Earthbag (rammed earth in a bag) building. I like.

I've been lurking around the Earthbag Building Blog, the blog arm of earthbagbuilding.com, for a while now and I the idea of earthbag building has seriously grown on me.

The basic idea is to take a common resource, dirt, tamp it down into a bag, and stack it into walls. Now the first image that I though of was of sandbag bunkers and levies, and thats basically the same thing. The difference between my, Vietnam era firebase, sandbag bunker and a earthbag home is the way the bags are packed and connected. Often times soil is packed in to make the bag as dense as possible and rows of bags are connected using barbed wire as "cement".

Once the bags are layed up, windows and doors framed (box frames are secured right onto the bags), and the roof built (by traditional trusses or earthbag domes), then an earthen plaster is applied to seal the bags and finish the walls. Earthen plaster is a reoccurring theme in sustainable building, namely because of its world wide ubiquity and its durability. You might remember a small discussion of earthen plaster in my post about strawbale building and how it provides a active vapor barrier that allows vapors to pass in an out of a structure without trapping them, which causes mold and mildew problems.

A completed earthbag structure is among the most durable in the realm of sustainable building, surviving almost all natural disasters or at least surpassing the survival rates of conventional methods. This makes for a impressive structure at a potentially $0 pricetag. Considering that foreign food aid comes in bag form, think rice and grain bags, the price tag of building these structures can be very low if not zero, excluding labor costs. The third world and emergency situation implications are tremendous. Currently earthbag buildings are being promoted in Haiti, which still lies in ruins after the January 2010 earthquake. The US Military has even offered workshops in Djibouti, to teach those who are interested how to build affordable shelter. Earthbags have also seen widespread adoption across the continent of Africa, and Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

For those of you wondering about where you might find sandbags take a look here or here for ideas. A box of 1000, surplus GI, sandbags runs about $360, not bad considering the comparative cost of conventional building supplies.

Earthbags might be a new take on the rammed earth idea, but the idea itself is one of the oldest in the world. Rammed earth structures have been around since man figured out that earth is compactable. Here is a link to a rammed earth watch-tower, built in China, that dates back to the Han Dynasty (200's BC). My thinking here is pretty cliche, if it ain't broke.... So given that this building style has been around for thousands of years in one way, shape, or form, perhaps it deserves more attention from the modern home building community and sustainability activists. I'd love to see how this method of construction would survive Northeastern winters, and springs for that matter. If it turned out that it was a viable building style then I'd love to live in something so simply build, timelessly beautiful, and completely sustainable.

Appropedia, awesome wiki site that I just stumbled across.

Hello again!

Today I'm actually using my down time in a positive way by posting. While browsing my rss feeds on Google Reader I came across a link to this website; Appropedia.

Appropedia is a knowledge sharing wiki site based around sustainable living, which is right up my alley! Within five minutes of link clicking I was able to find information about a range of things from induction heating to composting. They have a lot of pages that are even loosely based around moral and philosophic questions, i.e. small houses, and the use of barbed wire.

That is all on this post but I strongly suggest you browse for a little while on this site and see what you come up with. Find something cool? Why not post a link in the comments" section and share with my readers and I?

Dan Phillips and Creating Houses from Recycled Materials

I just found this excellent video, from TEDxHouston, of a talk given by a man named Dan Phillips on the creation of homes from recycled and re-purposed materials. I definitely thought that it was going to be meat and potatoes on home building and how to use/find materials to use. Boy was I wrong!! This, most excellent, talk is as much about philosophy of home construction, and how we live within our homes/communities, as it is anything else.

Mr. Phillips discusses basic philosophy in the terms of how we seek, build, finance, and live in our homes. A really interesting way to approach things indeed. He breaks it down into two major ways of looking at homes based on Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the Apollonian and Dionysian. Now Nietzsche wasn't the first to discuss these two in opposition to each other, I think that was probably Plutarch, but Nietzsche went the extra mile to oppose the two diametrically. The Apollonian being the ordered, the ideal, the logical, the thinking, the appreciation for visual and tactile things, whereas the Dionysian is the chaotic, the intoxicated state, the instinctual, the feeling, the appreciation for reality (organic structure?). Applied to modern homes you have the Apollonian McMansion, and the Dionysian [name your organic/sustainable/recycled home design ethos].

