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Several electronic tools help me stay in tune with the rhythms of nature, or make it easier for me to do my work. Some of them are so helpful I’m really glad I don’t have to do without them!

The following apps on my phone have become my electronic best buds:

• Clock (alarm, timer, stopwatch — especially the alarm, which I use several times a day for everything from a mini nap before going out, to reminding myself to call someone, to reminding myself to cycle the fridge on or off)
• Calendar
• Note pad
• Reminders
• The Moon
• Sunrise & Sunset
• Sky Safari (one of the many apps out that let you point your phone at the night sky to identify stars and planets)
• Map (as much of a diehard fan of paper maps and atlases as I am, I love map app for navigating on the fly)

The following are not apps per se but I include them in this post because they are electronic and indispensable to me:

• emails providing webinar date/time reminders
• webinars, in general

In permaculture design, “appropriate technology” tends to refer to things like solar ovens, hand-cranked radios, bicycles, and scythes.

A good explanation of appropriate technology can be found in this Wikipedia article. As the authors say, appropriate technology is “small-scale, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally autonomous.”

By that definition, my favorite electronc tools might not meet everyone’s definition of appropriate tech. However, if an app or other e-thing does two or more of the following, I include it under my personal definition of appropriate tech:

• reduces or eliminates the need for a car trip or other long-distance trip;
• expands my sustainable-living skills, including awareness of the natural world;
• uses less energy than the non-electronic equivalent, and/or eliminates the need to purchase a separate device;
• helps me be better at serving my community, doing my work.

How about you — got any apps or other e-tools you consider indispensable?

By the way, there are quite a few apps out there for plant identification, but I haven’t tried any of them yet so am not qualified to comment. If you have tried any, drop me a line and tell me about your experience!

A few days ago I posted about how I use my kitchen trash can (a 5-gallon bucket) as a kind of stash for materials I might end up being able to use. The trash only needs emptying every month or so; one time I went four months.

A couple of days ago I used a can of tomatoes (part of my policy of periodically using-up and then replacing my hurricane food supply), and put the can and its lid by the trash.

Today I was able to use the lid as material for shims to strengthen an old rake I found at curbside. The rake, though otherwise sturdy and made of good materials, had gone wobbly with age; the shims seem to help.

It may be hard to tell from the photos but the little pieces of metal are jammed into the gaps between metal and wood to make the rake less wobbly.

P.S. Well whaddya know, just as I finished writing this post I got a text from a neighbor asking if I had any saran wrap. Usually the answer would be no (I don’t buy any of that kind of stuff — plastic bags, wrap, etc), but in my trusty TRASH STASH, it just so happened there were two pieces of Saran Wrap (which had been brought by another neighbor when she brought over my half of a watermelon we agreed to split). I grabbed the two pieces of wrap out of the trash and gave them to the neighbor who needed them. BTW in case you are worried, he wasn’t using them for food-wrapping purposes, but rather, to wrap as a water-repelling layer on top of an Ace bandage around his leg. Ended up being just right for his purpose.

As a follow-up to my last post, which was about household electrical devices, here are the tools/machines (in all categories, not just electric) which I consider necessary to my household:

• Bicycle
• Hand-cart
• Bicycle cargo trailer (may not be absolutely necessary; been doing without for awhile but it really makes life so much easier that I’m going to call it necessary)
• Clothesline, folding clothes-drying rack
• Solar oven
• Haybox (fireless cooking setup)
• Rocket Stove, Kelly Kettle, or both (have not had for awhile but want to buy/make)
• Sewing needles, knitting needles, crochet hooks
• Scissors
• Hammer
• Saws
• Crowbar
• Screwdrivers
• Chisels
• Rasp
• Small needlenose plyers; flatnose plyers; nippers
• Tin snips
• Lopping shears, pruning saw
• Shovels
• Trowel
• Broom
• Crank drill, punch drill
• Ladder
• Candles & lanterns for emergency
• Magnifying glass to make fire
• Hand-cranked radio
• Smartphone with data plan
• Solar device to charge phone (I have one but the little solar panel is a bit finicky because of the small surface area)

There may be more; I will add them as I think of them.

An exercise in John Michael Greer’s superb book Green Wizardry invites me to list every appliance in my home that’s powered by electricity. And next to each, write what it’s meant to produce: heat, cold, motion, light, or information.

A followup exercise, later in the book, has me note whether each appliance is a Necessity, Luxury, Convenience, or Waste of current.

