SolWest Renewables Fair is a community for off-grid and other independent folks. Its an annual gathering place, and now in its tenth year at the Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day, Oregon, July 25-27, 2008.
The keynote address, “Community Energy” is by Greg Pahl, author of The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook. Pahl will describe the new Community Supported Energy movement. (more…)

Self-sufficient eco-luxury

At the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, the hubbub of 21st century noise recedes as smoothly as the Lexus hybrid SUV which carries visitors to their rooms, a collection of cottages nestling along redwood-lined cliffs overlooking the Pacific.

A half-day’s drive from Los Angeles, this is the face of high-end green luxury. The Travelgood web site reports on the hotel has been there for two decades, and mentions its next big change — a $1.8m project to take the whole complex completely off grid. (more…)

Sundance channel has started it’s second season of their regular programming called The Green. The Green is both on TV and interactive by way of the web. Programming for this Tuesday includes one of our old favorites It’s Not Easy Being Green, Big Ideas for a Small Planet, The Sierra Club Chronicles, as well as shorts about being an “ecoist” and eco-business.

The Greenis the first programming that is prime time (9 pm) to showcase shows, documentaries, movies that all have the environment as their main concern. This is a wonderful place to catch up on the latest in the environment, going green, living green, or being responsible for your environment. This is also supported by an online community effort to help connect those interested in being eco-friendly and to do business with those who also promote a more responsible and/or self-sustainable way of life. Their online community, called the Eco-mmunity, has an interactive map where you can locate others in your local area and even mark your place in the world. Making it easier for you to connect with others that share your interest or has a product or service you’re looking for.

Seeing the environment and being self-sustaining becoming more of a concern for everyday Americans is very refreshing. Now when people are discussing the environment and going green they no longer seem to have that “look”, you know the one where they think your missing a few marbles, when I speak up and give them pointers or answer questions they have been wondering about. Telling people that how much we lowered our gas & electric bill this winter by just becoming efficient and insulating everywhere we could think of inspired them to start doing it to. Talking about using alternative energy, whether as an individual or by purchasing from alternative power companies, gave people a pause and for some the incentive to look more into it.

I truly believe that we can each live off the grid and still maintain, though improve is more like it, our current standard of living. You don’t have to sacrifice your computer, TV, satellite or cable, dishwasher, phone, iPod, or any other of the multitude of thing you just can’t see living without. Of course when you hear what it is to be quite, you just may wonder why all those things were so important. Especially when you hear the laughter of your children, the singing of the birds, the whisper of the wind, and the trickle of a stream. Those sounds that have been drowned out by today’s hectic lifestyle are still there waiting to be heard again.

When deciding on changing to a more self-sufficient lifestyle it’s important to include your children in on the reasons why and it’s benefits. Some children may just be fortunate enough to grow up in this lifestyle but most will probably be making this journey with their parents.

We’ve have been lucky in that our children have embraced this lifestyle and are actively pursuing ways to improve our self sustainability. Also they haven’t had any social problems at school since global warming and being environmentally responsible with trash is a topic touched on in my children’s public school. They are almost as impatient as us to be completely off the grid. Planning our gardens this year is to be less for learning and more for what is necessary for us to fulfill our vegetable and herb needs. Though we know that during our first full gardening year we will over and under plant some crops we are excited to know that we are planning on producing most of our grown food ourselves.

Our children also have a way of making sure we don’t lose site of the big picture. Sometimes we get so mired in on project that we forget that it is just part of a bigger plan and perfection is not needed for it to work. Also their pride and excitement about doing something about the way our world has been being treated is infectious to those they come in contact with, such as teachers, other children, coaches, an so on. Including our children in our plans and why we chose it also open the dialogue between us. Since parents are not always informed on the environmental studies of children nor are the teachers as well versed as we would like we are able to discuss it with them and minimize some fears and expand on some topics. After one such class my oldest daughter was afraid to eat fruit for fear of pesticides. Since we go for organic and I thoroughly was any vegetable or fruit that comes into our home I was able to soothe her fears.

What brought this home to me about including children in the journey is that there is not many books out there that can help explain and/or make this way of life seem if not “normal” just not “odd”. I am volunteering at my children’s school book-fair and only noticed 2, though one was the same book just easier for younger children, at the fair. I saw multiple books on “High School Musical”, “Narnia”, and even “Indiana Jones” but to only see those two that touched on this topic was a little disheartening. The book Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warmingby Laurie David & Cambria Gordon and their “Get Down to Earth: What You Can Do To Stop Global Warming” was a nice thing to see tucked in with all the other hundreds of books.

We have to not only start with ourselves to change the lifestyle of consumption that is part of main stream American culture but also with the children. They need to see that there are options to this lifestyle. I was lucky in that my grandparents were “hill” people from the mountains of North Carolina and they introduced me to being self reliant without me knowing it. Most of the things that I have had to re-discover about getting off the grid are old truths that my MeMaw and PopPop taught me throughout my childhood. I just got caught up in the sparkly world of consumption. Now that I have children I can no longer think that I’ll get back to those truths when it’s convenient or “the right time”. I have and will continue to make this “the right time” for me and my family. For everyday I waited I regret not starting sooner, but for everyday I take another step, whether forward or back, I have a pride in myself and joy in my heart.

Wishing everyone else on this journey or thinking about starting it the same pride and joy.

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. (more…)

Relax at work

A survey of more than 1,000 senior executives found 74% expected “virtual teams of employees”, working at a distance from each other, to become the norm by 2018.

About 64% thought talented people would become “multi-employed,” 59% said job hopping would be commonplace and 56% said most routine tasks would be automated. (more…)

Say it with maps

U.S. sales of GPS units shot up by 488 per cent last year. GPS units have numerous practical applications. They have opened up a new world of exploration and social interaction to anyone who can afford the $200-$300 price tag for a top of the range model.

Many technologies, like calculators and spellcheckers, can make us lazier, encouraging innumeracy and illiteracy. But GPS devices seem to be having the opposite effect, inspiring users to become more geographically literate and sparking a new interest in reading and making maps. Your Nintendo Wii might get you off your couch, but a Garmin GPSMap 76CSx Mapping Handheld GPS can get you out the door and into a world of your own creation. (more…)

Come on back, Woody

As the off-grid movement battles for recognition of this way of life, it all comes back to land ownership, and the empty building land held by speculators and developers with no thought to the good of society as a whole. As house prices collapse back to where they should have been all along, and the banks look for new ways to take our money, its timely to remember the words of Woody Guthrie’s immortal song This Land Is Your Land. Wikipedia says Guthrie was a “first-hand observer of the economic and environmental hardships of the Dust Bowl era, became known as the Dust Bowl Troubadour”. The Dust Bowl may be coming back very soon.

This Land Is Your Land

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me. (more…)

Become an Activist

Don�t just stand there on the sidelines. Get involved! Make a difference. Spread the word. There�s so much you can do. Stanley Campbell has written a great list of 12 steps on how to be an activist:

1. Speak out about an issue. Don�t remain silent, but don�t scare people away. Try to express your concern in a positive manner. The world doesn�t want you to act, and the rich want you to shop, so God bless the social justice activist! But if you are concerned about the environment, pollution, war, poverty, or the high price of living (or anything else), then speak your mind! Teddy Roosevelt said �do what you can, where you are, with what you have.� (more…)