Permaculture Designer
Hi everyone,
I am brand new to this community and very pleased to be accepted here. I am interested in permaculture and am trying to find someone in the Boise area to help me design something for our acreage. Any help would be much appreciated!
Beth Mouser
Boise Sustainable Living Community
Want to join this group?
To get started, you'll need to create an account - or, if you already have an account on this website, login.
User login
Who's online
There are currently 0 users and 631 guests online.
July 3rd, 2008
permaculture
Well... every month we get together and talk about living a low consumptive lifestyle and swap urban, organic gardening info. Coming to the next gathering would be a great idea. We might even meet up at your location so that many folks could input on your specific project. The group is rather spontaneous, not organized to any degree, so things just sort of happen, but always in a friendly, informative way:)
Keep an eye on this site for the next meeting, there were about 10 people at the last one.
I believe it is very important for the 'peak oil', permaculture, relocalization crowd to network because we will be the ones who will have to point our city in a new direction after the economic collapse happens, which appears to be much nearer these days.
Bob
July 7th, 2008
Permaculture
Sorry, Bob, that it's taken me so long to thank you for your reply and suggestion. I would love to have everyone over (and also get some input) at my place. However, my mom is moving in this weekend and we need to help her pack and get our basement ready, so maybe the week after.
Three years ago, we bought 1.3 acres and added on way too much to the original small house. Now our house is 5200 square feet and obviously too big. THEN, I watched An Inconvenient Truth and my eyes were opened to the situation. My husband doesn't think selling the place is an option. A condo downtown is sounding good to me (you try to clean this place!!) One positive though is that we have space to grow food, which I really haven't begun yet with the exception of 2 tomato plants. My mom is going to help us by paying some rent each month.
For now, I am trying to do my part in small ways. We installed a clothesline at the beginning of the summer and for the first time I am hanging out clothes! Also, I am getting very good at remembering to bring my cloth shopping bags wherever I am shopping and my boys remind me when I forget! My 14-year-old son is chomping at the bit to do his part and wants radical change. He and I are both interested in helping the green party...but first we need to chart a course on our home, and if we're staying for the long-haul, how to make it work.
Beth
July 7th, 2008
big house problem
There are a few things you can do with a big house.
You can get several roommates. A friend of mine in the foothills has a large home and always has 2 or 3 roomers.
You can separate the thing into units and rent out the little apartments.
You can wall off the kitchen and maybe another room and only heat that area in the winter. Just create a small space that has everything you need. This also works in the summer for cooling. We downsized 2 years ago from a medium sized house with a 2 car garage, to a 550 sqft house with 1 car garage. We close off the bedroom and front mudroom in the winter so as to only heat 300 sqft. This is a good option since heating large houses will be impossible to afford for most everyone in just a few years or less.
The thing to do with the lot is build up the soil now, all of it, kill the lawn now, while inputs such as compost and mulch are cheap. Just layer it right on top, no rototilling needed, worms do the work. It might not hurt to make sure you have some topsoil first though, a lot of the lots around Boise have 5 inches of topsoil on top of river rock. That is a bad situation since plant roots can't go very deep and need a lot more water.
July 8th, 2008
big house problem
What about solar energy? My neighbor said it would probably cost more than $10,000 to get solar panels to create most of the energy needed for our home. We would have to get another home loan to finance that and we already owe quit a bit on this house...he also said that Germany paid for people to install solar in their homes. I wonder if the government would ever do that here.
Beth
July 16th, 2008
Solar energy
Really the best thing to do with energy in the home is to learn to use MUCH less of it.
After spending a lot of time thinking and reading about this issue, i've concluded that I really don't need electricity for much of anything. Refridgeration is even easily replaceable with methods used all over the world using evaporative cooling.
Solar heated homes are super-insulated. If you try to heat a normal Boise house with solar it just will not work no matter how big the project. Doing the insulation is not that expensive when you build a solar house but retrofitting is. I had the perfectly oriented house that was long on the South side and came up with a plan for making it solar. It would have cost a fortune. Much better to sell your existing house and rent for a while, then in a few years build a 'zero energy' home from scratch.
Another thought is that by the time you actually need solar energy (photo-panels), the economy will be in such a mess that they will be stolen in short order. Also, the last thing you want to do right now is accumulate more debt.
I just finished Dimitry Orlov's Reinventing Collapse, which has been very well recieved. He says that house values will continue downward until they are effectively at zero worth. The homes around here really are going to be fairly worthless when they can no longer be heated, which may only be a year or two away.
July 18th, 2008
Solar Energy
Bob,
I don't even know quite what to say. I am taking what you are telling me seriously and I am unsure of what to do. My mother just moved into our basement last weekend and already she is freezing while we are hot on the main level. Yes, we have a 3-level home that is $5,200 square feet. I am just horrified at the thought of moving again but worry that if we don't move soon, like you said, we will get even less for this house than now. I read Al Gore's speech and Energy plan and I did not see where he is recommending government subsidy for converting current homes to solar. Are all of the current homes going to be abandoned as you say they don't convert well?
I did some searching on the web on converting to solar and it would cost around $40,000 to convert and I think that's for a normal-sized home, not one with a large turret like ours! Is there any chance you (along with anyone else who is interested) would be willing to come over and give us some direction? If we are not going to stay, I don't want to worry too much about what to do with this acre and my husband and I need to make some major decisions and not delay.
My 12-YO is out of town this weekend and it would be good to talk with you then because, frankly, all of this talk of crisis on the brink is really scaring him and I would prefer he not be around. My 14-YO son, however, is aware and is almost my team partner in all of this peak oil research. He wants to get involved in many ways. We have this whole weekend available...if that doesn't work, then anytime would be fine with us.
Thanks,
Beth
P.S. We have a pool and it feels great (although I know it's an energy-user...we do turn off the pump at night).