Dean

Unique Garden Paths

Ok so I am researching garden path design ideas and I come across a great low impact design that will give a really good view of the garden …

But then I think that perhaps this is a little extreme for many of the people who might wander through my garden?

So I check out other extreme path ideas and come across this …

This would be a great path in my vertical garden section! And it certainly makes my original garden path idea seem a little more realistic.

However, I decide that I really want to make my garden more accessible so I better find a slightly more user friendly path.

After some looking I think I have found a great combination of extreme garden path meets grandma friendly garden path…

If a person had the space and the money this would be a great option I think. However, I do not have the trees to support such a construction, and I decide that growing a bunch of dead poles to support these paths just wouldn’t have the same effect. Back to the drawing board.

Not to be deterred I began looking for less lofty path construction techniques.

The next one is certainly spectacular and would stand out (at least at night) as it was lit up like a Christmas Tree.

The problem, apart from the cost, is that I am not sure it would fit too well my surroundings. One doesn’t want to be seen to be” showing off” and starting a war between neighbors as to who can produce the most spectacular night show.

Perhaps I will settle for a glow-worm like wall instead?

After much ado I think I have narrowed it down to a choice of a path made of wood rounds, or one of concrete shapes. Since I am not much on the end of a concrete mixer perhaps I will go with wood rounds.

Path ideas sorted!

Next problem is what to build at the end of the garden path.

My initial thoughts were something like ..

Although, once again, I will probably have to settle for something a little more down to earth.

This one would certainly match the wood path idea …

But that is a story for another day …

Time to build a garden path!

Global Warming Guru Admits False Claims

In The News

Jack Lovelock has been described as the Godfather of global warming. His alarmist claims predicted the death of billions, and only a few “breeding pairs” of people surviving in the Arctic by the end of the century.
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[/table] However, 6 years on from those claims and no appreciable rise in the Earth’s temperature, Lovelock is back peddling. The cynical might note that with a market place saturated with alarmist books it would be hard to produce a best seller – especially when the evidence was scant at best, and fabricated in general. So for Mr Lovelock to produce a best seller he would have to come up with a new twist – and it appears he has done just that with his how-its-not-to-late-to-save-the-planet new release. Of course that doesn’t sound particularly sexy, so to spice up the press releases Lovelock has admitted that in the past he went “too far.” He also points the finger at Al Gore, and Tim Flannery stating that they also mislead the public with their claims.

Although he still stands by his claims (although on a different time scale), Lovelock admits that “we don’t know what the climate is doing.”

The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.

How is it then that none of his peers are also admitting “All right, I made a mistake”?

Lovelock forthrightly explains that they might have a hard job making such an admission when they are funded by Governments and Universities that would revoke their paychecks if said admission was made.

All this talk of deception and gross negligence with regard to the facts makes for great publicity and goes to show that a leopard cannot change its spots. Lovelock is still using the same hysteria generating press releases to make money from the gullible. He is brazen enough to flaunt the truth when describing the exaggerated flaws in Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity: “I would be a little more cautious — but then that would have spoilt the book.”

Some of Lovelock’s other ideas are not so cautious. He is a supporter of nuclear power, and gas fracking, as sustainable energy sources. On alternative power sources such as wind he says, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”

Source 1
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Why Jack Lovelock Is Dangerous

The first reason that Lovelock, Gore, and co are dangerous is because they are like the little boy who cried wolf. They spread mass hysteria and make absurd claims that any rational person dismisses instantly. This sensationalism, of what is in fact a serious issue, can cause the baby to be thrown out with the bath water. People can ignore the need to make changes because they rightly don’t believe that the planet will be incinerated by the effects of green house gases by the end of the century. Even those who do believe the insane statements made by Lovelock find the thought of saving the planet from doom amidst a sea of people who don’t care overwhelmingly daunting and give up.

