Sustainable Urban Homestead » Product Review

Book Review – Possum Living

SimpleLivingbyChoice — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0000

While browsing though my local bookstore, I stumbled on yet another book I wanted to read, ya go figure. The book was Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money. I added it to my Amazon wish list when I got home and was surprised when I got it as a Fathers Day present ;o)

I had heard about the book online a few times and knew a bit about the story. After reading it, I don't believe the intention of the book was/is to convert people into living an uber frugal lifestyle, but was more a personal story to show that you have choices, and with those choices comes a lifestyle. You can be dependent on the "money system" or not, that it your choice... there are other options.

Now I won't pretend to think I would go to those extremes, but in today's world my family and I are looking to live a more simple life and get away from societies "keeping up with the Jones" mentality. We won't grow rabbits and chickens in our basement.. well I would have chickens in the backyard, but that will still take some convincing for my wife. However will do try and grow as much food as we can, learning to preserve, being more eco conscious and shopping more frugally. These are also lessons we teach our son and will continue with our new baby girl on the way. The one thing we strive to do, and what I think is the main point of this book, is to make the money work for you, not you work for the money. My favorite quote of the book and a great way of looking at things: "It's easier to learn to do without some of the things money can buy than to earn the money to buy them"

It's a good read and has some pretty interesting recipies that most likely won't make it on our table any time soon, but it's interesting. The book was originally published in 1978 and mostly still holds true. The Afterword really caps it off...

If the book leaves you wanting more check out their website http://www.possumliving.net/

"Ask yourself what you aim to be and what you should be doing. Are you living the life you ought to be living? If yes, then good luck to you. If not, then start taking control of your life."

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Urban Farm: Spring 2010 Issue… Nice!

SimpleLivingbyChoice — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:00:43 +0000

Picked up the second issue, Spring 2010, of Urban Farm magazine and it is chalk full of good useful articles! I really do hope the magazine turns into a monthly issue and they start accepting subscriptions... all in good time I guess.

One of my favorite articles is "Cinch by the Square Foot". This article was great timing for me since I'm actually planning on converting our conventioanl row garden to raised beds and square foot gardening practices. The article is written by Mel Bartholomew who is the author of Square Foot Gardening, which I am also actively reading.

Another good article is "P is for Prosper". The article goes through urban-farming pioneer Will Allen's north Milwaukee urban aquaponic farm, Growing Power inc." and his seven P's for success and community building. I stumbled on to Will Allen while researching aquaponics and was immediately interested in his processes. I love that they are growing food where it is needed. Here's a YouTube video as an introduction:

The entire magazine is good, but a few other articles I personally liked:

"Permission to Play in the Dirt" - Different techniques on composting and compost bins
"Power to the People" - Nice primer on renewable energy
"Pushing City Limits" - Struggles of urban farmers vs city ordinances

There are many more great articles so go out and buy your copy today. You should also go out to their website UrbanFarmOnline.com and submit a comment showing your support ;o)Similar Posts:

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Urban Farm: Spring 2010 Issue… Nice!

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Movie Review: Food Inc.

SimpleLivingbyChoice — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:00:46 +0000

I had both the pleasure and disgust of watching Food, Inc.
this weekend and it was an eye opener. Although I was aware of most of what the film had to say, the message was really driven home as to how far removed we are from our food in our "modern society".

Filmmaker, Robert Kenner, "lifts the veil" on the American food industry exposing the industrialization of food production and the powerful companies that control it. And when I mean control it, I mean through brute force and intimidation, they can keep farmers under their thumb and seem to be concerned only about profit, not the product or the people for which they supply. A few scenes that bother me are the fact that farmers seem powerless to fight the large conglomerates that run the meat industry and the fact that the US Supreme Court allowed a company to patent seeds.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not watched it yet, but it is well worth the view and I would highly recommend it. It is a bit graphic at some points and if you are tender at heart, you might shed a few tears. One thing is for sure, you will "Never Look At Dinner The Same Way Again". It certainly changed my points of view and we will make more changes in our choices.

For more information on the film check out the official movie website: www.foodincmovie.com

Food Inc. Movie Trailer

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Review: Les Stroud – Off The Grid

SimpleLivingbyChoice — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:19:21 +0000

I had the opportunity to watch Les Stroud's documentary called Off The Grid. It's a great film documenting how Les Stroud, Sue Jamison and their 2 young children bought a 150 acre abandoned 1930's farm land in Northern Ontario and started what a lot of us dream of: living a sustainable life closer to the land.

Les Stroud is probably better known for the TV series Survivorman where he spends 7 days marooned and surviving in various hostile locations throughout the world. He filmed this documentary between seasons when he and his family decided to take the leap into this great adventure.

