I was tag surfing this morning (hard at work, as usual) and came across this brilliant little design for Windowfarms. It’s basically a small hydroponic system that uses minimal power to produce food in areas of limited space. The kicker is that it’s a vertical garden, ideal for apartment dwellers. I’m thinking that, for myself, [...]
Archive for November, 2011
Windowfarms: Vertical Gardens for Limited Space
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alternative gardening, gardening, hydroponic gardening, hydroponics, permaculture, TED talks, Windowgardens on November 28, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Water: Do We Really Need It?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alternative energy, alternative heating, cisterns, distilling water, filtering water, graywater, graywater recycling, rainwater harvest, solar hot water, solar power on November 27, 2011 | 5 Comments »
In all my years as a city girl, it never occurred to me that not everyone (in Canada) has access to good, clean drinking water. Water has long been my favourite of all beverages and all I’ve ever had to do was turn the tap. That’s not been the case since moving to the country. [...]
Bugs: the New Green
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged agricultural practices, carbon dioxide emissions, eating insects, entomophagy, ethical eating, greenhouse gases, insects, methane emissions, soil erosion, vegetarianism on November 21, 2011 | 12 Comments »
I recently watched an episode of Earthrise* on Al Jazeera that discussed the benefits of eating insects. I have to say- much to my husband’s chagrin- I’m intrigued. I’ve heard a few different programs on entomophagy and it strikes me as absurdly practical. One of the reasons I’m drawn to this alternative protein source is [...]
The Occupy Movement: a Canadian Perspective
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Canadian politics, Occupy Canada, Occupy movement, politics on November 16, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Not another article about the Occupy movement, oh puh-leaze. I know, I know. I find myself bombarded and at times even slightly bored by the number of updates that I receive from the worldwide movement. (Granted I’m subscribed to a dozen or so feeds so what did I expect?) Never mind the rants by friends [...]
2011 Mixed Garden
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alternative gardening, companion plantings, gardening, lazy gardening, permaculture, raised bed gardens on November 15, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I might just have easily titled this blog, “The Seeds I Tossed on the Ground and Forgot About”. I had very (very) little time for gardening this year and we had that water concern part way through the summer that left me feeling very stingy with the rainwater. Our well water is very heavy in [...]
Rocket Mass Heater
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alternative heating, Cob Cottage, heated bench, Ianto Evans, rocket mass heater, rocket stove, rocket stoves on November 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
We fell in love with Ianto Evans’ rocket mass heater the first time we heard of it. So much so that we booked a trip to Oregon to take his course. What isn’t to love? The idea is so ridiculously simple and immensely practical it’s amazing that we haven’t been using these all along. Rather [...]
2011 Building Season at a Close
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged earthbag, earthbag building, earthen architecture, rocket mass heaters, rocket stoves on November 7, 2011 | 11 Comments »
I’m full on into my post-season slump. We finished the final roof on October 23rd and moved onto building the mass heater right away. We finished that and had a fire last Thursday, just in time as we had our first snowfall on Friday. The building season is officially at a close and both my [...]
