The future does not just happen. It is created.
❖
We're only as free as we allow our world to be. In setting the world free, we set ourselves free. In setting ourselves free, the world becomes that much freer.
I hope you'll take a minute to read my response to "Doug Ford's Rules
Make No Sense..."
The complete and utter confusion in the education system makes your
point stronger many times over. The chaos is multiplied when the school
board gets done with trying to implement. It's an insane clown show.
One example: HWDSB recently rolled out a new approved sanitizer
for use on articles that will be handled by students, ie. desks, bins,
countertops. The sanitizer requires a 5 minute stay on the surface, and
then a water rinse. And this is to replace the previously approved
product which required a 3 minute staying time. What kindergarten
or primary kid is going to sit at their desk and wait 5 minutes and not
touch a wet surface? It seems like stupidity.
Going through the typical daily email list of memos from the school
administrator (principle, vice-principal) a teacher is faced with these
obsessive new protocols for any number of items or procedures, and then
at the same time they are being told they can sign up for the next
workshop on Anti-racism or Math Curriculum strategies.
You can just tell,
you just know by reading between the lines, that the board staff
are literally freaking out every day trying to do the right thing in
response to the latest government "whim" – fact is, they can barely get
organized to show up to work with their buttons buttoned and their
zippers zipped, let alone lead an army of parents and teachers in a
sensible way.
Ford's strategy of creating choices, and letting local school boards
find their way is not stupidity, it is pure evil, because his government
can lay blame in any number of directions. And they are already doing
it, and they will keep doing it.
It is evil and destructive and irresponsible to the core. It's not
just being stupid. It's about creating chaos. And in the schools
it is working.
Second example: HWDSB announced a second restructuring yesterday. In the
K to 8 school I know about, 6 teachers were surplused, meaning 6 classes
worth of students will no longer be attending in person starting next
week and will either be doing "online" or "homeschooling". So
the six teachers with least seniority are bumped into new
positions, and they will no longer be working at that school where
they just spent several weeks setting up their classes and getting
to know their students and their families. And the remaining
classes will get new students and their numbers will go up, overcrowding
classrooms even more. This is because the Ontario gov't never created
new class size limits, so we're working with the usual numbers of
22 kids per class, on average. One kindergarten teacher's room is not
big enough to accomodate the 16 students she had before the
reorganization, and now she will likely have to find space for at least
5 more students.
Every class gets kicked over like so many bowling pins, and now
the entire school setup changes. Parents who thought they were
choosing to have their kids stay at school will now be learning that
their child's class has closed, and the kids are being split up into two
or three other classes. So much for the concept of doing our best to
create safety and security for our children.
So much for looking after peoples' mental health. Multiply that times
several dozen schools, and all the school boards in Ontario, and you see
that this is not stupidity. It is an evil, cutthroat strategy where you
destroy the system by systematically giving up your authority to act and
protect people, and you let other agents (school boards, parents)
make choices. The strategy for education under the Ford government has
been to sell off the pieces by giving up the choices.
Lecce is the ultimate poseur.
The system is literally coming apart from the inside because
of this planned chaos.
I tell you the revolt is already happening. Teachers are crying BS and
are tossing the obsessive cleanliness protocols out the window,
especially when they see inconsistencies all around.
GB
Original Article By: Josh Dehaas
In his 1964 book The Morality of Law, Harvard law professor
Lon Fuller tells the story of a benevolent king, Rex, who tries to create a
legal system that works for his people. Rex starts by attempting to write
down a complete set of rules but quickly gets overwhelmed; it isn’t easy to
come up with general dictates that fit every situation. Rex scraps the idea
of a complete code and starts judging disputes on a case-by-case basis. This
doesn’t work either; Rex’s subjects say they need to know ahead of time what
they can and can’t do. Rex returns to the idea of creating a code that
anticipates every situation, but it turns out so wonky and opaque that his
people can’t understand it. Rex loses patience with his ungrateful subjects
and creates harsh new penalties including 10 years in prison for coughing
and sneezing in his presence. The people revolt. Fuller sees law as a set of
obligations that most people are willing to obey, even if they don’t agree
with every single rule, and not just because they worry about being punished
for disobeying. Fuller uses Rex to show that people will only accept a set
of rules as the law if they conform to certain basic principles: they’re
advertised in advance, understandable, capable of being followed,
non-contradictory and stable.
