I haven't gotten around to sending a Peak Moment newsletter this past couple of months because all our energy has been consumed with necessities: Infrastructure. In particular, our water systems. The requirement for water resilience has been underscored by Reality this … [Read more...]
The Great Black Oak Elders
August 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Last winter a major branch on a large, very old black oak tree came down in a storm. This summer Four more heritage black oak trees have come down or lost a major branch, one barely a week ago. Concerned for safety, we had a Grandmother Oak taken down beside the … [Read more...]
Off-Grid Power at Lone Bobcat Woods
July 29, 2009 by 9 Comments
Intro: Intrigued by the snippets I've mentioned in various Peak Moment Conversations, a viewer asked to learn more about how we live here at Lone Bobcat Woods. So I'll do a series of blogs about that, starting with electricity. We've been off-grid since we moved to the … [Read more...]
Poem for the First Rain
July 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The season's first rain storm, thankfully light, Sets off our rain dance. Rain goddess chuckles, as always, watching: Getting the season's firewood into the woodshed, Bringing down fruit drying on the roof Figuring out how to dry it in the oven, Tarping the … [Read more...]
How Would You Celebrate Peak Oil Day, July 11?
July 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
Richard Heinberg suggests we commemorate July 11, 2008 as Peak Oil Day. Even if the occurrence may not have been precisely July 11, 2008, that day was most memorable: "The price of a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 in daily trading. That same month, world crude oil … [Read more...]
How Much is a Trench-Digging Gallon of Gasoline Worth?
May 28, 2009 by 5 Comments
To increase our resilience -- especially here in wildfire country -- we are creating a gravity-fed water system. This project has given me a personal metric for valuing the energy packed into fossil fuels. When I dug up 76 feet of existing water pipe buried about 18 inches … [Read more...]
Enough is as Good as a Feast
April 27, 2009 by 2 Comments
Jay recently spent a week with us, a hard-working week where we assembled 1400 feet of water pipe, built an earthen platform for water tanks, and chainsawed a few trees hanging over the road. Jay is one of our teachers. He lives within the smallest footprint of anyone we … [Read more...]
Knowing what you know, what are you doing for yourself(s)?
March 29, 2009 by 6 Comments
Last week we had dinner at the home of friends who live west of us a few miles by bumpy gravel road. Shan was lopping off some small madrone branches as we arrived at their homestead, a practical down-to-earth place shaded by black oak and pines. We followed her to a … [Read more...]
Limits to Growth at an Inflection Point?
March 26, 2009 by 4 Comments
I've felt that at the root of the global financial collapse we'd find energy -- mainly the end of cheap oil. Energy is the basis for real economic activity, and we seemed to be reaching oil supply limits by summer of 2008 just before the economic collapse hit its stride. … [Read more...]
When Giants Fall – Listening to Future Echoes
February 23, 2009 by 3 Comments
We just listened to an interview with Mark Panzner based on his new book When Giants Fall: An Economic RoadMap for the End of the American Era. We were inclined to listen carefully because in Panzner's March 2007 book with the sensationalistic title of Financial Armageddon, … [Read more...]
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