Eco Thrifty Renovation

A Buddhist Perspective on a Permaculture Perspective

2012-02-23T16:49:00.003-08:00

A Buddhist Perspective on a Permaculture Perspective on Science Education.

During my adult life I have come across two perspectives that have greatly helped me make sense of the world: Buddhism and permaculture. Neither were particularly valuable in teaching me new things, but rather in affirming the things bouncing around in my head already. When I first started learning about each of them I found myself nodding in confirmation, and awed at how someone else had written so thoughtfully about the thoughts I had been unable to articulate as lovely as they had. I was not alone after all!

Schumacher College in Totnes, England played a key role in my education on these perspectives. It was in the dining room there I met Bill Mollison over a cup of tea (not knowing who he was), and in the library that I read extensively on Buddhism for the first time. Not only did each perspective help me understand the world better, but each one also helped me understand the other. I could see Buddhist themes in permaculture and permaculture themes in Buddhism.

While I won't go so far as to compare Bill Mollison or David Holmgren to Siddhartha Gautama, I will note that, from my observations, the stories that many permaculturists tell about their 'discovery' of and 'conversion' to permaculture as similarly transformative. I will also note my belief that the Shambhala Prophecy holds special significance for those permaculturists interested in getting permaculture ideas into their local schools.

The Kingdom of Shambhala is not a geopolitical entity. You cannot find it on a map. It exists only within the hearts of the Shambhala Warriors, who will arise at a time when the Earth is in terrible danger. During this time powerful forces will lay waste to the land and sea with technologies previously unknown. At this time, the Shambhala Warriors arise and enter the halls of power with only two weapons: compassion and a recognition of the interconnectedness of all things.

In the context of permaculture, compassion represents the permaculture ethics and a recognition of interconnectedness can be described as systems thinking. In the present context, schools are the halls of power where compassion and systems thinking have the potential to bring about profound transformation for both teachers and students. At present, most schools are largely transmissive in their approach to education, which simply acts to reproduce the existing unsustainable culture. There are many reasons for this, and the Shambhala way is to strive to understand the condition of schools and teachers in order to transform education.

The first step is to embrace the idea that schools are for student learning. The second is to recognize that - as have education researchers worldwide - the teacher is the chief factor in student learning. The third is to agree that students learn best when learning is relevant and experiential. The fourth is to recognize that many teachers fail to embrace relevance and experiential learning because of pressures ranging from time constraints to national curricula to testing. When a classroom door closes, the teacher alone determines how the time is spent, and if they feel overwhelmed with the status quo then they will be unlikely to take on anything new such as sustainability. Unless, of course, someone comes along to help them with compassion and a systems perspective. This can be the role of the permaculturist interested integrating permaculture ideas and practices into their local schools.

Based on three and a half years of doctoral research after 16 years as a teacher, I submit the following as one possible permaculture approach for junior secondary science. Please note that the underlying emphasis to this approach is that the teaching and learning of science can be improved by making it more relevant and experiential by engaging local individuals involved in the practice of permaculture. Continuing the Buddhist theme, I present this approach in two pieces akin to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

They are the Five Fingers of a Permaculture Approach and the Eight Key Principles.

The Five Fingers of a Permaculture Approach to Junior Secondary Science: permaculture design as means, not end; the transformative nature of permaculture; the science behind permaculture practices; permaculture practitioner as citizen scientist; and, field trips to permaculture properties. It is not that these five characteristics are unique to permaculture, but that all five fall under the permaculture umbrella. There are other ecological design systems and other transformative learning experiences. There are other citizen scientists and other valuable field trips. Through my research I have identified these five ways in which permaculture - as a distinct, well established, international movement - can be used to help improve the teaching and learning of science and to cultivate perspective change in both students and teachers.

The Eight Key Principles: making science relevant; applied science; student-centred teaching and learning; experiential learning; emphasizing interconnectedness; affective experiences; taking actions for the environment; and transformative chronology. These principles do not come from permaculture, but from the rest of my theoretical framework: scientific literacy, ecological literacy and transformative learning theory. These are the key principles for pedagogies that help to improve scientific and ecological literacy and encourage perspective transformation in students. These key principles can be applied independently of permaculture, but in this case they are believed to enhance the Five Fingers of a permaculture approach described above.

On a final Buddhist note, by not trying to teach permaculture there may be a greater uptake of permaculture ideas by students and teachers. This less-is-more approach may appear paradoxical, but that is the nature of Buddhism. Improving scientific and ecological literacy in students while they are in school may lead to adult learners who pursue permaculture naturally and effortlessly. You can plant a seed but you cannot make it grow. You can, however, add compost.

I will be presenting a detailed description of the Five Fingers and Eight Key Principles on the 14th of April at the Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Turangi, New Zealand.

Peace, Estwing

Sustainable Shed

2012-02-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hi, I am Jiqiao....

Nelson and I worked on this shed for two days from setting all the materials up to putting the rubbish back into it. I have learnt not only having the idea to reuse rubbish but also the damages caused by sun, wind, and rain. To live sustainably, we are supposed to maximize the usage and also, sometimes ignored in such case, the durability of everything. Though this shed is made of all second hand materials, it does not necessarily mean it could be casual and weak. The shed is designed to prevent from wind and rain damages in efforts as much as we can think. You could explore all these details from Nelson's previous blog.

And I really enjoy the neat garden which used to be the following picture...I was looking at those piles and wondering how much painstaking work had to be done to clean them up.

Now we just play a magic! It looks much more comfortable. We also pulled out some weeds while cleaning them up. Most of iron pieces and wood blocks are organized and stored under the shed, and those rust or small pieces were put outside prepared to be recycled.

The cat is playing with bones on the ground~

In the winter grasses will be planted in the yard so that it will also turn to green as other parts of the yards. And other parts of the yard will also be as neat as this one! :)

And most importantly, I really appreciate this great opportunity Nelson provides for me! I will be on South Island next month and come back to have some more exciting work!

Truss-Worthy

2012-02-18T14:29:00.005-08:00

Eco-thrifty renovation, eco-thrifty gardening and eco-thrifty living are not formulaic. Although we can offer design principles, guidelines, and methods the application of E-T is always through the eyes of the individual. E-T, like permaculture, is a way of seeing. Mostly it is a way of seeing possibilities. It involves a vision to see something beautiful or practical emerge from something that someone else has thrown away. For example...

