Category: low-footprint living

Lots of people out there are trying to transition to an occupation that’s closer to the earth, better for the planet, better for community.

Someone in one of the groups (Deep Adaptation on Facebook) posed the question, “What did you used to do, and how did you come to transition to what you do now?”

My answer: Way back in the olden days, I did desk jobs. Editing, translation. The way I transitioned was around 2005 I started taking permaculture training, attending permaculture events, volunteering on local urban farms, taking peace training etc — and that made me less and less able to tolerate working a pure desk job with little benefit to society, plus it helped me zero in on what kinds of work I really wanted to do.

What I do now:

For some years now I have been a self-employed eco-educator. Writing; teaching various kinds of workshops (a wide range from composting to consciousness!); making art/crafts; speaking. And in the past five years I added an eco-landscaping business to my mix of occupations.

And as of this past year, I am an end-of-life Doula in training.

Because the business model I chose for the landscaping aspect of my work is gentle and human-scale, and includes sharing a lot of business with young practitioners, I expect that I will be able to do this landscaping work even in old age if I choose.

I also do occasional house cleaning jobs, using eco-friendly techniques and materials.

The person who started the thread, asking people for ideas on how he might transition to a sustainable occupation, mentioned that he had experience in construction and boat repair from his younger days, even though he has been working in an office for most of his life.

I responded: I imagine there are always a lot of boats that need repairing! A neighbor of mine stayed constantly busy that way, and also with minor home repairs. (I expect he is still staying busy those ways; he’s just not my neighbor anymore bc he moved across the state.)

Do not underestimate the number of people out there who are looking for someone to do super basic installations and repairs. If what I read on next-door is anything to go by, just about anybody handy could make a living just by being their neighborhood handy-person. Being older and experienced is a plus in this case, as there are a lot of fly-by-night people calling themselves businesses.

Also: People talk a lot about when electricity disappears, when fossil fuels disappear etc. There is really no telling how/ when that will actually happen. And if it does, it’s not likely to be sudden. But, regardless, just about every type of machine that we now run on fossil fuels used to be run mechanically (by gravity, water flow, etc) / or manually. So there will be always a need for people who know how to retrofit machinery to be nature-powered / people-powered. Probably it’s a lot of the same people who know how to do basic mechanical stuff — small engine repair, etc.

And (I keep adding new thoughts as they come to me): A lot of people in these kind of groups express concerns along the lines of “When collapse happens and people will no longer be willing to pay for my professional services.”

First, I think our human brains just have a tendency to imagine super sudden finite events; it might be easier for us to wrap our brain around a sudden “collapse” than some gradual thing. But it seems just as likely that a gradual thing is exactly what’s happening.

Regardless, just because we move to a less money-based system does not mean the need for most occupations will suddenly just go away. I think deep down what a lot of us are worried about is, to sum it up in a very primal way, “Unless I’m really great at growing food, my existence is not going to be deemed worthy of supporting and nobody is going to be willing to keep me around.” I think particularly a lot of us older people feel that.

And for that primal worry, the cure isn’t to go move out onto some vast acreage and start clearing the forest and trying to grow vegetables; it’s to address the internal, emotional issue of worth within ourselves. We have created a culture where people are not seen as having inherent worth. That’s what we have to work on. We should remind ourselves of how each person around us is precious and irreplaceable.

Our (capitalist, colonizer) society is spiritually ill, and any of us who are on a sort of metaphysical or spiritual path have a role to play in healing the collective rift between our earth-based existence and our existence as spiritual beings.

And besides, a lot of things that aren’t considered professions or occupations right now are always going to be needed. Really basic stuff like carrying water, hauling stuff, keeping an eye on things, keeping an eye on kids, keeping an eye on animals. Actually, a lot of people right now are doing businesses around all of those activities. And it’s certainly not going to go away just because the formal money economy collapses (if that even happens).

One “occupation” that has always existed is “elder.” Person who knows stuff and is a resource just because they have lived longer. This role has fallen by the wayside in our present-day society, but it’s not gone, and in a less money-based society it will only get back to being a bigger thing.

Super condensed nutshell:

• Material remedy for the aforedescribed angst: Reduce, to a bare minimum, the amount of money you need to live. (And no this does not mean depriving yourself of treats. Do distinguish wants from needs, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get to indulge some wants.)

