Sustainable Living Skills You Need to Survive
It might not seem so serious to the average consumer in the First World, but the future of the world as we know hangs in the balance. The media is full of bad news that can make changing things for the better seem hopeless, but there are simple and radical things you can do to reduce your impact and set an example for others. It's not just a choice, our survival depends on it.
Follow my YouTube Channel Hardcore Sustainable to find out how I've implemented sustainable technologies and techniques at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage to help me live more lightly on the Earth.
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Design Details of My Strawbale Tiny House: Beauty and Function
In this video I take you through some of the design features of my strawbale tiny house and explain how designing a house to be efficient, sustainable, and functional can result in a byproduct of beauty. Tiny house builders and owners know how important it is to conserve space in their homes. Mine is no different. See how I make use of the space under my stairway. A walk-in closet on the second floor provides a handy place to store and hide all my stuff. See how using natural finishes to the house add functionality and beauty.
My house’s passive solar design also reduces the amount of fuel I need to heat my home in winter. I’ll show you how it heats up throughout a chilly day using only the sun’s energy.
Permaculture Fruit: My Espaliered Pear Harvest
Though the rain put a damper on my garden plans this season, it was a good year for pears. I harvested over a bushel of pears from two of my pear trees. One is a Bartlett espaliered against my garden shed, and the other is a standard Moonglow. Both are only several years old and this is the first significant harvest I’ve gotten. It’s great to be reaping the fruits of my labor!
Turning waste into food: Oyster mushrooms on old shitake logs
In this video I take some old shitake logs, along with some white oak beam cutoffs, and inoculate them with oyster mushroom spawn. I’d read about reusing old shitake logs to grow mushrooms in succession in a Paul Stamets book. I’m going to give them a jump by putting them in the microclimate of my hoop house. Grow your food locally for a more sustainable economy.
Sustainable Landscaping: Scythe vs String Trimmer
Most people these days maintain their yard with a lawnmower and a string trimmer (or weed whacker, as we like to call it), but before the days of fossil fuel, the scythe was the preferred mowing tool. Virtually silent in comparison to its carbon emitting counterparts, the scythe is simply manufactured, durable, and long lived. Best of all, it requires no fossil fuel, only muscle power. And for that reason it’s also provides good exercise.
At Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, where we are building a post fossil fuel culture and community, the scythe is the tool of choice for yard and farm maintenance. The renewable energy powered electric string trimmer also has a place in maintaining a space.
Homemade Tamales from all Local Ingredients
Many people in the rich world have little connection to the food they eat. They find what they need at the local grocery store. Ingredients have been shipped across the country or the world, possibly more than once, before being assembled into a highly processed form that has questionable health benefits. More likely, the food the large brands are feeding them is detrimental to their health. Continue reading
Catching Household Water from the Sky
This video will show you the systems I’ve set up to collect rainwater and use it in my house. With water scarcity being such a big issue in many parts of the country and around the world thanks to climate change, overpopulation, and overconsumption, more than ever American households need to set up more sustainable systems for water use. Continue reading