Drinking From A Fire Hose!

We've spent the last week on Vancouver Island!

There was lots to see and do ... the legislature buildings in Victoria, breathtaking scenery, composting toilets and ferry rides.

Did I manage to sneak that one past you? I saw more composting toilets in the last week than I have seen in my entire life!

Vancouver Island has a reputation as a sustainability mecca, and this past week was a whirlwind tour of compost, composting toilets, humanure and yes ... MORE composting toilets. We actually visited and saw lots of other sustainable things; cob and strawbale houses, an earthship and an aquaponic garden to name a few. The highlight for me was the compost ... the kids no longer think it is funny when I talk about black gold!

A friend of mine from my software development days in Toronto used to describe a steep learning curve when encountering something new to be like drinking from a fire hose. So much new information is coming at you that you drink a tiny bit and get soaked by the rest before it disappears down the drain. Well, this last week the sh#t was coming so fast that I ... I guess I should give up on the analogies but you get the idea!

We visited so many neat places and met such interesting people that I am not sure where to start ...

I guess like any good story I will try to start at the beginning!

We began our trip on Vancouver Island at O.U.R. Ecovillage Cooperative. This intentional community has a 'vision to create a model demonstration sustainable village community'. This group has pioneered new land use zoning in cooperation with the local building authority. The land of the Ecovillage has multiple use zonings (a first in Canada), that allows the same piece of land to be residential (up to nine homes), commercial (one business) and agricultural at the same time. This work is now being used by other organizations as they pursue similar goals. These people are attempting to redefine the way the commons (common resources and property shared by a community) is viewed and valued. More people need to be thinking about this!

I made a reservation to stay overnight at the Ecovillage the week before we left on our trip. Over the phone I was told to pack only biodegradable toiletries as the worms would appreciate it. I sat in stunned rapture after getting off of the phone ... these people use worms to process the gray water from their sinks. I could tell I was going to enjoy this visit!

Sandra and I discussed our toiletries, and decided that the active ingredient in Head and Shoulders is probably not biodegradable. This led us to a 'green' grocery in Kamloops to buy shampoo and conditioner. We payed a small fortune (its not easy being green) on Color Reflect shampoo and conditioner by ShiKai. Ironically, we discovered on actually reading the labels (after buying them) that there was no statement that these plant based products were in fact biodegradable. All I can say is that if you guys have any problems with the worms ... it was not us or our shampoo!

We took a tour the afternoon that we arrived that started in the garden. The garden included the obligatory plants and cute animals (pigs, geese, chicken, sheep), and right in the middle was a composting toilet jokingly referred to as the Credit Union. You can guess where I spent most of my time. They collect the waste from the toilet (politely called humanure), compost it using strict procedures and they get crumbly, fragrant humus after a couple of years.

The tour also included the building sites for the houses, the existing buildings and a walk around the property. After the tour Brandy Gallagher gave us a presentation that covered the history, goals and future aims of the Ecovillage.

That night we slept in a cob building called the healing sanctuary. This is one of the first alternative buildings constructed at the village and the government of Canada continues to monitor this building for long term compliance with the Building Code.

We were very excited to stay in this building as cob finishing techniques are very similar to earthship finishing details. This was the first time we were able to show the kids what our finished building might look like. To this point all they have been able to see is a bunch of tires and pop cans!

This building uses natural finishes extensively. We hope to use earthen floors in our home but had not actually seen one until we stayed in this building. The floors are very attractive and warm due to in-floor radiant heating. This is definitely something we hope to do.

That evening we had dinner with the village residents. One of the residents cooks for everybody and that night we had lasagna and fresh bread. The meal was wonderful and everybody was quite friendly. I was a bit nervous leading up to dinner as there is a 'circle' before dinner that seems to involve holding hands. I am not a hugely touchy-feeley person outside of immediate family and close friends, much less people I've just met. I'm happy to say I survived this experience with no ill effects or long term consequences!

The next morning after breakfast we met with Ecovillage residents who were interested in our building project and talked for about an hour.

When we left we talked about coming back in the summer and trading our tire filling experience for some pointers on wall finishes.

I also picked up a copy of the Rocket Mass Heaters by Ianto Evans. I have done some reading about these stoves, and I think one would work well in an earthship.

Thanks for the wonderful experience Brandy et al.