... last Thursday Jiqiao and I set about converting a pile of reclaimed lumber ...

... and some partially rotted trusses...

... into a usable shed.

Of the six trusses that had been left on our property when we bought it a year and a half ago, we were able to use three as trusses but the other three we stripped to use as purlins...

... and for the nail plates.

Peeling off the nail plates and pounding them flat for reuse takes time, but saves money and saves the manufacturing wastes of making new nail plates. It is a perfect example of eco-thrifty vision.

But just because something is built of salvaged materials does not mean it should not be meant to last. Of particular concern for the durability of any wooden structure is moisture. Wooden structures need a good hat...

... and good boots. While roofs can be fairly straightforward, foundations offer some challenges regarding ground contact and water wicking upward through materials including concrete and the end grain of wood (think xylem and phloem). The eco-thrifty solution I applied to this potential problem is a modification of a technique I used to use on my farm.

Choosing a concrete block for the foundation, I used the hole in the middle of it as a mortise that will hold a tenon in the bottom of the post in place. For the tenon, I used two pieces of H3.2 off-cuts of treated decking timber. When working with small pieces of wood it is helpful to pre-drill holes for nails otherwise the wood is likely to split when driving a nail through it.

I nailed the H 3.2 treated "foot" onto the bottom of the H 1 4x2 in two steps: first through the "plate" (pictured) and then through the smaller tenon (not picture).

And then the three pieces of wood are set in place.

By the end of the day we turned a pile of rubbish...

... into a weather-resistent shed in which we can put the rest of the rubbish. (If it fits.)

I slid the long sections of the three trusses we stripped into the top of the shed...

... and did some sheet metal origami to keep out wind-driven rain.

For a days work and the cost of a handful of roofing screws we have a shed that measures 4 meters by 1.4 meters. Easy on the Earth and easy on the wallet.

Peace, Estwing

Comrades!

2012-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Permaculturists share. It is that simple. It is one of three ethical obligations central to the practice:

Care for the Earth

Care for people

Share the surplus

When we started this project 15 months ago we had nothing to share other than our enthusiasm, our knowledge and experience...and some empty bedrooms. This just happens to be the formula for internship, and we welcomed our first awesome interns John and Amy a year ago right now.

They were absolutely amazing interns and we are grateful for all of their contributions to our project and to this blog. (Example of John's post. Example of Amy's post.) Along time went by and then Tom came to us late last year. (Example of Tom's post.)

Last week I introduced Jiqiao, and mistakenly misspelled his name (Sorry!).

While Jiquao has not yet written a blog post, he has done everything else that we teach our interns in the first days with us. The number one skill we teach is pulling and straightening nails. This takes place on day one for all interns. Not only does it teach a valuable skill (there are specific techniques involved), but it also teaches respect for materials, humility and patience. (Think "wax on / wax off".)

If possible, we use the salvaged timber and nails to build something right away to teach more skills and let our interns participate in the transformation from rubbish (according to someone else) to something functional and beautiful.

Another skill we teach all of our interns is scything.

Although our section is a mere 700 square meters, we have an abandoned patch out the front of 300 square meters where we can teach scything and encourage the growth of legumes such as bush lupine.

To the right of Jiqiao is a bush lupine, which takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and fixes in the poor, sandy soils. To the left of him is a living hedge consisting of 8 feijoa trees, 8 Jerusalem artichoke plants (sunflower family) and a loquat. These are all relatively wind-tolerant, and so they do not require the protection that we've given our 24 other fruit trees. They are planted in a berm of compost built by John and Amy last year. We use the grasses cut out the front to mulch the berm to suppress weeds and retain water.

The final skill we make sure to teach all interns is composting.

We use a hot composting system that has been successful at quickly processing a dead goat, dead ducks and - in this particular barrow load - our oldest chicken, Helen Clark. :(

Composting is so important to teach because of its role in building soil health and reducing wastes sent to landfill. As well, it teaches humility and patience.

I submit that permaculture is not a set of principles to memorize and apply, but a way of seeing the world and interacting with it. It is a holistic view that contrasts starkly with the dominant reductionist Western paradigm. For those young people who are interested in coming to work and learn with us, it is a slow, experiential learning process. It involves working, reading, talking, reflecting and writing. We feel obligated to offer this opportunity to young people who are willing to think outside of the square and get their hands dirty. We can offer plenty of both here.

On a final note, each of our interns offers us their unique being. We learn from them, we laugh with them, and sometimes we play with them. We will remember Tom for his contributions to our Athletics softball team. We will remember Amy for her fence and incredible painting hanging in our lounge. We will remember John for his sunburn and his unbeatable work ethic. And, so far, my best memory of Jiqiao from last week was when we were underneath the house to do some minor plumbing work and prepare to sister up some bearers. As I explained to him the difference between a post, a bearer, a joist and a plate, he laid on his belly in the dark, covered in spiderwebs among the cat poops taking notes on his Smartphone. Priceless!

Peace, Estwing

Gimme Shelter

2012-02-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I wrote recently about protecting against the predicted increase in extreme weather events associated with global climate change. Not to carry on too much on this issue, but last Friday I attended a local event organized to give Whanganui residents the opportunity to talk about how we - as individuals and as a community - can address the effects of climate change. Before the break-out sessions, we heard a detailed presentation from a river engineer about how our district and regional councils have made their decisions about flood protection on the Whanganui and other rivers. The long and short of it is that:

In 50 years time, the 200 year flood will be the 100 year flood.

This is not a brain-teaser or a trick question. What this means is that currently the flood with a 0.5% chance of happening in any given year (ie, once every 200 years) will have a 1% chance of happening (ie, once every 100 years) in the year 2060. To make a long story short, our councils have decided to build stop banks to the current 200 year flood level, (which, in 50 years will be the 100 year flood level).

That was a very long way to introduce what I have been up to this week with our new intern from China (via Earlham College, USA) Jiquao.

To make a long story short, we've been putting up more wind netting to protect our fruit trees and vege gardens.

The winds here are strong...

