Flashlights make great gifts… for children and adults, for birthdays and holidays.  So I’ll provide you with a selection of flashlight gift ideas… I’m following Amazon’s categorization of household flashlights as handheld, keychain, lantern, and headlamps, and I’ll recommend some of each.  If you are in a hurry, . When I wrote a rather long article about the best cheap LED flashlights, I realized that we didn’t ourselves really have enough flashlights, and I got some more. I would say that for most people, a Christmas gift of a flashlight would be appreciated. For example, it’s great for all tool lovers, men and … Continue reading →

We were chatting with friends the other day about solar panels for RVs and cabins. I suggested they consider RV solar panel kits and offered to do some research. I like the idea of kits for most people because you don’t have to be particularly knowledgeable. Typically you get a better deal on a kit too. With our U.S. power grid in not-such-good shape (link to my article about this), getting a small, inexpensive solar kit offers a significant level of versatility. So I went looking for solar panel kits. When I sat down at my computer, I soon discovered the immensely popular . That … Continue reading →

Interested in cheap LED flashlights? How cheap? I was surprised to discover that there are flashlights that cost several hundred dollars, used in law enforcement and for tactical applications particularly. But since I was thinking of getting a few LED flashlights of various types that would be reliable, sturdy, and pretty bright,  my needs fell in the cheap flashlights category. So I’ve been researching… Five of the Best Cheap LED Flashlights Want to cut to the chase? Here are five that are very popular, well-regarded, and of course inexpensive. They all had thousands of reviews! Click on the image or the title link to find … Continue reading →

Solar panel backpacks are a great way to keep your electronics charged, whether you are out and about around town, on a hike, or perhaps coping with the electricity being off.  The backpacks vary in how much space they have for holding things and in what they are capable of charging. For example, a laptop will require a much larger solar panel (and more sunshine) than a cellphone, digital camera, or GPS device. The more solar power you require, the heavier the batteries are likely to be, but they will also give you more power after the sun goes down. On cloudy … Continue reading →

When Kelly got a big mess of malware on his computer this past Friday afternoon from an innocent-appearing download, he could think of nothing else. He ran a full anti-virus scan, and that did catch one of the several programs, but it must not have known how to handle it as it kept asking Kelly what to do. Just what he was asking too. He commented on how hard it was to separate his computer from his own mind and thus how hard it was not to take it personally. He couldn’t use any of the three browsers he had on his … Continue reading →

Here’s how I make the pins I put up on Pinterest. Maybe this will be helpful to you. There are a lot of different ways to do it, of course, but since I’ve had Photoshop Elements for years, I use it. Some notes on the steps: 1.  I like to use 600 pixels wide, 800 tall, and 72 pixels per inch for the resolution. I could go taller for infographics. You can use different dimensions if you wish. 2. I find a picture or texture that I want to use for the background. Since my husband Kelly has taken thousands of … Continue reading →

Yesterday a friend of mine had his email hacked. I knew it when I got an email from him that began “Hey check this out!” as he doesn’t write like that. (I like the feature in gmail and maybe in other email companies now, where I can see the first line of an email.) It was a rough day for him as he dealt with the ramifications, changing passwords on other accounts he has, worrying about his online life, and so on. The One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Diminish Your Chances of Getting Hacked Change your password, … Continue reading →

A friend recently sent me the link to Paul Chefurka’s thoughtful website called Approaching the Limits to Growth. He writes long articles and I was pleased to see the small print at the bottom which said, “This article may be reproduced in whole or in part , in any manner and for any purpose whatsoever, with no restrictions..” So I tried to copy one article completely, but I wasn’t able to cut and paste the illustrations. Still, here is the start to his thoughts about consumption, overpopulation, and the planet. There’s a link at the end of the excerpt right … Continue reading →

Recently I found myself at Zen Habits because I had come across a link to an excellent article on the site,  Simple Living  Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life. It’s a guide to getting rid of what is less important to you in your life, so you can concentrate on what you really care about. That could be anything… the article is full of suggestions like decluttering, simplifying work and home tasks, eliminating the clothes you don’t wear, and so on. There are actually 72 ideas on the list, and many of them have links to other articles of … Continue reading →

  Here are some of the sites of my husband, Kelly Hart. He is passionate about natural building. [1] Greenhomebuilding.com This is Kelly’s largest site. It’s got hundreds of pages on all aspects of green home building. The easiest way to find something specific is the search box in the upper right of the home page or on the bottom of most other pages. The table across the top is on every page, and will take you to the various categories of the website. That “Ask the Experts” section draws on commentary from some three dozen experts. Readers send in questions, … Continue reading →

A very popular type of  system is the 12 volt one, often written as 12v.  You might wonder how much energy 12 volts can really provide.  Such a system would be inadequate for heating your house, but you could run some  portable devices, or you could recharge their batteries, assuming they were the rechargeable kind! Keeping car, RV, boat, and cabin batteries charged is one of their main uses. The portable panels for a 12 volt system operate in the same way that large solar panels do, but naturally since they are smaller, they generate less electricity. Like larger ones, … Continue reading →