How To Build Your Own Industrial Civilization

May 15, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Construction, DIY, Energy, Engines & Motors, Factories, Farming

how to build your own industrial civilization“The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is an open technological platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts. Key features of the GVCS: Open Source – Low-Cost – Modular – User-Serviceable – DIY – Closed-Loop Manufacturing – High Performance – Heirloom Design – Flexible Fabrication.”

“A modern, comfortable lifestyle relies on a variety of efficient Industrial Machines. If you eat bread, you rely on an Agricultural Combine. If you live in a wood house, you rely on a Sawmill. Each of these machines relies on other machines in order for it to exist. If you distill this complex web of interdependent machines into a reproduceable, simple, closed-loop system, you get these 50 machines.”

The GVCS is a work-in-progress. See the wiki, the blog and (the best introduction) the movie.

Related: How to make everything ourselves: open modular hardware.

Micro-Livestock: Little Known Small Animals with a Promising Economic Future

April 22, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Animal power, Farming, Meat, Random

micro livestockMathew Lippincott sends in this link to a 1991 book on micro-livestock, including currently domesticated and potential future domestication candidates among large mammals, rodents, insects, birds, and lizards: “Micro-livestock: little known small animals with a promising economic future“.

Handy Farm Devices & How to Make Them (1912 Book)

April 18, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: Books & Reference, DIY, Farming, Random

handy farm devices and how to make them

“Handy farm devices and how to make them“, Rolfe Cobleigh, 1912.

Fertilizer Trees

November 5, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Farming, 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.

Guerilla Farming

September 4, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Farming, Gardening

“We’ve long gardened in two raised beds in the parkway in front our house (the parkway being the space between the sidewalk and the street). This is officially city property, though we are responsible for maintaining it. It gets great morning light, so it’s a valuable growing space. It’s also fun to garden out in public, so we can talk to our neighbors and get all the fresh gossip, and show little kids what food looks when its growing. The drawback to a public garden, of course, is that it is defenseless.” Read. Via Dinosaurs & Robots.

Water Batteries for Trees

June 25, 2010 by kris de decker Filed Under: Deforestation, Desertification, DIY, Farming, Gardening, Irrigation, Reforestation, Trees, Water

water batteries for trees

“Using groundwater to grow crops and trees doesn’t make sense to Pieter Hoff, a Dutch inventor. Not only are traditional irrigation techniques inefficient because most of the water is lost to evaporation, Mr. Hoff says, but water can be easily captured from the atmosphere to grow just about anything.

To prove his point, Mr. Hoff retired from the lily and tulip export business in 2003, established his company, AquaPro, and devoted himself to the development of the Groasis Waterboxx (manuals), which he says will grow food crops and trees even in the driest places on earth.” Read more.