.... strong enough to knock the Blacks off of the All Blacks! (A feet the Aussies and French could not do!) And strong enough to burn the leaves of our least protected apple trees.

The prevailing winds come from the northwest and can carry a load of salt from the Tasman Sea. They come over the fence in the photo above (with the green netting) and then are channeled between the house and a 2 meter-high fence where they did the damage to the apple tree in the photo directly above. So Jiquao and I erected two wind buffers yesterday:

the one atop the northwestern fence with green (1 meter); and one where the winds are channeled between the house and the iron fence (black, 1.8 meter).

This area has been used for firewood and other temporary storage and will be the location of our rainwater tank (seen above taking an afternoon nap). But as a good, practicing permaculturist, I have planned this newly fenced area to serve multiple functions as a new paddock for our fowl.

Although our ducks are trying it out today...

It will serve as the winter chook yard while I re-seed their present yard with beneficial grasses and allow it to recover from their scratching.

But, as I noted to begin with, the predictions are for more intense storms, which will include stronger winds. So I have designed and built with this in mind, including heavy duty galvanized wire...

... and shoring up the northwestern fence to compensate for the increased wind load due to the netting.

I know what you may be thinking about this ugly brace sticking into our backyard. But, in fact, it is hidden in the food forest / duck pen between our annual gardens and the back fence.

Aesthetics are still important to us, but anyone will agree there is nothing pretty about a blown down iron fence...or an upright iron fence for that matter. Over time, the wind netting will allow our apple, fig and peach trees, along with their tagasaste nurse trees, to grow taller and hide the iron we have to look at every day. Can't wait.

Elsewhere on the property we have planted Feijoas (see recent photo in this post) that are wind-tolerant into a living hedge. No need for windbreaks there, as the hedge itself will be the windbreak for what we hope will be a blueberry patch in its lee. Can't wait.

Peace, Estwing

Get Your @#$% Together

2012-01-31T16:52:00.001-08:00

The only thing that makes more poo than chooks is ducks. We currently have 6 chooks and 3 ducks on 700 square metres, which poses problems for animal health, smell, flies and managing their valuable excretions for the benefit of our soils. After much observation, contemplation, trial and error, and learning, I have come up with what I think is the lowest effort / most effective system for keeping our birds healthy and our garden beds fertile. I'll start with the red shavers. These ladies roost in this small storage shed.

The free weekly paper is nearly the perfect size for two unfolded sheets to cover the entire floor underneath the roost. These papers provide carbon to balance the nitrogen in the manure when the lot goes into the compost pile.

I fork out a depression in the compost pile before putting the "bedding". Then I head over to the duck pen where they sleep in a shelter under which I placed a small section of roofing iron.

With my left hand I can lift one end of the shelter...

...and with my right hand I can pull out the roofing iron, which has collected a fair amount of their poos over the week.

I can rest the iron on top of the chook "bedding"...

... and use a trowel in the corrugations of the iron to scrape the manure onto the compost pile.

The nitrogen in the duck poo further balances the carbon in the newspaper.

In order to make sure the newspaper breaks down as quickly as possible, I cover it so that its at the centre of the pile where it remains moist.

Then it is back to the duck shelter to replace the iron.

Until I repeat the process again next week.

I do this every week, usually on Saturday. I feel it is very important to keep this regular to keep the birds healthy and happy. It is the obligation of a bird owner.

For our two wee bantams, we tractor them across the grass/clover "lawn" at the back of our section. They eat some grass and fertilize as they go. I shift them everyday. We have noticed a marked improvement in the composition of species making up the lawn: more favorable/palatable grasses and fewer weeds that usually thrive in poor soil conditions. In other words, by tractoring these ladies about our section we are improving the health of our soil organically while they provide us with eggs. Not bad for us or for them.

Does anyone else out there have good poo management strategies? Please poost a comment.

Keeping it real, Estwing

Definitely Eco-Thrifty

2012-01-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

We are grateful for the positive feedback we've received on the Eco-Thrifty Renovation in the last few months. Thanks to the hard work by our interns and partners we've had an excellent first year, which has brought us even more partners who see the real value in the eco-thrifty approach. We are designing two new programs that we'll share soon on this site.

I recently tried to define eco-thrifty on another website as:

Eco-Thrifty: an approach to lifestyle, building, renovating or growing food that combines low financial outlay with low ecological impact. In a broader sense, the approach is low-input and high performance, be it the productivity of a garden or thermal efficiency of a home. Eco-thrifty seeks to dispel the false impression that green living is for the wealthy. It is a realistic, workable approach for a world of climate volatility, increasing resource scarcity and lingering unemployment and underemployment.

To put eco-thrifty in context, let's look at some systems that are not low input and high performance. For example, here is a well-known system that is high input and low performance.

"The study said Americans pay more than $7,900 per person for healthcare each year - far more than any other OECD country - but still die earlier than their peers in the industrialized world.

The cost of healthcare in the United States is 62 percent higher than that in Switzerland, which has a similar per capita income and also relies substantially on private health insurance."

Why eco-thrifty? These two recent headlines give some reasons.

And finally, eco-thrifty can also be applied to educational programs and projects. For example,

Cool stuff, eh? The ECO-School is committed to offering the highest quality sustainability education affordably. Our mission is to partner with organizations and individuals to create new projects or enhance existing ones.

Peace, Estwing

Abundance

2012-01-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

I've just returned from 5 days away at the New Zealand Association for Environmental Education biannual conference to find burgeoning vegetable beds.

These gardens are one year old.

We have planted a diversity of vegetables.

And use low budget materials like bamboo and strips of fabric to support our tomatoes.

And we stagger our crops for continual production.

Additionally we planted 33 fruits trees, including 8 feijoas and a loquat in this hedge.

And a banana (hidden in this volunteer tomato).

And a tamarillo (somewhere in there). We have placed food plants in every nook and cranny of our section.

We have reaped the benefits in a year...like figs!

And garlic.

And, of course...

And some of the biggest brassicas I've ever seen.

And the heaviest. A six (plus) pound cauli!

