What feels better than a McMansion and is about a zillion times lighter on planet earth? When you step into a natural building, it’s easy to fall in love with their earthy, tactile surfaces and beautiful colors. The Natural Building Network is a hub for the practice of natural building, and is ready [...]

I’m a huge fan of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, and a happy member of Laguna Farm and the Sonoma Meat Buying Club. And now I’m a fan of CSFs, too! What’s a CSF? It’s a new concept being pioneered by Iso Rabins and forageSF:

Much like a farm CSA, San Francisco Bay Area [...]

Industrial designer Virginia Gardiner and her work designing a waterless toilet system is featured in this video from Dwell. Enjoy!

Via @leonardbarrett of Permaculture for Renters.

Here’s a fantastic site that answers one of the most frequent questions people have about permaculture: How can I do permaculture if I don’t have land?
Leonard Barrett answers this question with his terrific web site, Permaculture for Renters: Regenerative Design for the Landless Many.
Barret has lots of resources for container gardening, community gardens, working [...]

any readers might know that I used to work for MAKE Magazine, and I’ve written a few articles for them. MAKE is a quarterly DIY (do it yourself) magazine that “unites, inspires and informs a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages.”
Every volume of MAKE is [...]

Here’s an announcement that came via email regarding an exciting initiative in west Sonoma County: a Community Seed Bank with regular seed exchange gatherings. There’s no web site for this yet, so I’ll just past in all the info here:
Our first Community Seed Bank was great fun, we are excited about continuing them the [...]

t’s the last day of Pedal Power Week on Permie.net…hope you’ve enjoyed it! I’m trying to be less of a fossil fool myself, and it’s been a helpful reminder of how many resources we have here in Sonoma County, a great place to ride your bike.
Here’s a wrap up of previous posts:

Sonoma County Bicycle [...]

Pedal Power Week on Permie.net so far has been about traveling by bike. But here are some fun ideas for using pedal power energy for other uses as well. Enjoy!
Pedal your way to clean laundry like some of these tinkerers and makers. Homeless Dave uses an old-fashioned manual clothes washer, but skips the [...]