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KIVA Microfunds are building on the success of the microcredit banking model created by the Grameen Foundation. KIVA is leveraging all that is great about the internet to fund poor entrepreneurs in third world countries by matching philanthropic microlenders with third world entrepreneurs in need. Their simple to use website lets you search entrepreneur’s profiles and make $25, $50, $75 loans to the entrepreneurs of your choice.

References

• http://www.kiva.org
• http://www.grameenfoundation.org

[tags]KIVA, Grameen Bank, Microcredit, Microloans[/tags]

In my unending quest for self-sufficiency and living with a light footprint, I have tracked down soil blockers from Ladbrooke Soil Blocking via Johnny’s Selected Seeds in the US.

I learned about soil blockers while volunteering for my friends Paul & Heather on Manitoulin Island last summer. They run a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) organic garden and rely on these tools to create soil blocks to start all of their plants. I have been using compressed peat pellets for the last few years which work great and are neat and tidy but somewhat expensive ($0.13CDN/each). Peat also has to be mined, transported, made into pellets, transported again to the garden centre and once again to the garden. The soil blockers involve a little more manual labour but of the good kind that gets dirt under one’s finger nails.

The world’s leading researcher, author and lecturer on crop circles is coming to H.R. Macmillan Space Centre (map) on May 2nd. Details here: http://cropcirclesecrets.org/

Tickets available here (scroll down): http://www.cropcirclesecrets.org/lectures.html

[tags]Crop Circles[/tags]

I started the hunt for ingredients for my homemade detergent experiment today. I found Borax at Safeway ($6.49 CDN) and London Drugs ($4.99 CDN). Safeway also had washing soda by Arm & Hammer but it smelt like it was perfumed which I’d rather stay away from. No luck finding Fels Naptha Soap yet. I did find some Sunlight bar soap at Safeway that would work but it came in a plastic package that couldn’t be recycled or composted so my hunt continues. I think I need to find an old time pharmacy as the mainstream ones only carry Tide and it’s competitors.

I stumbled into No Impact Man via TreeHugger today and became inspired to try something new. I love what 7th Generation and other eco cleaning product suppliers are doing doing vs conventional products but the bottom line is that they are all pricy, come in a petroleum based plastic bottle, must be trucked and then IF facilities exist, recycled. I am aware that some detergents come in a cardboard box but the eco ones I have tried haven’t performed as well as the liquid detergents.

In an effort to reduce my waste toward zero, I am going to experiment with making my own laundry detergent. After a little googlin around, there appears to be a tried and true process using common inexpensive ingredients which is supposed to work very well. Most of the recipies I found are almost the same or slight variations. Cost can apparently be as low as $0.01 per load. I’ll post again with the results soon!

References

http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/FAQs.shtml
http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/detergent.shtml
More recipies (scroll way down)

[tags]Zero Waste, Homemade Laundry Detergent, Urban Homesteading[/tags]

I just finished a week long vacation with my dad. I wanted to keep the footprint of my holiday as small as possible without limiting myself to sitting at home with the heat and lights off, reading by candle light under a pile of blankets. My dad made the three day journey from Ontario with VIA Rail to join me for some almost carbon neutral fun.

Successes

1. The train trip was less carbon intensive that air travel. (approx 0.6 tonnes vs 0.8 tonnes)
2. We only made four car trips, including the taxi to and from the train station.
3. We made numerous trips to Home Depot with Bob trailers to fetch odds and ends (including concrete blocks & a shop trolley!) for the house and garden.
4. We made it up to Grouse Mountain to go skiing and boarding using public transit alone (see pics below).
5. We built the cedar fence I had been hoping to create for the last year from locally harvested wood.
6. We assembled the fence using the Stil electric chainsaw (no smelly 2 stroke engine) Lisa got me for Christmas.



