Moved here from Panama Trip Report - split this off to a new subject. What the innocuous term "Sustainability" means to most of us and actuality is more like a wolf in sheeps clothing. Glenn
Quote from Lodestar:
"We live in a state forest on 50 acres of land...there is a private 40 about a mile and a half south of our place...which has a small lake that was planted to wild rice in a cooperative effort between Ducks Unlimited and the DNR. Well, the 40 has had a house on it for almost as long as I've been here...22 years. It's back off the road so you can't see it...now, it's been sold and the person who bought it is proposing to build 12 more houses on the 40. A cul-de-sac has already been cut in...and the lots will all nest around that driveway, staring at each other. The lots are 2.5 acres for the most part...although some are a bit smaller, around 2 acres. There's a lot of wetlands on the 40...and trumpeter swans nest on the little wildrice lake across the road.
I'm feeling encroached upon. There are no other developments of this nature around here. This is precedent setting.
I don't view land as commodity. I have a sense of this place. I feel it deep in my soul. I have an understanding with the other inhabitants of these woods, and generally get along better with them than I do humankind. (no offense meant)...
Just venting, I guess. But I'd sure like to see sustainability become a part of the American lexicon.
Crying deep inside for the countryside...and for my country."
Lodestar, your posting struck a deep note in my heart... that's why I started this topic on sustainability... from all my reading about Agenda 21's plan for sustainability---we will all be living in highly dense communities staring at each other & if we don't like it, there are plenty of developments for the dissenters, in fact Halliburton has been given another very lucrative contract by our gov't for "independent thinkers..."
Food for thought... articles for your reading pleasure... :-/ Kathy
"The Matrix" (http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven.htm)
Agenda 21 (http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/la21_198.html)
Sustainability (http://www.newswithviews.com/Levant/nancy32.htm)
The Permanent Revolution (http://proliberty.com/observer/20030115.htm)
World Heritage Map (http://www.nwi.org/Maps/Heritage.html)
Globalization (http://www.augustreview.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=4&pid=12)
PS: In the Airforce Times a few months ago an article stated that there had been over 100,000 injured American soldiers in the present Iraq war. My dad (30 yr career officer in the Airforce--B52 instructor pilot) made the understatement... "They lied to us." (if you read any of the mainline media, they recently stated there were only 17,000+ injured.) I welcome your comments, thoughts, arguments for/against & if you have them, links to articles...
Thanks, Sassy
(by the way, I didn't get the name Sassy because I'm so sassy ;) --- when I was younger, my little sister couldn't pronounce "Kathy" & the name Sassy" stuck... of course it couldn't be because I occasionally live up to the name... ::)
A bit frothing at the mouth, some of it, but interesting. I don't tend to believe that They are as organized or as good at planning as some of those articles would have it. Not that this makes Them nicer or less needing to be watched, of course.
One thing I've been wondering at with all the runaway development - where are all these people coming from who are buying all these homes? They can't be the local kids growing up & buying houses - the kids can't afford to live here.
Many of them are people who used to live with others.
Over the last 50 years the size of houses has gone up (something like 1200sf to 2400sf) while the number of people living in the house has gone down (something like 3.2 to 1.9). This has pushed demand for housing much higher and faster than demographics (population forces) alone would do.
Sorry, I couldn't find better numbers.
[size=16]How to turn almost anything into an Unstoppable Force of Righteousness[/size]
I find that most people are pretty decent once you accept the fact that we're all basically selfish and interested in our own ideas and welfare. That's OK as long as folks respect the rights of others to have the same freedoms we expect to have for ourselves. The interaction of all these self-centered organisms makes for an interesting if perhaps somewhat messy world.
Nature, economics and other natural systems are pretty good at sorting this messiness out if it is left on its own. There are knocks and bumps along the way for everyone, of course. We call those lessons, and, if were smart, we might be able to learn from them.
Much more dangerous, however, is the ideologue - the one who has an image of how the world SHOULD be. Now we can get into some real pain and suffering. No need to learn lessons from those wimpy natural feedback loops, we are on the side of righteousness! For the ideologue, people and their rights are just getting in the way of the mission.
And, in the hands of ideologues, ecology, or almost anything else, can end up being a type of religious jihad.
"Off with their heads!" and other "final solutions" come to mind for the jihadist.
It is my not so humble opinion, formulated thirty something years ago, that the vast majority of human ills can be traced to population pressure. Nearly every atrocity, war, or crime can be at some point traced to the quest for lebensraum, (you have something I want/need, and I'm going to take it from you.)
Granted that the greatest advances in science, medicine, and social developement have also been inspired by these same pressures, I fear that we are experiencing an inexorable downward spiral of diminishing returns.
"Sustainability" means that the net average consumption of the individual must be matched by a net average production. My guess is that 90% of us, as Americans, are running an 80% deficit on that equation.
A statistic taught in my freshman Eco Science course was that the US produced fifty percent of the world's food supply, (Yay, Us!), but that fifty percent of that was thrown away, either in processing or after reaching the table, (Boo!) So in 1972 it was estimated that we threw away 25% of the available world food supply. I suspect the ratio is even worse now, since fear of litigation has stopped many organizations from donating surplus food to charitable groups.
My point here is that sustainable living will only ever be achieved by a small, and laudable, percentage of the existing population. (I hope and pray that those same folks will be the surviving population.) The "average" citizen has neither the wit to understand the neccesity, nor the will to undertake the endeavor. Unfortunately many of us with the wit naetheless are also lacking the will.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic. Look on the bright side... if we continue as we have, Mother Earth will give a good shake like a hound with fleas, and the stage will be set for the next great experiment.
[smiley=undecided.gif]
I should just let this one go as it is sort of politcal and also could be mis understood very easly I think.
I mostly agree with MW and I'll use my Island to make my point and he/ her point in some ways as well.
I've been here on Whidbey since 1978 many changes have taken place in that short time , most of that was just "Normal growth" , ever village / town / city has some growth it is normal.
But what is sort of different is as we grow city people either for retirement or work in a rural setting come in and what do they want once they settle in , better roads , bigger wider roads , mass transit for the "Masses" . We need a city run pool , heck country kids swim in a pond but no we NEED a pool . Oh ya and a bigger liberay ya we need that , well and while where at it ya know that Naval air station thats been here since 1942 or so those jet are really loud ya know they shouldn't be able to fly at night as much etc , So hey also the farms around here they nice but ya know they sort of smell, lets make a whole bunch of extra rules about how , where , etc Mr. Farmer can use HIS LAND . Now we'd also like to get premo tax dollars out of Mr. Farmer while we're at it. And can ya stop those cows from Mooing so early ya know Mr. City guy is retired now and they wake him up .
So it's a slow rentless aquision of his rights over well just about everyone else's . Land values go sky high country becomes the burbs or city like . Farmers sell the cows , then ya know what they need money,,,, so no cows to feed ,,, will lets grow HUNDREDS of house's , with HUNDREDS of septic systems and more water needs for people who BTW throw they're human PIG S$IT out of their nice new car window , whats that carbon foot print thing ???
So I do see what MW is saying , although it starts all nice good intentions etc . The rural nature of small places changes , for the better??? but change is going to happen.