I couldn’t help but thinking of Premier Doug
Ford when I read about Rex in my jurisprudence class at Osgoode Hall Law
School. The COVID-19 emergency has given Ford king-like powers to make
public-health rules by cabinet decree. Like Rex, he’s demonstrated that he
wants what’s best for his people but he’s struggled to come up with COVID-19
laws that are clear, non-contradictory and stable. If he doesn’t fix this
problem, Ontarians could end up revolting … just kidding, docile Ontarians
would never actually revolt. But if he doesn’t fix this problem, we might
punish Ford at the ballot box.
One of the worst mistakes Ford
has made is that so many rules are contradictory. It makes no sense to allow
10 people from up to 10 different households — as the law currently
specifies in so-called “hotspots” like Toronto and Ottawa — to gather in
their homes while simultaneously banning people from eating with a single
family member inside a restaurant that’s taking proper health precautions,
as nearly all were.
It’s even more contradictory that my local dance studio
can be open, allowing people to gyrate along with 10 strangers while spewing
droplets into the air inside an enclosed space, but you can’t lift
well-sanitized weights at GoodLife while standing two metres from other
people wearing masks in a big open room. My neighbours on the community
Facebook page seems especially enraged by the contradictions around
Halloween. If children in Toronto and Ottawa can attend school with 25
others indoors, why are they being told they can’t trick-or-treat with their
family outdoors while wearing masks? Many parents say they plan to ignore
Ford’s advice against trick-or-treating. Will they listen to him ever again?
Ford’s rules are also changing so frequently that they’re bound to be
ignored. Consider group sizes. At a recent family barbecue with several
adults and several children, somebody asked if we were technically breaking
the gathering-size law. My brother-in-law seemed to think it was legal
because there were fewer than 75 people present — a logical conclusion
considering that 75 people was the limit at his workplace. My sister seemed
to think we could have 15 to 20 — or maybe that was just the limit at
daycares? It turns out the limit was 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors.
Hosts can be fined up to $100,000. Who knew?
If Ford wants
Ontarians to continue following the COVID-19 rules rather than getting
frustrated and giving up, he needs to simplify the law. The law should be
that people from different households must stay two metres apart or wear
masks in public. That means restaurants can serve indoors, but people will
need to sit two metres apart unless they’re from the same household. Fitness
businesses can be open with distancing in place, and people can decide for
themselves whether they think spin class or weightlifting is worth it.
(Hint: spin class is not worth it.)
People can legally host whoever they
like in their homes during the holidays, but they will do so knowing that
it’s risky unless they stay two metres away from Grandma, or else wear a
mask. There could be sensible exceptions, but in general the rule would be
clear to everyone. It would address the risk of COVID-19 while treating
business owners fairly and allow individuals the freedom to make choices
that make sense for them, without jeopardizing the health of others. If Ford
can pull that off, voters will reward him. If they remain frustrated and
confused, they may throw him out like King Rex. Subscribe now Josh Dehaas is
a freelance writer and student at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.
This view shows the top plate area and floor/ceiling joists. The joists rest on the inside service frame which allows the exterior insulating layer to be framed independently to prevent thermal bridges.
This is an environmentally friendly blown or poured in insulation, 10 inches worth.
Cross section view. From right: Interior finish (drywall in this example), service cavity may also be insulated, OS board vapour barrier when fully taped; insulating layer; strapping; air barrier; exterior finish.
