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Magna Carta Village eviction threat

Residents of the Runnymede Eco-village, next to the site hosting the 800th anniversary celebrations this June, won a court battle yesterday to delay their eviction from the site where they have lived for over 2 years.

But the court ruling today may prove to be a short-lived delay. Lawyers for the owners of the land will be back in court early May and a campaign has started to defend the Magna Carta village.

“We are appealing for as many people as possible to support us,” said Phoenix Rainbow, one of the defendants.

“There are millions of acres of disused land where people could live and grow food,” and we want to draw attention to that.”…

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April 9, 2015 3 Comments
Communities

Oogoo

oogoo

As frugal and creative off-gridders, we are always on the lookout for good DIY projects, recently I “discovered” a product that can be made with 2 simple ingredients, one of them I’d be willing to bet you have in your kitchen cupboard right now, the other one you might or might not have BUT it’s easily purchased inexpensively from your local store, even the dollar stores carry it.

The commercial version of this product is called Sugru, it’s basically a silicon molding product, it has many uses from the obvious, creating small molds of nearly anything, to creating rubber coatings and bumpers on items. The only drawback to Sugru is it’s expensive and not readily available.

There is a DIY alternative that seems to be every bit as good as the commercial product, and it’s very inexpensive to make. It’s called “oogoo”, look it up and you’ll be intrigued as to what it can do. The two ingredients to make it are corn starch and 100% silicon, that’s it, unless you wish to color it or make it electrically conductive.

A few days ago, I purchased a big tube of 100% silicon, I was going to get a small tube, but when I compared the price, I could get the larger tube for just a few pennies more, I couldn’t pass up a bargain, and besides, if I don’t use it all, then PB will use it on something.

The way this works is you use about a 50-50 mixture by volume of silicon and corn starch (it’s also referred to as corn flour), you mix mix mix until the starch is fully incorporated, do this is a well ventilated room or outside, it does release fumes that smell of vinegar, it basically smells bad and can irritate you eyes and lungs. Once mixed, it’s like a soft clay that can be shaped, molded, or you can stick small items into it to create a castable mold.

You can experiment with the ratios of silicon and starch, the more starch you add, the quicker it sets, you can add graphite powder to make it electrically conductive, I’m thinking things like making your own stylus for your tablet or phone…

Silicon by itself takes longer to cure, but mixed with the starch, it cures inside and outside at the same time and much quicker. This can act like a glue, it sticks to other items very well, but can be removed, it also sticks to itself very well, so you can add more layers of it after it cures.

I did some searching to discover what this can be used for, I am thinking that it will be perfect for repairing PB’s mukluk boots, the rubber heel part has worn through, they are basically unusable as they are now, so if it works great, if it doesn’t work, then we haven’t …

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April 5, 2015 1 Comment

Whose Land Is It Anyway?


As the West prepares to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta – the cornerstone of our civil liberties – a small eco-village is under threat.

The Magna Carta stopped a powerful king from seizing the possessions of the rich and powerful barons. It was agreed in Runnymede. In June the Queen and President Obama will join 5000 other dignitaries there.

But in the wood next door, a few yards from the historic place where the Barons met, are 40 hand built homes. Living there are hard-working, eco-minded people who are doing the right thing. Musicians and web designers, factory workers and chefs – looking after themselves and the land – not one of the 60 or so residents are claiming benefits, they say.

Now a fence is being built around the village.

But not just any fence – its a 6 foot tall, black,steel fence – with nasty spikes on top. “Its just to protect folks from the building work next door” say the property developers that own the land.

Ironically, the Magna Carta was originally composed of two parts – it included the Charter of the Forest, which gave Freemen the right to scavenge in the woods for fuel and food.

Not any more it seems.

We will follow the fortunes of Runnymede eco-village int he coming weeks.…

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April 1, 2015 1 Comment

Solar system balancing act

Life with a small solar system is a balancing act. We have lived 8+ years now with our small solar system, tweaking it, adding to it, improving it, trying to balance our system vs the power load. Of course we are running a small load most of the time, a couple of laptops, the wireless network for said laptops, a few lights, a 12 volt water pump, a small radio, and the fridge, THAT is what takes up the most power at any given time.

Our fridge is very efficient, it started out life as a small chest freezer, we use an external thermostat (originally designed to turn small chest freezers into kegeraters), we set the temp on refrigerator temps, when it detects the correct temp inside of the box, it cuts off the power to the unit, you can read more about that here. This last winter, we pushed the fridge outside to the front porch, which meant the box didn’t have to work as hard to keep the cold temps inside.

The biggest balancing act for us is the day length vs the outside temps. During the winter, we have shorter days, which means fewer hours in which to charge our solar system, but since the outside temps are cold, the fridge doesn’t have to run as often, sometimes not at all.

During the summer months, it’s warmer outside, making the fridge run more often, but with the longer day length, there are more hours of sun to charge our batteries, so all in all, it works out pretty well, as long as we pay attention to the upcoming weather and moderate our power useage as necessary.

