#ecostead — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #ecostead, aggregated by home.social.
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Some plant life to brighten your day:
Wakamidori shiso (first pic) came up from one of the seeds on last year´s plant. Shiso is an especially important cultural food in some Nihongo regions cuisine; very tasty too.
Interesting translations around Nihongo -- means something kind of meta in Japanese, like the way colonized Americans call Turtle Island their ¨country¨, iicrc but do not quote me on this.
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Welcome to the secrets of outer ring (outer core root ring) composting for health and happiness old trees, and their ecosystems.
Think of composting as feeding the ecosystem -- in both literal and figurative sense. Think of the indigenous people as the heart of an ecosystem, ones most familiar with the ventricles of its heart.
In the shadow of some of the tallest Sequoias in the region (indeed, in the whole continent), our local ecosystem is one that formed in shade and filtered light provided by an old-growth forest of the ancient PNW.[1]
Colonialism has been destroying old-growth forests at, above and below this latitude... removing natives, shelter, shade and oxygen-exchanging life for far too long. All to build luxury condos, HOAs and McMansions for rent on AirBnB.
Fake shade, such as that provided by English Ivy, does not help a Turtle Island ecosystem. What should be much more diverse native cover is missing when such invasives are present. Non-natives do not know how to care for natives (and they never will, no matter what the #fascistbook does to try to save its face).
¨Cannot save ur ass and face at the same time.¨
Colonialism destroying native habitats with complicitness alongside (taking $$$$$$$$$$ from Realtors, like Facebook does!). It is an 800 BILLION COLONIAL DOLLAR TOXIC WASTE DUMP.
From this Earth day and beyond... a gentle reminder that Natives ought never be charged with anything (including dollars) as they move freely about on their lands everywhere.
As a final note... would love some help. IRL, decolonization is much harder than adding compost to roots in some trees being landlorded by colonial rent seekers.
All the experts saying the same thing we do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UIQ1qPzvRY
#indigenous #Decolonize
#Ecostead[1] https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/usa/oregon/washingtoncounty/872_hawthornestreet This literal giant linked above... we kid you not.. it is being OVERRUN with toxic ivy. Owners of house near these trees coerce poor migrants to ¨cultivate¨ the Ivy with weed whackers terrorize the natives.
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Finished this a number of days ago, here some construction pics:
Indie recycled some leftover concrete form boards left on site... fashioned them into an above-ground planting space in an area where some peculiar slopes (grades) away from the structure make landscaping difficult. Plastic was 5+ year-old relic from previous landscaper, set down to hold weeds at bay and hold some some children´s playground type toys. Before the remodeling it had degraded into a mess of several invasive species.
Soils at this part of the yard were heavily compacted and had been starving many years for fresh organic material, so mixed in quite a great deal of composts and planting mix. Also decided the dull white concrete dust look does not jive w/ecostead, added some Chinook-inspired colors.
The plastic around the inside of the planter folded up to hold in water (vapor barrier) and should help the wood last much longer (dirt on wood is usually not recommended).
These forms, my professional concrete industry-working union bro says, are valued by professionals in the concrete world due to the type of wood´s strength (what they call ¨Doug Fir¨ is Oregon state tree) in making 90 degree angles needed on corners and such when doing concrete forms and foundations.
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What follows here is one of the more interesting hacks from reconstruction:
(1/n)
Background on this project for any new followers of #Ecostead tag is yeah... we saved quite a bit of material from the teardown. No, we were unable to save everything (COVID prevented us from donating first to local orgs where they would have gone to be diverted from the waste stream). But we did upcycle more than 75 percent of the teardown material we did not save. Some of it we went to great lengths to deliver to like-minded folks, too!
Something a white bro scoffed at me for saving to reuse was the "black tarpaper" from behind the old siding. Yeah it had a few spiders' nests on it. Seemed remarkably clean and sturdy for having been up so long. Plus paper; any plant material can be considered as sacred, I think; even a poor old tree that got mixed up in bitumen[1] by no fault of its own.
My gut was to lay this under the waterproofing material of choice (tile!) for the outside deck installation... an extra waterproofing layer, encase any supposedly dangerous material.