My results:

Stove – Heat; Convenience

Refrigerator – Cold; Convenience

Electric kettle – Heat; Convenience

Microwave – Heat; Convenience

Toaster oven – Heat; Convenience

Fifth burner – Heat; Convenience

Blender – Motion; Convenience

Lamps/lights – Light; Convenience

Laptop computer – Information; Convenience

Phone/internet – Information; Necessity

Flush toilet – Motion; Convenience and Necessitated by law

Running water – Motion; Convenience and Necessitated by law

Heating pad (kept in medicine closet for emergencies; never used) – Heat; possible Necessity for a guest someday

Notes: Yes, this is really all the appliances I have in my house. I have no water heater; removed it to make space in my studio/office. The microwave and toaster oven were left by a guest and I rarely use them, should probably pass them on to someone else. I have a radio but it is charged by hand-cranking.

The big finds (which were things I had noticed before, but it was helpful to see them laid out this way) were that 1) As helpful as a refrigerator is, I consider it only a convenience, not a necessity; and 2) The only electric-powered items I consider necessities for myself are information devices. Even the laptop computer is not a necessity; though it’s great when I need to type, I can get by without it.

The only electric thing I consider an absolute necessity at this point is my phone with its data plan. Which would be easy to keep charged with just a little solar panel.

That said, I am pretty habituated to the convenience of my electric kettle (which I use every day), electric stove (which I use about 2-3 times a week), blender (which I use in intermittent spurts — I love smoothies and soups!), and the fridge.

However, I am fed up with the electric-power consumption of my giant fridge (it came with the house), which accounts for two-thirds or more of my total power consumption. I’ve just started a new experiment to try to reduce my refrigeration footprint without buying a new fridge — will report to you on my findings as they come out.

Oh, hey! I just noticed another part of the exercise which I had missed before. It says to go over the list of appliances and try to find some approximation of the service that uses no electricity at all.

(Says Mr. Greer: “Don’t worry at this point about whether you could use these alternatives in your present lifestyle; the point is to get you thinking about alternatives, and free up your imagination from the straitjacket of abundant energy.”)

So here goes:

Stove – solar oven, haybox, Rocket Stove, Kelly Kettle (already use the first two steadily; need to build a Rocket Stove and/or buy a Kelly Kettle, both of which run on dead twigs and other small dried biomass)

Refrigerator – ?? Zeer pots and root cellars do not work well in this hot humid climate where I live. Maybe icebox (order block ice by the week), but footprint might not be any smaller – need further research. Also, grow more food so I can pick it off the plant on an as-needed basis instead of needing to refrigerate it; learn to make dried fish; make ceviche (it’s easy); expand sauerkraut- and pickle-making skills; invest in a solar-powered fridge (pricey)

Electric kettle – solar oven, Rocket Stove, Kelly Kettle

Microwave – not needed, pass it on

Toaster oven – not needed, pass it on

Fifth burner – solar oven etc

Blender – ?? This one’s hard. Do without smoothies maybe. And make soups by hand-mashing the cooked veggies. Also I have seen bicycle-powered blender setups at festivals, so that would be a possibility too!

Lamps/lights – Do things that don’t require electric lighting such as read a book on my phone, take a walk, sit with a neighbor on the porch; go to bed when it gets dark; go out to a show; read a book on my porch by the absurdly bright light of our city streetlights (I already do all of this)

Laptop computer – just use smartphone

Phone/internet – if I had to do without, could get info by talking with people, going to the public library; and could spread info by giving public talks, speaking at meetings (already do all of this), writing postal letters to friends and family

Flush toilet – use bucket loo (which I have on hand as part of my preparedness kit for hurricanes and other disasters)

Running water – use hand-pumped well water and rainwater tanks (both of which I have on hand and use regularly in addition to the tap water)

Heating pad (kept in medicine closet for emergencies; never used) – use a rock or black bag of sand etc. that’s been heated in the solar oven

Recommended Reading:

Green Wizardry: Conservation, Solar Power, Organic Gardening, and other Hands-On Skills from the Appropriate Tech Toolkit, by John Michael Greer.

This book and its writer have been on my radar for some years. I stumbled on the book in the public library the other day (God/dess bless the librarian at the Edgewater Public Library who set up a “Sustainability Books” display), and Mr. Greer absolutely blew me away with how he expressed things I had felt to be true but not known how to articulate, and/or did not feel confident enough of myself to respect my own expression of them. I will very likely be making other blog entries inspired by this book in the near future, and I have just ordered myself a copy to keep.

