LEF October 2024

Living Energy Farm
October 2024 Newsletter

Land Day 2024
We’re celebrating our 14th Land Day on November 16, 2024 and you’re invited! Festivities start at 2pm. There will be tours, performances, dinner, a corn pit for the kids, a bonfire (weather permitting) and more. See our website for the full schedule and more details. If you haven’t been to LEF before, be aware that it’s a half mile walk from the parking lot to our house. Come prepared for the weather, and bring a flashlight if you plan to stay until dark.

New Video explains Solar Heating, Cooking and Refrigeration Without Battery Storage
More and more, activists and observers are raising concerns about climate mitigation strategies predicated upon utility scale lithium battery storage. Lithium mines, and other extraction projects related to battery production, are already creating devastating human rights and environmental impacts around the world. At LEF, non-electric storage is a critical part of our microgrid. For years we’ve been teaching people that batteries are the most expensive and resource-intensive way to store energy. There are much cheaper, lower impact, and more effective ways to store renewable energy, which include thermal mass, insulation, pressurized water, and biogas.
Sam Butler is an organizer and media-maker from the DC area who has been helping us adapt our message to the broader climate movement. He produced this video, which is being released today. It’s about using non-electric storage for heating, cooking, refrigeration, and other loads. It includes footage from the DC Microgrids at LEF and Magnolia Collective. Check it out! Please share it with yournetworks, and watch it through till the end. Watching the video till the end will help it trend on YouTube, which means the video will reach more people.

Feel free to get in touch if you’d be interested in getting involved with media projects or using these appliances/systems. You can contact us at info@livingenergylights, or contact Sam at homes@sambutler.us and (202) 738-1041 for both LEF and media related work.

The Easy Reaper at the World Food Prize Conference in Iowa
As we go to press, the Easy Reaper is on display at the Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines Iowa, an event organized by the World Food Prize. This gathering includes heads of state, CEO’s, academics, and other leaders in agriculture, international development, and resource management. The University of Missouri’s Soybean Innovation Lab is sponsoring our presence at the conference, which aims to “integrate past wisdom, current innovations and the pressing needs of tomorrow, by
leveraging agricultural technology to address contemporary challenges.” It’s a perfect venue for making connections with organizations and government programs that have the resources needed to get the Easy Reaper produced at scale.

Alexis and Kerry Clarke from the Soybean Innovation Lab with the Easy Reaper at the Borlaug Dialog.

Comings and Goings at LEF
We’re excited to have a family- Chrissy, Jenny and Harvey- joining us as new members of Living Energy Farm. They’re from east Texas, where Chrissy has been homesteading off-the-grid on her family’s land. After visiting us last summer, she decided that community was a better fit for her family than homesteading on their own. We’re grateful for the new infusion of energy, enthusiasm, and dinosaur knowledge that they bring to LEF.

Jenny, Chrissy and Harvey. Nika is SO excited to have kids to play with!

We’re a little sad but also excited that John Milner, who has lived with us for three years, is transitioning to the Bay Branch. The Bay Branch is a forming community in Louisa, co-founded by Carrie (Debbie’s sister and ex-LEFer). Their goal is to be off-the-grid with a DC Microgrid, and with John as a co-founder, it’s probably going to happen! We’re looking forward to helping this exciting new project come to fruition in the coming years. Thankfully, John is going to stay involved with Living Energy Lights by continuing to help us with technology development, educational programs, and installations in the Caribbean.

Distributing DC Lighting and Charging Kits in North Carolina
Thanks so much to everyone who donated to our crowdfunder supporting the distribution of DC lighting and charging kits to victims of hurricane Helene. Veronica, who delivered the kits, sent back the following report:
I first visited Lucy (friend of LEF who is a solar installer) at Celo, who took 20 kits to distribute. Holding you in my heart as you and Celo work to recover. After, I went up the mountain to my dear friend Jim’s place— he is the founder of Southern Seed Legacy, and lost his barn/seed storage, and I worked the day with him to save what seeds we could- seeds that he’s worked with Cherokee and other mountain folk to collect over the last 40 years, some of which now only exist with Jim. On my out of Burnsville, some leftover debris from road work gave me a flat tire, and I stopped at Fox Country Store, where I met a rescue volunteer–Russ, who is friends with Mel in Celo; Russ’s family is in Buladean (which is particularly hard hit) and he was headed there for emergency relief and was able to take 5 kits for that community.

Lucy receiving our kits at Celo Community.

The next day I headed to a mutual aid hub in Haywood County, near a site of particular devastation near Clyde. The Pigeon Community Center, which is in normal times a Black-led youth center, is a central operating facility that’s getting aid to the very remote and impassable hollers of the area. Chelsea, who is from this area and a social worker and social justice organizer, had reached out to me asking for any ideas or support for the rural folks out this way. I was able to drop 9 kits directly with her.
Finally, I took supplies and hot meals from the center out to remote areas that were particularly hit. There was a community of mostly Latinx folks in a trailer park by the river that were being supported by the Clyde Christian Fellowship– their homes were entirely destroyed (some broken apart and still hanging in trees). They were living in tents on the land near where their homes had been. They were in tears with the hope of lights, and conveyed that even in normal times power is not consistent here. They took the remaining 8 kits for the 15 families there, and Chelsea will be following up with them to check in on the kits and their ongoing need/use.

Flood damage at one of the houses that received our kits

Thanks Veronica and everyone else who supported this project. Lucy will be returning to LEF in one week to help with a production run of Roxy Ovens, with the goal to bring cookers and other solar equipment back with her to Western NC. We’re excited to see how our technology can continue to help communities in the mountains who clearly need better options for energy security.

Living Energy Farm is a project to build a demonstration farm, community, and education center in Louisa County that uses no fossil fuels. For more information see our website http://www.livingenergyfarm.org, or contact us at livingenergyfarm@gmail.com or Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb Store Rd, Louisa VA, 23093. Donations to the Living Energy Farm Institute are tax deductible. To make tax deductible donations, do not go to the Virginia Organizing website, go here instead: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388125
Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.

LEF August/September 2024

Living Energy Farm
August – September 2024 Newsletter

Speaking Tour Postponed — Many Thanks!
A number of people responded to our request to help us set up speaking events in the last newsletter. Thanks! We have realized however that we were moving too quickly. Other projects have been demanding our attention (see below), as has the farm. At this point, the speaking tour is officially postponed until the spring. We are deeply grateful for the folks who are trying to help, and regret we have not been better able to plan our time. Please stay in touch!