Turns out this was a good hunch b/c after I got this tile laid down the other day, found out that the chemistry of the tarpaper is such that it will likely increase strength and longevity of the thin-set layer of mortar under the tile. Cool, eh?
Turns out, folks from the EU are making business out of it [2]:
¨The refining process of Tarpaper Recycling converts the bitumen-rich roofing felt waste to a raw material .. that can be recycled 100%. This product can be used as binder in the production of new asphalt as it contains bitumen, the most valuable raw-material in asphalt. Roofing felt can replace bitumen to a certain point in the production of asphalt, somewhat depending on what type of asphalt is produced¨
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The Philippines have been experiencing more frequent and severe damage from #typhoon storms at what can accurately be described as an ¨accelerating¨ rate.
People were getting sick of rebuilding only to have their work downed by the next storm.
So, in 2014, some of them decided to rethink/DECOLONIZE how housing and shelters are done, based on successful models in the US and Malawi. Rebuilding amid unpredictable storms was often futile, so they rethought their community around an #Earthship model, adapted as a Windship.
This fascinating documentary (2015) interviews Earthship architect Mike Reynolds, and several young and old folks building self-sustainable biotecture projects that can be climate-specific for a region. https://amzn.to/3pFQnrm
¨The building is earth-bermed and the vaulted concrete roof allows wind to pass over but not lift up the structure.¨
Quite a bit of climate chaos since 2015, and no signs of it letting up, eh?
Living with the daily realities on a planet in retaliation mode means adapting outside of the ¨law¨ and government; these static things are inflexible and unresponsive to dynamic systems. They CANNOT keep pace with the realities of a dynamic and reactive planet.
Indeed, the worst parts of the #Ecostead project have been these inflexible things. Really enjoyed hearing about how Reynolds has successfully worked around outdated and inefficient government systems. (HINT: is easier to do outside of the US than in!)
We are not going to run out of trash or refuge material. Hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons and landslides all decompose weak systems. Smart societies rebuild more intelligently.
https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/earthship-biotecture-off-grid-living/
https://www.archdaily.com/888713/michael-reynolds-to-build-sustainable-public-school-in-argentina
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Some extra root insulation for the _ants' greenhouse. #Ecostead
Plastic reuse to provide heat and thermal insulation. #Hydroponic ideas to help the plants recycle water better.
Kick the fascist out of the whitehouse, kick the whitehouse out of the courthouse, put all the white-collar criminals' wealth in the homeless encampments.
Stop building vehicular transportation roads and fossil fuel transportation pipelines.
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Recycling wood from the rebuild / teardown, turning it from interior base wood to outside finish wood with 焼杉板, or shou tsugi ban.
焼杉板 is technique for wood (usually Cedar or Cypress) that brings out the natural grain and finish. It increases fire resistance and water resistance (makes it last longer from weathering) by charring the wood and rinsing it with water before finishing. Some people say it can extend the life of wood siding up to 80 years! I dunno about that, but it is fun and beautiful. Also get to use a blowtorch to make it, so there's that.
Was half-humorously thinking we should post this to Indigenous Peoples' Day of Rage as an event: "Burning the Rabble of Colonialism" ... whatcha think? ;)
Have too many pieces to do on my own and going to hire some help or recruit volunteers. Yeah Craigslist again. #Ecostead #Wood #DIY #Fire
https://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/trd/d/forest-grove-shou-sugi-ban-burnt-cedar/7210008960.html
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Yá’át’ééh from the #Ecostead in the Grove ...
As the colonists' monetary system collapses (no need to cry; all broken and badly aged systems eventually need replaced), we should meditate and take care to iterate intelligently on what comes next. Here's a few of our bonsai trees to help. Other photo is of baby tree in ICU care. #bonsai
https://ecosteader.com/@indie/104801315769500486 -
Foundational improvements continue to be underway at the #Ecostead project in Forest Grove.
The tu'sati[1] includes our rebuilt mud/laundry/utility room. Yay better place for all the extra work needed for the sanitation, cleaning, and quarantine precautions necessary today.
