I was invited to Cameron Park Elementary over in Hillsborough, NC last week to talk to some fifth graders. I came up with the following exercise that went over well, and thought I'd take a moment to share it with other educators out there in internet-land. It went a little something like this:

http://theabundancefoundation.org/photovoltaics-for-women

Read about it over at Huffpo!

It would have been impossible to convince anyone ten years ago that such would be the case, but the sprawling tract housing that surrounds most of America's cities has been almost completely abandoned...

Back in the last millenium, we had a hankering to get our fingernails dirty and tell the Man to shove it, so we took a small inheritance and purchased some acreage out in the woods with the idea of living a modicum of an independent life.

 Here it is, the first week of 2010, a new decade no less. Can't say I expected it to arrive so fast or painlessly, but the world constantly surprises. Stephen and I just arrived home from a trip to Georgia and Florida, where we tried to get back in touch with nature; a bit. When I start to wonder exactly why it is we do what we do (that is, dedicate much of our time and energy to resource conservation), a trip to a national forest, wildlife refuge, or even our local greenway and park system helps me remember.

Here's a link to some data on a solar electric system Rebekah installed with Honey Electric Solar this spring. Good data for you solar nerds out there!

Rebekah and I recently had the pleasure of helping the Abundance Foundation create their carbon-free office. We ran simultaneous workshops on installing an off-grid PV system (Rebekah) and constructing a solar air heater, detailed instructions of which can be found here:

sites/default/files/Abundance_Solar_Air_Heater.pdf

 Here's a bundle of oyster mushrooms I found walking in the woods the day before Thanksgiving.