Category Archives: Thoughts

CD3WD: Do Everything Yourself

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Learn how to fish, eat for a lifetime. Browse CD3WD, stop shopping forever?

We all know the proverb of teaching a man how to fish; the challenge is in getting us to practice it. Self-reliance, according to the saying, is far more useful than continual outside aid. Yet each year, droves of consumers still choose to abandon small-scale, local production in favor of high-tech factories run by international corporations. Over time, many local communities have lost their local artisans, and with them the means for self-sufficient production. Without the butcher, baker, and candle-stick maker to pass on their traditional knowledge, practical skills are quickly forgotten. Eventually, basic life necessities must come entirely from imports thousands of miles away.

More than nostalgia is at stake here. Keeping production local is the key to a sustainable culture, since local producers can better use appropriate technology suited for the environment and local economy. Compared to centralized factories, local producers burn less fuel, use less chemicals, and profit more from the long-term health of the land. Small-scale producers can better substitute unsustainable machinery with human labor and local know-how, and they help communities avoid depending on distant, unreliable supply chains for basic survival.

One way you can bring self-sufficiency back to your local community is by learning to do things yourself instead of shopping. By doing things yourself, you can bypass our dysfunctional consumer culture while saving money, learning practical skills, and having fun. The possibilities are endless: you can learn to sew clothes, make fruit preserves, fix bikes, build furniture, repair old electronics, start a vegetable garden, and even build a solar thermal heater. In fact, there has probably never been a better time for the do-it-yourself hobbyist. Anyone with an internet connection today is a mere hyperlink away from the largest collection of self-sufficiency books ever compiled.

Read books on how to make your own chairs, tables, cabinets, and drawers.

For over a decade, software engineer Alex Weir has been hosting CD3WD, a massive digital library with the mission of helping the poor learn to do everything themselves. CD3WD contains over 10,000 e-books (14GB of digital data) of high-quality, public-domain material stored on CDs (now DVDs) for distribution to the third world. Nearly every aspect of self-sufficient living—from vegetable gardening to assembling a low-tech washing machine to building adobe houses—is covered in this massive compilation. For the third world, CD3WD currently offers free DVDs of the entire digital library. For the rest of us, the compilation can be downloaded from the website at no-cost, or DVD copies can be purchased for a nominal price of $20. It’s a bargain when you consider its amazing value. Aside from the Bible, this may be the most useful collection of books in the history of mankind.

It’s difficult, however, to discern this on your first visit. CD3WD is very humble about the way it presents itself. Visitors will at first notice the complete lack of attention paid to visual aesthetics: the retro-style HTML design, mismatching color scheme, and chaotic organization of books doesn’t inspire much confidence. CD3WD also describes itself as a set of books for the poor, which creates a subconscious stigma for those of us reading in richer nations. So as you browse the site, just keep in mind that CD3WD is truly a diamond in the rough.

From another angle, however, the humble nature of CD3WD is its greatest strength. Because this project is geared towards helping the poor, it has a very pragmatic focus. The collection strives to include only practical, technical books with limited fluff. Its books are written with depth, and yet, simultaneously, are written in simple English for accessibility. Unlike typical DIY books, CD3WD focuses on sustainable development through appropriate technology. These books use techniques that are cheap, reliable, and simple to set up. Since the poor often don’t have access to electricity, gasoline, or industrial chemicals, these books recommend locally-available resources instead.

There are do-it-yourself projects inside this collection to match everyone’s interests. For those who can’t garden, consider checking out manuals on woodworking, home construction, and making clothing. Other interesting books cover preserving food, blacksmithing, and building composting toilets. Suburbanites who bicycle commute can benefit tremendously from the bicycle repair books; fellow homesteaders should check out those gardening books published by VITA (Volunteers in Technical Assistance) and BF (Better Farming).

Fix up your old bicycle for commuting to work.

More than anything else, this compilation is worth checking out because it teaches us that we can survive without shopping. It is a refreshing message in a consumer culture where all life’s needs are currently satisfied by malls and chain stores. There is joy in discovering that modern people can indeed be self-sufficient, even if they can’t practice it all right away. Gradually, these books might encourage us to be self-sufficient in ways we had never thought possible before. Perhaps then we can get one step farther away from buying fish fillets and one step closer to actually fishing.

Update (10/12/2011): CD3WD is a great project overall; however, it has come to my attention that the huge CD3WD library may include a tiny amount of material on family planning. Often, this involves the practice of abortion, which the Bible teaches is murder. Please enjoy CD3WD’s library, but don’t support or practice abortion in any form.

Photo credits: Christinamari, Dina-Roberts Wakulczyk, Erik (HASH) Hersman, CC BY.

