Almost the lowest tech washing machine

We’ve settled into the routine of making the house livable here at sustliving central in Hickory NC. There is much cleaning to be done, some painting will be required after the eventual necessary renovation work, and the mammoth task of converting the suburban lawn to raised beds, fruit orchards, chicken habitat, ponds and biomass plantings has begun.

But while all this is going on we must take care of basic needs, food shopping (the fridge was filthy but functional), cooking (the cooker was covered in grime but still works), bathing (again, dirty but serviceable), and doing laundry (unfortunately our laundry room is shot, mold in the walls, broken taps, torn lino, peeling paint, and moldy blinds). The washer dryer unit is stored in the walk-in crawlspace below and we haven’t had the man power to move it, nor would we want to install it without redoing the laundry room, a task that will have to wait. This left us with a dilemma, how to wash clothes without spending too much time, and as we seem to be heading into the now normal summer drought, too much water in the process. I thought I would employ a method I heard about when I lived aboard a boat that utilizes two simple common items, a 5 gallon bucket and a toilet plunger. I found the bucket down in the crawlspace but couldn’t find one of the 2 plungers I had left with the house. Pondering my options, I moved on to other jobs.

The first major job to be done in the yard is to cut back some of the southern magnolia grove. The main trunk of the tree is a good 18” in diameter and it is surrounded by upwards of 30 leaders varying in size from 1/2” to 10” in diameter. I’ll cut about a quarter of these out including some of the largest ones which will give me timber for the raised beds as well as lots of poles and sticks and tons of leaves. The lowest boughs of this magnolia community sweep the ground in a circle probably 20’ across forming a closed space within. I’m taking out a small bit facing into my garden giving me a view of the interior of this green room, and creating a small overhung shady cove to place a garden bench. As I cut into the first branches and got a look inside I spied various bits of trash; bottles, boxes, beer cans, and lo and behold a plunger! A very strange thing to find deep within a magnolia grove  but I didn’t give it much thought and marched straight to the hose and washed it off. I half filled the bucket with cold water, added a touch of Seventh Generation eco soap, dropped in the clothes, and plunged away. I figured I’d leave the bucket on the porch and instructed Jacqui to give it a go whenever she passed the bucket, I would do the same. I now returned to my tree trimming.

I cut a few more leaders and found a few more bits of trash and whaddya know, another plunger! So now both plungers were accounted for. I must admit I was quite perplexed as to how these two ended up in the leaf litter in this private little space but I didn’t take time to cogitate on this until I spied a third plunger! Now this was getting weird.

Over the preceding 8 years the house had been rented by 3 families with every age of child. Some of the parents had various issues; unemployment, drink, drugs, divorce. Now I got up to some goofy stuff when I was a kid but I really can’t imagine what would spark someone to take a serious of toilet plungers into the trees. I don’t think I want to think about it anymore. Let’s get back to my almost lowest tech washing machine.

I say “almost” because I have washed my clothes in a less labour intensive way before. When I lived on the boat I would sometimes put my dirty clothes in a stout mesh bag, tie them securely to a long line and toss them overboard when I went sailing. The constant action of being pulled through the briny waves around Bermuda usually did the trick, it was important to rinse thoroughly, however, with fresh water.

This new method involves about 23 hours of soaking in weak soapy water with the occasional plunging from passersby (I even enlisted my quizzical young niece and nephew), then I pour the water on my shrubs and toss the clothes in the shower. When I join the clothes in the tub I push them away from me and the drain and rinse myself thoroughly (this was especially important today as I spent a good portion of it shovelling very dry well composted horse manure in a fairly high wind, I ended up with horse shit powder all over me), when I soap up I pull the clothes under my feet at which point I begin a little shower dance on them to pound out the dirt. I push them over the drain as I rinse and pound them some more in the soapy water. After a good rinsing I wring them out and hang them on the line (as we are in the suburbs I am careful to get dressed first). This shower stage is something I have practiced in various situations for many years and it has been just barely passable, I find that the bucket, plunger and soak stage makes all the difference, today as Jacqui took the clothes off the line she commented on how they smelled “spring fresh”.

So I’m chuffed about this simple machine; low tech, practically free, and water saving to boot, but I still can’t stop wondering about those 3 toilet plungers abandoned in the trees...

