Cooking with the Sun: How to Build and Use Solar Cookers

Cooking with the Sun: How to Build and Use Solar Cookers

Cooking with the Sun: How to Build and Use Solar CookersAuthor(s): Beth and Dan Halcy

Publisher: Morning Sun Press; Rep Sub edition (May 1992)

Paperback: 114 pages

ISBN-10: 0962906921

ISBN-13: 978-0962906923

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Cooking with the Sun, How to build and use solar cookers. by Beth and Dan Halcy.

A simple oven that reaches 400°F can be built for $20. in materials, and this book shows how to design a solar hotplate to reach 600°F, plus 100 recipes designed especially for solar cooking: solar stew, Texas biscuits, enchilada casserole and more!

7×10 , 116 pages , 27 b&w photographs

Back to Basics : How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills

Cover, Back to Basics : How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills

Publisher: Readers Digest

ISBN: 0895779390

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Back to Basics : How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills

Hardcover March 1997

Amazon.com
Voluntary simplicity has become a catch phrase for what seems to be a yearning for a simpler, more self-sufficient and economical way of living in the late 20th century. This book, first published in 1981 and recently updated, was probably many folks’ first in-depth exposure to the idea of a simpler life, making things by hand, and enjoying a stronger sense of control over personal budgets, home projects, and lifestyles. Hundreds of projects are listed, illustrated in step-by-step diagrams and instructions: growing and preserving your own food, converting trees to lumber and building a home from it, traditional crafts and homesteading skills, and having fun with recreational activities like camping, fishing, and folk dancing without spending a lot of money. This book will have you dreaming and planning from the first page! —

Synopsis
With so many urban and suburban dwellers moving toward simplifying their lives, Reader’s Digest has updated its popular Back to Basics series to provide the ultimate how-to book. It’s packed with hundreds of projects and illustrated step-by-step sequences to help you learn to live more self-sufficiently, with sections on shelter, alternative energy sources, growing and preserving food, home crafts, and even recreation. Includes over 2,000 photos, diagrams and drawings.

Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining

Cover, Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining Author(s): Robert O. Parmley (Editor)

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company

ISBN: 0070485895

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Hardcover – 992 pages
3rd edition
January 1997

Booknews, Inc., 09/01/89
The second edition of this useful resource contains approximately 50 percent new or revised material. Included are six new sections dealing with: expansion joints, concrete fastening, injected metal assembly, sheet metal assembly, retaining compounds, and rope splicing and tying. Pertinent information on new advances and developments has been incorporated throughout the book wherever relevant.

Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry

Cover, Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of CarpentryAuthor(s): Jeff Taylor, Rich Iwasaki

Publisher: Chronicle Books

ISBN: 0811812731

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Hardcover, 176 pages
Publication date: November 1996

How-To Editor’s Recommended Book, 02/01/97:
Let me be very clear about this: GET THIS BOOK. You may have an interest in hand tools and carpentry, or you may not. But this is a lovingly written book by a gifted storyteller and wit, and a damn entertaining read! It is about interacting with tools, but it is also the author’s memoir of delightful characters he has known: teachers, mentors, and personal heroes. Much more than a how-to book, it is about a love for humanity, good humor, and creativity. It reads like a novel–and a good one!

Synopsis:
In the bestselling tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, these refreshing essays from master carpenter Jeff Taylor illuminate the spiritual aspects of working with hand tools. This is an elegant and engaging book for anyone who enjoys building, fixing, and working with hand tools. 25 full-color photos.

The author, Jeff Taylor , 07/07/96:
If you’ve ever picked up an old plane and felt that it knew more than you did, you know the author’s question: Did that inanimate object just speak to me? Twenty years as a working carpenter have convinced him that he barely scratched the surface of the mysteries of tools. They seem to have a life of their own, little secrets they can pass along if you listen hard. There are 26 essays in this book, each highlighting a different tool, illustrated by the photographs of Rich Iwasaki.

Customer Comments

from Clarks Summit, PA , 11/23/97, rating=10:
Wonderful essays! Tools are almost a metaphor for the users. Who would have thought that anyone could write more than a scant paragraph about a hammer? Jeff Taylor not only wrote an entire chapter, but made it so intriguing that I read every word (often out loud to whoever was in the room), and turned eagerly to the next chapter and tool. I gave it to my husband when I reluctantly finished; he ordered three more for gifts. Yes, it’s a book about tools, but it is also a book about teachers, not only of the craft of carpentry, but of the more difficult art of coping with the foibles of human nature. Taylor’s prose leaps from resounding metaphor to the language of the street in an engagingly warm and humorous fashion as he introduces his readers to each tool and all the mysteries and wonders they hold. Mundane objects like Yankee drills and framing squares take on personality when seen through the author’s eyes (and through the incredible glamor of the book’s photography). Glamour? Hand tools? Yes! Only halfway through the book, I conceived a powerful craving for a rosewood level — and I am not a carpenter. Not only are we made privy to the secrets of each tool, but also to the secrets of the myriad characters who instructed him in his craft. And these teachers are definitely characters, masterfully sketched.Crusty, perhaps, sometimes even shifty. But they knew their trade, and after a lifetime of working with their hands, they knew fifty tricks with a hammer and other things the home dabbler has never dreamt of. They knew their tools. So does Jeff Taylor — now. Even if you’ve never held a hammer in your life, you’ll appreciate this book. It’s a great read, and a must for the woodworkers among your acquaintance for Christmas. Buy several, because you’ll keep loaning yours out, and it won’t come back.

A reader, 01/05/97, rating=10:
Funny, thoughtful essays that happen to be about carpentry. I’m a woman and I don’t build ANYTHING, but I bought this for my boyfriend and ended up reading it all the way through. Jeff Taylor is a marvelous person and it’s great fun to spend time with him as he discusses the joy of building things. It’s sort of Zen and the Art of Carpentry.

Construction Manual: Concrete & Formwork

Author: T.W. Love

ISBN: 0910460035

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Construction Manual: Concrete & Formwork

This manual has good information on how to select and pour the right mix for the job, excavate for foundations, lay out the structure, design and build the forms, and finish and cure the concrete.

Shows how to build forms for piers and footings, foundation walls, steps, sidewalks, beams and girders, arched openings, and more. Includes reinforcing and placing rebar. 176 pages.

Do-It-Yourself Plumbing

Do-It-Yourself Plumbing

Do-It-Yourself PlumbingAuthor(s): Max Alth

Publisher: Times Mirror Magazines, Inc.; 1st edition (1986)

Hardcover: 301 pages

ISBN-10: 0060101229

ISBN-13: 978-0060101220

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Do It Yourself Plumbing.

A complete, simple to follow manual.

500 photos and drawings. 316pages.