Tag Archives: off the grid
The Off-Grid/Green Myth, Part II
By Cam Mather When Professor and Canada Research Chair Phillip Vannini came to visit us recently as part of his research on people who live “off the grid” he had just come from an off-grid home north of Toronto. This couple had indicated to him that they had gone off grid for “environmental reasons.” I …
Professors, Performing Monkeys and the Off-Grid Green Myth – Part 1
By Cam Mather We recently had a professor come to visit us. Professor and Canada Research Chair Phillip Vannini is doing research on people who live off grid. He is an “ethnographer.” http://communication-culture.school.royalroads.ca/dr-phillip-vannini According to Wikipedia “Ethnography is a qualitative research method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system …
My Recent Reality Checks
By Cam Mather Once again I’d like to thank everyone who reads and comments on the blog. Yesterday I had one of those personal epiphanies thanks to our reader Amy. She was commenting on the video blog that we posted about how our chickens had faired this winter. She wrote: “What a great video! I’m …
A Recent Video Shoot
Guest Post by Michelle Mather Today’s post is a little different. It’s more of a video post. The other day Cam and I decided that we needed to shoot some video of our chickens in the winter. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground which helped to make things look a little …
Documentaries vs. Hands-On Workshops
By Cam Mather Recently I was invited to become involved with a documentary that is being made for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for my American readers.) I turned them down. It must seem weird for me to turn down a chance for shameless self-promotion but my dealings with the producer left a bad taste …
Two of the Best Off-Grid Images Ever!
By Cam Mather Have you ever noticed that there is a fine line between terror and elation? There must be or else there wouldn’t be a constant stream of horror movies in theaters. Or theme parks. Those crazy roller coaster/death defying rides keep people coming back. There’s got to be something to it. I don’t …
The Year of Magical Walking*
By Cam Mather I have written a few too many ranting blogs lately, ranting about the impending collapse of the dollar and my unexplained angst about being a solar early adopter (I haven’t posted that one yet), so figured it was time for something lighter. It’s not hard to write a positive blog when I …
Time to Stuff the Nuclear Genie Back in to the Bottle
By Cam Mather I was reading an article in the paper the other day about how France’s nuclear industry is trying to dispose of its nuclear waste. France has a lot of nuclear waste because 80% of its electricity comes from nuclear reactors. Many years ago, when the U.S. was preparing to bury its nuclear …
A Look Back at 2011
Guest Post by Michelle Mather It’s fun to look back at a year’s worth of blog posts and see where the year took us in terms of topics. This is the 124th post of 2011 and so not surprisingly we covered a lot of stuff! Some of the topics that we wrote about this year …
LED Lights Save Christmas! (Again)
We have acquired quite a few new readers since last year, and so I have decided to repost this from last December. Needless to say, our off-grid home is “lit up like a Christmas tree” again this year, thanks to LED lights! ~ Michelle ~ By Cam Mather I love Christmas. What a great time …
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