Most committed modern homesteaders try to keep up with the many issues of concern to us personally, our country, and our chosen way of life. Things like rural development policies, governmental agricultural and energy policies, self-sufficiency (and roadblocks to that), management of forests and water sources, etc. It’s because we care that we are who we are and do what we do. And a good many of us try to keep up daily or weekly with the best sources of information we need to keep abreast of those issues.

One of my favorite sources is the Organic Consumers Association [OCA], which is tireless in its efforts to follow and disseminate necessary news and useful resources for homesteaders like us. If you haven’t signed up yet for their newsletters, go on over to OCA and do so. You sure won’t be sorry!

In my newsletter this week I was again informed that OCA’s website has been under sustained hacker attack, operatives for the ‘usual suspect’ [Monsanto] notwithstanding. Somebody out there doesn’t want us to have the good information OCA delivers to us for free, and is actively attempting to thwart the effort. Show ‘em some love if you’ve got some love (or money) to spare!

One of the issues OCA is on top of that should be of serious concern to all of us who grow organic fruits and veggies or raise free-range chickens, grass-fed beef or offer organic dairy products is the Obama administration’s alliance with Monsanto in matters of developing policy. The new proposals for “food safety” have proven positively draconian for small value-added producers, many of whom are having their farms raided by gestapo-type goon squads and their equipment, animals and food products seized, and are facing astronomical legal bills all in the name of corporate agribiz profits and total control of the food supply. I mean, it’s not like these people care about toxic substances, unsustainable practices, mad cows or melamine in baby formula or anything. What they want to eliminate are your choices, access to markets, and ability to make a living by sustainably tending and preserving the land instead of raping it wholesale.

Knowledge can be our most effective weapon beside our commitments to the land, our families, our way of life and our hard work to make it work. If readers have more sources for keeping up, please offer them in the comments and I’ll check them out and report back.

In these times of Wall Street collapses, banking bankruptcies, massive unemployment, homelessness and increasing deprivation, we in the rural sector are already living in Great Depression-II even as the city folk and DC denizens keep talking about mere recession. We have a new President who has promised “hope” to Americans, and who appointed a Monsanto apologist to be Secretary of Agriculture, thereby slapping every struggling small farmer and ardent homesteader in the face.

Hope is all very nice in a made-for-TV movie or light novel, but we all know you can’t eat it, live in it, pay your doctor with it or drive it to a day-job. We’re going to need more than hope and slaps in the face to get through all this piper-paying. And despite Obama’s lousy choice for SecAg, there are some people in DC who do seem to understand that while cities are where the bread and circuses are distracting the population from their deprivations, if we allow the rural backbone to disintegrate people won’t just be deprived. They’ll be starving to death.

Many of us modern homesteaders came to our lifelong labors of love from those cities and megaburbs, once living large with boom economy jobs and the whole rat race. Then gave it all up very much on purpose so we could build new lives for ourselves and our families that really mean something. Those of us with college degrees (some quite advanced), may have even taken a few courses in basic business management and/or economics and/or marketing to help us get those city jobs we left behind when we moved to the hinterlands where the farmers live.

As the various tentacles of the economic stimulus package reach into the states, some state legislatures are working hard to earmark some of the funds for rural business development. Rural, farm-based businesses that produce not just raw materials but finished (or partially finished) products for sale are what is called Value Added Agriculture.

Value added agriculture makes a different kind of business out of the usual small farm business of growing basic commodities and then selling them to buyers representing big food producers and conglomerates. It’s not just selling milk from your cows to the local dairy, but making cheese out of the milk and selling that to grocery stores, restaurants and sometimes directly to retail customers. Instead of just being the raw resource miner, the farmstead becomes the producing ‘middleman’ in the chain of getting raw resources processed and to consumers all over the world.

State land grant universities in all states are beginning to offer these business management courses through their agricultural departments to farmers and homesteaders. Some extension agencies are also offering classes free or very cheap, so a farm family can learn the details and develop their ideas over time while still maintaining their dirt-based day jobs.

