Redneck Sustainability: The Apocalypse

If there is one thing that Rednecks, Granolas and Mormons have in common it is their love for sticking it to the man and their affinity for a little Armageddon.  Well I guess that is two things, and who doesn’t like sticking it to the man, except for all the regular joe shmoe, middle aged, white, males out there that are the man?  I have to face it.  In another 10 years or so I will be a little “Man” in training if I can ever make any money or gain any power.

Anyway, Granolas come at the end times a little less “religiously,” but just as dogmatically.  For any good granola the end is near due to man’s incessant and beastly abuse of the earth.  For Mormons and Rednecks the end is near because of damn gentiles and damn liberals, respectively.  But, the results can be the same for all three groups.  They know how to make the most out of a little and are ready to do so after civilization falls.  Whether you are in the wilderess of Texas, Montana, Oregon or Utah you are likely to find the “off-griders,” or as I will refer to them in a coming blog, “The bunker nuts and belly-achers.”  Full disclosure at this point requires that I share with you, the reader, just how tempted I am to become one.  But as of this point I still own a traditional home connected to the grid here in SLC.

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Like Handing Out Condoms?

edar

Question:  Is providing free sleeping structures for the homeless like passing out condoms to the randy?  I came across this article yesterday, via the Tiny House Blog, about EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof).  Peter Samuelson has developed this little shelter that is a cross between a shopping cart and a commercial sized laundry cart.  It provides mobility during the day for caring or collecting goods and a shelter at night.

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Empty House Syndrome

hobo-block-partyWhat do you do when your house is worth less than nothing?  Zoned improperly for farm stock and wild animals won’t bed there?  Last week I made a review of a study done in the UK titled, “New Tricks with Old Bricks.”  I mused then that the most interesting question that the study brought up was how we can make good use of empty homes.  The census numbers on empty homes are a little misleading and not the most helpful for determining which ones have simply been abandoned.  But, the percentage for the first quarter of 2009, 2.9%, is the highest quarterly percentage since 1956.  For me that sufficiently says that there is a real problem out there with homes deemed worse than worthless by the market.

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