Within this framework Phillips breaks down the ideas behind his work and why it is important. The largest driving force, within the home construction industry, is the waste created by the consumer. Formally waste was all over, the industrial revolution had a dirty, wasteful start (think your turn of the century saw mill or steel furnace), now we are presented with a industrial process that is certainly wasteful in terms of pollution but not necessarily use of raw materials. Modern mills and plants that make materials for use in home construction have the process of getting the most out of a raw material to a T. If you have ever been present at, or watched a video of, a modern saw mill in action you will have undoubtedly noticed the advancements made in production of dimensional lumber. Computer technology has allowed a mill to calculate the most efficient use of a log within milliseconds and then cuts it accordingly, gone are the days of cutting 2x4's from one log then 4x4's the next and so on. The problem of waste lies with the consumer.

Phillips gives an example that I, myself, have been guilty of, turning away a piece of lumber because it is somewhat warped. Another example is throwing out the off cuts of pieces of lumber and not using them for other projects and applications. Yet another is replacing any piece of a home just because of a minor imperfection that changes or, in the eyes of most, depreciates its value. This is as bad an example of wanton over consumption as any. Years ago people wouldn't waste anything they bought when building a home or making anything in particular. Today we throw away most of what we buy.

Mr. Phillips believes that a return, or more like a shift, towards the Dionysian side of life, is required in order to conceive of and create a less wasteful way of life. Mr. Phillips, you are preaching to the choir. This shift from an ordered way of building would allow us to get in touch with a more organic and natural expression of our wants and needs. His ideas are quite provocative and I strongly urge you to take aside for a few minutes and watch his talk. Without further diatribe, here is Mr Phillips.



Search Amazon.com for recycled home

Thanksgiving

Nothing much to report today except for the fact that another year has gone by and it is time for Thanksgiving. As we all know the first Thanksgiving didn't actually involve turkey, they hadn't quite thought of that back in 1621. Originally a three day feast, Thanksgiving was made an official holiday by Abe Lincoln, and then later given an exact day by FDR. One sad note about why Thanksgiving was made to be on the fourth Thursday of the month of November is that part of FDR's motivation was to create a day that would encourage early holiday shopping. This was our first step towards the wanton consumer orgy that is Black Friday... I won't go off on that tangent today but I will say that it's a sad thing to think about.

However, I am still thankful for this, my second favorite, holiday. Any time that we can get together with your families and share a meal is a very special time and we should all be happy we still have the luxury of a good meal. The only thing I will try to say to you today is please eat local, buy your turkey and veggies from local farms, and remember that you are all part of a complex system that needs to be responsibly maintained. The more we do to bring days like today back home and back to our local farms makes it more and more likely that we will have these gatherings in the future.

"Thy bounty", is our bounty, cherish it.

Where in the world is Mr. K?!

Sadly I fell away from blogging over the last summer and this fall. My job situation and the amount of bouncing around I have been doing has been keeping me almost too busy to think much less write an epic blog post. Well folks, I make no guarantees, but Mr. K is coming back.

Since we last left off my focus has shifted some away from policy and politics of our predicaments and focused more on skills and practice of living a more sustainable life. Along with that shift I have realized the necessity in skill development and refinement. This focus actually came from my recent participation in my local Fencing School, where I have taken a coaching role, teaching private and group lessons along with the facilitation of larger group lessons and activities. Focusing on improving my fencing skills, as an educator, has really helped develop an idea of the types of things I would like to focus on in my own life.

Along with my ever deepening foray into fencing, I planned and executed the great experiment that was known as Xtreme Camp. Xtreme Camp is a nine week, extreme sports and outdoor adventure summer day camp, designed for children ages 8-14. This camp involved about sixty to eighty campers a week participating in a variety of activities from mountain boarding and paintball to orienteering and survival skills. I had seven counselors and about five CIT's working with me. Together we created one of the most successful summer camp programs in the area. Again a lesson learned here was how to be creative and how best to employ ingenuity  and leadership qualities.

So with all that being said I hope to be bringing you more posts in the future and if I can't find the time at least you know that I am out there doing good things and working hard to change the world for the better! See you all soon!

~K

Communitarianism

This is a good article I found on the Times's website. Give it a read. I think Phillip Blond's essays echo many of my own feelings.

Planning with Intent: Planning my Intentional Community

So planning for a long term intentional community might seem like a big and scary task. Something that might easily overwhelm any person who was to take on such a venture, but for as complicated as it is, to plan such a community isn't insurmountable. I have been kicking around ideas to plan, build, and make profitable a intentional community aimed towards self sustainability, agricultural education, and a farm stand/store. Below is my starting five year plan.