Rational Environmentalism

The closest brush I've had with active environmentalism was Christmas in 1987 when I was returning to university in Ottawa after the holidays. I was walking down the aisle of the plane and realized that David Suzuki was sitting very close to me.

I stopped to say hello and to exchange a few words (he was flying to Ottawa to speak at a committee meeting or royal commission, or something). As a journalist in training, I thought it was great to even have these few words with somebody after whom a scholarship in my journalism school was named. More recently, as I've reconnected with my cousin Gerald and his family over the last year, I learned he works for the Suzuki Foundation, although apparently Mr. Suzuki isn't seen frequently around Foundation offices. (Drat, there goes my re-introduction!)

But that's it! I've never marched on city hall in support of the environment, I've never handed out pamphlets calling for action against multi national companies polluting the earth. I've never chained myself to a bulldozer and I've never even considered myself an environmentalist. The word itself used to be a dirty word, especially in rural areas like ours that depend on natural resources for its income.

I found it quite amusing to be wished a happy Earth Day last April 22nd by my friend Jan Darby, who went on to describe us as "Eco Warriors". Not only is Jan just a fun person, but she has a sharp and unusual sense of humour, which we like very much.

Other friends have laughed at us for describing ourselves as fairly normal. Because of some of our decisions over the last decade we seem to have acquired a reputation (among our non-BC friends, anyway) for doing the unexpected and taking some less traveled roads. Chucking our well paid Toronto jobs for our own log home business was the first thing that seemed to place us firmly outside of the fast lane. Living through the wildfires of 2003 seemed to awe and entertain many of our friends and family. Choosing to live in a trailer relatively mortgage-free instead of sinking money into a "real" house was also a decision that was unheard of outside of a few like minded folks here in our local area.

But many of these things didn't visibly set us on our so called course of environmentalism. So, what led us to decide to build one of the greenest of green homes?

It actually began almost 20 years ago. When Chris graduated from U of T engineering school, he almost immediately enrolled in the masters program, with a specialty in sustainable energy. He completed a few courses part time but the rest of his life intruded. The chance to assist his parents in their own wood-based business in Vermont presented itself, and our marriage and subsequent family took precedence shortly after. But he was always reading and musing and wondering about sustainability.

When we had TV I used to watch lots of news stories about global warming, pollution, oil spills, you name it. Instead of calling me to action, they would instill in me an overwhelming sense of hopelessness in one person's (my) ability to make a difference. And honestly, I'm not fond of scare tactics, even if they are true. I think that if you can give people something small to accomplish, that is within their reach, the environmental movement, at the grassroots level, will have much more success.

Our real foray into environmentalism came when times were tough for us in the early years of the business. We, out of necessity, began choosing less expensive, and less unfriendly options. We heated our home with wood (using the trim ends from our business which were from beetle killed pine) over heating it with oil or electricity. Choosing energy efficient appliances years before we heard anybody else talking about it. Buying food in bulk because it cost less. It had the additional benefit of generating less packaging.

Soon, we began to realize that we were generating less garbage. Far less. We began to wonder how little we could generate and in the last year reduced our output by another 1/3. Chris' interest in vermi (worm) composting over the last 15 years took off last year as he expanded his worm bins. They still can't take anywhere near the vegetable scraps we generate, so he built a traditional composting bin system and I was given a tumbler through the freecycle network. Now we compost our scraps and my Dad and Gail's kitchen scraps. AND to the amusement of many of our friends, Chris is successfully composting sheep's wool.

For the last 10 years we have been recycling our cans, plastic and bottles. I have been slowly replacing plastic in our kitchen with glass or stainless steel. I'll admit I succumbed to the "plastic" leeching scares and have decided to err on the side of caution.

Last year Chris established us as novice gardeners. The pleasure of eating food grown by your own hand is immeasurable. We dove into preserving this fall in a big way and that opened up a whole new community to us! Knowing that you can grow enough vegetables to last through the winter months is empowering. It's healthy, it cuts down on fuel costs in trucking food all over the world, and it connects people, defying gender, age and temperament.

