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Using “trash” (construction and other refuse) to build homes.  Quote “in a town this size would otherwise be discarding usable building materials that could build a small scale house a week…  That’s crazy!  when we have families that would do anything to own a house.”  Great ideas, funky original homes.  Check it out!

Via Puppetgov/Rebuild Green

With enough abandoned lots to fill the city of San Francisco, Motown is 138 square miles divided between expanses of decay and emptiness and tracts of still-functioning communities and commercial areas. Close to six barren acres of an estimated 17,000 have already been turned into 500 “mini- farms,” demonstrating the lengths to which planners will go to make land productive.

I have a question.  How much bailout money will the gardeners and farmers of urban Detroit receive?  As it turns out I have more than one question.  When will this country recognize that we must make a fundamental shift in our way of life to continue as a society.  When will we face facts and realize that throwing good money after bad is stupid?  Consumers are turning back into citizens.  It’s becoming harder to make them buy stuff they don’t really need.  This is a good thing in the long run but in the short run it will derail our consumer-based growth economy.  The big question we should be asking ourselves is how much longer are we going to continue wasting our wealth on a failed reality and when will we wake up?  It’s time for real, fundamental change; whether we like it or not.

More on the Detroit food revolution

While I won’t portend to be quite as well spoken as Wendy from the previous article, I will attempt in this edition to display my chicken coop and enclosure as well as discuss some aspects of it for your information.

The picture above is the original area of my yard that the chicken coop and run was in. This area is consistently moist and a relatively poor area of my yard to grow anything, which is why the chickens went there. It was also infested with Creeping Charlie. The chickens have eaten all the Creeping Charlie, as well as all the other material in their run down to the ground. I keep a layer of bedding down at all times. This might be leaves or grass clippings, for the most part. I also throw most of my kitchen scraps and garden debris for them to work over. About every 6 weeks I rake out the run and the coop and compost the litter. I recently moved the chickens, so this area has been heavily mulched to prepare it for planting next spring.

I recently obtained a dog kennel from someone in the neighborhood, which I was happy to use to hold the chickens, although it wouldn’t fit into my old area. I moved it over one of my raised garden beds. With some careful modifications I should be able to slide this over the top of three of my garden beds, which gives those beds a turn hosting the chickens every three years or so. As I grow my garden to the west of this location there will be more beds to spread the chickens over, as well as the possibility that I can build the beds to fit with the kennel better to use the space better. I like this system much better than my old, pathetic system because it actually keeps the chickens contained! With my old, built by me and my pathetic building skills, I would come out to put them away and they would be sitting on the ground outside the door waiting for me to put them back in.

Like all gardeners/homesteaders most of what I do is constantly evolving, and the chickens are no different. Right now I have two chickens in there, but I’m angling to add a few more next year, perhaps banties. You can probably tell from this enclosure that my building skills are dreadfully sub par, and while I would like to let them free range I don’t think my neighbors would care for that too much.

About the coop, the coop was essentially built with scraps that I bought from the discount bin at the home improvement center, stuff I had lying around and 2 2x4s that I bought. Originally I was going to build a peaked roof, but that proved too difficult so I did a flat roof. This seems to work fine. I had two planters on the top of it that had lettuce in them, but I kept forgetting to water them so we’ll have to try again next year. You can see the roost inside, which is a cut down closet pole and I use shredded paper from my office as the bedding material. The nesting box is an old Clementine box that I saved for this purpose. I have two openings, one is the “main” door that I put in for the chickens to come and go. The other is intended for my use to access the inside to add food, water and maybe someday get some eggs. In reality, the chickens love to roost on the trap door and survey their domain and use this door frequently to enter and exit as it’s a quick hop up or down for them..

One thing I do like about having the run so close to the garden is that this fall I was able to dump the litter straight on the garden from the coop when I put the garden beds to sleep for the year. Chicken manure shouldn’t be added to crops directly, but since my beds were finished growing and I had all winter to let the compost mellow I dumped the litter right on. Besides, with all the bedding already in the run and coop and all the leaves and grass clippings I’ll add on the top between now and snowfall the manure ratio will be very watered down.

So far, my total investment for the eggs I’ve gotten (zero) has been quite high, but even if these chickens don’t produce any eggs in the near future it’s been a great experience and I know that I’ll raise chickens in my backyard for a long, long time. Who knows, maybe this spring we’ll get some broilers in addition to those extra layers.

This is a guest post by Wendy from Home Is… From reading her blog I knew she had chickens, and since she lives in Maine her knowledge of building a coop that will hold up to cold weather could be quite useful. She has written a series of articles on our site before related to her personal decision to stay in her home in the suburbs during the coming descent down Hubbert’s Peak.

Before I ever made my foray into chicken-ownership, I spent some time researching what I was getting into. Barbara Kilarski’s book, Keep Chickens, was a wonderful resource for everything from choosing a breed to providing information about how big their enclosure needed to be. While my hope was that they would be able to also spend some time free-ranging around the yard, my plan was to build the coop big enough that they could spend all of their time in there, if they had to.

