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My wife and I used to have a Costco membership, it was gifted to her from a family member. We let it run out because Costco was a pain in the rear to get to. We just never went. And at the time we didn’t have the chest freezer. My parents years ago insisted we … Read more

So I continued my paper pulp making into the last 2 weeks. I’m working to make more pulp for papercrete and paper mâché clay. We don’t have a huge amount of stuff coming in- bills, flyers and such. Over the last few days we had some amazon orders arrive that are on subscription- dog food … Read more

Well the coffee and paper pulp briquettes are dried and now tested. I see now why so many people make them. They are seriously superior to paper alone. All of the recycled paper briquettes put out a quick 20 minute burst of heat. The difference is in the ash left behind. The paper pulp only … Read more

The first batch of pulp made 29.5 small briquettes and 4 fist sized briquettes. Each one burns for about 20 to 30 minutes in the pellet stove and leaves behind a fine white powdery ash. Fly ash and air borne particles seem to be at a minimum. The second batch made another 20 small briquettes … Read more

I’m working on my most recent batch of recycled paper pulp. I had shredded a stack of mail and one of the credit card offers had a grippy matte coating. It reminded me of that rubbery coating a lot of electronics had about 5 years ago. I disregarded my worry and ran it through the … Read more

One of the things that has really been upsetting me lately is the grow a garden to make ends meet nonsense. Clearly no one saying this ever spent time on a farm or grown much of their own veggies. Let alone preserve those veggies for winter use. I did. And I can tell you right … Read more

I first started to delve into this recycled paper briquette madness on a whim- rolling some cardboard and paper I had in the recycle bin into a log that fit into my charcoal grill. This was quite effective but smokey because I didn’t cut my cardboard and paper down to a precise size and I … Read more

I’ve been weighing the “worth” of the recycled paper and other styles of briquettes. Worth meaning time spent to make, cost and energy to create, and final usefulness. Time spent is complicated because much of the time is down time- shred paper, put the paper into the bucket, cover with water and then wait 5 … Read more

I am starting to plan my garden for this spring. We looked at the various veggies we like to eat fresh in the summer but also what veggies we like preserved for winter eating. For fresh veggies we like lettuces and a variety of greens. We also like a whole assortment of peppers and tomatoes … Read more