And yes I did have my part in all this ,in a way, I eat / build / work / etc yad yad yad. I also don't tell people what to do with thier land , they want to sell to Wal mart / Home depot well It's thier land not mine .
They say in the San Jauns I got mine pull up the rope . Meaning lets stop everyone else from coming / buying in , and they / some folks come up with NEW rules to keep others out , CRAZY stuff really selfish , and I think that is what Billy Bob was saying only using really big words , PEOPLE ARE MOSTLY ALL ABOUT THEMSELFS. Basic human nature , IMO.
Hope I didn't step on any toes :-* , but it's sort of how I see it :(, PEG
For me sustainability means that people a couple of generations on can live more or less comfortably.
(I'd still recommend Judith Moffett's Ragged World for the kind of changes that that might mean)
Wow - PEG - you are such a radical. :)
I think you have a pretty good handle on it.
If you don't like planes and their noise, don't buy property under the takeoff or approach ends of the runway - or even near the airport. Leave that to people who like such things.
I'm not sure about all of what you said though -- are you trying to say that the world doesn't revolve around me? :-/ I'll hear nothing of that sort of nonsense. :o :)
Well in a round about way you could say that , we generally blame it all on to many rich [highlight]Californians[/highlight] ;) You think Az. needs border guards ::) PEG
Thanks for all your comments! I started reading about Agenda 21 about a year ago (had heard it mentioned in the news so figured I better learn something about it) Anyway, I've attempted, several times, to read it on the United Nations website (you can Google it, lots of listings-didn't save my last link) It sounds like a lot of bureaucratic double talk :o so that's why I went to this illustrious forum on CountryPlans. I figured there were a lot of smart people here who seemed to be well-read & maybe someone had deciphered what it was actually saying. I've had to resort to others' commentaries to try & sort it out...
I agree, man is a selfish being (women aren't... ;) ) --- we have children & grandchildren & want them to live in an inhabitable world... & I agree with sustainability if it means being a responsible person, taking care of what I have, attempting to do the least amount of damage to the environment, living peaceably with my neighbor & doing my part for the community. After all, I look at CountryPlans (that John has provided for us) to learn how to do stuff & love the community & freedom we have here! I enjoy having land & a place to build our own home with all the uniqueness we can dream up :-?.
If Agenda 21 means socialism or communism, where a few rule & make the decisions & the rest of the "useless eaters" either do what they're told or suffer the consequences, its been proven a dictatorship doesn't work. Socialism/communism would only work if we were a perfect people & had perfect rulers. I believe man is meant to have freewill & will fight against constraints like that. Basic laws need to be in place or we would have chaos. To quote Jesus & Glenn... "loving your neighbor as yourself" will cause you to take care of the environment & each other, don't you think? :) Sassy
PS: to quote Rodney King... "Can't we all just get along?" ;D
The issue really is not about the transfer of ownership of any particular property. As a fair trade is made, both seller and buyer are left better off. The seller obviously preferred the money to the land. The buyer likewise preferred the land to the money. However, the neighbors who are not party to the exchange can be made either better or worse off. The new owner can have a positive influence on the community in many ways, by becoming part of it, exchanging ideas and stories, providing assistance and maybe expertise with local projects, etc. The new owner could also keep to herself, avoiding interaction with her neighbors, which would probably be a small net loss for them.
The big loss, though, comes when a new arrival tries to change things in the community, especially if he hasn't been there long enough to understand why things are the way they are to begin with. On the island communities around here, it often seems that newcomers want to bring their former fast-paced lives with them... lobby for more frequent/larger ferries, 18 hole golf course, starbucks, etc... while at the same time insisting on their own misguided view of what island life should be. Suddenly you find that the familiar Joe's Store has transformed into Ye Old Country Shoppe, and you now live in a Disneyfied version of your former community.
Gentrification is a touchy issue. And of course it is not limited to pastoral country neighborhoods. Where I live, people paid $$$$$ for spectacular apartments overlooking our working harbor only to complain about the noise of float planes landing and taking off. As cities densify, homeowners decry the fact that their children will never be able to buy in the neighborhoods where they grew up. As older, and often poorer, neighborhoods are redeveloped, existing residents get pushed out, or if not pushed out then left feeling estranged with so much of the familiar wiped away.
Change is of course to be expected and planned for, but it has to occur at a slow enough pace for people to adjust to it.
That seems to be a common thread through all the responses, Bart.
The locals here in our rather poor mountain community make a few extra dollars with yard sales often - tack up signs - take them down quite well. We got a bunch of new CHP Officers (cops) from the big city a few years ago. The first thing they did was go around taking the signs down because it wasn't allowed in the big city. A small uprising seemed to put a stop to that. When in Rome do as the Romans do. (This advice works well at hot springs too.) :-/
Well, PEG, you understood me just fine, and I apologise a bit for the fancy words.
Years ago I was labeled, by the principal of the local, public elementary school, as retarded. I worked very hard to overcome that stigma, and now I can't help it when all those hard won vocabulary words come out! [smiley=evil.gif] (I think I'm actually "smarter" than he was... they just hadn't "invented" ADD yet.)
Anyway, everybody seems to agree that the pain-in-the-neckedness seems to come from more folks coming in where they previously weren't, and generally making nuisances of themselves trying to change things that have been fine up until now, thankee kindly. The reason they do this is because things got too crowded, and too many things changed in the place they used to be. So they move to a place where there's enough room to breathe again, but they like the comforts they had "back home".
Well, yeah, I can be persistent, but it is the subject I feel most strongly about. To me, ZPG is more than a passing intellectual fancy; it is a downright neccesity. You can only go so far with conservation and marvellous new, more effecient devices. If you keep stuffing the bag, the bottom falls out.
We either need a few less kids per capita, (and I love children, but have decided not to contribute to "the problem"; you BET it hurts!), or ramp up that space exploration pretty hard.
Make it so. [smiley=wink.gif]
BillyBob, what does ZPG stand for?
My main concern is that the UN Agenda 21 will eventually take those decisions away from us with "international" laws & governance. Although the wording, if you can understand it, sounds very altruistic, the bottom line is an international body of rulers are making the rules & our leaders have signed our country up to follow them. That means no more local governance anymore, either. There are some, for sure, who would rather have it that way - there's a lot of wonderful statements about helping the poor, women, disabled & children. I am all for that, but how are they planning on doing that? Sounds to me like they plan on taking from the haves & giving to the have nots & equalizing all the people of the world - echoes of the former Soviet Union? Population control is a big part of it too - China limits births to 1 per woman, mandatory birth control & abortion for more than 1 child. The Netherlands support euthanasia... it was for just the elderly & disabled, now I think they were trying to pass something for young children (not just babies up to 9 months still in the womb)... welcome Brave New World & Big Brother. BillyBob, you've chosen to not have any children - it's your choice, though, nobody is forcing it on you.