Some of the better resources I’ve found out on the web to help homesteaders take this next step toward better income and community job resource come from various sustainable agricultural organizations. Keys to Success in Value-Added Agriculture is a 20-page booklet that offers a very good overview of the issues and solutions involved in adding value to your commodities. The USDA’s Rural Development branch has information and applications for their value-added producer grant program to provide funding for farm-based entrepreneurs.

The Ag Marketing Resource Center, a national partnership of land grant institutions and state departments of agriculture, offers a portal to their gathered resources for those interested in value-added agriculture. These include market research, business development grants and success stories from all over the country.

So if your family would like to expand your homestead’s horizons this year, check out these resources and don’t hesitate to use them as portals to more information and more help in getting started. It’s our lives and chosen lifestyles on the line, and none of us should lose these to the failure of political and economic leadership in recent years. If readers have their own success stories or ideas to share, please do!

Links:

Disconcerting: Tom Vilsack at USDA
Legislation introduced to invest money in ag industry
USDA: Value-Added Producer Grants
Agricultural Marketing Resource Center

There is a resurgence of hope across America in the wake of Tuesday’s election of Democrat Barack Obama as President, promising a new direction of change for the future of our nation. Those of us who have been paying attention to the global financial meltdown, increasingly severe food shortages in the wake of global warming, and the outrageous poisoning of our citizens and livestock/pets by corrupt Chinese producers (a glaring example of globalization’s failures), are hoping that a new dawn in America will bring with it the serious changes to our agricultural policies that have grown increasingly necessary through decades of decline.

Now, politicians don’t generally talk much about agricultural policies while they’re stumping for votes in big cities. And they’re often so ignorant of agricultural issues that even rural dwellers – actual farmers – get nothing but pablum and platitudes in response to their questions. Luckily, journalist Michael Pollan wrote a great ‘open letter’ in the New York Times in October entitled, Farmer in Chief. This is a must-read for all of us committed to self-sufficiency, locally grown foods, the viability of family farms and homesteads, and the future health of an environment we all depend upon for life.

Pollan begins his letter to “Dear Mr. President-Elect” with an honest caution -

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

Pollan goes on to explain issues like climate change, energy independence, health care and the general health of the economy in terms of our dependence on food depend crucially on sound agricultural policies. He explains very well what ‘went wrong’ with our food system over the past several decades, and how the antiquated, fossil fuel dependent system cannot be sustained. We no longer have cheap fuels and unlimited water supplies, our policies are haphazard, our subsidies unfair, our planning non-existent. Pollan then offers his particulars in this 9-page article, and the reasoning behind them is fascinating reading. He offers a complete rationale for organic farming many of us have been promoting and practicing for years, in three not at all ‘simple’ steps…

1. Resolarizing the American Farm
2. Reregionalizing the Food System
3. Rebuilding America’s Food Culture

I’ve added my voice to the growing calls for our leadership to pay serious attention to the many complex issues of our food supply – which IS our ‘national security’ – by sending this article as a link in a congratulatory email to President-Elect Obama. This is an immediate action issue, as Obama is right now choosing his cabinet and advisors. Agriculture and food policy issues must not fall to the back of the line. So add your voice to the calls for sane policy and firm leadership today!

You can also sign petitions and keep up to date on incoming news at the Organic Consumers Association. Don’t forget while you’re there to sign up for their email newsletter too!

CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. The CSA ‘movement’ in my state (North Carolina) organized, promoted and maintained per resources and educational materials by the state’s Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach arm of the state’s Department of Agriculture and land grant universities. It’s all about small farms, sustainable agriculture, natural and organic methods, and best marketing practices for what is produced.

CSA member farms offer fruit and vegetables, flowers and landscaping plants, eggs, milk (dairies specialize in cows or goats) and cheese, pasture-fed meat, and some even participate in the AgriTourism initiatives to bring urban families and tourists out to the farms for tours and work opportunities. Consumers can purchase from favored producers at local farmer’s markets, or do what we do – buy a “share” of the coming season’s crops in the spring when the farmer needs the funding to cover seeds and the costs of getting the crop in and going.

