Cheesemaking Kit

Have you ever thought of making your own food?  There are several different types of food you can make at home, and one of them is cheese.  It might sound difficult or not worth the trouble.  After all, isn’t making cheese a very long, complicated process?  Well, it doesn’t have to be thanks to this cheesemaking kit.  The kit makes the entire process very quick and easy.

This cheesemaking kit allows you to create a number of fresh cheeses right in your own kitchen.  It uses top of the line cheesemaking processes and techniques for making ricotta and mozzarella from a variety of different milks, including local, nonfat, dried, and goat’s milk.  The instructions in the kit take you through the entire cheesemaking process step by step, making it very easy to go from opening the box to making your first cheese.  You won’t ever need to visit the grocery store for cheese again.

The cheesemaking kit includes everything you need to get started (except for the milk, of course!).  It features an instructional DVD to guide you through the process, a thermometer, flake salt, muslin, citric acid, rennet, and a recipe book that features 75 different great cheesemaking recipes.  You’re sure to find at least a few cheese recipes in the book, and you can always search the internet or look for other cookbooks to supplement your cheesemaking enterprise.

The cheesemaking kit is perfect if you want to start making your own food.  You can save money, eat healthier, and feel great about creating and eating food you’ve made with your own hands.  It’s also a fun activity to enjoy with your children or an activity to share with a group of friends.  Once you start making cheese, you’ll find that you don’t even want to buy it ever again since your own cheese tastes so great.

Ecofan Gas and Woodstove Fan

If you own a wood burning stove or even a gas stove, you might use them in the winter as a way of helping to heat your home.  Wood burning stoves, especially, are often used for heat.  However, they use up a lot of wood, and sometimes, they don’t actually put out as much heat as you’d like.  However, there’s a way you can get more heat out of these stoves without using up any more resources.  How?  By circulating the air using an Ecofan Gas and Woodstove Fan.

The Ecofan Gas and Woodstove Fan helps to improve your woodstove’s heating capability by 30%.  This means your room will be much warmer than before.  These fans use thermodynamic technology that actually makes the fan speed up as the stove gets hotter.  Best of all, these fans do not use any electricity at all, so they’re increasing your heating efficiency but not drawing on any resources.  What more could you want?

The bottom of each Ecofan features a small temperature-sensitive strip that tilts the fan just a bit so that it won’t overheat by staying in contact with the hot surface of the stove.  The fans are also made out of anodized aluminum so they won’t corrode or rust.

There are several different models of the Ecofan.  There’s the standard Ecofan for woodstoves.  Then there’s the Ecofan for gas stoves.  Finally, the Ecofan Plus has a larger heat absorbing surface so that it can circulate even more heat throughout the room.  No matter which one you select, you’ll find your rooms are much warmer and that you need to use less fuel in your stove to maintain that heat.

Pine Needle Ornaments

Many people love to collect Christmas tree ornaments.  In fact, for some it’s a holiday tradition to purchase a new ornament every year.  Some parents buy an ornament for their children every year so that by the time they move away, they have a nice collection of ornaments that are very special to them.  Others simply like to add something new to their trees each year or replace old or broken ornaments.

If you’re looking for some ornaments that are unique and that you won’t find in any local department store, then you may want to look at these pine needle ornaments.  They are handwoven in Nicaragua by women who live in a co-op on a ridge above the city of El Cerro.  These women collect pine needles that fall from the trees around the co-op and weave them into various different crafts and ornaments.  This creates a sustainable economy and is a great form of using what nature provides to make amazing decorations.  The ornaments have that great pine smell, creating a natural type of air freshener.  They are also Fair Trade certified, meaning that the women get the money made from their ornaments.

You have three different designs to choose from: a star, an angel, or a bell.  Of course, you may want to purchase a set of all three to make your tree look really pretty.  The different ornaments have been dyed a maroon color so they stand out when placed on your Christmas tree or hung in your window.  You could even hang one of them in your car to give it a fresh pine smell.  If you’re looking for a great new ornament, you really should look at these.  They’re unique and sure to be a great addition to your tree.

Smart Power Strip

As you’ve probably heard many times over by energy-efficient people, articles, and websites, everything draws power when it’s plugged in.  It doesn’t matter if the device is turned off or if it’s plugged into a power strip.  All electronics continue to pull a little bit of power constantly if they are plugged in, and besides being wasted electricity, it’s also something we have to pay for.  Granted, they don’t draw a lot of energy, but it does add up.

