Hiatus planned.

Because I am spending a lot of time getting our non-profit organization up and running, I have not had enough time to write for this blog. Our organization, called the Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission, is designed to help financially strapped pet owners find assistance when they cannot afford emergency care. I am hoping that I will, at some point, be able to pick up where I left off, in the Urban Subsistence Living blog, but I do not want to leave it hanging right now. To those of you who have been following it and participating in the discussions, I thank you.

Time to "Put My Money Where My Mouth Is"

It's very easy to make theoretical generalizations. My goal with this Urban-Subsistence-Living blog has been to put heads together in order to figure out a way whereby self-sufficiency is achievable inexpensively in an urban environment. I have been in the enviable position of being able to come up with lots of ideas, without having to see if they really work. Well, the economic slow-down has caused my own income to drop significantly. I hope that I won't be forced to use all of these ideas in order to survive, but what better way to put them to the test, then to have to depend upon them.

Yesterday, I decided to try making a sourdough starter. I thought that this would be a more self-sufficient way to make bread than having to depend on store-bought yeast. First, I did a little research. Then I assessed what I had in the house. I had a few small pieces of cooked potato, salt, sugar, honey, and flour. I wanted to make only a little, so I adapted the recipe suggestions to what I had. I combined about some salt, sugar, honey, flour, two potato pieces, and warm water in a coffee cup and covered it with a saucer. Then I set it in a warm oven (about 90 - 100 degrees), which I have had to rewarm periodically. I see that I am having some success, because it smells a little sour and it is beginning to bubble just like the pictures. It is supposed to grow for two days, so I have one more day to go.
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Both photos are from a great site called "Wild Yeast. The 3 small loaves are from the following post: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/29/maintain-starter/. The bubbling starter is from http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/13/raising-a-starter/
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Here are some links on how to make sourdough starters in various ways.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sourdough-Starter-IV/Detail.aspx
http://http//www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/13/raising-a-starter/
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/29/maintain-starter/
http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/sourdough/sourdough-basics1.html
http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/sourdough/sourdough-starter5.html

Little Homestead in the City

I discovered this great blog, today, and wanted to share it. It describes itself as a "Journal of a Self-Sufficient Urban Life." Although they are located on 1/5 acre, not a city apartment, it contains a wealth of information on subsistence living.
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/

Footprint Family - A story of urban subsistence living: Chapter 4 -- A "Green Buddy"

Franny Footprint came home with two large shopping bags over each arm and a big grin on her face.

"What did you buy?" asked her husband Freddie.

"Absolutely nothing!" said Franny. "Last week, I told my friends at work to save me any household items they would like to recycle. Well, today they came through in a big way! Not only that, but a woman named who started working recently in the office next door to mine, approached me and asked me if I wanted to be her "Green Buddy." I didn't have the foggiest idea what she meant by that, so she explained that the "Green Buddy System" is something started in the town where she used to live. People who are interested in living a sustainable, off-grid, urban lifestyle pair up with one another, to make this easier to do. For example, a person (or family) living in an apartment that faces North would find it nearly impossible to raise plants as a source of food, nor would their landlord be likely to approve their raising Quail indoors. However, if they paired up with a Green Buddy who had a small back yard, the person with the yard could do more of the raising of food and collecting of solar energy, while the person living in the apartment could be in charge of processing recycled materials, for example."

Freddie was impressed. "What a good idea! I wonder if some of the guys at work would want to start this, too. We could even set up a cooperative group, so that the Buddy pairs could periodically meet other pairs and share goods and ideas."

"Let's start small," Franny cautioned. "I don't want to get overwhelmed with administrative tasks and not have time to do what we need to do. Let me show you what I brought home. Rose, who is my new Green Buddy, gave me some long strips of wool and cotton fabrics, so I can start making braided rugs. She also gave me a gadget that clamps the strips to the table while I work with them. Betty brought us a bunch of small solar collectors from broken solar walk-way lights. Her husband is a landscaping contractor and has been collecting them from customers who were otherwise going to throw them away. Christine gave us two sets of brackets for window boxes. I figured that, not only could we grow plants in them, but we could set up a small wind generator on one, and attach some solar collectors on the other."

Freddie was very encouraged and got out his plans for linking together multiple solar collectors. He figured that he could probably figure out a way to charge a computer battery, if he was creative. On his lunch hour at work, he had found an interesting article that answered the question "How many solar cells would I need in order to provide all of the electricity that my house needs?" http://www.howstuffworks.com/question418.htm This article explained that "A single solar cell produces a maximum of 0.45 volts and a varying amount of current depending on the size of the cell and the amount of light striking the surface. In a typical yard light, therefore, you need four cells wired in series.... In this yard light, the four cells will produce 1.8 volts and a maximum of about 100 milliamps in full, bright sunlight." The article also gave a lot of information on how the yard light works and how it is wired inside. He found another article, written for RV-ers, but very useful for what he and Franny were trying to do. It was about joining multiple solar panels: http://ezinearticles.com/?RV-Solar-Panels-How-To-Get-Started&id=470405. He hoped that they would soon be able to find an energy efficient computer and power it with solar battery chargers.

