The Changing Rural Habitat

Rural habitatThe changing rural habitat, volume one: case studies” & “The changing rural habitat, volume two: background papers“, Brian Brace Taylor, 1982.

Ship mills

Ship mills on the rhine anton woensam

Boat mills: water powered, floating factories” at Low-tech Magazine. Some extra images below:

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Designed For The Dump

The Story of Electronics: Why ‘Designed for the Dump’ is Toxic for People and the Planet” (video). Related:

Practical Conservation Handbooks: More Excellent DIY Resources

Zandduinen Gereedschappen onderhouden Hedging Tree planting

The British charity BTCV has an interesting collection of practical handbooks online. They all concern traditional practices and give a wealth of how-to details, including many drawings. Update December 2: BTCV has taken the books offline.

Related resources:

Leaf Blowers Must Die

No Tech Magazine editor kills idiot with leaf blower“. One day, maybe even this autumn, the headline will link to a real news article. There might be more killings: “No object better exemplifies the worst of civilization than the leaf blower. Even the most grievous machines of mechanized death humankind has inflicted upon itself pale compared to the cosmic insult with which leaf blowers slur humanity.” Read.

Fertilizer Trees

fertilizer trees

“Presenting the antithesis to the high-tech, high-cost and genetically-modified industrial vision sometimes pushed on Africa, Science Daily reports on the potential of evergreen agriculture and the use of fertilizer trees to increase food production, in a low-cost and environmentally more sustainable way”, writes Matthew McDermott at Treehugger.