing wood, planning and making rustic furniture, alternative tenon, finishing.
• Wild about Alaska
  At their remote home on Moser Bay, the author and her family harvest halibut and huckleberries and shoo bears out of the back yard.
• Why We Moved to the Country and What We Set Out to
  The Robinsons talk about why they moved to the country and how the Have-More plan came about.
• Why Not Build A Stump Stool?
  

  Why Not Build A Stump Stool? November/December 1977 You've probably seen a tree trunk-type footrest before, in which case you don't need me to tell you what a stump stool is. Until you've actually owned one of these dandy foot supports yourself, however, you won't appreciat

• Whittling Tools That Hold an Edge
  These inexpensive, easy-to-make carving tools can be even better than store-bought ones.
• WHITTLE A BIRCH BROOM
  A penknife, birch sapling and a little patience are all you need.
• WHERE'S YOUR WOOD?
  

  WHERE'S YOUR WOOD? November/December 1980 Don't let wood-borers devour your fuel supply. . . or your floorboard! By Kathy Hurley Once you'd decided to put a rein on your ever-increasing utility bill by heating with wood, chances are that — while the cool autumn breezes were chasing away

• Where Water Meets the Land
  For a fraction of the cost of a traditional home in the US, Camille and Steven Dannucci bought 100 acres of verdant ranchland gently sloping toward Mexico’s Pacific coast. There, they set to building a better life and to finding happiness worlds away from the daily job frenzy.
• What is Green Building?
  Choose better builiding materials for your home by considering the lifelong environmental effects.
• WE LIVE RENT-FREE IN THE SMOKIES
  Report from them that's doin'.
• WE FOUGHT THE ENERGY BANDITS...AND WON!
  Cutting back on energy consumption and saving money from utility companies.
• WE BUILT TWO CABINS...FOR $100 EACH
  

  WE BUILT TWO CABINS...FOR $100 EACH September/October 1976 How to move two families from city apartments to country cabins for less than a month's rent, as told by Paul Scanlon and Bob Leveque. Not long ago, "home" to us was an apartment overlooking one of Toronto'

• We Built Our Dream Home In The Worlds
  

  We Built Our Dream Home In The Worlds January/February 1977 These pictures tell?perhaps better than words?how the author and his family managed to elect the foundation for their elevated dwelling. The photo at lower left shows how Dave Comstock used two talk non?adjacent pol

• WE BUILT OUR CABIN IN JUST FIVE DAYS FOR $1,000!
  

  WE BUILT OUR CABIN IN JUST FIVE DAYS FOR $1,000! March/April 1977 PHOTOS AND TEXT BY LESTER E. HARRIS, JR. Here it is: an attractive, super-low-cost (yet extremely durable) "wilder