Note from the publisher

Letters

Editorial:
   Start your own newspaper

Columns:

Where I live:
   Nine-patch, baby and log-cabin quilts

Just for kids:
   Fairies in your garden

Ayoob on firearms:
   Teaching your lady to shoot

Homesteading on the electronic frontier:
   Solar, wind and other independent energy information can be found on the Internet

Recipes:
   Rough day? You need to sip some yeller wine
   Make your own Old World culinary delights
   These salads are hearty dishes

Book Reviews:
   How to Build Your Own Log Cabin For Less Than $15,000
   Making the Best of Basics

Original Poems:
   John Earl Silveira

Contents

Indpendent energy

• Heat and cool inexpensively with a ground source heat pump
• Tankless water heaters offer some important advantages, but they have some drawbacks, too
• Diesel generator power is a sensible choice especially when integrated into the total system
• Try these simple ways to get started in solar hot water
• Getting the most out of a solar electric system
• Is steam power in your future?
• Here's the best way to split gnarly firewood
• For safety sake, homestead fuel storage must be handled properly

Building

• A hot tub doesn't have to be expensive...We made ours for $35
• Here's and easier (and cheaper) way to make wooden beams

Farm/Garden

• Here's a cabbage with class — Early Jersey Wakefield
• You can grow gourmet strawberries from seed

Self sufficiency

• Better health from common plants
• We built a homemade community fire truck
• The incredible cattail — "The super Wal-Mart of the swamp"
• Improve FM and shortwave reception with a do-it-yourself radio antenna
• Sometimes a good old bucket of coals is the best solution
• Seventeen great tips for caring for windows, mirrors and other household glass

Country living

• Considering life in rural Arkansas
• Good-bye old friend