As a teenager I worked in a peach packing plant packing peaches for 10-12 hrs day 6-7 days a week in 100+ weather during the summers--I chose to do that, if I worked hard, I made good money, as it was piece work - my girlfriends & I were the fastest packers there. A few years later, it was automated & it was probably just minimum wage (I didn't work there anymore) - good for the company but not as much incentive to work as hard... just human nature I guess. The company kept growing, had to build a lagoon to treat the waste products that were left. People started building homes way out in the country next to the packing plant. Then those people started complaining to the city leaders about the smell, that they didn't like it--there was a big legal battle, don't remember how it turned out. I know I'm all over the place with this, but it kinda covers a lot of ground by the different examples, I hope :-/ ?
Some people welcome the changes to international law & believe we shouldn't have nationalism, a lot of people believe in total control of the population by whatever means it takes. Yes, change is going to happen, it always does, but I want to, hopefully, have some sort of say in that change & not have it forced upon me unawares...
Rural development..... Let me tell this very recent story...
This past Monday I had to meet with the electrical engineer of the Local Electric co-op.
I thought it was strange that he wanted to meet with me "Face -to Face" after he came out and looked my lot over the week before.
The power lines and poles in my area ends several lots away, the power company will need to remove the two old oak trees in my nearest neighbors front yard. They will take out 5 or 6 seventy-foot pine trees and all of the other trees approx. 15 feet back from the power line on the lots between us.
He told me to go to the appraisal department and find out who owned the property that would have the trees removed. He told me I have the right to do what ever I need to get power to you, but I just want to let people know what is about to happen to their property as a small kindness about a horrible thing.
Nothing says Howdy Neighbor like cutting up their front yard.
What about underground - too expensive?
I am sure it is cheaper for them to extend power to my lot by going overhead rather than underground. I guess tree removal must be cheap out here. The guy told me, Because we pay to get power to your lot we will take the cheapest and shortest route within the utility easement. I have sent him a request asking them to jump the power line across the street and take out trees on the other side that is not developed rather than the two oak trees.
I do plan on underground service from the pole to my house.
Sassy, ZPG stands for "Zero Population Growth".
It was an idea formulated back when it was becoming obvious that our environment could not withstand continued unchecked growth of such rapacious consumers as ourselves.
Ideally folks would reproduce at exactly the population replacement rate, i.e. approximately 2.5 children per couple. The number is 2.5 because not everybody survives to reproduce.
It is true that nobody has forced the choice on me. I take the proposition and the neccesity seriously, and so I practice what I preach. It is a decision I made knowing full well that far too few would follow suit, until the choice was made for them. Unfortunately too many people believe it is their right to have as many children as they want, and want the rest of society to provide for them.
I want the human race to survive and realize its potential. Sustainable living is one of the key factors in accomplishing that, and a sustainable population size is a primary requirement for sustainability.
I keep hearing Chuck Heston in the background of my mind: "Soylent Green is people!"
[smiley=tongue.gif]
Sorry, I'm not usually so political... I may calm down some once I git to the wide open spaces. [smiley=wink.gif]
Thanks for clarifying the ZPG, BillyBob - it seemed familiar to me but I couldn't remember what it meant. I agree with you that you shouldn't have kids if you can't take care of them... maybe if there weren't so many free gov't handouts rewarding those who are unwilling to take responsibility... it's a big sacrifice on your part to give up having children for the good of others, but it should be each person's decision
I remember Soylent Green! I've gotten more political as I've gotten older... whether it does any good, sometimes I wonder - it can be depressing...
QuoteGod I got to go build something , I feel dirty
PEG
(I went & baked some cookies instead :-? )
QuoteI agree with you that you shouldn't have kids if you can't take care of them...
(I went & baked some cookies instead :-? )
I agree but wonder if I should stay in practice in case I change my mind.
Now I think I better go check out those cookies. :-/
Underground utilities?
Some of my neighbors (they ended up buying more land so they could get electricity with a shorter wire run) were told that the utility company only did poles. They were happy to have you rent a ditch witch or hire somebody with one to run the lines in underground. But the company didn't do it. But even with the extra 5 or so acres getting electric service to their place only cost about $1500-$2000 more than having the utility company run all the poles at $750/pole.
So you might check.
Still might not be very good for those trees to have the ditch witch saw through a lot of their roots, though.
(The phone company, on the other hand, does underground wires unless they have to do something like go over a river. There are little green posts every so often where they can tap into the system.)
It is the same around here - underground is at the expense of the user - the power co. specs out what they want. I've done one in this area -several in the valley and used to operate equipment burying phone lines for the phone co.
One of the things that comes to mind on the sustainability issue is the use of fossil fuels. Biodiesel comes to mind as one of the partial answers to the possible shortage of fuel, but this article says that after you get the grease from the vats of your local big corporate choke and puke, the biodiesel drive starts to be a cause of the destruction of rainforests.
Biodiesel - Worse Than Fossil Fuel
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel/
I came across this simple method for keeping food fresh, water cool... especially if you don't have refrigeration...
http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2004/september/refrigeration.htm
(https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e44/kathykrn/zeers.jpg)
Sustainability...
Looked it up (http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Sustainability.html). To sustain something means to:
• nourish it
• support from below
• maintain it
Also, definition number 7 is "keep pretense going: to maintain a pretense successfully"
That pretty much covers all the bases, don't you think? ;)
If we want to explore the topic of "sustaining the earth - what would it take?" that is an interesting topic but one we know far less about than we probably think we do. The earth is a very complex, self-balancing uber-organism that has no vested interest in our opinions about what "she" needs. She was here long before we were and will exist long after we are all gone.
This thin green coating of organic slime is an interesting experiment and one that might produce the equivalent of a half-smile if we could see such a thing. Of course, all the flappings of human egos and dire predictions of doom are also a source of ongoing amusement, I expect.
Since this forum is about housing, let's ask ourselves a proper question to see where it will lead... Here's a start at that question:
• What characteristics would a house have in order to be sustaining of the earth?
What question would you ask or how would you alter this one? (We won't get decent answers until we ask the right question... what is the best big-picture question?)
Quote
Since this forum is about housing, let's ask ourselves a proper question to see where it will lead... Here's a start at that question:
• What characteristics would a house have in order to be sustaining of the earth?
My first thought is that the house should be built of materials which are readilay available and renewable locally. In New England, that's be cob, pine, or straw bales, I think. I haven't researched concrete enough to know for sure, but I gather there are a fair number of big problems with its manufacture. Maximizing the use of passive solar for heating and minimizing the use of fossil fuels would also help.
Manufacture of concrete is a major concern to sustainability due to high embodied energy.
What gets me in housing is that an on grade slab for a house uses 3 1/2" to 4" of concrete - the same amount that is capable of supporting a forklift or tractor etc. weighing over 20,000 lbs, just for walking on. I'm not sure what options code allows, and obviously any alternates would still have to maintain the structural integrity of the house.
This is not an issue with post and pier. While our group doesn't do much on grade slab, tons of new construction does.
Concrete--seems like I read a year or so ago that we are using a couple of tons (a year?) f0r every human on the planet.
On the other hand, like oil, there are things that it does better than anything else.
Jonsey may be doing as much as any of us (a lot more than me!) to get to sustainability. I'm fixing to take the car out and get a restaurant meal. My excuses may be pretty good, but they're still excuses.
a column about breakfast--and oil.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=71299
QuoteOn the table in my small Berkeley apartment this particular morning is a healthy looking little meal -- a bowl of imported McCann's Irish oatmeal topped with Cascadian Farms organic frozen raspberries, and a cup of Peet's Fair Trade Blend coffee. Like most of us, I prepare my breakfast at home and the ingredients for this one probably cost me about $1.25. (If I went to a café in downtown Berkeley, I'd likely have to add another $6.00, plus tip for the same.)