But the abundance of this week was not limited to kai. I had an abundance of excellent conversations with other environmental educators at the conference and an abundance of positive feedback on our whole-community approach to sustainability education, including a shout out from Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty. What started as an idea a little over a year ago is now a thriving edible landscape, an energy efficient home and a well-received innovative model for sustainability education.

And its all getting better. Join us by becoming a partner for the planet.

Peace, Estwing

Reactively Proactive

2012-01-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

I had great hopes for the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009...and then I was very disappointed. In the two years since, it has become clear that most governments worldwide no longer consider carbon reductions as an approach to dealing with climate change. Rather, the focus seems to have shifted to adaptation.

That saddens me because we are now essentially condemned to deal with the predicted extreme weather effects of climate change instead of trying to avoid them by reducing emissions.

I consider this a lack of will. It gives me little hope that humanity will have the will to deal with other pressing environmental, economic and social issues facing us.

We are feeling an increasing rate of extreme weather events in our community.

And out our back door.

January 1, 2012

We are on pure sand, and January is usually a dry month.

Yet we had standing water that remained for hours. Permaculture founder Bill Mollison is famous for saying, "The problem is the solution." A partial solution to our flooding problem can be dealt to by collecting and storing some of the water.

This 1,000 liter water tank is not large enough to take all the excess water during a major rain event, but it will take some. And it will serve other functions too. A major principle of permaculture is redundancy. Currently we only have one water source: city mains. Yet if there is an earthquake like the ones in Christchurch, we would be left high and dry. By having the capacity to collect and store our own water we protect ourselves against natural disasters.

Additionally, we have had some extreme wind events lately which prompted us to put up wind netting last month.

But that was not enough. I recently purchased 20 more meters to install soon.

I have come to the conclusion that governments cannot be depended on to avoid disasters be they environmental or economic. Therefore, we need to protect ourselves. Investing in wind netting and water tanks are just two examples of protecting against weather extremes. Wind breaks and water storage are central to permaculture landscape design. Even on our 700 square meters we are designing for resiliency in these ways and others too. I'll explain some of those another time.

Peace, Estwing

A Model for Whole Community Sustainability Education

2012-01-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

In just over a week I will be presenting two papers at the New Zealand Association for Environmental Education Biannual Conference. One of those papers is on my academic research and the other is on this project: The Eco-Thrifty Renovation. I'll share some of the slides I've put together for a PowerPoint presentation.

Over the last year we have learned a lot about turning an abandoned house into an energy-efficient home, and using that experience as a model for whole community sustainability education. We have had our ups and downs, successes and failures. We have learned a lot about the tricky propositions of building partnerships and cultivating interest in low-budget / high performance home and garden design. We started out with the blog and workshop offerings.

Simultaneously, we initiated a monthly permaculture gathering to facilitate communication and inspire cooperation.

We also put together a PowerPoint on the project to take out into the community.

We had some nice coverage through the local newspapers.

Our hard work started paying off as others approached us about partnering on projects. The first was the Sustainable Whanganui Trust with an interest in expanding the Sustainable Schools Programme. Over the 2011 school year we developed a number of excellent education experiences for students in year 1 through year 13. I won't go into all of them in this post as they are profiled in other posts on this blog.

Another partnership for sustainability education emerged after I volunteered to run the waste management for a large YMCA event which diverted over 95% of materials from landfill.

Even more exciting, we've been approached by a local Maori community interested in sustainable village development and high quality sustainable education for their young people. More on this exciting project later.

We also recently received funding from the Port Bowen Trust to run an afternoon programme for children in our neighborhood during the 2012 school year.

Other partnerships and projects we have in development are Keen Green Teens, a leadership development project (with the Sisters of St. Joseph) and adult literacy and numeracy courses through a local adult learning centre. There is one more, but I'll save that for another time.

Starting from scratch on the house and on these education initiatives has been extremely difficult, but also rewarding. We are dedicated to the highest standards of sustainability and sustainable education, and we are always seeking to partner with likeminded others. Are you one? Please let us know.

Peace, Estwing

Perspective Prejudices Perception

2011-12-28T16:16:00.000-08:00

I am both a keen learner of organic farming practices and an appreciator of alliteration and acronyms. Perhaps that is why a lesson I learned from notable farmer Eliot Coleman a decade ago has stuck with me: perspective prejudices perception (P-cubed). This idea has informed both our eco-renovation and my doctoral research on a permaculture approach to science education. One's perspective on, say, the "waste stream" would determine one's perception of, say, an apple core.

Where some see a piece of rubbish to send to the landfill, others see duck food or a compost ingredient. A holistic perspective informs much of what we do here from day to day practices to our design principles for the renovation. A holistic perspective contrasts with a reductionist perspective, which I believe is the dominant perspective of contemporary Western cultures, especially the USA, (and especially the Tea Party).

On the contrary, the original inhabitants of Turtle Island (North America) had a more holistic perspective often called the "Native American World View." Similarly, it can be argued that traditional Maori had a more holistic perspective than most New Zealanders of European descent. A friend of mine told me about this short story on perspectives, growing your own food, self-sufficiency and the wisdom of many Maori elders.

Enjoy, Estwing

(Source: chipbruce.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/butterflies.pdf)

Butterflies

By Patricia Grace

The Grandmother plaited her granddaughter’s hair and then she said, “Get your lunch.

Put it in your bag. Get your apple. You come straight back after school, straight home here.

Listen to the teacher,” she said. “Do what she say.”

Her grandfather was out on the step. He walked down the path with her and out onto the

footpath. He said to a neighbor, “Our granddaughter goes to school. She lives with us now.”

“She’s fine,” the neighbor said. “She’s terrific with her two plaits in her hair.”

“And clever,” the grandfather said. “Writes every day in her book.”

“She’s fine,” the neighbor said.

The grandfather waited with his granddaughter by the crossing and then he said, “Go to

school. Listen to the teacher. Do what she say.”

When the granddaughter came home from school her grandfather was hoeing around the

cabbages. Her grandmother was picking beans. They stopped their work.

“You bring your book home?” the grandmother asked.

“Yes.”

“You write your story?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your story?”

“About the butterflies.”

“Get your book then. Read your story.”

The granddaughter took her book from her schoolbag and opened it.

“I killed all the butterflies,” she read. “This is me and this is all the butterflies.”