Solar Kits to North Carolina
As you probably know, hurricane Helene was a major disaster in western North Carolina. Entire towns have been wiped out, public infrastructure destroyed. Power is expected to be out for weeks in some areas. To help, we sent 43 of our 12AH solar battery kits to western NC with Veronica, a seed grower we know from the Ujamaa network, who is from Asheville and has connections with mutual aid networks in the area. The kits are small, but they can provide a few lights and charge phones, which is a whole lot better than nothing.
Most of the kits are being donated, while others are being sold at or below cost. We are fundraising to cover our costs, so we can replace this equipment and help more people in the future. Please consider donating if you can: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-lel-send-solar-kits-to-western-nc
We have a lot of friends and connections in the greater Asheville area. Western NC is a thriving hub for homesteaders, climate activists, and permaculturalists. Our friend Lucy, who came to our training in July, is a solar installer who works in and around Asheville. She had planned to spend a week with us this fall building Roxy Oven solar cookers to bring back to NC. Her house was flooded in the storm, but she still plans to come to LEF when she can. The need and desire for off-grid systems is greater than ever in Western NC, but it’s also a hard time to be installing any solar system. (The lithium kits we sent down are plug-and-play, but a full DC Microgrid takes time, skill, and a whole lot of parts to install. All these things are harder to come by in NC right now.) We will continue to encourage people pro-actively build resilient, off-grid renewable energy systems, before being forced to by a natural disaster. In the coming months and years we will probably have an eager audience in Asheville, NC.

Veronica (left) and Debbie with solar kits on their way to the mountains of western North Carolina.

The Easy Reaper Project Moving Forward
There have been two developments concerning the Easy Reaper- that’s our simplified combine harvester that we hope can help make small scale grain farming economically viable all over the world. We are getting ready to attend an event organized by the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa at the end of October. We will have a prominent exhibit at a large conference attended by a lot of people–academics, equipment makers, all kinds of folks who are involved with supporting farmers all over the world. This could be an ideal opportunity to connect with people who could fund or manufacture Easy Reapers.
The current version of the Easy Reaper was made with scrap we could get our hands on. The main thresher drum was made with a very heavy oil drum. That was cheap and easy at the time, but also made for a very heavy machine to be transporting across the country. We are rebuilding the main thresher drum to make it lighter and more transportable. We are also improving the grain cleaning apparatus.
In cooperation with the University of Missouri, we are also moving forward with plans to build Easy Reapers in Africa. An African businessman (based in the U.S.) who has a long history of working with U.S. AID is working with us to make the combine drawings into Computer Aided Design (CAD). He will then start making Easy Reapers in Ethiopia. That’s also a big step forward. This machine could have substantial impacts in Africa, so we are working hard to update and improve the drawings and convert them to metric so the CAD can get finished.

Washing Machine
Our third prototype, simplified DC washing machine is operational. Thank you David! It uses a simple, upright stainless steel drum, and a commercial washing machine “impeller” at the bottom of the drum to wash the clothes. David put quite a bit of work putting the machine together, setting up the electronics to control the motor, as well as fill and drain valves.
We like this design. It’s very simple, very rugged, very well adapted to direct drive. It’s much better than our earlier, front loader style prototype in that it has a much smaller footprint, and it can be used indoors or outdoors, because it doesn’t splash water our like our previous model. This prototype does not in its current configuration have a spin cycle. Hanging drippy clothes is fine for a clothesline, though you would not want to do that with a tumble drier. The next step is to add belt guards, and standardize the electronics and production methods such that they are easier to make.

David and the new direct drive washing machine. David has put a lot of work into it, and we are pleased with the design.

Spreading Direct Drive DC Microgrids
We continue to support solar direct drive projects in Puerto Rico with plans to do another education and installation trip in early 2025. Additionally, friend of ours who was involved in our first project at The Source Farm in Jamaica is now working with Wa Samaki permaculture center in Trinidad, and wants to incorporate DC Microgrids into their renewable energy and natural building curriculum. We are working to consult and support their work, and may visit their site in Trinidad to teach a workshop during their permaculture training next February. More on these projects as they move forward this winter.
We are also in the early stages of a potential housing project in Baltimore. There are a lot of abandoned row houses in Baltimore, and funding is available to revitalize that housing. The Waterbottle Co-op is a worker owned cooperative that has been re-habilitating abandoned row houses and renting them at modest rates. They already build to high insulation standards, and are very interested in energy independent housing. They are connected to a substantial network of organizations who train disadvantaged youth, provide low income housing, and work on climate change mitigation. Our vision for a collaboration with Waterbottle is to purchase several contiguous row houses, wrap them in a thermal shell and retrofit them with a full direct drive DC Microgrid, including solar thermal features and biogas production. For now we’re mostly working on identifying organizations that may be able to support and bring resources to the project. We are organizing a symposium of interested parties to be held in Baltimore in the middle of November.
We are also talking with nonprofits and organizers in our area (Louisa County) about doing energy independent, low income housing here. We will keep you posted.

Biogas
Our relationship with biogas continues to improve. September for us was relentless clouds and rain, almost not sun at all. Needless to say, that provides some challenges for our largely solar economy at LEF. Mostly, we are fine in such periods, though we do have to adjust — be more careful with water, turn off the internet router at night, etc. For cooking, we sailed right through with no trouble at all using biogas. Biogas has had a big impact on our quality of life. Being able to cook without any wood fires, especially first thing in the morning, is very nice. Our large biogas bag is making a big difference. We have lots of storage and the pressure is stable, regardless of weather or usage.
We have been talking to an organization called the Northeast Biogas Initiative. They are experimenting with using wood chips for insulation and a compost-based heating systems for their biogas digesters. We are looking at grants to document what we are doing, and to compare the short and long terms costs of different approaches (solar heat vs woodchips, etc). Then we will be better able to provide instruction for other people who want to use biogas for cooking or powering small tractors.
Our biogas tractor is also coming along. We built a filter that removes moisture and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). One pass through the filter and there was no measurable H2S in the gas at all. We are using a commercial product — pelletized iron oxide — to absorb the H2S. We have set up a small compressor and regulators to pressurize and de-pressurize the gas for use on the tractor. Finding natural gas carburetors for old, small engines is not easy. But we recently found a company that has developed a different approach. They sell a “snorkel” that slips in between the carburetor and the intake manifold so you don’t have to replace your carburetor at all to run biogas (see https://www.uscarburetion.com/).
Looks like a very smart idea. We will let you know how that works.

