Mankind has made and described a huge number of the most diverse garden benches. But two reasons did not allow us to take advantage of centuries of experience: the absence of special materials and the presence of suitable ones. Almost always after the construction of a more or less significant building, scraps of pine timber Read more…
Not everyone is up to building a house or a large outbuilding, even if they have the desire. Some lack experience, others lack time. But some work can still be done yourself, while saving quite significant money. For example, installing a foundation plinth (otmostka) around the house. I ordered my country timber house from a Read more…
A stationary gazebo on a dacha or garden plot is a great convenience: under its roof, both in the heat and in bad weather, it’s nice to sit in the fresh air, rest from daily chores, and have tea by the samovar. However, there isn’t always room for such a permanent structure; and its immobility Read more…
When developing the project and building the sauna-bathhouse on the garden plot, I proceeded from the fact that it would require as little materials and time as possible. And this, it seems to me, was successful, mainly due to the reduction in the dimensions of the structure, achieved by replacing the large washing compartment with Read more…
Motor cultivators, mini-tractors, potato harvesters… For economically strong farms and homesteads, such equipment has long ceased to be a novelty. The lot of the less fortunate, it seems, remains only hope in oneself, in one’s ability to create solid mechanical helpers almost from “scrap,” and on extremely simple, yet reliable agricultural tools—a “gift from deep Read more…
Regular subscribers know that our publication pays considerable attention to individual construction. By regularly publishing various house projects and thus communicating with reader-builders, we have found that many novice builder-cottagers have a poor understanding of the house construction process itself. Finnish builder and teacher Renti Jormalainen tells about the initial stage of building a home. Read more…
Owners of houses with stove heating know how difficult it is to light a cold stove (fireplace or sauna stove), especially in bad windy weather. You’ll literally cry, because the smoke initially often goes not into the chimney, but, on the contrary, into the room. This problem is especially acute for those owners of garden Read more…
Active work with rakes, hoes, shovels, snow scrapers, and all other garden tools with handles of uniform diameter throughout their length is associated with excessive strain on the fingers. In youth, one doesn’t pay attention to such trifles, but with age, the number of rest breaks somehow increases… To reduce hand strain, I attached handle-like Read more…
I have been subscribing to your magazine for many years. It is a real helper for those who do something with their own hands. We live in the south of Ukraine, where such building material as wood is in short supply. Many of my neighbor gardeners have started building utility structures from cement panels of Read more…
The sun is always a welcome guest. Both in the city and especially when going out for country recreation. But sometimes you want to get away from guests too. From the sun as well, when there’s too much of it, on an exhaustingly hot summer day. We seek saving shade, a secluded corner somewhere under Read more…