My breakfast fuels me up with about 400 calories, and it satisfies me. So, for just over a buck and half an hour spent reading the morning paper in my own kitchen, I'm energized for the next few hours. But before I put spoon to cereal, what if I consider this bowl of oatmeal porridge (to which I've just added a little butter, milk, and a shake of salt) from a different perspective. Say, a Saudi Arabian one.
Then, what you'd be likely to see -- what's really there, just hidden from our view (not to say our taste buds) -- is about four ounces of crude oil. Throw in those luscious red raspberries and that cup of java (another three ounces of crude), and don't forget those modest additions of butter, milk, and salt (another ounce), and you've got a tiny bit of the Middle East right here in my kitchen.
Now, let's drill a little deeper into this breakfast. Just where does this tiny gusher of oil actually come from? (We'll let this oil represent all fossil fuels in my breakfast, including natural gas and coal.)
Neat article. I knew some of that, hadn't considered others (the distance manure is trucked just hadn't occurred to me), and am feeling even better about my decision to grow as much of my own as possible when we move to our next place.
Good move, Ailsa. We grow a lot also - enough to have food year round. Currently cauliflower, chard, fennel, turnips - winter squash - other stuff.
I too grow some of my own food, though I would like to grow more. If you think breakfast if intensive think about the building materials that go into just building a small home. Probably the best ideas are a certain moderator's dig a hole use as much salvage material as possible. I have no idea how many gallons of oil one piece of waferboard or plywood cost but I am sure it would be many many.
I was remembering the other day that someone was told they couldn't use salvage materials because it didn't increase the tax base. I don't remember where I heard it. We need to put a stop to that to increase sustainability.
Sometimes I just don't understand the mentality or lack thereof of our public servants --how can they be so against the people they serve?
Time to crawl up out of my hole now. :)
Aloha all,
Maui Wowee here. Actualluy, it's none other than the fruit of John's loins. I thought he would know it was me in an instant when I posted that response to his Panama stuff. Well he didn't. But that didn't stop him from getting all defensive as usual. HA! HA! Just jerkin' yer chain dad.
I swear, for a guy who's always talking about how people shouldn't take themselves so seriously, he sure takes himself seriously.
So, in the discussion about "sustainable" housing, I like what everyone's saying and it sounds like a lot of us are really looking into the indigenous practices of the area for some ideas about locally appropriate methods.
Here in Hawaii, low rock walls provided a thermal mass and kept the strong winds out while timber posts held up the broad overhanging thatched roof. If you can keep the rain off of you, then temperatures aren't that big of a deal. More appropriately designed modern dwellings will have whole walls will just screen between the posts. The old Hawaiians were smart (or perhaps lucky) enough not to bring mosquitos to the islands on their voyages here, so living in the open air all the time was a pleasure. 8-)
Welcome officially to the forum, Seth. Take it easy on the old fellow now - you know how hard it is to get some of them to change their ways. :) (We have to let him be the serious one here because I goof off so much).
We are looking forward to hearing more of your experiences regarding sustainability and indigenous methods of native Hawaiians. I noticed you are working with bamboo also- is building with bamboo a traditional method also?
Did you catch our indigenous housing thread here? It's one of my favorites. Unfortunately a lot of the building materials used by the indigenous people are not covered in the codes. No one will spend the money to get a free material accepted. A work around is to build a post and beam frame - engineering required or possibly a design your dad mentioned using corner brace panels with a long header in between then do as you wish. Codes are written for the sale of high embodied energy (referred to as emergy sometimes) corporate manufactured materials without much regard for health risks. I had 2 dogs die of cancer that I'm pretty sure was caused by sleeping on fiberglass insulation.
Indigenous building materials in this part of the Americas could include rock, mud, earth, adobe, wood, trees and branches. Some of it can be used in modern building with the addition of concrete or wood bond beams -and thousands of dollars worth of engineering. :-/
Link to Indigenous Housing-- http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1135060015/0
Yeah'
we're growing 8 different species of clumping timber bamboos in our 18 acre organic bamboo plantation. Indigenous bamboo building practices are somewhat limited as far as permanent structures. In South America some beautiful suspension bridges built from Guadua, a type we are growing more extensively than any other, have been made and re-made for centuries. Most cultures that have large native bamboos used them for temporary structures, but I haven't heard of any permanent dwellings made from bamboo, traditionally.
The use of bamboo as a modern building material is being developed right now by people like Simon Velez and Marcelo Viegas of Colombia, and Yorg Stamm from Germany who lives in Colombia. Simon and Marcelo came out here last year to see our project and give some talks on Maui. I went to a ten day bamboo building workshop with Yorg a few months ago.
Simon's work is probably the most impressive ... public pavilions with huge roofs with 30 foot overhangs and stuff like that. Very amazing beautiful structures. The things that are allowing this type of construction with bamboo are the newly developed joinery techniques using steel bolts passing through concrete-filled chambers of the bamboo, and also modern treatement methods. Boric acid is the principal treatment used around here and in Europe and the States. It works great if kept dry. Down south they use diesel fuel mixed with pesticides. Pleasant.
The truth is that bamboo is a grass and subject to decomposition moreso than many types of wood, so it often needs some kind of treatment if it's to be used structurally. There are many traditional treatement methods including saltwater and fire curing. I've heard mixed opinions on the effectiveness of these methods.
On the other hand, bamboo is a truly sustainable, renewable source of timber. A bamboo clump is a permanent forest plant; many of the species we grow are 60 ft tall with 5 inch diameter culms (poles), while the largest ones are 100 ft tall or more with 10 inch diameter culms. When you harvest from the clump, you leave 70-90% of it there, thus maintaining continuous forest cover. Many of our timber varieties also have choice edible shoots.
Our neighbor is in the final stages of building his legally permitted bamboo home. I believe it is the first one in the County of Maui. He's using a boric acid treated running bamboo from Thailand with lots of steel bolts holding things together, as well as a lot of concrete, local wood, ceramic tile, and copper. It's an amazing piece of work that really blends in with the landscape.
Cool stuff, Seth. Thanks so much for the information. Do you know of any timber varieties that will grow in California. I have a year round spring that I considered growing some near a year or two ago. Would the clumping varieties work in an area like that - so as not to take over the place?
Some people are using bamboo around here to reinforce their strawbale construction. Many of the strawbale builders around here don't really know what they are doing and end up with a plastic covered stack of straw covered in concrete - stucco to satisfy some of the engineers or codes. Our county allows strawbale as long as it is in a post and beam frame - and even earth plaster which is what is used by the people who know what they are doing. The earth plaster will draw the moisture out of the straw as long as it doesn't get into the top of the bales. Stucco or concrete on the other hand will trap the moisture in as well as plastic or house wrap, causing the bales to rot out.
