Cornell University's agriculture and home economics databases

I stumbled upon these collections of online books and journals recently. First, there's the Core Historical Literature of Agriculture, which contains links to thousands of e-books or journals on everything from soil management to barn building. Then, there's the Home Economics Archive that covers everything from plumbing to sewing. Both of these include publications going all the way back to the early 1800s.

For those interested in beekeeping (which is a bit controversial in vegan circles, I know), they have The Hive and the Honeybee Collection -- links to about 50 or 60 e-texts of older books on the topic.

Renewable Energy: Ground-source heat pumps (GSHP)

Lately, I've been talking to a new vegetarian acquaintance -- a physicist with a keen interest in renewable energy -- about geothermal heat pumps, or ground-source heat pumps, to be even more specific (i.e. to distinguish them from air-source heat pumps). I'd mentioned to him my recent visit to an off-grid solar-powered house in the Knowlesville area of NB and he brought up some figures on the cost effectiveness of different types of renewable (and non-renewable) energy in Eastern Canada. Apparently, solar doesn't hold a lotta water for him, mostly because of installation costs and also because of the relatively low amount of sun we get in this colder climate. I did some investigating and am now really intrigued by this type of heating system. Various articles about these ground-source heat pump systems (e.g. this one), claim that by using them, you can lower your heating / cooling costs anywhere from 30-70%. Also, although the initial installation costs are several times higher than installing conventional heating systems, those costs can be recouped within 5-10 years.

Essentially, what happens is that when you dig far enough down into the ground, say, 3 or more metres, you reach a point where the temperature of the earth is constant year-round, varying according to latitude. So the ground source heat pump, using a small amount of electricity and a compressor, extracts heat from the ground to heat your home in the winter, and then in the summer it extracts heat from your home and pumps it back into the ground.

Mother Earth News has a much more detailed (and average-joe-reader-friendly) article on these pumps here. I hope to share more about this type of system as I learn more, myself.

South Knowlesville Community Land Trust

I slipped into a little piece of comfort this past weekend, in the middle of the bustle of finding myself offering up my home to a friend from out of town who's become closer to me than family in some ways. We took a road trip into north-western New Brunswick -- country that's so familiar to me that although its absolute gorgeousness always leaves me a little in awe, returning to it always leaves me all too well aware of the transitoriness of the current backdrop or context of my small city. We visited Leland and Tegan Dougherty-Wong at Artful Acre, hoping to get a good peek at (and understanding of) their recent project, which is the setting up of a community land trust in South Knowlesville to establish a small sustainable community of individuals with an emphasis on community, ecology and economic self-sufficiency. They plan to establish a common food growing area, with fields of grains and vegetable crops, as well as orchards and herbs.

When we arrived, Leland was engaged in sharing some of his timberframe and straw-bale construction knowledge and skills with a small workshop group. (I should note before I forget that he'll be part of a more extensive three day Natural Building Theory, Design & Practice workshop at the nearby Falls Brook Centre from June 26 to 29.) So after having taken a few wrong turns, we arrived late and were only able to hear a bit of the presentation before everyone was welcomed into the Dougherty-Wong home for a potluck. After discussing the economic reality of the rural area with Leland, we ended up learning more about their vision of the South Knowlesville Community Land Trust and of the steps they've taken towards getting it going. Tegan mentioned that they were still ironing some things out, but that their biggest need right now is for more folks to jump in, both to settle on some guiding principles and to do the hands-on work that will be involved in building some of the homes and of preparing the actual land on which food will be grown. For more information, visit their site. Here are some ways in which you can get involved.

Suburban Permaculture w/ Janet Barocco and Richard Heinberg

Peak Moment Television visits the suburban residence of Peak Oil author and educator Richard Heinberg and his partner Janet Barocco, to take a gander at all that can be done on less than an acre to make your home and yard as sustainable as possible. Too neat! There are so many great ideas in this, especially with regards to gardening.

Plastic Bags, Part I

Around a month and a half ago, I tucked my bicycle into a small nook between the side of my sofa and my collapsible (and sadly, unused) sewing machine, and resigned myself to a winter of adapting to being a pedestrian again. Part of this meant that I would be losing the speed and mobility that had allowed me to spend the previous seven or eight months being a finicky shopper, able to flit from one store to another to shop for better deals or fresher produce. Travel-time more than tripled, which entailed the necessity to plan ahead more carefully. On the other hand, I also suddenly found myself with two free hands to carry bags for extras outside of what I could ordinarily cram into my well-worn knapsack whilst cycling. I'm quite happily car-free, and for those rare occasions when I do need to make a large purchase, it's much cheaper to take an occasional cab than to have a car sitting in my driveway 24/7. So far, I've managed to keep my cab rides down to one every couple of months.

I've generally had no problem accepting some plastic bags at stores, since I do it so rarely and always reuse the bags to clean litter boxes (which nonetheless leaves them ending up in the landfill, I know). Lately, my mother's been re-homing her plastic bags with me, since they would otherwise end up getting thrown out by her. Because of this, I've decided to nose around online a bit, to look for creative and useful things to do with extra bags, as well as ways to reuse existing items at home to actually make reusable bags. I've noticed that reusable bags are often for sale now at many grocery stores, from $1.00 to $4.00, so I was curious to see what other options were available.

I found this blog post on how to make bags out of old sheets and used jeans (or other sturdy fabric). The cost is zilch if you use your own old sheets and old jeans. Online instructions for making shopping bags are plentiful. For instance, morsbags.com even has animated step-by-step instructions for another type of bag. It calls for more durable fabric than what you'd get with sheets. I'd suggest checking out a thrift store, or the liquidation sales that fabric stores often have, if you want to keep costs down.

A woman called Cristen has devoted a blog to crocheting with plastic from old bags. She tells you how to prepare them first and provides links to dozens of projects, including how to make crocheted bags out of used plastic bags. Cindy, at myrecycledbags.com provides tons of patterns (with illustrated instructions) for plastic bag crafts. For instance, she has instructions on how to make a doormat or a pot scrubber. Now if I can only learn to crochet... Craftzine has also featured information in its blog on how to crochet things out of plastic bags, as well as how to fuse plastic to create things like clothing and jewelry.

So why not just recycle the bags, you may wonder? Aren't most bags biodegradable these days, anyway? I'll post more on that aspect of the plastic bag issue later.

(Listening to: The Bauhaus' The Sky's Gone Out)