Month: March 2013

Urban Rancher: A City Boy Building a Homestead

Urban Rancher: A City Boy Building a Homestead

Posted on by Kbaumlier

I recently was able to get the inside scoop on what it is like to buy some land and build a small house off the grid – all by yourself, by checking the blog of the Urban Rancher (a.k.a. “E.”)  “Can a city boy build his dream homestead on a mountain, by himself and with no mortgage?” is the description for the website, which documents the challenges of a man who buys some land on a mountain, and works to build a small home that is off the grid, and is 4000 feet above the “California sprawl.”

Past updates on the site, which has been called a construction blog,  include E.’s experience of lifting a heavy framed wall into place by himself and the challenges working as a professional in California for 20 years (and watching the work leave California and head to other areas.)

You can see pictures of the small house that he built on the site, and also see past progress on the project.  The last post asked readers to send suggestions about how to create a mobile recording studio.. but with a grand piano as part of the design.  With talk of tiny houses on the rise, this is a great site to learn more about the process of building your own tiny house, as well as the challenges of having woodpeckers, and buying a parcel of land.

Image Source:
urbanrancher.wordpress.com/

Links:

urbanrancher.wordpress.com/

 

Build It Naturally: A Green Building Store

Build It Naturally: A Green Building Store

Posted on by Kbaumlier

When I was in downtown Asheville, NC this week, I stopped by to check out Build It Naturally, a green materials hardware and resource store.  The store carries non-toxic paint, hardwood plywood that is formaldehyde-free, and materials such as cork, linoleum, bamboo and other materials.

I checked out the showroom, and spent time talking with the owner Jennifer Woodruff and talked to her a bit about the business.  She summarized the store as having, “non-toxic, renewable, or green” materials, and mentioned that they both sell materials and sources as well as doing contracting work.

Woodruff has had a lifelong interest in natural.  Her parents did recycling, composting, had an organic garden, did canning, and did natural dying the wool of the sheep they raised on the farm years ago before it became trendy.  In 2005, Jennifer met Susan Bahl who started the Natural Home Design Center, and ended up working for and being inspired by her passion for only having natural ingredients in all the products.

She decided to make her own green business in Asheville, and continues to bring new products into the store.  We talked about wool carpet, a new hemp product used for building, and milk paint, which is a natural paint made of pigment.

I found the samples of cork to be interesting.  They varied in textures and patterns, and are often used for floors and also as counters in cafes.  The display of natural linoleum was impressive.  I recently learned that linoleum is bio-based, durable, non-toxic and also anti-microbial, and comes in more than 100 colors.  Other materials they have include stains and finishes, insulation, and sealing and caulking – making it possible to get most building materials at one store.

On the website, you can read about many of the materials, and there is also valuable information about health, fabrication tips, and other information.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier
Links:

http://builditnaturally.com/

Double D’s : A Café in a Double Decker Bus

Double D’s : A Café in a Double Decker Bus

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Food trucks have been on the rise lately, but in Asheville, NC there is a café that takes food on wheels to a new level.  Double D’s, a coffee shop located in downtown Asheville, is located inside of a bright red double decker bus.  It is parked on downtown Biltmore Ave., and has been in operation for over twelve years from the same location.

The bus is a 1963 Lodekka model double decker bus came from Bristol, England where it was a public transportation vehicle in the 1960’s and 70’s. It somehow ended up in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1970’s and was as a “party bus.”   The bus ended in Ashville in 1999, and has been a coffee shop every since.

Entering Double D’ s, you duck your head to get under the spiral stairs that go to the second floor.  The café is on the first floor, and has a tin roof ceiling and red chairs. Coffee, espresso, and local bakery are for sale, and the chai tea that I had there was good.

On the second floor of the bus, there are reupholstered bus seats with tables that are painted or have mosaic tiles on them.  The atmosphere is funky and upbeat, and when I was there, people would greet each other and talk when drinking coffee up there.    Double D’s has an outside courtyard with tables, and the sometimes have live performances outside.

More history and information about the menu and barristas can be seen on their website, and you of course can stop by and ask questions at 41 Biltmore Ave. in downtown Asheville.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier
Links:

http://doubledscoffee.com/

 

Getting Better and Better – An Update from Food Font Development

Getting Better and Better – An Update from Food Font Development

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The Food Font design is continuing and getting better!    The interface design has evolved to have smaller  icons on top, a resizable workspace, and no layer panel.  The Food Font alphabet selector, background selector, and other tools have been created.

This weekend I am meeting with a colleague who does interface design and programming and we will work on the design document that outlines the mechanics, programming details, and overview of the tool.

The design goes on!

Tomi Astikainen – Living in a Gift Economy

Tomi Astikainen – Living in a Gift Economy

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Whenever I am looking for interesting things on the web, I will check out what events or workshops the creative group Pixelache are having in Helsinki, Finland.  I checked their site yesterday, and saw that there was a speaker/ potluck event called Living in a Gift Economy with Tomi Astikainin, who is a writer and advocate of the creative commons and unrestricted knowledge who has been living without money for over 3 years.

Since 2010, Astikainen has been living a moneyless lifestyle, and has been traveling around talking about the gift economy.  The idea of a gift economy is based on the idea of community, sharing, and paying things forward.  At the core of this is the idea of helping others without asking for anything in return.  Astikainen writes on his site, “On a personal level it’s fairly simple: let others know what you need and contribute what you can, by doing what you love to do. When you help others, don’t ask for anything in return. When offered money ask them to pay it forward, i.e. help someone else!”

On his website, you can read some the answers to questions that he is frequently asked.  When asked about why he lives without money he writes, “Money had its place and time in the history of human race but now it’s an obsolete institution that does more harm than good. Because there’s always more debt than money in the monetary system, it creates a profit motive on all levels of society. That profit motive pushes us to dire competition with each other, feeds dishonest behavior, increases fear and decreases trust between people. I didn’t want to have anything to do with a system like that anymore. I wasn’t content just to survive; I wanted to live and enjoy life, to see if I could learn to trust other people again, depend on them and lead a fulfilling life.

When asked about food and how he eats he responds, “ People that you meet on the road are by and large very generous and giving. I eat when people offer me food. Sometimes I ask for leftovers from restaurants or just grab whatever is left on the table. When there is a possibility to use a kitchen I go dumpster-diving. Half of the food produced globally ends up thrown away.

Astikainen has written several books that are all available for free as a download on his site.  I downloaded his book called Sunhitcher, which is described as “a story of Remmus Reverof, a guy who embarks on a hitchhiking journey completely without money. It’s about finding love within you, in your relationships and in life in general.”

To download Astikainen’s books, read more of his FAQs, or learn more about living in a gift economy, you can check out his website.

Image Source:
http://www.tomiastikainen.com/
http://moneyless.info/
Links:

http://www.tomiastikainen.com/

http://moneyless.info/