Different producers work differently for their shares, so choose a CSA close to home in case you are expected to come to the farm to pick up your boxes and bags of goodies. At some CSAs you’ll get to pick your own strawberries, peaches, apples, etc. when they’re ripe, the farm will let you know when that happens so you can make plans. Some have workshops that let you get some close-up training on bee keeping or cheese making, even learn how to milk a goat!

There’s nothing better than getting to know your food producer personally, and getting some important hands-on opportunities to learn how it’s done, maybe put that to work in your own garden. Even better, the ability to purchase good, natural or organic produce, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, etc. from local producers will cut your food budget significantly. Prices are rising fast at the supermarket, and supermarket produce isn’t very tasty anyway.

Joining a CSA or two every season allows the homesteader to focus on producing just what they can’t get easily or cheaply from other producers in their area. It also allows the homesteader to hook up with other homesteaders and old-timers who know everything about everything in your particular area. In my experience the old-timers love nothing better than to answer questions from committed newcomers, and will often offer practical advice and encyclopedic knowledge of what it takes to survive on the land.

I easily found the CSAs in my area by doing a Google search on “CSA NC” which returned the Extension Service’s useful website. The same should work for your state too, so make use of it! Now’s the time to buy your shares, or get the lowdown on what will be available through the farmer’s market in your area, where to find your favored growers. So get on it, gang!

“Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” [1794]

It was the #1 cash crop in the 13 new states just as it is the #1 cash crop in 50 states today. As a fast-growing “weed” that requires no pesticides or herbicides and very little fertilizers or irrigation, the close-packed stands of 8-9 foot tall plants provided more biomass per acre than any other crop ever discovered, bred or engineered. Its fiber content is 2 to 3 times as great as cotton per acre, and is both softer and stronger than cotton. Hemp paper lasts hundreds of years and can be recycled more often than tree pulp papers.

Hemp’s high cellulose content is a fine base for plastics – composites made with hemp are now used by Mercedes Benz to produce auto bodies and dashboards. Hempseed oil is both more nutritious and more economical than soybean, peanut, sunflower or canola oil. It burns brighter than any other plant oil, and can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink, home heating oil and lubricating oil. It is as easily converted into ethanol as corn, but can be grown in a much wider range of climates and conditions.

News organizations warn that we are facing a worldwide food shortage in part brought about by the diversion of staple food crops to ethanol and biodiesel fuel production, worsened by reliance on unsustainable agricultural practices and chemical pollution of once-rich “breadbasket” farmland. Our reliance on foreign oil has caused 2 wars in this first decade of the 21st century and killed more than a million people with violence. America alone has sacrificed more than 3,000 soldiers and left some 30,000 returning veterans with life-crippling injuries. Pollution from fossil fuel burning contributes to another few hundred thousand premature deaths worldwide every year. Global warming, if unchecked, will eventually kill tens or hundreds of millions more.

The answers we seek for the future may require a re-examination of our past. Perhaps George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were right. What might be accomplished if we did NOT spend 4 billion dollars a year trying to prevent farmers from growing industrial hemp?

Links:

Fossil Fuel Cuts Would Reduce Early Deaths, Illness, Study Says
1997: Canada Repeals Hemp Prohibition
Energy Farming in America
Hemphasis: Hemp as a Fuel/Energy Source
Vermont House Approves Hemp Bill
Hemp-based biodiesel, NOT ethanol

The real “trick” in items 21-25 are the collective will to work together and agree upon sustainable agricultural, building, energy production and distribution practices.

Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities

When FDR was elected President in 1932 – in the midst of the Great Depression – he addressed the awful situation by means of the “New Deal.” Tucked away in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 which established the huge public works programs, was the Subsistence Homestead Communities project. The plan was to relocate some of the idled workers from over-populated industrial areas into planned subsistence communities they would build for themselves with government money.

