Living completely green?

Question

I am writing a book I need info on living completely green, no electricity, no generator, no batteries, no running water, no shopping, no solar pannels........however the people in the area trade items with each other and share food etc. The main couple in my book do work so that they can homeschool their children and provide them with money should they want to go to uni.

My main questions, food conservation? transport? communication?

Thanks

Answer 1

I know various people and groups that have partially succeeded in your above criteria but none that have completely suceeded yet.

Ken Fern had a similar vision when he set up Plants For a Future, im not sure how far things have got, i know they have had to sell one of their pieces of land but if you look up Plants For a Future, you may well get some info to help you.  Ken produced a book on the plants he had grown and all their uses.  It was a vegan group and the long term vision was that would only eat and use what was grown on their land, to build, heal, nourish etc, no money exchange amongst the community but not excluding themselves from the wider community.  Their research would certainly help you with your food conservation.

There is are bender communities in Somerset, one of which i know many of the members had no transport and grew their own food.

Another couple, living in benders and trucks rearing their 4 children, growing their own food, earning any required money by seasonal fruit picking and selling hand crafted salves and lotions from wild herbs and wooden stools and implements which they learned to do along the way. After 10 years or more of this way of life they bought with others a farm and are producing food from the land as far as i am aware by hand, im not sure if they have a horse to help now or not.  They are in Dorset. UK

Answer 2

Almost sounds like tribal life to me...  You realize the work available will probably be farming (agricultural, live-stock, fish), hunting/fishing, building/maintaining of shelters, tools, & vehicles, perhaps some sort of mining & collecting of materials, and taking care of one another, whether it be medicinal, educational, spiritual, & what-not...  etc...  

I suppose that transport could be done with your body, different animals (camels, mules, horses, dogs, bulls) on carriages & buggies, hand gliders, canopy wire zip or cable cart, hot air balloons, blimps, bicycles, three-wheel taxis like the Chinese have, and at least some primitive boats & canoes, but you could also use steam engines for trains, cars, and boats, since they do not use electricity, then again, might that be considered running water?  Well, it's surely not "completely green".

Anyhow, you'd need to be near a river, but you won't be able to irrigate the farm since you don't want running water.  You could've also used the river, not just for a hydro-powered mill, but also to generate electricity, but you don't want electricity, nor running water...  Seriously seems like a severely major step backwards in evolution...  Basically, to prehistoric times.

Since you won't have any telephones.  Long distance communication could be done with human messengers on horseback, trained birds delivering letters (Lassie & Flipper too), signaling kites, signaling mirrors, smoke signals, fireworks, different drum beats, pounding on tree trunks, triangle, blowing of horns, flutes & whistles, and yodeling.  There can also be signs or markings in certain areas to help explain if you're entering a dangerous zone & what-not.  

Of course, for the most part, I'd imagine that everyone would be eating together.  That will help ensure that the food goes around well.  Conservation in itself might at least call for seasonal hunting, no hunting of youngins, and storing/preserving of seeds in case of any agricultural problems.  

Oh yeah, since there won't be any shopping going on, you probably won't need any money.  Instead, you'll be bartering, as you say, "trading" live-stock and what-not.  

Victoria, I think that NO ELECTRICITY means NO CARS or did the Model T not use electricity?  There was a crank for the front of the engine...  Was that an electrical thing?  Maybe not.  I think I heard that they were originally made to run on methane, or something.  

Subbu, brought up a really good point...  Using gas to power things...  Now you can have a refrigerator, a/c, and stuff...  COOL!!!  http://lionheart.net/fridge/    

but would that be considered "completely green"?

I have a lot to learn...  Might as well become an engineer, or something.  Come on people, I know I'm not thinking of everything here.

Answer 3

Transpertation- car that runs off of vegetable oil, water, they make them or better yet simply yourself or an animal.

communication- there id knon when you go completely green you have to talk face to face or use an instrument.

If you watch Into the wild..which is a true story you will see how he lives off the land.

if there is no shopping then where does the school supplies come from.

i would suggest that the people in your book live near a fresh water lake/river.

