Use the oldest, most available materials imaginable — earth, clay, sand, straw, and water — and blend them to redefine the future (and past) of building.

    Living a life with less can be the key to saving our precious planet.Break the consumption cycle. There’s so much to do, and way too much to buy. Whether it’s through late night TV ads, social media, or other sources of influence, we are addicted to buying and then storing things. Sometimes we consume with no regret and other times we realize that we’re doing more harm than good to our wallets and our homes. It’s a constant cycle―one that many are longing to break. Who wants their hard-earned money to go toward something that soon ends up in a landfill?A guide to eco-minimalism with a plan that is realistic. Manufacturing "stuff" exploits Earth's precious (and finite) resources. And then there's the harsh reality of where it all goes. Our discarded possessions ultimately head to landfills and contribute to environmental pollution, releasing greenhouse gases during breakdown and decomposition. Sustainable Minimalism is the solution. Empower yourself to incrementally incorporate the tenets of sustainable minimalism into your home and life. Learn to master the easiest tasks first and build upon your successes―a practical and stress-free process. Now that’s sustainable!A blueprint for sustainability and stress management: How to gain greater mental clarity and increase your free time with fewer possessions Environmentally friendly ways of decluttering and organizing Ways to improve your financial stability, while going green at the same time How to get organized and operate a zero-waste homeIf you enjoyed books like Zero Waste Home, The Minimalist Home, or The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you’ll love Sustainable Minimalism.

    Leonard examines the “stuff” we use everyday, offering a galvanizing critique and steps for a changed planet.The Story of Stuff was received with widespread enthusiasm in hardcover, by everyone from Stephen Colbert to Tavis Smiley to George Stephanopolous on Good Morning America, as well as far-reaching print and blog coverage. Uncovering and communicating a critically important idea—that there is an intentional system behind our patterns of consumption and disposal—Annie Leonard transforms how we think about our lives and our relationship to the planet.From sneaking into factories and dumps around the world to visiting textile workers in Haiti and children mining coltan for cell phones in the Congo, Leonard, named one of Time magazine’s 100 environmental heroes of 2009, highlights each step of the materials economy and its actual effect on the earth and the people who live near sites like these.With curiosity, compassion, and humor, Leonard shares concrete steps for taking action at the individual and political level that will bring about sustainability, community health, and economic justice. Embraced by teachers, parents, churches, community centers, activists, and everyday readers, The Story of Stuff will be a long-lived classic.

    No aspect of agriculture is more fundamental and important, yet we have been losing vast quantities of our finite soil resources to erosion, pollution, and development.Now back in print, this eminently sensible and wonderfully well-focused book provides essential information about one of the most significant challenges for those attempting to grow delicious organic vegetables: the creation and maintenance of healthy soil.Chapter 2, -Understanding the Soil System, - is alone worth the price of admission. Gershuny and Smillie give lay readers and experts a clear explanation of subjects--soil life and nutrient cycles--that have confounded most authors. Nowhere will the reader find simpler and more coherent descriptions of key concepts including cation exchange capacity and chelation.There are other books about soil available, including Grace Gershuny's comprehensive Start with the Soil, and there are books that feature chapters on soil building. What distinguishes The Soil of Soilis the authors' concise presentation; they give readers important information, including technical essentials, without getting bogged down in scientific or quasiscientific mumbo-jumbo. In addition, useful tables list specific compost materials, green manures, and other resources that allow growers to translate into action the more general information provided by the book.The soil-building techniques featured include:Organic matter managementBuilding and maintaining humusOn-site compostingGreen manures and rotationsCultivation and weed controlNutrient balances and soil testingUsing mineral fertilizersPlanning for organic certificationUpdates to the 1999 edition include analysis of Proposed Rules for the National Organic Standards, and expanded recommendations for private testing services and soil-testing equipment for home gardeners and organic farmers.All of us involved in the cultivation of plants--from the backyard gardener to the largest farmer--need to help regenerate a -living soil, - for only in the diversity of the soil and its creatures can we ensure the long-term health of ourselves and our environment. The Soul of Soil offers everyone a basic understanding of what soil is and what we can do to improve our own patch of it. Seen in this light, this practical handbook will be an inspiration as well.

    Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved.Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book The Natural House, brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts.The techniques required to heat and cool a building passively have been used for thousands of years. Early societies such as the Native American Anasazis and the ancient Greeks perfected designs that effectively exploited these natural processes. The Greeks considered anyone who didn't use passive solar to heat a home to be a barbarian!In the United States, passive solar architecture experienced a major resurgence of interest in the 1970s in response to crippling oil embargoes. With grand enthusiasm but with scant knowledge (and sometimes little common sense), architects and builders created a wide variety of solar homes. Some worked pretty well, but looked more like laboratories than houses. Others performed poorly, overheating in the summer because of excessive or misplaced windows and skylights, and growing chilly in the colder months because of insufficient thermal mass and insulation and poor siting.In The Solar House, Dan Chiras sets the record straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious--and entirely avoidable--errors. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today's home builders can succeed with solar designs.Now that energy efficiency measures including higher levels of insulation and multi-layered glazing have become standard, it is easier than ever before to create a comfortable and affordable passive solar house that will provide year-round comfort in any climate.Moreover, since modern building materials and airtight construction methods sometimes result in air-quality and even toxicity problems, Chiras explains state-of-the-art ventilation and filtering techniques that complement the ancient solar strategies of thermal mass and daylighting. Chiras also explains the new diagnostic aids available in printed worksheet or software formats, allowing readers to generate their own design schemes.

    Using full-color photos, detailed drawings, and clear step-by-step instructions, Beemer shows you exactly how to build one small (12ʹ x 16ʹ) timber-frame structure — suitable for use as a cabin, workshop, or studio. He also explains how to modify the structure to suit your needs and location by adding a loft, moving doors or windows, changing the roof pitch, or making the frame larger or smaller. You’ll end up with a beautiful building as well as solid timber-framing skills that you can use for a lifetime.

    Country Living showcases a coast-to-coast collection of sustainable dwellings, all ranging from 100 to 1,500 square feet. Take an inside tour of these impressive little abodes, like a converted 1840s schoolhouse in New York, a 22- x 24-foot kit barn in California wine country, a 1914 New Hampshire coastal row home, and a renovated 1950s Alabama lake house. Along with inspiring photographs, hundreds of decorating tips, smart finds, and storage solutions will help you implement minimalistic living in your own home. These charming cottages, delightful she-sheds, functional farmhouses, and transformative trailersfeature a clever use of space and prove that going small can be simple and fulfilling.

    Tammy Strobel and her husband are living the voluntary downsizing — or smart-sizing — dream and here she combines research on well-being with numerous real world examples to offer practical inspiration. Her fresh take on our things, our work, and our relationships spell out micro-actions that anyone can take to step off the getting-and-spending treadmill and into a life that’s more conscious and connected, sustainable and sustaining, heartfelt and happy.

    Whether you are growing plants in hanging baskets, tubs, window boxes or other containers this hobby is immensely gratifying.  If you are new to container gardening and buy your containers pre-planted, you get a sense of instant gratification and fulfillment.  It won't be long however, before you are hit with the gardening virus and you'll find yourself expanding to one more pot and then again, one more container.  Before you know it, the urge to plant and nurture will take over. At this point, you need a garden plan for your container garden. Use this monthly container gardening checklist to keep your containers at peak performance. When do I plant spring bulbs in containers? When do I perk up my annual plantings with some new varieties? What do I do with container plants I want to save over winter? These and many other questions are answered in this container gardening book. At the beginning of the month, check out the tasks and tips on the schedule.  You may find items you never thought of and may also learn techniques used by professional gardeners and landscapers that will make your container gardens the envy of the neighborhood. Scroll up and pick up this book today and give your patio, pool, and porch just the pizzazz it needs to perk up your landscaping plans.

    With equal expertise and enthusiasm she radiates her testimony of the brightness of hope that the gospel brings.A bumper sticker she quotes could well be a summary of this collection of addresses. 'Hard-hat construction area: christian under construction'. She adds: 'We're all Christians under construction, and that's an area where we need hard hats. It's . . . a little risky sometimes'.Sister Okazaki shares her personal experiences reaching out to the reader with love, support and encouragement. Her often penetrating insights into the tests of mortal life ring with truth and sincerity. Just as with the pattern of the cat's cradle, our lives connect and intersect. She describes those connections in both inspiring and practical terms over a broad spectrum of topics: partnership in marriage and in Church callings; love, the heart of the gospel; the process and the joy of service; replacing circles that exclude with circles that include; the changes life brings and the responses we choose; how to accept and handle our mistakes; bringing hope and growth out of the deserts of adversity; using the flowers of our loves for either joy or consolation, as needed; and much more. Pervading every address is Sister Okazaki's sense of the reality of Jesus Christ and how we can make his cause- love- more deeply our own.

