Brian Stretch

I used to have terrible skin. Eczema, cracked and bleeding hands in the winter, the works. Cleaning up my diet fixed most of it. You need healthy fats, especially animal fats. Pasture raised beef is best for me. I very rarely bother with lip balms and such anymore. I mildly react to coconut, at least used topically, so that's out for me. Wheat especially but grains in general cause issues for me, as do "normal" quantities of sugars and sufficient quantities of tomato. I did try rendering tallow for a while and that was great for my skin so I can see where tallow balms would be helpful. You'll get much needed zinc from red meat too. There is a substantial taste and visual difference between pasture raised and CAFO beef fat but go with what you can find and afford.

Bartonella is one possible cause. Bart and Lyme often go together but not necessarily. Red stretch marks are the classic symptom but not required. Rage and addictive behavior are symptoms. "Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma" by Stephen Harrod Buhner is the obligatory book. Eating real food, especially red meat, and avoiding industrial food-like products will help.

Michael Bunker has several off-grid food preservation videos on his YouTube channel, including canning meat:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLltRK-WVtsOjdZItd8uKBtHR3N425RZ25

Pretty much. It would address the range issues others have mentioned. No reason you couldn't run electric only on short distances. Hybrids seem like the most flexible approach until battery tech improves but hybrid adds complexity and reduces reliability. It sounds like you're sticking to use cases that are short range only for this project? That's... wise. Though if some lunatic manages to build a propane/electric hybrid van they're going to get a ridiculous number of YouTube views .

This page used 34kWh to travel 100 miles for their example electric vehicle, so even if you could cram a kilowatt of solar panels on it... meh.
https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_charging_home.html

Watching the various van conversions on YouTube, I've wondered if a hybrid van with an electric engine and propane/CNG generator would be doable. A small generator running at peak efficiency paired with a smaller battery acting as a power cache would theoretically provide great range with minimal fuel and emissions. You could tap the propane for heat and cooking fuel too. An old step van would provide room to work with and plenty of roof space for solar panels. Probably way too complex to be practical but I thought I'd throw it out here for you mechanically inclined people. Same principle works for cars of course but maybe easier to start large?

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/ was my favorite site when I was researching electrics. He's not doing engines but there's great stuff about batteries and such.

How we do stuff: Making Authentic, non-refrigerated, long-term storage bacon (video)

If you do try heating your driveway, just make sure that melted snow doesn't get under the driveway and re-freeze. That happened on our campus sidewalks.

If you want to make snow shoveling an upper-body workout instead of a back-killing workout, these are awesome:
Snow Wovel

On a related note, look into Irlen Syndrome:
What is Irlen Syndrome
If letters don't sit still on the page, or you've noticed that certain shades of filters help you read, it's worth getting screened. Sometimes the filters work, sometimes they don't.

Canola, corn and soybean oils are all bad. Heavily processed, goes rancid easily, chemical defenses from their source material, just too different from the fats we evolved with, etc. Olive and coconut oils are usually OK though olives are bad if you're histamine sensitive and coconut is bad if you're salicylate (aspirin) sensitive. Animal fats are almost always good. Bacon fat, tallow, lard... good stuff. I'd pay up for fats from pasture-raised livestock but I'm picky. Tastes better to me too.

I'd bet on pathogen die-off causing the ammonia smell. Lots of pathogens poop ammonia and they'll release even more when they die. This stuff is supposed to help mop up ammonia:
http://www.jigsawhealth.com/supplements/butyrex/
Or just tough it out, but if your blood-brain barrier is compromised ammonia can really mess with your head. Ammonia creates a more hospitable (less acidic) environment for pathogens.

Fiber helps "move things along" because it scrapes the lining of your intestines and the irritation causes mucous to be released. This is very much not what you want with IBS-D. If you need help "moving things along", increase consumption of animal fats.

If histamine isn't a problem, bone broth is awesome.

If histamine is a problem and you have the usual sinus issues give Nasalcrom spray a try. Amazing stuff. Mast cell stabilizer, not a steroid. Went OTC a while ago. It can be hard to find because the pharmaceutical mafia pushes newer prescription meds that did nothing for me.

Starving out SIBO pathogens with very low carb or Zero Carb looks like the most promising approach. SIBO can dump a lot of histamine into your system too.