This section is devoted to the information that will be useful in the creation of a Kin's Domains.
Cure Kids of Nature Deficit Disorder
By David Suzuki
The kids are back in school. But for 60 students in Maple Ridge, B.C., school doesn't mean a stuffy classroom. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, the children, ranging in age from four to 12, will get their lessons "in parks, at picnic tables, alongside streams, under tarps and tents, in gardens, libraries, restaurants, fitness centres and even municipal council chambers."
The Environmental School Project, as it is known, came about in part because a vice principal and a teacher librarian who was also studying at Simon Fraser University noticed something rather obvious: kids like getting out for field trips but don't always enjoy the classroom experience. Clayton Maitland, a school administrator who was then vice principal of a local school, and Jodi MacQuarrie, the teacher librarian, had been discussing ways to take schooling out of its rigid confines. They took their ideas to educational researchers at SFU and to the public.
People liked what the two had to say. SFU researchers got a grant from the federal government and the school was started. A council that includes the researchers, community educators, teachers, and students and their families will work with the program.
According to the school's website, the school will be based on "place and community, nature, ecology and sustainability, inquiry and possibility, interdependence and flourishing, imagination and integration." To that end, students will work on projects that include removing invasive species from natural areas and building duck shelters -- but they'll also follow the B.C. school curriculum.
It's a really great idea that I hope many more school districts will adopt. As a child, much of my education and inspiration came from outings to go camping and fishing with my dad in B.C. and later on from exploring swamps near our home in London, Ontario. My parents were never upset when I returned home soaking wet and covered in mud, carrying jars of insects and salamander eggs. That led me to an interest in science and then studies and a career in genetics, focusing on the fruit fly.
I'm happy that my children have also grown up with a love for the natural world, inspired by time spent at the beach or in the mountains, and that their children are learning the same lessons. After all, people will not care as much about, or work to protect, something with which they feel no connection. My fellow bug-lover Edward O. Wilson, an American biologist who specializes in ants, popularized the term biophilia, meaning "love of nature," with his 1984 book of the same name.
As he explains in the book, "To explore and affiliate with life is a deep and complicated process in mental development. To an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hope rises on its currents."
Of course, children also learn better and retain more of what they've learned when they enjoy the process. But too many kids today spend most of their time indoors, captivated by computers, video games, and TV. Author Richard Louv coined the term nature deficit disorder to describe this phenomenon. He notes that only six per cent of nine- to 13-year-old children in the U.S. play outside in a typical week, and in San Diego, "90 per cent of inner-city kids do not know how to swim" and "34 per cent have never been to the beach."
If we want to protect the natural world on which our survival depends, we must learn that we are a part of it, and we must encourage our children to appreciate its wonders.
Studies have also shown that spending time in nature helps with recall and memory, problem-solving, and creativity. Children (and adults) who spend more time outside are also physically healthier. And, as one of the Maple Ridge students, nine-year-old Gavin Mulcahy, told the Vancouver Sun: "We won't be locked inside a tiny box for six or seven hours a day."
These young students and the people who had the foresight to get the school running have lessons for all of us. Let's hope people heed them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/
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Lack of contact with nature 'increasing allergies'
By Mark Kinver
A lack of exposure to a "natural environment" could be resulting in more urban dwellers developing allergies and asthma, research has suggested.
Finnish scientists say certain bacteria, shown to be beneficial for human health, are found in greater abundance in non-urban surroundings.
The microbiota play an important role in the development and maintenance of the immune system, they add.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"There are microbes everywhere, including in the built environment, but the composition is different between natural environments and human-built areas," explained co-author Ilkka Hanski from the University of Helsinki.
"The microbiota in natural environments is more beneficial for us," he told BBC News.
'Special function'
The team collected samples from 118 teenagers in eastern Finland, and found that those living on farms or near forests had more diverse bacteria on their skin, and also displayed lower allergen sensitivity.
"They are important for us because they promote microbiota... that are important for the normal development and maintenance of the immune system," Dr Hanski observed.
The study also allowed the team to identify one class of bacteria, known as gammaproteobacteria, which had a "special function".