I like the documentary because of its personal approach. If you follow Survivorman you will see it follows the same format of narration and self interview. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised that it is not a be all end all film of latest technology stuffed with technical data and crap. It's really a story of how and ordinary family can accomplish living a more simple life, off-grid and without a deep pocket book. How the move affects different aspects of their lives and the overall pros and cons of this lifestyle change. One of my favorite parts of the film is how they go over their concerns with how the move will affect their children. Being a father myself, I could relate to their struggles of trying to have the best of both worlds: Urban activities and Rural lifestyle.

I would recommend this great documentary to anyone wanted to see an overview of what it would take to rebuild a homestead and live off-grid. You can only fit in so much in an hour and 10 minutes so it's an overview not a step by step blueprint, however there is a ton of great information packed in. I watched it 3 times and still goign through notes of things to research myself.

I would love to see a follow-up to this film where there is more detail in the rain water harvesting System and well, update on the new cabin, update on the integrated solar/wind system such as how they calculated their electrical consumption to size the system and how close they are to their numbers analysing their actual use... but most of all it would be great just to have an update on how the family is adapting to the move ;o)

If your interested, you can purchase a copy of the full documentary or if you're lucky you can catch it in 2 one-hour series from Canada's OLN (Outdoor Life Network) or and affiliate.Similar Posts:

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Review: Les Stroud – Off The Grid

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T.E.D. The Energy Detective Review

SimpleLivingbyChoice — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:00:23 +0000

Courtesy of TheEnergyDetective.com

A while back I wrote a post called Help Reduce Electrical Bill Consumption. That post focused on using electricity monitoring devices to help identify waste/phantom loads, reduce overall consumption and have a method to monitor daily electricity usage. Since that article i bought the TED 1001 unit and have been using it for the past 6 months. Here is a follow-up review and what I think of it.

Install instructions are very easy to follow and I had it wired within a half hour. If you are not comfortable with opening up the electrical panel, please contact a licensed electrician. The unit comes with a Transmitter and Gateway. Follow their simple install instructions. Paraphrasing the install: connect the MTU clip-ons to the electrical mains that feed the electricity to your electrical panel the wire the Transmitter (MTU) to the breaker and you're done.The MTU sends the data through the existing electrical wiring of the home. The Gateway/receiver will receive the packets once a second through any electrical outlet in the home. This was one of my favorite features cause I wanted the receiver to be flexible in location, but not have to fumble with batteries. To me this is a great feature.

Once I had the receiver plugged in and receiving data, it took about 10mins using the instructions to configure for my utilities 2 tiered billing system. Again the menu driven setup and instructions are very well detailed and easy to follow.

Next I installed Footprints data logging software and connected the Gateway to my computer via USB. Software has 2 parts: TED Watcher and TED Viewer. The TED Watcher is a low real-estate, neat little screen you can run on the desktop that simply displays the current kW or $$ or CO2 usage and does not interfere with desktop usage. The TED Viewer is the visual interface used to display a live dashboard containing Present Readings, Real-Time KW Usage and Recordings (TED Footprints Screenshots). I can describe them here, but pictures are worth a thousand words so check out the screenshots.

I would have to estimate that since installing our unit, we have reduced our overall energy consumption by at least 10% so far. It's hard to gauge since we were heating with Heat pump and E.Furnace but now 100% wood so although our monthly power bills have gone down by a good sum, I don't have enough historical data to say how much was saved by monitoring TED, setting up the Load Profile and then making changes to drop phantom loads and use larger appliances more efficiently.

Courtesy of Greentelecomlive.com

Since I bought the 1001 unit, The Energy Detective has released the new 5000 series unit. As much as I love my 1001 unit, I think I'm already going to upgrade to their 5000 Series which has all the same features of my 1001 unit plus:

Works with Google PowerMeter
Realtime energy monitoring via Internet or mobile device, not just local computer like Footprints
Wireless PDA looking display with rechargeable batteries and charging cradle
Optional Wind/Solar package
Net-Metering capable
Can be used with Home Automation Systems

The options I love the most with the new unit is the wireless rechargeable display and the fact that the Gateway, when connected to your wireless router, is available through your favorite browser. Right now I have a dedicated computer that is physically attached to my 1001 gateway, which is great, but it would be awesome to use any computer in the house or with a few firewall changes on my router, be able to view my stats from anywhere I have Internet access.

In conclusion to this long post, I would recommend the TED to anyone, and I do to anyone who will listen. You WILL save money just by being consious of your consumption and even more as you fine tune your usage. Cost will depend on what model/options you want, the number of electrical panels you want to monitor and if you want the footprints display... worth every penny spent so far for me. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who is using TED or any other electrical monitoring product....cheers!

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