The Compound....(Yea I know its kind of intimidating but we haven't figured a name yet)

• Year 0
• Membership:
• 4-8 central starting members
• Likely to be divided between major financial contributors and major labor contributors.
• Planning will be equally shared and voted on, so a odd number of people would be best.
• Full-time, live in staff responsible for labor, building, and management.
• Part-time, non-live/seasonal live-in in staff responsible for finance, legal, PT-labor.
• Central members set goals and a overarching vision for group/project.
• Plans that set guidelines and expectations for years 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.
• Combine initial investments and incorporate as a group.
• Search for a suitable land investment:
• 150-200acres
• Good water, (lake, ponds, streams, rivers, quality ground water)
• Good initial soil and slope for farming
• Reasonable timber resources for building and sustainable timber operation
• Proximity to local municipalities
• Proximity to major towns and/or cities
• Access to local grid (phone, power, network)
• Standing structures are a bonus
• Previously farmed land is a bonus
• Set final plan for farming and long term expansion of farming efforts
• Viable crops, cash crops, subsistence
• Crop rotation
• Agricultural style (organic, no-till, etc)
• Make initial contacts with Timber management company
• Early income potential
• Begin initial equipment investments
• Basic tools
• Tractor and attachments
• Portable Sawmill? (would be excellent for structure building)
• Power generation equipment (solar or small scale wind)
• Water storage
• Power tools
• Year 1
• Establish residency.
• Initially part time
• Rehab of standing structures and construction of small scale residences 
• Initial structure building prep
• Season timber for building (why we would use/need a sawmill)
• Establish structures for farm facilitation and equipment storage
• Clear/prep land for farming.
• Establish green manure/composting/soil building program at this time to effectively recycle cleared materials.
• Soil tests for pH and mineral contents to plan amendments and initial cover crops
• Cut and dry firewood for future
• Establish water and waste systems 
• water conservation and protection
• water acquisition
• if a well is needed have it dug
• water storage (cistern or catchment system)
• waste water recycling. (earthships model)
• waste recycling (composting)
• Establish subsistence farm
• provide food to residence
• provide crop effectiveness feedback
• Plan and establish initial animal husbandry
• chickens are easiest!
• plan for sheep, pigs, horses, cows, or whatever animals are desired for draft and food purposes.
• Begin contacting schools for initial internship possibilities and planning
• cheap labor
• agricultural education is positive for the community
• get kids out of the cities and off the streets for the summers
• provide skills, training, and food for good, honest labor on the farm
• Years 2-3
• Establish living quarters for full time residents and a bunkhouse for visitors.
• Living spaces would be best if shared initially via a large common farmhouse or lodge.
• Built from harvested timber for year before, and built with recycled or locally sources materials. Strawbale would be best, in my opinion.
• Expand farm to commercial scale. 
• Expand residential food garden too support a local farm stand and farmers market stand. Possibility would exist to create a CSA out of farm should that be desired at the time.
• Cut and clear more land, expand crop variety.
• Management of farm must be efficient if venture is to succeed
• Begin implementation of internship program to staff farm through the summer months
• This would also be a good time to begin looking for people to "buy in" 
• Expand animal husbandry and seek a facility to process animals locally or on site if possible.
• These years will be critical to success of venture because of initial dependence on the success of the farm and related commercial ventures. If revenue from farm is substantial enough to see a profit then profit should be reinvested into the farm in order to expand and streamline production. Larger farm=larger return.
• Begin development of processed foods such as syrup, honey, cheeses, preserves, pickled vegetable etc as an expansion of agricultural market.
• Years 4-5
• If things with farm are on an even keel this would be time to begin planning of other investments on site. 
• Suggestions include: meeting spaces, artists retreats, artistic facilities and work spaces, bed and breakfast, restaurant etc.
• These must be viable businesses that stand alone from farm financially. Financial interdependence could be a dangerous web should one venture or another fail.
• Lodge and surrounding full time residences should be complete along with workshop spaces, equipment sheds, water storage and processing, bunk houses, part time residences etc. These should have power and facilities independent of one-another.
• Development of a CSA group to better facilitate farm growth.

So this is where my ideas begin to stretch and get foggy. However, this is just because I have been more preoccupied with the details of the initial buildup that I haven't developed a solid plan that extends further than five years. So here is where I want your input and suggestions. What can be developed further? What can be added? What should be changed? What risks do you see? What could potentially make for a more sound idea? Anything you wish to contribute would be appreciated! Thank you!

America the Miserable

I heard this article recently on NPR and thought that it was more than worth discussing. America the Miserable by Patrick Allitt, talks about the decline and fall of our American "can do" attitude. It is a pretty interesting look at our country's collectice psyche and how much we have changed as Americans since the Second World War.

