5 Gallon Bucket

Sailboats today are selling for a tiny fraction of the cost of building one, making them both a great deal, and a terrible one. Great because you can buy yourself a place to live for one month’s salary – and terrible because buying the wrong boat, or buying a boat for the wrong reasons, can be the first step in a long road to financial quagmire.

A small percentage of the population actually live aboard sailboats. It’s one of a tiny handful of ways to avoid both paying rent and paying a mortgage. One of the best known full-time liveaboards is fellow blogger Dmitri Orlov anchored in Boston Harbor.

I lived on a 44′ sailboat myself for just over a month in Cadboro Bay, Victoria – an experiment cut short both by bad weather and bad weatherproofing.

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Fewer people than ever heat their houses with wood through modern winters, which makes wood heat more viable each year. You can now find large quantities of wood for cheap or free, and you couldn’t ask for a cozier heat.

Like any heating method, it has its drawbacks. In addition to the extra work needed to obtain large chunks of wood, then chop it down into smaller pieces, it’s heavy and takes up an immense amount of space.

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Old empty plastic Folgers buckets are one of my favorites. They’re light, yet durable. The easy-to-apply lid is also airtight. They even have little grips meant for the human hand.

With a little slit cut it one, you can make a genius toilet paper dispenser. It’s the perfect unit to take camping.

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This simple trap is the best way to keep fruit flies under control. I can guarantee it works because I’ve used it myself many times and caught hundreds of fruit flies to date.

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