Monday, October 25, 2010

Reforestation 1.0

Two great links to get this category started.

First, 70,000 people in Senegal will plant an estimated 60,000,000 (that's million) mangrove trees by the end of this year. Mangroves facilitate lush ecosystems and store massive amounts of carbon. See more over at Treehugger

Second, a Dutch inventor by the name of Pieter Hoff has come up with a device that he calls The Waterboxx. This simple plastic device has an ingenious trick up its sleeve: the plastic cover changes temperature at a different rate than the surrounding air. As a result, condensation forms on the cover of the box which is funneled inward toward the seed/sapling. This process helps a tree get through the critical development phase in arid climates. The device is reusable and quite ingenious. See more over at Treehugger

Chicken Coop With a Green Roof

Just as the title says. What a great idea! The green roof is a great place to plant your veggies plus it provides the coop with some insulation that I'm sure your chickens will appreciate!

See it @ Inhabitat

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Headline: 40% of Kids' Diets Candy

Well, to be more precise, 40% of the calories that children and teenagers in the United States consume are "empty calories": cookies, candy, soda, and their counterparts. The study was done by the National Cancer Institute and more details can be found at the link below:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitness/junk-food-makes-half-kids-calories/story?id=11767886&page=1

What Happens When Fences Come Down?

What happens when fences come down in suburban Portland? Backyards and driveways become gardens and garages turn into chicken coops! Enjoy the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/LHtJlYbOe4k?fs=1&hl=en_US

Food Packaging 1.0

Here's a homemade system on youtube that sucks air out with a shark vacuum and then fills the bag up with nitrogen using rudimentary equipment. Perhaps it's not sustainable (use of plastic bags) but it certainly is practical and far less energy intense than wasting food or using cold storage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg5rob9sBF8&feature=related

This website is an excellent primer on food storage that includes a list of tools and "baby steps" that guide you to packaging your own food: http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

This is a great primer on calculating how much food you'll need in the event of a societal collapse: http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/4980

Here are some of the most popular off the shelf systems:
http://www.sealameal.com/
http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx
http://www.pump-n-seal.com/

Hydroponics 1.0

Almost all of my information is gathered from miscellaneous resources around the web. I only seek to aggregate. If you find a link, send it in!

This a very interesting system. The Omega Hydroponic Garden covered by Treehugger 
An indoor garden/hydroponics kit, The AeroGarden covered by Treehugger