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I was looking over some Chinese recipes the other day… not to cook from them but in evaluating the ebook they were in. It got me thinking about how much my own cooking is derived from Chinese methods.

One of my favorite things to cook is a big stir-fry with brown rice:

I put on the brown rice, using about 1 cup of rice and 2 1/4 cups of water. I cook it on a very low temperature for about 35 or 40 minutes and then without opening the lid and letting the steam out, I turn it off and let it sit for  another 10  to 20 minutes. Actually, that method of letting it continue to cook is something I learned in France. It saves energy and makes it less likely your rice will be stuck to the bottom of the pan. I also sometimes put a small dollop of olive oil in the pot to help avoid sticking. (Any leftover rice finds many uses.) Read the rest of this entry

Yesterday, I wandered over to my husband Kelly’s bookshelf in search of something to read. I came away with Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos by William J. Burroughs. In the pages I have read so far, Read the rest of this entry

Maybe you’ve already listened to Steve Jobs’ talk at the Stanford graduation in 2005. I had heard of it but didn’t get around to watching it till this week. I really like how he talks about not seeing till afterwords some of the benefits of things we’ve done. In his case, that included dropping out of college and later getting fired from Apple, which he had been a founder of.

So I had this in mind to blog about, and just now I wandered over to my husband’s desk and said, “Whatcha doing?” He was reading a really good commencement address by Paul Hawken, given earlier this month at the University of Portland. You Are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring is the title of his talk, on the organicconsumers.org website, which is well worth a browse, or many browses.

Here’s a bit of it:

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection…

When my dentist told me that my gums were a little inflamed and that I should use a mouthwash, I thought of those foul-tasting, vile-colored things you get at most stores. As I’m in Mexico at present, my choice of natural mouthwash products from a health food store was probably nonexistent.

I asked my dentist if there was something more natural I could use, perhaps involving salt. Generally, Mexican medical specialists know more about herbs, homeopathy, and natural remedies than their North American counterparts, and this dentist was no exception.

“Certainly,” he said. “Make a strong manzanilla tea — how do you say that in English?”

“Chamomile,” I said.

“Ah yes.  Make about a liter and add a coffee spoon of salt.”

I tried to think what a coffee spoon would be. “Oh, a teaspoon?”

“Yes, thank you.  Use it 3 times a day till your gums are better, then use it whenever you want.”

So I mixed up a quart of this Mexican natural mouthwash, and it is helping. And it tastes okay.

I’ve had a serious bout of futility this week.

No matter how much I do for simple living or green causes, I can’t help but think of all the wasteful living that is going on everywhere, of people suffering from extreme lack of adequate facilities,  of the human propensity to have wars, of… of… of… I could go on without stopping with a list of at least 50 items. I bet you could too.

So I was seriously discouraged. I don’t know what set off this particular spell, and I am not sure it matters. I did my Qigong, I swam, I prayed, but I stayed stuck in a sense of futility. I mentioned it to a good friend in an email, and he wrote back: Read the rest of this entry

The fear of swine flu is everywhere these days. But there are quite a few things you can do to protect yourself from any flu, and I will list some of these further down. First I want to give my take on the current situation with the flu, then give you those protection tips, and end with a link to  articles on the big picture of this flu situation.

Read the rest of this entry

Kelly and I currently live in a very small house and we have discovered that there are many advantages. Of course, it cost less to buy, and it uses less in the way of utilities. To our surprise, after decades of having separate offices, we are enjoying working in different parts of the same room, separated by a huge bookcase so we aren’t breathing down each other’s necks but we can quickly discuss something. (I’m the software geek, he’s the natural building expert).

Our friend Owen Geiger has been designing small houses, Kelly has recently been putting some of the plans up on his ecological house plans website, and Owen’s plans have already begun to sell. Links are at the end of this article. Read the rest of this entry

The No Impact Man project blog by Colin Beavan is a great example of how much we can change our lives to live more simply without a lot of deprivation. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, young daughter, and dog.

I came across his blog because of a link someone else had to his article on 42 ways they are avoiding making trash. I was intrigued by using baking soda and cider vinegar instead of shampoo and may try it – he links to full details.

I like his last one::

Read the rest of this entry

Here’s an artistic composting toilet from Emma Holister of http://www.art-margin.com/ — I can’t completely agree about compost toilets not smelling, having had two of them that did now and then smell… but they were not this kind.

Also, perhaps because I’ve lived in third world countries, or maybe I’m just more fussy than Emma, but I would not personally use humanure on veggies. Fruit trees, yes… I just like a little more distance from that compost!

These are small points, though. I completely agree with her comments about the need for such toilets worldwide.

For larger images, just click on any one of these pictures. —Zana

Here is our latest compost toilet.  We’d have liked a different colour from white for the bucket, but as it was the only type we could find, we did the best we could.

Design Emma Holister

Construction David Roure

A few facts to remember about compost toilets:

1) They do not smell!!  The organic cover material such as sawdust or dead leaves blocks all odours completely to the point where you can have your ravishing, state of the art toilet in the comfort of your bedroom and be done with long treks to the bathroom during the night.

2) By no longer using flush toilets you save about forty litres per person per day and become significantly more independent from the costly, wasteful and polluting water grid.  Say goodbye forever to costly plumbing, toxic sewage and septic tanks.

3) You show your friends and family that people in rich countries are capable of taking responsibility for the environment by sharing knowledge that will resolve the most serious problems in poor countries ravaged by epidemics caused by lack of adequate sanitation.  This type of toilet is the solution to the world wide problem of water pollution and water scarcity.

4) By applying the simple composting methods taught in ‘The Humanure Handbook’ by Joe Jenkins you can produce your own top quality compost to use either on your own vegetable garden or to sell to local compost dealers.

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This is quite a worthwhile book! I’ve read it a couple of times.  click on the image to find out more at Amazon. — Zana

The Cheap-Ass Curmudgeon’s Guide to Dirt: Hand-Building with Adobe, Papercrete, Paper-Adobe, and More, by Michael Van Hall, is a delight.

This downloadable ebook will take you through the steps to make your own simple dirt structure. He doesn’t go into all the details of how to build a house, as he points out that you can find that information everywhere. (I will add you can find that sort of thing at our natural building bookstore.)

This 100-page ebook focuses on… as you might guess from the cover… dirt. With close to 100 photographs and numerous drawings, the book is a relatively quick and very enjoyable read. It will motivate you even if you already are excited about natural building. And it will give you enough information to pile up the dirt with his special method.

(One quibble: he says you can also do this approach with papercrete and other materials. Kelly and I used papercrete as the exterior covering on our earthbag house in Colorado, and we have several friends who built all-papercrete homes. Don’t do it just before the rains come or during the rainy season, as it needs to really really dry or there can be mould problems. If you want to use papercrete, do a lot more homework on it specifically.)

Okay, back to this ebook. After an upbeat introduction with some history, there is an illustrated section on the traditional way to make adobe bricks, with comments on how much work it it – both to make them and to carry them to the building site. Not to mention the patience required to wait for them to be dry enough to use.

Much better, says Michael, is his Self-Locking Pour-in-Place System (trademarked.) Much of the book describes how to do this, and it looks like a lot of fun. Okay, any play with dirt is still going to be a lot of work, but this sounds like fun work!

I specially enjoyed the chapter where he did everything wrong… at least by traditional standards.

Michael’s website is fun too – click here to see what else the cheap-ass curmudgeon has to say, download some chapters of his ebook at no cost, and buy it if you want to.