Posts from — August 2008

Dunster – new off-grid design British eco-architect Bill Dunster has taken advice from the off-grid community and launched plans for small, off-grid holiday homes around the world.

The architect has produced draft plans for 30m2 “Landark” cabins, designed to sleep up to six people. They will include a composting toilet, wood-fired kitchen stove, a green roof and solar panels. (more…)

Pflug – pulling the plug The local government in the town of Guelph, Ontario is running a campaign against a group of young people living off the grid.

A dozen or so who have squatted a piece of disused city parkland may soon be homeless.

The group, in their late teens and 20s, had set up gardens, a composting toilet and even a bike repair site, but signs posted by the city say they may be evicted this week. (more…)

My Dad and I took Pekoe to the vet this morning, I had to have her there between 8 and 8:30 am. Once we got there, and got her checked in, I carried Pekoe back to a little room full of cages, I placed her in one, kissed her on top of the head, and left, it was hard to do, but I knew it would be for the best. They told me to come back around 4:30 to pick her up.

We drove back home and waited. Around 3:45 we left to go back and pick her up. One of the assistants carried her back to me, Pekoe looked so pitiful, she was droopy eyed, well just droopy all over. But she was glad to be back with me. We paid the bill, that one came to about $107, so all total the bill was around $200, again I want to thank everyone who donated, it came in very handy and is very much appreciated.

On the way back to the truck, I set Pekoe on the ground to see if she would want to potty, she couldn’t even stand up yet, so I set her on a towel in my lap and came on home. It’s been a few hours and she is still droopy looking, but she wagged her tail at me so that is a good sign that she is OK. I know the next few days will be difficult for her, they pulled 6 teeth, an assortment of molars and other teeth, I’ll wait for a few days (or longer) to look in her mouth to see exactly which ones are gone. The lady at the front desk said Pekoe could eat as early as tonight if she wanted to, I expect it will be tomorrow before she will want to eat. Right now Pekoe is curled up on our bed resting.

Wretha

Here are a few more pix taken just a few days ago, it’s been raining quite a bit, the creek is running good.

This part of the creek splits and forms sort of an island.

This is an old abandoned travel trailer, the windows are broken out, you can look inside and see things just as someone left it, there are many interesting old things inside, I call it “The Museum”.

This is Bob, walking across the creek…

Bob decided to redirect the water to keep it from undermining the bank any more than it already has.

A friend came over, he took off his shoes, jumped right in and helped Bob.

Just like a couple of little boys having fun!

Wretha

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Some of the fungus that lives among us… sorry ’bout that, I couldn’t resist… ;)

This one is pink, and very slimy.

This one is spiky.

Close up, spiky.

I suspect none of these are good to eat, not to worry, I’m not going to try, but they are interesting to see, with all this rain, they are popping up everywhere.

Wretha

My Dad made it in yesterday! He left the DFW area about 8 am and made it in here just before 6pm, pretty good timing. I was at the store, he just drove on up to the store and stayed there with me for the hour I had left, he even got to meet a couple of the locals before the store closed. I am so glad he is here, I have missed him a lot.

It’s been raining for the last few days, we still have another month or so of the rainy season, I’ll have some more pix to upload soon of the creek running and the other things that are going on.

Wretha

Longer days in Dedougou Hema Cecile is a student in Burkina Fasso, the world’s second poorest country. Thanks to a recent initiative from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) her studies are more productive now.

The launch of Lighting Africa three months ago allowed her (and another thousand households in the town of Dedougou) to swap kerosene lamps for solar- powered lanterns. The LED lights use almost no power, and can keep shining all night if required. That should mean a more productive, better educated, wealthier population — a virtuous circle of reduced energy use and increased economic activity. (more…)

My garden looks like it’s been frosted, I just finished “fogging” the garden with diatomaceous earth, I try to do it about once a week. I haven’t had much chance to do it lately because of all the rain, it does no good to try to dust when it’s raining or about to rain, it would just be washed off. I have noticed a lot of grasshoppers, though they aren’t doing very much damage, I can see where they are eating the leaves more an more. Today was a fairly sunny day so I decided it was time to do something about the grasshoppers.

Bob has been gone most of the day, out with one of our friends, helping him. I became adventurous and decided to climb up on the roof to change the angle of the solar panels. They are adjustable to face the sun, I thought it would be in the morning position, I was close, once I climbed up there, I could see that it was in a horizontal position, flat. The sun had passed high noon and was heading toward the west, so I undid the bungie cord and tilted the panels toward the west and redid the bungie cord. I looked around, enjoying the view from the roof, I couldn’t tell you exactly how high it is, but suffice it to say it’s around 3 stories tall. That’s all for my adventures today. I spoke to my Dad and he is planning on coming out on Thursday or Friday, it’s been very rainy in the Fort Worth area, so he hasn’t been able to pack the truck, once he is able to do that, he will leave out the following day, I’m hoping he will get a break in the rain in th coming days.

I spoke to my DIL today, she and the baby are doing great, one glitch though, the baby is in a breech position, butt down, so we hope the baby will turn in the next couple of weeks. Her doctor says the baby might come early, not a big surprise, I’ll just have to be ready when the time comes.

Pekoe is doing much better, she has had 4 doses of the antibiotics, Monday night she got a dose, Tuesday she got her morning and night doses, and this morning, she got one dose, today she jumped up on me and got in my face, before now, her breath was horrible, you could smell the infection and it was very stinky, it was miserable if she got under the blanket with one of us and started coughing, you would have to come up for air! This time all I smelled was regular doggie breath, it’s funny to think that doggie breath would be an improvement, but believe me, it is! I had to take a second sniff to make sure, yep, her mouth is doing much, M U C H better.

That’s about all for now, I’m just waiting for Bob to come home, I’ll cook dinner, we will listen to the radio or the internet radio and then we will go to bed. Tomorrow, we have to get the bedroom finished for my Dad, it’s nearly there, we just need to get a few more miscellaneous things out of there, clear off both decks so he can safely walk around out there.

Wretha

What good are solar panels and recycled woods tacked on to a McMansion? Fact is, the sustainable homes of the future look a lot like those of the past.

Carter’s so called sweaterIN THE LATE 1970s, heating oil and electricity prices were shooting sky-high, Jimmy Carter was donning that cool cardigan (falsely characterised as an ugly sweater). Thirty years later, the buzzword is “green.”

Like homeowners in the ’70s, you care about keeping heating and cooling costs down. But the bar has been raised since then. You also want to shrink your overall footprint on the environment, chopping down less rain forest and pumping fewer tons of greenhouse gases into the air. All good. But simply buying every building material labeled earth-friendly and installing high-tech green gizmos isn’t the best way to accomplish this. (more…)