In terms of our business activities we always believed (and most loggers, too!) that our forests can be sustainable if practices are changed. Our biggest beef is that too many of our trees are leaving our country without Canadians getting full value (financially and environmentally). We could keep 7 people employed full time for a year processing 25 homes with the wood (dead standing pine that was either used or deteriorated beyond usefullness) that a big supermill would process in a few weeks, employing waaaayyyy fewer man hours per board foot. A supermill might get paid between $250 and $300 per thousand board foot of processed wood, while our log home operation might end up with a value of $2500 per thousand board feet. We used fewer fossil fuels to generate that income and we were extremely good at dealing with our waste. Wood shavings went to local farmers for farming uses and then were eventually composted. Trim ends were used to heat homes.

That's value added wood processing! And while many would argue that our log home operation couldn't possibly be an environmentally friendly activity, we certainly felt good about many of the things we were doing...

To us, recycling, gardening, reusing, mindful use of resources, just makes sense. It's a RATIONAL approach to environmentalism and one that many, many, many of the older folks who live around us, have been living for most of their lives. I see the over 70 group of people smiling rather tolerantly when they hear young folk talking about gardening, canning, composting and re-using...this has been their lives and is not something new at all!

But during the last two generations we've gone beserk! Here's an excerpt from one of Chris' recent posts. (I love this analogy!)

We took what resources we needed to expand, attached economic values to them and trashed them at the end of their obvious use to us. The resources we took and the wastes we dumped into the environment were like a pebble thrown into a pond ... the surface rippled and then was still again.

Our unparalleled and successful growth as a species means that our global economy has now caught up with (some would say overwhelmed) the capacity of the world to accommodate it. We are now rolling boulders into the pond with the enthusiasm of little kids, and no parents are telling us to stop before we kill all the goldfish.

Although this sounds like a very radical stance on Chris' part, you will see (if you've read the post) that he would probably also describe himself as less than extreme on the environmental front. We both try not to be overwhelmed by the bad news, instead trying to make a difference by doing the things we think our family can do and to have fun doing it.

So, despite the fact that Jan will tout us as Eco Warriors (it makes good copy, after all, and makes me giggle!) we really are neither radical environmentalists, nor part of the fringe element. Earthships, or any other sustainable building practice, are just an extension of common sense thinking about our resources and something that ended up making a lot of sense to us.

The Age of Stupid

The Kamloops branch of the BC Sustainable Energy Association showed the movie The Age of Stupid last night at Thompson Rivers University.

The movie is essentially a collection of documentaries highlighting environmental degradation around the globe. The documentaries are well done and certainly make you question what is happening to the environment.

These mini-documentaries are tied together by an apocalyptic narration pointing to inevitable negative consequences for people (possibly extinction of humanity by 2050) unless dramatic steps are taken now in how we live.

I have a difficult time with the climate change and global warming debate. I believe that human activity is dramatically altering the world's landscape, and that fossil fuels are having (and will continue to have) long term impacts on the environment, temperature and human sustainability. I also recognize that the best efforts by scientists to accurately predict and model future events can be ... unreliable (I am trying to be polite). So I always try to take imminent disaster scenarios with a grain of salt; things may turn out better, or we may be in deeper s#@t because of something that nobody expected!

So, although I find myself in support of the changes advocated by this narration, I think that at best it is preaching to the choir and at worst brow beating the majority of people who simply do not want to contemplate their own extinction (who would?)

I guess the question that a movie like this leaves for me is what is the next step? How do we motivate change among the majority of the population who do not wish to think or be threatened in such stark terms?

We are used to thinking in economic measures about our world as these measures have worked for us for a long time. We use GDP as a measure for the wealth and vitality of our society, and compare everyday items in terms of their dollar values.

These measures worked for so long because the world ecology surrounding our man made economies was huge in relative terms. We took what resources we needed to expand, attached economic values to them and trashed them at the end of their obvious use to us. The resources we took and the wastes we dumped into the environment were like a pebble thrown into a pond ... the surface rippled and then was still again.

Our unparalleled and successful growth as a species means that our global economy has now caught up with (some would say overwhelmed) the capacity of the world to accommodate it. We are now rolling boulders into the pond with the enthusiasm of little kids, and no parents are telling us to stop before we kill all the goldfish.