Read about the Cumberland Homesteads project for yourself, it gives a rough idea of the rewards community development can reap, even if the whole thing is privately financed by the motivated homesteaders themselves (as it must be today). Sure, there are many grants available for rural community development (such as state agri-tourism initiatives) when there is someone skilled in applying, from all sorts of government agencies federal and state. And some resources available from corporate largesse these days as well.

21. Community Commodity Cooperatives

One of the best collective strategies for any rural region – and all self-sufficient sub-communities in those regions – is to establish a production planning group that includes all willing members of the community who farm or produce any truck crops for sale/trade in-season.

Some rural communities already have cooperatives that share big equipment (combines, harvesters, etc.) and collectively purchase seed at discount, so those memberships are ready made for organization. Other rural areas don’t have such cooperatives, but in places where “everybody knows everybody” it’s not that hard to knock on doors, produce the literature and book the community center for meetings. Enlisting the aid of rural town chambers of commerce, local Lions and Ruritan clubs, etc. is also a good way to enlist members. Only a few meetings a year are required to present research and plans, those can be put together by volunteer committees.

Based on who produces what and what their usual markets are, it’s not that hard to figure what acreage is available for which crops, what local markets are available or could be developed, and what other local resources and talents can be put to use for the whole community – commodity storage, food preservation and processing, distribution and/or warehousing, etc. This way a community can be ensured access to staples not every acre-or-less gardener grows, while the small farmers who grow grain have access to the high-nutrient value foods the smaller producers grow.

22. Community Seed-Saver Cooperatives

No matter what the gardeners and small farmers in an area produce, it’s not that hard to encourage the use of heirloom and open-pollenated cultivar seeds, and institute a seed-saving bank right in the cooperative itself that all have ready access to. If the decision to avoid GMOs and hybrids can be made for the collective stores, there will be seed available year to year to all who wish to participate in the community commodity self-sufficiency program.

23. “Shares” and Agricultural Practices

Community cooperative members who raise livestock (preferably by agreement without factory-farm or chemical/illegal feed practices) can contribute to community composting efforts on a convenient lot, available for members to use on their collective-dedicated plots. Cattle, goats, chicken, horses and donkeys – any of these animals produce waste that composts into fine fertilizer. Rotting hay, grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, crop wastes – all these things can add to the pile, any member free to dump their trailer loads on whichever pile is freshest, any time. A community-owned backhoe can turn and manage the piles, help loading.

A community with lots of youngsters and teenagers can put ‘em to work during the summer pulling weeds, in-row cultivating and bug-picking if the community-dedicated plots don’t use chemical poisons by mutual agreement. And whoever’s dirt produces the hottest habaneros every year should get a break on everything by donating that crop to production of insect repellant sprays for the dedicated truck plots. The hot stuff works well on most pests (especially soft-bodied ones), and if vegetable oils are used for suspension they’ll last on the foliage through a couple of rains. Most pest infestations come in waves, so timing is everything.

24. Community Power Grid

If several (and more coming all the time) homesteads in the community produce electricity from their own resources, the coop can house and maintain the centralization of tie-ins, much as rural electric cooperatives did in the past. This can maintain the primary reverse metering to feed excess into the main grid as purchased production by the electric utility, and share production among members for regular load capacity (usage). Money earned by utility purchase (if it exceeds draw by individual members) can go into the cooperative maintenance fund.

It is also worth noting that there is government money available for such rural community cooperatives for developing community resources for electrical generation. These can help finance solar installations and/or wind generators on cooperatively owned land, as well as larger waterway (like the local river or through-town deep-creek) development for mini-hydro generation.

25. Community Fuel Production & Distribution

Instead of an in-barn homestead-size ethanol still (and/or oil press), why not build a larger, community-size still/press? If the farmers pledge to produce an acre or two of oil or dedicated grain crops per season (tractor, harvest and transport fuel supplied by the cooperative, processing collectively paid for, central storage, supplied seed) it wouldn’t be hard for a community to enlist a few workers to man the equipment. If the farm diesel equipment is geared to operate on SVO and the gasoline engines are set run on ethanol, this can be a closed system.