Our new, very large biogas storage bag is very helpful. All the gas we want, and stable pressure. Seymour (the digester) is nestled in the straw bales on the right.

The Farm
The farm, and our farmers, are mostly doing well. We have finished harvesting most of our crops. The relentless rain has caused the loss of some fruit, but otherwise the farm did well this year. We planted our peanuts and sweet potatoes on beds this year, which helped them get through the wet weather. This week we brought in our finest sweet potato harvest yet. Our watermelon crop did not do as well as previous years. The Nikita persimmons did not make much, but the Rosseyankas will have a large harvest. Squash, okra, tomatoes, peppers and corn (all seeds crops) did well. We will almost certainly be running a biogas tractor next summer. We may or may not try to take the farm fully off of fossil fuel at that time, or that might have to wait another year. It will be exciting when we do.
Please support us if you can.

Living Energy Farm is a project to build a demonstration farm, community, and education center in Louisa County that uses no fossil fuels. For more information see our website
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org, or contact us at livingenergyfarm@gmail.com or Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb Store Rd, Louisa VA, 23093. Donations to the Living Energy Farm Institute are tax deductible. To make tax deductible donations, do not go to the Virginia Organizing website, go here instead: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388125
Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.

Articles and videos about LEF:
Low-Tech Magazine (based in France) did a lengthy, well-researched article, largely about LEF, entitled Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries. It’s at https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/08/direct-solar-power-off-grid-without-batteries/
That article talks a lot about optimal utilization, translate “community is the magic bullet that makes renewable energy work.”

Matt Dhillon at Cville Weekly did one of the best brief summaries of LEF we have ever seen. The article is entitled Power Shift, Award-winning Living Energy Farm Makes Living Off-grid Sustainable. It is at https://www.c-ville.com/power-shift

Truthdig did an article on LEF by Megan McGee, an excellent review of our work in Puerto Rico. It is entitled Decolonizing Puerto Rico Through Solar Power. It’s at
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/decolonizing-puerto-rico-through-solar-power/

We continue to post new videos on Youtube. The latest is Solar Power Systems That Last
Forever, focused on our solar powered kitchen. See https://youtu.be/6XiHClx8d2Q

How to Never Pay an Electric Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Wk7inoIxI&t=201s
This video is a walk-through of our energy systems at Living Energy Farm. It is a concise summary of how these systems work, and why they are not in common use already.

Solar Installations In The Navajo (Dine’) And Hopi Reservations, March 2020
http://livingenergyfarm.org/solar-installations-2020/
This is a photo essay about our project to bring durable solar energy systems to the Dine’ and Hopi Reservations, where thousands of people live without grid power involuntarily.

Support Living Energy Farm’s Climate Justice Campaign, and Bring DC Microgrids to People
Who Need Them
http://livingenergyfarm.org/support-our-climate-justice-campaign/
This is an updated web page describing our broader social justice ambitions.

How to Live Without Fossil Fuel (Introductory Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri2U6u8p65E

Powering a Community with Solar Electricity (LEF has the only DC powered community that we know of, here’s how it works) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvdExgvHnRI&t=23s

The Best Way to Store Off-Grid Energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wOxQ3sL9zc
Batteries that Last (almost) Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfrgLsyFs0E

Virginia Homegrown created a program at LEF (the LEF part starts at the 29 minute mark in the program)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDGP0C9MIzU

International Permaculture has done 2 articles on LEF. One is in issue #93, Autumn 2017, and the second is in issue #94, Winter 2017. See https://www.permaculture.co.uk/
Article about LEF at the Atlantic Online Magazine
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/anarchism-intentional-communities-trump/513086/
Article about LEF in The Central Virginian
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org/cvarticle.pdf
LEF on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/us/communes-american-story/
Cville weekly in Charlottesville VA
http://www.c-ville.com/off-grid-model-environmentalism-made-easy/#.VcHobF054yo

LEF June/July 2024

Living Energy Farm
June – July 2024 Newsletter

How to Bring Climate Change to a Screeching Halt
Conceptually at least, stopping climate change is not a difficult task. People need to live close enough to work so they don’t need a private car. If you live in a temperate climate, you need to live in a home where walls, solar space heating, and solar hot water systems are shared. It really helps to eat food that is primarily plant-based. Top that off with a DC Microgrid like we have at LEF, and you have a modern lifestyle at something like a 98% reduction in energy use compared to the average American.
Sound impossible? Well, in the coming decades, we are moving toward some industrial simplification whether we like it or not. But landing an airplane is very different than crashing one, though either way brings you back to the ground.
The tools we have developed at LEF are a live demonstration of how you can live in a
comfortable, energy independent home with modern conveniences. Our home is warm in winter, we take hot showers when we want, and we have ample electricity for lights and electronics. All of that is accomplished without grid power, nuclear, coal, natural gas, industrial “renewable” energy systems, a generator, or even much firewood.
We want to see our model grow. We want to start a movement that builds hundreds of cooperative housing projects and ecovillages powered by DC Microgrids. Imagine you live in one of these ecovillages. Your home looks much like a typical condo or apartment building, with thick walls that surround several units, big windows on the south and shade trees on the east and west, and solar collectors (both thermal and electric) on the roof. There are gardens and orchards south of the buildings. There’s no grid connection or propane tanks on site. Instead of paying electric and gas bills, residents pay a modest monthly fee to support a caretaker. That caretaker keeps the biogas digester fed, waters the batteries, and pops your dinner in the solar cookers before you come home from work. Then you get to enjoy your dinner in the company of the other people who live there, or in the privacy of your own unit. Over time, the residents become a community of people who know and support each other. If you get tired of it, you sell your unit and move on.
We need an alternative to the mass “electrification” plan that has turned into a mass deforestation program. Here in Louisa County VA, the local board has “limited” the solar deforestation of the county to “only” 3%. Taking down tens of thousands of acres of hardwood forests and paving them over to put up solar panels in the name of stopping climate change is very, very wrong, and has only a marginal impact (if any) on actually reducing fossil fuel use. We cannot hope to address the climate crisis with these supply-focused solutions alone, we need a demand-side solution that reduces energy consumption to the levels required by our ecological emergency.
WE NEED YOU. Living Energy Farm is a small organization. We are farmers, parents and
teachers, we are wizards of pipes, wires and things that whirrr, but we have not had the resources to promote our ideas all that much. Starting this fall we would like to do speaking events, to talk to people about ecological living at 2% of current resource use. We need you to help us get out (or connect online) with more people. So please help us set up events. Talk your friends, your church, or some strangers. Tell them we are for real. Find us a venue, or help us set up online meetings.
The goal is to help small groups of people in create entities that can build or retrofit cooperative homes using DC Microgrids. Where we are going could be a good place, but bringing people together to make that happen is going to be a challenge. We look forward to hearing from you.

