Posted by Dave on April 8, 2009
If there is one thing that Rednecks, Granolas and Mormons have in common it is their love for sticking it to the man and their affinity for a little Armageddon. Well I guess that is two things, and who doesn’t like sticking it to the man, except for all the regular joe shmoe, middle aged, white, males out there that are the man? I have to face it. In another 10 years or so I will be a little “Man” in training if I can ever make any money or gain any power.
Anyway, Granolas come at the end times a little less “religiously,” but just as dogmatically. For any good granola the end is near due to man’s incessant and beastly abuse of the earth. For Mormons and Rednecks the end is near because of damn gentiles and damn liberals, respectively. But, the results can be the same for all three groups. They know how to make the most out of a little and are ready to do so after civilization falls. Whether you are in the wilderess of Texas, Montana, Oregon or Utah you are likely to find the “off-griders,” or as I will refer to them in a coming blog, “The bunker nuts and belly-achers.” Full disclosure at this point requires that I share with you, the reader, just how tempted I am to become one. But as of this point I still own a traditional home connected to the grid here in SLC. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on April 6, 2009
There is a reason island nations are much more adept at small living than those of us in the United States, and especially Texas (where I hail from). As the Texas Board of Tourism slogan goes, “It’s like a whole other country” (pronounced with an “n” in front of “other”). And in Texas country everything is supposed to be bigger. By bigger people mean “better than you.” Well, I have come to not only disagree with this mentality but to actively combat it. I feel that small living is a challenge to character because the forced process of prioritizing our material goods and the space we choose to live in leads us to question the core of our selves. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 28, 2009
Uppity folk may call it offensive, but rednecks just call it home.
There are a lot of different names for it these days. Some now call it reuse. Polite, cute little title. Some still call it salvage. Some call it practical stewardship. Some call it scavenging or hoarding. I just call it pickens. Whatever title you give it, rednecks have always known about the sustainable reuse of material goods. The ranch I grew up on had an advanced system for it. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 27, 2009
Don’t think I am crusader against Walmart. I’m not, really. I actually applaud their stiff arm tactics to reduce waste in fuel and packaging material. I have fond memories of wandering the 24 hour Walmart in Ft. Worth during the witching hour and trying to carry on cogent conversations with the gentlemen behind the gun counter. (Yes, back then you could buy a gun at 2:00am, even as a youth. Sorry, no ammo.)
But alas, Walmart, what is one to do? WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 23, 2009
I found a recent study, albeit a small one, done in the UK that brings up an interesting question (even if it doesn’t provide too many answers). New Tricks With Old Bricks, a study done by the Empty Homes Agency, tries to show that an old refurbished home can be just as “green” as a new build. Now by “green” in this particular study they are referring only to the home’s carbon emissions, or as we refer to it across the pond, carbon footprint. While they did include embodied carbon and operational carbon they only studied six homes, and they projected the totals over a fifty year period.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 18, 2009
Darn it all, but I can’t keep ignoring reality. My dirty little secret is that I live in a 1920’s brick on brick home built by a Mormon pioneer who’s last name apparently started with “S”. (I am assuming this because of the large iron “S” that was built into the front of the home.) This little home has a rounded front door, sloping Northern roof face, high pitched roof made of cement tiles, a 14 SEER 93% efficiency furnace, insulation wherever we could add it, cork floors in the basement, some cob wall in the basement, reused materials, a small garden/vineyard/orchard in the back and caulk and weatherstripping galore. I challenge anyone to look it in the eyes and say it’s ugly. Honest, it’s a cute home, but…
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 2, 2009
This entry might reveal a little too much about myself, but I just have to give a shout out to this little community in Missouri. Dancing Rabbit has been around for 10 years now and some might refer to them as a “Transition Community,” but they really are something different.
A Transition Community is, according to Transition Towns Wiki, “a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?”
I think this idea of transition towns/communities is awesome, and I hope to see it continue to catch on around the U.S. and the world. But from what I can tell about Dancing Rabbit (through their website) they are something pretty different. If a transition town is a group of people within a community, then what do you call a group of people that decide to start their own town? That is what Dancing Rabbit is trying to do. Their town is a small one right now at 30 people, but they claim to desire to reach 500 to 1000. Their covenants include things like not driving a personal vehicle (they share two for the whole community) and not using fossil fuels to heat their homes, etc.
I have been looking for community experiments like this one and am surprised it took me this long to find Dancing Rabbit. I was so excited to find them I thought there might be others like me out there. May the rabbit keep dancing.
Posted by Dave on February 24, 2009
I know that many see it as a fool’s quest, but I long to see the barrier broken. Can “green” homes be built without subsidy for under $100 a sq. ft.? I am glad to see that there are folks out there working to do just that. I am especially interested in the work being done by the guys at EcoUrban Homes.
EcoUrban Home for sale in St. Louis
But… there are still several hurdles that are plaguing the pursuit. The most obvious to me is property prices. EcoUrban is working in St. Louis. With urban lots going for under $10,000, keeping the overall cost below $150,000 becomes possible. But what if you don’t want to live in Detroit or Cleveland?
Second, there is labor. I am encouraged to see more and more contractors and builders increasing their repertoire of green products and processes. But still, paying for skills in more sustainable building practices can be cost prohibitive. Some apparent “silver bullets” of sustainable building run into trouble with labor costs as well. I am a personal fan of earthen building because the basic materials are dirt. I have some basic building skills and a job that doesn’t pay much (so my labor is cheep). But for most, it just isn’t affordable to pay people for hundreds of hours of labor to ram earth or lay adobes.
Third, there are materials. It is still more costly to build smart than to build the “Home Depot Special”. (Home Depot is getting better about its products, and I am impressed that they are partnering with LEED to develop “Affordable LEED” housing.) Of course some of this is simple supply and demand. Until new products take over a significant market share they will be more expensive to produce and harder to find. But even prefabricated modular style homes falter, in my opinion, when it comes to material cost. In most cases it makes no sense to me to pay $50,000 to $100,000 for a modular shell that has to be transported to the sight, and then have to spend another $100,000 to various contractors to finish on location. Often I feel like the true cost of the materials is still not being represented in the final price tag. Yet, there are some people working to use actual sustainable materials and lower the prefab costs far enough to make modular a possibility.
Lastly, we have to overcome indifference toward the poor. Mostly, the “green” building industy is focusing on making money. I understand this, and at a certain level, endorse it. But, if we are going to make a real move toward sustainability it can’t be just for the rich.
Personally, I think the answer to the $100 a sq. ft. dilemma lies deeper in the cultural values we use to define home and our deeply guarded individualism. Maybe if we valued community and relationship in slightly different ways we could find answers to our housing woes without killing the planet.