"It demonstrates that there are different functions between different microbes," he said.
One type of gammaproteobacteria , called Acinetobacter, was singled out as being "strongly linked to the development of anti-inflammatory molecules".
"Basically, our study showed that the more you had of this particular gammaproteobacteria on your skin then you had a immunological response which is known to suppress inflammatory responses ( to pollen, animals etc)."
Dr Hanski said that there was a tendency for gammaproteobacteria to be more prevalent in vegetative environment, such as forests and agricultural land rather than built-up areas and water bodies.
"Urbanisation is a relatively recent phenomenon, and for most of our time we have been interacting in an area that resembles what we now call the natural environment," he said.
"Urbanisation can be seen as a lost opportunity for many people to interact with the natural environment and its biodiversity, including the microbial communities."
While it was not possible to reverse the global trend of urbanisation, he said that there were a number of options.
"Apart from reserving natural areas outside of urban areas, I think it is important to develop city planning that includes green spaces, green belts and green infrastructure," Dr Hanski suggested.
Stressful spaces
Another recent study also illustrated a link between the lack of green spaces and higher stress levels among people living in urban areas described as deprived.
The study published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning measured levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, found in residents' saliva.
"The stress patterns revealed by these cortisol samples were related to the amount of green space around people's homes," explained co-author Catharine Ward Thompson, director of the OPENspace Research Centre, based in Scotland.
"We were actually surprised by the strong relationship between the two," she told BBC News.
Prof Ward Thompson said that the study provided an objective measure of stress associated by the lack of green spaces in urban areas.
"We know that if you live near more green spaces, and you are from a deprived urban population, you are more likely to be healthier," she observed.
Researchers from OPENspace have also been involved in another study that looks at the wellbeing of people over the age of 65 and their ability to get out and about.
The Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors consortium (I'dgo) - involving scientists from the universities of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, Salford and Warwick - identified a direct link between the ease of getting outdoors and health and quality of life.
The study, involving 4,350 older people across the UK, found that good walkable access to local shops, services and green spaces doubled the chances of an older person achieving the minimum recommended amount of walking - 2.5 hours each week.
"One of the interesting things from my point of view is how strongly the importance of the natural environment came out in that study," said Prof Ward Thompson, who led the research.
"If you lived within 10 minutes of a park, then you were twice as likely to achieve the recommended minimum amount of physical activity."
However, she added that the study also highlighted that people needed to have confidence in reaching the park or shops before they would leave their homes.
Some of the barriers that would discourage people included uneven pavements, and a lack of seats or public toilets.
Growing interest
The studies are the latest offerings in a growing body of research that looks at the relationship between human health and access to green spaces.
The concept of "nature deficit disorder " - a phrase coined by Richard Louv, the US author of Last Child in the Wood - has gained traction on both sides of the Atlantic.
In London, child expert Tim Gill published a report in November 2011 that looked at whether children in inner-city London were disconnected from the natural world.
While he acknowledged that "nature deficit disorder" had no clinical basis, he pointed out that his research showed that access to a natural environment formed part of a "balanced diet" in a child's development.
He added that children that had this access tended to fare better than those that did not.
More recently, the National Trust published a report that concluded that UK children were losing contact with nature at a "dramatic" rate, and their health and education were suffering as a result.
Prof Ward Thompson said there was probably an underlying reason why researchers were reaching these sorts of conclusions.
"Some of the theories behind the green space and human health suggest that our whole neuroendocrine system has evolved over millennia to respond positively to environments that are seen as providing what we need to live and thrive," she suggested.
"There is something about the natural environment that is biologically part of our system. In a way, we are hard-wired to respond to it.
"Ecosystem services - even at a local, urban level - by giving people the opportunity to mentally, as well as physically, engage with the natural environment may just be tuning our bodies back into something, biologically, we have evolved to respond positively to."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
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Are Your Kids Getting Enough Outdoor Play?
Six Surprising Foods with More Sugar than a Twinkie
By Dr. Mercola
Of all the foods capable of inflicting damage in your body, sugar is one of the most damaging of all.