Apart from creating an environment where moderate calls for sustainable living are drowned out, Lovelock is also misusing his position as the godfather of global warming to discredit ideas that he personally doesn’t agree with, such as the use of wind generated electricity. It would be unfortunate if he was able to dissuade others from heading such routes because he has a personal issue with it. Remember this is the man who has spent most of his life studying the impact we are having on the planet and yet he admits he doesn’t have a clue what the climate is doing. The same person who also supports such technologies as nuclear power and gas fracking despite the evidence of devastation they produce.

Scare mongers and sensationalists such as Lovelock have given a bad name to those actively trying to do their bit to help save the planet. They care only about themselves and the sales of their latest book. While many thousands of people around the world are living in such a way as to reduce their global footprint. These are the people that governments should be listening to, not scientists who admit they have defrauded people to make book sales. It is honest, hard working homesteading families that will impact communities and bring about changes for the good of the planet long before nutters shouting “the end is nigh – buy my book.” Rather ironically, Lovelock thinks the “green” movement is overly religious. To quote from the Bible, he should remove the log from his own eye before trying to remove the speck from someone else’s.

Recycling Plastic Bottles For Low Cost Homesteading

Healthy Living, In The News

Waste plastic is polluting the world we live in. There is an island of plastic floating in the pacific that has reputedly grown to an area larger than the continental U.S. and weighing in at 100 million tons.

This vast floating mass of toxic waste was predicted as early as 1985 and yet nothing was done to prevent the catastrophe we witness today. Society in general either didn’t want to know, or didn’t want to face the inconvenience of what preventing it might mean in their daily lives.

What can we do to save the planet from this choking plague of polution?

Obviously, riding our lives of plastic would be the ideal solution. However, as this is something we cannot accomplish in one step, there are baby steps that everyone take today to make a difference.

Firstly, use your shopping dollar to send a message to greedy corporates that we don’t want excessive plastic packaging, or plastic junk churned out by the boat load for kids, kitchens, and the person who has everything (else).

Secondly, we look at ways of recycling plastic already in production so that it doesn’t end up in our oceans and piled up in landfills. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Recycling Plastic Bottles Ideas

Idea number one to use plastic bottles in a creative way to enhance your garden. Use plastic bottles to create vertical or hanging gardens.

In this video thepocketpcman describes how you can build a vertical garden out of recycled plastic drink bottles. The network of bottles includes an automatic watering system.

This is a relatively simple project for the home handyman to begin reducing plastic waste.

The next idea is a slightly larger project, but well within the reaches of a home handyman (or woman). It is a plastic bottle greenhouse.

Once again using plastic drinking bottles the people of bluerockstation have constructed a working greenhouse. The interlocking plastic bottles provide good insulation with the pocket of air trapped within the bottles. The insulated environment created helps with greatly extending the growing season in your garden.

The next great idea to reduce the plastic waste in our environment and provide low cost shelter and housing at the same time is to use plastic bottles as a building material. As in this video uploaded by Eco Techonologia, there are many creative ways of using plastic bottles when building structures. They provide great low cost insulation in walls and are an abundant source of building materials even in areas where other building materials are hard to come by.

Although this kind of project may be beyond the average handyman, there many smaller scale projects that could be accomplished with this idea – such as animal shelters, fencing or pond surrounds, and even perhaps a garden gazebo or two.

Finally we have an idea to recycle another form of drink container. The metal soft drink cans, while not as environmentally hazardous, can still be utilized in a productive and low cost way to enhance your living environment. Jim Meaney has come up with an automatic home heating solution that can save you 20% to 30% on your current standard heating solutions.

By creating a solar heated wind tunnel out of soda cans Jim says he can create an environment in your house that will not trip the heating thermostat costing you large power bills. These systems would no doubt work well in greenhouses for all year round controlled growing temperatures.

These are just a few ideas to stimulate your imagination as to how you can start recycling plastic and other waste materials to help save the planet, and help save yourself some money in the process. Environmental improvements need not be an extra expense, they can be a win-win situation. And in fact they must be a win-win situation if we are to see any appreciable difference in the way people live their lives. So put your thinking caps on and see what creative solutions you can come up with around your home.