I beleive he is definately onto the obvious here, America has lost its "Can Do!" spirit which we once held is such high reguard. What has replaced this feeling? Allitt says we are a nation of cynics and malcontented individuals, pessemistic of our country and living in perpetual fear of "them". I can definatley say I agree. We are ruled by CNN news breifs about the latest terror assesment level, and are content to argue silly indifferences while the country collapses instead of save ourselves. So what is our new attitude?

I think we could call the new American perspective "Can Do Someday". We are prone, these days, to say we can do something about a problem but we will do it someday soon. Healthcare reform? Sure lets debate it to death and come up with a solution that we can someday put into law. Energy reform? Awesome lets have the alternative energy companies, car makers, and fossil fuel decryers argue about it indefinately the market will give us a sustainable answer someday soon. Joblessness? OK! Lets give companies all sorts of money to pump into their economic lifesupport machines so they can take out their corperate bonuses and be happy so they will hire new people someday next quarter or maybe in a fiscal year from now. Global Warming or Climate Change? Nah that isn't even a real thing! Washington had snow! So did Texas! It might happen someday but it wont happen today so we don't have to care.

Yes we have become a nation of off putters. Giving out problems to the next generation so the modern bourgeoisie can enjoy their SUV's and cable television, anyone want some chocolate covered strawberry's? They are perfect to forget about these cold winters! Yes lets revel in our greed and excess because we don't have to worry about it someone will fix our problems, someday.

What do you think? Do you agree with Allitt? What do you think about my ideas? Have something different? Lets hear it! I would love this one to become a debate!

Student of the Future

The future is a scary prospect for anyone but this is doubly so, I feel, for the American Student. Students in our modern society have a lot coming to them; guaranteed primary and secondary educations, and a relatively acessable post-secondary education, at the very least vocational training. However how likely is it that these students will need, use, or even have these options, in the future? I believe the student of tomorrow will have to look at educational sucession in a different light and with a greater deal of realism and pragmatism.

Unfortunately for many students currently enrolled or recently graduated from a post-secondary (usually a undergraduate) degree program there are few options open to them for career opportunities. This is a function of the recessing economy and steady instability (haha) of job growth. With unemployment rising, at current, and outsourcing ever expanding what options does the recenty graduated twenty-something year old person have?

Being among those happy few, I know from experience that there are few options out there. One has to be in a very specialized field to get a job. Many of us find ourselves back in our jobs we held in high school, flipping burgers, packing groceries, or, as it is in my case, delivering. The few fields that were formerly safe bets; education, law enforcement, medicine, etc, are currently shrinking instead of growing like we were told six years ago. So many of us with relatively general credentials, such as a english or history degree or even business, are left wanting. What went wrong?

Our high schools, once reguarded as the finest in the world, are failing our students. The world doesn't need another lawyer or doctor or businessman, there are already enough. But what have we lost in the last thirty years? We have seen our workers, the blue-collar man, the farmers and factory workers dissapear. Where did they go? Well many to college and then they went on to the East Side and go their condo apartments or suburban castles. Now what? What happens when the industries that built our nation dont have the pool of workers that used to supply demand? They have sold out, as the remaining few workers demanded more and more from their corperate bosses. Its cheaper to do it in Mexico and China than Detroit and Pittsburg. So if white collar jobs are bloated with excess employees and applicants then why do we sell our production to other places?

If people were told at an early age that it is, in fact, acceptable to be a steel worker maybe we would have a steel industry. The same could be said for farmers and factory workers. Maybe these industries wouldn't have left in the first place, maybe we could rebuild them, maybe we will have to. With our economy out of control, the globalization powering oil drying up, and demand for expansion of domestic American production growing maybe it becomes the job of schools to tell students it is ok to be part of that growth.

So can our schools deliver such an unsavory message to students and parents? Do we really want to say "hey kids, its OK to work on an assembly line or mine coal." Will parents of suburbia allow their children to stay out of college in lieu of a job as an mechanics apprentice? I don't know if it will be acceptable but it seems that if we want to grow those parts of our economy, the ones that once made this country great, we will need to say its OK.

But if we supply workers will industry come back? Do we need to build it before they will come? I think it will be a process driven, of course, by necessity. Any company looking for positive P.R. will want to say it is expanding operations in the U.S.. Many of the Japanese car makers have already capitalized on this reopening or building new assembly plants in the lower 48 in order to supply the volume needed by their customers. Can the same be done with the consumer goods we all use every day? Yes, and it will be cheaper than importing these goods, at least it will be soon. As oil dries up and the battle over the next great black gold intensifies, many companies will have to bring production state side. The great intercontinental processsion of super tankers and container fleets will not be able to be supported. Signs of this are already apparent as some shippers are planning to retrofit their vessels with sails to cut fuel costs and consumption, but this is a desperate action of a dieing industry.

