“If you want a super, energy-efficient home, you have to build new, right? Not necessarily. A 110-year-old Victorian home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is being touted as America’s oldest net-zero energy house, and the first of its kind in the state.…”
From Treehugger, a great website.
Lew has designed and redesigned our book-selling booth over the years, and he and Evan put it up Friday afternoon. There were two problems: first, was the hottest weather of the year. Secondly, previous SolFests were at the Real Goods headquarters in Hopland, with its green grass and ponds and general pleasant ambience, but the Ukiah Fairgrounds were way different. Hot and glaring. Hopefully they’ll figure a way to move it back to Hopland next year.
We sold books and talked to a lot of like-minded people. One guy came up, pointed to the Shelter book, and said: “I’m a high-rise engineer in San Francisco, and I got my start with this book.”
I gave a talk on “The Half-acre Homestead in the 21st Century,” what I’ve learned in about 50 years of home-made shelter and garden experience. I made a list of about 25 tools we use — coffee roaster, cheese grater, table saw, garden shredder, grain grinders, etc. Not a complete list, but sampling of stuff we’ve found useful over the long haul. Posted at: https://www.shelterpub.com/_homestead/tools.html. I didn’t take time to write reviews, just linked to further information for each item.
My laptop got trojan-horsed while I was on the road, so I couldn’t post any photos for three days. Frustrating! I’m used to being able to get info out, and I love posting while traveling. now that I’m back in business, I’ll put up photos from the trip.
SolFest got so popular that it was too large for the small town of Hopland. It was cancelled in 2009, but is back on this year at The Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah, Calif. Info: https://www.solfest.org/