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

Quail Eggs are Good to Eat

Although I don't personally like the idea of eating birds that I have raised myself, I do like eggs, so I like the idea of raising birds that are small enough to live indoors and lay eggs. Quail droppings also make excellent fertilizer. Here is a very good article about raising quail: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/easterly101.html

This picture is from another informative web site:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Quail/JapQ/BRKJapQ.html

Another very good article linked to in the on the above site: http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Stuff/FeatherFancier/FeathFancQuail.html

The Footprint Family - A story of urban subsistence living. Chapter 3: The Footprints Move In

Franny and Freddie Footprint surveyed their new apartment and were happy with what they were starting with. They had found one with two South-facing windows and a great view of a nearby park. It was furnished, but Franny had a few ideas about ways to make it feel more like home. Yesterday, they had gone to the local thrift shop and found several changes of clothes for a little over $30, leaving them almost $20 to buy underwear and socks, on sale, from a local department store. They had located a shower head water heater on eBay for $60, but had to pay $15 shipping, so they were a little over budget on that item. They found the Sterno stove and one pack of the gel on sale at the hardware store, so they were able to get both for only $12.95. The hardware store also had a solar LED light on sale for $11.99. They spent a little more on seeds than they had intended, but by the time they got all the other items on their list, they still had enough money left over to buy a table-top oil lamp and an inexpensive kit for growing sprouts.

They had great plans for next pay-day, to get a couple of solar battery chargers (http://store.sundancesolar.com/siflsochfora.html) and a more practical stove and oven set-up. They also wanted to get a phone and to start saving for a computer.

On a blog called "Judy of the Woods," Franny had found instructions for making an oil lamp, using vegetable oil, so she wanted to make a few of those next week:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/homemade_oil_lamp_from_ju.html

http://www.judyofthewoods.net/lamp.html

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Franny and Freddie relaxed after a light dinner of some sandwiches that their friends Allan and Debbie had made for them, knowing that they wouldn't have their kitchen set up yet. Franny was laying out the seeds they had bought, while some good, dark soil they had dug up from an abandoned lot, "cooked" on the Sterno stove, to kill the weed seeds and any fungal spores that might damage new seedlings. Debbie had been concerned that there might be toxic fumes from the Sterno, but Freddie had done some research during his lunch break at work today, and found out that, not only Sterno was made of ingredients that were relatively non-toxic in this setting, but they could actually make it themselves, using only chalk (or egg shells), vinegar, and alcohol. He printed out an easy-to-follow explanation from an organization called Midwest Native Skills Institute, Inc. This is fascinating organization that teaches skills in survival and self-reliance (http://www.survivalschool.com/)

Here are their instructions on making Sterno:(http://www.survivalschool.com/articles/Fire_Making/How_to_Make_Sterno.htm)
"How to Make "Sterno™"
A solid camping fuel like Sterno™ or Magic Heat™ was discovered several years ago when a group of campers forgot to pack fuel for their camp stove. Because the area prohibited use of campfires, the campers needed to use an alternative fuel source. One of the campers made a gel that they could use as a solid fuel. To make this gel, chalk was crushed and mixed with vinegar. The resulting mixture was filtered through a napkin and the liquid collected was heated using a solar reflector. Some rubbing alcohol was poured into the solution to form a gel which burned. You can repeat this process and make their own gelled fuel at home with alcohol and calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4). Either methanol or ethanol can be used for fuel. Calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4) can be purchased or made by slowly dissolving calcium carbonate (eggshells or chalk) in vinegar, filtering, and allowing to dry

Here's how to do it…

Step 1: Place about 1 oz. of chalk (or egg shells) in a mortar and pestle and grind to small pieces. Transfer chalk to pint container and add 4 oz of vinegar. Stir for 5 minutes.

What’s Happening: A reaction between chalk (calcium carbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid, dilute) to produces carbon dioxide, water and calcium acetate

Step 2: Pour the chalk-vinegar mixture into the funnel lined with a coffee filter and collect the liquid in a pint container.

What’s Happening: Filtration of unreacted chalk from the mixture to leave a solution of calcium acetate in water.

Step 3: Pour 2 oz of the liquid into the dish. Gently heat the dish with a Bunsen burner until the volume is reduced by half. Turn off burner and allow concentrated solution to cool.

What’s Happening: Removal of excess water will concentrate the calcium acetate in the solution.

Step 4: Add 1 oz. of alcohol to liquid in dish. DO NOT STIR! The gel should form rapidly. Pour off any excess alcohol.

What’s Happening: Mixing alcohol with calcium acetate will form the gel fuel"

© 2007 MNSI - All rights reserved.

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Freddie had also set aside papers with information on items that he thought they should budget for, but were not urgent things they should get right away. One product that really appealed to him, since he hoped that he would soon have a bicycle to use to get to work, was the "The Cycle Charger," a unique gadget that permits charging of small electronics, like a cell phone, that can plug into a car's cigarette lighter socket. The bicycle charger was available at http://www.econvergence.net/cyclech.htm, for $89.95, but he was hoping to find something similar, but for less money, if he looked hard enough. --------------------------------------
On the same web site as the solar battery charger, Freddie had found something called a "Solar Shower." (http://store.sundancesolar.com/sosh5ga.html) It was basically a way of heating a 5 gallons bag of water. Since they already had a point-of-use shower head heater, they did not need the solar shower for its bathing function, but Freddie thought that it would be very convenient to have in the kitchen for washing dishes. It was only $15, making it quite affordable.

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Challenges for Chapter 3:
Is there a less-expensive bicycle generator

that Freddie could buy?

What's the most eco-friendly phone they could buy?

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