WinSol +

After experience the first beams of light on Winter Solstice sunrise at 7:43am...  Sun beaming on the eating nook, and bedroom pillow. A couple hours later it floods the entire house, including back wall in sun. I once again appreciate the beauty of the ancients and their passive designs (think adobe, mesa verde, etc) to maximize winter sun intrusion.  Winsol heats and cools itself.  But it needs a little help from outside conditions.  I've been there in January when it's 20F outside, sun is shining, all curtains are open and it's 85F inside.  WinSol is buttoned down for the winter.  with the holidays, snowfall, cloudy days... it's a challenge to stay at Winsol during winter.  As I always say:  'a solar house without sun really sucks' - and so I tend to be a bluebird kinda guy. The logging around WinSol has finally started.  It's been a 6+ month wait for this to happen.  i am both sad and happy about this logging.  It wi...

WinSol is coming out of a hiatus.  The original grand opening of the Living Energy Learning Center (LeLc) was postponed last June for various reasons, and slowly things are congealing again.  We are now set for a 2019 spring opening.  Here's a progress report: (1) For the first time in 5 years, we have vegetable gardens (raised beds) producing again .  With the addition of several kitties, the persistent munchers and pesky rats are retreating to less threatening environs.  We'll see how the kitties fare during winter and the racoons.  so far, so good: lessons learned from previous kitty ventures. (2) The LeLc dome floor is now 95% finished.  We've had to take out a few rough spots and repair some cracks.  The main progress has been along the outside permieter where snow and rain intrusion was next to impossible to stop. So we cut a 2" gap around the perimeter with the chainsaw to allow speedy runoff.  (3) Our re-Focus will be tow...

It's important for all 7 billion of us to live within one earth equivalence. We only have one planet.  Except for the Blue sky space billionaires, we're stuck here.  One earth is all we have. More than one earth is unsustainable.  We currently use about 1.7 earths overall .  The USA uses about 4-6 earths, Europe about half that.  This is unsustainable   Last time I checked we only have one of these 'earths'... somethings gotta give.  How can we adapt our current lifestyles to living within our means - one earth equivalence? My applied ethos 1 is walking my talk. If I’m going to tell others that it’s best to live within one earth, the least I can do is live within one earth myself. It’s easy once my heart aligns with Gaia and once I understood the frailty of our current systems and structures and how utterly unsustainable they are. One concept illustrating this is ‘earth overshoot day’: it’’s currently August 21 for th...

when people introduce me and say 'fred lives off the grid', While I appreciate the intro,  I always want to say: 'I'm WAY beyond off-grid'... and if a conversation engages around it, I like to throw in the moniker: 'I live off the dreadmill' ... let me explain. Our society loves path dependence. The history of humans is written on it. Path dependence implies we continue down the current path even though we know better paths – because it's convenient and we 'need to pay the mortgage/rent'.  And of course, many industries profit enormously from the current path.  it. Take oil, fast food, big box stores, etc.  I like the sound bite ' we didn't sto p using  whale oil for lighting because we ran out of whales'   And so too, we are blazing new paths not because we're running out of resources (which certain groups want you to believe) as much as there are better options on the horizons (uber, AI, self-driving cars, robotics,...

The first base layer of earthen plaster on the 1200sf Dome floor is done.   Now the FUN with the Tibetan style mandala begins.  Check out the awesome background of these on…  this wiki link This wa s the ‘template’ that we started with… below is construction in progress… … guess where the middle of the dome is?   

After nearly three months of hard work and one major physical injury  (leg in root cellar manhole!)  , the first layer of earthen plaster flooring is done in the  Living Energy Learning Center  (LeLc).  This is a major milestone. Dome cupola There were four phases to the LeLc Dome:  Foundation and Floor, engineering design & dome frame, Skinning the Dome, and interior paint & earthen floor. It’s quite exhilarating & calming to look at the emerging floor and its ceramic tile  mandala , and the amazing ‘space’ as it evolves into something magical… Pictures  (click to enlarge) : 1st layerot cellar hole dif wet vs. dried as with the LeLc Dome… this post is also under construction… stay tuned…