Richie Sowa's Spiral Island II

This is pretty awesome, this guy has built an island from recycled plastic bottles. From the site:

What is Spiral Island II? It is a tropical island paradise floating on over 70,000 recycled plastic bottles. It is about 20 meters (60 feet) in diameter, and growing, soon to contain over 100,000 bottles!

From 1998 to 2005, Rishi Sowa hand-built and lived on the first Spiral Island, which floated on over 300,000 recycled bottles! It was destroyed by Hurricane Emily in 2005. Rishi has now built an even better island at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in a lagoon which offers shelter from bad weather:
Read More

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Living Green is Hard, Hard Work

Question: Trula, what if you want to live green but aren't able to do all the hard work involved? Or what if you just don't want to? I lived on a farm growing up and much of what you describe makes me think of the barrenness of my childhood. We didn't have solar panels and compost toilets or all the other expensive things that only rich people can afford to make living green easy. We had an outhouse, I had to toil on the farm, and it was hard, boring work to make clothes, can food, and look after livestock.

What you describe as hard, boring work is a source of deep joy for me. It is a form of meditation, to sew something by hand or work in my garden or chop wood or make bread/cookies/whatever by hand. It just feels good for me to work with my hands and provide for my family in this way. And be environmentally active in my life, to feel I am a part of the solution rather than the passive participant I was years ago. Just by the way I choose to live I am doing activist work. I do realize it is not perfect work and I can always do better.

The folks you mention, the rich ones who are able to live off the grid or close to it, in my experience their hearts are in the right place but they usually have crazy money and so start off with the compost toilet and solar panels and what not. They have someone else dig their wells and build their straw bale house or earth ship house or whatever. They tend to jump into farming without having even successfully even gardened before. I am not saying being rich is their flaw, but the money tends to stop them from learning how to work with their hands and to be active in this lifestyle. When you can just buy new parts for your house, you're probably not going to spend days combing the dump for usable, non-toxic supplies to build your home. When you have the money to pay someone else to install your plumbing, you're probably not going to install your own plumbing and learn how to maintain it. Stuff like that.

That said, I will tell you what I tell everyone else: Do what you can. It's not an all or nothing deal here. You don't have to grow your own vegetables, but maybe you can buy vegetables at your local farmer's market. You don't have to compost your kitchen waste, but maybe you can reduce your garbage by taking your old newspaper and magazines to recycle. You don't have to make your own clothes, but maybe you can buy used clothes from a thrift store. You see? Start somewhere and do what you can.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Into The Woods

A small slice of Ohio in the summer. This really is a beautiful place to live; a beautiful planet.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Brian Made Some Tables July 2008

We had some old tiles and wood. We needed some tables for the patio Brian built last summer. He made some. He rocks!

He's made 3 so far, two square ones and one long rectangle one. He's going to make some high square one for my bookstore also, excitement! We both get such joy out of saving money and making new things out of old stuff most would throw away.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

Natural Ebb & Flow

Dried up creek bed in the woods behind the house. When my mother-in-law was a little girl, this was full of running water. There is a natural ebb and flow to our world. I live the way I do to help, in my small part, keep things this way.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

The Backyard is a Wonderful Place July 2008

Our back yard is so pretty and vibrant in the summer. This is where we chill. Ohio is really , really pretty in the summer. Anywhere there is green in Ohio, it looks like this.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!

To All Those Who Use Cloth Diapers: Thank You

I am so impressed that you use cloth diapers, that was one thing I flat-out refused to do with my kids with any serious effort. With my youngest, now 10, I did use cloth diapers some of the time but not very often. I wish I had not used disposables and I thank you for making a different choice.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Family Footprint!