My little garden is shaping up, planted a boy and girl Sea Buckthorn, with one pathetic yellow berry. We will see how they take.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides

Found some bastard Peonies growing by the road on the remains of a demolished garden. Tore the roots out and planted them as well, they do say Peonies sulk for 3 years after you tear them out.

Some great ideas to replace decorative japanese garden plants with edible.

http://balconyofdreams.blogspot.com/

Replace Bamboo with Asparagus

Replace clipped pine with clipped rosemary

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/26/technology/village_saving_planet.biz2/index.htm

21-year-old student/inventor/entrepreneur Emily Cummins has designed a brilliant portable solar-powered refrigerator that works based upon the principle of evaporation. Employing a combination of conduction and convection, the refrigerator requires no electricity and can be made from commonly available materials like cardboard, sand, and recycled metal.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/01/12/solar-powered-fridge-by-emily-cummins/

Naturally, I am atracted to permaculture.
Sepp Holzer and Fukuoka and

http://www.richsoil.com/sepp-holzer/sepp-holzer-permaculture.jsp

We have very little soil on our mountain, but we do have 7000 square meters of it.

One slope has accumulated quite a lot of oak leaves over the years, that have turned into mulched/ composted leaves.

I have made two raised beds, one out of wood and one by laying earth over a long dead and rotten birch.

Potatoes and
jerusalem artichokes / Helianthus tuberosus

and some beets, pumpkins and wildflowers to fix nitrogen.
are the start of our garden, planted in July so not hoping for any crop this year.

Need to find more local swedish tubers, but also thinking about the North American Ground Nut /
Apios Americana dutch seller
One can only learn anything by doing it, so this is simply starting now as opposed to waiting for the perfect conditions in the future that does not exist.

Anna got the potatoes for free, and the Jerusalem artichokes cost 12 crowns.
I bought a mix of heritage seeds on ebay for 17 dollars, and will try to get as many local permaculture compatible plants as possible.

Dont know if I should bring earth to the mountain for raised platform beds, as there is literally no earth, just rock covered with a thin layer of grass and roots.

Now I will go harvest some willow and plant it around our outhouse, if it takes, next year maybe I will convert it into a treebog.

http://www.ee7drs.org.uk/bog/treebog.html

http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki/Tree_bog

Masanobu Fukuoka is a farmer/philosopher who lives on the Island of Shikoku, in southern Japan. His farming technique requires no machines, no chemicals and very little weeding. He does not plow the soil or use prepared compost and yet the condition of the soil in his orchards and fields improve each year. His method creates no pollution and does not require fossil fuels. His method requires less labor than any other, yet the yields in his orchard and fields compare favorably with the most productive Japanese farms which use all the technical know-how of modern science.

Instead of deciding which vegetables would do well in which locations he mixes all the seeds together and scatters them everywhere. He lets the vegetables find their own location, often in areas he would have least have expected.

Slow sand filter- filter your water with a simple sand filter to 99.7 cleanliness.

strange edibles

to end – this is wonderful

and some Swedish permaculture resources
swedish DN article on biochar
Sweden/ Sverige permaculture

One couple’s journey to independence with a green house and motel.

Papercrete, reuse and recycle, and a lot of great ideas.

http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/

Found via Ryan Is Hungry

http://ryanishungry.com/2007/04/26/green-acre-the-40-yr-old-mobile-gets-a-green-re-do/

Russian Evgeny Gvozdev sails around world 2 times in home-made boats, that cost him less than $200 – and endless hours- to build.

The third time, he was found off the coast of italy two weeks after pieces of his third boat showed up.
He was 75. And he decided not to call for help. Maybe he wanted to die at sea.
But the most inspiring thing is that he is one of the very few people left that believe in 100-percent complete responcibility for our destiny.
How many people say, I would sail the world if only I had money.
This guy made his boat by hanging it off the side of his apartment’s balcony.
Everything is possible.

And what is the worst that can happen- you’re gonna die.
But then at least you lived.

Gvozdev was a boat mechanic. I can guarantee you that he had no money, just desire.

http://www.mitchellyachts.co.uk/photos/said.html

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s637590.htm

http://parusa.narod.ru/bib/papers/gvozdev/index.htm

Since international waters are tax-free, alcohol retails for significantly less on the boats.