Seems you are learning similar stuff to what your dad did when he worked with Ken Kern here in CA in the 60's. Just a chip off the old block, eh???? Just more proof that history does repeat itself. Sorry 'bout that Seth-- I couldn't resist picking on you a little bit. ;D
My apologies to John. I didn't mean to imply that you were an old fossil. :-/
Glenn:
Some bamboo links I have bookmarked.
http://www.bamboogarden.com/default.htm#Bamboo%20Pictures
Yeah...bamboo in New England
http://www.newengbamboo.com/
We have been toying with the idea of bamboo for screening purposes and with all the interior uses nowadays you can tie your yard right into your living room.
I became interested when I ran into it while surveying a compound on the Cape.
Good info, Daddymem- thanks - even one in Oregon.
Would you guys count tires and beer cans as sustainable materials? I mean, they definitely wouldn't be if one were making them only to build houses with, but pulling them out of the waste stream and using them as building materials, does that count as sustainable building?
D%*n John,
I hope you're proud, you and the Mom (sorry, don't know her name) have managed to raise a son who can actually think OUTSIDE the box. What an accomplishment in this day and age and I hope someday to realize the same.
judy (mom of 2 sons)
http://strawbaleredux.blogspot.com/
I guess one thing building with tires does is help to replace materials that may not be as sustainable. Dumps don't like tires because they don't compact well - they work right up out of the pile as they try to pack them in. I haven't used any of them yet -considered it a little -maybe later. I know Amanda is up on this stuff more than I am. A friend built a retaining wall out of them and the earthships plaster over them and use them as the main part of the structure. I guess I should consider them a bit now that you mentioned it, Ailsa. My pneumatic rammer would pack them solid relatively easily.
I haven't figured out a use for the beer cans though - except to hold the beer in while I'm ramming dirt in the tires. :-/
Another point, Seth -- Ken Kern mentioned using bamboo as reinforcing in concrete and the army or military also experimented with it and developed some methods of using it as concrete reinforcement in areas where they needed to build things and there was no steel available. I read about it a year or two ago- I don't remember much about the success or permanence.
Tires are cut up for use as septic leaching area aggregate.
Beer cans around here are turned in for their $0.05 deposit.
That's a new one for me. Our inspector would not know what to do if he saw that --- He studied the rocks we brought in and said some of them were too small - went about 1" to 3" avg 2" - he said the bacteria colonies needed more surface area so he wanted bigger rock - actually the small rocks have more surface area if I figure right. He'd have a cow if he had to try to figure out a load of rubber.
On the other hand - I guess all the rules and scientific studies go away if you go to plastic infiltration modules because they don't have anything --rocks or rubber and they are still approved- in fact preferred.
It still seems the cans are best for holding the beer, though. I hate spending $4.00 worth of gas to recycle $2.00 worth of cans. The rules once again go away if you are going to buy the beer though.
Naw, you save up bags and bags of empty cans, then you go in one big trip and walk away with full ones ;)
Speaking of which, I don't get that "eating oil for breakfast" piece. Suppose that by buying locally grown food, you can save 5 calories of oil input for each calorie of food. If you're eating 2500 calories a day, that means you're saving 4,500,000 calories of oil a year. In other words, a whopping 1/6 of a gallon per year. For a larger family, you might save 1 gallon a year. Maybe the organic oatmeal eating, fair trade coffee drinking crowd can assuage their consciences as they drive their SUVs to the organic farm. The rest of us would be better off by walking to the corner store; or, if you have to drive, then limiting trips by stocking up as much as is practical.
QuoteMaybe the organic oatmeal eating, fair trade coffee drinking crowd can assuage their consciences as they drive their SUVs to the organic farm. The rest of us would be better off by walking to the corner store; or, if you have to drive, then limiting trips by stocking up as much as is practical.
Why thank you. Yes, I do prefer buying veggies at the local organic farm, which is a bit too far away to walk, rather than the gas station/quick mart which is the only source of groceries I can walk to.
I didn't say anyone was defective for not drinking fair trade coffee, so I'd really appreciate not being casually dismissed as irrelevant.
Ailsa, no offense was meant as I certainly feel that what you eat, where you buy it, and what you drive is up to you. But trying to save fuel by driving farther in order to buy organic is irrelevant... more gas will be burned in one trip than will be saved in a year's worth of food. Hopefully your decision to buy organic veggies is based on other factors. And of course, once you are growing your own, you elimate the travel aspect altogether.
I have friends who grow vegetables -take them to the local farmers market to sell and you really get something worth buying from them-- the garbage you buy at the store -hybrid giant well colored tasteless gobs of goo leave me wanting something that really tastes like our home grown stuff.
I used to truck, hauling produce in a 45' reefer. Sometimes the stuff was such low quality the dispatcher would tell me the route to drive -roads to take --to avoid the state quality control inspection. Another reason to grow your own stuff.
Totally off topic but 'geez Glenn, is there any job you have not held in your life....
...I would love to see an accurate list of the things you have done for money......jobs that is!! ;)
Hey Bart! Who you talking about??!! Yeh, I'm one of those SUV, sorta hypocritical types... but the SUV is my TRUCK & I don't have the money or desire to go out & buy something else right now - besides, I gotta get up the steep driveway when there's snow or it's been raining... ;) I need that 4WD... :)
I agree - home grown or organic that you buy in the store or at a Farmer's Mkt can't be compared to some of the "dead" stuff that is passed off for fruit & vegetables. I love good, healthy food, but have to admit that I'm also somewhat of a junk food junkie... so sometimes I eat very healthy & other times I don't even like to think about it... but I'm trying to stay in "recovery" long enough to totally kick the habit.. ::)
(I'm taking my lunch break right now - been totally bananas here in ER the past few days!!! :o - so had a chance to catch up a bit on CountryPlans :))
Gosh John, I guess it probably wouldn't look good on my resume, eh???? How come you can't keep a job, Boy????
Self employed since 1974 and always kept my business flexible enough to do anything I wanted, -- When working for someone else if I didn't know about part of a job I learned from others or got the books - read up and did it.
I never wanted to have an employee who knew more about the job than I did so I always learned their jobs too. Didn't want to get caught by the short hair. :-/
Way to go Glenn, Never tell em you can't do the job, because by the time they find out you can't, you can. ;D
That's true, Jonesy-- I never did tell the phone company I hadn't run a backhoe before - but being the maintenance person there I got a lot of time to play with it when no one was looking. I ran a D6, digger truck, trencher, did cable splicing, ladder truck, manlift truck and whatever they had. Give me a couple minutes - I'll be a pro. Yeah right, eh Jonesy?
The best way to learn is to get in and have a go, there's nothing like on the job training. ;)
Sassy, ditch the SUV and get a horse, I believe there is a saying on this forum, that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a girl. http://www.sherrysapothecary.com/Building.html
They can go up steep driveways when there's snow or it's been raining and think what you could grow with the exhaust. ;D
More roofing material, now that could be a problem. Glenn will have to keep digging; you know what that means, bigger house, more room's to buy stuff for, looks like you could end up with a second job. On second thought's maybe you should just stick with the SUV, you'll be better off. :-?
I'll take a bag of organic carrotts, apples, celery, and kale. Throw it in the juicer and have enough power to lift a 6x12 beam.