Video - Leave it all behind

" If banks are "too big to fail" does that mean the rest of us are just the right size? In today's economy, bankrupt is the new black. Leave It All Behind. The debut music video from The Dalliance dealing with bankruptcy in America."

Video - The Genetic Conspiracy

" July 22, 2007 — How safe is the so-called "Green Genetic Engineering" really?
Monsanto, the world's largest genetic engineering corporation, insists it is safe. Numerous studies claim genetically modified plants can cause allergies and cancers. However, commercial and political interests are determined to make genetic engineering the norm."

GM crops bring higher pesticide use, not less. No surprise there.

"It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen."
- Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts, quoted in a must-read New York Times article by William Neuman and Andrew Pollack, May 4, 2010, "Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds." The article describes how overuse of Monsanto's Roundup on Monsanto's Roundup Ready GMO crops has resulted in a new generation of superweeds that must be sprayed with highly toxic pesticides. " - OCA

As reported over at Organic Consumers Association, overuse of Monsanto's roundup, the basic intent of the development of Monsanto GM seeds, has resulted, as predicted by scientists not in the employ of agribusiness, in the development of superweeds requiring excessive doses of herbicides, read the full story here. 

The World According to Monsanto (US NTSC Format)

No Excuse

We are traveling again. After all our good intentions to find a cruise to America the logistics were untenable and we are taking a flight. We have managed to avoid any short haul flights but ultimately we have once again failed to avoid flying. Chock it up to convenience; we couldn't get an affordable cruise prior to the end of June and we need to get out of where we are living ASAP, any cruise taken would have involved significant hassle at the other end as the US passenger train situation is a bit of an unknown, we don't want to wait to get our project started, doubts about the relative carbon emissions benefits of transatlantic air travel versus cruise ships. I could continue with the rationale but ultimately it is about the convenience and affordability of air travel. As I said in the title, No Excuse.

Old things

I like old, well used, lovingly cared for things. This may sound weird but it is almost as if these things take on some sort of spirit of the time and use in which they were. This is reminiscent of Shinto, where inanimate natural objects possess a sacred spirit. Certainly these very human, decidedly unnatural objects would not likely fit into the category of sacred but most have some connection with natural materials; steel, stone, wool, and wood. I don't delude myself that I have somehow gotten in touch with some innate natural lifeforce, rather I think my own consciousness has imbued them with significance related to my own interpretation of their history.

Some of my most cherished memories are of rummaging through my grandfathers old cigar boxes of stuff; screws, nuts, washers, pencils and pens with names of long gone local businesses on, cigarette lighters, and my favorite, knives. The ones I've kept through the years are those well built and maintained, and personally passed down. I have a jackknife that has been sharpened so many times that the blade is thin and worn away, a completely different shape from when it was made. It was given to me by my grandfather. I have tools my father owned, a wonderful set of maple handled nut drivers that sits in it's own custom stand, a simple pair of pliers he kept in his marine toolbox, the tool boxes themselves. I have a brace and bit my great uncle Charles owned, an old timber saw that hung, never used, in our garage during my entire growing up years. My wife has the gardening shears that belonged to her favorite brother, who died young in a fall from a tree. I’ve recently been given a set of hair cutting tools, all steel, hand powered, and dating from my mother in law’s grandparents day. Her grandparents lived in the oldest cottage in Formby,  cob built, thatched roof, and dating to the 1600’s. Anything that she owns that is “from
the cottage” has taken on almost mythical status with me and I am very pleased to own tools from that era. I also have her father’s work knife from his days on the docks of Liverpool.

Almost all of my old things are useful, but some have special significance in that they tie me to a particular time in my life. When I worked in the leather industry during my teens I bought a washita sharpening stone. It came in a cedar box which it sits in to this day. That was over 30 years ago and I still carry that stone from country to country, wherever I may live. It connects me to my past in a way that pictures and documents cannot, like the knife my grandfather carried in his pocket, something used and treasured over the years that helped me do the kinds of work I value most.

