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April 2013

Community

Trailersteading – book review

trailersteadingcoversmHow many of you would like (love?) to to have your own place and live for just what you’d pay in taxes? Assuming you already have a piece of land (hint, look for so called “junk” land and you can often have it for a song)… Well that’s precisely what Anna Hess and her husband Mark did.

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Energy

First Algae-powered building goes up in Hamburg

Phys.org reports on a completely self-sufficient apartment building revealed at the International Housing Exhibition in Hamburg, which produces renewable energy by harvesting micro-algae.

The 15-apartment block has 129 algae filled tanks hanging over the exterior of the south-east and south-west sides of the building— powered exclusively by algae.

The fast-growing algae not only create biofuel, they also produce heat, shade the building, and abate street noise. The algae were retrieved from the nearby Elbe river, and put into large thin rectangular clear cases. Inside, the algae live in a water solution and are provided nutrients and carbon dioxide by an automated system. Each tank was then affixed to the outside walls of the building onto scaffolding that allows for turning the tanks towards the sun—similar to technology used for solar collectors.

In ten years, everyone will be doing it.

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Energy

Fort Bliss to launch US Military’s largest Renewable Energy project

Returning to a theme often covered on this site, the US Army continues to make the pace in off-grid technology.
The idea of converting communities to total renewable energy, complete recycling and a culture of conservation to bring humankind’s carbon footprint into a sustainable balance with a healthy earth, is usually seen as one for deep green activists.
The last place you’d expect this ideal to take root – and even flourish– is a Texas Army base. But Fort Bliss, a sprawling military base accommodating 35,000 soldiers in El Paso, is one of the armed forces’ leading hotbeds of energy conservation and creativity.
The Department of Defense recently released this announcement:
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 – The largest renewable energy project in U.S. military history is slated to begin soon at Fort Bliss, Texas, a big step toward the installation’s goal of generating all the energy it uses, Army Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, the installation and 1st Armored Division commander, announced today.

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Land

Fast-growing Urban forests

Bangalore, April 22nd — Planting miniature forests in cities sounds like a job for a government department rather than a small entrepreneur. Although these “forests” are on patches of land that lawns or landscaped gardens would otherwise have occupied.
Founded two years ago by industrial engineer Shubhendu Sharma, Afforestt has grown mini-forests for clients ranging from Cisco Systems and the GMR Group to an eco-conscious infotech professional living in an off-the-grid house in Bangalore.

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Community

One more tragedy

Boston bombing victim 3 lu lingziWith the tragedy of the bombing in Boston, this is just one more reminder that we need to be prepared for as many different situations as possible. First I want to say how saddened I am by the actions of whoever is responsible, this is an unspeakable tragedy to those who were injured, killed and traumatized by this bombing, to all their friends and families.

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Community

The Lost Art of Scratch Cooking

fromscsrchFood is so important, unless you were raised on a working farm, most of us have no idea where our food comes from, during the last Great Depression many people survived because they were less than one generation out from the farm, many had gardens, chickens, a milk cow… now people live crammed into cities with postage stamp sized yards with HOA’s and city ordinances that keep them from growing anything but grass, and Heaven forbid they have more than a dog or cat…

There is a lost art, the art of cooking, specifically from scratch, given a kitchen from our grandmother’s time, how many of us would be able to whip up a meal? Without microwaves, without box mixes, without the frozen conveniences in pre-packaged plastic… Fortunately I’m not the only person who thinks this way, who wonders about these things.

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Food

A Shock to the system

From regular contributor Corey Naughton

Like many of those who live off-grid I like to eat healthy. There comes a point when one must define what “healthy” is exactly. At the very least, we must personally define what is NOT healthy and avoid those items with the small exception of occasional indulgences (can you say “bacon”). Many will be surprised to learn that things they think are healthy are in fact not. For those of you who have not yet discovered the dangers of pesticide laden and GMO foods … This might be a wake up call. This quick story very clearly helped me add yet another “healthy” item to my list of things to avoid.

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People

New Lives in the Wild – TV series

glasheenAt last – a TV series about living off the grid that does not patronise or belittle the lifestyle. Instead New Lives in the Wild but allows the stories to come out of the real lives of real people with something to say.

Presenter Ben Fogle meets people who left the modern world behind; He wrote about it in the British Daily Telegraph.”My long-suffering wife Marina has become accustomed to my returning from wild expeditions with suggestions for a new life. I’ve never acted on such impulses. But what sort of people do follow their wildest dreams?

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Off-gridders who give the movement a bad name

troy-james-knappTwo arrests recently have featured lone, crazy hermits stealing from trusting folk who leave stuff out and unguarded because that is usually OK in the countryside.Its important we stand up and disassociate ourselves from this sort of behavior. This web site recently featured a warning from a lady who had invited someone to share her off-grid land, and he has ended up wrecking it. We will be featuring this story in more depth once we have investigated the background more thoroughly
Many locals in his part of Maine said they were relieved by Christopher Knight’s arrest after enduring years of break-ins. Frank Ten Broeck, a retired New Jersey police official who has a cottage nearby, marvelled at Knight’s fortitude.

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Community

Mom takes care of everything! pt 2

MOMMOM, aka milk of magnesia, it’s incredible stuff! I wrote about using it as a deodorant, it works very well for that… now we will talk about the other good things this miraculous white liquid does. Would you ever think of putting what is essentially a laxative on your face? I do it, why you might ask? Read on!

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People

Daryl Hannah tells Abu Dhabi about going off the grid

daryl hannahThe Kill Bill star has two off-grid homes, one in Colorado and one in California. She was recently in Abu Dhabi as a guest of the world’s leading hoteliers, where she shared her philosophies on living a sustainable lifestyle.
Being green does not mean you have to cut down on opulence, Hannah said at the eco-travel event they all jetted in for: “It depends what your concept of luxury and lavish is. I consider my home incredibly comfortable and incredibly luxurious in terms of its appointments. (Being sustainable) it doesn’t mean it’s hideous.” Its not clear whether means her Colorado home, near Telluride, or her Santa Cruz home which she refers to elsewhere as a “misfit circus.”
Hannah says she does not have “19 bathrooms with gold faucets” . .(does anyone outside of the Saudi royal family?)

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