Sugar, and the type of sugar known as fructose, in particular, is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that creates advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and speeds up the aging process.
It also promotes the kind of dangerous growth of fat cells around your vital organs which is the hallmark of diabetes and heart disease.
Sugar also increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones, and this is another major factor of premature aging and age-related chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, as well as a leading cause of the climbing rates of overweight and obesity in developed countries.
That sugar is bad for your health is probably old news to you by now, but what may surprise you is just how much sugar is lurking in foods that are often passed off as "healthy."
Many supposedly "good for you" foods have more sugar than a Twinkie!
Are You Eating These Sugar-Laden "Health" Foods?
The Huffington Post recently outed several foods that are so high in sugar, you may as well be eating a candy bar.
All of these also have more sugar than a Twinkie ...
- Yogurt: Most commercial yogurt is loaded with sugar – as in, over 30 grams for 6 ounces! This, along with the fact that commercial yogurt is pasteurized (and some also contains artificial colors and flavors), is why you should walk right on by the yogurt section at your supermarket. Watch out, too, for "light" yogurt brands that boast less sugar due to toxic artificial sweeteners.
On the other hand, yogurt that is made from raw organic milk, and which you eat either plain or only minimally sweetened with some berries or liquid stevia, is a true health food. This is something you can easily do at home and use the healthiest raw ingredients, including organic grass-fed raw milk as the starter.
- Tomato Sauce: A cup of tomato sauce can add up to over 20 grams of sugar, and considering that most people eat that tomato sauce on top of pasta, another carb source, this could send you into sugar overload. Watch out, specifically, for brands that contain added sweeteners. Tomato sauce is a far better choice than a candy bar, but, ideally, make your own sauce at home, and serve it over shredded spaghetti squash instead of noodles.
- Granola Bars: Sugar is often one of the top ingredients in granola bars, and, in fact, most are not much different than a candy bar, nutritionally speaking. Even the granola is simply another form of "hidden sugar" that most people eat far too much of. Remember, sugar and dietary carbohydrates (including grains like granola, which break down into sugar) lead to excess body fat, obesity and related health issues. No amount of exercise can compensate for this damage because if you eat a lot of sugar, it could be "reprogramming" your body to become fat.
- Fat-Free Salad Dressing: When manufacturers take the fat out of a food, sugar is often added back in as a replacement. Fat-free French or Thousand Island dressings can contain over 40 grams of sugar as a result, turning a would-be healthy salad into something more resembling a dessert. Don't be fooled by the "fat-free" label -- it's the carbs that are the culprit in weight gain and chronic disease.
- Muffins: The high amount of carbs in most muffins will profoundly interfere with your leptin and insulin levels, and that is true even if it's a "healthy" muffin, like a bran muffin. Of course, in order to make a bran muffin palatable, it probably contains quite a bit of added sugar, on top of the grains it's made with. Many muffins are also jumbo-sized, easily packing over 30 grams of sugar, or more.
- Canned Fruit: Fruit in and of itself can be problematic if eaten in excess, as it's a source of naturally occurring fructose. But many canned fruits are also packed in sugary syrup, loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Just one cup of canned peaches or pears can contain over 30 grams of sugar. You're far better off with a fresh piece of fruit instead, but use moderation. I recommend restricting your consumption of fructose to no more than 25 grams per day, with a maximum of 15 grams a day from fresh fruit. If you're already overweight, or have cancer, heart disease or diabetes (or are at high risk of them), then you're probably better off cutting that down to 10-15 grams per day -- fruit included.
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Why a High-Sugar Diet Will Make You Fat
If you are seeking to lose weight and optimize your health, foods that contain added sugar, as well as grains like bread and pasta should be eliminated or else comprise very low percentages of your diet. Most people who bought into the "high-carb, low-fat" dietary recommendations has likely struggled with their weight and health, wondering what they're doing wrong.
The problem is that overeating carbohydrates can prevent a higher percentage of fats from being used for energy, and lead to an increase in fat production and storage. Your body has a limited capacity to store excess carbohydrates. This is one of the reasons why elevated blood sugar follows their overconsumption. If you are not able to immediately use the sugar as a result of intense physical activity then one of the ways your body avoids dangerously elevated blood sugar is through converting those excess carbohydrates into excess body fat primarily in your belly.