As the switch comes back from white collar, no dirt in my nails, jobs. We need to show our students and young people that a job is a job, and no matter what it is you are sucessful as long as you are happy. If that means putting the dash boards into the next F-150's or assembling solar panels, thats still good. Any domestic expansion is good and should be encouraged. Bring our students back home to the farm and show them how to do it.

Apps; App Atrophy of Humanity and Human Interactions

Everyone loves Apps, I'll admit even I do. But I have to wonder what they are doing to us as people. Is it the normal progression of our species to allow a computer to work out tip money for us or find our ways home? I agree that apps for your phone and widgets for your computer are great, they save time and time is money. But in the long run are we really serving ourselves by forgeting how to do things without being held by the iHand and guided through our iLives?

Lets look at some of the things we are losing as a society by our apps. According to Times the top ten iPhone apps of 09 were:
Tweety 2 (Twitter)
Yelp (restaraunt and bar reviews)
Slacker (streaming music)
Flight Track Pro (real time flight tracking)
Mint (budgeting tool)
Slingbox (mobile TV)
Small Chair (moble reading material)
Run Keeper (work out trainer)
Photoshop Moble (photoshop on the go)
Locavore (find the good local eats)

Ok so the top 10 of 2009 don't really eat away at human interactions or abilities that we should have as people but there are some things that raise eyebrows about what we are doing and how as people.

For instance the application Slingbox, awesome as it may be to the TV addicts, allows us to completely unplug from reality and suck ourselves into the world of TV sitcoms and dramas for however long we want. So on the bus and at the bar should we expect to or want to see everyone pacified by TV streaming to our phones? I think that might be destroing interactions that are very important to have. For instance you are going to become completely unsocial in social places if you sit there watching TV all the time. People wont come up to you and want to talk. Kinda missing the point of being in public at a bar or something like it, dont you think? Same could be said for streaming music and movie apps as well.

What about things like Yelp? If we trust everyone elses experiences we might miss out on having memorable experiences of our own. I, for one, really enjoy missadventures when they happen. I wouldn't want to miss out if I was told to by another person. Similarly I might in fact enjoy the place that everyone else decries.

I suppose the point that I am trying to make is that if we rely on our apps to solve every great dilema of our lives we might end up missing something important, or if not important, at least enjoyable. Things like tip calculators and GPS might be robbing us of skills that are important to have without needing the assistance of a machine. And lastly if we spend our lives playing Brick Breaker on our phones we might miss out on the world passing us by, and that would be a terrible thing to miss out on.

Are you going to survive? Emergency essentials in an unstable world.

A conversation with another teacher during our prep period spured me into writing this post about survival. This time instead of specific wilderness survival I want to talk about the tools you should have at arms reach to survive any emergency. At a time when nations across the globe are experienceing disasters and other emergency situations on an increasingly regular basis it is important to know and understand that it might happen to you someday. Realizing that it can happen in your backyard should make you feel the necessity of being prepaired. How should you be prepaired? By being well equipped. Below is a list of tools and supplies that you should carry with you or at least near you on a regular basis in case of emergency.

> Rope: this is often one of the most unappreciated pieces of survival kit until you acctually need it. Rope can be used for a million different things, from tieing a tourniquet to lashing branches into a tent pole. I suggest keeping as much as twenty five feet of #550 paracord on hand for such emergencies. There are a couple ways to carry such rope. Paracord is thin but extremely strong, so thin that it is commonly substituted for bootlaces and can be made into a variety of things like watchbands and bracelets, consider such acessories if you are a survival fashionita because they are pretty cool. Also paracord is small enough when wrapped up to be stowed in a small space, not hard to drop into the bottom of a backpack or purse.

> Lighter or firestarter or both: Lighters are probably the easiest thing to carry on a regular basis after something you can wear and is essential to any decent survival kit. Some people carry both a lighter and firestarter, I say if you have socks or a cotton t-shirt on you have more than enough firestarter already. A good lighter should be both water and fireproof. Torch lighters usually fit the bill the best but a bick will suffice in a pinch. Good firestarter is anything from pocket lint to cotton balls. These things will likely be indespensable in a survival situation as you will likely need to start a fire for warmth but you could possibly need to do anything from light a signal fire to fuse rope or heat a knife to cauderize a wound.