Why Should We Opt For The Simple Life

In The News

The Urban Homesteading movement is growing around the world. Not everyone supports this return to the simple life and many just do not understand it.

Looking at news from around the world it easy to see our technologically fast paced world is not barreling toward Utopia. In fact, is quite clear that we are on a path of self destruction. The homesteading movement is in some way an attempt to regain control of our own lives, and the destiny that we have as a species.

In The News: Examples Of World Insanity.

The first example of corporate greed exploiting the world we live in, no matter the cost, to keep up with our insatiable consumerism is … gas ‘fracking’

All around the world energy companies are using hydraulic fracturing (or fracking as it is known) to exploit resources below the ground. This practice is known to cause earthquakes, contamination of water sources and surrounding soil.

The Guardian reports:

Shale gas is now one of the major sources of energy in the US, following years of intensive fracking operations, but critics point to ravaged landscapes, contaminated water supplies and potentially damaging pipeline installations left by industrial-scale operations, as well as concerns over the long-term safety of the wells. Although natural gas is supposed to be a “cleaner” fuel than coal, releasing less carbon when burned, evidence also suggests fracking produces more carbon than exploring for conventional gas supplies, making the fuel less attractive from an environmental point of view.

So are our politically correct “green” approaches to living anything more than shifting wealth from one industry to another? It seems that greedy corporates have been manipulating what little sense of guilt and environmental care that we have for their own ends. The reality is that much of what is passed of as a “greener” way of life is only as green as the label that they past on it.

Whereas becoming less dependent on external resources and more self sufficient is one way to lessen the impact that we each cause on the world. Using organic methods of growing our own food, recycling the resources that we have where we live for energy and clothing, and unplugging ourselves from the earth ravishing ‘grid’ is likely to have a lot more impact to the welfare of our planet. It is, however, a sacrifice that only a few are truly prepared to make. The recent growth in the urban homesteading industry does show that people are beginning to appreciate it may be the only way that we can make difference.

On a different note:

An “Insane Michigan government announces plan to destroy ranch livestock based on hair color and arrest hundreds of ranchers as felons”

The Michigan government has pulled the race card on pigs and pig breeders. Small time farmers trying to breed pigs in an outdoor environment are being targeted for choosing pig breeds with the natural vigor to survive in the harsher out-door climate. Run holders like Mark Baker are facing prison terms if they obstruct Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials from destroying all animals that they deem to be an “invasive species.”

I haven’t the resources to do a complete examination of why this organization has come to their conclusion, however, Mr Baker and his contemporaries say this is just a case of corporates such as The Michigan Pork Grower’s Association trying to shut them out. Those apposing this judicial goose-stepping point out that they are trying to take away the rights of individuals to choose what and how they farm, which would also impact everyone in the homesteading movement as well.

There are plenty of examples of regulations of what breeds of animal people are allowed to keep or not. Restrictions on dog breeds are in place in various countries with dogs such as Pit Bulls being outlawed. Most countries have strict regulations regarding exotic animal breeds. And this is not considered a threat to our individual freedoms because they are generally regarded as restrictions beneficial to the community as a whole.

But, if the Michigan case is what Mr Baker reputes then this could have far reaching repercussions. More corporate food and energy suppliers threatened by the self sufficient movement could start legislating away the rights of the individuals – you and me – so that their corporate profit margins are not diminished.

This is homesteading in the global political scene. What are your views? Does this help you understand the significance of what the movement is about? Are you more or less interested in how you can make a global difference in your own back yard? Let us know by leaving a comment below or on our Facebook page.

Urban Homesteading – Bringing Farming To Town

In The News

The Urban Homesteading movement is all about creating a healthy and sustainable living environment down town. And there is no denying that living in a natural green environment is better for your health than living in a concrete jungle devoid of all things nature. It is also better for your health to eat naturally grown foods that have not been genetically modified, heavily sprayed, or picked pre-ripe so that it survives the journey to the supermarket. Never mind the cost saving benefits in supplementing your diet with food grown in your own backyard.