DC Solar Training at LEF
In July, we hosted a four day DC Solar Training at LEF. We had a dozen focused, motivated people representing many exciting projects in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It certainly helped that the weather was perfect for the training. But that said, the infrastructure at LEF did not hiccup at all with a dozen extra people here. Everyone was fed. Everyone took showers and charged their devices at will. This training was focused, a bit shorter than prior trainings, but the group was very technically inclined and picked things up quickly. They were very enthusiastic about taking on challenging electrical projects, like converting appliances and building charging stations. After a few days of workshops, the group went over to Little Flower Catholic Worker (a small community 8 miles from LEF) to work on upgrading their DC Microgrid. We installed a 55AH 12V battery kit, and extended their 90V direct drive electrical supply into their kitchen so they could use the power for cooking (previously they were only using it to run their well pump).
Instead of asking people to pay for the event, we asked them to commit to helping with a socially worthwhile project. We discussed various projects and will look forward to seeing how that unfolds.

DC Appliance Conversion Workshop

Biogas
In the last newsletter, we were excited about our cheap air mattress biogas storage system. It seemed like a good idea, until they all started leaking. Darn. Biogas bags for sale in the U.S. are very expensive. We found a Chinese company that sold us a couple of quite large, very cheap biogas bags (Shenzhen Teenwin Environment Co., Ltd). As we head to print, we are plumbing those up and putting up a shed to house one large bag. Meanwhile, we have gotten some practice keeping Seymour (the biogas digester) under control. It’s fairly easy to push production up or down. If we cut off food and heat, biogas production tapers down over the course of a couple weeks. Turn on the heat and feed it, and it only takes a few days for biogas production to climb noticeably. We are pleased to realize how easy it is to produce more or less gas as we need it. We remain convinced that biogas, solar thermal, and solar direct drive photovoltaic power are the most accessible energy sources available for our sustainable future.

Horse Progress Days — Hanging Out with the Amish
The largest Amish gathering in the USA is an event called Horse Progress Days. The event focuses on horse drawn farming equipment, and there are many demonstrations of farm equipment. But the event is huge — well over 50,000 people in one very large field with massive tents, hundreds of vendors, and quite a festive atmosphere. The Amish are using a lot of solar energy at this point, primarily small, battery-based systems. We spoke to hundreds of people about direct drive DC energy.

The long term impacts of those interactions remains to be seen. The Budget newspaper — a paper read among the Amish — published an article about direct drive. The Amish are similar to LEF in some ways. They consciously limit their consumerism. They have farms and large families that function like small communities, and least in some ways. It seems like direct drive DC systems could be of benefit to them. If the Amish started using more direct drive DC systems, it would help the technology to spread.
In driving into the event area, we saw solar panels on many homes. We also saw quite a few very small horses. We were puzzled. The Amish are such practical people. What do they do with little horses that are too small to pull a plow or a buggy? Well, we got the answer at Horse Progress Days.
Those small horses are tended by the children, and hooked up to very small buggies that the children use to zip all over (think Amish drag racing). Thus the kids learn the skills to drive larger horses as they become adults.

Harvesting wheat with the combine that has one belt and eight spinning shafts.

Easy Reaper
We mentioned in the last newsletter that we were using our Easy Reaper — the simplified combine harvester. We harvested barley, oats, and more than an acre of wheat. We were enormously pleased. We have spoken to a few agricultural equipment manufacturers, and have not found anyone who wants to make Easy Reapers just yet. Our current plan is to keep working on them at LEF. We have been making some upgrades to our tooling to make that (and other projects) easier, though our shop is feeling pretty undersized at this point. We are trying to get pricing from some local fabricators who might make the drum and shell, which are the hardest parts for us to make. Meanwhile, we will probably be participating in a World Food Prize event called the Borlaug Dialogue. The dates are October 29 – 31 in Des Moines Iowa. That is a large event with thousands of participants from many academic, governmental and business entities. This may be a big opportunity for us to bring some attention to the project.
And, here’s a video of cutting wheat with the Easy Reaper.

The Farm
The farm is doing pretty well this year, although the rabbits ate most of the cantalopes, the deer went after over fence to get to the beans and peanuts, and did considerable damage to the watermelons. The birds ate a lot of the blueberries, and now a very large, and not very shy, black bear has taken to ripping the limbs off the pear trees and helping himself. Other than that, things are great.
We are canning lots of peaches. We have quite a bit of fruit in spite of the managerie of animals showing up at the dinner table. The corn crop is untouched thanks to Otto’s diligent efforts. Last fall, a landscaper brought us a huge pile of leaves.
Those are great for building soil, so we did some large scale sheet mulching. That was a mixed bag. The leaf mulch worked amazingly well with our spring potato crop, it was our best in years. The melons were more challenging; we should have transplanted them as the leaves tend to cool the soil and blow around a bit, which makes seed sprouting difficult. Then the rabbits showed up.
We are moving into the peak of harvest. Our seeds crops are a bit smaller than past years, but still some considerable work. We are looking forward to the persimmons, as well as making apple sauce, and perhaps some pear sauce, depending on the activities of the bear.

How many pears is a large black bear allowed to eat?
As many as he wants, apparently…

We look forward to hearing from folks who can help us set up speaking events.
Please support us if you can.

Living Energy Farm is a project to build a demonstration farm, community, and education center in Louisa County that uses no fossil fuels. For more information see our website
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org, or contact us at livingenergyfarm@gmail.com or Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb Store Rd, Louisa VA, 23093. Donations to the Living Energy Farm Institute are tax deductible. To make tax deductible donations, do not go to the Virginia Organizing website, go here: instead: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388125
Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.