This shows the thin air barrier material, which must be fully taped (below where she is pointing).
External air barrier
Shows window frame, bottom. Looks like one inch plywood.
Window frame, different approach. shows taping, sloping of flashing for drainage.
So, what can I do once I recognize my white privilege?
Beyond recognition, white people can use their white privilege in a way that is beneficial to all people. Here’s how.*
Don’t take it personally or use discomfort as an excuse to disengage.
Feelings of guilt or defensiveness are common responses, but ultimately, they’re counterproductive. Rather than centering your own feelings of discomfort, center the feelings of people of color in evaluating what to do with this information. If your instinct is telling you it’s more comfortable to retreat or reassure yourself that you are not racist, think instead, What actions can I take to help?
Learn when to listen, when to amplify and when to speak up.
When people of color speak to their experiences of oppression, it’s important for white people not to dominate the conversation or question those experiences. You can use your privilege to amplify those voices. Share the work and perspectives of people of color on social media. Credit colleagues of color for ideas. This not only helps marginalized people reach that audience but also helps spread their message from the source, rather than through the lens of a white person.
That said, there are also times when white people should speak up. It’s not fair to burden people of color by making them always take the lead on anti-bias work or intervening when something offensive is said or done. If you hear racist remarks, speak up. If you see opportunities to educate fellow white people about race, do so. As an ally, your privilege can be a tool to reach people who may be more likely to listen to you or relate to your journey in understanding your own relationship to race and white privilege.
Educate yourself.
Just as you should not always expect people of color to take the lead on speaking out against racism, you also shouldn’t expect them to educate you on racism. While it’s OK to ask questions of those who have expressed a willingness to answer them, you have the power to educate yourself. Seek out books and articles on the topic written by people of color. Critically evaluate documentaries that surround topics like slavery, race, the U.S. prison system and more. We have more access to information created by people of color than ever before. Take advantage of it, and avoid burdening friends or coworkers of color with constant questions about their experiences.
Educate fellow white people.
Share what you’ve learned. Push through discomfort and demand courageous conversations in your circles. Do not let peers get away with problematic remarks without making a serious effort to engage them.
Risk your unearned benefits to benefit others.
You have most likely seen a viral video featuring Joy DeGruy talking about her biracial sister-in-law using her white skin privilege to question why Joy was receiving undue scrutiny from a cashier. She risks her comfort and her easy transactions with the store to point out this unfairness and ultimately receives support from witnesses and management.
There are other ways to do this in our daily lives. It can be as simple as intervening if you see a boss or fellow educator treating someone differently because of their racial identity. It can mean advocating for a coworker to receive equal pay or opportunities. It can mean being an active witness when you see people of color confronted by law enforcement or harassed by bigots and letting them know you are there to support them and record the interaction if necessary. And it most certainly can mean engaging directly in anti-bias work, such as instilling more inclusive practices at your school or business or working with people committed to allyship and anti-racist activism, such as SURJ.
*Some of these steps were adapted from suggestions in Emily Chiariello’s “Why Talk About Whiteness?”
Every EkoBuilt PassiveHouse kit includes all of the items necessary for a watertight, wind tight, and vapour tight passive house.
To help make the passive house more achievable and affordable for many, we leave the selection and purchase/installation of all other elements up to you.
This works well for people wanting to build their own home entirely, to act as their own general contractor, or just to gain more control over the total project budget.
Building Your Home
EkoBuilt’s goal is to provide anyone building a new home the opportunity of achieving an affordable Passive House. We know that this looks different for everyone.
We’ve outlined how our kits work for the following audiences:
the Do-it-Yourselfer
the small builder or contractor
the owner-builder who wants to act as their own general contractor
Our brains are incapable of grasping a full understanding of the universe.
Don't be too sure of what you don't know. Rigidity may become your weak point.
It is too much to arrogantly state that others who believe differently than me are arrogant or deluded.