With the warmer temps usually come our rainy season or monsoon season, a few months where we tend to get rain nearly everyday, having overcast skies also limits the amount of solar power we get, though our panels do get some charge even with clouds present, just not the full amount of charge as a sunny day.

I have some exciting news, I have been given the opportunity to review another battery desulfator, I did a review last year on the Whizbang Plus battery desulfator (part one and part two), they worked, but were small, you pretty much have to have one per battery, this other company’s claim to fame is their second generation battery desulfators are designed to work in off-grid situation on larger battery banks, there is much more to this system. I’ll keep you in the dark about it for now, but be looking in the next week or so, as soon as I get the desulfator, which is on its way here now, I’ll do a first impression review, hook it up and let you know what I think about it, I will say that it has many more features that are going to …

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March 27, 2015 2 Comments
Communities

Mobile, stealthy, off-grid, vandweller

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I think I got all the descriptive words covered there in the title, I am talking about Brian, also known as AdventureVanMan on YouTube. In his late 30s, single and hard working, he became disillusioned with life as he was living it and decided it was time to make a change.

Brian left his 2 bedroom apartment, sold most of his possessions, bought a cargo van and began living a life that makes him smile. He designed the inside of his cargo van to be simple, almost spartan, but it’s genius is useability and functionality. He lives in town, using a gym membership and friends & family for showering and other bathroom functions, so he doesn’t need a shower or major toilet system, he does have a backup toilet just in case, but doesn’t use it for the most part. All he really needs is a place to sleep and hang out when he’s not working.

Brian, being nowhere near retirement age, still works, so during the week, he stealth parks near where he works to save on fuel and time, on the weekends, he stays closer to the ocean in California, where he can catch a wave when he wants to, or just wake up to a beautiful sunrise glinting off the water.

I really appreciate his solar system setup, he put a lot of thought into it, utilizing the roof of his van to mount a RENOGY 100 Watt solar panel, he is able to tilt it to catch more sun, he uses two 6 volt deep cycle batteries wired together to make a 12 volt system, he uses a small inverter to power his laptop and other goodies, he also has some items hooked up directly to his batteries (12 volt goodies) so he isn’t losing power by converting from 12 volt to 110 watt. Some might deem to call Brian “homeless”, I don’t think that is the case, I feel like he made a reasonable and responsible decision to downsize and simplify his life, he wasn’t forced onto the streets, he chose to live this way.

You can view more about his solar system here:

You can learn more about Brian here
https://adventurevanman.wordpress.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TrueBypassTheory/




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March 24, 2015 1 Comment
Communities

DIY as much as possible

truck…and truck update.

A few weeks ago, I had a chance encounter with an elk, an animal of much height, girth and weight. After looking up the average weight of a female elk (also referred to as an elk cow), this is the info I found:

Elk cows average 225 to 241 kg (496 to 531 lb), stand 1.3 m (4.3 ft) at the shoulder, and are 2.1 m (6.9 ft) from nose to tail. Bulls are some 40% larger than cows at maturity, weighing an average of 320 to 331 kg (705 to 730 lb), standing 1.5 m (4.9 ft) at the shoulder and averaging 2.45 m (8.0 ft) in length.

Our local deer out here average in at around 100-200 pounds, quite a difference, I have always been concerned about hitting a deer, never thought I’d hit an elk.

The damage to my truck was minimal considering, I was able to drive home. Now came the fun part, figuring out how much actual damage had been done and what needed to be fixed or replaced. This is where PB came into play, while he is no expert on Ford F150 trucks, but he has worked on his other vehicles, gaining the experience necessary to keep all of our vehicles on the road over the years.

I looked at my truck and figured I would end up at the Ford dealership, nearly 100 miles away, or at the very least at one of the local body shops, some 40 miles away. Looking at parts, labor, downtime and such, that all equals expensive!

But instead, PB took his broad vehicle knowledge and applied it to my truck, a few parts (from Amazon) later, and my truck nearly looks as good as new… well not perfect, but it’s looking much better than it did the day after my elk encounter.

Bottom line here is if you are wanting to get yourself out of debt, into a better financial situation, then you need to figure out as many DIY things you can do as possible, the more YOU can do, the less you have to pay someone else to do it. In my case, we are talking thousands of dollars, 2-4 thousand depending on how far I wanted to take this truck back to perfect. Instead, I have spent less than $200 on parts, the labor costs were a few dinners cooked for PB. There is one more part I plan on buying, a grille guard, now that will be expensive, no getting around that if I want something that will actually do the job of protecting my truck, it’s going to be well worth the money to protect my truck vs having to get another truck if this happens again, and with my job, I do a lot of driving in the early morning and late evening, prime critter time.…

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March 21, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Snowboarder plus tiny home equals cool!

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Each time I see a new tiny home, I think it’s the coolest one I’ve seen yet, and this is no exception, pro-snowboarder, Mike Basich, shows us his version of his tiny home, one he built himself in the middle of his 40 acre, snow covered mountain playground near Truckee CA.