    The photo looks completely out of place on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list where it’s been since December, 8, 2007. For eight of those years, Jason appeared directly beside Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden is long gone, but Jason is still wanted for armed robbery and murder.For years, his sister, Jami D. Brown Martin has watched the true crime programs and read the amateur investigative blogs devoted to Jason, his crime, and the efforts to apprehend him knowing the story wasn’t as simple, nor was it just Jason’s. To be the sister, brother, or relative of one of the world’s most wanted men is to live every day with the horrible truth and many consequences of his brutal act.CENTER OF ATTENTION is the story of a former Mormon missionary turned murderer. It is also a riveting look behind the facade of the genetically blessed, seemingly prominent and pious Brown family of Laguna Beach, California. It is a tale of the family patriarch, John Brown, who disappeared without a trace ten years before his son. More important, it is the gripping and ultimately hopeful story of the sister of one of the world’s most wanted fugitives and her journey to accept that despite being a product of the same crazy environment as her brother, her life and path are her own.

    His messages of compassion, altruism, and peace are articulated in a unique secular ethic for our times and supported with techniques and practices that can help us achieve these ideals. He is the Dalai Lama—or simply, His Holiness—the epitome of the Buddhist model of loving-kindness and an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. Evoking global respect and admiration, he is both a prophet and a statesman for our troubled times, yet he’s intensely human and accessible. He’s an inspiration to millions, yet many feel as if he touches and speaks to them personally. He is a Buddhist but belongs to all humanity. His Holiness is one of the most recognizable—and recognized—faces in the free world.This remarkable book is an edited compilation of mostly personal conversations spanning nearly 20 years between the Dalai Lama and Rajiv Mehrotra, one of his early disciples who’s now the trustee and secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, which was established with the funds from the Nobel Peace Prize. Here, the Dalai Lama is a teacher to a spiritual aspirant; a divine master and a temporal leader; an ambassador for Tibet and a lovable guru-philosopher to the whole world; a practitioner of the 2,500-year-old teachings of Buddhism; a Tibetan Buddhist and an interfaith ambassador; and an intense practitioner of mind-training and an inveterate optimist. His multiple hats may appear contradictory at times, but he balances them all, living his life with ease and happiness.Within these pages, the Dalai Lama’s disarming candor, his deep empathy for his student’s quest, and his wisdom—garnered not just from texts and scriptures, but also from an active engagement with life—offer invaluable insights to us all on how we may find true happiness in our lives.

    Some can be completed in an afternoon for under $30. It also provides complete instructions for more complex installations, how to deal with freezing, flooding, drought, failing septics, low perk soil, non-industrialized world conditions, coordinating a team of professionals to get optimum results on high-end projects, and ?radical plumbing? that uses 90% less resources.

    But time in the wards is limited, and clerkship covers only a tiny sample of the surgical universe. Dr. Pestana's Surgery Notes, by distinguished surgery instructor Dr. Carlos Pestana, is a proven guide to ensure your surgical knowledge. With a concise, comprehensive review and 180 high-yield surgical vignettes for self-testing, it contains the surgery knowledge you need to excel on the Surgery shelf exam and USMLE Step 2 CK.Features:— Concise high-yield review of core surgery material— 180 vignettes for self-testing— Used by med students for over a decade— Fully up-to-date— Pocket-sized to carry with you in the wards

    Trust Jorge and he’ll show you how to groom your dogs right.” –Cesar Millan With a foreword by leading expert in dog behavior Cesar Millan, best known for his Emmy-nominated television series Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan, DIY Dog Grooming offers easy-to-follow, expert instruction on every aspect of grooming.  Master dog groomer to the stars Jorge Bendersky bathes, brushes, trims, and pampers some pretty important pooches. Nevertheless, the fundamental skills and techniques he uses every day in his Manhattan salon can and should be in every dog owner’s repertoire. From breed identification to tool selection, clipping to scissoring, Bendersky shares, in his unmistakably playful way, the tricks of his trade:Simple, step-by-step instructions for everything from bathing to brushing.Practical solutions to common problems like fleas and ticks, dirt and mud.Creative suggestions for grooming a picture-perfect dog.How to use items from your pantry for grooming when pet store products are not available.With DIY Dog Grooming as your guide, your canine companion will never again suffer a bad hair day.