Localized food, energy crop and energy production are the wave of the future in sustainable and self-sustaining communities and regions. It’s a different way of life from the “crowded with strangers” culture of modern urban life, but it’s a way of life being deliberately chosen by more and more people. While rural areas are also full of people who never left the farm (so didn’t decide to leave the cities), those people tend to already know what it’s all worth.

In my 15 years’ worth of homesteading experience, the ‘old timers’ are quite amenable to getting to know their new neighbors and up for working collectively for the good of all. Most would rather sell their crop production locally than ship it halfway around the country or world for less than it cost them to grow the food. Farmers have been in trouble for awhile now, but they’re still the best living knowledge resource for any serious homesteader. To make best use of them and their knowledge, it’s best to include them in the plan!

These 25 strategies are mere outline of what’s out there or in development. Places to start planning for an individual and collectively sustainable and self-sufficient future. Diversify – everyone has skills, and most people can develop more than one! More people, more talents, knowledge and skills. The answers are simple! Making them work takes some work.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities

We’ve looked a bit at on-site electrical generation, transportation fuels and building technologies. In this installment we’ll look at some ways of putting things together into overall strategies for homestead independence.


Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems

In a previous post a short video was offered about as small, 1Kw hybrid energy system using solar and wind offered by a company in Canada. Whether you’re planning to go off-grid with storage batteries or negotiate a price for your excess production with the local utility (and get a “backwards meter”), the same thing is true of energy supplies as is true of general homestead success – diversify. So Here are five hybrid systems, some good links and some cool ideas for planning your alternatives…

16. Solar-Wind

In addition to the previously linked hybrid system from Canada’s SEMA Technology, there are many other solar-wind hybrid systems out there at varying power ratings and costs. Best place to get an overview is from DOE’s Consumer’s Guide to small hybrids. Most homesteaders in areas where the wind isn’t a constant gale will find smaller, steadier units that work well in low wind situations best for their use, while avoiding the bird kill problems of the big 2 and 3-bladed powerhouses.

Some of these (and other hybrid systems) can also be supplemented with generators that operate on biomass, waste cooking oil or methane. The handy homesteader can also make their own waste oil burners to supplement household heat, make an outdoor oven/stove, or even supply the heat for a homestead ethanol fuel still.


17. Hydro-Solar

A micro-hydro system powered either by diverted head flow or sited directly in a flowing creek can supply steady power 24 hours a day. When supplemented by solar during the day, all it takes is proper timing of your consumption habits to live on your home-generated energy budget.

Again, if the homesteader avoids using electricity for thermal energy – home/greenhouse heat, cooking, etc. – a steady power supply from micro-hydro supplemented with wind or solar (or both!) should supply enough electricity for normal homestead uses. An alternative fuel generator can supply occasional heavy loads.

18. Solar-Geoexchange

This is a hybrid “space conditioning” system that doesn’t generate electricity separately, but makes use of clever design engineering to diminish a home’s energy usage year round by using a double wall envelope and below-ground heat sink. This keeps the space at a temperature that doesn’t require air conditioning or much heat in the winter. Since these are among any home’s greatest energy uses, these ideas can be put to work in various ways by the handy homesteader. There are construction companies in many states who specialize in this system, so look around if you’re building! And for an overview, see SolarGeo.

Homesteaders lucky enough to have property over sizeable cave systems, or in geothermal hot spots, have options the rest of us don’t. But eventually thermal gradient technology such as that currently used in today’s heat pump units may be refined to work on very little electrical input, making them a good choice for homesteaders who generate their own juice.

