Is Technology Sustainable?

By Melinda Briana Epler, One Green Generation

by robhawke on Flickr

This past week I have been hopelessly trying to catch up with the technological side of my life: my blog, my online calendar, my online research for work, my web and social media design for work...

I took two weekends off in the past month, and my technological world seems to have surpassed me!

How did that happen?!

This week, I've begun walking to work 2 miles each way, stopping by my community garden patch on the way home. It's wonderful - I feel my body rejuvenating. My brain has the time to relax, and I end up having incredibly productive ideas along my walk. My body feels alive and burning needed calories to get back down to the weight I'd like. My senses love the walk to the garden, love picking the weeds and feeling the dirt, and talking with my neighbors as I water.

But every time I go through a period of adjustment like this, where I simplify my life to make it more sustainable, I find I struggle with the other half of today's existence: technology.

I would imagine I am not alone in this struggle between technology and simplicity.

First, does living a simple life mean living without technology?

Are technology and simplicity mutually exclusive? That would mean that, by nature of being an online community builder - with One Green Generation and with my own business at Re-Vision Labs - I am never going to live simply. Or if I live simply, this would mean I cannot live a technologically-infused existence.

There are certainly ways in which technology has helped us live more simply. We learn from one another here - sharing recipes, ideas, and patterns. We find out where our local farms and markets are located (we could probably do that without being online, but it would take more time and likely wouldn't be as informative). So maybe it's ok to participate in online communities, if it gives us more knowledge and willpower to live more simply and sustainably. But where is the line? How do we find the balance?

Secondly, is technology sustainable - or can it become sustainable?

I do wonder at times if technology is personally sustainable. For instance, when I first began reading and writing online about sustainability, I soaked in more information that my mind could hold. I actively participated in forums, blogs, and anywhere I could. But as I learned and grew and began doing, I felt I needed less information online, and I felt I had less time to learn. Now I participate in forums, blogs, and other places far less - and I feel I miss some of that online community. But I don't know how to put more hours in my day!

Also, I often wonder if technology is environmentally sustainable. I believe very strongly in the power of community to change the world. Here in the blogosphere, we have the power to traverse amazing distances in order to learn and grow and create real, lasting change.

Of course participating online alone isn't enough - I firmly believe in the power and synergy created when online and offline communities work together. But the technology that drives the online communities is driven by non-renewable resources, and made with materials that when created contribute to global warming and environmental destruction. This struggle with personal and environmental non-renewable energy makes for a love-hate relationship with technology, doesn't it?

How do we make the technology in our lives more incorporated into our values of simplicity and sustainability?

Is there a way?

How do you find the time to participate in your online and offline communities?

I've asked more questions than I've answered here - but this is something I am struggling with today, so I would love to hear your thoughts!

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Creating a new normality!

By Notes From The Frugal Trenches







We live in a completely over-scheduled society. Gone are the days of working 8-4 and spending evenings with your family or within your community, now a significant percentage of people spend evenings running errands, chauffeuring their kids to one activity & another, working, working from home, checking emails, hitting the shops. When I lived in North America, my local shops were open until 9 or 9:30 pm every night, my chemist aka pharmacist was either 24 hours or open until midnight, the book shops were open until 10pm as were coffee houses, cafes and many other establishments. Even though I wasn't necessarily accomplishing anything I was often out 3-4 evenings a week just doing "stuff" aka buying stuff. Then I moved back to England and a smaller town in the West Country where shops shut at 5pm, coffee shops 4pm or 6pm if you are lucky. And I hated it, yes this anti-shopping, simple living girl hated that there was "nothing open". Oh how I've changed.

Once I started my simple life, I started living. My evenings became time to be home, time to learn to cook, bake, sew, knit. I began joining activities like book groups and knitting clubs within my community, I began to volunteer an evening each week and 1/2 a day at the weekend. I began to meet people, neighbours, people in surrounding villages.

Today it hit me, as I sat looking at the sea in front of me, at a social event in the community next to mine, that my turning away from consumerism, from buying, from "stuff", I had created a new normality. A normality that gives me time to help others. A normality that gives me time to reflect and pray. A normality that gives me time to learn new hobbies and explore my interests. A reality that means I can work part time and follow what I really want to do in life, rather than working for a paycheck. None of this happened overnight, I had to pay off my debts, I had to have an emergency fund, I had to have changed my spending, established a difference between need and want, turn my back on the latest anything, but I for one couldn't be happier.

This week I lost a very good friend, far too young (early 40's) with young children and it was such a stark reminder for me about how important really living is, how important it is to have time rather than money or a bigger house; to follow your passions, to make a difference; to really live.

I'm really living now. Are you?

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To Market, to Market...

Today I went to our local market, as I do on the third Saturday of every month. There are other markets in nearby towns on other weekends, but this one is 10 minutes’ drive away so I never miss it.

I was totally impressed (again) with the quality and selection of local products and thought I’d share with you what I noticed there today…

Potatoes
Onions
Sweet Potato
Pumpkins and chokos
Green veg of all types
Herbs – fresh, dried and potted
Tomatoes, eggplant (aubergine), capsicum (peppers)
Bananas, pineapples and paw paws (papaya)
Nuts – peanuts, pecans, macadamias
Dried fruit
Cheese
Seafood
Honey
Bread
Baked goodies
Jams, pickles and other preserves
Coffee (we also grow tea and sugar and produce milk locally – didn’t see it there today, but it’s worth mentioning!)

