by Alan Stankevitz | May 5, 2001
How much wood could a chop saw cut if a chop saw could chop wood? Faced with the fact that I have 32 face cords of 16″ wood that has to be cut in half, I decided to cut to the chase and build a cheap chop saw. If you recall, the January 27th issue of the journal...
by Alan Stankevitz | May 3, 2001
To Use Paper or Not? That is the question. The use of papercrete mortar for cordwood construction has been limited (so far) to the works of Paul Reavis and James Juczak. Traditional papercrete (there’s an oxymoron) is made of almost all paper and very little...
by Alan Stankevitz | Apr 28, 2001
Spare the Rod and Spoil the House Last summer I had quite a scare when the house took either a direct or indirect lightning hit. Although no damaged occurred, my heart pounded for at least 10 minutes afterwards. So as quick as a flash, the thought of a lightning...
by Alan Stankevitz | Apr 11, 2001
Trash or Treasure? Ed McAllen put me in touch with a women who was looking for a home for some rather unique solar heating tubes. She didn’t want to just pitch them, so I decided that maybe I could use them somehow. If not for the house, maybe for a greenhouse...
by Alan Stankevitz | Mar 26, 2001
Well, it’s been months since I have been able to return to our house-in-the-making. December brought significant snowfall to the Midwest, both in the La Crosse area and in Northern Illinois. Besides the weather, my mother went through open heart surgery and...
by Alan Stankevitz | Jan 27, 2001
BEFORE READING ANY FURTHER — The following information is for “interesting reading material” purposes only. Chain saws are a very dangerous tool. Do not attempt to use a chain saw without fully reading the owner’s manual and following their...