19. Combined Heat and Power Systems

Solar Air Conditioning:

Abbreviated CHP (Combined Heat and Power), systems that make use of the waste heat generated by fuel-powered systems (boilers, furnaces, wood stoves, etc.) to increase efficiency. Depending on where you live and how you’d plan to put the heat to use, a CHP mini-system might be a worthy option. If you live north, the heat can warm your toes and cook your bread. If you live south, consider engineering a version of the thermal energy conversion technology in solar air conditioning to keep your home cool! Solar could help on hot, sunny days, but heat is heat – your CHP system can provide it.

There are CHP home systems available and in development, or again a handy homesteader could rig one up with either an internal combustion or a Stirling engine.

20. Multi-Tech Systems

Most clever homesteaders will have recognized already that diversification of energy sources provides all sorts of hybrids they could hook together to ensure an ample, steady supply of energy to their buildings and property. But for a good overview of what’s being done out there on this level, check out the Hybrid Micro Energy Project [HMEP] home energy multi-tech system.

Making use of integrated photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind and biomass, it’s easy enough to add hydro to the mix. The technology is out there to hook things together, charge batteries or go straight AC to the house or grid. It won’t totally solve America’s energy crisis, but it will solve our homestead energy needs. Big changes always start out with small steps. We can do this.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities

A Happy Solar Homestead

When we discuss alternative energy strategies, any able homesteader is going to be concerned with building and various secondary retrofits to homes, barns and outbuildings. The more energy the homestead can gain passively – or conserve passively – the less energy will be required to supplement.

In these strategies 11-15 of the series, we’ll look at some of the ways a homesteader can use smart, green building practices and technologies to lessen their dependence on supplied energy sources.

Part 3: Building Technologies & Alternatives

11. Passive Solar Siting and Construction

Whether you’re building a new house or barn, or simply retrofitting to what’s already there, strategies for making the most of nature where you live will help to save on energy inputs.

To make the most of passive solar, consider how much direct sunlight falls on your homesite throughout the year. If you get ample sun (have a site that has an ample southerly exposure), plan accordingly. Big windows (with no significant overhang) can provide direct solar heating in the winter. Dark stain or paint on the south wall will also absorb heat from the sun. Conversely, walls that are mostly or entirely shaded during the day, plus the north wall, should have as few windows as is reasonable.

Limit heat gain in summer by planting deciduous trees (apples are good) fairly close. Also bear in mind that any south-facing roof is a good place to put solar panels or solar collectors for hot water (or both). If you do install these, you’ll want retractible awnings for your south windows because you don’t want any summer shade trees interfering.

Green Building Basics

12. Earth-Sheltered Building

A home sheltered on 2 or 3 sides with the earth itself will maintain a much steadier temperature all year round. It will be warmer in winter (and hold heat better), cooler in summer than a fully above-ground dwelling. The same is true for barns if your homestead includes livestock, as well as for spring houses and/or root cellars.

There are now “sod roof” designs too, though these also require clever planning. Plus, if you’re growing grass or wildflowers on the roof, you won’t have it available for solar collectors. The plus again is insulation as well as heating/cooling supplied by the earth and plants themselves. Because our property slopes steeply to a side-ridge next to the cabin I’ve been considering a cute little Hobbit-House dug right into it – round door and all. If I ever get a backhoe, that’s just what I’ll do. Until then, I’ll be content that the first floor is earth sheltered on 3 sides. Works great.

Earth Sheltering

New Green Building Technology: Dirt Floors

13. Supplemental Heating and Cooling

Depending on where your homestead is located in this big country, your needs for heat and cooling will be tied directly to your microclimate. If you live in a climate that requires supplemental cooling in summer (and can’t earth-berm), a water cooling system is probably the most energy efficient bet. Moving air is always good, window and attic fans work well. You can always wet your tee-shirt and sit next to the fan, be cooled in no time! Or take some time off and go soak in the cold creek.

For supplemental heat a good size homestead should be able to use wood – a renewable resource. Simply maintaining a sizeable stand of forest can supply a lot of wood from thinned saplings, standing dead and windfall (you’ll want to keep your forested acreage well anyway to diminish chance of fire). If your woods are limited be sure to replant what you take, and choose fast growing hardwoods (like tulip poplar or locust) instead of evergreen conifers (soft woods like pine and fir).