7. I found 7 of the 10 concrete blocks I needed for the fence in the blackberry bushes accross the street. Free and recycled!
8. I learned how to get around the lower mainland via transit much more efficiently.
9. Lisa tested and purchased a new three wheel recumbant for our almost carbon neutral honeymoon bike tour of BC.
10. We turned all compost into the garden, planted peas, lettuce and spinach.



11. I offset 2 tonnes of CO₂ with offsetters.ca for $40 CDN

Failures

1. We made four car trips, I had hoped for zero.
2. It’s really difficult to not make any garbage when you take a holiday to fix everything around the house and garden.

Photo journey to Grouse Mountain using Public Transit

Total trip time each was about 2 hours each way. Take the #50, to sea bus, to #136 to Grouse Mountain gondala.

Chris with our gear trolley

Chris on 50 bus to Waterfront Station

Chris & I on the Seabus

Chris on the Gondola Skyride up to Grouse

Broken Wheelchair Lift on the Bus on the way Home.

[tags]Carbon Neutral Vacation[/tags]

I have made almost every stride in my own personal life to reduce my contribution to landfills toward zero but as of late I am feeling a stuck. Our home produces about one small bag of garbage a month, mostly comprised of plastic packaging from food items. So far the shift hasn’t required any major sacrificies to convenience, only mindful purchasing. Further progress will most likely require a compromise to convenience, take more initiative, resourcefulness and a desire to craft many things from scratch. I am up for the challenge.

If anyone else out there has taken on such a project and can offer any suggestions, please leave a comment.

I installed the Geo & Plug ‘n’ Play Google Map plugins so I can geo-tag my posts. You can see it working here: http://shibumi.net/appropriate-technology/high-tech/web/geo-tag/.

I tried several different google maps plugins and this combo was the only one that worked. Install Geo first, then Plug ‘n’ Play Google Map. You can use Google Maps or Free Geocoder to find your logitude and latitude.

References

• Geo
• Plug ‘n’ Play Google Map
• Google Maps
• Free Geocoder

[tags]Wordpress Plugin, Geo-tag[/tags]

Lettuce	Black Prince Tomates

I started these plants about a week ago. The lettuce germinated within two or three days and the tomatoes broke ground yesterday. I didn’t grow 1/10th of the lettuce I needed last year so I am starting much earlier this round and have it worked into several places in the garden.

Last year was the first year I had ever grown or eaten Black Prince tomatoes. They were one of many that I picked up from the nursury and were by far the best. I had many go wrotten because I was waiting for them to turn red, which they never did. I finally figured out that they only turn a tinge of dirty red on the outside and are then ready to eat. They are brilliant red and green on inside, with a sweet, full flavour. I don’t think you will ever see them in a store because they are tender and wouldn’t tollerate transport. They were almost totally resistant to bottom rot too.

My friend Genèvieve and I got started planting outside today as well. Her companion planting book “Carrots Love Tomatoes” suggests that radishes will be more tender if planted alongside leaf lettuce so we sowed a couple rows of each directly in the cool spring soil. I thought it would be too early for lettuce but her package of mesculine mix seeds indicated that they could be planted two to three weeks before the last frost of the season. Radishes are eager in the cool spring too.

Lisa and I ate some rogue spinach last week that had laid dormant over the winter and made an early dash to life in February. It was amazingly crisp and fresh so I wanted to get more seeds in the ground as soon as possible. Genèvieve and I transplanted a couple chard plants that survived the winter into plot two and then weaved an infinity sign of spinach seeds around the two plants. Hopefully we’ll see some small plants poking their heads above ground shortly.

Greens need to be staggered and planted at least weekly to keep a steady supply available throughout the season.

[tags]Urban Agriculture[/tags]

This is an absoluetly fantastic step in the right direction of energy production and storage for the energy independent home. Batteries alone are generally insufficent as a storage medium and don’t work well in the cold. This homemade hydrogren generation and storage system is definately a viable option for widespead adoption once the system is refined and commercially available.

References

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/play.html?pg=9

[tags]Hydrogen Powered Home[/tags]