I like the idea of living in a self sufficient way, ideally producing your own food and off the grid of mains services. Many may share this ideal lifestyle but only a few can emulate it because of constraints imposed by cost, officialdom and a lack of confidence to radically alter everyday practices. Here are just two success stories that I have come across in the media, coincidentally from Spain which seems to have that rare combination of factors in land, climate and a pioneering spirit to make the dream of self sufficiency a reality.
Case Study 1. If it wasn't for you meddling kids......
It’s a utopian fantasy- discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages (most dating back to the Middle Ages), some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that.
There are now a few dozen “ecoaldeas” - ecovillages - in Spain, most build from the ashes of former Medieval towns. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra.
It was rediscovered in 1980 by a group of people living nearby who had lost their goats and “when they found their goats, they found Lakabe”, explains Mauge Cañada, one of the early pioneers in the repopulation of the town.
The new inhabitants were all urbanites with no knowledge of country life so no one expected them to stay long. At first, the homes weren’t habitable so they lived 14 in a large room. Slowly they began to rebuild the homes and the gardens.
When they first began to rebuild, there was no road up to the town so horses were used to carry construction materials up the mountain. There was no electricity either so they lived with candles and oil lamps.
After a few years, they erected a windmill by hand, carrying the iron structure up the hill themselves. “Even though it seems tough and in some ways it was, but you realise you're not as limited as you think,” says Mauge. “There are a lot of things people think they can't do without a lot of money and there's never been money here.”
In the early years, they generated income by selling some of their harvest and working odd jobs like using their newfound construction experience to rebuild roofs outside town. Later they rebuilt the village bakery and sold bread to the outside world.
Their organic sourdough breads now sell so well that today they can get by without looking for work outside town, but it helps that they keep their costs at a minimum as a way of life. “There's an austerity that's part of the desire of people who come here,” explains Mauge. “There's not a desire for consumption to consume. We try to live with what there is.”
Today, the town generates all its own energy with the windmill, solar panels and a water turbine. It also has a wait list of people who’d like to move in, but Mauge says the answer is not for people to join what they have created, but to try to emulate them somewhere else.
“If you set your mind to it and there's a group of people who want to do it, physically they can do it, economically they can do it. What right now is more difficult is being willing to suffer hardship or difficulties or… these days people have a lot of trouble living in situations of shortage or what is seen as shortage but it isn't.”
(source; Mail on Line)
Case Study 2. I shit you not!
Just north of Pamplona, Spain, there’s an old farmhouse that’s been abandoned for 60 years. The house is isolated from society—five miles from the nearest town and a mile from a village of 50 people. And come this spring after the original building has been dismantled a new eco-house erected using the original recycled materials it will run on poop.
The poop-powered house is a project of Meghan Sapp and Iñigo Arana of engineering start-up PlanetEnergy. When it’s finished, it will be 100% self-sufficient for energy—which means making sure any poop that comes out goes right back in.
According to Sapp, the company’s founder and CEO, the house is a demonstration for the company’s EnergyCommunities initiative. She explains “Based on the ‘use what ya got’ principle, we design systems that take advantage of available resources to supply existing and future demand with a waste-first focus.”
The hot water, in-floor heating, and cooking gas in the house will come from biogas, while solar and wind will provide electricity.
The biogas will be created from organic waste from the bathroom and kitchen, as well as manure from four horses (the couple currently have two).
Sapp and Arana will also grow their own produce on the property.
Using biogas as energy isn’t new—last year the UK launched a poo bus that ran on human waste—but Sapp hopes that her home will inspire individuals to use biogas on a small scale—in apartment buildings, for example.
The house cost the couple about half a million euros( £350,000) and they expect to make it back in less than five years, says Sapp.
The two began construction on the house in June this year and hope to move in by the spring.
(Source Planet Energy and Quartz)
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