(Interesting side note, the Edgewater library was also where a friend of mine stumbled on MY book, Deep Green. And after checking it out and reading it, she ordered herself a copy, which I consider a most high honor.)

When talking about invasive species, I often put “invasive” in quotes because really, the biggest invasive species is humans. We just can’t seem to keep our mitts off any corner of the earth, land, sea, or air.

Many environmentalists view the removal of “invasive” species as an essential task to restore “native” landscapes. (And I’m not going to argue with those folks, because their viewpoint is very tenaciously rooted.)

My viewpoint is that an attempt to eradicate this or that plant or animal is a fool’s errand. Even if we could succeed at it (which we never will), eradication is extremely energy-expensive, not only in terms of fossil fuels but in terms of sheer human energy that could better be spent elsewhere.

You might be able to think of examples from your own life — not only from your house and garden but also in the social/professional arena.

One of the principles of permaculture design is “Obtain a yield.” Simply setting out to “get rid of” something is expensive, exhausting, and bad for the ecosystem.

Interesting story: One of the most vilified “invasive” species in my home region is the Brazilian pepper tree. There are huge campaigns to eradicate it. But my friends, backyard beekeepers who sell their honey at the farmer’s market and happen to have a Brazilian pepper tree growing in their yard, told me the other day that they have found that there is special demand for Brazilian pepper honey. Apparently it has a special zip to the taste! It’s a niche market for them.

I have also read that the pepper has medicinal uses. And one Brazilian pepper tree I heard about recently, had been home to several nests of cardinals before the tree was ripped out by well-meaning humans trying to clear the landscape of “invasive” species.

Other potential uses abound. Pretty much any plant should be able to be harvested and made into bio-plastic, bio-fuel (methanol), and other useful products. Even more simple and low-footprint, any plant could be “chopped and dropped” to make berms and gabions for water filtration, erosion control, stormwater management, and other essential functions.

A permaculture colleague (Koreen Brennan of GrowPermaculture) recently commented in a Facebook thread on invasives:

“Cogon grass, a super invasive that needs multiple application of Roundup to kill it, is rare and hard to find in Vietnam because it is used for all sorts of household uses.

“Every invasive species has usually at least a dozen economically viable uses. Water hycinth has at least 20 different economic uses. We could be harvesting them instead of poisoning them (and the ecosystems they’re in).

“Handling invasives could make money for the state instead of costing money. This might take some initiative and thoughtfulness to work out, but it is far from impossible and a much superior handling.”

If you share my aversion to the eradication mentality and would like to hear from an expert who favors a more measured approach to how we view “invasives,” I highly recommend the book Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration, by Tao Orion. (Ms. Orion does support limited use of herbicides, which I don’t agree with. I think we should be absolutely dogged about harvesting and obtaining a yield, or else just leaving that corner of nature alone and watching her come up with a better way than we humans could imagine. Still, I do recommend Ms. Orion’s book as a life-saving antidote to the eradication mentality.)

Also check out this interview with Tao Orion by Shay Totten of Chelsea Green publishers, on the Organic Consumers Association website.

And for the artists and art lovers, check out this artist, Matt Tommey, who weaves gorgeous baskets from kudzu (a plant that is reviled as invasive in the USA, but is utilized as a dietary starch in Asia). The photo at the top of this post shows me having fun with some yard clippings from my neighborhood.

Update: Here is a treat I just found. Opinion piece on naturalizing our yards asks the question “Is St. Augustine Turf Grass an Invasive Pest Plant?”

Update 12/15/2020: Someone in the Permaculture group just posted about a book called The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation, by Fred Pearce. Looks like an interesting read.

On the other hand, over the past few months I’ve been reading and listening to Doug Tallamy, and the case against deliberately landscaping with exotics is very strong. Birds and pollinators need native plants in order to survive, and we humans would quickly die off without birds and pollinators. Here are some of my favorite Doug Tallamy resources. Homegrown National Park (our own backyards are a “final frontier” for preserving biodiversity). I found his book Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach To Conservation That Starts in Your Yard eye-opening. He’s written other books as well. And check out this article about him in Smithsonian mag, Meet the Ecologist Who Wants You To Unleash the Wild On Your Backyard.

“‘Every Plant and Animal is Useful To Us’: Indigenous Professor Re-Thinking How We Deal with Invasive Species” (CBC Radio). “When invasive species show up, Western science tells us they should be dealt with. But Nicholas Reo wonders whether we should instead ask why they’re here in the first place. Reo, an assistant professor of Native American and environmental studies at Dartmouth College, alongside anthropologist Laura Ogden, is researching how invasive species mitigation could be approached differently.”

