http://ryanishungry.com Hacking Everyday Life. Exchanging Notes on Survival. Compost, Vermicompost, Biofuels, SVO, Green, Solar, Electric Vehicle, DIY, Gardening Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:06:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When Jay and I got a wood stove last fall, he surprised me with his Boy Scout knowledge and made these little wax fire starters to help get the stove rockin'. Remember to be careful when heating up the wax, especially if you are working on a gas stove with ... http://ryanishungry.com/2009/11/09/how-to-make-a-fire-starter/ Last summer we had the opportunity to document the PostSecret Community Picnic. PostSecret is an online art project started by Frank Warren. Hundreds of thousands of people have mailed him postcards with secrets emblazed upon them. Every Sunday he posts a handful on his blog. These powerful messages have connected ... http://ryanishungry.com/2009/04/19/postsecret-picnic/ We recently attended and made videos for Transparency Camp hosted by The Sunlight Foundation and iStrategy Labs in DC. They invited the ... http://ryanishungry.com/2009/03/13/transparency-camp-video-goodness/ BTW: This video is safe for work and all ages, totally PG. Have no fear, there is nothing graphic in this video. Also we've received requests for DVD copies of this video. Please email us for details, hello@ryanishungry.com. -------------- We first met Katherine and Todd through LocalHarvest.org as our closest Community Supported ... http://ryanishungry.com/2009/01/21/home-birth-diy-labor-and-delivery/ Milk, illegal? Yep. Unpasteurized, non-homogenized, raw milk is illegal for human consumption in 22 states (including my own Virginia!) because of 'health' reasons. And probably because the milk lobby doesn't want you to not buy milk from big industry. I ran across this article, More Dairies Go Raw, in The ... http://ryanishungry.com/2009/01/11/raw-milk-illegal-in-22-states/ We recently had the pleasure of making a screencast for OpenCongress.org, an open source, collaborative website that helps citizens keep track of everything happening in Congress. We think it's pretty awesome. Check them out! p.s. for all the video geeks, the video is overlapping the sidebar- i wanted to keep ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/11/02/opencongressorg-whats-happening-in-congress/ One of our friends here in the Shenandoah Valley recently linked to this great site Vermicomposters.com, where lovers of worm composting can connect, trade secrets and show off their bins. We love the google map they have on the front page where you can find your local vermicomposting neighbors. We ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/10/08/vermicomposterscom-connecting-worm-lovers-around-the-globe/ Our dear friend, co-creator of the amazing Freshtopia.net, Oscar Grimm passed away last week after fighting brain cancer for the last two years. We are deeply saddened that the world has lost such a smart, creative and caring person. Our hearts go out to his partner in crime Tanja Andrews. We ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/10/06/oscar-grimm-freshtopianet-rest-in-peace/ Update: If you are a media outlet and wish to use this video or photo, please do. As this is a Creative Commons Licensed video, please accompany media with the attribution "Courtesy RyanIsHungry.com". Thank you. Jay and I are shocked and saddened to hear that Kirsten Brydum, organizer of San Francisco's ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/10/01/kirsten-brydum-rest-in-peace/ We recently returned from a 15 day trip to Beijing for this summer's Olympic Games and what some would call China's "coming out as a global super power" party. Though we were not able to attend any of the official events, we had a very positive experience with Beijing citizens- ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/08/31/beijing-08-documenting-dissent/ We recently had the privledge to make a video about Rainforest Action Network, the non-profit envrionmental change maker. We first met Julie Wolk, RAN Grassroots Organizer, at the Bioneers Conference. Julie explained that RAN works to hold corporations accountable for their environmental practices through an 'inside-outside' approach to activism. Having ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/08/20/rainforest-action-network-kicking-butt-taking-names/ I've been meaning to make this video for weeks. Check out our place and our gardens. We're gardening using the Grow Biointensive methods we learned in Willits, CA from John Jeavons and Carol Cox. All hand tilled baby. Everything is growing wonderfully. Inspired by our tour, Wendy Tremayne, of the infamous ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/08/08/homestead-grand-tours/ Speaking of growing Red Fife Wheat in North America, I ran across this