9
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
I think you're right that building your own is likely to be necessary (we're in the same position). What I've discovered in Australia is broadly applicable in the global north, so:
An earthship can't ...
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8
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
I suggest that you question some of your assumptions.
Difficulties of off-grid.
Off-grid is HARD, and generally isn't worth it unless you are a long ways from the power lines. If you are looking at ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Are bats and chickens good animals for pest control?
My wife and I have about 100 free-ranging chickens. For bug control, they are a mixed blessing. Chickens eat just about any kind of insect they can find, excepting small ants, and thank goodness ...
- 386
4
votes
How much land can a full-time organic farmer take care of?
Research
This is probably extremely variable depending on the specific crops you are talking about. I tried to gather information from various sources. I looked mostly at studies of subsistence ...
- 1,077
4
votes
Are there any commercially available endophytic fungi to protect fruit trees against rusts?
It is true that some endophytic fungi have antimicrobial effects on their microscopic counterparts be it of fungal or bacterial origin.
This paper whose study employed the use of fungal extracts ...
- 141
3
votes
What is the relationship between permaculture and sustainability?
I think this is a very good question which is quite a challenge to permaculture. The answer depends on what it is you are trying to sustain.
My understanding of the aims of permaculture is that it ...
- 31
2
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
We would like to implement as many sustainable strategies as possible, ideally being nearly off-grid, with solar panels, rainwater storage, grey water recycling, humanure / methane tank toilets, ...
- 5,144
2
votes
How can I build a spinning wheel?
It seems the bottom line of the question is low cost spinning wheel.
The Dodeca wheeldesign is available free on line. This has been noted in another post. Porter also sells this wheel and a ...
- 123
2
votes
Soil Restoration Issue - How to deal with thousands of small pine stumps?
The small ones aren't too bad. Conventional rototiller will take care of them. Two inch is pushing what a rototiller can handle. If you are running 10/sq foot there won't be many 2" ones.
This ...
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2
votes
Accepted
Soil Restoration Issue - How to deal with thousands of small pine stumps?
If you have a tractor that can drive over them a flail mower should work. If you intend to mow anything on the property it would be worth looking into a flail mower because they're very useful (and ...
- 3,945
1
vote
Quantitative comparison of the economics and output of permaculture versus industrial farms
A back of the envelope approach to this is to ask how many people can a permaculture farmer feed?
And the answer is, "Not many" While permaculture can get outstanding efficiency in terms of ...
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1
vote
Quantitative comparison of the economics and output of permaculture versus industrial farms
I don't think "mid- to large-scale commercial permaculture farms" exist in big enough numbers to give a meaningful answer, even if they'd been studied. I suspect that because there's no ...
- 3,945
1
vote
What countries favour people who want to live a sustainable lifestyle?
Wales (in the UK) has a planning policy called "One planet development" which substantially relaxes planning restrictions for new dwellings which will "have an initial ecological footprint of 2.4 ...
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