Colonization is so quick to dismiss the intent and efforts of previous generations. Gotta look back much further than 100, 300, even 500 years to get the vibe of a space, gatherings of energies, etc:
:hacker_h: Honoring the ancient,
:hacker_a: acknowledging the native,
:hacker_c: confronting the wasicu[3],
:hacker_k: knocking out colonialism,
:hacker_e: expressing art elementals,
:hacker_r: revitalizing soil-based ecosystems.
[1] see screenshot of definition from mi'gmaq dict
[2] https://github.com/indie/ecosteader/blob/master/START-Lot-Plan-Considerations-Ecosteader.pdf
[3] ... wasicu are those who sneered at the offer to upcycle (help get upcycled!) our donated remnants of local old growth forest ... because they couldn't be bothered to take out a few old nails! Indie alone removed well over 1000 nails, but she cannot remove all the nails. -
Some of the salvaged wood products from the deconstruction phases @ the ecostead.
Saturday's event was mostly quiet, until some driveby harassment(s) from somebody who wouldn't even exit their vehicle (all the while it was polluting fossil fuels) while idling on the street and shouting dumb questions at the worker in the yard.
Subsequent phases of the "build and finish" layers will use and donate some of these wood and salvage pieces.
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Native Art Collectives receiving some supplies.
Dismantle what doesn't work.
Donate something to the arts.
REPURPOSE, RECYCLE, ETC.
No whitewashing these trees.
Colonist cash still means nothing.
Those with the most money are the most corrupt.
Probably, Larry and Sergey always regretted putting a landlord in their early-stage business. We no make that mistake.
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Beautiful reclaimed wood used as siding, art, and floors ... cool idea.
The #ecostead project has fallen way behind schedule ... architect plans for roof design were co-opted by truss building company's expertise. Still working it out, will post updates soon.
Construction jobs, like plants, require people who care.
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CW: flying insect with a bendable neck
Showed up at the #ecostead for a photo a few days ago...
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Expired: Maximizing profits for colonized shareholders.
Wired: Maximizing immunity from anything diseased and colonized.
Inspired: Removing diseased Realtors' signs; adding permanent and irrevocable Land Acknowledgements of the region.
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The hideous monstrosity of a house across the street from the #Ecostead has a yard covered in invasive English ivy. Some time during week, the Ecostead was robbed of construction tools we had on-site.
Coincidence? We think not.
My union-working bro just called to report the thefts. 😢
Your neighbors' invasive species are hazardous to your safety and community.
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Took bus and MAX and bus to the #ecostead yesterday. When there are so many things to do, priorities become necessary.
My solstice lodge "mandate" (afaic understand) has been exhausting. Decolonization takes work. Not the kind you can buy.
Been thinking about this passage and how essential it is to stop the "dehumanizing" of women and marginalized people (PoC).
Survivors have every reason to reject Christianity and all of its attempts at "reform". Boarding schools, or "charter schools" as the Evil Betsy DeVos calls them, are pushing false narratives for money. Salesforce and TRE45ONIST have teamed up to put prison camps for children on their borders. They knowingly push false narratives and distortions of facts, wanting so badly to believe their own falsehoods have some legitimacy.
Spoiler alert: they don't.
The reality is that corrupt people have been murdering innocent red and black and brown and "yellow" people for centuries. There's no such thing as an innocent white angel.
When Obama did things that made those men who were so used to being the center of everything less "central", in order to let oppressed voices be heard, those white dudes got scared. For the first time, they couldn't hijack the conversations and make it all about them. For a brief while, women and PoC were heard.
Much in this volume belongs in the national discourse.
Today is a national holiday, but this "holiday" (President's Day) is nothing for anybody to be proud of. Remind your fellow humans to "smash those delusions" and get back to listening to the survivors.
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Skilled laborers and #Union. That's right. Who wouldn't be thrilled to pay their brothers union wages?
It's what happening at the #ecostead, where we are getting close to framing after what can only be described as an amazing site preparation job by one dedicated GC-to-be, my bruh Ben.
