Category: Home & Garden

As I’ve pointed out in my other article, “Cleaning Solar Panels – Does it make much difference”, I discovered that it actually does make a difference… and sometimes a surprising amount of difference! Well, last week I was looking at my data on my solar panels and I kept seeing this one panel consistently under-performing Read More …

In my last post, Cleaning Solar Panels – Does it make much difference, I briefly mentioned the 11 foot telescoping squeegee that I used to clean my solar panels.   Basically the device looked just like this: For the most part this device  works fine for my needs, but I was very excited to get an Read More …

  This is another great contribution from Ken.  You can see his other creations, the Dirt Shaker & Power Barrow and the HomeMade Rotary Trommel Screen.  He’s got an amazing gift and we’re glad he’s willing to share it with us!   From Ken:

Upside down fire?  I know, it sounds crazy, but it really works GREAT!!! One of the community members on BYC posted a topic called “upside down fire building for wood heat”.    I read through the thread and was pretty surprised by the claims:

This is the second part in my story of installing a solar photovoltaic system in the Northern California Bay Area.? You can also read Part 1, Solar Panels / Energy. I figure the best way to organize what happened is to do a timeline from the very beginning: 4/1/2010: Contract with REC Solar signed. The Read More …

Below is another great submission from Ken (creator of the HomeMade Rotary Trommel Screen). From Ken: “You may remember me as the builder of the red rotary trammel.  I later built a shaker screener because I needed to separate soil and larger stones from 1 inch stone I needed for a driveway.  I made it Read More …

After looking at a $160 average electricity bill (thank you California tiered rates) I’ve been on  a quest to reduce our monthly spend on electricity.   My wife and I are going to achieve this in two main ways:

Over the years since first posting the article on my Homemade Compost Sifter Screen Sieve I’ve received some really amazing comments by some incredibly ingenious site visitors.   A few have even been willing to submit their information for inclusion onto www.Nifty-Stuff.com including: Automatic Compost Sifter – Screen Sieve – Screen Shaker for Soil and Compost Over the Read More …

We’ve had a lot of interest in the Automatic Compost Sifter – Screen post. One visitor of the site, Richard Buxton, posted a comment and sent a picture. I was so impressed I asked him to submit some more details so I could post it up as its own article. So, below we present the Read More …