The paradigm of endless growth that has worked so well to guide our expansion has run into the reality of the limited carrying capacity of our planet. We need to be thinking about the world as an ecology, and measuring our success in different ways. This new thinking requires a cognitive disconnect with beliefs and assumptions that have been ingrained since birth for most of us, and consequently we are incredibly resistant to this thinking. Despite overwhelming contrary evidence we continue to chase unrealistic visions of the American dream while the world seems to collapse around us.

At the end of the movie there was some time set aside for discussion, and to ask what can be done locally. There is a rally in Kamloops on October 24th at the Farmer's market in support of 350.org. 350.org is 'building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand' according to its website. Specifically, this rally is to convince world governments in advance of the Copenhagen Summit (where a global treaty on climate emissions may be hashed out) that we really do want the treaty to have some teeth. In the past I have steered clear of political involvement, but I hope to make it to this rally!

Also, I think it is important to reduce the issues involved to a size that can be managed individually. We risk being overwhelmed by a message of imminent worldwide calamity to the point that we do not want to get out of bed in the morning, much less take a step in a new direction.

In our family we continue to try and make decisions that reduce our impact on the environment and align us with what we believe in. Sandra and I are planning to take a trip this winter using the accumulated air miles that we have 'earned' on our credit cards to get us free airline tickets to our destination. I am hoping to convince her to go to New Mexico so that we can see finished earthships to give us ideas in our own construction project.

Unfortunately, last night's movie reminded me of something I have known for a while. Airline travel has extreme negative environmental consequences. I find myself caught between justifying a flight that I have already 'earned', or traveling in a more sustainable fashion. After all, its just one flight, we are only two people ... what difference can it possibly make?

I wonder how Sandra would feel about driving to New Mexico ...

Another Blog worth following

Here is the link to James' blog about his travels across Canada (with a stop at our place). Check it out!

http://toprockphoto.blogspot.com/

Interview with CBC radio's All points West program

Tune in to http://www.cbc.ca/listen/streams/r1_victoria.html on Friday, May 22nd at 5:50 pm PST. I'll be talking to All Points West host, Dave King (filling in for Joanne Roberts), about our earthship construction project.

For our fellow BCers, I believe that All Points West is carried by regional CBC stations, too! I know we listen to it through the Kelowna station.

A trip down memory lane...to Costco!

Today while in Kamloops, I found myself with 40 minutes to kill before an 11:00 am appointment. I found myself flashing my expired card at the smiley door greeter and entered the world of Costco.

We let our Costco membership lapse several years ago because a Real Canadian Superstore opened in Kamloops and we found that the prices were much better.

In fact, our initial decision to let the membership lapse was financial but over the subsequent two years, we remained committed to this decision because of the extreme "big box" mentality we felt Costco represented. There was no bulk buying opportunity and at the time, a smaller produce section. I always felt overwhelmed there because there was so much variety, I ended up spending more than I wanted or should. Every time I went in I found something I didn't know I "needed"!

Before anyone points out the obvious, I realize the Superstore is a big box, but at about the same time as we shunned Costco, we were buying differently at the Superstore. More bulk foods, less packaged goods, and more whole foods. We tend to do a "big" shop every few weeks and frequent our local grocery store in between. The owners of our local AG Foods store in Barriere are well aware that this is the shopping pattern of their customers. I had a conversation with one of them many years ago about it. Barriere is just close enough to Kamloops to make a grocery shopping trip (coupled with dentist appointments, etc.) worthwhile, but far enough away that shoppers aren't going to zoom into Kamloops for a jug of milk or loaf of bread.

As I entered the enormous doors of Costco the smiley door greeter tried to give me the weekly coupons. I've become very good at turning coupons and flyers down with a simple, "I won't take that today, thanks." I didn't need to discover I couldn't do without a five-in-one foot massager today, thanks very much!!!

As I hit the laptop, camcorder and ipod section at the entrance of the door, I inexplicably felt the old "pull". I immediately headed for the laptops to figure out how much a new one would cost once mine died (still using an external USB keyboard on mine; works great so far!)

After convincing myself that the $900 unit had to be better than the $500 one, I woke up and started putting one foot in front of the other. I walked up and down the aisles and, except for a magnetic dry erase board (perfect for a quote of the week or inspirational snippet from a poem or book, $32.99) I managed to make it down one length of the building without touching anything. Through the bakery where I saw they are still selling the ciabetta rolls I use to buy in packages in 24...