Wood Heat Stoves & Solar

Central Boiler: Outdoor Furnace

14. Recycle All the Building Materials You Can

When building or adding on (or even doing some serious remodeling) always try to get recycled building materials if you can. There are businesses in almost every good-size town/city that specialize in recycled materials – used bricks and cinder blocks, poles and logs from old houses and barns, hardwood floors, windows, doors, ceramic tile, barn and house sidings, bathroom and kitchen fixtures and plumbing, even cool interior touches like railings and finials and moldings and such. Not only do these generally cost much less than new, sometimes an able homesteader can get great materials for free by offering to tear down an old barn or dwelling and salvage what he can.

Neighbors can often help supply materials as well, so get to know them. We’ve picked up many a brick, cinder block, window, door and other supplies from people who have been collecting for years, and are trying to make room for the new “free stuff” they’re collecting. Every recycled item you use to improve your homestead is energy NOT wasted by anybody else to produce new. It’s also money saved.

ReNew Building Materials & Salvage

15. Long Term Food Storage

While home food preservation (canning, drying, freezing) is its own separate series, the wise homesteader will want to make best use of strategies for long-term food storage that don’t require extra energy inputs. One of the best strategies for long-term food storage makes double use of a spring house/root cellar combination. Even if you have a well for house water, you can use this strategy at your creek or any natural springs on the property.

Flowing water – particularly spring-fed or ground water – tends to be cold and stay within a small temperature range year round. Our spring house (10×10 feet square) was dug into the mountainside at creek level many years before we moved here. There is a concrete plastered cinder block trough along the back wall, parallel to the hillside. A pipe coming through at one end brings spring water (~40º all the time) into the trough steadily. The trough has an overflow pipe on the other side that drains it back to the creek. This cold water also moderates the temperature in the space, and I’m fond of storing melons in the trough during the summer so they’re always cold but take up no room in the house fridge.

Any root vegetables (rutabega, beets, parsley root, celeriac, potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots), winter squash, pumpkins and fruit like apples and pears can be stored in this cellar in straw (so they don’t touch directly) for up to 9 months without significant spoilage and no freeze damage. I have seen in-ground root cellar/spring houses of this design in Oklahoma that work every bit as well as mine. Also have seen this design used in a house cellar food storage area in Pennsylvania, built before there was refrigeration and with a trough the entire width of the farmhouse that served refrigeration needs very well.

Peace and Carrots: Root Cellar

Walton: The Root Cellar Home Page

In part 4 of this series – items 16-20 – we’ll look again at energy systems for producing electricity or otherwise readily usable juice, this time at hybrid systems that combine several strategies at the same time to get the most usable power from the most readily available sources. Do stay tuned!

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities

In the first installment of this series we looked at 5 technologies for generating electricity – solar panels, other solar (thermal for heat differential mechanical energy or steam generation), micro-hydro power and wind. This post is about alternatives for basic transportation, motorized equipment around the homestead and in rural cooperative communities.

As the series is about all the alternatives, these transportation-related alternatives are numbered 6-10 out of the 25.

Part 2: Transportation & Motorized Equipment

In 1893 Rudolph Diesel published “The Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine” and was eventually granted an American patent on his invention. His first models operated at about 26% efficiency, which more than doubled the efficiency of steam engines. By 1897 he’d achieved an engine that ran at 75% efficiency. Diesel demonstrated his engine at the Exhibition faire in France in 1898, and the fuel that powered it was peanut oil. It was Diesel’s vision that the engine could be used by small business owners and farmers and run on vegetable oil rather than then-expensive petroleum.

Then petroleum became so cheap that the entire transportation and farming equipment industries went with that fossil fuel instead. Now petroleum is once again becoming very expensive, and the air pollution problem from the burning of fossil fuels has become increasingly dire.