• Emotional/spiritual remedy for the aforedescribed angst: Make plenty of time for people and relationships. Make people and relationships the most important thing in your life, second only to your connection with God, higher power, spirit, the eternal — whatever you call it.

Finally, a word about spirituality; spiritual practices. The only spiritual practices I know that are truly effective are ones that include a healthy process of confession and atonement. First thing I ran across in my life that was effective was a 12-step program which I got into as a young adult. The 12 steps include a searching and fearless moral inventory, confession, and amends. It was life-changing, no exaggeration.

Later on, when a friend introduced me to the Avatar Course, I found the compassion and integrity and forgiveness work in the Avatar materials to be extremely deep and effective, and I use those tools on an everyday basis.

Since today is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, I got curious about how my Jewish friends do their confessions. I had heard that their process includes collective confession and atonement, not just personal. I searched and found this page about Yom Kippur confession. Good stuff.

Yes, more and more, the eco-yard trend is making the mainstream news, even making it into glossy mags and the fancy weekend magazine sections of newspapers. Here’s a nice article in Washingtonian magazine. People Are Forgoing Classic Grass Lawns for Eco-friendly Native-Plant-Filled Gardens.

“Rhodes is part of a growing movement of US homeowners questioning the supremacy of the all-grass yard, aided by an increasing number of pollinator-­friendly state and local laws. Lawns still dominate — the Lower 48 contains 40 million acres of lawn, making turf grass, by area, the biggest irrigated crop in the country. But gardens have been gaining momentum: In 2020, the National Wildlife Federation reported a 50-percent increase in registered Certified Wildlife Habitat gardens and saw a fivefold jump in the number of people searching wildlife gardening tips online.”

Even the Wall Street Journal has an article.

“‘Rewilding is returning land to a more natural state,’ says Allison Messner, co-founder and CEO of Yardzen, a landscape design company with clients nationwide. Rewilding a yard typically involves introducing regionally appropriate plants, also called native plants, and fostering habitats for local wildlife. People come to the practice for myriad reasons. Some people want to support pollinators; some want to avoid water-guzzlers; others want to signal they are climate conscious. But the overarching purpose is universal: to encourage the flourishing of natural ecosystems and to mitigate the effects of habitat loss and climate change.”

(The WSJ article is titled “Meet the Homeowners Spending Tens of Thousands to Let Their Lawns Go Wild” — But Homegrown National Park, which shared the article on its public Facebook page, emphasizes that one need not spend nearly as much. It is in fact possible to get plants for free in many cases just by talking to one’s likeminded neighbors. I will say, in my experience, as one who did one year spend probably a couple thousand dollars on plants to get my yard jumpstarted, that the investment upfront more than pays for itself as none of the typical gas-powered, chemical-laden maintenance is needed.)

And on this subject of natural yards, we need to stop treating HOA’s like they are the laws of physics or the laws of the land.

We also need to set about the possibly scary business of entering into dialogue with our local code enforcement officials. I have started doing it, and surprise surprise, they are actually human beings who are more willing to listen than I expected. I actually had a code enforcement officer advise me — advise citizens in general — to not just go with what code enforcement says but to actually enter into a conversation and explain what we are trying to do.

Same with our neighbors’ manicured yard preferences. We need to stop being so cowed by what our neighbors think, stop being so apologetic about our yards.

We don’t have to be unpleasant, but we can acknowledge to ourselves that we hate their chemical manicured yards too! Aesthetics is a two-way street. And after all, our aesthetic preferences actually have an ecological and scientific basis.

Grass-kissers talk a lot about “curb appeal is important” — as if a natural yard has no curb appeal. To which we could respond: Curb appeal is important to me! I despise the look of manicured chemical landscaping, it has zero curb appeal. Realtors and developers take note too please!

Here are some very recent photos of my coastal dunescape yard.

Those were the more dune side; this is the more forest-y side.

Public service announcement: Covid still exists. I think most of us have noticed that there has been a resurgence.

Tested positive yesterday morn. All week I have had what I thought was the flu, but the past 2 days I had been feeling better: able to move around, do writing tasks, do work in my outdoor landscaping showroom, go for a dip in the ocean.

But suddenly this morning I noticed that I couldn’t smell or taste anything, so I took a test.

Next time anyone thinks I’m being too cautious for suggesting that it’s best to stick to virtual and/or outdoor mode for gatherings, I’m going to remember this day!!

People in most other parts of the world manage to have church services and business meetings and all sorts of other events outdoors — we can too!

And for people who say it’s not the same when it’s not in person, oh well. The Supreme Court managed to hold deliberations by telephone; we can manage to do stuff without being face-to-face.

People are always like wahhh wahhh but I miss seeing people; wahh wahh It’s not the same by Zoom etc.

It may not be the same, but I’ll take it!! Better than ending up in the hospital.

Plus I see tons of people every day. Plenty of human contact. People who aren’t seeing people just maybe need to go outside more.

And yes I am hard-core isolating to avoid spreading germs.

Peace out everyone, and hoping you stay Covid-free! This stuff is nothing to mess with even if you are usually healthy.

PS. Although I have not enjoyed losing my senses of taste and smell, I have noticed one very beneficial effect. And that is that I am less likely to eat more than my body needs. If I can’t taste things, then it becomes more obvious to me when my stomach is full. It’s kind of cool only having one variable to concentrate on, instead of additionally having my taste buds giving me feedback that sometimes conflicts with the fullness of my stomach ha ha. I have been having to pay more attention to portion size over the past couple of years, as I get older and my digestion becomes more sensitive. So maybe I can look at this Covid spell as a temporary training period for “sensible eating practices for a middle-aged body.”

Don’t look now but it looks like we have a #Degrowth – minded candidate for president!

(Copy-pasted from The Great Simplification group)

Breaking News! GrowthBusters executive director Dave Gardner will be announcing his candidacy for US President in 2024!

I’m running for U.S. President so I can tell the public the truth about why our system is failing us and our continued existence on the planet is so tenuous. It’s an emergency that calls for clear, decisive, leadership and all-hands-on-deck action. This is not a time for compromise and half-steps. We will make no more dead-planet decisions. Only bright-future pathways will be chosen.

On day one I’ll declare a national emergency and mobilize government, business, media and the public in an urgent project to shrink our nation’s ecological footprint:

• contract GDP
• decarbonize and go on an energy diet
• work less
• consume less
• support and accelerate the current trend toward choosing smaller families

We’ll implement new priorities and programs. We’ll build a healthy 21st century economy based not on growth and ever-increasing material wealth, but on needs met and partnership with nature.

We’ll come together to ensure full employment and food and shelter for all. We’ll nurture community-level collaboration. We’ll soon discover the joy of ending our enslavement to the rat race of an outdated grow-at-any-cost paradigm.

Some thoughts I have:

Here in the USA when people vote for a candidate outside the two major parties, they often get accused of spoiling the election because we’re supposed to be voting for the less bad candidate in the established parties. It’s always a dilemma. However I am still happy at this news! I guess I always hold out hope that someone like this could become a running mate of someone one of the more progressive candidates in one of the main parties.

His only political experience is running for office in his local area. As far as I’m concerned that’s fine (after all, look where longtime political insiders have gotten us), as long as he knows how to assemble teams and work with people.

Further Exploration:

• Dave Gardner website: https://davetheplanet2024.com

• New Candidate for US President Wants To Shrink Economy (news provided by Dave Gardner for president election committee; to prnewswire.com)

• A live Campaign Launch Webcast is planned for September 19. https://streamyard.com/watch/ZuiMPhgbxJFY Public and press are invited to attend and ask questions.

(The following is something I wrote up to share with one of our sister neighborhood watch groups. For some reason I never got around to it but I’m sharing it here.) #deepgreen #PR

Besides doing physical experiments in rainwater harvesting, heat mitigation, stormwater absorption & other aspects of sustainable living, we at DG LFLL also use our creative brains to hatch all sorts of wild ideas. Some recent figments of our imagination include turning the entire city into a giant waterpark fed by rainwater; and building a pirate-themed townhouse complex with canals instead of streets, where a pirate boat would operate all day as a shuttle service for residents. And planting trellis-tunnels of muscadine grapes over the sidewalks to provide shade and grapes to everyone.

I consider myself a self-appointed, freelance, volunteer public servant, serving our historic core neighborhoods on beachside and mainland, and I am here to support you with information and other resources.