HE HAS AN INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD UNION CARD AND EVERYTHING. :)
Continuing the discussion on framing systems, a few other human-centric thoughts about variation of styles in (or not in) the "longhouse". TBH I wasn't expecting these things to be so specific, but eh.
Portland's #suburbs have some areas where the architectural styles of the neighborhoods is definitely inspired by (prevalent) of Japanese thinking. In other nearby places, the expression is more rare, w/ only a garden path.
The "in between" spots are all wrong, though: the necessity of on-foot (and we're not talking sidewalks, but trails) travel has been completely ignored by generations of developers in their ff vehicles.
There is, in this region's history, another dark past (similar to oppression of locally-indigenous peoples) that zero of the Realtor-types would ever be able to acknowledge properly. READ: https://www.wweek.com/arts/2019/12/03/survivors-of-minidoka-in-idahos-high-desert-describe-their-experiences-for-a-new-film
So it is no surprise the difficulties the architect we hired had in trying to finish the project's rebuild design; as the #Ecostead is for all practical purposes, a small zen-inspired cottage. It just never had its porch and mudroom finished properly.
She took 7 months and broke the good faith contract we offered. But we paid her garish fees anyway. #NoIvyLeague is better way to go.
P.S. These styles suck:
- Thomas (as in Jefferson)
- Greco-Roman
- Mission (Spanish colonial)
- garish (WS colonial-era 1700's
1800's, 1900's) -
Methods of working with natural materials of the earth have been around for centuries.
An arid desert southwest made for some especially interesting challenges in designing an #Ecostead. The best architects of their time (the 1100's) were anything but primitive in their intelligent use of precious desert water.
Most of this data I have been gathering for years (extensive research for a fictional book that was to be rooted in actual historical context). The research part of novel writing is sometimes arduous, and can itself take decades and yield many surprises along the way.
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@compostablespork @GwenfarsGarden
Badass. :blobmiou: yeaaaaaahh :blobcatbreadpeek:
I'm now in the habit of greenwaste-bagging all my veg scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, even the catfood @simonthecat won't finish (He's a fairly finicky eater, which I used to loathe but he's obviously doing something right for 18+ years!)
It's a great system when you know the destination of that bag is going to be ground-level dirt. The veg scraps and coffee grounds... really they just wanna be free radical dirt.
At the #Ecostead clear across town (17 miles from here), I have bins and piles which technically is where I *could* take the waste to compost. But that's not stealth, and would require inefficient physical transportation fairly regularly.
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shinrin-yoku ~ 森林浴 ~
forest bathing: "A short trip into a forest or natural space to experience the restorative effects of spending time in the stillness of nature."Haven't been to the Portland Japanese Garden since it was redone last year, but I did visit it when gathering the original inspiration idea for the yard... something like a #zen hybrid rain garden and a Japanese tea #garden is what I'm going to go for in the back yard of the #Ecostead
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A revived forest floor can sprout fortuitous friendships ... the #Ecostead has found more than a few for new non-clonal firs.
Aeration, condensation, drainage all important.
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#Eco-building, IRL. More back story on the re-construction (Part Two):
Nevada Barr, an author known for US National Park ranger Anna Pigeon mystery books (which come highly recommended!), put out a memoir of sorts a few years ago. The book is called _Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat_. Lots of autobiographical random snippets, mostly, but one that stuck out to me was her lamenting (briefly) about heeding a builder who told her during her own house remodel that she "didn't need an architect."
"I should have hired an architect," she wrote.
Since many of my limited undergrad dollars went to feed her, her agent and publisher, I figured that was some sage advice. So my first call-out on this project was to find an architect. That was over 2 months ago...
Fast-forward to now. And, as it turns out, hiring an architect is basically a pointless endeavor unless you are also prepared to hire a structural engineer! Heed the layers of wisdom writers who communicate across time and space dole out, kiddos.
I guess it makes sense though; different people wearing different hats. And at the end of the day, sometimes you've just gotta trust the experts. 🤷
Anyway. the #Ecostead has many good and a few not-so-great things about it. The good definitely outweigh the bad though.