Crocheted bag, made from recycled plastic bags. The flower is made of recycled sweater material. (See below)

(Please see http://thequeenv.typepad.com/the_queen_v/recycled_sweater_projects/jects/ to see this project and more pictures of other recycling projects.)

35+ Uses for Plastic Milk Jugs

35+ Uses for Plastic Milk JugsYou'll love these clever ideas for plastic containers
By Marion Owen, Fearless Weeder for PlanTea, Inc. and Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul

"Uh, oh. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that plastic milk jugs deposited in landfills will never degrade. Yet each year, millions of plastic milk jugs are thrown away. In fact, milk jugs (and water bottles) represent one of the largest volume of plastic that end up in landfills and make up the corner-stone of almost all plastic recycling efforts. Fortunately, many people accept the challenge to re-use household items.
Reusing plastic milk jugs is no exception. Along with the plastic milk jug cloche (below) which protects seedlings and bedding plants, here are 34 more uses for your home, garden, yard, garage and boat." Continued at......... http://www.plantea.com/milk-jug.htm

UPCYCLING: New Term for a Sustainable World

Definition: Upcycling is "The practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value" From the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Isn't it wonderful how a word can just enter the English language in one fell swoop? Upcycling is that kind of word. Here is what the web site "Word Spy" says about "upcycling":

upcycling n. A process that takes used or recycled materials and creates a new product with a higher quality or value than the original materials.—upcycle v.

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Example Citations:
Mr. Kalin is big on 'upcycling,' a process whose name was coined by William McDonough, an architect, and Michael Braungart, a chemist, in their 2002 book, 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.' They used the term to describe the process of taking something that's essentially waste and moving it up the consumer-goods chain. 'I love upcycling,' Mr. Kalin said. 'I love this idea of bringing something from lower down and elevating it.'—Penelope Green, "Romancing The Flat Pack: Ikea, Repurposed," The New York Times, September 6, 2007
We also consider "upcycling", which involves taking used materials and increasing their value. For example, by taking an old shirt that someone won't wear just because they've dropped a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar on it, printing over the top of it and perhaps cutting into it to make it fit with current trends. It's very quick and easy. I can upcycle a worn-out ordinary shirt into a designer handprinted B.Earley one. —Lucy Middleton, "Turning the fashion industry green," New Scientist, October 6, 2007

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Earliest Citation:
Current recycling is actually what we call downcycling—reducing the quality of a material over several lifecycles until it is no longer useful. When car steel is recycled into building material steel, for example, it is melted down with other materials, such as copper. This copper content destroys the steel's stability. As a result, new steel must be added to make the metal strong enough for its next use. These things are not designed to be recycled. They're forced into primitive recycling processes after they've been used. Their original quality is lost.
If today's recycling is downcycling, then what's upcycling?
Korean rice husks used as packing for stereo components are now being reused as building insulation. Shipping is free because it travels with the stereo, the insulation is non-toxic, and we eliminate the concept of waste. After use as insulation, the rice husks can be used again as bricks. We've also developed a pulp from newspapers to be recyclined into building insulation. We use the intelligence that already exists in those materials.—Michael Cannell, "Upcycling the World," Architecture, September 1, 2000

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Notes:
The New York Times citation claims that upcycling was coined in 2002, but the earliest citation shows that the term goes back to at least 2000, and it may be even earlier. Here's a citation that may qualify as the earliest, if I could figure out what all the jargon means:
PIRA International is launching a multi-client project investigating the potential of residential mixed paper (RMP) as a fibre source for paper and board. RMP is already used in recycled board in North America. Although the main RMP users will be recycled board makers, potential may exist for deinkable fractions to be used in other grades. The study will be carried out in conjunction with Moore & Associates of the US which has assessed the potential market benefits of including RMP in US recycling programs. Information on yield, contaminants and fibre quality are necessary technical research areas which will be examined in the project through: assessing the potential tonnage available; establishing fibre quality existing within designated types of RMP and assessing variability levels; examining the economics and technical feasibility of proposed upcycling process techniques.—"Using RMP as a fibre source," Pulp & Paper Canada, November 1, 1996

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Related Words:cleantechconspicuous conservationeco-techecyclinggrasscyclingnewaterprecycling
Subject Category:Science - Environment
Posted on October 11, 2007

[From http://www.wordspy.com/words/upcycling.asp]

More about Quail

I'm smitten! These little guys are so cute. Here are just some of the great pictures from someone who has been raising quail since she was 14 years old: http://southfarthingstudio.com/id17.html