Just this past week I lost one of my treasured old things. Nothing fancy, just an old woolen flat cap, the kind worn by northern English yeoman farmers and labourers. I've had that cap for as long as I can remember, I seem to always have had it. Before I moved to England I lived in Bermuda and taught in a school populated by many Brits. One rare chilly day I wore my flat cap to school. Nothing strange about that except I also wore shorts, sandals and socks! I got no end of shtick for that. In fact, I've been reminded of that day many times. It seems to have stuck in folks minds for some reason.

The strange thing is that since I've lived in northern England that cap has taken on something of a totemic quality with me. A genuine piece of local, practical fashion, worn with pride. This past week it somehow ended up in a hot wash. Of course my fine woolen flat cap shrunk to unusable proportions. If find it odd that this happened just a few weeks before I will be leaving northern England, almost as if to break the connection I have with the northern countryside, the enjoyment of the northern accent my nephews are developing, and my life here in the north.

I gave my shrunken flat cap to a dear friend with a small head. She lives in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, a place where I truly came to appreciate the diversity of northern dialects. I am pleased it has found a home in the North.

Though it may no seem so from my waxing lyrical, there is a limit to my attachment to these old things. As with the flat cap, if at some point they become clearly useless, other than as a reminder of my past they eventually get cast aside due to my transient lifestyle. It simply becomes pointless to continue to drag them around. This happened recently with a shirt, a very ornate tapestry of a shirt, given to me by my best friend when I was 16 or so. He was about to go to a correctional training facility for the merchant marine as part of a deal to keep him out of jail. He and I, and another lad I didn't know all that well, were in his room very late one night as he prepared his things to go. He held up this shirt, one I had always associated with him, and said "who wants it?" I was the first to pipe up and I ended up with the shirt. For many years it fit me well and I fancy even looked good on me but then the 70's became the 80's and it was so far out of fashion I no longer wore it. By the end of the 80's everyone but myself who was in that room that night was dead. The shirt took on a sacred status as the only thing I owned that my friend had worn. I kept it. In the 90's I discovered it no longer fit very well, still I kept it.   Not long ago as I sorted clothing for yet another move I finally let it go. It was strangely difficult but I decided that this level of attachment was impractical.

Now as we prepare to settle into an existence based in our own home, a first for me, and centered around the skills of self reliance and it's attendant tools, I am learning to re-evaluate my "things". I am looking at them afresh. Will they further my aims of self reliance either by being irreplaceable, which very few things are these days, or by being just so useful and well made that it doesn't make sense to let them go. Practicality is the order of the day, with just a hint of sentimentality. Somehow I still ended up with 9 boxes to ship to America.

An international court for the environment - Stephen Hocking QC

It's not just Evo Morales talking about an international court for the environment. You can hear an interview with Environmental lawyer and judge Stephen Hocking at the One Planet podcast. Check out this article from 2008 in the Guardian. Here is an excerpt;


"As far as the business community is concerned, an international court for the environment would offer a centralised system accessible to a range of actors, an enhanced body of law regarding environmental issues, and consistency in judicial resolution of environmental disputes. Such a court would also bring an increased focus on preventative measures, a set of global standards of care, and the facilitation and enforcement of environmental treaties. In addition, it could persuade the world business community to develop risk-management systems and improve present practices, thereby reducing the likelihood of environmental catastrophe.
Only an impartial adjudicating body is capable of providing the catalyst for a global consensus as to the fairest way to distribute the burdens that accompany solutions to the climate change problem. Whatever difficulties may lie in the path of such solutions, the benefits will be greater."

Video - Sustainability in four simple rules

"Finally someone has figured out how to explain The Natural Step in two minutes!! We're so excited to share with you this fantastic animation video on core concepts of The Natural Step Framework. It was written by our brilliant friends at RealEyes in Dublin, who help organizations benefit from sustainability. And it was developed by our new friend Trevor Courtney at Igloo Animations. Trevors animation work is fantastic. Check it out here. We hope you will enjoy this video and share it widely."

Happy Earth Day!

May you all have a Happy Earth Day!
I celebrated by planting out a black currant shrub I raised from a hardwood cutting, split and repotted a peppermint plant I use to make tea with, I took a walk in the lovely northern English sunshine down through the botanical gardens, where the magnolias are in bloom in all their fragrant glory, on down to the Sheffield General Cemetery park where I grazed on some fresh young nettle tops, my fingers are numb now but I managed to keep from stinging my mouth this time.

