alternative living forum?

[teonanacatl]

what the fuck happend lol none of the posts i made earlier worked.

Anyway what do you think about a forum based around alternative living things such as wildcrafting, building with alternative materials like straw, permaculture, raising meat for consumption, alternative electrical systems, water recycling systems, hunting/fishing, and anything else that allows you to live more self sustainably and independant?

[Hagakure]

im keen as mustard and will help out if you need.

been getting really interested in stuff like that recently.

how did gom get his forum going in the end? is that costing any money?

there are forums on the subject already like this one http://survivalacres.com/forums/

got ideas for something better? more australian centric?

[teonanacatl]

actually i ment a sub forum in this forum, whats that called? like the chem forum?

[transDiMenTional]

yeah this sounds great. particualy an australian based one with ideas that suit our country and climate. Where do i sign up? :D

[hebrew]

great idea teo.

[Korky]

fantastic idea, you have my support.

moving out of a share house and in to my own in 5 months and would love to implement such techniques (that are impossible to do when living with 2 conservative women who's idea of doing their part is turning the heater on ONLY when it drops below 20C)

"NICE ONE BRUVAAA!"....

[Torsten]

I am very sympathetic to that idea as it actually supports a subforum I would like to see emerge here about biodiesel and other forms of alternative power [but which doesn't have enough traffic to justify it]. So, a broader lifestyle forum would be perfect.

[teonanacatl]

yay :D

Im keen to talk about alternative power, I think I have some interesting views on using hydrogen lol :D

[Torsten]

remind me again in a few days if I haven't done it. real busy over the weekend, so not playing around with the forums.

what should we call it?

[Hagakure]

wicked

great idea Teonanacatl and top work for implementing it Torsten

[teonanacatl]

Sustainable Living

Edited April 13, 2007 by teonanacatl

[Salviador]

Great Idea, ethnobotany is all about the utilisation of plants in suppot of culture and living

Also theres a small forum here, and generally a good down to earth site, maybe it could be a good idea to put a sticky up of good web resources

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/

Second the vote for "sustainable living" title and suggest it be put under ethnobotany

[Benzito]

Great idea guys!

I think we all have a dream of being self-sufficient, like our own little personal hippie commune, but it can be quite hard to raise enough food to feed you without a commune of labourers.

Maybe it could be called 'Ethical Living'? Because I'm sure the debates will even come down to things like free range vs cage eggs, etc.

I like to think if I'm not living sustainably, I'm still living ethically. You know, just try to inflict as little negativity on other living things as I can, in the course of my living.

[paradox]

 

 

[teonanacatl]

new age living? or

Natural living

[occidentalis]

Sufficient living.

[Rev]

living for life

[DocAzz]

"Off the Grid" or something to that effect.

Top idea!!

[ThunderIdeal]

benzito.. i have no experience to rely upon when i say this but, any permaculture book will tell you that getting enough food for a family from two acres should be no problemo. it may take up to eight years to develop that food system, but that's if the land is quite bad to start with. i think of all our needs, food is one that is quite easily met provided you have the hours to put in and make use of intelligent design.

looking forward to the new forum.

[Rev]

depends how dry the contry is

at 500mm annual rainfalll and decent soils you need about 40 acres to sustain a family in basic needs

[ThunderIdeal]

i was gonna do a precipitation clause ;)

it isn't exactly designed for small bits of land but perhaps the best overall land use strategy that i have encountered is the key-line system, which was invented in australia. it's a bit tricky to get good info without having to buy the books (i forget the founder/authors name). it explains the most efficient configuration for DAM PLACEMENT, and exactly where to do non-inversion plowing to make the most use of those dams, your land and your rainfall. i can explain a bit more if anybody is interested but my knowledge is all theoretical, and besides, the new forum isn't even up yet

if you've got a hefty chunk of land though, and you're looking to put in some gravity fed dams, i can't stress enough that this system is almost definitely the best around.

[Rev]

yes dams are great

but for ecological harmony you have to keep the animals out of them

australia has too many waterholes, its overstocked with exotics and natives

many govt programs in sthe west are concentrated on drying up pastoral lands. capping bores and reducing water points

this way the arid rangelands can recover, free from roos and goats

[ThunderIdeal]

whoa

living in the city i could never have imagined that would be an issue

[Rev]

do you fly much?

if so look at the landscape as you go

see all the watering points created by humans

grazing animals native and exotic have done VERY well out of european settlement

[ThunderIdeal]

when i was five i once hopped in a hot air balloon which was attached to a rope.

the answer is no :D this is a beautiful country to see by road and i don't plan on leaving it for ten seconds.

i can take your word for it though, just about every rural property has at least one dam, and fences don't seem to stop much.. roo's can hop right under a barbwire stock fence and i imagine pigs can make short work of them.