If you begin from a worldview that there is no god, then you have no reason to expect that the universe would produce beings such as ourselves, beings who are intelligent, able to understand and enjoy the universe, and who are seeking to build relationships on all kinds of levels. You also wouldn't expect the stunning beauty in all the living things around us; the colours, the sounds, the smells, the complexity. We might just be living on a planet full of algae and scum. On the other hand, you would totally expect these types of things if there was a creator who was interested in relationships on all levels and delights in beauty.
So, in summary, what you allow as a possible belief will affect your point of view. It is inescapable.
Scientists are finding levels of precision in nature that are overwhelming. In a universe that sprang into existence by accident you would not expect that kind of fine tuning.
Science only works because the universe is rational and makes sense.
None of these are proof that god exists. But it puts it as not unreasonable to allow the possibility of belief. It helps me keep an open mind.
Why are atheists critical of those who believe? In many ways, the world is difficult to explain if you are an atheist. For example, horrors of injustice, disease, murder, hate, vengeance.
Where does loving yourself fit in? What is the basis for learning to love and accept myself?
Serious christians and non-christians alike share a dislike for cheap and easy believism.
Humans Are Experiencing The Planet's Limits All At Once
What we have been calling green renewable energy and industrial civilization are the same.
This movie very thoroughly exposes how the green energy movement has been sponsored and commandeered by big money and profit making interests.
"Marine and fish production peaked 20 years ago. We use fish farms now.
The rivers are being irrigated to the limit. The Colorado River doesn't get to the ocean anymore.
Ground water has 10 more years of capacity."
"I don't think the people in charge are near nervous enough."
What is the relationship between our energy needs and population growth?
Our abilities to consume need to be reigned in. We seem unable to do this.
Species hit the population wall, and then they crash. "I don't think we're going to get out of this."
Our industrial agriculture is sustained by oil. Without seeing some kind of major die-off, there is no turning back. "Nobody has asked me if I'm scared. I am. I lose sleep over this."
The human population exploded at the same time as we began to use fossil fuels. The impact of humanity, powered by fossil fuels is 100 times greater than 200 years ago. We as humans are poised for a fall from all the human-caused change on the planet.
So why are bankers, industrial leaders, and environmental leaders only focused on green technology? is it the profit motive?
The Right has religion. Heaven, be stewards of the earth, please god, etc. The Left has green energy. It is a way that we deny death. It is like we have a religion of sorts.
If you recognized that you're here, you recognize that sometime you will not be here someday. And on top of that we don't like that we are animals, that we can walk outside and get hit by a fuckin' meteor. So we have cultures, schemes, beliefs to help us get answers or to avoid these realities. When we bump into people who don't share our particular beliefs, we feel newly exposed to those fears of our own. We need to radically overhaul our basic conception of who and what we are, and what it is we value.
People on the Left and the Right who think that we're going to be able to "oil" or "solar panel" ourselves into the future, are delusional.
If I haven't come to grips with my own anxiety about death, and life, and presented with a reminder about that, I'm likely to make some tragic decisions for the community. Camus said, "There's only one liberty. To come to terms with death. Beyond that anything is possible."
The biggest form of biomass energy in Vermont is basically burning trees. The biggest facility burns 30 cords of wood per hour. Environmental groups supported the idea of a "biomass" plant because then they don't have to look at solar. The idea of "carbon neutral" is bogus because running the plant uses fossil fuels.
"Biomass plants" are usually solid waste incinerators. In L'Anse Michigan the "biomass plant" is burning creosote railroad ties, chemically damaged wood from Canada. Sometimes it has to burn ground up tires to bring the temperature up if there is too much water content.
So we are encouraged to get out of bed with the oil and gas industry, and get into bed with the tree-cutting industry. Really?
Biomass eats wood chips. Wood chips and biomass are considered to be "renewable energy" - America's farms, ranches and forest lands are being invited to be part of America's renewable energy future. All around the world. Wood chips are being exported from Canada and around the world.
