TeachDemocracy.org: Help for Starting Microbusinesses

“At www.TeachDemocracy.org on the MICRO BUSINESS tab/page you can see the 9 videos in the series “How To Start A Micro Business” along with worksheets for those starting a micro business to complete and transcriptions of the video audio so Google Translate can translate all of it into any one of their 53 languages.

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Industrial Country Market

Industrial Country Market is an off-grid family owned and operated retail, educational and gardening center in Texas.
Industrial Country Market is an off-grid family owned and operated retail, educational and gardening center in Texas.

What do you do after you’ve built your sustainable homestead? Have you considered expanding your original self-sufficiency plans to include an income generating business, teaching workshops and possibly producing food for your community? The Industrial Country Market has done all this and more.

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Couple Goes Off Grid, on to Savings


“After years of living in big cities, Sonny and Linda Jobe decided to make a change as they entered into retirement. Buying a farm in Doddridge County in West Virginia, Sonny and Linda decided to live completely off-the-grid. They’ve installed several solar panels and also make their own honey and maple syrup. They have a garden, raise chickens and are considering goats in the near future. They claim they can go for months and not have to go to town if they want to. Video by West Virginia Uncovered.”

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Housing Reclaimed – Sustainable Homes for Next to Nothing

Jessica Kellner, editor of Natural Home and Garden magazine and author of Housing Reclaimed, is pictured in her home made of items destined for the dump.
Jessica Kellner, editor of Natural Home and Garden magazine and author of Housing Reclaimed, is pictured in her home made of items destined for the dump.

“As editor of the Topeka-based magazine Natural, Home & Garden, Jessica Kellner had plenty of stories of families and organizations from across the country who had built their homes from materials that were otherwise destined for the landfill.

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Tiny Off-Grid Cabin in Maine is Completely Self-Sustaining

Tiny off-grid cabin on a coastal island in Maine
Tiny off-grid cabin on a coastal island in Maine

“A project 30 years in the making, this tiny off-grid retreat on a coastal island in Maine is almost entirely self-sufficient. Designed and built by Alex Porter for her father, the project features a shed roof and is wrapped in a distinctive blue-grey corrugated skin. Dwell recently profiled the home, which is the only solar-powered retreat on the isolated island – its sustainable power source actually makes life a lot more leisurely, as the family does not need to schlep in fuel to run a noisy generator. They didn’t give anything up, as they have all the conveniences of a regular home — but with a view you don’t get in an everyday residence.”

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V3Solar Spin Cell Update

The cool looking V3Solar Spin Cells are still 9 – 12 months from commercial production, but one of our readers sent me this update and the news is very exciting. (Thanks, Jerry.)

“The story of the day is the tremendously low cost of the tech, and that’s what could change the world; that’s what could stimulate a more transformative distributed energy revolution than anything we’ve seen to date.

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