Direct Action Valhalla

These fence posts are made with juniper cedar trees, prominent in the Austin, Texas area.   These specific posts were harvested straight from the surrounding land.  It feels great to sustainably harvest our own wood for projects!

The branches are also being used on contour for water retention swales. Considering the slant of land; this one comes from two angles so we make an U with thicker posts…

Ecolicious House Conversions [For the eccentric]

My last article, I wrote about traditional house conversions to create an eco-conscious space.  Although these are great methods to cut energy use and money I am about to share some more ecolicious conversions that are not for the faint hearted.

These alternatives take more determination and may require small lifestyle changes.

Solar Water Heater

Image from thesunbank.com

Scrap the bulky basement…

The previous article “Does Saving the Environment Save Money?” details DAV’s current action with World organization.  Painting a picture of eco-conversions of a house can result in, the previous article proves as a good overview.

“Eco-licious house conversions” will outline the steps you can take to a greener future with simple fixes.  So lets start saving you money!

Energy sucking AC

According…

The past few months Chloe Buzzotta, from The Valhalla Movement, has been collaborating with Jeff Gold, the Founder of Rescueme.org and World.org finding the best #economic #solutions to #environmental #issues.

Examining the past sentence, one may pose the concept as #contradictory and possibly even #controversial.  Economics and Environmentalism cannot coexist, let alone in a symbiotic manner!…

The Chemical Spill in West Virginia

Check out some remediation techniques we are implementing!

A completely off the grid learning center located an hour away from Santa Fe, New Mexico!

Yesterday was Ampersand’s open house.  We were able to see the great work the interns had been doing for the past two months including the adjustment to self reliant lifestyles.  Its amazing to know that they small community uses only 400 watts of solar energy!!  Everything else in use worked harmoniously…

Ecological Literacy: Ecosystems, Patterns, and Society

Part 1: Introduction to Interconnectedness and Cyclicity

“Being ecologically literate means understanding the principles of organization of ecological communities (ecosystems) and using those principles for creating sustainable human communities.” -Capra, The Web of Life, 297

One can easily make the argument that the lack of true connection,…

We need people like you! #Permaculture

    Come learn hands on with people from Direct Action Valhalla!  If you become qualified you are also eligible to join our movement!

  Sign up now and get $100 off!!

Your weeds are telling you something…

          Weeds are looked at as nuisances especially in food gardens. “There is just too much grass!…What are we going to do about all of this ragweed?!” Introduced into organic gardening myself, I find myself with the same problem.

I began to ask myself “Why are these weeds here?” As I researched this, I found out that weeds are great indicators of soil quality! From getting a collection of…

Read the article! SIgn up for a course in Santa Fe, New MExico today. $100 off if you sign up now!!

Stoves with rockets? Save energy and time!

An energy-saving stove!

Rocket Stoves are a great way to reduce costs, energy, time, and ELIMINATES smoke if done properly!

They can be made portable or permanent depending on the usage needed.

Portable Rocket Stove

These stoves rely on small combustible materials (wood chips, leaves, newspaper, small sticks,etc.) to stay fueled.…

What is grey water? A used water that sources from any cleansing (handwater,showers/baths,laundry, and dishes) EXCEPT for toilet wastes and food scraps.

IMPORTANT: can only contain biodegradable/ecofriendly soaps.

An important part of permaculture Filtering and reusing grey water is so necessary in terms of conserving water, energy, and money! This water can be recycled, used in irrigation for…

Aphids! http://wp.me/s3QqqG-aphids

I recently learned that these things are creepy,crawly,reproducing machines!  They can decimate crops and travel over thousands of miles through winds!!  Most of they’re life are spent as larvae, eating sap from dilapidated crops. Every one-two weeks the females ASEXUALLY reproduce.  If I haven’t made my case, these things need to be gone from your garden!

  There are preventions!!

Here are a…

I hope this works

Testing http://wp.me/s3QqqG-testing

I hope this works [tag permaculture]

Tomatoes in the desert…

So believe it or not tomatoes can be grown in the desert…After following procedures of course!

 First off you need to be wary of how long your outdoor growing season for tomatoes are generally between 55 to 90 degrees F.

Growing smaller/wilt resistant tomato varieties are key; cherry, sweet 100, Earlypak, yellow pear

Begin growing indoors around January and transplant around March

Grow outdoors…

Permaculturists!! What’s a Chinampas??

At Guwahi Ecovilllage there are many applied permaculture techniques in this article/video we will be discussing what a chinampa garden is and why its beneficial to the Permaculture community!

Chinampa’s History

Mayans came up with this technique as they were running out of crop space on land, THUS moving to water bodies! These brilliant Mesoamericans created a farming technique that produced…