The "right use" of biomass is supposedly to use small-scale amounts wood waste and residues. Is biomass sustainable? Is it reasonable?
Some people who are anit-fracking would rather support biomass because it is "renewable."
"What we are seeing in biomass is the old oil industry and the old oil economy trying to maintain itself through another raw material: the green planet. The only reason coal and solar has been replaced by biofuel is because subsidies make it profitable. The big crisis of our time is our minds have been manipulated to give power to illusions. We have shifted to measuring growth not in terms of how life is enriched, but how life is destroyed."
Why do environmental leaders run from the truth? Are they misguided? Have they made some kind of deal with oil and gas?
The profit motive. The reason we're not talking about overpopulation, is that it would be bad for business.
Sierra Club
Ducks Unlimited
Billionaires are in love with the idea of turning the remnants of the world's forest into profits. e.g. Turning vast reserves of forest and wood into jet fuel. "Clean green gasoline" from wood chips.
40 to 50 trillion dollars of capital Goldman Sachs. Bill McKibbon. "If we do not get this done very fast, we're not going to get it done." How can they get the political will? The message: "We need to divest in fossil fuels and re-invest in biomass."
The Green Energy category of investment funds are mostly mining, biomass (forestry), oil and gas infrastructure, big agriculture, logging and paper companies, food producers, banks.
The business they are investing in is actually destroying our planet.
Generation Investment Management, is run by Al Gore and David Blood. (Blud) These guys were involved in biomass before Al Gore's movie came out. Gore is an investor in Brazilian sugar cane. The US Navy has a "green powered" fleet of ships, which use biofuels, including animal fats.
The next source of biomass is seaweed.
Why and how could people destroy what remains of nature to enrich themselves?
The takeover of environmentalism by capitalism is now complete. The nature conservancy is now the logging conservancy.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has become the union of concerned salesmen. The Sierra Club sells solar panels and electric cars from its own website.
Treehugger.com was founded by Georgia Pacific, which is owned by the Koch brothers. The merger of environmentalism and capitalism is now complete. Were the two ever separate?
If you've bought the environmental industry, why not buy the holy day of environmentalism itself? Why not buy Earth Day? Earth Day festival sponsored by guess who? Toyota, Citi Bank, Caterpillar, etc.
The path for change comes through awareness. Awareness alone can begin the transformation.
We humans must accept that infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide. We are already beyond sustainability. What does that imply?
They (the billionaires) are not our friends. Instead of climate change, we must accept it is not the carbone dioxide molecule that is destroying the planet. It is us. It is everything we are doing that is the problem. The human apocalypse.
"Humankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery – not of nature, but of itself." ~ Rachel Carlson, 1962
WKOG caveat: Industrial civilization is destroying all life on Earth. Human destruction of biodiversity is not created equally: “Yet tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world, and 80% of our planet’s biodiversity is found in tribal territories.” [Further reading: The best conservationists made our environment and can save it, Stephen Corry] Human population is often identified as a problem because it strains the world’s resources and pollutes. [1] The first and most efficient way to address over consumption is to reduce consumption in the North is to a) redistribute the resources, (all arable land, etc.) to the Global South, to sustain those in the Global South, and b) phase out the production of all superfluous consumer products that harm life and biodiversity. [Further reading: Too Many Africans?, July 11, 2019]An analysisof population growth that accounts for the vast differences in consumption across class and region is critical in examining the worldwide environmental crisis.
It feels so weird writing about these things again. I feel like I’ve been transported back in time ten years, back to my early days in the renewable energy industry. We’d combat these viral memes every single day.
The industry looks different now. Many wind companies have learnt that insensitive, clumsy development leads to backlash that is harmful for everyone, so they’ve started to clean up their act. Solar developers are figuring out more sustainable pathways than the boom and bust of government subsidies. The human rights issues around mining and materials are becoming more prominent. Renewable companies are taking waste removal seriously.