Articles and videos about LEF:
Low-Tech Magazine (based in France) did an lengthy, well-researched article, largely about LEF, entitled Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries. It’s at
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/08/direct-solar-power-off-grid-without-batteries/
That article talks a lot about optimal utilization, translate “community is the magic bullet that makes renewable energy work.”

Matt Dhillon at Cville Weekly did one of the best brief summaries of LEF we have ever seen. The article is entitled Power Shift, Award-winning Living Energy Farm Makes Living Off-grid Sustainable. It is at https://www.c-ville.com/power-shift

Truthdig did an article on LEF by Megan McGee, an excellent review of our work in Puerto Rico. It is entitled Decolonizing Puerto Rico Through Solar Power. It’s at
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/decolonizing-puerto-rico-through-solar-power/

We continue to post new videos on Youtube. The latest is Solar Power Systems That Last
Forever, focused on our solar powered kitchen. See https://youtu.be/6XiHClx8d2Q

How to Never Pay an Electric Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Wk7inoIxI&t=201s
This video is a walk-through of our energy systems at Living Energy Farm. It is a concise
summary of how these systems work, and why they are not in common use already.

Solar Installations In The Navajo (Dine’) And Hopi Reservations, March 2020
http://livingenergyfarm.org/solar-installations-2020/
This is a photo essay about our project to bring durable solar energy systems to the Dine’ and Hopi Reservations, where thousands of people live without grid power involuntarily.

Support Living Energy Farm’s Climate Justice Campaign, and Bring DC Microgrids to People
Who Need Them
http://livingenergyfarm.org/support-our-climate-justice-campaign/
This is an updated web page describing our broader social justice ambitions.

How to Live Without Fossil Fuel (Introductory Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri2U6u8p65E
Powering a Community with Solar Electricity (LEF has the only DC powered community that we know of, here’s how it works) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvdExgvHnRI&t=23s
The Best Way to Store Off-Grid Energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wOxQ3sL9zc
Batteries that Last (almost) Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfrgLsyFs0E

Virginia Homegrown created a program at LEF (the LEF part starts at the 29 minute mark in the program)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDGP0C9MIzU

International Permaculture has done 2 articles on LEF. One is in issue #93, Autumn 2017, and the second is in issue #94, Winter 2017. See https://www.permaculture.co.uk/

Article about LEF at the Atlantic Online Magazine
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/anarchism-intentional-communities-trump/
513086/

Article about LEF in The Central Virginian
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org/cvarticle.pdf

LEF on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/us/communes-american-story/

Cville weekly in Charlottesville VA
http://www.c-ville.com/off-grid-model-environmentalism-made-easy/#.VcHobF054yo

Living Energy Farm: Mixing Electrolytes for NiFe Batteries

Living Energy Farm recommends Nickel/Iron Batteries for backup use for off-grid living. If your batterie came dry or runs dry, here’s how to mix up the electrolytes for it.

The Leaves of Twin Oaks: Summer 2024

News of the Oaks by Valerie
Fire Recovery by Jason
Common Wealth Seed Growers by Zoe
Conference Announcements

News of the Oaks by Valerie

Our biggest news is that after a few years of low population, we are about to hit Pop Cap (our maximum population). If/when that happens, we’ll still be hosting our Visitor Program as per usual, but it may take a little longer for accepted Visitors to return.

Celebrations Our two big events recently were our annual Anniversary, with ex-members returning to help us celebrate Twin Oaks’ 57th year of existence; and also we hosted the wedding of community friends Ken and Irena, with a gathering including “Ken and Irena Jeopardy” and Ken’s brother who is an Episcopal priest officiating. ‍

Sustainability: We’ve been busy with various projects. Our “eco-residence” that has 10 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and 1 bathroom off-grid, got an upgrade of new solar panels. Ex-member Debbie, now living at neighboring community Living Energy Farm helped install them.‍  
We had several members take a literal field trip, to help harvest sweet potato slips at a farm we are connected with a couple of hours away. They were working with our sister community Acorn’s business Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Ujamaa, a BIPOC-led organization that works to bridge the gap between prospective BIPOC seed growers and seed companies.

Summer Activities for Kids and their Kid-like friends: The “Twin Oaks Swim Team” is a group of kids and adults here who are dedicated to swimming in the pond every day! It’s a rotating cast of characters but has included Finley, Jessie, Nick, Indigo and Dave. Go team! Also a number of Twin Oaks kids are attending Shiloh Quaker Summer Camp an hour or two away from us. This year, several adults will also be participating in the camp as staff/support. 

Second Edition: our member Pam Dawling, who has written two definitive books on farming/garden, has been hard at work on the second edition of her first book “Sustainable Market Farming”.

 

Fire Recovery by Jason

This March, a wildfire swept through parts of the community and destroyed our conference site, warehouse, sawmill, machinery, hammocks inventory and many other items vital to the economic self-sufficiency of the community. In the aftermath of the fire, we made the call to shut down the Hammocks business. With margins already thin in order to compete with overseas producers, and the loss of specialized equipment, making significant investments towards rebuilding seemed unlikely. We’ll finish up some hammocks using supplies which were off-site before the shop is converted into space for our Seed Racks business. 
This is a blow to the community in both an economic and emotional sense. While the days of hammocks being our main source of income are long gone, the business sustained the community for many years, providing work and creating a much loved product that made a name for ourselves. While it is hard to say goodbye to this era of Twin Oaks, we are also looking at our community economy going forward. The Process Team kickstarted a “CommEcon” process, in which members submit proposals for new business ideas that the community could use to generate income. We will spend the summer deliberating proposals, and decisions about where to allocate resources will likely happen towards the end of the year. 
Proposals include a pottery business, renewing our hammock-chair production, (but not regular hammocks), sewing textile goods, online teaching, tech support for local businesses, video game creation, building an eco AirBnB, and the expanding of the relationship between Twin Oaks and Common Wealth Seed Growers, a seed company run by one of our members with a focus on plant breeding and resilience in our seed systems. (see other article for more info on Common Wealth Seed Growers)  
While we have not been able to start the cleanup efforts at EC yet due to the need for fire investigations, we have been able to start the cleanup and rebuilding of our conference site. A group of communards from our sister communities in Missouri will come to help, and we are hopeful that this work can progress quickly. We are planning on hosting a full slate of conferences this year, including the Communities Conference, Women’s Gathering, and Queer Gathering. (See links elsewhere in this issue for more info.)

