Resilience: Suburban Permaculture Homesteading 3/3

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Urban homesteading is probably one of the most important topics in resilience. When urban homesteaders apply permaculture principles, the results are spectacular. Were following Rob and Michelle Avis, who have transformed their suburban Calgary, Alberta property into a resilient paradise. We're watching three brief videos over the weekend, one each day. (Part 1 was 13 mins, Part 2 was 10 mins, and Part 3 today is 11 mins.) And learn stuff together, eh! :=) More below.
I've been so focused on learning about rural living that I sorely need to learn more about urban resiliency. Let's check out the Avis' Permaculture Homestead clip 3/3

Here's clip 2/3

Here's clip 1/3


Here's the link to Part 1.

I recommend reading the comments in the first two posts - lots of cool stuff by resilient c99ers :=)
http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-suburban-permaculture-home...

I so look forward to your comments: I always learn so much from you.

Peace be with us, if we learn urban homesteading together,
gerrit

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Bisbonian's picture

Lots of technical information to learn here, but I really like his emphasis on a positive, rather than neutral, impact.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Gerrit's picture

the Avis' transformation from focusing on their personal resilience to integrating their homestead into the local community's resilience. I liked how they explained how personal and local resilience is tied together. Enjoy your day, mate,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

mimi's picture

I would need a transcript to really understand what he built and how he actually built it to become capable to reproduce what they did. Pretty sophisticated stuff. It's rather overwhelming. But quite interesting.

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Gerrit's picture

conversation. If you see something in a resilience essay or video that looks interesting, ask in a comment and we'll go looking for information. Just say, "what's that thing in the back corner and how does it work?," and we'll all figure it out together. None of us are experts; we're all just learning together :=) Cheers, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Don't think because I am not posting on all of the resilience posts that I don't appreciate each and every one, the work and knowledge that is present here. What a wonderful resource for this site!

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Gerrit's picture

very welcome. There's such great discussions among our resilient friends that it's a great pleasure to post discussion starters. And it is a cheerful thought to think that there are also folks reading silently and enjoying the posts and discussions.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

I have been following this for years, I live in Calgary and found them when I was looking to grow vegetables to eat here. I have passive solar green house envy and wish I had the 30kish to build it.

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thermosiphons, modeled on this design by Gary Reysa that we found in Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/solar-air-heater-zmaz06d...
We harnessed considerable free heat in VT with this very low-tech and low-cost design (all materials available at places like Home Depot and many hardware stores). For our homesite, these systems were most useful for heating the house and uninsulated garage workshop in the transitional seasons from fall to winter and winter to spring. We even had good heat gain from reflections off snow with an east-facing unit--surprised the heck out of us. Polycarbonate is great stuff, and the design makes use of convection and the fact that heat rises.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Gerrit's picture

designs. I'm trying to make one for my garage - it has a long south wall. He's got tons of amazing DIY material for RE at his site. It's a great resource and I encourage folks to follow your idea. Gary Reysa's site is here: http://www.builditsolar.com/

Please tell your hubby that I am impressed :=) Thanks very much for this idea.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

mimi's picture

Gary Reysa's site and it has so much material that was thinking about and didn't search for yet as I don't have a house or lot yet to start all this. I keep that bookmarked.

Thanks for the series. Very valuable for those starting about dreaming and planning projects.

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Gerrit's picture

the Reysa site. There's so much there! I also keep it bookmarked for the day I can do any of it. Enjoy your day, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

open public spaces on one floor markedly on sunny and even partly sunny days (no batteries or other storage capacity for energy from insolation with this simple and cheap system for free heat). It was supplemental heat for our house; woodstove was primary heat source, with backup baseboard heaters. It was also supplemental heat for the big, uninsulated garage. A bonus: the veggies I grew directly under that bank of thermosiphons mounted on the garage's south-facing wall flourished--grew faster and bigger than the others.

Tip: we found the thin plastic from dry cleaner bags to be the best flap material over the upper vent. Be sure to close the vent at night so the heat in the house doesn't leak out through a reverse process. Also close the vents or insert a block in them in warm weather! Seems obvious, but sometimes we needed the unwelcome chill or heat blast as a reminder.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Gerrit's picture

hah-hah, yes I can see where forgetting to block and unblock the vent would make me sorry! Thanks also for the vent cover tip. And the veggie tip!

You also make a great point in describing the number of parts to your heating system. Right now, we heat from one main source; in future the better way will be using many sources of heat, as you had done.

Enjoy your day, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Gerrit's picture

to be a DIY effort here. I'm sure you've learned a lot from the Avis family over the years! We have a friend who models our kind of rural lifestyle and we follow him the same way. I should post something about him!

Enjoy your day, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

work with maximizing their small suburban yard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IbODJiEM5A
http://urbanhomestead.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCmTJkZy0rM

[Note: unfortunately, this family trademarked the terms "urban homestead" and "urban homesteading" and apparently zealously protects them with legal notices (http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/blogs/california-...). This piggishness aside, they have much to teach others about growing a lot of food in a little space.]

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Gerrit's picture

I learned so much from them and enjoyed following them until they began that TM shite. I just quit when they wouldn't back down. It's too bad; they really know their stuff. If you can ignore the TM shite, there is a treasure house of info on urban gardening and homesteading.

Enjoy your day, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.