http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/zip/1885141757.html

A couple of months ago, I saw a description or reference I can no longer find on this site.  If anyone can steer me there again, I'd appreciate it.

A man has a large container of water in his basement, with a copper coil in it (IIRC), and that water will become ice.  The copper coil goes up and outside, and is connected to a heat exchanger/radiator mounted on the soffit above his garage door.  

When the outdoor temp drops to 20 degrees F outside, the refrigerant in the system condenses in the radiator and gravity takes it down to the basement, which is warmer.  The water/ice warms the refrigerant, and that vapor rises again to the outside heat exchanger.  When the outdoor temp rises, the refrigerant is all vapor and nothing more happens.

The ice block lasts until August.  When I read the description, the system had been operating 17 years.  It is an ingenious system, inexpensive, and couldn't be more simple.  Can anyone tell me where I saw that system documented?

Peter

I am trying to kill some ants (big red and black) with some home remedies because I don't want to put chems in my soil, but am fighting a losing battle.  I have some big ant hills on my land where I am building and want them gone.  So far I have used:

Quick grits (has homeny) - Killed only a few due to a small rain that came through but basically just fed the ants!  The red ones ate it but the black ones were not interested.

Instant grits - Just fattened up the ants!  Now they are well fed ants.  Again the reds went for it but the black ones didn't.

Borax mixed with sugar - Now they are clean and fat ants!  Well, it looked like it worked, but looks like I again had some mixed results.  Again the black ones were not interested.

Next up....Dietamaceus earth!  I am not so excited anymore about these solutions working.  I believe the black ants are of the carpenter ant variety so are more interested in wood than sugar.

Any other thoughts??

What is the first step to take towards building a green residence? Does it cost more than traditional buildings? Thanks.

Too many questions.

Went to PC's for college, and have been away from Macs for too long.  Where I'll be living I won't be able to get a connection (no, no phone either) so I was thinking:

1. Without spending too much money, what Mac laptop do I buy (G4?)

2. I plan to stop at (legal, without stealing) WiFi hot spots.  I'll only get online or my mail ad se updates every week or two.

3. Can I have free intenet access if I have a free e-mail account, and WiFi?

4.What do I need for a WiFi connection?

G'pa

I just received my 10 by 12 greenhouse from Harbor Freight. It was advertised in the spring catalog for 649.99.  No shipping charges!!!!
I went to my local store and got a rain check. Then I called the day after the truck was unloaded and before they could call other rain check folks. If anyone needs the catalog number it is "776-c-spring 2010".
Just a note - they said that the manufacture could only ship a fraction for the rain checks that they were handing out. Just thought you shold know.
I will post some construction photo's in my photo bucket site.

I bought a book called "Preserving Food with out Canning or Freezing". I guess the title says it all. My wife's Danish Grandmother always served 7 sweets and 7 sours along with the meal. I like pickles and olives and I thought this might be interesting. The sub title is "Traditional techniques using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage and Lactic Fermentation". So there you go - getting your 7 sweets and sours. OBTW, Sauerkraut is made by lactic fermentation along with a bunch of other stuff.

Good luck

Sept 24- 25- 26

Seven Springs  Mtn Resort

one hour Southeast of Pittsburgh PA

www.MotherEarthNews.com/FairUpdates

I was awoken yesterday morning at 5:18 by my New Mexico relations. They said that we were going to have a Tsunami. This is before the rest of our state was awakened by the civil defense sirens that went off at 6 am...
I rolled over and went back to sleep. I had bought a number of 5 gallon buckets and filled them various staples, soy milk, other stuff. The only thing I was missing was a bath tub full of water.

As it turned out we had a two foot Tsunami at low tide which doesn't even bring it up to high tide.

But I am thankful for my preparations. I bought the book "Dare to Prepare!". There is a lot of duplication but the book is well worth the effort. I also am a member of this forum
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/index.php
that has a bunch of stuff that is useful in this effort.

If you have a walk out basement your root cellar is 90% finished. Add some shelves and bins and start collecting your provisions.
Good luck