While I walked, I caught up on the Democracy Now! newscast, my primary source for general news these days as BBC isn't covering the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth taking place in Cochabamba Bolivia. I haven't followed the corporate propaganda that passes for news in the states for some time but I assume they are also not reporting on this peoples conference on climate change. Please let me know if I'm mistaken.

Evo Morales, the indigenous leader of Bolivia, one of the only countries in the world that has asserted it's rights to it's own resources by kicking out the pirates of golbalization, is calling for an International Tribunal for Climate Justice,  essentially an environmental court. I support this idea but being a realist I don't expect to see the US, one of only 2 developed countries (the other being Canada) that has refused to support the rights of indigenous peoples to self determination, ever to recognize it. The US doesn't even recognize the world court in Brussels. Someday I do hope to see my home country become a good global citizen.

Anyway, enough of the rant, today is a joyous day of celebration. Homage to the power of the earth, our mother. Get out and enjoy!

The AKG Sustainable Living Project podcast episode #4 transcript- Rain Water Harvesting

Hello,
Here is the transcript for our latest episode for The Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast;

"Hello this is Jacqui and Robb from the sustainable living project. First we’d like to thank Emma for allowing us to contribute to her wonderful podcast and for sending us her book as winners in her birthday plant competition. We are thoroughly enjoying the book, “The Alternative Kitchen Garden- an A to Z”, and highly recommend it to all our readers and listeners. And now on to our contribution for this month.

In our last post we mentioned our plan to create a rainwater harvesting and management system on our site. Why would we do this? The public water system is a surprisingly inexpensive way to get your water when the supply is plentiful and local. One of my instructors on my masters course was adamant that investing money into rainwater harvesting was pointless from an economic perspective as it would never pay itself back, and perhaps in the mountains of west central Wales she is right, I’ve never seen a rainier place.  But this fails to address several issues with public water systems; they use large amounts of fossil fuel generated electricity to pump, purify and process water. They leak vast quantities of this energy rich water. The water they deliver has had a chemical cocktail of treatments added to it to make it “safe” for human consumption, more on that in a moment. In the US, the drinking water in many locations contains rocket fuel from the defense industry, pesticides from industrial agriculture, e coli from concentrated livestock feeding operations, heavy metals from sloppy mining practice, and in may cases is too acid to be safe for long term exposure. And of course there are the obvious inefficiencies of mixing sewage with treated drinking water and then having to clean the whole mess up again. In addition, depletion of ancient aquifers is a looming problem, threatening our future food and energy supplies.

As to chlorine, it is a chemical designed to be antithetical to life. It is used in water for one thing, whether in swimming pools or drinking water, to kill micro-organisms. Perhaps it is the best choice for large municipal water systems but there are many indications that consuming chlorine and its by products, notably trihalomethane, is not good for your immune system.  The basis of healthy soil and thus healthy plants is a thriving, diverse ecosystem of micro-organisms. Thus, chlorine is designed to eradicate the very foundations of healthy soil. Rainwater is better for your plants as it is naturally soft and contains no chlorine. Rainwater can be purified for human consumption without chlorine.

So we have decided to harvest rainwater. Rainfall in Hickory averages around 4 inches per month. However, prior to the current El Nino cycle there were extended drought conditions. Water levels in the reservoirs in the SE fell to historically low levels causing jurisdiction and ownership disputes, threatened hydropower production, and brought on water usage restrictions.

Our property collection area, including the structures, is approximately 14,520 square feet. Assuming normal rainfall patterns return, we can expect 250 to 400 thousand gallons falling on our property per year. A typical household in Hickory NC uses 68,400 gallons per year, not including lawn watering. I’ve seen estimates that 10,000 feet of lawn will require an additional 312,000 gallons per year.

The large amounts of food and biomass we plan to grow would normally be expected to need more than the average lawn for irrigation but we believe that by using sensible permaculture techniques to increase the moisture retaining properties of the soil we can use less. Our demand should easily fall within the supply.

