Acorn Community’s farm dogs made a movie!
Videos
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Tips
Sky Blue has been very involved in the intentional communities movement, including being part of starting several communities. Here Sky gives tips and tricks that could be very useful to potential community founders.
Tree Hugger, River Ride, Ex-Prisoner, Piggies, and Networking
by Raven
This was a week on Facebook, toward the end of September, where we did very well over all, and posted (and reposted) a lot of interesting stuff, although I think one of the most interesting things didn’t do very well at all.
East Wind posted pictures of a member who really likes trees.
This post did okay, with four likes, a love, and a hundred and five views.
Twin Oaks had a guest that decided to make a video of his canoe ride down the river that flows through the community.
If you want to go along for the ride, the video is on YouTube.
I guess some folks did want to go since this post got five likes, three loves, a comment, and a hundred and forty-three views.
Ericka is an activist who I admire very much and really cares about people. I posted this from the Serenity Solidarity website.
I was very touched by this but apparently not very many people were. This post did the worst of the week, with one ‘care’ and only fifty-four views.
East Wind, like a lot of rural communities, raises animals. Here they are showing off their little piggies.
Lots of other folks must have thought they were cute as well because this post got four likes, four loves, a comment, and a hundred and thirty-four views.
Finally, I’ve learned that if I want to pull in viewers, there’s nothing like a good, perhaps controversial question. Here’s what I asked this time.
And, yes, folks had thoughts. Here’s the comments we got.
And, yes, it certainly brought in folks. It got fifteen likes, one love, seven comments (above), and two hundred and twenty-three views. As I said, a good question.
A Chinese Take on the Kibbutz
Are the Kibbutzim socialist? A Chinese filmmaker tried to find out.
Communal Kitchen Efficiency
A Brit looks at the way they cook at Acorn.
A British View of Acorn
From the Acorn Instagram page:
Twin Oaks on the BBC
In his recent post about a new video about Twin Oaks, Paxus mentioned this lovely old one from the BBC.
The Advantages of a Long Lived Community
by Paxus
from Your Passport to Complaining
Many independent filmmakers and corporate media sources have made videos about Twin Oaks. Today, I am promoting an unusually revealing video crafted by the Crossroad America project; two filmmakers working in all 50 states in a single summer. They have captured something I had not seen about my home of the last 27 years, before.
Sean (who is not yet a member) is the new face of Twin Oaks
The 19 minute feature interviews several of my favorite communards describing the Twin Oaks to folks who might be curious about us. This well edited Vlog gives a quick tour of some of the communities sharing systems. This tour format is what most filmmakers use who visit and it is an accessible way to understand us. And different filmmakers are excited about different facets of community living. For example, the BBC loved Commie Clothes
But what is especially powerful is Tigger describing losing his daughter Gwen. Through the lens of this tragedy, he sees clearly the importance of the community he has been in for decades.
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.
commune life 