Low-Tech

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In a culture where high-tech is synonymous with high-class, simple technology can seem irrelevant and outdated. After all, the low-tech lifestyle of horse-drawn carriages, weaving looms, and windmills hearkens back to an era predating our grandparents. Who wants to carry the stigma of appearing old-fashioned? Yet that desire to be modern — through new cars, computers, and televisions — has led to many social ills such as climate change, e-waste, and the obesity epidemic. Perhaps it’s high time to rethink high-tech.

The trouble with high-tech is that it prefers complicated solutions to simple ones. Take the problem of navigation, for example. Where a simple map and compass would do, high-tech prefers a GPS device instead. With the low-tech solution, all that’s needed is a piece of paper and a magnetized piece of iron. The high-tech device, however, requires batteries for power, integrated circuits for the computer, light-emitting diodes for the display, and hundreds of geosynchronous satellites for geolocation signals. Such sophistication, indeed, might come in handy for a truck driver or a mail carrier. But for the average commuter, the selling point of a GPS device is usually some minor convenience like voice navigation. How trivial, given high-tech’s record of wanton environmental destruction.

That pattern of environmental destruction is no accident. With high-tech products, wastefulness is built into the very design of its life-cycle. When a device requires electronics to manufacture, it is nearly impossible for an ordinary person to build it using scrap material. Any boy scout can print out a map using scratch paper and magnetize a compass made of scrap iron. Assembling your own TomTom — using only repurposed electronics, no less — is a superhuman feat (1).

So high-tech devices must always come from stores, which have little incentive to recycle. Repairs, when offered at all, are rare and expensive. That does not trouble shoppers as much as it should, since they have grown accustomed to devices that are not built to last. But will they ever grow accustomed to e-waste and landfills?

A pitiful trend emerges. Rather than empowering a person to solve his own problem, high-tech makes him dependent on outside infrastructure. A traveler must now rely on semiconductor factories, satellite networks, and coal power plants to figure out where he is. This forms the beginning of a vicious cycle: the more he uses his GPS, the quicker he forgets traditional navigation skills. Map illiteracy rates will rise, making GPS devices appear all the more essential. It is a likely situation, considering that only two centuries ago, our ancestors could navigate using stars alone.

Depending on a Rube-Goldberg machine is not cheap. Embedded in the price tag of every GPS device is the price of its specialized components: the processor, the LED display, the memory chips, the lithium-ion battery, the antenna, and the plastic surrounding the electronics. But the heaviest costs aren’t reflected in the price at all: they are passed on to future generations. Recycling e-waste is expensive, and no one wants to pay for the cleanup of space debris left by decomissioned satellites (2).

Alas, money can’t buy everything, especially not the infrastructure that high-tech demands. This is especially true in the backcountry, but even in the city, infrastructure can fail during an emergency. Satellite signals can grow weak, batteries can die, electronics can short-circuit, data can be erased, and GPS stores can close. When the infrastructure that sustains high-tech shuts down, so do the inventions. Modern technologies are not as robust as their primitive counterparts, so they simply stop working — often when needed the most.

It makes sense, then, to search for better technology — technology that is not highly complicated but rather highly appropriate. The ideal technology will be small in scale, easy to build, simple to fix, straightforward to recycle, low in cost, and highly reliable. This quest for appropriate technology, it turns out, often leads us back to the technology of our ancestors.

Besides, there’s no shame in being old fashioned. Horse-drawn buggies might draw unwanted attention, but other simple inventions, such as bicycles, vegetable gardens, and solar cookers, can even be stylish. You just need the will to get started — and maybe a little courage to deal with those curious neighbors and their impolite stares.

 

 

  1. Gpskit.nl teaches you how to build your own GPS using common hardware. The problem is that it’s difficult to recycle electronics.
  2. All those satellites produce a lot of space debris. Who will clean up all that floating garbage?
  3. Low-Tech Magazine has some great articles on low-tech inventions.
  4. Photo credit: Calsidyrose, CC BY.

Becoming Self Sufficient

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Self-sufficiency is about taking care of your basic needs all by yourself. As with any lifestyle, there’s a broad spectrum of what it means to be self-sufficient. Some people are content to simply grow their own vegetables and cook their meals from scratch. Others generate their own electricity, collect their own rainwater, and live without gasoline. The totally self-sufficient person, however, can survive entirely apart from human civilization. He does everything himself, from building his own shelter to making his own furniture to growing his own wheat.

