Second hand books I've bought

I'm currently reading:-
"The Way Home. Tales from a life without technology" - Mark Boyle who wrote "The Moneyless Man" and the inspiration for the Moneyless Chicken.
In his first book The Moneyless Man he challenged himself to live without money for a year. He actually lived like that for 3 years and eventually, bought a few acres of land in Ireland, where his roots are, built a strawbale home and opened a hostel & pub where everything was free - accommodation, food, beer. The people who came, helped out on the land in return.
Moving on, he was challenged to live for a year without technology, nothing electrical, no running water. He writes letters to his parents in pencil, instead of phoning them, walks everywhere. He's built a hut to live in, collects water from the spring, cooks on an open fire and also heats water from washing this way.
I'm not tempted to go this far but I am intrigued by this - he's using wood ash to clean saucepans and plates. Anyone tried this?