“And your teacher like your story, did she?”

“I don’t know.”

“What your teacher say?”

“She said butterflies are beautiful creatures. They hatch out and fly in the sun. The

butterflies visit all the pretty flowers, she said. They lay their eggs and then they die. You don’t

kill butterflies, that’s what she said.”

The grandmother and the grandfather were quiet for a long time, and their granddaughter,

holding the book, stood quite still in the warm garden.

“Because you see,” the grandfather said, “your teacher, she buy all her cabbages from the

supermarket and that’s why.”

The $2,000 Kitchen

2011-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Before

After

We are close enough to its completion to report on our $2,000 kitchen. (You may recall our $2,000 bathroom from a post in October.) The image above is an attempt to mimic the masthead of this blog, although that image was taken through the studs of a wall that now is lined with Gib ("sheetrock"). The "after" picture was taken about 1 metre in front of the spot where the "before" was. The image below gives a fuller picture of what this corner now looks like.

The far corner is the north corner of the villa. If you look closely at the masthead above you can see a toilet there in the before picture. Yes, this house was moved here in the 1980s and placed with the toilet in the sunniest, warmest corner. As you may have noticed, toilets usually do not have very many windows, and so the villa remained cold on sunny, winter days. No longer. This corner is now bathed in sunlight in both winter and summer. There is so much nice afternoon light and warmth in the winter that we cut a double doorway into the lounge that had previously only received morning sun.

A reverse angle of the first images now looks like this.

What you'll notice (aside from our trashed floors) is that we have two ranges side-by-side. Interestingly, they are both made by Shacklock, but that is where the similarities end. These two are just part of a greater system for cooking and heating that includes a solar cooker, an outdoor pizza oven and a rocket stove. We expect to use the electric range for less than 10% of our total cooking needs on an annual basis. But that is a future post. I'm sure you want to know how we did this for $2,000.

Here is a rough tally:

Bench top, sink and taps: $100 on TradeMe

Cabinets, drawers and timber: Reused

Electric range: $150 on TradeMe

Refrigerator: $50 at Hayward's Auctions

Butcher block: $25 on TradeMe

Hutch: $150 at Hayward's Auctions

Coal range: $250 on TradeMe

Coal range installation: $700

Pelmets: Reused weatherboards

Grain bins and drawers: $35 at Hayward's Auctions

Plumbing: $550

Light fixtures: $50 at Hayward's Auctions

Total: $2025

*Curtains: Ask the wife

You may also be interested in the choice of colours and curtain fabric. That credit does not go to me, nor does finding these lamps at the auction last month.

It's not perfect, and the floors need to be redone, but it is a far sight better than what it was, and on a shoestring budget with a tiny ecological footprint. Ironically, our bathroom and kitchen combined come in at a price equal to or lower than 3 other items on our tally of expenses:

Solar hot water: $4,000

Insulation: $4,000

New Roof: $5,000

There are no hard set rules for eco-thrifty renovation, but these numbers should indicate where the priorities for expenditures might be.

Peace, Estwing

Perspectives on Permaculture Abundance

2011-12-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

From where I sit gazing out our French doors, the world is one of abundance created by 13 months of applied permaculture design. The view includes our solar-powered clothes dryer, wood-fired pizza oven, one of many veggie gardens and a glimpse of a food forest out the back.

Apples grow and ripen as muscovies patrol for snails and slugs around fig trees, peaches and tagasastes.

While it will take a few more years for this perennial foodscape to mature, the annual gardens are already cranking away. This cauliflower thinks it is a tree with a sizable trunk...

... and canopy.

The cat is included for scale, but I think the sink offers a better perspective.

Note: This was not the biggest cauliflower of the season. That award went three weeks ago to her cousin.

And while the cauliflowers are destined for human bellies, the leaves feed the chooks in our four dimensional ecological design system. The leaves then become eggs and fertilizer.

As potatoes and garlic are harvested at the end of their growth...

... our first courgette forms.

And a host of other green things actively convert sunlight into nutrition.

But not to be outdone, Uncle B. steals the show.

Not Billy T. James, the cat, but what she is standing on.

Definitely the biggest I've ever grown or ever seen.

After filling the skillet, it was still too big for the cutting board. (George Bush, be afraid, be very afraid.) The moral of the story: compost, early and often.

Wishing you peace and abundance in your lives, Estwing

Solar Sausage Sizzlers

2011-12-14T18:14:00.000-08:00

We have just wrapped up a year of excellent educational programming in Wanganui schools with a Solar Sausage Sizzle at Castlecliff School...

and a site visit (and solar sausage sizzle) from Ngamatea and Aberfeldy Schools.

We, The ECO School, are grateful to the Wanganui District Council for funding these awesome programmes and the Sustainable Whanganui Trust for administrative support. And I don't see the children complaining.

Our programme design is based on the latest research in environmental and sustainability education. I can say this with confidence having attended an international research symposium earlier this year across the Tasman.

International Invitational Symposium on Environmental Education Research

Queenscliff, Australia, July 2011

We seek to develop programmes that are responsive to teacher's needs in order to maximize students' learning across the school curriculum. We believe our programmes are equal in quality to the best sustainability education initiatives anywhere in the world at a fraction of the cost. And we hope that we'll be able to continue and expand our offerings during the 2012 school year.

Peace, Estwing

20/20 Hindsight

2011-12-12T13:00:00.001-08:00

The last three weeks have been busy for us and our short-term intern, Tom. Along with building wind screens, priming, painting, transplanting, fencing, and sistering up bearers and joists, we had some time to swing a bat. It turns out that Tom is a lifelong baseball player, and our local club has been short on the men's fast pitch side. Not only did they recruit Tom, but they got me on the diamond too. We played our last game on Saturday afternoon (we won by scoring in the bottom of the last inning) and put Tom on a bus at 11 pm for an overnight ride to Auckland.

Team ECO School!

Tom joined us during a significant time of our project and our lives. After a year we are nearly finished with the renovation, but other opportunities and projects have arisen to take its place.

And as the days grow longer, our gardens - patches of earth covered with weeds and rubbish 13 months ago - are flourishing.