However, the Smart Power Strip can prevent all of this wasted energy and money.  It has several different color-coded plugs for your electronics.  The main electronic device, such as your computer or television, goes into the main blue outlet.  The other devices, such as your printer, monitor, DVD player, or cable box, plug in to the other outlets.  The power strip contains sensors in each outlet that tell it when the main device is turned off.  It then shuts down all of the other outlets so no power goes to anything until the main device is turned back on.  This can actually save you over 70% of the energy used by these devices, plus it provides you with surge protection.  Three outlets on the Smart Power Strip are always on, too, so you can use the power strip for things like alarm clocks or internet modems and routers that may always need to be on.  Six other outlets in addition to the main outlet give you plenty of space to plug in many different devices.

Saving on energy is a great way of cutting down your monthly bills, and while it might not seem like a huge savings by powering down these devices, every little bit helps. Read more

Plantable Seed Calendar 2010

As 2009 comes to an end, there are a number of different things to purchase to get ready for the new year.  One of these things is a new calendar.  In fact, most people need two or three new calendars.  Usually, they keep a calendar in a few different places in the home, and they often need one on their desk at work and a travel calendar to keep in the car or in their purse.  But what happens to the 2009 calendars?  Most just end up in the trash, although some people do cut pictures out of them or recycle them.  However, the unique Plantable Seed Calendar 2010 offers a very different way of getting more use out of this calendar when 2011 rolls around.

Besides being a great looking calendar that works for the home or the office, the Plantable Seed Calendar 2010 features wildflower seeds embedded in every page.  On the first of each month, pull off the previous month’s page, take it outside, and simply bury it in the ground or in a pot.  Before long, you’ll have some beautiful wildflowers sprout up!  In addition to the different seeds each month contains, the paper is all 100% post-consumer waste that has been recycled.  This calendar is truly one of the most ecologically friendly gifts you could ever give.  Every page is handmade and features drawings and decorations designed to fit the current month.  It also comes in a nice reusable tin that you can use to keep pages in until you want to plant them or use for other items.

The Plantable Seed Calendar for 2010 is a really great gift idea that is sure to be a hit with anyone who loves flowers.

Wall Shelf Drying Rack

Drying your clothing, towels, and other items on a clothesline is a great way of saving energy.  However, there are some days when it’s just impossible to use an outdoor clothesline, such as during bad weather or in areas that are located too far north.  You can try hanging clothing indoors, but stringing an indoor clothesline can get in the way.

To make indoor drying easier, you may want to install a Wall Shelf Drying Rack.  This wooden rack can be installed on any wall in just a few minutes.  It’s very easy to hang, and just about anyone can do it.  Once you’ve got the drying rack installed, all you have to do is pull out the drying rack and place your clothing on it.  When you’re done, you simply push the rack back into the shelf.  Convenient pegs on the bottom of the shelf give you places to hang longer and heavier clothing, while the shelf on top gives you a place to store laundry soap or to dry things like herbs and flowers.

You can install the Wall Shelf Drying Rack in your laundry room to make it very easy to move clothing from the washer to the drying rack, or you can put it in a sunny location to help the clothing dry faster.  If you routinely wash a lot of clothing at once, you can even get two or three of these drying racks and hang them side by side to create a large drying area.

Pocket Kite

If you’ve been to a park during warm weather, you may have seen people flying stunt kites.  These kites aren’t like the traditional rectangular ones you may have played with as a kid.  Instead, they’re aerodynamic tricksters that can do many different, exciting things in the hands of a skill kite flyer.  If you want to try doing kite tricks yourself or know someone who might, check out this cool Pocket Kite.

In addition to be a state of the art stunt kite that can do loop the loops and other stunts, the Pocket Kite has one other amazing trick: it folds up and fits nicely into a small carrying pouch.  Because there are no support rods or other stiff items in the kite, it can be collapsed into a very small package.  However, when it’s unfurled, it’s easily 45’’ by 20’’, a good sized kite.

The Pocket Kite is a long rectangle of multicolored fabrics.  The dual string controls attach one on each end, giving you the ability to more accurately control the kite.  The material it’s made out of is nearly indestructible, so even if you crash into a tree or the kite hits the ground hard, it will be back up in the air in no time with no scratches or tears.  The Pocket Kite makes a great gift for kids and adults alike, especially for those who dream of the sky.