Really. How about organic vegtables for the person who's willing to drive his gas miser vs. growing his own. My hat is off to vegtable gardeners and organic farmers. I'd rather be fishing for organic protein.
Sassy, I think that as long as you are aware of the gas you use, you can take the appropriate steps to reduce trips. Combining trips and planning travel to avoid congestion will probably help a lot more than getting a more fuel efficient car. But I don't think I'm telling you anything new... one of you said something about being able to go days without having to go into town. But my own vehicle probably gets about the same milage as yours, so I realize that there's not much incentive to cut back on driving with gas as cheap as it is.
Keyhole, I don't where the tradeoff would be. Obviously people who live in cities have access to farmers markets or supermarkets which stock organics, as well as mass transit to get them their and back. Trying to live green out in the country is much more difficult if it forces you to take your car for every little errand.
Quote
Obviously people who live in cities have access to farmers markets or supermarkets which stock organics, as well as mass transit to get them their and back. quote]
Which of course was trucked in MTL by a old gas guzzling lead gas burning old poor running truck , or fume spueing deisel BMW 1962 car trunk.
By some hippy who has a poor running roto tiller , gas powered,BTW.
Over highways built by what ?? More trucks , equip. etc .
You know if people , most people in fact , MTL not using this forum . Would just recycle their everyday grocery store waste , not throw out( their car window ) their fast food wrappers . and just in general picked up thier own human pig $hit >:( The world would be some what cleaner, a lot cleaner in fact.
This is a case of to few doing to much , while to many are doing NOTHING , or more BAD, :( than the few can over come :(
So ya what you said ,
Quote
Trying to live green
As best we can , while educating who ever we come in contact with , family , kids , etc , go to a game a local field soccer , softball etc , and just look at the crap people leave behind >:( If any teaching goes on in school most kids must not go to basic "Be a good neighbor " class >:(
End of rant ;)
PEG
Here's a FireFox plugin that converts dollars to barrels of oil....
http://turbulence.org/Works/oilstandard/
have fun...I think
Hello gang (and Seth!!)
Sorry that I haven't stuck my head into this thread in a few days. Much has been going on here.
I do have to say (on a personal note) that I am quite proud of my son. And so is Miriam his mom (who I finally got to read a thread here!! :D). Keep it up Seth... write it and she will come.
Seth is walking his talk. The community he is involved with in HI is really trying to live lightly on the land. Seth is often out in the garden for several hours after working all day in the bamboo forest. This small community eats by far the largest portion of its daily diet from that garden. And, I have never eaten better or fresher food.
I don't always know what is sustainable and what is not in modern American culture. However, I know it when I see it. And I see it at Ola Hanua at Kipaheulu.
This is the kitchen yurt for shared meals (always lunch and often dinner). The greenhouse is to the right and next to a huge garden just out of the picture.
(http://www.countryplans.com/bbs/images/pond.jpg)
Here is a picture from the deck of the yurt looking into the garden.
(http://www.countryplans.com/bbs/images/porch.jpg)
The private houses are simple versions of the post & pier Little Houses without bathroom or kitchen. There is a solar powered hot water bath house and solar electricity to the yurt. The farm machinery and truck run on biodiesel.
The community has the most handsome outhouse I've ever seen. (It has a modified "sawdust-style" composting toilet.)
(http://www.countryplans.com/bbs/images/outhouse.jpg)
and... Just for fun, here is John and Miriam with Seth and his friend Erica.
(http://www.countryplans.com/bbs/images/s&e.jpg)
Really a neat looking place and project Seth is working on, John. Thanks to you and Seth for sharing the pictures and project information. I have thought about doing things like this in a family setting over the years - each one helping the other to get ahead and survive just a bit better-- Seems its a bit hard to get together but this type of mentality used even with community neighbors and friends as we do in the mountains helps to improve things not just for us but for our friends, family and community too.
Simply put..urban sprawl and the advancement of suburbia across America is killing the nation.
It costs too much to pipe city water and sewer across every inch of America. We need to get more people per say back into large cities and stop this out of control urban sprawl...what land there is in America can be efficiently used for recreation, agriculture, aquaculture...Nature preserves, national parks, wildlife refuges etc...
for those that want to truly live in the boonies let them....Let them drive 30 miles to the grocery store or 50 miles to wal mart. Let them have farms with cows and Just ban massive sub divisions....
the more suburbia htrives the more fuel we burn to get to and fro work...the more roads we need...the more money time and resources we waste uncessesarily (sp?)
Okay it is 2 am and I have a long day ahead in the morning.. been wanting to post here for a while...Could not fight the bug off any longer...Going outside to wave goodnight to the helicopter pilot and then it is off to dreamland
-Peter
Man, I don't get online for a few days and I gotta catch up on three pages of posts!
It'll take me a while to catch up, but it's great the information sharing that's going on here.
Glenn, I hope those post he provided helped you with your bamboo questions.
They call them "tropical clumping bamboos", but many species can do quite well in mild temperate zones like Cali, Oregon, and Washington. Many species can hold there own above 20 degrees F.
These are sympodial bamboos (clumpers) as opposed to monopodial ones (runners). The clump spreads outward though much more slowly as the rhizome structure is completely different. I like to compare it to a tree in the way it functions in an environment, establishing it's space more upward than outward, whereas running bamboos fuction like a giant running grass and can create a dense monotypic stand pretty quickly. We don't plant or recommend planting any running bamboos, though I do think they have their place in certain environments.
I think there are more temperate runners than clumpers, though there are some wonderful clumpers that are quite cold hardy. It all depends on what you want: small beautiful landscape plant? Five-inch diameter timber bamboo? Edible shoots? 60" tall windbreak? Easy management?
There are a few that I have in mind.
In the sustainable materials discussion, my friend and neighbor is one of the best sustainable organic farmers I know. He was telling me his philosophy on plastics the other day. He thinks only durable polymers and other persistent plastics should be used and only for certain uses. He believes using something like plastic is best done as far out of the nutrient cycle as possible. and things that are temporary or disposible should be natural or biodegradable materials.
For example, the majority of garbage that he's pulled from his fields are children's toys. A plastic dinosaur can sit in the soil for who knows how long. He thinks childrens toys should all be made of natural materials-- Wood, bamboo, stone, and so on. This makes sense to me and I generally believe simple toys and games are often more stimulating to imagination and mental development than lots of modern toys design to keep kids entertained while their parents try to get by or get ahead. I'm not saying all modern toys are like this, though I'm ashamed that so many are.
I grew up in (the zone 8 area of) North Carolina. We lived on the grounds of a hospital (2300 acres, mostly pine and scrub oak woodlands, a biggish farm), and the grounds people took care of the lawns.
But one place there was a biggish grove of bamboo. My mother discovered that the young shoots could be blanched and cooked--might have been Sweet-Shoot--it was certainly one of the ones that had been fairly widely planted in the South-East years before). I don't remember a problem with it invading the lawn. What my mother didn't get the groundspeople mowed--easily for the first week as it started up. And the pine woods on the other three sides seemed to contain the grove. I mentioned this to Adam Turtle (grower and promoter of bamboo, publishes a newsletter on the subject, IIRC, friend of friends) and he said something on the order of "exactly."
I'm not looking forward to removing a huge privet thicket so I can plant bamboo. But....
