Loading ...The human species has this ego that they must know everything about everything. What good is this if it increasingly wrecks havoc on everything else. Ann and I have come to understand, the more we learn the more we realize what we don’t care to know. This makes us stand out a little as we prefer to look to nature for ideas, and accomplish tasks with some basic observations paired with on the spot solution creation (not problem solving). The solutions are not as complex as many may think they are. Whether it is gardening, house building or making appropriate climate friendly decisions, we think the less complex you make the task the more sense it makes in the bigger picture.
Gardening is a prime example of where the common sense and instinct from observing your surroundings provides plenty insight on how plants like to grow. We equate it to our compost system, where lots of different life forms keep everything in balance, and anything that gets too great in numbers always has a predator to knock it down. Nature does the complicated stuff and we can enjoy these simple tasty fruits from a garden that has lots of variety, insects, snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders and the list goes on. Our only rule is don’t worry, if it grows it will grow… if not then it won’t, just watch and observe and work with nature.
Two good sources for setting your mind in the direction that nature is a better and more efficient gardener are Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemingway, and The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka.
Our house is like this in so many ways… again we preferred to jump in with little knowledge and see where it took us. We didn’t have all the preconceived ideas (hence preconceived problems) and therefore didn’t have the answers, nor did we wish to, we just wanted to build a house that was “less bad”, and it happened. Oh yes at times we have had to learn some intellectual stuff, and this intellectual stuff also lead to the aspects of the home which had a larger ecological foot print. At every point where we had to use intellect (as a response to outside influences), these complexities meant greater cost to the environment. Hmmmm!
As we look to what our society can do to make steps forward the solution is really simple. What do you need and what don’t you need? All the fancy uppity useless crap (wants) we choose to buy… is all a waste of the environment, all for the sake of filling some void. What is the solution… well really it is simple… next time you buy something think if you need it or just want it. Once you determine what is actually needed, then choose something that is made locally with natural materials if possible.
Oooops! Then wouldn’t our economy collapse? But really, if we all just stop buying the stuff we don’t need and instead purchased local food and lived more simply where more of our incomes were spent on human labour and sustainable energies to provide for our needs, all would be fine. We would all still be employed and living quite well…probably with a lot less stress too.
Simply Cooking
The model of our cob home will be going on a tour around the province with the Free Spirit and BC Hydro Conservation Road Tour. BC Hydro and the Royal BC Museum have also decided on a full size photo of our kitchen for a backdrop for their theatrical presentations. Some of the cities to be included are Fort St. John , Prince George , Kamloops , Revelstoke, Courtenay, and Fort Langley . Check out this link to learn more. http://www.freespiritbc.ca/conservationtour/index.asp
Here is the list of the top 10 energy efficiencies in the kitchen photo that we took. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/eco-sense/2703115921/) .
1. Solar PV to generate sustainable electricity
2. Chest fridge
3. Solar hot water
4. Gas range with kettle (currently propane but hopefully methane in the future)
5. LED under cabinet lighting and LED ceiling lights
6. Natural lighting from tubular skylight above
7. Bread making table on lower counter top for kneading. (no electric bread maker) Bread will be baked in cob oven. More exercise with the kneading means no gym membership for us.
8. No electric dish washer (hand washing aids in digestion after a meal and for us, uses less water and detergent)
9. Non electric coffee maker on counter. We drink coffee fresh…not sitting around keeping warm for hours. No disposable filters… no plastic. Manual coffee grinder on counter (part of waking up in the morning means moving about a bit)
10. Telephone on bar (old style non-electric). No call display. Means we have to be telepathic if we wish to know who is calling.
Outside we will also use a Solar dehydrator so we can preserve our foods as well as the clay has preserved our hands, nice, dry and wrinkly-like.
Our kitchen is wonderful for us and who could say this is not a great space to prepare our healthy family meals. Our needs are being provided for in a simple and more sustainable way.
Distraction and the wonders of Observation
An observation of ours would parallel anyone who has left the big city and spent several months in a remote place with no excess colours, lights, sounds or any other unnatural distractions causing sensual numbing. As I sat on my chair outside, after a swim at the lake, I found this very tiny flower on my shoulder. The flower was no more than 2 mm long and ½ mm wide. I looked and wanted to show the kids; they took one look and said they knew what flower it was. They immediately went to an Oxeye daisy, snacked on an edible tender leaf while pulling the petals off, and plucked out several thousand flowers from the orange center. Two things amazed me. One, the center of the daisy wasn’t just a blob of stuff, and two the kids had observed so naturally something that I had missed for 39 years.
How many other kids in this day and age can draw a cabbage worm to detail; know that tomatillos live in hidden places on the land after the first glimpse of a purchased one; that daisies have little flowers; and that there are thirty some odd bird species that share our land and what they eat, when they arrive, and what their young offspring look like. It is not that these guys are special, they just don’t have endless distractions like skateboards, hockey, TV, or video games and their days are not fully booked and organized for them. They have had no choice but to observe and see, and use their surroundings as their playground.
It is frustrating at times to see all the fuss on how to solve our problems and that we have to think our way out of it. The more we think, the more complex we make the issue, and the more complex the further we move away from the solution. This includes all the magic bullets in the media (biofuel, carbon capture, hydrogen, vertical gardening, LEED, and high-tech buildings). Just keep it simple, cause if it can be done with your hands and hand tools made by your hands, it probably is sustainable.
Some of the simple things we have done this month along with gardening includes more earthen floors, completion of Mom and Dad’s kitchen, plastering, installing used fixtures, door making, along with helping some other folks with their homes. In keeping things simple we did cancel our tours for the summer, bitter sweet, as we enjoyed the tours and can certainly use the income, but they impacted our efforts in the finishing department. Public tours will start up again on the first Sunday of every month starting in September. Check our website for rates and details. www.eco-sense.ca
And in fitting with Masanobu Fukuoka’s approach, we suggest not to think too much, trust instinct, and do nothing… avoid “intellectual hell”, and if our politicians and public follow along (not thinking and do nothing), don’t worry as nature will play her cards in her own majestic way, shuffling the deck and burying the species that thought too much about the complicated things and not enough about the simple things.
(cross-posted at www.eco-sense.ca)
