Building Block

These days, when your electronics, gear, worktools or even clothes get damaged or worn down after a certain period, it goes to the dumpster. But in the U.S., there is a consumer rights movement that wants manufacturers to allow buyers of goods and services the right to repair what they buy. The trap of digital goods service agreements also puts buyers at a disadvantage: paying extra in the future to continue to get support to keep what they already own functioning properly. People have the right to repair, resell and to modify what they purchase and this is the cornerstone of the Fair Repair Movement.

Basket weaving as a life skill should not be mistaken as some time-consuming primitive tribal task. Making a weave into a container using leaves, vines and bark is essentially a survival skill. Basket weaving can provide any off-grid community with human shelters, food storage containers, fencing, hunting tools, food wrap technology, maksehift body armor, makeshift footwear and many life-saving tools. Today's basket weaving skills can also create heriloom art installations, designer furniture and designer fashion accessories as well as bamboo mansions you can only dream of.

The Open Source Hardware Association is a product design and manufacturing advocacy that wants people to be empowered to build their own everyday work tools or any other product and profit from them without being saddled by expensive proprietary nature of tech patents and expensive brands without infringing on any existing technlogy patents. The transition to open source systems of production should be studied as the only way for every culture and society to survive the pitfalls of unbridled capitalism.

Tool libraries were around since the 1970s : a storage and workshop depot where the best work and repair tools for carpentry and building would be stored by a master craftsman and shared among those in need in the town when repairs were needed. Today, just when the sharing economy is becoming the best and strongest model for self-sufficient communities, Tool Sharing is again becoming a way of life among advocates of community development. DIY and a sharing economy drive people to pool resources than out buy each other and possess everything.

It is storm season again. In our typhoon corridor in the Philippines, expect at least one super typhoon to rape some farms and homes and cut off all power and supply grids in that area. In an extreme situation, you run out of food everywhere, from the local supermarket, wet market and even the sari-sari store. Be prepared with food stores. What other events should we be prepared for so that we don't run out of food?

The yearly flooding in Bangladesh has caused people to lose farms, shelter, time and lives. A non-profit, survivalist group has created simple yet extremely effective solutions for adapting local communities to the climate change disaster by building floating schools and libraries. Many international organizations have awarded shidhulai swanirvar sangstha for their floating school project.

Living connected to the urban grid, we have power, a food supply grid, and tap water, plus entertainment online and from TV and radio. Living off-grid, you plan your day so you can draw enough water in your cistern, grow your own food and cook just enough food that will keep without spoiling. Off-grid cabins survive even with ample resources. You regenerate resources so you don't run out. How to cope.

Real woodcraft, custom made furnishings have more value as heirloom investments and make your house feel like a real home. Check out Stephanie's look-see at nice hardwood stuff. She and her life partner are looking for good furnishings for their new home and she shares her insights about getting hardwood custom-built over assembled plyboard.

You don't have to mope over back breaking chores if you choose to live Off-the-Grid. If you've seen the Mosquito Coast, an old movie where Harrison Ford's screen family decides to hightail into one island for forntier life. It can be amazing if you know how to have fun!

More reasons why growing your own food works in the long run. You can sell off extra and you never run out of food even during extreme situations when you can't get to the grocery. So its time to be your own green grocery! Keep those food scraps and grow them back into greens for the table. Heirloom seeds are cheap and only a few minutes a day dedicated to checking your food stores and storage bins should help you keep a home green grocer going.

One can never can have enough books. If you have kids or have a library of unread tomes you don't know where to place, why not stuff them all around your bed in the coolest makeshift shelves you can set up?

Keeping a working rainwater cistern in your home provides you with a self-replenishing water source when water from the grid suddenly becomes unavailable. Remember when water was rationed when the dam reservoirs were depleted? A rainwater cistern is the best rig you can put together for both sustainable green lifestyle and for survival during emergencies.

There are plenty of ways on how to save the environment without splurging on money. The best option is to identify a cost-effective way or alternative to the regular things at home and turn it into something eco-friendly.

Don't bother with that extra room in your home as your workspace. Put together a Work Shed Office and have a more prodcutive and creative solo gig. Instead of building an extra bedroom or a sar-sari store kiosk in your home, get yourself a good designer to build a work shed office. It will be the best place you've ever worked in and more!