I was hoping to find a timber bamboo that would grow here. Seems most of the bigger bamboo are runners. I'm just always looking for diffrent raw materials to somehow use for building experimenting. Even the medium sized would be OK though.
About the toys of wood etc. My granddad used to make wooden traps for us when I was small - he did trapping as a sideline sometimes. He used to make live box traps I sketched out in the free stuff section. They work great - not exactly a toy but kids love them, and they safely remove critters from the house. In Oregon we used to remove skunks with them. I accidently caught a couple of deer in a larger version one time when I was trying to catch a coyote that ate my cat. I turned them loose though.
My uncle, the welder who inspired me used to make log loaders for his kids out of steel -maybe 10 lbs. -about a foot and a half long. I think it would be nice if more people made toys rather than bought them as you mentioned, Seth.
Here is a link to the trap drawing. http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1134805056
There are ways around the horrible "opportunistic" (the permaculture substitute word for "invasive beyond belief" ::) ) running bamboo.
Mowing. Barriers like aluminum flashing buried in the earth. Adam Turtle thinks it's not that great a problem.
What might be a problem for you is--do you have enough water? I think they need quite a bit, especially until they get established.
I have a year round spring down the hill I was thinking of planting it around. Cheaper to pump from my well ---450' elevation drop to the spring--so the water goes to waste - at least I'm not making use of it.
Glenn
Did you see the Coyote eat your cat? Or are you just being paranoid again like you obviously are about the government ::)
BTW, did you get that coyote?
we used to trap em in Nova Scotia...Hang a big meat hook 4 feet high in a tree with a piece of meat on it.....The Coyote jumps up to grab the meat and the hook drives through the bottom of his jaw...
Works every time...Bleeds out the coyote as he hangs himself...
I would be scared releasing a trapped deer....Man those things could break your hips if they kicked you...And they would be scared half to death
-Peter
Obviously by now you should know that I am extremely paranoid, Peter, and to make things worse I suspect it was a government coyote, right out of Yosemite National Park.
There was a large black looking pile of coyote poo with hair in it laying in the driveway - once again the paranoia is overtaking me but it sure looked convincing.
Between my neighbor and I we have lost about 10 cats to coyotes - he shot one trying to steal his chickens. Coyotes love to pop their little skulls like an overripe melon with those big ol' teeth.
Pedro here just narrowly escaped being another victim. He showed up here Friday night with teeth holes in his head- narrowly escaping becoming another government coyote victim. He is my neighbors cat also, but when the chips are down, I seem to be a cat magnet.
(https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d184/glennkangiser/Pedroafterhemetthecoyote.jpg)
QuoteGlenn
we used to trap em in Nova Scotia...Hang a big meat hook 4 feet high in a tree with a piece of meat on it.....The Coyote jumps up to grab the meat and the hook drives through the bottom of his jaw...
Works every time...Bleeds out the coyote as he hangs himself...
-Peter
Or some kids dog , :( I thought you Canadians where peace full folks :-/
Quote
and to make things worse I suspect it was a government coyote, right out of Yosemite National Park.
Could be a native american coyote ;)
Pedro here just narrowly escaped being another victim.
Pedro needs to stay home at night ,EH
(https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d184/glennkangiser/Pedroafterhemetthecoyote.jpg)
Native American Coyote- possibly.
Coyotes come through here day and night - some not scared of people - in the park they beg for food from cars.
The cats around here are great hunters - tons of gophers and wood rats. They have to get out to do their job.
So does Wiley , and he's a native american ;)
Peg
Never ever caught a neighbors dog...Dozens of coyote... Here in South Carolina the Government actually introduced coyotes...Stupids mother Fuc**rs
There used to be great wild turkey hunting, rabbits too... The coyotes here are so bad you can go into the woods sit still for half an hour and you will see some.
All of my neighbors here lose cats..They are scared to let their cats out at night.
Glenn...I would bait, trap and shoot the coyotes too...I hate the damned things. I dunno if they have the bounty on them...They have it every so many years in Nova Scotia...
So you get 50 bucks for every one you kill....You will not get rich...But if you shoot, trap 50 a year... a little extra pocket money
Now Glenn speaking of Paranoia...Do you suppose the government released the coyotes in the national park just to bother you for being.. well, anti Government?
;)
I'll have to research that one on some of my favorite conspiracy sites. DOJ, Whitehouse, NPS sites - etc.
heh, checked out your trap, Glenn. My grandfather used to build those. He called'em "Possum Traps." (South Carolina)
One of the secretaries had a mouse problem here, at the office one time. Mouse getting into her 'goodie's drawer.' They tried several commercial traps, but to no avail. So...
I made one out of Bainbridge board. A heavy cardboard. Set it in her drawer over night along with some M&M's. Had'em the next morning. The women wanted to see him. I told them that wasn't a good idea. They insisted. So,
I opened the trap door a bit, he grabbed it, flipped it open and shot out in to the air 5 foot off the floor at one. She screamed! Ran! Then they all screamed!. One jumped in to the arms of another who was 8 months pregant and they both stood and screamed. The mouse ran down the hall as fast as could hightail it. The men scrambled to get out of the way of the women, who were now running in all sorts of directions to dodge the mouse. Except the pregnant one, she was still holding the other and they were both still screaming.
I just watched the mouse hasitly disappear and quietly said, "well, I told you it wouldn't a good idea."....lol....d
That sounds like it was a blast-- I'd love to have seen that. My granddad also made a different version with the same paddle trigger but instead of the door it had about a 5 lb block of wood suspended. It would really ruin a mouses day and they didn't jump out of the box. It may still elicit the screaming though.
heh, yeah it was a 'riot.' I work in a county courthouse. The screaming brought on tons of phone calls. Security, (sherriffs) and suppervisiors and managers all came running to see what all the commotion was about. I turned to my supervisor and appologised, but he motioned me to forget it. He was trying to keep from bursting out laughing. The sherriffs snickered when they found out. I'm suprised the press didn't pickup on it, as they usually were hanging out in reception.
I chose the live trap, as these secretaries didn't want to hurt him. (Go figure.) He never came back. So I don't know if he died of a heart attack, or decided he'd had enough of "women."........lol.....d
Good grief, what a bunch of wimps. We have mice here, and cats that are very good mousers. My husband is very grossed out by partial mice, so dealing with mouseparts is my job. My daughter and I also catch and transport live ones from time to time.
We live in darkest suburbia, but we have coyotes and fisher cats. Nobody introduced the fishers, and those things are way eviller than coyotes could ever hope to be. I worry about our one indoer/outdor cat constantly (OK, our old boy goes outdoors at times too, but his idea of "outdoors" is sunning himself on the deck and hissing at the dog).
I like living near the woods, though. Next house is going to have an airlock door, we've decided. Probably won't help, but it's a good thing to have anyway.
Fisher Cats? Never heard of them.
Until I ran a search--cousin of the Wolverine, one of the few creatures, aside from its cousin, who can tackle a porcupine successfully. It sounds pretty formidable, and distinctly not cuddly.
http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/fisher.html
(http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/images/fisher2.jpg)
We've got the Coyotes--probably none of them pure-bred. The outside dogs are called The Barkers because they have to answer the coyotes back. Miss Cherty Pie Barker probably sounds pretty formidable to a Coyote. Things have been really upset lately because of the logging on the other side of the hill.