We have 32 fruit trees in the ground, 6 chooks, 3 muscovies, but no pear trees and no partridges. We do, however, have an awesome outdoor pizza oven shown below.

The most significant successes we've had have involved the passive solar redesign of the villa.

The term "left for dead" has never been more appropriate when applied to a house.

But we had vision and after a year, that vision has turned into hindsight.

I wrote this for the local paper on a last minute plea from a friend who is coordinating a weekly column on conservation issues. It is an unedited first draft, but I think it makes the point.

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight: A Year of Living Lightly on the Planet

We are now over the 12-month mark of renovating an abandoned villa in Castlecliff into a warm, dry energy-efficient home. When we set out on this low budget / high performance retrofit we had no specific numbers in mind for energy savings and waste reduction. We simply wanted to push the envelope and do the best we could. As it turns out, our power bill has averaged $20 per month (this includes the daily line charge) and we have spent a total of $20 in rubbish fees for the entire year. I’ve come to call this our “20-20 hindsight” but there is no reason it could not also be a 20-20 vision for others to work toward by the year 2020. Of course electric rates will increase by then, but that is all the more reason to invest in efficiency now. (At current rates of annual change, electric rates will double in under ten years.)

The first Conservation Comment I wrote in July explained the design principles we employed for our passive solar renovation that have helped us achieve low energy bills. There is nothing new or unusual about those principles: solar gain, thermal mass, insulation and draft proofing. Similarly, there is nothing new or unusual about the design principles for our approach to resource conservation: reduce, reuse and recycle. The 3 R’s have helped us reduce the cost and impact of the renovation project as well as the cost and impact of our day-to-day lives. Here are a few examples.

While we have followed the New Zealand Building Code and used treated pine, Braceline Gib, building paper, and heaps of insulation, there are also areas where we were able to reduce costs and impacts by reusing materials. Prime examples include the bathtub, vanity, washtub and toilet in the bathroom, and the bench, sink, mixer, drawers, and shelves in the kitchen. Perhaps the most visible example is the vintage Shacklock 501 multi-fuel range that I bought my wife two years ago as a wedding present and we worked with Building Control to find a way to install safely. But my personal favorites are the pelmets that I made from old weatherboards that we removed while re-cladding sections of the exterior. And, like any builder would, we saved off-cuts to use as dwangs or for other small jobs.

Regarding our household waste stream, we compost all of the food scraps and even our fish and chips papers. We save paper to burn in our Shacklock or our outdoor pizza oven (made from an old wood burner) or to mulch our gardens and fruit trees. We reuse plastic bread bags and other small non-recyclable plastic containers. Again, there is nothing special about any of this, other than the fact that we take it seriously and put out one bag of rubbish for every two months. Perhaps the most unusual thing we do at all is emphasize the costs savings rather than simply the environmental benefits. At the end of the day, eco-thrifty living makes dollars and sense.

Peace, Estwing

2011-12-09T12:11:00.001-08:00

When its time to leave people are always a bit sad, but I have been leaving from so many places recently that I understand these leaving events as both leaving and going. Perhaps, somewhere new even if you are going back to a place you know. You will be returning with new impressions, perspective and ideas. These months abroad since my June 3rd departure from the States have been packed in full of views and visions of the places I've been, people I've met and places I'll be going. However the stars have begun to align and ideas have synchronized. Well, not completely, I am not claiming or suggesting enlightenment, but whats going on with the "Pale Blue Dot" is making much more sense then ever before. Amidst all the synthesis and understand have been some very eventful final days in Wanganui.
I associate the word final with finals, which generally means a huge test on a heap of information you hope has turned itself into knowledge and understanding. But this final week has just been full of projects and events with friends as well as the community. The pizza oven was fired at the make your own pizza party. Sausages were sizzled with the local school, and rural schools came down for a field trip visit to the little house that could. It reminded me of the days teaching skiing to little kids as the yard was buzzing with energy and questions about anything and everything they laid their eyes upon. That day ended with a bike ride round Wanganui to visit some friends at the Quaker Village and harvest bamboo for garden stakes. I also got to look down on Wanganui from the hills and really see the place I have been living in.

It has been a very welcoming to say the least. Playing softball on saturdays with the local club has been an absolute hoot, and a great reminder that its all about fun and sharing that fun. So we went down to Castcliff Intermediate to share some of the fun we have when we cook on our solar cooker. The children were super keen on our solar powered radio devices. If their shadow went across the panel the music stopped. Magically however, the sun powered our tunes. The shiny satellite looking thing we call a solar cooker was also an area of attention as it turned out sizzling sausages. One student seemed to connect the dots while they were cranking the radio. They figured out with some help that they got their energy from food, which did in fact not come from a box, but was grown by the sun. So, we are powered by the sun; a novel idea and a new and very important revelation for a 10 year old. How about that tree? The sun! Yes, the sun powers the tree and when we use the tree we are using sun power. Nelson mentioned our wood fired pizza oven. Is that solar powered too? Well, yes, it is, indirectly it is solar powered.

So we had a little party. More like a big pizza eating event. Almost completely solar powered, well probably completely solar powered. Woodfired, with all organic ingredients, veggies from the garden, and cheeses(solar powered), dough(from grain(solar powered). You see the point perhaps that the sun does some great things, all of which are free. We just need to spend a little time thinking about how to take advantage of all the sun's magical powers. Most of which is "understood." But I can tell you a fresh pizza is delicious and thats enough for my hungry belly. All the tasty ingredients were connected to the sun. Our lovely wood fire and setting sun provided some beautiful solar powered atmosphere. All the while some guests were asking me if I was excited to return home to the states. I answered a little uneasy, but very psyched about sharing everything I've come to understand about our solar powered Pale Blue Dot.
This past morning some rural students came for an end of school year field trip to wrap up some of their studies on energy. The quiet sunny day was suddenly buzzing with young students and inquisitive minds. We got to share our solar cooking devices, the gardens, the chickens and the house. It blew me away how in tune some of the students were. I asked the what the chickens like to eat. The answer I got was grass and green things, but then they poop and fertilize the grass. All I added was that I get to then eat the eggs from the chickens. They seemed to get a little chuckle out of that. After we had shared about the little blue house and their solar cooked lunches were consumed some students shared with me their science projects. Not your regular science projects. They had studied up on alternative forms of energy and had heaps to share. This became I a moment full of good energy. Young kids very psyched on how their maths and sciences connect to their solar cooked lunches!