> Knife and or Multitool: A trusty knife is a mans second best friend. If you know me you probably know that I don't leave the house without my Leatherman and my pocket knife and you probably have seen me use them to do anything from cut meat, or spread butter to fix a car or screw a door back together. They are essential for good survival kit because they will serve so many functions. A knife can help defend yourself, fashion tools, dig a hole, trim your toe nails, and, if it's sharp enough, to even shave. A multitool, such as a Leatherman, will have on it and serve as pliers, a sawblade, file, screw driver, wirecutters, scissors, a wrench, pry bar and the list goes on and on. I've used both of these tools for countless fixes and they have saved my butt in a pinch more than once in daily life, not to mention survival situations.

> Extra clothing: Some survival experts say that extra clothing is too much to hassle with or worry about during a emergency or survival situation. However, even an extra pair of socks or a dry shirt can be invaluable to you in an emergency. I try to keep extra clothing in my car at all times, including a jacket and long sleeve shirt. Some might carry extra shoes or other accessories. I also suggest a blanket, even if it is once of those silly space blankets, just in case. At the very least you can make a make shift tent or signal for help with it, at worst you might survive that enexpectedly cold night warm and cozy instead of hypothermic. Extra clothing should be light and packable and easy to get to (in case it is in your car like mine).

> Water: HYDRATE OR DIE. It is simple as that. If you dont have water you will not last more than a couple of days out in the cold hard world that is a true emergency survival situation. A water bottle will not only help you have water on you, but trasport water from one place to another. Remember to ration your water out if you don't know where and when your next ressuply will be. With water that you find make sure it is clean first by boiling it for a few minutes before drinking it. Even clean looking water can have a host of parasites that could make you sick. Being sick for an emergency survival situation is the last thing you need!!!

> Simple First Aid supplies: If you know enough to have some sort of survival kit with you, you know enough to keep a first aid kit with that survival gear. When I taught wilderness survival and orienteering at a summer camp last year, my first aid kit was the biggest thing on me. If you know you will be responsible for more than just you make sure you have enough supplies. If you are by yourself pack light. Bandages, medical tape, gauze, and pain killers are the bare minimum. A good kit should incluse those plus; an ace bandage, alcohol wipes(hand sanitizer is OK but not the same), sewing kit, antihistamenes, different size bandages, and clotting powder. These things will go a long way in a survival situation and having them when you don't is always better than not having them when you need them. You can easily get a pocket sized kit from any good sporting good store, but the best kits are hand picked. Don't skimp here because you will only pay for it later down the road. Also be mindful of expiration dates, make sure they are clearly marked and that you rotate supplies. If you need help finding any of the above check with me or google it.

> Analog watch and compass: Knowing the time and where you are going are not only essential to survival in most situations but can also be huge moral boosts when in and emergency. You may ask why this is one category. Well that is because an ANALOG watch can be used to determine your heading relative to the sun, a skill few have and fewer have mastered, but still useful. And many watches these days have nifty featuers like GPS based compasses built right into them. And we all had a watch when we were kids that had a compass on it (or maybe I'm too old school and you all had calculator watches instead). Either way combining two survival tools into one is handy for keeping them on you and with you. You might not always wear a compass but you might always wear a watch!

> Plastic trash bag: At the very least a plastic trash bag can help you carry items you pick up on the way. But it can also serve as a rain poncho, shelter, water carrier, protective wrapping, signaling, and even a means of water procurement via a solar still. The most common thing you will use a trash bag for in a survival situation is likely to be the roof of your shelter it helps alot to have a waterproof barrier between you and the rain and wind. The plus about trash bags is that they come in a variety of sizes and colors so you can pick and choose the best type. The ones you should look for are going to be the ones that are used for constuction or any other heavy duty task. They should be preferably the largest you can find and of the brightest color available, orange is the best bet.

> Signaling device (mirror or whistle): Yes the Native Americans used to signal with smokey fires but, as a rule of thumb, we are not as crafty as them. Keeping that in mind you should have a mirror or whistle in your kit just in case you need to let someone know where you are if your voice isn't loud enough. A good signaling mirror will have a sighting hole in the middle through which you can aim your mirror and should also be encased in a plastic case for durability. A good whistle should be stainless steel NOT PLASTIC! Plastic breaks, steel bends, guess which is easier to fix. Along with signaling devices a cell phone should be considered part of your kit. In some emergencies a cell might not work or might be broken but in many places it can be your greatest asset in getting the help you need during an emergency.

> Metal bowl or cup: Having a metal bowl or cup with your kit gives you a couple options. You can eat out of it, boil water in it, cook with it, carry things in it, etc... At the very least you should have one with you in the event you need to boil water. This is not accomplished easily without one of the above items. And you never know when the mood may strike you, while out in the scary world of a suvival situation, to make yourself a nice warm cup of pine needle tea!