Bosch Aquastar Tankless Water Heaters

Water heaters can be large, problematic, and can be a real burden on energy efficiency if you have an older model.  One way to combat this is to get a Bosch Aquastar tankless water heater.  This is because the water is only heated in the quantity that you need at any specific time.  For example, most water heaters keep a minimum amount of hot water stored in the tank ready for use.  However, a tankless water heater will not keep any hot water on hand, but will work to heat up the water that flows through it when the hot water is turned out at the source (i.e. the shower or the sink).

There are three different standard sizes for the Bosch Aquastar tankless water heaters, and you will need to choose the one that will work best for your household water consumption needs. For example, if you are just looking to have hot water supplied to your sink, then the small 1000P unit will be perfect for this operation.  However, if you want to get a tankless hot water heater that is capable of running a small household, then you will probably want the 1600 series tankless system.  This medium sized system is one that is capable of operating one major appliance at a time like a shower or a dishwasher.  If, your house has more than four people it in, then you will probably want to make sure that you go with the larger capacity 2400 series because it is capable of running more than one large appliance at a time.

Remember, not only are you working with a system that has been time tested and guaranteed, but you are also operating on a more energy efficient level and are taking up less room in your home.

Beginner Beekeeping Kit

Are you an aspiring beekeeper, or do you know someone who is?  Those who are thinking about getting into beekeeping know that several unique pieces of equipment must be purchased.  Beekeeping uses items that no other hobby uses, and sometimes, it can be difficult to find some of these pieces of equipment.  However, once found, the reward of incredibly good honey awaits.

The Beginner Beekeeping Kit provides all of these essential items and more.  It has everything you need to inspect your hives, add more worker bees if necessary, and collect the honey once your hard workers have created it.  The kit contains everything but the bees—those, you have to supply yourself!

In this Beginner Beekeeping Kit you’ll find a full, complete wooden hive ready for bees.  The kit also contains wax, a smoker and fuel for it, a brush, nails, and all the instructions for assembling your hive.  It also contains all of the clothing you’ll need—a helmet with veil and a pair of heavy duty beekeeping gloves.  Of course, you may wish to invest in a full beekeeper’s suit, but one isn’t necessarily needed.

For those who aren’t quite certain how to raise bees or how to collect honey, the kit also contains a copy of “First Lessons in Beekeeping,” a book full of interesting facts and tips on how to start a hive and make certain your little buzzing friends survive.  This book is invaluable for anyone who is just starting out as a beekeeper.

Keeping bees can quickly become an addictive hobby, but before you can start, you’ve got to have the right tools.  Don’t spend time and extra money hunting down each item in this kit individually.  Instead, grab everything you need and start your hive right away!

Snap Together Outdoor Greenhouse

People love growing plants, but some locations are better for gardening and flowerbeds than others.  If you live in a colder climate, you may not be able to grow plants outdoors.  In this case, you can try growing plants indoors, but unless you have a large, empty room to convert into an indoor grow room, you just can’t grow some flowers or plants indoors.  Another option is to build a greenhouse.  However, some people feel like this is too expensive.

There is an alternative, though, to building a huge, permanent greenhouse.  A Snap Together Outdoor Greenhouse is affordable and, best of all, can be disassembled and easily moved elsewhere if you ever need to do so.  This type of greenhouse isn’t as large as a permanent facility, but it’s large enough to grow a number of different vegetables or flowers.  It features everything a full sized greenhouse has, including windows and roof tiles that open and a large door that makes bringing in big planters very easy.

The Snap Together Outdoor Greenhouse is very quick and easy to assemble.  It uses SmartLock connectors that snap together without any tools, and the preassembled windows and door all come equipped with weatherstripping to keep out the cold.  The panels are all made out of a polycarbonate that is incredibly strong and won’t easily break.  The rest of the greenhouse frame is made from heavy duty aluminum that is corrosion resistant, so it will stand up to heavy precipitation.  Once constructed, you’ve got almost 50 square foot of usable space, and the roof is tall enough that you won’t have to duck or bend over while working.  This type of outdoor greenhouse is perfect for any climate and fits nicely in just about any sized back yard.

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