Bryce and Misty have spent the last 12 years building a cob home, homesteading, living off the grid, and homeschooling their two daughters. They live without a car, so for transportation, they use taxis and bicycles, and they eventually hope to have a cart that their two horses can pull. For food production, they have […]
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt. Finding a solution to combat climate change must include a change in our conventional agricultural system from one that depletes our soil to one that regenerates it. We must move away from our current soil-eroding, industrial farming practices, and, instead, return the animals […]
Why do we not see more Bamboo Architecture and Bamboo Design? With a growth rate of up to a meter/day – the world record of living plants -and structural properties equal to that of steel and concrete, bamboo is a versatile design material and an interesting alternative in the contemporary material/sustainability discourse. Over 1,250 species […]
This off-the-grid home in Adelaide, Australia is something completely different! An Earthship is a radically sustainable and self-sufficient building which uses a combination of modern off-grid technology, super clever passive solar design techniques and a whole lot of recycled materials (including trash) all mixed with earth building techniques to create an incredible, high performance home. […]
Paula and Bill Lishman spent many winters in a poorly-insulated A-frame cabin before realizing they needed to go underground to use the earth’s energy to stay warm, so they knocked the top off a hill, dropped in ferro-cement domes and covered it up again with dirt. Thanks to skylights cut into every dome and the […]
I’ve been living off grid for the past 16 years, I make my own electricity using an old washing machine I found at the dump. I rewired the smart-drive washing machine motor to generate electricity, the generator is rotated via a water driven Pelton Wheel ( Hydro Turbine ). Water goes into the intake, creates […]
Six years ago, Mike, Lacie, and their three kids downsized, left the city, and moved into a small yurt in the country to try their hand at homesteading. Like so many people, they dreamed of living off the land and growing their own food, and with a lot of hard work they’ve made their vision […]
Switching to a more environmentally-friendly way of living is more important than ever these days, and reducing the amount of water you use is a great place to start. Although the world’s surface is covered in water, the majority of it is contained in seas and oceans where we can’t use it. In contrast, freshwater […]
Anthony from Art du Chanvre has built over 45 houses using hempcrete as a natural and sustainable insulation material. Hempcrete is made with a mix of hemp hurd (fibre), hydraulic lime (binder), and water. Hempcrete is not load-bearing, but it does provide insulation, thermal mass, and it regulates temperature and humidity. The R-value of hempcrete […]
Marlena and Eugene built their homestead in Blanco, Texas using salvaged windows, doors, wood flooring, tile, a bathtub, a lot of plywood, and some lumber. After over a decade of building, they now have a completely off-grid home, workshop, garden, and rental cabin. While they did spend for the new 23 solar panels that run […]