sustainable

Cost Breakdown of Our Recycled Wood House

by
View of our new recycled wood house from the front gate.
View of our new recycled wood house from the front gate.

We’ve been making steady progress on our recycled wood house and forest garden. Some of you might remember my earlier blog post about this project. The primary goal of our homestead is to become largely food self sufficient due to all the chemicals and other unhealthy things in the food supply today. A secondary goal is to have a little country house where we can hang out on weekends and days off. So far we’re fairly close to our hoped for budget even though the house grew a bit here and there (don’t they always).

Read more

Food not lawns: urban gardens in Eugene, Oregon yards

by

“Every year, 58 million Americans spend approximately $30 billion to maintain over 23 million acres of lawn, using more pesticides per acre than agriculture. According to Heather Flores, author of Food Not Lawns, the water consumed by U.S. lawns- 270 gallons/week- could support “81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long”. Perhaps its time to rethink the American yard. There are increasingly more groups- like Food Not Lawns, Edible Estates, locavores, 100 mile diet- urging homeowners to mow less and plant more.

Read more

Porches, Arbors and Trellises

by

Porches, arbors and trellises at Pinterest.com
Porches, arbors and trellises at Pinterest.com

Pinterest does it again. This site never ceases to amaze. Pinterest is so good that I have to be careful not to spend too much time there or other things won’t get done. They seem to have endless high quality images of every imaginable topic, although as mentioned previously there’s no convenient way to search their site, so I use my favorite search engine.

Read more

Zen forest house

by


Judging by all the positive comments, this tiny home is one of reader’s favorites. It really is a stunner. So nice and yet so simple.

“Brian Schulz wanted to see “how small of a house I could make feel big”. Inspired by the traditional Japanese minka homes that rely on local materials and steeply sloped roofs to create affordable, open structures, Schulz created a home using materials salvaged or sourced from within 10 miles of his home.

Read more

Ibuku Bamboo Houses

by

Ibuku bamboo homes
Ibuku bamboo homes

“We build lightly on the land, redefining the meaning of luxury with a clear conscience. Bamboo is uniquely strong, beautiful, and flexible, and with it’s four-year growth cycle and carbon sequestration it is a uniquely efficient resource. Though bamboo has traditionally been used throughout Asia in short-term structures, new treatment methods have given it a capacity for long life. We harvest and treat all of our own bamboo, selecting for density and maturity, then lab test to confirm its integrity.

Read more

My Father’s Garden — Documentary

by

“We are rapidly losing the natural resources and human wisdom that are necessary to grow food.

My Father’s Garden is an engrossing, emotionally charged documentary about the use and misuse of technology on the American farm. In less than fifty years the face of agriculture has been utterly transformed by synthetic chemicals, whose power to control the forces of nature is rivaled only by that of the atom bomb. These chemicals have also changed the farmers who have used them. This film tells the story of two such lives, different in all details, yet united by their common goal of producing good food.

Read more