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One of the difficulties for those who want to create an ecological lifestyle in the countryside is car dependency. This is the first part of a series in which we examine alternatives to avoid – or at least reduce – car use. We start with the simplest and perhaps most obvious means of transport: the bicycle. How can you make it easier to make cycling work in practical terms, even if you live in the countryside a good distance from work and public services?

When your pasture looks more like an old railroad yard or a small forest than a beautiful open pasture - then it's time to get out the saw! But what should you save and what should you remove? Follow along and you'll get some tips on how to read the vegetation in your pasture, and how I did it - in a nature conservation area with zoning regulations.

To conclude this series of articles on smart irrigation, here is a comprehensive overview of ponds and pumps. By combining different beds, ponds and pumps, you can create a sustainable and efficient growing system.

Haymaking not only produces first-class hay, regardless of the weather. The work is a wonderful experience and the finished haystacks are a delight to the eye. For those who harvest hay for household needs, it is an art worth learning. In Dalarna and many other places, we use rod haystacks instead of the wire haystacks that are more common further south. This text aims to help keep alive old, previously so obvious, knowledge by describing in detail the procedure for haymaking, as it has long been done in Dalarna County.

The times we live in are unique. For the first time in history, humans are both witnesses and perpetrators of a mass extinction of species, ourselves included. At the same time, the social order is struggling as usual. This means that these times can also feel like crazy times. What is it like as a self-employed person to find yourself in the middle of all these realities?

At the beginning of the article series about handicrafts, we talked about our Swedish handicraft tradition and how it grew out of the needs that arose in homes and on farms. During the article series, we have worked with fresh wood, something that was also common in other craft guilds. In furniture carpentry, the combination of dry and fresh wood was used to obtain strong joints, especially in the manufacture of chairs, such as wicker chairs. In this article, we intend to approach that part of furniture carpentry by describing how you can make a stool from dry and fresh wood.