A Very Rough Sketch
This is my first preliminary drawing of what I'd like to do to my little spot of land in Minnesota. Here is a pic of that again:
So the yurt that Id get for about $10-12k US, (A VERY affordable way to live in style) www.pacificyurts.com
I should friggin' work for these people, especially when I think of how much I talk about their product. Seriously though, I think these yurts can be done with a high level of eco-style and they are really resource efficient. I would put a trellis of grapes and planters around the outer wall. Lots of windows, lots of natural light. Just by viewing their 3-D tour, I saw how much ANYONE could improve it. I would totally put up something to cover that interior wall!
So fix that up, make it really cool and cozy inside, and then put it on a circular terrace or deck made from recycled plastic and reclaimed (recycled) wood. Ideally, you want to build the yurt on the deck, so have the deck made FIRST. I think the main structure would be under $20,000 including the deck. Then just add in the fruit trees and berry bushes and get the poultry area built (so my dad can have his eggs...at least they would be fresh and from unstressed and well-fed birds.) And they would provide excellent organic manure for the compost. Add the hoop-house/greenhouse, and build the rest. You could even build your own greenhouse with 2x4's and plexiglass. Im not saying that its going to be easy, but it will be fun and a great project to work on with my family, and especially my dad.
This smaller style could be further back into the woods
I'll talk more about all of this really soon (Water, Solar, Wind especially) so feel free to ask me questions if you have any.
Question:
hey anthony! i know this is waaaay past commenting time already but.. in relation to this post- what are your ideas on travelling green? i too am planning the whole eco lifesyle with travel options thing but flying anywhere on a plane just kills the environment. i was thinking about driving from malaysia to the UK or taking trains. i'd love to know if you have any ideas about this. also.. what do you think about the eating local idea? in some places, perhaps even in nyc, unless you grow things yourself it's pretty hard to eat organic, local and raw.. what do you think?
Let's face it, flying IS REALLY BAD for the atmosphere. Ive heard that it's equal to a whole year of everything else...? Can this be true? Probably because its spewing all the CO2 WAY up in the upper atmosphere, doing serious direct damage. I did this game called Consumer Consequences, and the only thing that really nailed me was the flying.
Your journey would be 1000 times richer if you traveled by land. However, if you have the time, consider yourself a rare and lucky soul. Few can take the time from needed and unneeded responsibilities, so if you can, I would surely do it. It sounds like a VERY long trip though...
Arrange an itinerary that would allow you to stay at eco-villages/resorts or wwoof as you go along. Im sure some people will take you for shorter periods of time if they need the extra help. Eat local fruits, support local farmers, maybe share ideas about the future...you can't go wrong with that.
I think after peak oil really changes things, and affordable flying is no longer an option whatsoever, its going to become all continental journeys via hi-speed train and other continents via ship. Can't wait to pull into Victoria Harbor! Could you imagine going over the ocean like in the old days? This whole airplane business is going to come and go within our lifetime...at least the widespread public use of it.
NYC pretty good for eating locally, esp in the summer and fall of course. We are located near the Hudson River Valley and all the good farms in New Jersey as well, so we have really good local produce all the time, from less than 100 miles. To really increase the locality factor of your diet, consume a ton of local sprouts and definitely grow them yourself if you want to save alot of money and try to make a little hobby of it. You can become THE urban farmer! But if you had a greenhouse and lived in the suburbs, you could probably grow year round here and live off of your apples and root vegetables throughout the winter if you wanted to stay raw. Honey and dried fruit added in plentifully, I hope. It would take a while to get the fruit trees established and producing (or maybe not...you can order large trees now) but it shouldnt take long overall to reach the point of feeding yourself.
And we have a strong number of raw restaurants here in NY, so if you dont feel like making something, you can find a great alternative not far away. And some might even deliver. Its pretty good here. Im tired of it(NYC) for sure, and ready to start this Permaculture stuff, but its a really cool city, with lots of good resources and cool people. Its worth trying out at least from April to July, or Sept-End of Dec if you dont mind the cold. There's just so much more out there...its been 3 years...time to move on, right?
Anthony
So the yurt that Id get for about $10-12k US, (A VERY affordable way to live in style) www.pacificyurts.comI should friggin' work for these people, especially when I think of how much I talk about their product. Seriously though, I think these yurts can be done with a high level of eco-style and they are really resource efficient. I would put a trellis of grapes and planters around the outer wall. Lots of windows, lots of natural light. Just by viewing their 3-D tour, I saw how much ANYONE could improve it. I would totally put up something to cover that interior wall!
So fix that up, make it really cool and cozy inside, and then put it on a circular terrace or deck made from recycled plastic and reclaimed (recycled) wood. Ideally, you want to build the yurt on the deck, so have the deck made FIRST. I think the main structure would be under $20,000 including the deck. Then just add in the fruit trees and berry bushes and get the poultry area built (so my dad can have his eggs...at least they would be fresh and from unstressed and well-fed birds.) And they would provide excellent organic manure for the compost. Add the hoop-house/greenhouse, and build the rest. You could even build your own greenhouse with 2x4's and plexiglass. Im not saying that its going to be easy, but it will be fun and a great project to work on with my family, and especially my dad.