Then I hit the laundry detergent. Holy crap. There were brands I'd never heard of and it went on for rows and rows. Now, I've been experimenting with laundry detergent. Because we haven't hooked up our new washer to hot water, I'm trying to find which detergent works in cold water the best for the least amount of money. I yearned for my calculator until I realized the price per mL was posted with each price. After walking down the first aisle with my eyes raised to the prices and my mouth hanging open I reached the farthest corner of the building.

With every ounce of resolve, I turned left and kept walking away from the detergent. I decided to pass on the freezer section as it was mostly processed foods. I did notice that Alcan aluminum foil was being sold in ENORMOUS boxes but realized that at the rate I used foil (three or four times a year), it would be decades before I'd go through a box as big as the one on the shelf.

I peaked down the aisle sporting cereals (we gave up packaged cereal several years ago) and stepped into one aisle where a skid of maple syrup was positioned. Beyond this and into the next aisle I could see the Chipits chocolate chips and quickly backtracked and zipped down that aisle. I spent a good 30 seconds fondling the plastic bag (ziploc closure) and reluctantly set it down. I can dream but as chocolate is my downfall, it is never a good idea in the quantities that Costco sports.

As I turned around to head into the Pharmacy I bumped into a pallet jack handled by a Costco employee. "Whoops! Sorry," I said. The gentleman handling the equipment smiled at me and asked "what is the weather like outside?" I had trouble understanding him at first as his speech was slurred, but I realized quickly that he also had a physical disability.

It was raining as I pulled up and I told him so. He pulled a face and made a comment about the coolish spring weather. I assured him that the forecast was for sunshine in the next few days. But ahh, I said, you're probably working. No, he said, he only works until noon, but he has been spending his afternoons in his canoe paddling down the South Thompson river and it had been a cold couple of days for him on the water.

An avid paddler myself I asserted that any day on the water was a good day. He smiled charmingly in agreement and we chatted a while longer. He didn't seem to mind that I had to ask him to repeat himself a few times.

We parted company and I walked towards the exit, weaving my way through the extraordinarily long lineups for the cashiers, reminding me again of why I disliked shopping there.

I felt a lot like my mom today. She was really good at connecting to people. She was never in a hurry and befriended the most unlikely people. I resolved after her death in 2000 that I would try to be more open and friendly and to seek out connections with others. I think I do a lot better but today pointed out to me that I don't do it often enough, and that other people, like my new friend in Costco, are much better at it.

Part of it is that often our shopping experiences are much like trains with schedules. I still do find grocery shopping at the Superstore a chore to get through as quickly as possible, best done when the crowds are small. It occurred to me today that when Chris and I traveled through Europe, we often shopped in little villages where you meandered down the street and popped in and out of stores and saw people and chatted. In Toronto we shopped a lot in Kensington market and it was a similar experience (although very noisy).

Many Canadian towns and cities once had downtowns that encouraged community. In our busy lives we have eagerly embraced big box stores and their conveniences, even if it meant actually driving to them instead of walking. I have read articles that predict that with the end of cheap oil, our communities will return to this kind of shopping experiences. I'm not sure if this is so or not. But it would be nice, wouldn't it?

In comes the big gun!

After on and off discussion about whether we would ask our friend, Alvin, to come in and help us with the excavation, Chris and I decided to pay him a visit today to see what he was up to.

After a house inspection in Clearwater for one of our customers, we loaded up 41 tires at Clearwater Kal Tire and headed south again to Little Fort.

Alvin is a very experienced old time sawmill operator. In his late 60's Alvin has, in the last few years, mainly given up the sawmill racket and returned to his roots, literally. He has transformed his 20+ acres by the North Thompson river into a grain producing farm. He was born and raised in Saskatchewan and I think remains a prairie boy at heart. He grows wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, and a number of other grains-using no chemicals! He has a grainery (home built) and keeps pigs and laying chickens, feeding them a mix of his no-chemical grains. He and his wife are superb gardeners, planting a tremendous amount of vegetables and fruit every year. We count them among our many "garden" resources, along with Jennifer, Monica, Karen, Florence, Linda and Lee-Ann and Henry.

We surprised Alvin at a late breakfast and got talked into toast made with wheat from Alvin's fields. Scrumptious. (And VERY strong coffee, which we don't drink much of anymore so we got nice and jittery!) We got caught up with the news (we hadn't dropped in to visit since before Christmas).