I also have an eco landscaping business. My service territory is my immediate neighborhood. My vehicle is a handcart, and I work with small handtools.

Being able to do landscaping with just a hand cart and a few tools makes it a more accessible occupation for teens, elders, and others who might not have a big truck and fancy mechanized equipment.
I organize free mini workshops for locals who want to get into eco-landscaping, whether full-time or as a value added to your existing yard business.

Eco landscaping benefits all of us by mitigating heat, absorbing stormwater, and reducing our electric bills. It can also provide delicious fresh food, and it supports beneficial wildlife.

Much has been made of how technology has disconnected us from nature. However, if we use technology consciously, it can also help us reconnect with nature.

This morning, as I was on my walk to the beach to get in a little dip before dawn, I admired the morning star and silver crescent moon in the eastern sky.

And asked myself what stage the moon might be in. In this case I was already ahead of the game because I knew the moon was waiting. So all that remains was to guess the percentage. At first I said to myself 20%, but then I second-guessed and said 12%.

When I got home and checked my moon app, I found out my original guess I’ve been closer to the truth. Waning crescent, 18%.

There are lots of fun games we can play with our apps. Guessing the sunrise and sunset times and checking them on a sunrise/sunset app. Estimating temperature and humidity, wind speed, etc. and then checking our weather app. And so on!

What are some ways that you have used technology to reconnect with nature as opposed to disconnecting? (I’ve just been talking about apps here, but I can think of many other channels too.)

Typically I am not a fan of purchasing new stuff. However, once in a while I feel there is a good reason to buy something new. Over the past few months, I have bought three new things. Not only do they benefit me/my household, but also they have the potential to serve as “little ambassadors” reaching out to the mainstream “civilian” public.

Solar generator: I bought a little generator from 4Patriots, which can charge either by the sun or by conventional AC plug power. The one I bought is their smallest model; enough to keep the phone charged and maybe run a couple of small appliances during an extended outage. Besides using it to keep our own phones charged, I envision offering it as a micro amenity for the neighborhood in the event of an extended outage. 4Patriots (as well as Jackery and other brands offering similar) do have much larger models — some can even power a fridge — but my philosophy is just to provide for the bare essential minimum, which to me is basic communications. I do believe in minimizing our dependence on appliances and electricity in general, although they are nice to have around when they are available. (BTW I believe Kelly Kettle (and maybe other brands) offers a twig stove that includes a USB plug you can use to charge your phone, but I’ve never tried that.) I consider a solar generator a great improvement over gasoline generators. One reason, besides free availability of the sun, is the quietness of the solar generator.

Solar oven cover: My solar oven, the Global SunOven, is an advertisement in itself, especially since I recently moved the oven to a super-sunny position front and center in the yard and highly visible from the sidewalk. I often hear passersby comment on it, and if I happen to be out there, I answer their questions and sometimes long and interesting conversations ensue. But I wanted to add a bit of weather protection since sometimes I leave it outside for days at a time. The sun oven company offers a nice canvas cover with the sun oven logo on it. It looks a bit like a barbecue cover — which to me is cool because it helps normalize a solar oven as one of the outdoor cooking options alongside a charcoal grill.

Mini RV toilet: A lot of companies that serve the boating community and vandweller crowd etc. are getting into the act with super compact waterless toilets. Some of the toilets are cassette models, designed to be emptied into a regular toilet. Others are containers you line with a compostable bag and then toss the contents the same way you would toss pet waste — either into your compost bin or into the trash, according to what’s available to you. The other day I purchased one of the latter type of toilets, the Trelino Evo S, and I am very pleased with its look and its tight closure. I will have no problem offering houseguests this option. (Note, it is a compact size and probably a larger, male person might find it a bit too short to sit on.) The one I purchased is the smallest option; Trelino offers a medium and a large as well, with the same sleek appearance and highly functional design.

Household resilience is a beautiful thing. While “soft” skills — such as how to use up food in a freezer and how to live comfortably without airconditioning — are probably the most important, a few carefully selected goods and appliances can really help you and your household members feel more secure and less anxious about power outages and other disruptions to the centralized distribution channels.

And, my convenient little purchases double as handy PR devices to inform and educate the general public.