This is my three-bucket kitchen setup for trash, compost, and recycling. (Recycling is yellow bucket underneath the compost bucket.)

The trash bucket holds a month, two months, three months worth of trash (even half a year one time in recent memory). Trash consists mostly of plastic wrappers, bags, lids, and other things that can’t be composted or recycled.

Being dry, the trash doesn’t stink. And it is very lightweight and easy to compact by foot.

A bonus of not having to empty the trash every week or even every month, is that sometimes I find a reuse/upcycle for something I’ve thrown in there, and am able to retrieve it. Containers can be planters for seeds; lids can come in handy for all sorts of stuff. Flexible materials can serve as patches or stoppers.

I’ve even thought of making “trash-crete” sometime.

This trash can is the main trash can in my house. Other than that, there’s just the little wastebaskets in the bathroom and bedrooms which hardly ever need emptying. (And it’s mostly paper trash, which I compost). And there’s my office trash, which only needs emptying a couple times a year and mostly gets composted.

When you take food and leftover beverages out of the trash equation (they are composted), it solves a lot.

We should start thinking of trees as public-health infrastructure, according to the Nature Conservancy as reported by FastCompany. “Leafy streets cannot afford to be seen as a luxury.”

On that subject, today I had a minor victory in communicating with a public-works supervisor who was overseeing tree work on a public site in my neighborhood.

I walked up to him and asked why they were cutting so many branches off the big oak tree at my neighborhood police precinct. (Insert loud mechanized equipment, teeth-gritting noise here.)

The guy was a bit short with me, replied, “It’s called trimming.”

(Note, this was a guy I had talked with before, a couple months ago, when a work crew was excessively cutting palm trees in our neighborhood and I told them it was bad for the trees, wildlife, and neighborhood. I was trying to be civil but probably came off a little rant-y. So that surely played a role in his response today.)

I said, “I know what trimming is, I just wanted to know why you are doing it.”

He said, “If you know what it is, then you would know why we are doing it.”

I said, “Not really. There are lots of reasons to trim a tree, why are you trimming this tree?”

He pointed up at a light that was above one side of the tree, said, “They want more light here.”

Which did not explain the need to trim so many branches all around the tree, but I thanked him for the information and walked away.

But then a few minutes later I walked back and said, “Look. I’m not trying to be your enemy. And, I’m trying to get better about how I communicate, and who I communicate with. But I’m a citizen and I want to know how my money is being spent. And a lot of us are concerned about the loss of shade on Beachside.”

The interaction didn’t end with everyone feeling lovey-dovey, and I’m still not happy with how much this beautiful oak tree with its graceful canopy is being poodled, like so many other trees in our city. But, a bit of progress in that I stayed calm and kept things focused & brief, and spoke up as a taxpayer/resident.

One thing that has become apparent to me is that, more than anywhere else I’ve lived, people here in my adopted home region on the Atlantic coast of Florida have wide differences of opinion as to what constitutes necessary landscape maintenance. The norm here seems to be very extreme. Right now on the same lot they are doing their habitual thing of shaving the protective bark off the palm trees — something that is just shocking to me. The University of Florida Agrigultural Extension Service and other recognized authorities advise against removing the “boots” (as well as over-pruning the fronds, another common practice around here).

Since so many people in our region seem to favor extreme scalping, those of us who feel differently might need to get a bit more vocal to protect the trees and quality of life in our neighborhoods. (In addition to creating our own preferred environment by planting all the trees and other plants we can on our own yards/balconies).

Photos show the “improved” oak tree, a scalped palm trunk, and a group of “rooster” or “hat-racked” trees, all very representative of landscaping practices that have become more and more the norm in this region in recent years, on public property and private.

The all-reaching cherry-pickers and chainsaws have been at it for hours. Speaking of public health and quality of life, I wonder how much of our mowing and trimming budget could be redirected to swim lessons for underprivileged kids, care of our senior citizens, and even just planting more trees.

I do my best to focus on positive actions I can take. Besides making my yard hospitable for pollinators and other wildlife, I’m also creating native plant landscaping in a few pockets of public space. It’s micro-scale, but it’s attractive; it’s low- to zero-maintenance; and it’s helping with stormwater mitigation even if it’s just on a micro scale. And it is easy for anyone to replicate on any scale.

In closing, my constructive takeaway: Wherever you live, keep on doing what you are doing to communicate about what is important, and shift the norm in favor of ecosystem health. Keep refining your process and don’t give up. Gather allies; they are closer than you think.