We only have a quarter acre of land, and while my neighbors on either side, who have a half acre and an acre respectively, like my chickens, I didn’t wish to push my luck by letting my chickens loose to roam in their yards. They probably wouldn’t care … much, but as Frost’s neighbor observed in the Mending Wall, “good fences make good neighbors”, and as there is a fence there, it’s probably best that I keep “mine” on this side of it.

In addition, with only a quarter acre, space is a premium, and none can be wasted or under-utilized. Every side of my house has some edible plant or planting bed, especially the south-facing backyard. Chickens can really wreak havoc in a newly planted garden bed. They like to scratch things, and soft, newly planted soil with tasty little seedlings is too much to pass up. Don’t ask me how I know.

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Do your children think that food comes from the supermarket or maybe the shop at the gas station? We all have opportunities to open that door to the past and learn to rely on nature to provide for our dietary needs. If we give her a chance, it is amazing how willing Mother Nature is to sustain our needs. One green (and fun) opportunity to utilize nature is to tap your maple trees to collect the sap. Now that is really tapping into Mother Nature!

I started tapping maple trees in my yard several years ago and constantly get questions about how to do this. The reality is that with the right equipment and a little direction, it is quite simple. The trick is to be prepared when the sap starts to flow (sometime in February or March depending upon weather conditions).

Being prepared means identifying your maple trees (Sugar, Black, Red, and Silver Maples will all yield an impressive amount of sap) and having the right equipment. Now is the ideal time to solve for both of these, as it is easy to identify maples when the leaves are on your trees and equipment is available (supplies can become limited once the sap is flowing and everyone is looking for equipment).

The most common use of maple sap is to produce maple syrup. In fact, sap is the lone ingredient of syrup, and is produced by boiling water off the sap until it turns into syrup. This is generally done outside (can be done on a gas grill or a small make-shift fire pit with support for a pan / pot) as a large amount of steam will be generated. It takes roughly 10 gallons of sap to produce 1 quart of syrup. It is a lot of boiling, but the results are well worth the effort. You can throw away that store bought “Pancake Syrup” full of high fructose corn syrup. There are many other uses of sap, such as use in recipes that call for water (for a slightly sweet, maple flavor).

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[UPDATE: Ecorazzi is now giving away a Neuton in celebration of their two year anniversary. Jump on over to enter! One person will be chosen at random.]

Before I start this review, you should know that I have a love/hate relationship with lawns. Living in the Northeast, they’re a necessary evil when one has not yet shifted an entire backyard to something built on permaculture. On the other hand, a recently cut lawn does look beautiful and sharp — something drilled into my head from summers of mowing other lawns to make cash in High School.

When my lawn turns colors from a lack of rain, I do not get out the sprinkler. I consider it a vacation from the weekly chore of mowing. If weeds or other variants of grass make their presence known, I consider them compliments to the scenery. It amuses/depresses me to no end the amount of resources Americans spend on the upkeep of lawns across the US — especially in places where grass has no business growing in the first place.

I know many people who use manual mowers to keep their lawns tidy, but I’ve never been one of them. The grass I encounter (due to my unwillingness to mow more often) is often too high — or I don’t like the lack of mulching offered. I absolutely hate raking grass up (another stupid practice) and have embraced the auto-mulching, non-pickup feature found often on today’s modern gas-powered mowers.

Of course, gas-mowers come with their own issues; the least of which is that they run on gasoline. They also require oil maintenance, are loud, and a bit of a pain in the ass to move around due to their heft. These are some of the many reasons why I’ve been intrigued with all of the electric mowers that have been hitting the market. When Neuton contacted me to give their latest a shot, I’m jumped at the opportunity.

Everything arrived in a tighly packed box worthy of green points right away — mostly due to the inclusion of recycle cardboard protecting the contents. Putting the mower together was a snap and I had everything ready to rock in about 15 minutes. Of course, the battery needed an overnight charge, so my initial grass cutting was delayed by a day. Fine by me.

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Just a quick post to send you over to Wild Onion to learn yourself how to make a reusable bag out of your old t-shirts.  Very cool way to reuse old shirts.  You can even throw them right in the laundry if need be.

 
There are so many great DIY ideas out there on blogs.  Seen any thing else that Groovy readers might like?  Send it my way at steve [at] groovygreen {dot} com

Back in April, I began an exercise in driving less and driving with fuel economy in mind. What I learned surprised me. Simple, obvious steps made the most difference. I drive a 98 Oldsmobile Alero and before I began, I was getting about 27 MPG, now I am up to 34 MPG. That’s a 7 MPG savings, using simple steps anyone can do.There are groceries, banks and just about everything I need within walking distance from work, so as a rule, I drive to work, then I drive home and that’s it. I occasionally drive to run some errands (there is only so much walking one can do on a lunch hour).

I began turning off the car at train crossings, or when stuck in a traffic jam, but the biggest jump occurred after slowing down to 60 MPH. I went from 29 MPG to 34 MPG. That’s huge.

