There are a number of options for your waste water, the water that has been used in your kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. Some options would mean keeping this waste separate and dispose of in different ways, but the one stop solution and most common is a septic system. As this option is the …
>>Keep reading “The One Stop Septic System”

Pitch(fork)ing in to compost
Oyster mushrooms grow in coffee grounds, a fig tree thrives on soapy gray water from a washing machine, and electricity is generated by a wind turbine made of old bicycle parts. As the transportation of oil and food grows pricier, sustainability might not mean living off the fat of the land as much as scrounging off the lean spots amid the pavement.
Scott Kellogg runs a course on Radical Urban Sustainability Training, or RUST. This is down to earth environmentalism.
>>Keep reading “Urban Sustainability Training”

…and enjoy it
Living off-grid you really appreciate the value of water. Here are some suggestions, and anyone reading this is free to suggest other tips in the comments below or the forum.

Drip irrigation

A happy accident and a leaky spigot led to the discovery of drip irrigation. In an orchard, a leaky spigot was drip, drip, dripping water at the base of a tree. Over time, the tree getting the steady drip of water was doing better than the surrounding trees.
>>Keep reading “Water and how to save it”

Stay local
In the U.S. today, just over 15 percent of us regularly work from home at least one day a week, according to latest figures from the US Census. About 5 per cent work mainly from home. Telecommuters even have their own publication – Telecommuting Times

For those who do commute on average, it takes about 25 minutes to reach their workplace.

More than three-quarters of Americans drive to their jobs alone. Nearly 11 percent ride in car pools and less than 5 percent take public transportation, including taxicabs. About 2.5 percent are lucky enough they can walk to work.

Telecommuting has been accused of all sorts of ills – including making the home a more stressful place, reducing communication in the workplace and reducing productivity, but a recent study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, firmly debunks these claims.
>>Keep reading “Telecommuting spreads”

We are happy to announce that Make It Right9 in NOLA (New Orleans, LA) has given us our own home to promote. Once you follow the link go down the list till you see our home, we we’re second to last …
>>Keep reading “Make a Difference in NOLA”

Small PV SystemSo, you want to go off-grid? Or maybe you want to find out what it’s like before taking the plunge? How about taking one room of your house off grid? It’s a less expensive way of learning the technology, before committing yourself.

We suggest starting with a bedroom. Look around your bedroom and see what devices you have that run on electric. As I look around my room, I see one table lamp, two floor lamps, wall lamp, digital TV, Stereo, satellite box, portable dvd player, vcr, and XBox. I also have a battery powered clock, powered by rechargeables, so I’ll add the battery charger to our list. There is also a curling iron, hair dryer, and ceiling fan with lights, but we will leave those items off our list for now.

>>Keep reading “Take your spare room off-grid”

Going up: Nick is part of global trend
The Independent Newspaper carried a double page spread today, featuring Off-Grid Editor Nick Rosen and his book How to Live Off-grid

The article, reproduced below, ran under the headline “Off-grid: Meet the pioneers living without mains power or water”:

You won’t find the phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary, yet, but living off-grid, outside or in between, the criss-crossing lines of power, water, gas and phone that delineate the civilised world, is a skill that everyone may soon need.
>>Keep reading “Nick Rosen featured in Independent”

Thought it was time to update some of our previous posts. Since we started this journey back in October we have run across some amazing movements, events, products, and people and we wanted to check in on them and see how things have gone.

Make It Right 9 of New Orleans has raised funds to build 81 of …
>>Keep reading “Updates on Previous Posts”

Just a few of our “neighbors” coming out for a visit. These are mule deer, they have large ears like a mule. These are very friendly, sometimes too much so, they will come pretty close to see if you have anything to feed to them. I throw a few crackers to them on occasion, I don’t want them to …
>>Keep reading “Neighbors…”