And then this documentary comes along – a dumb old bull in the china shop that is 2020’s hard-earned climate action environment. There’s a lot of fragile, hard-fought stuff to wreck in there, and Gibbs goes absolutely wild. He’s bulldozing a lot of hard work. Gibbs obviously has a long-running gripe with biomass, which has a whole range of serious issues associated with it. Though I don’t know the industry well, I suspect many of his gripes there are valid.
But the outright lies about wind and solar are serious and extremely harmful. Wind and solar aren’t just technological tools with enormous potential for decarbonisation. They also have massive potential to be owned by communities, deployed at small scales with minimal environmental harm, and removed with far less impact on where they were than large power stations like coal and gas. They do incredible things to electricity bills, they decentralise power (literally and figuratively), and with more work they can be scaled up to properly replace fossil fuels.
The key harm of this documentary is that it does what so many communicators struggle, but fail to do – it presents ideas from one ideological cluster into the world of another. It is very actively and successfully escaping the ‘bubble’, and selling far-right, climate-denier myths from nearly a decade ago to left-wing environmentalists in the 2020s, and going by much of the comments, it seems to be doing well. Gibbs is transcending both time and ideological space, held aloft by a system that provides prominence to mediocrity.
The film features a parade of – solely – white Americans, mostly male, insisting the planet has to reduce its population. There is no information provided on which people in the world need to stop fucking, but we can take a guess, based on the demographics of the people doing the asking. All white people from developed countries.
And also this:
From this source: https://medium.com/lobbywatch/2020s-other-crisis-emboldened-fossil-fuel-companies-d14d825ee9bb
Prior to the pandemic, climate change was high on the world’s agenda, pushed up another notch by Australia’s disastrous and climate-intensified bushfire season. It has been vital, then, for the companies that subsist on worsening that problem to create a facade in which they’re seen to be fixing it. Now, in 2020, the world is scratching its head about how to manage the crisis and how to best spend money to kickstart economies, and fossil fuel companies again see potential for expansion.
When I read up on Hügelkultur I suddenly felt behind the eight ball. I had been planning to chop and burn a bunch of windfallen branches from alleyway trees, but Hügelkultur says, "STOP! Bury those old logs and branches under your garden. The rotting wood will break down, absorb water and feed your garden for years to come." So here are a few photos of my garden in mid-transformation.
Here's what it looked like last year:
In the photo above there is a foot-deep pile of tree branches laid down under the soil. The layer of sod from the new area on the right has been flipped upside down on the left. I added more clippings from last fall that were in my green bin. I will add a layer of newspaper to block weeds and hold the moisture in (and to feed worms), and then it will have about 4 inches of straw mulch on top (when I find some) - I may just get a bunch of leaves from the alleyway instead.
This is another garden that I'm upgrading to grow food. I didn't dig up the soil, but I forked it and lifted it without turning to aerate the earth. The peony in the middle was left alone. Before adding the newspaper layer I basically emptied my compost bin. The newspapers will prevent weeds and hold moisture in. They were soaked in water before laying down. Fingers crossed that those dyes. I still need to get some straw to finish the mulch.
On the east side of my yard the afternoon sun is strongest in front of the fence. The strawberries were planted as two plants about 5 years ago. Last year they just went crazy in multiplying so this spring I'm trying to get some new plants potted. Next year I hope to have a raised planter box just for strawberries. Need to deal with pests, esp. bunnies, rats, mice, and squirrels. The black pipe is overflow from our rain barrel. And yes, that is a toaster hanging from the tree.