> Something to put it all in: You will need a bag or some kind of container for your survival kit. I have seen people make use of anything from Altoids tins and coffee cans to dive bags and water proof backpacks. I suggest something manageable for the kit you have. If you really can fit it all into an Altoids tin, wonderful, I'll be sure to check it for a match and stick of gum when your dead. (kidding! kinda?) But if you have your kit in a coffee tin or small bag that is at arms reach and is made to be durable then you will be set. The larger bag or container you have the more stuff you will be able to keep on you but you sacrifice being able to have it on you at all times and also manageability. Stay away from minimalism here but don't be super excessive. Most survivalists suggest something akin to the coffee can mentioned above, I'm a small kit bag/on me at all times person, to each their own. If you can make some of your gear part of the things you have on your person on a daily basis then that is really a great way to go.

I hope you read this and take some of the lessons above to heart. You never know when disaster will strike and when it eventually does effect you, you need to be ready! If I forgot any of the essentials or forgot to mention a use for one of the above, do mention it in a comment!

Schools Post Oil: What is going to happen to our educational system?

We all love our schools dearly in this country. Every Monday night across countless fields, our high school football teams face off under the lights, with the roar of their frenzied parents and fan fare of the bands behind them. But what happens to them when the lights go out for good?

For the last fifty or so years our nations schools have been suburbanized, centralized, and have downsized on teaching staff and resources. Before the age of the yellow school bus fleets and high school campuses that resemble shopping malls, we had a smaller, less centralized, system. A system that was walkable, flexible, and very personalized for that region. But no longer. Our children get bused from far away to massive buildings, full of thousands of students, where two teachers could work at the same school all their careers and never meet. If you are reading this blog you likely have a good handle on how poorly our schools operate from various angles, such as quality of education or efficiency of resource use, but have you ever considered what would happen if the students couldn't even get to school if they wanted to?

The scenario almost plays out like a charity commercial for a third world country. Students longing to get to schools but they are too far to walk or bike. The roads are rough from even a year of disrepair, and in the winter months the way is simply impassable. The schools are shells, falling down around the few teachers and students that manage their ways in every day. Water supplies are inconsistent, lights are broken or off dew to power outages, and heating and air conditioning systems are inoperable. Books are old and tattered and all the marvelous technological innovations of the 20th century are useless. It is a sad and stark reminder of what we will not be able to accomplish in a world beset by constant oil shortages and/or total oil depletion.

So how will schools need to adapt in the times to come? There are many answers or at least many options. Not every school is the same, nor is the town in which it is located, neither are the places they will no longer be able to serve, and the traditional methods of teaching might not apply from town to town, city to city.

The biggest change will have to be in size and geographic location of schools. Gone will be the day that kids can be bused from miles and miles around. Instead of serving entire districts schools will be forced to serve much smaller populations. To give you an idea of school sizes, the average school district in America serves about two thousand students grades K-12 and this is inclusive of vocational and other schooling. Two thousand students is a very large population for a school system and in a post-oil age it is likely that the average population of an entire district will shrink to a fraction of this. I predict that the average school will serve between fifty and a hundred students, that number may shrink or swell based on geographical location. In some cities it is totally foreseeable for a school to serve a few hundred students, and maybe even a thousand, based on the walkability of cities. On the flip side of this, our rural districts could become completely home schooled or turn into a local communal form of education with neighbourhood families taking shares of the responsibility for the education of their young people. "School" sizes in places such as these could be as small as a couple dozen students K-12.

The schedule of schools will likely stay within some semblance of what it is today. I would imagine since schools would be serving their own immediate localities, each would have their own unique calendar year. But regardless of location schools will likely revert to a more agrarian based school year. Days might be shorter in the harvest and planting months and longer during the winter months. Most schools will likely be directly tied into local economies to the point that weekly decisions about scheduling may be made depending on who is available to teach what or if a local business may provide a learning opportunity to educate students. City schools will be less affected by this change. They inner city areas will probably lengthen their school years and shorten the days. This would not only afford teachers, but students even, the chance to get a part time job on top of their obligations to school. This would benefit the local work force as well as give teachers and students a deeper level of integration within their neighborhoods.

The role of the teacher will change drastically. The traditional teacher will be replaced by a more versatile and multifaceted individual, capable of not only teaching a "classic" subject like history, science, or math, but also more practical skills such as carpentry or farming. Vocational education through internships and work programs might become the new norm for students in their teens, in a time where learning a specific skill to contribute to the common good of your home town trumps individual success. The role of a teacher may become a higher valued position within a community. Parents and community leaders may, once again, look to teachers as the stewards of their future instead of necessary components of a educational industry. College, among other forms of higher education, may revert to a realm for the select, and lucky, few who can afford to leave their local community or have such a resource at their disposal locally.