Most transportation – and some electrical generation – still uses the diesel engine. That’s some cars and light trucks, most all heavy trucks, city buses, heavy farm equipment (tractors, combines), railroad engines and ocean shipping. The gasoline engine, which uses a more refined petroleum based fuel, accounts for most of the private cars and trucks. What are the best present and upcoming alternative fuels?

6. Biodiesel

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, biodiesel fuel is made by a process of “esterification” which uses industrial alcohol (ethanol or methanol) and a catalyst to convert the oil into a fatty-acid methyl-ester fuel.

“Neat biodiesel” or B100 is usually blended with petroleum diesel. Most common blends are B5 (5% biodiesel and 95% petroleum diesel) and B20 (20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum). Most diesel engines already in use can run on biodiesel blends without any conversion or retrofits. Because transportation fleets can run on B100, the petroleum content is added primarily to extend production – there is simply not enough “esterized” vegetable oil available to fuel our transportation needs.

Biodiesel or SVO can also be used to fuel farm tractors and combines and generators and any other homestead/farm equipment that employs a diesel engine, thereby cutting the pollution and depletion of petroleum for agricultural uses.

National Biodiesel Board

7. Vegetable Oil

Even though Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on straight vegetable oil, the EPA does not recognize the legal use of SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) or recycled greases (waste cooking oil in vehicles. Despite this governmental bias toward petroleum and excess refinement with alcohol, vehicle diesel engines can be converted to run on vegetable oil just fine (they need an extra pre-heating element), and many cars pull up to the back of fast food restaurants to gather the waste frying oils that restaurants usually have to pay waste management companies to haul away. The only processing required is to filter out the crumbs and leftover nuggets of food from the oil.

Vegetable oil as fuel can substitute for #2 Diesel fuel and home heating oil (a significant market in the colder states of the U.S.).

8. Ethanol

The U.S. Department of Energy maintains an informative link page on ethanol, also known as “wood alcohol.” Most ethanol in the U.S. is produced from corn grain starch, while in Brazil sugar cane is used. It can be made from any cellulosic plant material, or “biomass” such as grass clippings, vineyard wastes, wood, crop residues or even old newspapers.

Ethanol works best in gasoline engines, as it is more flammable than vegetable oils that can be used in diesel engines. Henry Ford and other early automakers believed ethanol would be the primary fuel for their vehicles before petroleum became so readily available. It’s a high-octane fuel that generates more power than gasoline. At present ethanol is mixed with gasoline in E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) and E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline).

9. Electricity

Fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles take their electrical ‘fuel’ from the main energy grid. Which, as we all know, gets its juice primarily from coal, petroleum/natural gas and nuclear energy sources. Still, it is possible with an adequate homestead or community electrical generation system wind and/or hydroelectric sources for excess capacity generated at night to charge the vehicle’s batteries adequately for short-range driving. Electricity is electricity, no matter what generates it!

The economics of using electricity to power a vehicle can be factored on the weight of the vehicle, the condition of its batteries and the going price for electricity. It won’t work well for heavy trucks used to transport goods. Development is underway for “fuel cells” that will convert chemical energy from hydrogen into electricity while the vehicle is running. Electrical powered vehicles contribute virtually zero pollutants to the air so long as they are running on batteries. The batteries themselves and the generation technologies to charge them are another matter.

Alternative & Advanced Fuels: Electricity

10. Hydrogen

Of all the alternatives for transportation fuel, hydrogen is the one that holds the most promise as a virtually pollution-free alternative. Hydrogen is the most abundant element is the universe, and can be obtained from fossil fuels and biomass, or from electrolysis of water (2 hydrogen atoms to 1 oxygen atom).

If reliable hydrogen fuel cells are ever developed, a vehicle can potentially be two to three times as efficient as a gasoline powered vehicle while producing nothing but water as waste. At present hydrogen as fuel is mostly mixed with natural gas for use in vehicles that can use compressed natural gas, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions significantly.

Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel

Consumer Energy Center: Alternative Fuel Vehicles.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities