An Earthship is a radically sustainable home made of recycled materials.

* Electricity is from the sun with solar panels and wind with wind modules.
* Water is caught on the roof from rain and snow melt.
* Sewage is treated on site in interior and external botanical planters.
* Heating and Cooling is from the sun and the earth.
* Food is grown inside and outside.

Earthships are constructed with recycled materials and perform as expected in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide you with what you need to survive.

Earthship Biotecture is a global company, based on 40 years of research and development by Michael Reynolds, principal architect of Earthship Biotecture.

from kk_ct

Why Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Literally five minutes of effort. Throw the ingredients together, mix, pop the dough into a bucket and then into the fridge. After a couple hours of rising, I have enough for three big loaves. The dough keeps very well in the refrigerator for a couple weeks (and tastes noticeably better the longer it’s been sitting, though mine rarely makes it that long). When I want fresh bread I pull out a bit of dough, get the oven heated up and bake away. There are plenty of no-knead recipes about, but Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois perfected a process that works for me.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois
2007, 242 pages
$15
Available from Amazon

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Jeff Hertzberg,Zoe Francois
2009, 336 pages
$15
Available from Amazon

I often get asked what type of things do I read. What do I read as far as articles for work, articles for our property, ideas for the home and land, gardening, cooking and etc.

It dawned on me that since I use Google Reader I can actually share them with anyone who’s interested.

So now you can click here: Articles Rick Shared and see what I’ve tagged for future reading or to save.

Quite a few thought provoking talks on TED…

NOTE: The volume in the pre-roll BMW ad is quite loud!

Journalist Carl Honore—author of the best-selling book In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed—discusses how he believes our culture’s obsession with speed “erodes [our] health, productivity and quality of life”.

I was sitting here this morning thinking about the garden and it hit me – all these folks (farmers, ranchers and other small vegetable producers) have pissed and moaned about the government wanting to implement various tracking systems for livestock and foods on “their dime” and saying things like “it’s unnecessary”, are also part of the people who are all up in arms about the latest breakout of salmonella.

Had a tracking system been in place for our food stocks, which was turned down by corporate interests and our current government, we could’ve tracked the outbreak back to it’s source.

There is an AP report that confirms this, at least in part, to be accurate. While I believe their rejection was due to the “interference” of the government in their business, their business becomes our business when it’s an item to be consumed by the general populous.

I often hear folks bitching about how much food costs and that measures like this would increase those costs. Bottom line is they’re calling for simple record keeping (not much beyond what farmers already do). Note that I’m not talking about the much contested NAIS. But the principle is the same – if it’s grown for mass consumption or resale it should be documented for purposes of tracking illness and disease – period.

How do you get around this? Grow your own food! You then know exactly what’s in it, who grew it, what the conditions were and you have the pride of having stocked your own table.

We are still guilty of consumption of market foods, but as time goes on we will be reducing our consumption of these foods as we grow and raise more and more of our own food.

Since I know a couple readers here are also interested in cheap eats…

Brie Cadman over at DivineCaroline has a great post on The 20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1.

Of course #12 gets a thumbs up from me -

12. Beets
Beets are my kind of vegetable—their natural sugars make them sweet to the palate while their rich flavor and color make them nutritious for the body. They’re powerhouses of folate, iron, and antioxidants.

Serving suggestions: Shred into salads, slice with goat cheese. If you buy your beets with the greens on, you can braise them in olive oil like you would other greens.

Great quote at the end of the video from Gandhi:

Its a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God.

Of course you can substitute God for Nature based on your beliefs but the quote is very true. But just try to pry the average American from in front of the idiot box (TV)!