Clean up at conference site.The forest is likewise beginning its process of recovery. The fire was quick burning, passing through areas quickly and consuming leaf litter, but not catching the trees. Many large trees show some charring around their base, but it appears that they will survive. Many of the smaller saplings did not leaf out, leaving an empty and brown understory, which contrasts with the untouched canopy, and the forest floor which is vigorously sprouting new life.‍

Ex-member Alexis-LEF was a firefighter and has been helping us prepare for another disaster. He installed the fire hose hookups near our residences some 30 years ago, which were instrumental in saving Tupelo. Since the fire, he has hosted a tour of our firefighting infrastructure, gotten us more firehose to place around the community, transformed our old tofu wastewater truck into a firetruck, and is advising us on forming our own fire brigade that can respond to fires on the property and direct the local firefighters on how to assist us.

Common Wealth Seed Growers by Zoe

While Edmund is one of the more renowned farmers at Twin Oaks, he rarely works in the main food garden. Rather, he manages several fields off the farm. He is part of Common Wealth Seed Growers, a cooperative project that produces and sells regionally-adapted, open-pollinated seeds. They only sell what grows well on their farms in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Common Wealth Seed Growers also use an open source seed promise for some of the seed varieties they’ve developed and their derivatives which promise to not restrict others’ use of the seeds they’ve developed or any of their derivatives to help combat corporate monopolization of seed varieties.

Edmund began breeding new produce variations back in 2011. Only three years later, Common Wealth Seed Growers received a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant to identify downy mildew resistant strains in cucumber, melon and winter squash. They also received grants from the Organic Farming Research Foundation in 2018 and 2019 for similar research.  
Edmund manages seed production as an income area for Twin Oaks. He sells seeds produced by Common Wealth Seed Growers, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and other seed companies. Edmund envisions Common Wealth Seed Growers expanding in the future, and employing many more Twin Oaks members. As it is, Edmund does enlist a few Oakers in the process. Seed saving includes planting, nurturing, harvesting, cleaning, packing, and shipping – all of which are labor intensive. Thankfully, many here enjoy such work. Arguably, the most notable of these tasks is harvesting seed from squash and gourds – something that is best done by hand, and is always messy. Common Wealth Seed Growers pays Twin Oaks by the hour as ‘outside work’ for tasks done by members that aren’t directly agricultural such as marketing, website, and inventory management. In addition to providing money, seed production and research, the work provides an abundance of organic food for the community including cucumbers, bell peppers, cantaloupe and winter squash. This has allowed the community to dine on varieties we have never had before, such as the Guatemalan Green Ayote squash that has forest green innards and a sweet flavor. Visit commonwealthseeds.com to view or request their 2024 product catalog by mail and find out more information about their mission. 

Conference Announcements‍

Twin Oaks Queer Gathering Friday August 2 – Sunday August 4
A weekend of queertranstastic fun, learning, workshops, networking, revelry, and more! twinoaksqueergathering.org

Twin Oaks Women’s Gathering Friday August 16 – Sunday August 18
An inclusive gathering of women celebrating ourselves in the woods.
womensgathering.org

Twin Oaks Communities Conference Friday August 30 – Monday September 2 (Labor Day Weekend) communitiesconference.org‍
If you live or want to live according to the values of cooperation and sustainability, this conference is for you. The conference focuses on intentional communities and on the larger cooperative movement.

Easy Reaper: First Harvest

Living Energy Farm has developed a new harvester they call “Easy Reaper”. Here’s a trial run.

Easy Reaper

Alexis introduces the newest bit of technology from Living Energy Farm, a simplified combine harvester they call “Easy Reaper”.

Message Dog, Today, Combine, Conferences, and Convergence

by Raven

Yet another week on Facebook. Most posts did okay and one did very, very well.

Acorn often posts weird pictures and I try to go with it. Here they’ve posted a dog with a message.

This post just did okay with one like and a bit over a hundred views.

When I was down in Virginia in January, I took a bunch of pictures with the idea of posting them when things got quiet. This is one of my last. It was from one of the many boards Twin Oaks has in their dining hall.

This did pretty well, with seven likes, one love, and a hundred and thirty-three views.

Living Energy Farm put out this bulletin about a harvesting combine that they are developing.

This did phenomenally well with nineteen likes, five loves, one wow, two comments, three shares, and a full three hundred and sixty-six views. (Three shares is a lot of shares–very few of our posts get even one–and I suspect that contributed to the large number of views.)

The fire around Twin Oaks spared the residences but it decimated their industrial area as well as the conference site where Twin Oaks usually holds summer events. And they are still planning to hold them, as they are working on the site as quickly as they can.

The conference site after the fire

This did fairly well on Facebook, with eight likes, three loves, and a hundred and seventy-one views.

In the blurb for that post, I mentioned that there would be a brand new event this year. Here’s a bunch more about it.

This did fairly well also, with six likes, four loves, and a hundred and sixty-two views.

LEF May 2024

Living Energy Farm
May 2024 Newsletter

There have been two big events at Living Energy Farm in the last month. The first is that we are now using our simplified combine harvester in the field to harvest grain, and it’s working. The second is that, after 14 years of cooking on solar and wood, we are now making a lot more biogas and have enough to say goodbye to firewood.
And The Central Virginian newspaper here in Louisa VA did a very good article about LEF. That is here.
Easy Reaper
We have renamed our simplified combine harvester the Easy Reaper. Almost everyone relies on grain for food directly or indirectly. In the U.S., farmers have access to old American equipment. But the smallest combine harvesters are still fairly large, and quite complex. Globally, the lack of small harvesting equipment cripples the economic viability of small farms. The Easy Reaper could be a big help.
A video that shows a step-by-step walk through of how the machine works is here: https://youtu.be/5CF4laghKd4
A second video that shows the machine harvesting grain is here: https://youtu.be/i5GDyEB_VA8
The Easy Reaper is a product of many years of work. It has one belt and eight spinning shafts. In terms of the number of moving parts and overall mechanical complexity, it is an order of magnitude simpler than any other combine harvester of which we are aware. It could probably be mass manufactured for well under $2000. The cheapest Chinese made combine harvester currently available costs several times that much. We have contracts the University of Missouri and an entity called the Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab to produce Easy Reapers in Africa.

