What have you done today to lower your impact?

We are washing away the foundations of our existence on every front. It is high time we move from crashing about on the planet like a bull in china shop and find a way to go forward with intent. We must find systems of living based on sustainability. The systems and tools exist, it is up to each of us to adopt them.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Renovation Progress

At long last I am back to posting. So much to talk about but most important to the topic of this blog, sustainability, we are at long last sealed up and living somewhat normally in the house. We have a new kitchen (utilizing some recycled and some reused materials and local craftsmen), a more open floor plan, new wooden framed double paned windows that are larger for more daylighting and solar gain in the winter ( with no low E coatings except on the north facing windows to maximise solar gain), solar thermal panels powering our underfloor heating system (entire downstairs has been tiled with about 1/3 reused tiles) and domestic hot water, all new sealed to the wall and floor baseboards, all new wiring with all outlets and switches sealed, an enclosed but not yet completely sealed verandah, functioning ceiling fans in every downstairs room, shade structure over almost all of the east and south sides (utilizing some locally harvested timber and reused posts), the beginnings of drying out and sealing up the walk-in crawlspace, an almost full wood pile for the woodstove (which is still drawing air from the crawlspace but will soon draw from outside), all lights are either CFL or LED (the outdoor deck steps are lit with solar floods), winter greens thriving in the garden with seedlings (mesclun mix, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower) coming along on the verandah, a thriving wormery, a healthy compost pile, full water tanks in preparation for the growing season, all beds have gotten leaf mould, most have gotten rabbit manure or nitrogen enriched biochar or compost, we had a great sweet potato harvest(all gone now), a good turmeric harvest (twice a day grated into a cup of water), and the usual greens, tomatoes (frozen), peppers, herbs, okra (a first for us), the trellis is gone and the grape vines have been attached to the new south side shade structure, pruning of grape vines and fruit trees is scheduled for later this month, a cold frame is under construction for the nettle bed, and...... and...... I can't think of anything else at the moment.
Imbolc sunrise, strange tree trimming for more early sun on the panels

New kitchen

solar panels going up onto the south shade structure

drying the sweet potato harvest

giant okra plants

Malabar spinach fed the multitudes

7 comments:

Sandy said...

We added solar lights around our deck last year and this year we are going to start a container garden to grow our own vegetables and herbs.

C Robb said...

Did you find some solar lights you like? I only got 2 because I had had so much disappointment with them in the past. Lucked out this time around. As long as we get a good day of sun they light the steps all night.
I like the container garden idea, you can move it to the best place for proper sun exposure, you can move it indoors when it freezes, it is easy to start over from year to year. I am working with this project,
http://johnelian3.wix.com/thefishermansgarden
to teach bucket gardening to folks utilizing 5 gallon buckets removed from the waste stream to produce year round food.

website said...

Great crops. The farmland is a healthy ground.

Xhakeira said...

it was beautiful... love to eat those sweet potatoes
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What have you done today to lower your impact? - turning off the lights when not in used

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I like your kitchen, very neat

Unknown said...

that was a lovely photos nice view..
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