The path to self-sufficiency can be broken down into five major categories:

  1. Shelter — Shelter can range anywhere from a primitive teepee to a rustic log cabin to a two-story house to a luxury mansion. Most homesteaders buy land to construct their house on. Some will build their own houses with local materials such as wood or clay, whereas others contract the work out to professionals. Ultimately, the luxury and comfort-level of your shelter depends on your expertise, effort, and budget.
  2. Energy — This includes all the energy you’ll need for cooking, heating water, lighting, powering appliances, and heating and cooling. Energy solutions range from high-tech photovoltaic cells and biodiesel-powered electric generators to low-tech solar-cookers and firewood (1).
  3. Food — You can forage, hunt, or grow your own food (2). If you don’t own any land, community gardens are a great way to start your first vegetable garden (3). However, for those who desire total self-sufficiency, there’s no substitute for owning your own property. With your own land, you can grow fruit trees and staple crops like wheat, potatoes, and rice. You could even raise your own livestock for meat and milk (4).
  4. Water — You’ll need to collect your own water for drinking, cooking, hygiene, and possibly irrigation. In moist climates, rain catchment systems can provide enough drinking water for the entire year (5). You can also drill wells to tap into groundwater. You’ll probably need a water purification system and a system to treat sewage. Your set-up can include luxurious indoor plumbing for sinks, showers, and toilets; or, you can build a sustainable composting toilet and collect rainwater with a simple barrel.
  5. Transportation — Self-sufficiency does not imply isolation. You’ll still want to meet with other people, so consider walking, riding a bike, taking public transit, or producing biodiesel for your car (1).

Self-sufficiency is simply a guiding principle, so your own execution will vary depending on what best fits you. Most modern homesteaders aren’t totally self-sufficient: many of them own cars, shop for clothes, and use satellite internet. You can include modern technology if it makes the transition more enjoyable. Homesteaders today often own laptops, refrigerators, and photovoltaic solar panels. Many of them even hold regular jobs while living full-time in the woods.

Why have so many people opted to live the self-sufficient life? Besides enjoying the romantic, pastoral lifestyle, there are plenty of practical benefits for being self-sufficient. Here are just a few:

  • You’ll pollute less. By being self-sufficient, you’ll learn to compost food scraps, grow your own organic food, build with local materials, generate renewable energy, and avoid shopping. Each step makes a difference towards lowering your environmental impact.

  • You’ll save lots of money. Imagine if you didn’t have any more expenses: no more car payments, no more auto insurance, no more utility bills, and free food and housing. If you practice extreme self-sufficiency, you could literally live without any money.

    You don’t need to do everything yourself, nor do you need to quit your job. If gardening is too much hassle, for example, you could always buy produce from the farmers market. Likewise, it may be prudent to keep your job to help build savings. However, the more self-sufficient you become, the more you’ll save, and the fewer financial obligations you’ll have. Every little bit of self-sufficient frugality can increase your freedom.

  • You’ll pay off your debts quickly. If you work full-time in addition to homesteading, you’ll have an income with virtually no expenses. Undeveloped land is cheap, so you can often purchase it without a mortgage. After a few short years of hard work, you’ll own a house debt-free. A self-sufficient homestead can provide freedom from the turbulent state of the economy. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend your mornings gathering firewood than worrying about loan payments?

  • You’ll be more independent. Once you learn self-sufficiency skills, you’ll no longer depend on modern conveniences like restaurants, department stores, and gas stations. You’ll also no longer need the utilities company for water and power. Not only is self-sufficiency convenient, it could save your life during an emergency. During a serious crisis, such as a hurricane, earthquake, or a terrorist attack, you might be left stranded for weeks without basic necessities. By being self-sufficient today, your family will be much better prepared for future emergencies.

  • You’ll learn to be more resourceful. Many of us today can’t survive without cappuccinos and WiFi internet, let alone life in the rural countryside. But if you’ve ever wanted to explore different parts of the world or buy back-country property, it helps to learn self-sufficiency skills. As a benefit, the cost of living will be far cheaper. You can combine this with a telecommuting job to build savings.

  • You’ll enjoy the learning experience (hopefully). As you become self-sufficient, you’ll acquire practical skills that teach you about the environment and sustainable development. Up until the last century, these primitive skills were mostly common knowledge; we’re merely re-learning them today. This knowledge can help us better understand both historical cultures and the world around us.

Self-sufficiency is a fusion of many related ideas. It’s half low-cost lifestyle and part do-it-yourself ingenuity, mixed in with sustainable development and a touch of emergency preparedness. Really, it can be a lot of fun.

There are plenty of books available on self-sufficient living online, with much of it totally free. Not surprisingly, self-sufficient living hasn’t changed much in the last two hundred years. As a result, there are many useful books that have fallen into the public domain. There are also many e-books that have been donated by governments and NGOs to help the developing world. Today, we literally have thousands of books at our very fingertips.

Here are some books that have made it into my summer reading list:

Paid:

Free:

  1. Learn to make your own biodiesel and build your own solar cooker. Biodiesel is only green if you grow your own crops using no outside energy inputs. Biodiesel produced from biomass raised in conventional farms might be worse than gasoline.
  2. The US Army Survival Handbook teaches you how to hunt and forage wild foods. Just make sure to follow your community’s local laws!
  3. Search for a community garden near you!
  4. The Backyard Homestead provides a gentle introduction for newcomers. You’ll learn to grow and cooking your own food.
  5. Catching rainwater is quite simple, really.
  6. Photo credits: anoldent, CC BY-SA. Hardworkinghippy, CC BY-SA.