As I touched on already it is likely that many student will not move on to more than a 8th or 9th grade educational level. This would be reasonable in a world post-oil, at least initially, for a few reasons. First is that a functioning high school may be out of reach geographically for some. Not all rural areas would be able to afford or support such and endeavor. It would be more practical for some students to simply move into the work force at the age of 13 or 14 if the only thing they need to know is how to support their family by living off the land. Certainly the structure of classes, content, and years of mandatory attendance would change but even in areas that are more densely settled than farm areas it will likely be more practical for students to apprentice in their communities in order to learn and preserve trades necessary to their town. Of course doctors, lawyers, teachers and politicians will still be needed but they will be those select few who will go on to higher educational institutions, if they still exist. The biggest worry here is the creation of a more intense class system where select areas of a state or even people of certain professions call the shots. I can see this happening, however, I hope that the feeling of belonging to a community and the sense of responsibility for a persons own people will not be lost on these lucky future few.

Indeed the role of education and the way it is executed is yet to be seen for the future. All that we can do is speculate and prepare for what may come. But the overarching theme needs to be this; that we MUST be prepared for any eventuality. The biggest weakness we will face as the world turns and changes is an uneducated population, especially if that population forgets the lessons of the past. We have ignored those lessons already and, because of that, we face a grim future.

Can you change what is in your heart when it is for your better?

So folks this is a personal post, one of those touchy-feely discussions that I hope you don't get too attached to. But I recently returned from a trip that took me nearly a month to complete and stretched from coast to coast, from Long Island to California. It has been my first vacation in a long time and on a deeper level the first time I was able to really figure out what I needed to do with my life. When I say my life I mean more than just my life as far as direction but also my personal life and goals.

Indeed it was a vacation from all aspects of my life. I had fewer text messages and facebook notification, I checked both much less religiously. My email spent many days going unchecked. I could leave my alarm clock on my phone off and didn't feel guilty for turning both off entirely. The stresses of finding a job, working in schools, filling up my gas tank, pressing shirts, dealing with family and friend drama all were taken away for three weeks of relative bliss. Hours on the internet or otherwise plugged in were replaced with days spend wandering around a small city in a largely agrarian and economically depressed part of California. Strangely homelike, this city provided me with many hours of introspection, an activity formerly reserved for a twenty minute run or the few uninterrupted hours of sleep I get every night.

So what has changed about me since my departure, honestly not much, but on a deeper level I believe that I have been able to straighten out the clutter of my life and sort out my goals for the near and distant future. The mess has really been with the conflict that I have had since leaving college with the thought of my college life and my new life as a fully functioning adult. Much has changed, some has stayed the same, but it has all been muddied by the transition. It seems that mainly my connections to the past four years have hampered my efforts to spread my wings. Being back in the old town every weekend for fencing is one thing. But feeling it necessary to spend many days and nights at a time in Oneonta has severely limited my ability to sort out things at home and take time to adjust to how things are now. So for now I will fill my contracts and obligations but once that is through I think I will be cutting ties with the majority of that world in lieu of moving forward with my my life here and now.

All of that aside much of the difficulties I have faced in the last few months have been interpersonal. Since my trip I realized that I spend a great deal of my time dealing with and working around the lives of others. Flexing and bending in whatever way I can in order to improve their lives. Often times this has been at the cost of my own personal life and feelings, on a more superficial level this frequently impacts me financially as well. These things in mind I've discovered that I really won't be able to achieve much with my own life if I spend it fixing and helping guide the lives of others. Sure the feeling of being needed by someone is in some ways very rewarding but the feeling of being needed to live someones life for them has become one of the most dreaded things I have yet to experience. So keeping that in mind I have decided to make a better effort to concentrate on my own life, health, and goals.

What does this mean for the next year, two years, longer? Be sure that the me of 6 months from now will be in much better shape physically and mentally. I'm considering taking up running 5k races as thing, definitely running on a regular basis. Reading has made a Renaissance in my life and I plan on continuing that trend for good. You can never read too many good books and you can never learn too many things. I should have a better idea of what my next five years will look like. I'll know for sure whether military service is in my future. I'll be able to say when and how I'll be going back to school for my Graduate degree. If I've secured myself a full time job I'll hopefully get myself an apartment or other suitable living space of my own. Not to mention I'm planning for a get out of debt by September plan that includes a sizable savings increase.

Does all of this sound as glorious as it could be? No not at all, however, when you consider I have never before had a iron clad plan to accomplish these things I would consider it pretty substantial. Here's to hoping that these things get worked out and by the time I make the next personal post my thoughts become even more positive!