The first step in harvesting is to cut the grain and get it into the harvester. A “header” on a conventional combine does this. This photo shows the cut behind the easy reaper. It is bringing the grain into the machine quite effectively.

Our connection at the University of Missouri is Kerry Clark, (PhD, Assistant Research Profession in the Division of Applied Social Sciences, the CAFNR International Programs Director, and Project Manager for smallholder productivity for the USAID Soybean Innovation Lab) refers to the Easy Reaper as a “game changer for small farmers across the African continent.” She goes on to say “There are few people like [Alexis Zeigler who] dedicate themselves to helping smallholder farmers. His design will help revolutionize crop production in Africa.” We hope those statements prove true, and we are doing our best to make them come true.

The second critical function of a combine harvester is threshing –removing the grains from the seedheads. This shows us looking for leftover kernels of grain in the straw coming out of the harvester, and not finding any.

Going forward, we are going to “tighten up” the machine. That means moving the fan and cleaning screen to reduce the detritus in the grain. We want to build an Easy Reaper with a smaller threshing drum, and build one that is powered from its own wheels so it can be pulled by draft animals or a small tractor or tiller, and perhaps build a self propelled model. We also need to put some work into making the actual assembly simpler. Although the Easy Reaper is already much simpler than any other harvester, any prototype has many inefficiencies in assembly. We can reduce the number of parts, and make assemblies of parts that can be put together more easily (stamped and spot welded sheet metal instead of welded and riveted steel, for instance).
Many people have asked us, “why didn’t someone invent this before?”
Everything we do is influenced by legacy — the traditions and habits we inherit from those who came before us. That legacy can be helpful or crippling. Grain harvesting moved from one manual step to another, from one machine to another, and the grains themselves have evolved. Wild wheat is six feet tall, modern wheat is 18 inches. No one ever went back to step one and tried to simplify the whole process in one machine using modern materials and considerations.
Our job at LEF is to challenge legacies and find more sustainable ways of living. We are very happy with what we have achieved.

This shows harvested seed kernels of a rare Tibetan variety of barley. We are going to modify the machine so there is less detritus in the grain, but it is not intended to clean the grain as much as the large, expensive combines.

The Easy Reaper. Future Easy Reapers will look very similar, though the big round part on the left (the thresher) will likely get smaller.

Biogas
We have been building biogas systems for over 10 years now. Without recounting that long and inglorious history in detail, we have arrived at a biogas system that will produce a phenomenal amount of gas. A biogas digester is a colony of archaea. As the microbe colony matures, it becomes more productive, and more resilient.
Our current digester, named Seymour, is a seven foot tall, seven foot diameter tank. It has 3 feet of straw wrapped around it. It has a five panel solar thermal rack keeping it warm with internal stainless steel heat exchangers. Now that have figured out how to do this, we can say that Seymour is probably larger than we actually need.
The most astonishing thing about Seymour is how efficient he is. We had pictured something resembling a haying operation, mowing grassy fields or collecting wheat straw, bringing in lots of organic matter to feed Seymour. Well, we currently have a biogas flush toilet (which is less smelly and buggy than composting toilets, which is nice). We are feeding grass clippings from the front yard and small amount of kitchen waste twice a week. And that’s it! It’s really quite surprising that we are getting enough gas to cook three meals a day, right through long cloudy spells, with so little feedstock.

Biogas lofts in the barn. The commercial biogas bag on the left cost about $.43 cents/ liter of biogas storage. The air mattress on the right cost about $.03 cents/ liter of biogs storage. Smokers are not allowed to sleep on these air mattresses…

We have expanded our storage. We have found that air mattresses cost much less per cubic foot/liter than official biogas storage bags. So we have put lofts in various spots and filled them with biogas. The whole system generally runs at less than 1/2 psi (15 inches water column max), so lightweight storage containers work fine. It remains to be seen if we can make it all the way through next winter. But currently we are turning off the solar heat and keeping Seymour on a diet so as to prevent over-production.
Crunching some numbers about how much energy the farm uses and how much Seymour can produce, it’s quite clear we can produce enough gas to power small tractor(s) on the farm. The problem with biogas is that it has very low density. The burnable fraction of biogas is the same thing as natural gas, and that is methane. There is a lot of industrial handling of biogas and natural gas, including CNG (compressed natural gas). We are looking at the equipment to do that on a modest scale. Our friend Kris in Missouri continues to be a very helpful consultant on figuring out things like compressors.
Seymour’s good health owes a lot to Otto who tends to his needs diligently. Biogas is a lot like having a flock of animals to care for. It’s not a huge amount of work, but it must be tended regularly.
Both the expense and the regular tending of a biogas digester argue for community scale systems instead of household scale. One problem with biogas is that the digestion process is smelly. That’s not a big problem in rural areas, but it hard to imagine a lot of digesters in the crowded urban areas. Perhaps that could be improved (??) Sure would be handy to have a commercial biogas consultant on call…
Many rural ecovillage projects rely on a lot of firewood, which is not sustainable at all on a global scale. We are at the point where we can go through most of the year with no firewood at all. We do burn a small amount of wood in winter to back up our water heating system, but the amount is microscopic compared to most rural households. We are pleased with the level of energy self sufficiency we have been able to achieve.

Which Way Forward?
LEF is already fully energy independent at the residential level, and that with 250 watts of solar electricity per person and biogas. (Plus good insulation, cooperative design, and solar thermal systems). In considering setting up a biogas tractor, it is exciting to think about being fully energy independent, on a reasonably modest budget using durable technologies. We are continuing to work on plans for energy self sufficient communities (aka off-grid condos) outside of LEF. We get some donations (thank you very much!) that get used to buy solar materials for Puerto Rico and other projects. We have a lot of projects on our plate, and not all of them move forward quickly.
Much of what we do at LEF is to challenge unhelpful legacies — with building design, energy systems, and food. Even the Easy Reaper has proven a little disruptive. It’s clear that some people do not believe what we are saying, or are offended by our presumptions of simplified harvesters or making grid power obsolete with DC Microgrids in conservationist oriented communities.
The glass is always half full and half empty in terms of support and recognition for our work. We communicate with people inspired by our work on every continent. And we remain a small organization that is entirely volunteer run. We would like to spend more time promoting the idea of conservationist lifestyles, but it’s hard to know which is best. Do we spend our time making better machines, or talking to people? Promoting lifestyles that challenge consumerism is never going to be easy. We keep trying to do what we can.
Our farm is doing well. It is a good fruit year. We have an excellent, dedicated group of people at LEF. Rosa has learned how to make cherry pies from our sour cherries. Nika is honing his arguing skills to a sharp edge, especially when it comes to matters like chores and personal hygiene. David is still improving the simple washing machine. David and John continue to improve the electronics connected to DC power systems. Otto takes care of everything that everyone else forgets. Deb is managing the farm and planning our summer immersive on DC Microgrids (registration is now closed).
Please support us if you can.
Living Energy Farm is a project to build a demonstration farm, community, and education center in Louisa County that uses no fossil fuels. For more information see our website
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org, or contact us at livingenergyfarm@gmail.com or Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb Store Rd, Louisa VA, 23093. Donations to the Living Energy Farm Institute are tax deductible. To make tax deductible donations, do not go to the Virginia Organizing website, go here instead: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388125
Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.