Tomorrow I will be on my way, wrapping up my time here in Wanganui and at 10 Arawa Pl. I am sad to leave this little place, an amazing case study on suburban sustainability, but I am happy to be able to share it will people, especially kids. After many hours of travel I will find myself amongst the cold NewEngland winter. People here in warm sunny New Zealand appear confused about my level of excitement for the snow winter. It's no bother to me, I'll have heaps of time to share pictures and new perspectives from the places I've been. I will be leaving here and returning home with hopes and ambitions to bring a little of my travels home.
Thanks for reading,
the 20 Something

Hugelkultur

2011-12-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

"Hugelkultur is an ancient form of sheet composting developed in Eastern Europe. It uses woody wastes such as fallen logs and pruned branches in order to build soil fertility and improve drainage and moisture retention."

-kerryg, source: http://kerryg.hubpages.com/hub/Hugelkultur-Using-Woody-Waste-in-Composting

I first learned about hugelkultur from a doco on Sepp Holtzer I saw at Rainbow Valley Farm a few years ago, but I have never used it. Until now.

Through a fortunate series of events, a large pile of small sticks landed on our 700 square metres of sand and weeds about 4 months ago. One of our main objectives has been to build organic matter in our soils. The pile sat for a long time until last week when we decided to experiment with hugelkultur while shifting a compost pile and planting apple trees in the lee of our recent wind break project. This is what it looked like around noontime.

We raked the compost away from the fence and took the pallets away. It may be hard to see in this shot, but the grade drops away abruptly before the fence.

This served as a pre-dug trench ready for hugelkultur application. But I did not want organic matter against the iron fence or the timber rail which would be buried in the process, so I used rubble and broken bricks to create a space between the sticks we would be burying and the fence.

Then we backfilled with the sticks...

... and raked the compost back on top of the sticks. Later, we leveled the area with black sand from the beach.

To add extra carbon and calcium to the apple trees we lined the bottom of the holes with paper and crumbled pieces of Gib (dry wall).

And provided plenty of compost to the saplings.

By late afternoon this untidy corner of the section looked like this. This growing season the pumpkins will run over the ground and provide a living mulch. Next year the trees should begin to fill out in the lee of the wind netting and fill out to hide the corrugated iron fence.

We're hoping that as the tree roots grow outward the buried sticks will decompose and feed the apples for many years to come.

Peace, Estwing

Window Treatments

2011-12-02T10:29:00.001-08:00

Although it is getting warmer and warmer in the Southern Hemisphere, we are thinking ahead to next winter in hopes of improving the performance of our passive solar retrofit. Because we have decided to embrace the eco-thrifty approach, we opted against buying all new double-glazed windows. Instead we are going with a combination of pelmets and thermal curtains, plastic window film in some cases, and one example of home-made double-glazing as seen below.

The New Zealand building code requires us to install safety glass in our bathroom. The two pieces of glass cost us $315. We had the glass professionally installed in the opening window on the left. But for the fixed window on the right I decided to keep the old glass on the exterior and add the safety glass inside to meet the code and to form a double-pane window.

To do this I gathered my materials together...

... and started by cutting two vertical battens to fit. I primed them and then added two coats of paint to make sure moisture does not travel through the wood and into the window cavity. I also put a small packet of silica "dessicant" between the panes to absorb any moisture that may be in there when I seal it all up.

I used a liquid nails product to fix the painted battens to the aluminium frame, and a silicone to fix the glass to the battens. Then I added another pair of battens - these horizontally - at the top and bottom to hold the glass firmly in place (as seen in the top picture). I'll put another coat of sealant over all the gaps to keep moisture out. And for less than the cost of replacing both pieces of glass, we have replaced one and gained a double-paned window for the other.

This type of low budget / high performance approach is similar to our extensive use of pelmets in combination with thermal curtains, shown here in the bathroom window discussed above.

This pelmet also serves as a crown molding, and is made from weather boards we removed from the exterior during the renovation. This gives an idea of what they looked like.

Our abandoned house had been a billboard for local taggers. But once sanded and painted...

... the old weatherboards make beautiful interior window elements.

In order to ensure enough clearance for the curtain to slide, I nailed 2 x 2 off-cuts into the studs on either side of the door.

I also sealed the gap between the wall and ceiling with duct tape to prevent any air leakage. And there you have it. I cannot emphasize enough my advocacy of pelmets for eco-thrifty window insulation. This post from July explains how the physics of pelmets works.

Peace, Estwing

2011-11-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings once again from the 20 something,

I believe that this entry will be of but a slightly different flavor. School has been in session for a little while now and the little house that could has come great distances since the beginning of my stay. And when I mention the house I might also be meaning the inhabitants of the little house that could; for it is inhabitants are as dynamic as the property. I myself have long been removed from the scene of home renovations. The last time I took part in home renovation was over a decade ago and I had little knowledge of what was going on. I was happy swinging hammers and pulling nails. Here, some ten years later, swinging and digging, I have continued to piece together this puzzling world we live in. Living here in Wanganui so far has been awesome. After a long break from team sports I was again reunited with one of my favorite games, well sort of. Saturday softball league is not quite the same as highly competitive division three baseball, but it functions in the same way. A bunch of people get together and face-off for an afternoon of hooting, sliding, diving and the occasional muffed error. I felt a little lost on the tiny field facing pitches that rose rather than came down from the pitcher and at the same time felt once again home on the diamond. The more we build, paint and shift things round the yard of 10 Arawa Pl. the more it is beginning to feel like home.
Inside we have been slowly working on sanding, priming, painting and installing finish wood work. The rather mundane task is far more exciting than normal. Most of the trim pieces are recovered and pre-used. Sanding away the graffiti and rough edges reveals the often beautiful wood which would have otherwise found its way into a landfill. Saving these distressed looking boards and fitting them into their new homes has become very satisfying on many levels. The house becomes more 'finished,' it is cleared of stock piled timber and we are saving timber from trips to the landfill.

