Path to Sustainability (and surviving the zombies)

Spring means more garden work

I need to get some pictures soon, but I’l almost ready to start planting the summer garden. The straw bale bed has composted great, I turned it and reduced it from 16’ to 12’ so I don’t have to add as much potting soil on top. That extra 4’ on the end will be the next compost pile.

In other plans, here is another link dump of ideas I am kicking around.

Yard is smallish with houses on all sides, so only afternoon sun for a few hours. For a bunch of reasons but mainly since I like experimenting, I loved this idea when I saw it.

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

http://allthingsplants.com/articles/view/dave/96/Building-a-hugelkultur-raised-bed/

http://permaculture.org.au/2010/08/03/the-art-and-science-of-making-a-hugelkultur-bed-transforming-woody-debris-into-a-garden-resource/

I will probably use smaller wood chunks and chips (hopefully can get from a tree trimmer locally), and a bunch of horse bedding. Frame it with straw bales. Goal is to have good soil all over the back yard in a couple years.

Additionally, combining that idea with a raised bed keyhole garden, to plant on top of my concrete driveway. Just need to figure out a recovery system for any water drainage, maybe a channel cut in the cement leading to a swale.

http://www.permies.com/t/12429/permaculture/Interesting-keyhole-hugelkultur-design

http://www.raw-food-health.net/RaisedVegetableGarden.html

http://www.organiclandscapedesign.org/node/120

Oh yeah, going to dig a series of swales files with gravel or wood chips which will double as the footpaths as well as the resevoir for rainwater runoff.

http://www.chotelaboratories.com/garden_diary/?p=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puro1fUowhM

In the very front on the parkway, I have only weeds and crappy soil and what used to be grass. I am going to double dig it and add a crop of buckwheat and cowpeas very soon, then california native wildflowers.

Regarding spring/summer cover crops for weed prevention & soil amendment/green manure:

http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Quick_summer_cover_crop:_Cowpeas_and_buckwheat/

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20090204/nf4

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/buckwheat-summer-soil-boost

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/bjorkman/lab/covercrops/early-summer.php

Butchery instructional videos

The start of some wonderful instructional videos on butchery, a project funded via Kickstarter a few months ago,. First one is online, more to come. I need to sharpen my knives!

http://www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/farmrun/butchery-instructional-web-series-from-farmstead-m

A couple of interesting DIY building techniques

Earthbags and Grid Beams.

I am going to consider a root cellar and firepit area made from earthbags.

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/rootcellar.htm

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/firepit.htm

Then there is Grid Beam - Erector Sets for Big Kids!

http://www.green-trust.org/wordpress/2011/11/14/grid-beam-erector-sets-for-big-kids/

http://www.gridbeamnation.com/build-it/gridleys-workshop/

http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=5260

Modular, a lot of open source, a growing community…this sounds great! I am going to experiment with this for a deck, a garden/orchard cart/wheelbarrow and a dog house/platform. Maybe this will become the frame of a half-buried root cellar?

Maybe just found my first grid beam based project! Solar Hot Water: http://solarcities.blogspot.com/2008/10/solar-c3ities-solar-challenge.html

and someday after more research, a biogas digester:

http://solarcities.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-build-solar-cities-hdpe-bio.html

Rain makes me think about water again

I am always so mad at myself when another rain falls and I am not yet ready with a rainwater collection system at home. I guess it’s all just time and money, right?

Anywhoo, another link dump:

http://secondrain.com/2010/02/advanced-rainwater-harvesting/

http://secondrain.com/2011/01/cedar-rain-bench/

http://www.earthship.com/buildings/836

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/gardenhosefilters.htm

http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/GFWTS1.pdf

http://www.shared-source-initiative.com/biosand_filter/biosand.html

http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/urban/Construction.htm

Some DIY projects using recycled pallets

I have a couple weeks off work shortly, so I am planning a few projects, inside & out.

Inside: wall shelves in the kitchen, designed around Mason jars (to accomodate my future canning plans). Designs tbd, but ideas galore:

And then outside, a vertical garden planter which will also be the east wall of my mostly strawbale raised bed garden.

Lastly, a bit of a deck under the pergola.

future homestead housing ideas »

vaguely considering the idea of moving to the woods sometime in the next 10 years. not off-grid, I plan to be still involved in the technology business as a source of income, but capable of sustaining itself with as little of the grid as possible. somewhere with mild winters, long growing seasons, livestock and wild game friendly, and good water supply. Pacific Northwest has seemed to be where my thoughts have been roaming.

So anyway, as I keep circling around the idea, housing has always come up. I am hoping to be able to have a few other people involved, not as a commune but as a corporation that runs the land. Maybe convince my niece and her husband & baby to come (my ulterior motive there is so I have someone to take care of me when I am old). In order to accomodate a couple of families, we need some flexible housing and there seemed to be some good stuff in the realm of shipping container building.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html

http://inhabitat.com/stacked-shipping-containers-create-smart-green-homes-in-malaysia/

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/02/green-shipping-container-housing-haiti.html

Next up, learn to weld…

Irrigation

Considering again the idea of using the 2x IBC totes (275 gallons each) as a filter system and reservoir for water. Goals would be to constantly maintain at least 3/4 capacity of the total system, constantly being topped up with city water passing thru a filter system to remove sediment and chlorine. The same system would be used in an emergency situation by manually filling a source barrel (see previous ideas for a gravity fed, multi-stage filter using barrels). solar pump to move that thru the drip irrigation system & auto dog waterers.

I might start with a cheaper electric pump, and save up for a good solar pump, also saving the hours on that until no grid power to drive the other.

I need to sketch some ideas, off to find a bar napkin.

Some additional thoughts:

First tote will be chlorinated water, either from city source or from an emergency filter system.

[For emergency system source water, see http://www.swimforhim.net/6.html for chlorine production unit (yes, I plan to chlorinate the dirty water then purify it later to remove chlorine) and links from a few days ago about multi-stage sediment filters and solar distillers.]

Chlorinated water will be allowed to sit for 24 hr minimum, possibly with an air hose inserted, since chlorine is a gas and it seems some portion can be removed this way. More research & data required though.

From this tote it will be pumped (by hand or solar pump) to to 55 gallon drum mounted on top of the 2nd tote. This drum will contain 2-4 Berkey Black purifier elements, gravity feeding to the 2nd tote.

http://www.green-trust.org/diyrainwater/Black_Berkey.pdf

From there, there will be a pump (hopefully one that activates on demand) so send the clean water around the house to the irrigation.

Winter garden

I am going to do half of my containers organic, using compost/planting mix with worm leachate and such. the other half will be using a soilless mix (bark/moss/perlite) and Foliage Pro 9-3-6 liquid fertilizer. the pots have been sitting and drenched with water to hopefully the nitrogen levels have stabilized (I need to get a test kit!) and I can plant in the next few days.

What I really need now is to put up the electric fence around the pots using compost to keep Reilly from digging it up!

Passive Solar projects