After an hour and a half I got down to brass tacks and asked Alvin if he'd sowed his fields, and if he had a few days to help us excavate while he waited for all his lovely grains to show their heads.

Alvin began helping us out at our sawmill about six or seven years ago. He was still running his own headrig at the time, but mostly by himself and not full-time. We bought some of his wood and did some planing for him. He eventually became our part time heavy duty mechanic, dirt mover when we were landscaping the grounds (he owns every kind of equipment one would need to move dirt) and it would not be untoward to put him together with my father in the "mentor" category when we were learning how to run a sawmill. We've had many, many good laughs with Alvin and hearing about his upbringing and experience running a sawmill in the good old days and raising four children has been very entertaining and interesting.

He admitted today that he was getting bored and agreed to help us excavate. I think it's more that he likes us and likes to help us and that's o.k. as a reason, too! He charges very reasonable rates and is always in a good mood when he works.

Best of all, he is FAST. Much faster than Chris and I will be, so we are hoping that in 2-3 days we will be able to start placing our first tire while Chris starts pounding. I, of course, will be taking the first photos of the first tires. (Of course).

Thoughts on our BCSEA presentation

Chris tells me that when we ran through our presentation the final time before heading into Kamloops last night he felt enormous relief.

He had been working quite steadily on the house plans, not only to get them closer to submission to the building authority, but apparently to get them into a form that would generate discussion at the presentation.

He says it was the closest he felt to being "stressed" since before we started to wind up our business last year!

Regardless, we very much enjoyed sharing our house project. It has been more than a decade since either one of us has presented to a group so we weren't sure exactly how it would go. Fortunately, the people (about 40) who came to hear us talk were all enthusiastic about sustainable building. We didn't get heckled once!

After we ran through our plans, goals and the the progress of our project, we opened the floor for discussion and this ran the gamut:

1) Building code
2) Greywater recovery
3) Septic requirements in the absence of a traditional waste system
4) Heating the floor
5) Tire sizes
6) Thermal mass
7) Worm composting
8) Use of cans and bottles
9) Inclusion of volunteers in the project
10) Books of interest: In Defense of Food
11) Websites of interest: www.ecosense.com and www.thispreciousplanet.com
13) Resources: Turtle Tank (company)

We'd like to thank everyone who came to hear us speak for their suggestions and experiences. I had a piece of paper next to me and I seemed to be constantly jotting down book titles, websites, names, facts and figures. Our house will be that much better because of the information we received.

Thanks also to Cheryl Kabloona who invited us to speak and who I am sure will become a great resource for us as we continue.

On the drive home to Darfield I tried to convince our friend, Henry, (who came with us as support) that it felt a little strange to be viewed as doing something unusual since I really did think we were pretty normal people. Henry didn't stop laughing until we passed Heffley Creek...

Ahhh. The joys of good friends.

Getting the word out!

Several weeks ago I started digging for a contact at the Kamloops Energy Fair, being held this year on May 23 at McArthur Island Park.

After only a few calls I connected with Cheryl Kabloona, with the Kamloops Chapter of the BC Sustainable Energy Association. We discussed the possiblity of Chris and me setting up a table at the Fair to share our plans for an Earthship. Because our aim is education only (we do not intend to profit from attending) she raised the possiblility of us paying the non-profit fee for participating.

The contact led to a request by the association for Chris and me to attend its chapter meeting on February 23rd at TRU University to speak about our project.

Because we find the more we talk about our plans, the more we learn, we cleared the evening with the kids' grandparents, and have committed to participating in the meeting.

We will bring along our house plans, in whatever state they happen to be in at the time, as well as any other material or photos to help explain Earthships.

The talk is open to any members of the public and will be quite informal. Here's the info!

BC Sustainable Energy Association, Kamloops chapter meeting
When: Monday February 23 at 7:00 pm
Where: Room TT 219 on the second floor of the Trades and Technology Centre at Thompson Rivers University. Parking at TRU is available at no charge in the evenings.
Title: Earthships for beginners: A DIY sustainable house project

We hope interested people in the Kamloops area will come and ask lots of questions. If anybody has any experience in any area of sustainable housing, please do come; we'd love to meet you!