Recycling is a nice word, but transforming is a better fit for what we have been doing. Whether is it is once tagged up trim becoming finish trim work, or a garden bed being harvested and top dressed to receive seedlings, life here is often about helping along transformations that will sometime later help out the inhabitants of the little house that could.

We recently took on the task of harvesting broad beans. In this process we were clearing garden space for seedlings which were ready to be planted. Dhal was being slow cooked on the solar cooker, but our Bhutanese meal would not be complete without a healthy portion of cheesy potatoes. Luckily some new season potatoes were ready to be harvested. Taking out potatoes freed up top soil which would go into the bean beds becoming seedling beds and the potato plant was becoming green mulch for other vegetable beds. Many activities that alone seemed very simple and each for its own cause, together became integral for the transformation of multiple spaces in the yard.

Just a few days later I found myself in another yard thats always changing; the softball diamond. It has been more than a year since I have even thought about tossing a ball around the yard let alone getting out in the field to shag fly balls and have crack at the bat. I had a tough time at bat getting hit a couple of times and walked another few times, but I had an amazing day getting sunburnt and hanging out with my new extended northland family. Not much had changed about the game going from baseball to softball, but the way I played the game had changed. I used to be uber competitive out on the diamond and it sort of was not much fun anymore. Saturday out in the field it was all about fun, I could not even tell you the score of any of the three games I took part in. A case study in the transformation of attitude when all that matters are the smiles and the laughs. I continue to look at sports in this new way. People need to lighten up and have a little more fun with their life. No need getting all upset about a few hours of a game. Next week will bring another game and a fresh beginning with more smiles to be shared.

And as we returned home from the play day it was very cool to see the transformations going on at Arawa Pl. The wind netting stretches the whole west side of fence. We fenced in the fruit forest which now houses the ducks who seem very happy with their new habitat. Garden beds have been cleaned of crops and replaced with seedlings . It's the season of change as we move into the summer. However, back home in the states we are changing out of fall and thanksgiving to the snow winter.

We sat down for a little kiwi thanksgiving and talked about all the changes Dani and Nelson had seen take place during the past 12 months. I just thought a bit about their perspective. They had seen the little house that could in the beginning, I have seen the pictures, and it has come very far in 12 months. I have seen the little house that could transform in just a few short busy weeks. At dinner I said I was thankful for how such a dynamic time in my life; full of traveling and unknown destinations could be such tranquil times full of learning and new understandings. School will be in session here in Wanganui for a few more weeks, but for me school will be in session as long as I am amongst people and places like the little house that could, where time facilitates transformations and days are dynamic.

Kadinshe! The Twenty Something

Occupy Arawa Place

2011-11-27T12:01:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about writing this post for a long time. There are lots of possibilities. But I believe that protest starts at home. This is our occupy movement.

There are lots of injustices in this world and its unsustainability is profound. Some people address these by making signs and marching. Others write checks to non-profits. Our protest looks like this.

And this.

And, of course, this.

I submit that anyone who wants to address social, economic and ecological inequality in the world should start by looking in the mirror. Gandhi is known for having urged us to be the change we wish to see in the world. The Buddha taught that the way to relieve suffering is to follow the eightfold path. I've enjoyed talking to a new occupyer at Arawa Place, Tom the intern, about Buddhism.

It reminds me that this is all about mindfulness. It is about living in mindfulness toward all life on Earth, toward those less fortunate than us, toward future generations, toward energy and toward materials. And at the same time, as another occupyer of Arawa Place reminds us...

you've got to have fun too.

We (I) have decided to name her Billy T. James, after the amazing New Zealand comedian, because she keeps me smiling and laughing.

And now that we are nearly done with the permaculture installation on our 700 square meters, we are looking at the abandoned plot out front that is full of weeds and rubbish (like out section was a year ago).

It may be time soon for a dozen fruit trees to start occupying that space. Wacha reckon?

Peace, Estwing

Thankful

2011-11-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

We are thankful for the excellent feedback we have received on many of our projects lately. Most recently, the River City Press ran this front page story yesterday.

http://www.rivercitypress.co.nz/press/24th-november-2011/

And last week the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia published this overview of my research in secondary school science.

We hope everyone has a good day. Go Lions!

Peace, Estwing

2011-11-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

Some of you will be familiar with this headline:

Hopefully it was on every front page on the planet. As should this one:

From the latter:

By Frank Jack Daniel

NEW DELHI | Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:27am EST

(Reuters) - Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the U.N. climate panel said.

I think about the interface of science and economics and politics all the time. I think about the effects of extreme weather on our coastal property. And I'm working to protect it from such extremes. This willow tree indicates the direction and strength of the prevailing winds off the Tasman Sea.

We have added extra bracing in the house to protect against high winds, and we have built fences and planted trees as wind breaks for our gardens and fruit trees. But those outdoor efforts have not been enough for a week and a half of relentless westerlies with the worst predicted to come tomorrow. So Tom the Intern and I got to building an eco-thrifty windscreen.

First we pulled and straightened nails from salvaged wood. (Pulling nails is the first skill we teach interns. It cultivates patience, humility and mindfulness toward materials.)

Materials list:

De-nailed timber: free

Straightened nails: free

Wind netting: $5 at Hayward's Auctions

The New Zealand Building Code is very strict on bracing, as it should be in such a windy country. I've adopted that idea of overbuilding for wind into this project by placing the timber in between the existing posts and the iron fence, and then securing them with heavy galvanized nails.

And we attached the wind netting to the uprights with 20 mm battens that "sandwich" the netting in between. This reduced point stress that would be caused by using staples.

And for $5 and a couple of hours work we have a strong wind screen that has made an immediate difference for our vegetable gardens and fruit trees.

A large part of eco-thrifty living and low budget / high performance permaculture is hard work and a willingness to learn new things constantly. It is also knowing when to buy something of top quality and when to re-use materials or substitute alternatives. There are no rules. Every area is a grey area. And, as we've seen from Wellington to Washington, we cannot count on governments to be proactive on climate change...or nearly anything else. Worldwide there has been a shift in attitude about climate change from one of mitigation to one of adaption. While we do our best on both fronts, it appears that the majority has spoken, and we need to double-batten the hatches.

Peace, Estwing