As well as fresh produce, there is a good variety of handmade food to cooked to eat – Aussie BBQ, ice-creams, pancakes, curry, German-style sausages, juices, smoothies, coffees, spring rolls and more.

Plus there's soap, lotions and potions, plants for food and beauty, books, toys and all sorts of goodies new and second-hand.

Are there local markets near your home? What sorts of things can you buy there? Do you plan your shopping around a regular market visit as I do?

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Tend your own garden

by Throwback at Trapper Creek

It is the busiest time of year on the farm - planting, weeding, harvesting, and preserving in preparation for the cold winter months. But it is also a time to reflect, and take in our surroundings and be thankful for what we have, and the life we are creating. The world problems will not go away, some will be solved and some won't, and different dilemmas will surface. But to truly make the world a better place, we first have to make our part of it better too. Not just the ground under our feet, but our relationships and homes and anything that is under our care. Something that sounds so simple, but is sometimes hard to do in our busy, modern lives.

These are the things I am thankful for this week...





The rain on the garden. It will make the weeds grow, but the vegetables will flourish too. And the rain drops on the camera lens will be a dim memory when we are eating the fruits of our labors this winter.


Delicious cherries and the skills to put them by for winter desserts.

Abundant pastures for my livestock to graze so they stay healthy and productive.

And enough room, so the calves can play and pretend to be wild, and courageous Bos taurus' of days gone by.

Fresh eggs, enough said.




Fresh milk that doesn't come in a plastic container.

A teenager who picks the berries when they need it and before I remind her to do so.

And a wonderful husband, who can build or fix anything he sets his mind to, and that we have equally talented friends whose skills complement ours.

How are you tending your own garden these days?

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Campfires...Revisiting an old friend

Posted by: Paul Gardener
A posse ad esse (From possibility to reality)

For millennia humans have had a romance with fire. For most of human history we've lived by the flame to some degree or another. Whether it was to cook food, heat ourselves or light our way in the dark, Fire has been there for us. So...what happened?

You may be thinking to yourself, "Well I still use fire don't I? I have a gas stove and furnace." and yeah, your right, to a great degree we still do use fire for many of our needs. There's really no way we could do with out it is there? My wife and I got to thinking last year "Why can't we use our backyard fire pit more often? We couldn't think of a good reason. I thought today I'd go through a couple of my previously posted pieces about some of the ways we use our fire pit and share them with you. I should mention at this time too that before you build a fire pit in your backyard that you should check with the codes and laws in your local area. Also, always make sure you have a hose or fire extinguisher available. Fire is safe when we're careful with it, but proper respect for it is essential.

One of the first things I tried was baking.I made sure that since this was a food product that was going to be exposed somewhat directly to the smoke from the fire, to use clean wood and not OSB or other treated woods for this. I burnt down a good deal of coals, and placed our large cast iron stove on them to preheat. After prepping the loaf and coating the bottom with cornmeal (to reduce sticking and allow me to slide it off the cutting board) I dropped it into the pot and placed a few coals on top. And here's the finished product. You can see that the pot was a little too hot by the thick, blackened bottom, and the little too-dark top crust. All in all though I'd say it wasn't an all out loss. The texture and crumb of the bread was very good. The best part was that we managed to cook this bread in the middle of August heat without heating up our kitchen. That is, by the way, one of the best and most frugal benefits of using a campfire; it keeps you from heating up your house in the summer time. This reduces the need for A/C or other cooling means.

And speaking of that, one of the biggest things that we do during the hot parts of the year that really hinders our ability to keep our house cool is canning. Boiling those jars in the hot water bath for 20 minutes or so adds a lot of unneeded heat to the kitchen. Hmm, why not use the campfire?Using this little setup of a couple of pieces of rebar and a portable grill cover, we were able to get the water boiling and keep it boiling by simply adding a few pre-cut pieces of wood at a time to keep the flame up. NOTE: ONLY DO THIS WITH WATER BATH CANNING. Pressure canning requires much more control of the heat and cool down times and needs to be consistent during the process.

Last summer we went to one of our local you-pick-it farms and harvested a huge number of chilis. We decided to can green chilis and freeze chipolte peppers (fire roasted jalapenos) for the year. Both of these require fire to remove the skins from them. Perfect excuse to enjoy the smell of local grown chilis roasting over an open fire with a cold beer!So you can see, there's a lot of great and very easy things you can do with your fire pit to save some energy, reduce the heat in the house and cook great foods. There was one other thing I wanted to mention though. Entertainment.

Few uses of the fire brought us as much joy as spending time outside together around it. A few candles, some Christmas lights and a fire pit and you can have a great night outside with the family. Cooking almost anything over a fire is an adventure for kids and playing a game of lawn bowling by fire light is a great way to spend the evening.So then, if you have a fire pit available give it another look. It can be for more than roasting hot dogs or burning off old wood. If your a little creative, cautious and safe, you can really have a great time and get things done to boot!

All the best to you all till next time.
P~

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