Why do I think I can have a channel called Hardcore Sustainable? This is more of a personal video talking about my story and my motivations for moving to an ecovillage and making a commitment to doing things the really hard, and hardcore sustainable way. Given all the ecological problems facing the planet, we need to go further in our lifestyle activism. Cooperation with others can be one of the best ways to make our lives richer while consuming less resources, and living in an ecovillage makes cooperation much easier.
Category: Renewable Resources
Trying Out the GoSun Solar Cooker
I designed my house with the sun in mind, and since I get so much sun inside the house in the middle of winter, why should put a solar cooker outside to cook? The GoSun, a relatively new design for solar cooking, is small, portable, and powerful enough to use in my house with just the sunlight coming in through the window. My DR neighbor Aaron and I tried it out last January to see how it would work even in the low intensity winter sunlight. The GoSun is just another tool we can use to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel and make use of the abundant solar energy that bathes our planet year round.
Southern Maple Syrup: Gathering Sap and Boiling It Down
Sugar often comes from faraway places and requires much processing to get the product we buy in our grocery store, but there are other ways to get sugar locally and more sustainably. Obviously there is honey, and there is sorghum syrup, which was a popular form of sugar in the past in our part of the country. But there’s also maple syrup, which in our southern region can be made from silver maples.
New Plastic for my Hoop House
So I got some new plastic for my hoop house. This is more of a vlog post than anything else. Just let you know what I’m up to. This new plastic is different from the old. I thought there was something wrong when I opened up the box because it was so cloudy, but apparently it isn’t as clear as the old stuff because it refracts sunlight so the light is dispersed more evenly for the plants. No shadows are cast inside the house and the sun’s energy fall evenly on all the plants inside. It took awhile and I needed to recruit some helpers from my village, but that’s what’s great about living in a community–you can always count on help from neighbors.
Natural Refrigerator: The Root Cellar in My Floor
When I built my house I noticed that one corner of the foundation was really deep, so I planned to make it into a root cellar. Now I use this space to keep the food I grow in the summer fresh through the winter, without refrigeration. It was a rather simple design feature, but it saves me a lot of energy in the long run and allows me to eat my harvest year round.
Our economy expends a huge amount of energy on refrigeration, not only to preserve food so that it can be shipped across the world and eaten fresh, but so that the food industry can recreate the climate conditions of a root cellar. Continue reading
My Ten Year Old Toothbrush
Part of a hardcore sustainable lifestyle means reducing waste in every action you take. That’s why I use a toothbrush that’s over ten years old. How can you possibly use a toothbrush for ten years? You’ll find out when you watch this video.
In a consumer culture where throwing things out after using them briefly has become the norm, reusing something seen as disposable seems odd. Disposable products require more extraction and waste of resources, and in many circumstances these products could easily be made to last. Disposability is just another cultural and economic trend that does incredible damage to the environment. And it increases corporate profits in the short term for sure, but in the long term, wasting resources is actually bad for the economy.
Trying Out the GoSun Solar Cooker
I designed my house with the sun in mind, and since I get so much sun inside the house in the middle of winter, why should put a solar cooker outside to cook? The GoSun, a relatively new design for solar cooking, is small, portable, and powerful enough to use in my house with just the sunlight coming in through the window. My DR neighbor Aaron and I tried it out last January to see how it would work even in the low intensity winter sunlight. The GoSun is just another tool we can use to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel and make use of the abundant solar energy that bathes our planet year round.
Southern Maple Syrup: Gathering Sap and Boiling It Down
Sugar often comes from faraway places and requires much processing to get the product we buy in our grocery store, but there are other ways to get sugar locally and more sustainably. Obviously there is honey, and there is sorghum syrup, which was a popular form of sugar in the past in our part of the country. But there’s also maple syrup, which in our southern region can be made from silver maples.
New Plastic for my Hoop House
So I got some new plastic for my hoop house. This is more of a vlog post than anything else. Just let you know what I’m up to. This new plastic is different from the old. I thought there was something wrong when I opened up the box because it was so cloudy, but apparently it isn’t as clear as the old stuff because it refracts sunlight so the light is dispersed more evenly for the plants. No shadows are cast inside the house and the sun’s energy fall evenly on all the plants inside. It took awhile and I needed to recruit some helpers from my village, but that’s what’s great about living in a community–you can always count on help from neighbors.
Natural Refrigerator: The Root Cellar in My Floor
When I built my house I noticed that one corner of the foundation was really deep, so I planned to make it into a root cellar. Now I use this space to keep the food I grow in the summer fresh through the winter, without refrigeration. It was a rather simple design feature, but it saves me a lot of energy in the long run and allows me to eat my harvest year round.
Our economy expends a huge amount of energy on refrigeration, not only to preserve food so that it can be shipped across the world and eaten fresh, but so that the food industry can recreate the climate conditions of a root cellar. Continue reading
My Ten Year Old Toothbrush
Part of a hardcore sustainable lifestyle means reducing waste in every action you take. That’s why I use a toothbrush that’s over ten years old. How can you possibly use a toothbrush for ten years? You’ll find out when you watch this video.
In a consumer culture where throwing things out after using them briefly has become the norm, reusing something seen as disposable seems odd. Disposable products require more extraction and waste of resources, and in many circumstances these products could easily be made to last. Disposability is just another cultural and economic trend that does incredible damage to the environment. And it increases corporate profits in the short term for sure, but in the long term, wasting resources is actually bad for the economy.