Earthwood Building School is a small “mom and pop” business run by Rob and Jaki Roy. Rob, active in the alternative building field for 28 years, is the author of fifteen owner-building books and has conducted hundreds of workshops at Earthwood and throughout the United States. Together, Rob and Jaki have built Log End Cottage, [...]

THE COB BUILDERS HANDBOOK, by Becky Bee is an excellent resource for those wanting to build a warm, energy efficient, natural home, without a lot of money. You can build a home for as little as $5 / sq. ft. A healthy home with no chemicals, built of local materials with low embodied energy, is [...]

Some of the interesting things we saw at the fair was the Martin’s Oil Press, for pressing vegetable oil from seed crops, a pelletizer for making pellets from grass, wood shavings, and soon, seedcake from the oil press. Pellet stoves for buring those pellets were also on display. I’ll be posting website addresses for these [...]

We just returned from the North Country Sustainable Energy Fair, where we taught classes on DIY Wind Turbine design and DIY Solar installation. We saw a number of really neat things there, and will be showcasing them here over the next few days. The one we want to talk about today is the Pearl Steam [...]

4/22 - GREEN-CENTIVES.    Companies offering workers a bonus to buy hy-brids, solar panels, and other measures to save energy.  Good for the environment AND business, because it attracts top employees.
4/23 - CARBON OFFSETS.   You hear the term ‘carbon offsets’ used a lot these days.  This piece explains how people can buy “offsets” in order [...]

We just got back from our trip to Anguilla. We helped Francoise set up her new solar power system. Two Kyocera 130 watt PV panels, a Xantrex C35 charge controller, a Trimetric Battery Meter, a Morningstar Microsine 300 sine wave inverter, and a 70 ah A…

We are off on our trip to Anguilla to do a solar install. Be back in 2 weeks, and expect to have a tan. Will post pics when we return. The install consists of two 130 watt panels, 35 amp charge controller, 1 AGM 70ah battery, a 300 watt sine wave inver…

Jim Juczak’s power system was damaged by their recent house fire. A group of us went to help them rebuild various aspects from sheetrock to applying primer. My son Matt and I tackled upgrading and repairing the power system. Jim had built wooden frames…

We just added 1000 worms to a new worm bin. One hour after spreading them on top of the litter, they disappeared into the bedding to munch away happily on our kitchen scraps. We are thrilled that we are able to keep up our composting indoors, even when…

We have developed a complete composting Kitchen and Toilet system for anyone wanting to reduce their water requirements, eliminate sewage, and build soil quality for gardening. Consisting of a manual on worm composting, a collection device (toilet), co…