Category: Renewable Resources

Kyle’s Crazy House: Earthen Plaster on the Gnestle

Dancing Rabbit is the best place to see many examples of natural building first hand.  We have over 30 natural buildings in one place built from mostly local, natural, and reclaimed materials.  In this video, and the next few I post, I will be showcasing the buildings of Kyle Yoder, who’s lived at DR for several years and is known for the organic forms of his design.  One of the great things about natural building is the freedom it gives builders to think beyond the 90 degree angle.  Kyle’s just begun the finish plaster of his own home, the Gnestle, and we’re going to get a peek at his work and a little explanation from the builder himself.

My Story: How I Came to Live in an Ecovillage

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.

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.

Continue reading

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