This smaller style could be further back into the woodsI'll talk more about all of this really soon (Water, Solar, Wind especially) so feel free to ask me questions if you have any.
Question:
hey anthony! i know this is waaaay past commenting time already but.. in relation to this post- what are your ideas on travelling green? i too am planning the whole eco lifesyle with travel options thing but flying anywhere on a plane just kills the environment. i was thinking about driving from malaysia to the UK or taking trains. i'd love to know if you have any ideas about this. also.. what do you think about the eating local idea? in some places, perhaps even in nyc, unless you grow things yourself it's pretty hard to eat organic, local and raw.. what do you think?
Let's face it, flying IS REALLY BAD for the atmosphere. Ive heard that it's equal to a whole year of everything else...? Can this be true? Probably because its spewing all the CO2 WAY up in the upper atmosphere, doing serious direct damage. I did this game called Consumer Consequences, and the only thing that really nailed me was the flying.
Your journey would be 1000 times richer if you traveled by land. However, if you have the time, consider yourself a rare and lucky soul. Few can take the time from needed and unneeded responsibilities, so if you can, I would surely do it. It sounds like a VERY long trip though...
Arrange an itinerary that would allow you to stay at eco-villages/resorts or wwoof as you go along. Im sure some people will take you for shorter periods of time if they need the extra help. Eat local fruits, support local farmers, maybe share ideas about the future...you can't go wrong with that.
I think after peak oil really changes things, and affordable flying is no longer an option whatsoever, its going to become all continental journeys via hi-speed train and other continents via ship. Can't wait to pull into Victoria Harbor! Could you imagine going over the ocean like in the old days? This whole airplane business is going to come and go within our lifetime...at least the widespread public use of it.
NYC pretty good for eating locally, esp in the summer and fall of course. We are located near the Hudson River Valley and all the good farms in New Jersey as well, so we have really good local produce all the time, from less than 100 miles. To really increase the locality factor of your diet, consume a ton of local sprouts and definitely grow them yourself if you want to save alot of money and try to make a little hobby of it. You can become THE urban farmer! But if you had a greenhouse and lived in the suburbs, you could probably grow year round here and live off of your apples and root vegetables throughout the winter if you wanted to stay raw. Honey and dried fruit added in plentifully, I hope. It would take a while to get the fruit trees established and producing (or maybe not...you can order large trees now) but it shouldnt take long overall to reach the point of feeding yourself.
And we have a strong number of raw restaurants here in NY, so if you dont feel like making something, you can find a great alternative not far away. And some might even deliver. Its pretty good here. Im tired of it(NYC) for sure, and ready to start this Permaculture stuff, but its a really cool city, with lots of good resources and cool people. Its worth trying out at least from April to July, or Sept-End of Dec if you dont mind the cold. There's just so much more out there...its been 3 years...time to move on, right?
Anthony
3 comments:
your yurt idea is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever heard. i'm assuming you want all your plants to be organic. i think that will be the hardest part. except it look small enough so you might be able to handle it. i'm curious why you picked certain crops. i think blueberries and raspberries would grow great! my family has a 10-acre blueberry farm in NH but we're not organic. there are only 5 of us and there are 6,000 plants. we don't have the time to pick the bugs of each plant! haha. we only spray if we find bugs on the traps we put out though. and no one can eat from those plants for about a week. we're very careful about it. it's not like big farmers who spray all their plants every week or every 2 weeks even if they don't need to.
have a great day! i'm going durian hunting tomorrow! i can't wait. i wonder if i'll actually LIKE durian. OH! and I got my VITAMIX today! I'm SOOOO excited. I'm making a green smoothie tomorrow morning!
thanks for the reply dude, altho i think you figured out i live in taiwan, but nyc sounds better every time! haha
man, i'm so getting yurts. was thinking abt what eco friendly buildings we were gonna have on our ecovillage and they sound like the answer.
i hear ya abt the travel. malaysia to europe would take 4 months, which is not too bad really!
anyway.. in between classes.
rock!
peace, miin
I was going to ask about where you go to the bathroom in a yurt, but then I noticed that they can be equipped with facilities. Phew! I had visions of outhouses in the middle of winter...
I'm still not convinced that yurts would be warm enough. But maybe I'm thinking too much in terms of the climate around here, which can be cold AND wet (I'm assuming Minnesota has a drier cold). I came across this company that makes dome houses. http://www.cwdg.ca/index.html They look really neat, and claim to be environmentally friendly (though they're probably not as good as a yurt). Might be worth having a look at, though.
Have a great day!
Post a Comment