article on Boston.com about farmers in Vermont starting to grow grain again after a one hundred year absence. The price of growing and transporting grains from the midwest has given northeast farmers a competitve reason to start ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/07/22/vermont-farmers-growing-wheat/ Before we started driving from San Francisco to Virginia, we loaded up the iPod with podcasts. One of the broadcasts we became quite fond of is Deconstructing Dinner, a weekly show out of Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. The host, Jon Steinman, does some pretty in depth ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/07/21/deconstructing-dinner-podcast/ Cathleen recently joined the Vermicomposting e-mail list, a place for folks to swap knowledge about worm composting indoors and out. She sent a link to her blog, North Carolina Family Living, where she's documenting in text and video clips how their doing things in their backyard garden. The videoblog geek ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/07/19/north-carolina-family-living-videoblog/ The Great Village is a videoblog born from the peeps who make Seesmic, a microblogging site for folks to converse through webcams. Think video version of Twitter. Recently featured on The Great Village, was Melinda Stone of HowToHomestead.org. Filmmaker, teacher and farmer, Melinda shows how she's livin' in Northern CA. ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/07/18/the-great-village-how-to-homestead/ Rupert and Kate of twittervlog fame, have recently moved their family from London to a small town on the west coast of Canada. Having a little more space has allowed them to start gardening in their front yard. As you can see, Kate is using the raised bed approach; instead ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/07/17/kate-and-rupert-growing-food-in-canada/ On our way across the country to Virginia (our new home!), we stopped by Erik Nelson's place in Vermont to help tear down a barn. He's salvaging the wood to build a house on his land. Very exciting and a lot of hard work. Check out the video Jay made ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/05/06/barn-wreck-and-salvage/ As some of you might remember, we traversed through T or C last year and taped a bunch with Mikey and Wendy of Green Acre Hotsprings. On our way over to Virginia, we have stopped by again to catch up and meet some new folks hacking out here in the ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/04/05/truth-or-consequences-new-mexico-land-of-pioneers/ We got an email from another No Knead Bread Fan, Lucy from New Bedford, MA. She showed us her ultra geeky method of getting her dough to rise in a drafty, New England house- put it on top of the hard drive! Me and the girls threw it together last night ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/17/no-knead-bread-lucys-hard-drive-rise/ Can I get a 'hell yeah!'? I was reading this article in the New York Times today about the resurgence of young farmers when I saw a link to The Greenhorns film. Talking to our friend Chris from Wanna Farm he asked there sure is a lot going on in our ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/16/the-greenhorns-a-documentary-about-young-farmers/ We had the privilege of attending a very hands on greywater workshop courtesy of The Greywater Guerillas, a local Bay Area crew of experts who are passionate about teaching folks to use their water (twice) wisely. Greywater is water that has been used once in your home and only contains ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/14/rethinking-water-greywater-guerillas-workshop/ Bruce F. left a comment on our Alemany Farm video last week and pointed us to a pretty amazing rooftop garden that he and his friends have built. After seeing the pictures, I think you'll agree he's being too modest. He says: A few of us who live in the city ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/13/diy-rooftop-garden-in-chicago/ Jamais Cascio is all about solutions. He considers himself an ethical futurist- one who designs and executes resilient and sustainable solutions that will not adversely effect present and future generations. On his blog, OpenTheFuture.com, Jamais writes about three cornerstone issues that will make or break this planet: Global Warming, Global ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/09/the-future-is-now-jamais-cascio-co-founder-of-world-changing/ The Rainforest Action Network recently started a video segment called The Greenwash of the Week. This was their first post and we thought it was clever, funny and it informed us of Virgin Atlantic's most recent greenwashing campaign. It seems that as 'being green' becomes the most obvious and urgent ... http://ryanishungry.com/2008/03/07/rainforest-action-network-greenwash-of-the-week/