The key is to keep the rainwater from running off the property too quickly. Storage is to be accomplished in three ways: tanks to store clean water for household and garden use fed by rooftop collection, small ponds and reed beds to treat grey water and collect the overflow from the roof, and in ground storage via swales and raised beds with deep, rich soil. A swale is a ditch dug on a contour designed to interrupt run-off and allow water to slowly sink into the soil.

Instead of a single permaculture tip today we’ve got 8 principles of rainwater harvesting from an interview on Sustainable World radio with Brad Lancaster author “Rainwater Harvesting for Dry Climates”. You can find this interview at sustainableworldradio.com in the podcast archive. You’ll probably recognize the permaculture influence in these principles, the book is recommended by many permaculture practitioners.

1. Long thoughtful observation of how water behaves on site.

2. Start at the top of watershed. Our property has a slope to it, so we will need to address water flow from the top of the roof to the bottom of the property.

3. Start small and simple. As the house currently has an asphalt tile roof, we will start by installing water butts on our carport which has a tin roof.

4. Slow it, spread it, sink it. We will be installing swales and terraces on the property to reduce run-off, and to increase absorption and storage.

5. Always plan for overflow as a resource.

6. Maximise living and organic groundcover, no bare earth, no standing water (mosquitoes need 3 days of standing water to breed)

7. Maximise efficiency by stacking functions, for instance: use tanks as thermal mass and use berms on the down side of sales as high and dry paths; also, raise lots of moisture rich plants to cool the property in the summer.

8. Long thoughtful observation. Get the feedback; what works and what doesn’t.


And that’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening and remember you can visit us at sustliving.blogspot.com. We’ll leave you with another take on water, slightly edited for brevity, from Sandra Postel, Post Carbon Institute Fellow,

'I think with water there is certainly not a facing of reality yet. It is a major issue that we have to deal with. There is so much we could do with the water that we have to meet our needs in a more efficient and productive way. It is very easy to see how we could save 25% of our water use in most situations if we put our mind to it and planned for that. Each of us has a water footprint, water is in everything we use everyday, embedded water. To the extent we use less paper or buy fewer clothes, and recycle those things when we are through with them, to the extent we move our diets down the food chain, consume less red meat, we shrink our water footprint. Which means we are leaving more water for other people and other species. But only if we get real about the issue and proactive about the solutions.' ”

A Corporate person commits homicide, what punishment for that person?

This idea of holding corporations accountable for their actions, see the Jim Hightower commentary below, just as we would any other person is appealing. After all the Supreme Court has decided these corporate persons have the same rights of free speech as you or I. We have the death penalty in America. How does one put a corporation to death for mass murder?

Here is some of  Jim Hightower's commentary on the idea.

" A mass murder has taken place in another American workplace, taking 29 lives. The authorities know who did it, so shouldn't that person be made to pay for this heinous crime?

Yes! But the killer is one of America's largest coal corporations, Massey Energy Company, and you can't give the death penalty to a corporation. Can you? Well, the Supreme Court has ruled that a corporation is a "person" – so why not?

Massey – headed by its right-wing multimillionaire CEO, Don Blankenship – has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists and lawmakers to fend off any effective regulations to protect mine workers. By using its political clout to muzzle the federal watchdog, Massey has been able to flaunt the law. Last year, it had nearly 500 safety violations in just one of its mines, including life-threatening violations. It's punishment? Fines totaling a mere $168,000 – chump change to an outfit with $56 million in profits last year.

Blankenship blithely says, "We don't pay much attention to the violation count." On April 5, federal inspectors added two more violations to the tally of dangerous indifference at the corporation's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. The honchos just shrugged. That afternoon, Upper Big Branch exploded, killing 29 miners.

Blankenship expressed his compassion by saying, "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process."

Normal? Nonsense! Other major mining nations provide effective regulatory protections to assure that such deaths are abnormal. By putting its profits over human life, America's coal industry is killing people, passing it off as a "cost of doing business." Shouldn't these profiteers pay more than a fine?

One watchdog group is calling for the immediate arrest of Blankenship for homicide. For information go to StopTheChamber.com."

Video - Securing Human Well Being in a Resource-Constrained World

"Mathis Wackernagel, Founder and Executive Director of the Global Footprint Network, challenged attendees of a November 24 lecture to consider the ecological consequences of current consumption and development patterns."