Articles and videos about LEF:
Low-Tech Magazine (based in France) did a lengthy, well-researched article, largely about LEF, entitled Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries. It’s at
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/08/direct-solar-power-off-grid-without-batteries/
That article talks a lot about optimal utilization, translate “community is the magic bullet that makes renewable energy work.”
Matt Dhillon at Cville Weekly did one of the best brief summaries of LEF we have ever seen. The article is entitled Power Shift, Award-winning Living Energy Farm Makes Living Off-grid Sustainable. It is at https://www.c-ville.com/power-shift
Truthdig did an article on LEF by Megan McGee, an excellent review of our work in Puerto Rico. It is entitled Decolonizing Puerto Rico Through Solar Power. It’s at https://www.truthdig.com/articles/decolonizing-puerto-rico-through-solar-power/
We continue to post new videos on Youtube. The latest is Solar Power Systems That Last
Forever, focused on our solar powered kitchen. See https://youtu.be/6XiHClx8d2Q

How to Never Pay an Electric Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Wk7inoIxI&t=201s
This video is a walk-through of our energy systems at Living Energy Farm. It is a concise
summary of how these systems work, and why they are not in common use already.

Solar Installations In The Navajo (Dine’) And Hopi Reservations, March 2020
http://livingenergyfarm.org/solar-installations-2020/
This is a photo essay about our project to bring durable solar energy systems to the Dine’ and Hopi Reservations, where thousands of people live without grid power involuntarily.

Support Living Energy Farm’s Climate Justice Campaign, and Bring DC Microgrids to People
Who Need Them
http://livingenergyfarm.org/support-our-climate-justice-campaign/
This is an updated web page describing our broader social justice ambitions.

How to Live Without Fossil Fuel (Introductory Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Ri2U6u8p65E
Powering a Community with Solar Electricity (LEF has the only DC powered community that we know of, here’s how it works) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvdExgvHnRI&t=23s
The Best Way to Store Off-Grid Energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wOxQ3sL9zc
Batteries that Last (almost) Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfrgLsyFs0E

Virginia Homegrown created a program at LEF (the LEF part starts at the 29 minute mark in the program) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDGP0C9MIzU

International Permaculture has done 2 articles on LEF. One is in issue #93, Autumn 2017, and the second is in issue #94, Winter 2017. See https://www.permaculture.co.uk/
Article about LEF at the Atlantic Online Magazine
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/anarchism-intentional-communities-trump/513086/
Article about LEF in The Central Virginian
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org/cvarticle.pdf
LEF on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/us/communes-american-story/
Cville weekly in Charlottesville VA
http://www.c-ville.com/off-grid-model-environmentalism-made-easy/#.VcHobF054yo

Gardening, Garlic, Upkeeping, Lexing, and a Festival

by Raven

We’ve gotten to the week where Facebook changed things on us. I don’t know if we did something wrong or what, but suddenly we weren’t getting pictures from outside posts. One day, if we reposted something here, Facebook put a picture with it and then suddenly they didn’t. If I added a picture they put it on but they didn’t copy it from any other site. As far as I can tell, other folks still get pictures on reposts, so it makes me wonder if Facebook has a problem with us doing it.

The first few posts came with pictures and the first one was a Twin Oaks post advertising one of their member’s blogs, that of Pam, the master gardener.

This did okay on Facebook, with five likes, two loves, two shares, and a hundred and four views. Not great, but okay.

Our second post was from Acorn’s Instagram, claiming that Justin Bieber was visiting. (Would Facebook get upset about that? You’d think they’d go after Acorn, not us.)

This didn’t quite make it, with just one wow and ninety-nine views.

The last post where Facebook reposted a pic was when we reposted Eastwind’s description of their House and Maintenence work. It’s on their website and the photo Facebook associated with it is the one that is at the top of all of the pages on the site with the title “Eastwind Community” and the links to other pages on it. Facebook just reprinted the site photo without the captions.

If there was a problem with that, as far as I can tell, that was Facebook’s doing.

Here’s what I wrote.

And here’s a snippet from their House and Maintenence page, along with the photo I would have selected.

It didn’t do badly at all, with four likes, four loves, three comments, and a hundred and sixty-six views.

So what went wrong?

The next day we reposted something from Twin Oaks. It seemed innocent enough. They had a picture of Debbie from Living Energy Farm LEXing (doing a Labor EXchange) at Twin Oaks. They had the picture, we didn’t. All we got was:

That’s the usual thing Facebook puts when we repost something from Facebook, except there used to be a picture underneath. This time there wasn’t.

Here’s what we wrote followed by what Twin Oaks had on their site.

In spite of the lack of a picture on our site, this did pretty well, with five likes, three loves, one comment, and a hundred and eighty-four views.

I thought that this was just a one-off thing from Facebook, but the next day it happened again with an Instagram repost from Acorn. And we haven’t had any pictures on any reposts since. (Although, if we create the post and add pics, they show up.)

Anyway, here’s the Acorn repost, starting with what I wrote on Facebook.

And here’s some of what Acorn wrote as well as the picture that only showed up on their Instagram page.

It didn’t do great, but I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the lack of a picture on our FB page. It did about as well as our previous Acorn repost, which had a pic. It got five likes, one love, but only ninety-seven views.

I’m not going to complain in future posts, but know that Facebook no longer passes pictures on to our feed, unless we actually put them there.