The year 2019 was good for the Martinsville Eco-House. This project is lowering energy use and carbon footprint of a 1950’s residential home.
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The year 2019 was good for the Martinsville Eco-House. This project is lowering energy use and carbon footprint of a 1950’s residential home.
Continue readingEvery homestead requires a community of friends for true prosperity. Let's thank the following sponsors provided materials, donations of resources, and/or time over the 2014 year. Continue reading
The right paths can reduce mud, but they can also retain water. They make access to your growing areas much more enjoyable. What I did was dug 24″ deep trenches about 24″ across the top on contour with double reach beds in between, then filled those trenches with shredded wood chips.
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It was a pleasure to help with the largest hugelkultur bed in Henry County VA (Ridgeway) — quite possibly the largest in all of south central Virginia. At more than 240 feet long this earthworks will hold more than 35,906 gallons of water.
Continue readingEvery rain inch washes away soil, never to be seen again. Follow this soil down streams of run-off, down creeks into rivers, eventually into disappearing ponds. Lake Lanier in Martinsville, VA, like hundreds of ponds across Virginia, pays more than $150,000 to be dredged. This is a massive budget for a private pond.
Continue readingNeighbors made available to me an opportunity resource by clear-cutting brush between our homes. It was a nuisance to them, bamboo, young poplar, scrub pines, and ivy. Within this still stands large oak, hickory, and birch. This hill, as outlined by the image in red, is about a 30-degree slope heavily eroded.
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