My pond has 5 goldfish. They've over-wintered in there for several seasons now. Funny thing is they are descendents of cheap "feeder" fish; what you're seeing here are second and third generation offspring that were bred and raised in the pond. In the winter we keep the water circulating with the pump to keep the surface rippling and allow an air bubble under the ice. This is critical to fish survival (so we learned the hard way). The daffodil is about to pop, there is one flower today! The dianthus will be lovely, and we're looking forward to the stonecrop and hen and chicks covering the ground nicely (see below).
We also decided to take our water conservation up a notch, so we bought a rain barrel from the local conservation organization. The overflow pipe runs right out to the pond.
When the pond fills up it overflows into the Hügelkultur bed. I've got some seedlings started, some tomatoes and squash. Fingers crossed. We'll figure that part out as we go. Anyway, I'm pretty motivated to maximize our soil quality and to create a "no-dig" garden that is full of rich soil and gives us some tasty food this year. The strawberries are sending out runners so I'm trying to capture the plants for moving at the end of the season.
[April 25] These are now more than a month old. Three more weeks and they'll be ready for planting outside.
The idea of this renovation is to accomplish a brighter and more spacious living room area. It also improves the wall and ceiling finish and creates a front coat closet beside the front door. In the above photo, the staircase wall has been removed, exposing the stairs. The stair railings would be replaced and the stairs finished with nicer wood. The wall beside the stairway (south facing) would have a new window popped in and the area in front of the window would be a small nook for a desk or a place for the piano. The doorframe into the main hallway has also been removed, and the chimney stack has been removed creating more space in the centre of the room.
These sketches illustrate the visual effect of a pop-out bay window, and also the effect of removing the south front window to allow for a larger closet. The proposed new window on the south wall is shown. Curved front stairs could be accomplished but would be pricey.
This shows the proposed south facing window, and a larger pop-out of the living room. Prohibitively expensive and requires lot variance and special permit.
Shows the effect of a six foot pop-out in the living room, likely too expensive. However this also shows the location of proposed closet but with the door moved about 4 feet south. That is unnecessary, however, if the pop-out is not pursued.
This is a more realistic sketch which shows the door in the original position and a bay window. The window to the south of the door is kept and reduced in width. This sketch shows the area of the closet and the nook.
Ingredients for 8 large hamburger buns:
1 package (2 1/2 tsp) dry active yeast (I used Fleischmann's “RapidRise” Yeast)
1 cup very warm water
1 large egg
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 pound all-purpose flour (about 3 1/2 cups)
Note: add a 1/2 cup of the flour to the yeast and water, and then the remainder before kneading
for the tops:
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk
sesame seeds
*bake at 375 degrees F. for 15-17 minutes
There are micro-energy systems that capture solar, wind, or hydro power. Each technology is cool and effective in its own way. Using a battery array, it would be quite feasible to combine a couple of systems and create a stable source of power.
The satellite image below is where our property is located in northern Ontario. The exciting aspect of building here, besides the regular logistics of finding a good location and a lot that is suitable for building, is to accept the fact that there will be no connection to the hydro grid. The only power on site is power that is captured or generated on the spot. The two streams that flow through the property basically dry up during the summer. This spring we will discover what kind of flow they have during the thaw.
But the other part of the challenge is that you must have a very well-insulated structure that doesn't leak heat. The standard of construction would have to be a super-insulated, airtight building envelope using passive energy capture. For example, maximizing the gathering of solar energy through windows. Using a super-efficient cold air heat pump that can run on the battery system. Possibly combining a wood-burning rocket stove as well.
The thing about using a wood-burning stove or furnace is that the flow of air into the system would disrupt the controlled exchange of air in the dwelling. A conventional wood burning pot belly stove would not be possible. In the winter you can't open a window to let air in to feed the fire.
What is needed is a sort of foyer or mud-room that is protected from the elements, but is not part of the building envelope. The fire would be tended in the mud room and have its air intake basically outside, but the heat from the fire would be captured through the chimney flow and drawn into the system of the rocket heater which would be inside the dwelling. So the heat is radiated into the interior of the dwelling and stored in the material of the rocket heater. The fire could be a wood pellet burner, and there could be an automatic or remotely controlled pellet feeder.
