Farm Fairy Village: September 2007

Monday, September 3, 2007

Entering the Farm Fairy Kingdom

It's always good to start with someone who knows and can point you in the right direction. I just recieved an email message from Rusty Oxydado (who is on the BC Primitives listserv). I really appreciate the help. He suggests, "you really don't need to be schooled to learn how to make a shelter in the wilds, you will find a way, you may need to learn how to get food, and what to do with it when you get it, I think you will find a lot of information through the homesteading groups." Try HeartForHomesteading@yahoogroups.com or for wilderness survival, try - http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/index.php.

I've dreamed and thought about some of the ins and outs of doing this for years, but was stuck working in the big city, then the small cities, then the smaller communities and now rural life... Living the Experiment on 6 1/2 acres to begin. My goal is to live with as little power or footprint as possible and I've dreamed up all kinds of theoretical ways to do this, but now is the chance to prove that it works. (or some of it anyway)

I'll always be boiling any relative successes down through more and more 'pure goal' ingenuities: starting from the rather cushy, but much safer end, of course. I can always jump off the ride to safety at any point, so it seems a very cushy life, right now. I've got this theory about living on less than a hundred dollars a month and I'd like to be at zero, so instead of eating the sprouts, I want to grow the seed. I want to provide my very minimal power to a tiny earth cabin, by cycling my bike generator and with small amounts of tiny sticks burned in two little rocket stoves (all of these things I've yet to build) as needed, but they will come.

I've collected the clothes (for all four seasons) that will last me all my life (with a bit of stitching here and there) and have experimented with only turning the power on one day a week throughout the winter... so, so far so good... so now here we go with Day 3 of actually living with the impending winter (of course I still have obligations in the city and so can only live it a few days at a time for the next few months, but after that, it might be more of a full time thing, with only minor excursions back into town). The computer is part of the experiment here and the landowner gives me opportunity to come in from outside to make our posts for things on our working group site and to answer emails (I have a backlog of other work to finish off before I start posting these village-related items, a diary for our interns, but there's no rush.) I'm just so excited to be doing this.

I'm loving every minute of it. Here I am. Living the dream. Hasn't sunk in yet. But I can't tell you how happy I am to be here!

My deepest gratitude to the Nature Kingdom and all who have made this possible.

Cheers for this moment, and much to come...
: )) Wezley

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Holy Economy of Power!

Hi,
Wow!

Have I ever discovered the way to make my body sing! Holy health benefits, Batman. I've been eating raw sprouts (I muscle tested that I should start learning to do this at 40% raw foods per day for the first 6 - 9 months) for a couple or few weeks now (time is a blur).

Last week we calculated that our new 32 bin shelf unit (collected, for $10, thru recycling and from our friends at the local health food store when they were replacing theirs) could hold enough sproutable foods to feed 5 people for a year! Here's the kicker, though - the same amount of dry food can feed 30 people for a year, when it's sprouted! Now that's an equation that HAS to be part of our experiment. (They say the vibration of the raw foods will raise the vibration of the cooked food, as well, so load it up, mix it together, pile it on top. It has to be good for you.)

Mind you, all of those 30 people would have to be used to eating raw foods and feel quite okay with it. There's likely to be a decent adjustment period. I have to say, however, that if you're doing the adjusting, it's remarkably easy to "feel normal" while just adding as much sprouts as you like to your already cooked - and I know it's healthy, local and organic - dinners, lunch and breakfasts. I find burritos are the way to go and it seems beans and brown rice are cheap, filling and adaptable enough to make the transition feel harmless - and very yummy! I love burritos, can you tell? And I wouldn't want to give up oatmeal, either.

So, now, the Experiment has to include - growing each of those sproutable crops or those that are nutritionally substitutable - the ones that will grow here locally on our wet West Coast, or that I can feel reasonable comfortable that I can grow alone, given a year or ten of trial and experiment (I'm not going to say, error.) My goal is to eventually to be able to grow enough food to keep 30 people alive and comfortable. Don't ask me where this goal comes from. It just seems like something each one of us needs to be able to do or at least understand, in case the time ever comes when one has to pull out such skill and use it.

My DEEPEST thanks, to Brian Adam Williams, our raw foods chef, who lately got me into this. I've longed for such a diet and am feeling more and more comfortable with this as the right way to live, for myself. I've objected to cooked foods, one way or another, throughout my entire life, post 2 years old, and now I think I might like to believe that this is the reason why. My body doesn't want so much of this cooked food business in it! I'm eating less, feeling more of a sustaining energy all day and rarely ever notice when I'm getting hungry (after the first few days). I'm down to eating twice a day. (And that happens on its own. Brian only eats once.) And I don't really notice it, but I sure notice the extra time and the endurance and new sense of calm that it brings with it.

This will help a lot, with where I have to go... living the experiment.
: )) Thanks SO much, Brian. I love you a lot. You're SO appreciated!
Tally ho, Wezley

Saturday, September 1, 2007

What will we use... Creating this Village from Scratch

Here it is. Day 1 - The start of our Farm Fairy Village demonstration site - Living the Experiment - test modeling.

I don't know what's to become of this, but I know we have a lot to build. We've discussed in general some of the things that need to be developed, most of it appropriate technology that we will need to make our lives work, so I thought I'd share some of the resource links that were sent by Eroc, following our EM (Earth Masters) Bicycle-powered Electric Generator workshop, put on a few weeks ago with Sally Bedford and our Oteshite interns, John and Antoino, who were here for the summer (and are now gone and are dearly missed).

Eric (the name his parents liked better) says... "Below follows several links that relate to our bicycle power workshop and some of the other ideas brought up regarding water and appropriate technology...

First is David Butchers site on pedal power, I personally think he has one of the better designs.
(http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen.html)

And of course the wonderful things happening at CCAT with there great pedal powered innovations is a real inspiration. (http://www.humboldt.edu/%)

The infamous pendulum pump of Veljko Milković. (http://www.veljkomilkovic.com/rucnaPumpaEng.html)

The rope pump (http://www.demotech.org/d-design/designA.html?d=43) we talked about and a page on traditional water pumps (http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Po-Re/Pumps-Traditional.html).

And some sites you should visit cuz theyre awesome...
PESwiki (http://peswiki.com/index.php/Main_Page)
Appropedia (http://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia)
Demotech (http://www.demotech.org/d-index.php)
and Keelynet (http://www.keelynet.com/) - a great site to keep up on the news of the day.

Dont be shy, follow these pages back and you will come across a great wealth of information that will blow your mind.

Enjoy, Eric

(I really love this signature quote that he uses...)

Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you."
~Pueblo Blessing ~

Here are some Bike Power & AT Links

Here are some earlier links from Eric...

Surfing the web I came across several sites on pedal power generators, seems to be two major designs- an exercise bike type model and one that works off of an existing bike. Ill give you this one website that links to the rest - http://www.energyplanet.info/Pedal_Power/

I also came across some neat ideas for self watering plants(container gardens).. DIY earthbox plans using old rubbermaid containers, Ill report on that...

(Eric suggests these links instead, now that he's looked through the one above.) Here is my list.

1 - http://www.stewardwood.org/resources/DIYcyclepower.htm

2 - http://www.scienceshareware.com/pedal-power-build-your-own.htm

3 - http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen.html#DIY%20Plans

4 - http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Eccat/pedalpower/

5 - http://www.webpal.org/webpal/b_recovery/3_alternate_energy/bike/bike.htm