The defunct laundry / mudroom we tore off wasn't added until at least the 70's (rough guess; don't take that for fact). I'm guessing that the beautiful red Acer Palmatum (AKA Japanese Maple), pictured below was probably planted afterward, in the 80's, as you can see how it filled in only on one side. These trees tend to grow fairly slowly.
Background is of covered work tent and wood waiting to be refinished and re-used in parts of the remodel.
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#Eco-building, IRL: Preface
The #Ecostead was built in 1948 and is currently about ~740 square feet of house. When I first walked around the outside of the property a few years ago, I "heard" some cries of the suffering plants being choked out by weedy and invasive ivy, disgustingly snaky bindweed, reed canary grass, caterpillar grass.
It had once had a well-planned yard design, but the existence of a lawn and child's playground toys meant it had been neglected for a long time.
My decision, at the time, to mortgage myself to this little stead was not that hard. My heart had always yearned for some "filthy" dirt on which to compost my kitchen scraps instead of piling them into the trash (which you kind of have to do when you're an apartment dweller), or shoving them down the noisy garbage disposal with grinding-gear machinery that imitates the greedy gears of evil and extortionate landlords.
My mother was also literally born in 1948, so I took this, too, as somewhat of a nudge from the Great Mystery that perhaps this would be a good idea.
The house, as many of these old houses were apt to be, was built out gradually a room or two at at a time. The most recent addition was a laundry / mud room on the back of the house. I came to learn, after an electrician informed me that the power main and inside breaker boxes would both need replaced, that hey this part of your house was never permitted properly. So here's a massive expense.
Anyway... I've saved and scrapped these last few years and did the tear-down of the add-on over the summer.
Finally ready to re-do the addition the "right way": with permits and paid professionals and plans.
Here's progress so far (before & after teardown) ...
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Fallout from my whim to "rip out lawn and plant flowers", year three, with a wink at our bees friends, many of which meander at the #ecostead.
Jewel colors in a bouquet of echinacea, yarrow, agastache, coreopsis and rudebeckia.
A bumblebee on some "smartie" dahlias.
Super close-up of intricate ipomopsis, AKA "standing cypress", grown from seed. It didn't flower last year and I transplanted it to a sunnier spot. This year it and one other grew over 7 feet tall and ended up bending sideways. This is a flower that hummingbirds love because their beaks alone are long enough to get the nectar.
All the moar #florespondence.
🏡 :ecostead: 🦋 🐝
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Some angles on #florespondence at the #Ecostead; these including a happy bunchberry groundcover, #kitty named Simon, and a gorgeous dahlia.
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This is a thread about berries (cont'd):
... Lingonberries Huckleberries Nannyberry Boysenberry Cloudberry Dewberry Hackberry Thimbleberry Cranberries Cherry Mulberry Wolfberry Tayberry Loganberry Crowberries
Many fruits not commonly known as berries include grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, bananas, and chili peppers. A plant bearing berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate. Yesterday's list was off the top of my head, but apparently I was wrong to initially include strawberries, raspberries and blackberries on my list; Wikipedia tells me these are not actually berries, but "aggregate fruits".
So why are berries on the brain? Yesterday I acquired two small Bunchberry plants, AKA _Cornus Canadensis_ for groundcover in some of the #Ecostead's more sloped and shady areas. These are considered "threatened" in some of the more central areas of their native habitat, but not so much in the #PNW. Gorgeous and happy little plants they are; I am looking forward to seeing how wildlife takes to them.
Here's a #CreativeCommons photo. Photos of the new plants on the ecostead coming later
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/f0ba653f-d94a-4b3a-9b36-f8300ab67fe2 -
@GwenfarsGarden Totally fabulous.
It took me a minute because I saw your pic from yesterday and my brain just would not register that you built these UP, not down. I was literally sitting here thinking "How did they attach the bottoms of the beds? Did they dig down and level from there?
Long day.
I'm looking forward to posting some of my progress on the #ecostead remodel soon. I can't wait until the back is done so I can really do the permanent landscaping back there. Your post is inspiring me to maybe do some sort of raised something!