For me, once the battery array is in place, and is big enough to deliver the maximum amount of energy needed at any given time, the only problem is to figure out how to get the battery array charged.
A micro-hydro system may be possible. If rainwater were captured in a tank, then a small turbine could be run to charge the batteries.
If it's windy, a silent wind turbine would deliver electricity to the batteries.
If it's sunny, the solar panels charge the batteries.
Heck, if push comes to shove, a human powered generator can kick into play. Maybe a human powered water pump can fill up the rainwater tank to generate more hydro power.
I think it's possible as long as you're not relying on electricity to do big work. For example, running a washing machine or an electric dryer is out of the question. Baseboard heaters out of the question. A fan in the heat pump would be the maximum. Small water pumps would be okay. A small room fan, no problem. Small and focused lights no problem. Running electronics, no problem.
Once again I'm dreaming about building a cabin in the woods. This time it is all about building an off grid structure that is self-reliant for energy.
I bought a license to manage a half acre of land in the boreal forest of northern Ontario. I did this with about 75 other people. We collectively have formed a not-for-profit organization called Boreal Forest Off-Grid Association – BFOGA. Together we will write our own by-laws and we will each commit to managing our piece of forest as we please, in a way that honours a very loose version of medieval thinking.
The idea of medieval thinking is invoked for a couple of reasons.
First, in medieval times people lived in groups and were co-dependent on their neighbours. There was a local economy of bartering and small enterprise based on manual labour and handmade craftwork.
Second, they had no electricity or running water. They had to figure out how to work with nature to get clean and get rid of their poo.
The medieval idea only goes so far. We still will use our battery technology. Solar power is on the table, so we can use electric lights. We won't be running around lighting candles and burning the house down, thank god. However, the idea of using running water has to be completely reimagined. There will be no well with a pumping station, and no septic system to pollute the ground water or the runoff into Long Lake. So, if I want to have pressurized water that, say, squirts through a shower head to make me clean I must figure out a way to not only get water into a storage tank, but I need a way to pressurize it and heat it.
This is one example of the challenge which is my present fascination. How do you get your own water? First you need to collect rainwater. Then you need to store it. How about a water tower or elevated cistern? Then you need to heat it. So maybe you can figure out a way to bring water into an indoor tank and heat it using your stored solar power. Maybe you could heat it with small amounts of firewood, like a sort of rocket heater system?
You have to also think about washing dishes. I'm painfully aware of how much water I use to keep my kitchen area clean at home. But when water is limited, you don't just endlessly splash and pour water over your pots to clean them, you've got to rethink everything and become a minimalist. This is also part of my obsession: rethinking how I would do things like bake or wash dishes with a limited supply of water.
The other part of redesigning water systems is that you have to have a way to get rid of grey water. Grey water is what comes from the kitchen sink, and what comes from the shower drain. Grey water has soap, human skin and hair, random dirt and bits of food in it. I think if the choice of soap is done right, then you could basically use all of your grey water to do two things within the home: First you could recapture the heat from your grey water using a heat exchange system around the drain pipes. Then you would send the heat back into the air in the dwelling. Second, you would have a simple filtration stage and then use the grey water to water your indoor plants.
I think that having plants indoors is a cool feature. Plants can help the indoor environment. They clean the water and put it back into the air. The help moderate the temperature and humidity. And of course they look beautiful.
I can imagine having a collection tank for grey water that is filtered. A small pumping system could automatically switch on and send water to a gravity fed tubing network that would keep all the plants watered.
The idea of keeping the grey water inside the dwelling is important, especially in the winter time. When we put hot water down the drain, the heat goes with it. Basically we're heating the underground which is useless. The only thing to really be careful about is what happens to pee and poo.
There are toilet systems that separate pee and poo. You have to sit down to use them.