Answer 4

Hello Lulu

Going  Green is difficult one. Every body want to live Luxurious Life with Cars/Bunglows. No body want to live ECO Friendly Life.

1.We all try live in Thatched House surrended by coconut Tree. No Air Condition/cooler is required.

2..Water to be taken from well by Hand Pully-( Current is Not Required)

3.Bio-Gas from Cow dung/Bufflow Dung to be used for Cooking as Bio Gas.

4.Pot water to be used. Good by to Refrigeratot.

5..Cycle or Bullock Cart to be used for Transportation.

Is any body live like this ?

Can people come forwade to live Eco Life ?

[e-mail]

s.s.subbu

Answer 5

Sounds like Amish living.  I'm not there yet.  Kudos to you for whatever effort you make.  Try this website.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/amish.ht...

Answer 6

My husband and I live a fairly earth friendly lifestyle on our permaculture farm.  My farrier (use to shoe my horses) lived an EXTREMELY earth friendly lifestyle.

He lived in Washington state, high in the mountains.  They hauled ice cold water from the river with buckets to provide their drinking/bathing/cooking water.  He owned hawks and hunted with them, to provide some of the food for his family (wife and young son).

He owned horses and would ride them for hunting and local transportation.  Of course he also owned a vehicle to get around to his varrious farrier jobs.

He was my farrier back in the 1980s-mid 90's.  He had a phone answering/message service to take the calls about people wanting horses shod.  When he came out to shoe the horses, he tried to always make the apointment with the person he who's horses he was shoeing for the next time (6-8 weeks out) in a schedule book he had.

You can can food in glass jars, on propane stoves.  Lots of people who are home canners opt to do it this way.  Canning is a long hot process.  You need to of course can the food items when they come into season.  Food items that come into season during the hottest part of summer are easier to can out of doors, instead of a sweltering hot kitchen that traps the heat.

You can dehdrate food by using fine mesh screens to protect the food items from pilfering by birds and squirrels, and prevent flys from laying eggs on it.  Food can also be dehydrated quiet nicely in the back of a car window (back dashboard) that is facing the sun.  Cars get hot very quickly, and dry food items very quickly.

Root crops (turnips, potatoes, carrots, ect) store very well, along with some items like squashes, and certain types of apples.  Soft fruit like peaches and plumbs must be deydrated, or canned.

People living that kind of lifestyle would have a high beans, rice, grains and legumes diet.  Of course all of those items can be purchased in 25-50 pound sacks, and store very, very well.

For meat, the family can depend on "one meal" animals, like rabbits, chickens, fish, turkey, ducks, geese, pigeons, and young goats, sheep and suckling pigs.  No refridgeration needed.

The people would probably know how to smoke meat as well, and of course build an ice house in the winter, which could carry them through part of, or all of the spring, summer months.

Eggs do not need to be kept in the cold, and will keep just fine on a kitchen counter for several weeks.  Butter can keep a long time, especially if inversed into clean water.  Milk is problimatic, but they should be milking twice daily, so fresh milk wouldn't really be a problem.

My husband and I raise and preserve almost all of our own food.  I know a great deal about food storage, and food preservation.

By the way, with communication, what does your family need communication for?  If they are living this kind of lifestyle they obviously do not have traditional jobs.  Family members can write letters, and send them via the mail!  If they must have a phone, look to what the Amish do.  They will not have a phone in the house.  Often though they have one out at the end of their driveway.  They can call someone in an emergency then.  They do not however recieve phone calls.

There are wind up chargers for cell phones.  There are also small solar chargers for cell phones.  Just tossing out options for you.

For transportation, you have bikes.  People who are really fit and have really good bikes can ride a bike about 200 miles a day.  You also have horses.  If a person is really fit, and the horse is really fit, a horse and rider can go about 100 miles in a day (Check out "Tevis Cup.")  Horse and rider will both need to rest a couple of days after a ride like that.  30-40 miles a day, every day,  is not unreasonable on a horse,  as long as the horse has at least a solid 24 hour (preferably 48 hour) rest period in the 7 day week.  Of course people can also walk very long distances.

Hope this info helps.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

P.S.  No running water....why wouldn't they have a wind mill to pump the water?