Interesting lecture on fuels ...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=363807137347714545&q=genre%3Aeducational
At Chico State, campus mantra is sustainable living (http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/70505.html)
QuoteIf students strolling past the huge Trash Mountain on the Chico State campus last week missed its bulk, they most likely noticed its pungent smell.
"That's the grabber," Benn Davenport said of the mounded plastic garbage bags representing 1,440 pounds of trash discarded daily at the student center. "We need to think about ways that we can reduce our waste." "It's more about stewardship, and the social and economic implications of what we do," Pushnik said.
"Sustainability isn't just environmentalism with a capital S. It's a focus on stewardship, on responsibility for future generations," Provost Scott McNall said.
go to the link for the complete article
Multi-page interview with pictures with Tony Wrench here (at least two of us really enjoy reading about him--and his low-impact round house. I once wrote an e-mail to his member of parliament, asking why McMansions were considered as all-natural/blending in to the scenery/etc where his house was threatened with being torn down because it didn't} And, oh, yes, after a whole year and a half, IIRC of not being threatened with eviction, it's on the table again.:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/in_pictures_life_in_an_eco_roundhouse/html/1.stm
First picture I tried to put up did not want to show. I figured out what was wrong, but I think I'll post their toilet instead--probably one of the many reasons that the authorities can't wait to destroy their place.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/in_pictures_life_in_an_eco_roundhouse/img/5.jpg)
and two more green housing stories--I read about these in Hugg.
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2006/11/22/green-houses-not-just-for-flowers.php
QuoteVan[ch269]áková's home is special: Warmth comes from a unique ventilation and insulation system that eliminates the need for gas or electrical heating. The family's energy bills are slashed 90 percent and its needs cause only a small amount of harmful carbon-dioxide emissions to be released into the atmosphere.
"I decided that if I wanted to build a house, I would at least build it so it is easy on the environment," says Van[ch269]áková. "The feeling I was doing something myself to make things better was more important to me than having nice tiles in the bathroom."
So-called green houses are finally catching on in the Czech Republic, though they have been popular in neighboring Germany and Austria for years. From 2000 to 2005, only 50 such homes were built here. But this year alone, another 50 have sprung up.
And from Brazil--I'd have quoted a bit but I kept getting a message that said "Este boton esta anulado"--at a guess, this button is annulled. Their idea of what they wanted to do was pretty interesting:
http://www.temasactuales.com/temasblog/?p=102
There is a major problem with all the advances that have been made to engines and aerodynamics... electronics...Batteries...Emission controls...etc.
For all the upgrades we have seen in the last 30 years we have not seen a huge improvement in the mileage per gallon on average.
Example...Yesterday I saw the 2007 Silverado advertisement...It is a truck that has 300+ horsepower and averages 20 miles per gallon
my 1981 Silverado has about 180 horsepower and gives about 18-20 miles to the gallon...
Why Don't they reduce the power output of the new truck to a medium between the 180 and the 300+ and work on a full size truck that is capable of approaching 30 miles to the gallon?
I listened to that hour long lecture and it was informative...But the guy skipped over the obvious several times. He talked about biofuel being Carbon Neutral...Which is great and all...But one of the main points in efficiency is that the less fuel you burn of any type the less carbon that is released into the atmosphere
Without any major advances in technology or any new fuel sources being discovered the one way that is proven has been tested and works in efficiency is less equals more!
Meaning you drive a smaller car with less weight and power and you get more mileage....Less equals more!
a 1976 diesel volkswagon rabbit gave about 40 miles to the gallon with a diesel...It weighed less than 2000 pounds...I think 750 kg...The new Volkswagon diesels weigh 3500 pounds and are so much more powerful that they are faster than the 4 cylinder diesel from 30 years ago in a car that was 1500 pounds lighter...But the economy of it is not very far ahead of what they got out of the 1976 VW
The BLT thought process would work...It is not as great as the guy giving the lecture would have you believe... Simply forcing weight, and overall efficiency restrictions would cut the carbon emissions by 50% because 50% less fuel would be getting burned.
In other countries there are limits to the size of an engine and you paymore tax for a larger engine... Weight and engine restrictions would work in America
I had a Geo Metro that gave 50 miles to the gallon in Highschool and it was a gas engine without any fancy valve design or modern fuel injection
Small engine, low weight...High efficiency....We went away from the compact pick ups from the early 80's...We now have massive SUV's and the compact trucks have quad cabs with 4 doors and V8 engines...
The advances to valve design, electronics, injection that have helped the diesel Engine become more powerful and efficient would allow a simplistic non hybrid car to achieve a realistic achievable 60 miles to the gallon....And it would not be estimated like the Prius and Honda Civic....A figure that was only achievable driving downhill in the city under optimal conditions... Independant road tests of the honda and toyota hybrids have shown that both fall well short of the advertised mileage per gallon...
One of my neighbors has a mid 80's Jetta Turbo Diesel 4 door it gives about 45 miles to the gallon..Has Ice cold air and all kinds of power and cargo space...It is not at all one of these 2 seaters that has no options.
Point is that take this car...Lighten it up with advanced aluminums and carbon fibver materials..And then make the engine slightly more efficient with better injection and valve design and all of a sudden it gives 60 miles to the gallon with ease.
Diesels do have problems with the Nitrous oxides...But if you are burning signifigantly less fuel due to incredible mileage..half the emissions battle has been won right there.... Plus they have decent emission systems for Nitrous oxides and particulate matter for diesels now...
I agree with the Lecture guy that the Ethanol solution is bunk...It would come at the cost of precious land, water and food resources.....There is no morality to take land water and food for a hungry world to produce gasoline!!!!!!!
I really like Plug in cars...And batteries are approaching the level where an electric car will have a range of 3-400 miles between charges....But we have to find a way to generate electricity more efficiently without burning fossil fuels...
If half the world owned an electric car and we all charged them up at night the gasoline and diesel consumption problem would be solved....But we would need to double the amount of electrical generation plants throughout the world...And unless they are going to generate clean electricity we are creating one problem to solve another.
Heavy water fission shows promise...But why the world does not build about 500 solar towers is beyond me....They would generate enough electricity to curb all emissions and gases being released into the atmosphere...
The one constant in our solar system is the Sun! harnessing the suns energy is the only true way to power the world without all the problems of pollution, emissions, food land and water shortages.
Massive investment into advanced solar cells that are multi layered and approaching 40% efficiency is the solution.... Within the next decade they would replace coal as the cheapest way to generate electricity...The cost of solar cells per Watt has been dropping at a exponential rate..And the efficiency per cell has been increasing dramatically....It is inevitable that a time will come when electricity generated through a solar cell will be cheaper than electricity generated burning fossil fuels...
We need to push hard towards getting solar electricity in line with fossil fuel electricity...When this happens We can truly be free of political influence for energy. Electric cars batteries and all of that will make perfect sense and we can use what petroleum we have left for plastics...avionics...etc
But in the meantime the less equals more would do wonders towards curbing overall consumption.... emissions and pollution worldwide.