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I love his touches, the rock work, the beautiful woodwork, the oven, his running water from one of the two creeks that run through the property. It’s very primitive, no real plumbing (aka bathroom), I did see a few solar panels mounted outside so he does have electricity.

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Basich is a very talented and creative person who clearly loves nature, he feels that he is closer to nature living this way.

Watch and enjoy!

 

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March 16, 2015 1 Comment
Communities

Keyhole garden

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It’s so nearly spring, I am itching to get out and do some gardening, I’ve been getting seed catalogs, the siren song of the gardener. About a year ago (+/-) I discovered another method of raised bed gardening, it’s called a keyhole garden for obvious reasons, it looks like a keyhole from above.

From what I can see, you make a round raised bed with a notch in it that goes to a central basket that holds compostable materials, kitchen scraps, fruit & veg, egg shells, coffee grounds (including the filter), paper, cardboard, grass clippings and the such. The garden is watered through this middle part, transferring the nutrients from the decomposing material in the middle to the garden that surrounds it.

The notch is important, it allows easy access to the central basket to add more compost and water, you also need to be able to reach every part of the garden area, so don’t make it too large, you can always build more keyhole gardens as needed.

I have seen many materials used for the outside, from bricks, to pavers, rocks, some are cemented in to make a permanent structure, others are just dry stacked so they can be removed later, it can even be made from wood, metal or plastic. I watched many videos on how different people make theirs, some do it very simple, others more elaborate, one I saw this evening looks pretty good, but I saw the builder do something I probably wouldn’t do, after marking out the circle, he used a fork to dig up the soil, the reason I wouldn’t do that is because you aren’t using THAT soil to plant in, you are placing layers of cardboard, paper and mulch type materials in the base, you don’t add soil until the last foot, so disturbing the base layer of soil is not necessary and it seemed to me it would be counter productive.

Here are a few videos you can watch to get a better idea of how this is done, enjoy!




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March 11, 2015 No Comments
Communities

Don’t try this at home

oops

Last Sunday afternoon, I decided I would do some work in town to get ahead of my work week, it wasn’t a lot of work, but doing it early meant I would be able to do more and larger jobs the following week. I had finished merchandising in the second store, decided I wanted to get some dinner and head home. It was a quiet evening, the sun was long down, there were only a few other cars on the rural mountain road between towns. There had been some fog in the town I had just left, but that cleared out and it was a beautiful evening.…

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March 8, 2015 No Comments
Communities

2015 – the year of antitech backlash

Government spying, corporate prying, virtual sex, so-called freinds you never met …no wonder we are sick of it.

A London PR agency says this year people will forsake gadgets, social networks and other technology in favour of the simple life. And there are plenty of examples – from declining numbers on Facebook and Twitter, to a planned new phone called The Runcible – which is made of WOOD. …

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March 4, 2015 No Comments
Communities

A wonderful off-grid couple

stonecampThere are many off the grid tutorial videos about nearly anything having to do with off-grid life, there are a precious few about the people themselves, the why instead of the how. I enjoyed watching this video about Teddy and Kathy Carns and their off-grid life. Not only does it show some of the how, but it shows the why as well as their journey they are on. There is reality too, Kathy quit work to join Teddy living off-grid, but they soon discovered, much like us, that there needs to be some income coming in to pay for the things that you can’t barter for, things like taxes and such. I love it that it is Kathy who went back to work, in a field she obviously loves, this mirrors our life in so many ways, even down to the saving and dividing their trash into things that are biodegradable and those that are not, they don’t get rid of what isn’t biodegradable, they clean it and save it for future use.…

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February 25, 2015 2 Comments
Communities

UK Green Leader Needs New Script. We Can Help Her.

Natalie Bennett, leader of the UK Green party, had a car-crash interview today as she attempted to explain the party’s housing policy to an unsympathetic radio host.

Their aim, she said, is to build 500,000 new homes at £60,000 apiece, but she seemed to have forgotten how these homes would be built, how they would pay for the land and in fact anything at all about the homes.

She told Nick Ferrari on LBC that the money would come from cancelling mortgage tax relief for Landlords, raising £2.7 billion.

How are you going to pay for the land? Ferrari asked repeatedly.

Here’s how Natalie: there is a national housing crisis, a national emergency, and special measures are called for.

They would, for starters, be Tiny Homes.

As long as the homes are not allowed to be resold at a profit by their new owners, and as long as they are eco-homes — not connected to the grid in any way, they can be seen as falling into a special category.

The land could be agricultural land, costing roughly £8,000 an acre, or as little as £500 per home.

Because the homes would also be smallholdings, where the residents could cultivate crops and livestock, there is a pre-existing legal category for these homes, known as agricultural tied.

Local councils would give planning permission for a change of use on the land from agricultural to residential only after the land had been secured by a specially created development company, to avoid speculators cashing in. The councils would benefit from an influx of ratepayers and employment opportunities.

Because they would collect their own water and generate their own energy, the homes would require very little infrastructure – only good road access and public transport.So the £60,000 figure is perfectly achievable.…

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February 24, 2015 No Comments