The tour operators are so interested in getting passengers (and thus shoppers and buyers of overpriced meals) that they sell tickets at well below cost, allowing a traveler to enjoy a cruise for less than the price of Ryanair tickets.

One great idea is to go to Riga from Stockholm, then take a cheap train elswhere- I routinely travel to Russia for less than $100 one-way including train and ferry fare.

Ferries go to Finland, Estonia, Latvia and several Swedish islands. You can start at SEK 30 for a daytrip to Åland and cruise for a whole week if you feel like it.

Buy tickets online and prepare to have your cheapest experience while traveling in Scandinavia.

The cruises I personally find delightfully cheesy and tacky, but some of my friends absolutely love the atmosphere and the drunk camaraderie.

The crowds on the ferries are very international, and you will have ample opportunity to socialize, once the cheap booze starts flowing.

We personally prefer to stick to our cabin and have a romantiс getaway for two, all for the price of a bus ticket.

Some starting points

http://www.tallinksilja.com

And for the green minded traveler- going by boat is the most environmentally friendly way of traveling, short of going by bike or foot, but good luck getting across the pond!

If you found this entry useful, please make sure to link to my project, www.EcoHouseFilm.com

about building an ecological house in Sweden!

here are some quick tips to learning Swedish on your own.

The school is lacking in funds and instructors, and in the 4 months I have been attending I have had 9 different instructors.

SFI might help you learn Swedish but it will certainly not be enough or the only source of your education.

1)Set clear goals.

Like anything else in life, it helps to know what you want to achieve in order to achieve it.

Do you want to converse, read or simply have daily conversation in Swedish? How many words do you want to know and learn daily?

2)Do your research

There are dozens of free Swedish language resources available online. Check the famous Swedish Pirate bay – hint hint-

I cannot recommend any book as all Swedish language resources are outdated from what I have gleamed in the exciting world of applicational lingustics.

Svenska Utifran is not bad.

But go ahead and download books here (must register)-

http://uztranslations.net.ru/?category=swedish

I will do a review of electronic language resources, in the meantime, here is a quick list of links.Gogle for more resources!

Picture dictionary Swedish

http://lexin.nada.kth.se/lang/bildteman/

SAFIR

http://www.integra-ab.se/Filer/SAFIR/safir/startsida.htm

LEXIN

http://lexin.nada.kth.se/lexin-en.html

3)Do not be afraid to fail.

Every time I have a chance to talk to someone in Swedish, I take it. Anti-EU rally? Talk to the people handing out materials.

Trains not running on time on Sunday?- Talk to the conductor. Sales person offers help at a store? Take it!

Dont be afraid to look foolish- go out there, say “today I will be an Idiot Foreigner speaking broken Swedish! ”

Do not admit you speak fluent English, have a slight accent to your English if you can. Do not admit you are from an English-native country. Otherwise everyone will just speak to you in English. Better use English for help with words you do not understand, but insist on learning Swedish by speaking it only.

4)Practice every day

30 minutes every day is better than one whole day once a week.

If you found this entry useful, please make sure to link to my project, www.EcoHouseFilm.com

about building an ecological house in Sweden!

Satoyama is a word that describes the farming landscape near the hills and mountains in Japan, where water is abundant and farmers for a long time have maintained the soil for rice and vegetables. The NHK documentary, Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden was aired on BBC and PBS, and you can now see it on Youtube (links below the fold), narrated by David Attenborough. Welcome to the paddy fields and local communities near Lake Biwa, Japan.

Japan’s Ministry of Environment wants to restore satoyama, the part of the territory located on the outskirts of villages that formerly provided rural Japan with food firewood, coal, water and diverse cultures, somewhat equivalent to the french bocage. Hiromi Kobori and Richard B. Primack describe one particularly successful program where conservation efforts and fund-raising are linked to Totoro, an imaginary forest animal featured in the popular animated film!

play all

Harvest time in Satoyama from UNUChannel
http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/2009/01/13/harvest-time-in-satoyama/