Are there down sides to Urban Homesteading?

There are a lot of good reasons to turn your section into a mini farm, but are there downsides?

Curtis Gilbert of MPRreports on the current controversy in Minneapolis that allows people to farm in urban areas as long as they do not try and turn a profit from their farming endeavors. If he gives away, consumes, or allows other non profit ventures to harvest the produce from his urban land he is within the law to farm it. However, as soon as he tries to charge his neighbors and friends for a melons or a cantaloupe he has broken local council bylaws.

Those in support of the idea of urban homesteading are outraged at this breach of rights. After all, harm is there in generating a little extra cash from any surplus of ones hard labour? It is not hurting anyone, and most neighbours would be delighted at the prospect of a source of fresh vegetables right next door.

Or would they?

Spare a thought for the residents who live in town because they like their neat homes and tidy properties. They like having neigbours who also keep a manicured street frontage and with clean sweet fragrances drifting from the orderly gardens. They probably quite like the house valuations that reflect such prim and proper neighbourhoods also.

Imagine their surprise and horror when they find the gentle fragrance of decomposing waste drifting across their section from the neighbours composting operation. Not to mention their immaculate garden view suddenly dwarfed by a neighbours tunnel house, and the noise of the country assaulting their ear drums. Cocks crowing early in the morning, heavy gardening implements clattering and banging away all day, sprays and dust billowing in the afternoon breeze, traffic clogging up the street to buy from a curbside stall, and rodents and bugs congregating in the cluttered corners of the urban farm next door.

While these may be slight exaggerations, many residents are hoping that the council does not relax the bylaws to an extent where this eventually could possibly be an actuality.

What do you think: should councils be legislating to stop this dirty and noisy invasion on peaceful suburbia, or should councils be allowing the common people to use their own land to produce healthy and sustainable food? Enter your comments below.

Natural Health Remedies: Homesteading Alternative To The Chemist

Healthy Living

Herbal medicine has many supporters. It also has many detractors that claim it is hocus pocus and witchcraft (of course, many of these people are also in the industry sponsored by large drug companies). Whatever your view on natural medicines, it cannot be denied that not very many years ago herbal medicines were the only alternative and this had been the case for thousands of years.

The great thing for people involved in urban homesteading is that many of these herbal medicines are made from plants that require very little space to grow. This places natural remedies within reach of most people. If you save yourself one trip to the chemist each year your home herbal garden will probably have paid for itself.

Some natural health remedies can be as simple as applying egg whites to burns, or yoghurt to sunburn, while others may involve more exotic concoctions of wild plant extracts. What they have in common is that they are natural products working in natural ways. The alternative is chemically modified substances working in non-natural ways that often create more problems than they solve further down the road.

If using natural health remedies to cure ailments is a step too far for your comfort zone at the moment you can begin by using herbal prevention. One simple step you can take is to cut back on coffee and start drinking green tea. While coffee is natural, and in small doses can be beneficial to performance, the over-all effect that coffee has on your body is negative. Green tea has quite the opposite effect. It is a great source of natural alkaline intake which creates in your body a bacteria fighting environment and boosts your immunity.

Garlic, Cinnamon, Mustard, and Horse Radish are all renown for their ability to fight the bad guys and build your immunity. Increasing these foods in your diet will aid your ability to fight coughs and flues over the winter period.

If you haven’t got green fingers, or don’t have access to a supply of natural herbs then you can buy fresh mountain grown herbs and herbal remedies from Spirit Horse Herbals. Having personally sampled their product I can vouch for their professional presentation and mountain fresh fragrance combined with very friendly service.

However you go about it, we at HomesteadingGuide.com want to encourage you to trying natural health remedies as part of your healthy living choice. Your body and our planet will thank you for it.