Also, I rode my bicycle over 120 miles in June, and I’m well on my way to matching that for July. That’s trips to the hardware store, bank, goodwill, and beer runs (all within about 3 miles of my house). At 34 MPG, bicycling alone has saved 3 1/2 gallons of gas, or almost a 1/3 of a tank. That’s amazing!

A 7 MPG increase and 120 miles LESS driving per month (maybe more!) , just by slowing down to 60 MPH and riding my bike. It can’t get any easier than that!

I was also hoping to put less miles on he car over the course of the month, but I forgot to tell my wife about my project. She and I had discussed that fact that my car gets better mileage than her van, so she began driving my car more, so total miles drives per month varies for April, May and June.

I’m not the only one seeing these kinds of results, see these articles. How much can you save?

*photo by Kristin Brenemen

I was recently contacted by Waste Management about a new recycling program for compact florescent lightbulbs, and agreed to try it out.  They have a new website called thinkgreenfromhome.com which explains the process for recycling the bulbs, and hints at future opportunities to recycle computers and other home electronics.

Two days later, this package arrived in the mail:

I opened the kit which includes step-by-step instructions, a pre-paid box, and a plastic-lined sealable pouch that will contain any mercury if the bulb should break:

This is what the container looks like when assembled:

As luck would have it, I had 4 CFL’s that were ready to be recycled.  They were 40-watt equivalents from our bathroom vanity.  They fit easily in the package, which is designed to hold “up to 15 10-watt CFLs”.  Here they are in-situ:

I sealed up the pouch, which left a cushion of air around the bulbs, folded and taped the box, and everything was ready to go.  I put the package out in the mailbox the next day, and the mailman picked it right up for me.  No hassle, no fuss.  The whole process took about 10 minutes.

The service costs $14.95 “for a limited time”.  This total may seem high, but it does cover the cost of postage to and from your home and the recycling process.  It is also safe and convenient.  For those locations that are not served by recycling programs, or for rural addresses, this process would save you time and miles (dollars!) spent in the car, to and from the recycling center.

Personally, my community just started a free CFL-recycling program at area hardware stores, so recycling is free.  I have to admit though, despite the free and “convenient” locations, my CFLs have been collecting dust, waiting to be delivered. My one complaint is that my circular florescent bulb from the kitchen fixture wouldn’t fit in the container.

I hope you check out Waste Management’s site, and hope all of you are recycling those CFLs!

As I approach the inaugural anniversary of my switch from primarily a motorist to primarily a cyclist, I thought it would be fun to run a series of posts on cycling. Actually Eric has already gotten us started. The increase of the price at the pump and the growing movement to shrink carbon emissions means more people like us are making the switch to cycling.  And I suspect there are plenty of you out there who just need a little shove to get you off of the fence. Come on, take the red pill. Riding a bicycle is a lot of fun.

There are a lot of excuses people give for not riding a bike. One of the most common is that bikes can’t haul stuff. Well that excuse doesn’t really hold water. Enter the Xtracycle.

The frame extension that makes the Xtracycle so useful, called ‘The Free Radical’ was developed by Ross Evans more than a decade ago. With help from friend Kipchoge Spencer, their company now provides Xtracycle Sport Utility Bikes (S.U.B.s), conversion kits and all sorts of fun add-ons that can help you create a biking system to carry just about anything.

If you’re looking for an inspiring way to spend 20 minutes type “Xtracycle” into Google’s image search and check out all the crazy stuff people are hauling around on these bikes. Here, I did it for you. Better yet, swing by the Xtracycle website and click on “The Essence of the Bike Lifestyle.” It’s a short video without any voice over sales pitch- just music and a series of pictures of all the cool stuff you can do with an Xtracycle. Or check out Liz McGregor’s short film about these bikes called, “Selling the Revolution.”

As with any bike you can spend a lot or a little. I bought the $400 conversion kit and turned my old mountain bike into an Xtracycle about a month ago. I can say from experience that it is awesome. The conversion extended the rear wheel of my bike back about 15 inches making it very stable and the bike still handles really well. Now I can haul lots of stuff I never imagined I could move with a bike. It will hold an adult passenger or a pair of children and still has room for several bags of groceries. Last weekend I strapped my oldest daughter’s car seat to the Xtracycle’s snap deck and rode 6 miles to the farmers market where I bought a big watermelon, 2 cantaloupes, and the rest of our veggies for the week. The trip home was no problem.

One of the unexpected benefits is all the great conversations that have risen out of riding such a unique bike. Often when I arrive on my Xtra people start commenting and asking questions. It seems to really inspire people or at very least arouse bike-related curiosity.

I think most of what this country needs to foster a change in transportation is a change in mindset. That is, we need to think differently about how we get around.  I’m not big on the idea that new stuff is really what we need to address peak oil and climate change. But I do highly recommend the Xtracycle as a way to make cycling possible for most people regardless of what they need to take with them. It will change your mind about what’s possible on a bicycle and it might help change the minds of other people as well.

More on the Xtracycle.