Why Goats Aren’t a Resilience Plan
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
I don't intend to discourage anyone, but in the interest of honesty you should know that some resilience steps are much easier to accomplish than others. Depending on where you live, goats aren’t necessarily one of the easiest ones.
Low-Waste, Inexpensive Seed Starting
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
All together, these techniques add up to an effective, inexpensive, low-impact garden-starting regime. There’s room for improvement, of course, which just keeps my life from getting boring.
Living with a Compost Toilet (and Toddlers!)
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
Pooping in water increases by many times the volume of hazardous substance that must be treated. It also worries me that our critical sanitation is dependent on fragile modern systems. When the power goes off for a while, hygiene is often the second emergency (right after healthcare). It seems to me we should have backups in place, which rely only on local knowledge and locally available materials.
Fertilizing a Garden Entirely for Free
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
With this free fertilizer scheme I can still garden successfully if I don’t have extra cash to spend on fertilizer. I can still garden if my local hardware store goes out of business and I lose easy access to purchased inputs. I can still garden if something goes really wrong with the world, supply chains fail and it’s no longer possible to buy fertilizer.
The Pros and Cons of Living in Our Small House
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
We built our little house using light straw clay and lots of reclaimed wood, which both saved us money and reduced the environmental impact of building. Alternative materials alone don’t make a house green, though, because even the eco-friendliest house is still far more impactful than it has to be if it is bigger than it has to be.
Building a House with Light Straw Clay
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
I admit it. It was me who brought the crazy house-building scheme into our marriage. But he encouraged me! If he hadn’t, I would have given up somewhere along the way. But I didn’t, and we built a house using light straw clay. How on Earth did that happen?
What is Low-Carbon Living?
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
A carbon footprint is a best guess about how much greenhouse gas my actions (and those taken on my behalf) cause to be put into the atmosphere. It’s an attempt to measure the harm I do, understand it and then reduce it by making different choices. If you’re wondering whether it matters, I recommend reading The Uninhabitable Earth.
Chickens in Our Small-Scale Food Production System
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
Chickens in a small-scale food production system, whether that’s a suburban backyard or a bit of acreage, are valuable first for the services they provide. In nature, scavenging omnivorous birds form a symbiosis with large mammals.