The way it works is that any carbohydrates not immediately burned by your body as fuel are stored in the form of glycogen (a long string of glucose molecules linked together). Your body has two storage sites for glycogen: your liver and your muscles. Once the glycogen levels are filled in both your liver and muscles, excess carbohydrates are converted into fat and stored in your adipose, that is, fatty tissue.
So, although carbohydrates are "fat-free," this is misleading because excess carbohydrates end up as excess fat. When you see refined grains on a food label, think of them as "hidden sugar," and when you see sugar, think of it as "hidden fat."
But that's not the worst of it.
Any meal or snack high in "complex" carbohydrates, i.e. starch is actually a complex of glucose molecules, will also generate a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rapid rise, your pancreas secretes insulin, which then lowers your levels of blood glucose. The problem is that insulin is essentially a storage hormone, evolved to put aside excess carbohydrate calories in the form of fat in case of future famine. So the insulin that's stimulated by excess carbohydrates aggressively promotes the accumulation of body fat! This was enormously useful in ancient times when calories were frequently scarce, but today this setup is a disaster waiting to happen.
In other words, when you eat too much sugar, bread, pasta, and any other grain products, you're essentially sending a hormonal message, via insulin, to your body that says "store more fat." This is actually a highly beneficial response in certain scenarios such as when calories are very scarce. This provides a major survival advantage -- but for nearly everyone reading this, having insufficient calories is not an issue, so this protective mechanism actually sabotages your health.
If you're having trouble getting your mind around this, a wonderful infographic created by Column Five for Massive Health, based on Why We Get Fat by science writer Gary Taubes, explains exactly why eating fat doesn't make you fat -- but eating carbs like sugar can kill you ...
Is It Possible to Cut Out Dietary Sugar and Still Feel Satisfied?
Based on USDA estimates the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, which equates to about TWO TONS of sugar during a lifetime. Why we eat this much sugar is not difficult to understand -- it tastes good, and it gives us pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals.
What it is doing to us on both a physical and emotional level is another story entirely, and most people stand to reap major improvements in their health by cutting back on, or eliminating, sugar altogether from their diets. Many do not realize this, but frequent hunger may be a major clue that you're not eating correctly. Your body needs fuel regularly and if you don't provide it with the proper amounts of fats and protein and overload on sugars, you will not fill your energy reserves properly. This sets up a vicious cycle of cravings for the sugar that will solve the problem in the short run but serve to radically shorten your life in the long term.
Just remember that your body is very intelligent and only seeking to keep you alive and healthy. The cravings are its short-term solution to keep you alive and functioning. But you need to exert some higher order cognitive skills to understand how to shift out of carb burning and into a fat-burning machine. Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on sugar and feel ravenous, thinking you "can't do without the carbs," remember this is a sign that you haven't replaced them with sufficient amounts of fat. So go ahead and add a bit more healthy fats from the list below:
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| Olives and Olive oil |
Coconuts and coconut oil |
Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk |
| Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans |
Organic pastured egg yolks |
Avocados |
| Grass-fed meats |
Palm oil |
Unheated organic nut oils |
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According to experts, carbs should ideally make up 20-30 percent of your diet, while 50-70 percent of your diet should be healthy fats. While many can appear to be healthy on vastly different ratios it is best to examine the long-term consequences of veering far from these ratios when deciding if they make sense to follow for you personally.
In order to achieve this and minimize your sugar intake, you need to avoid most processed foods, as even savory foods like salad dressing, soup, and bread often contain added sugar. For optimal health, eat natural whole foods primarily, and limit your fructose consumption to below 25 grams per day. If you still want to use a sweetener occasionally, the sweet herb stevia makes a good sugar substitute. (Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than sugar.)
How to Kick Your Sugar Addiction to the Curb
If you're struggling with sugar addiction and having trouble dealing with cravings, I highly recommend trying an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many "soda addicts" kick their sweet habit, and it should work for any type of sweet craving you may have. A couple of other tricks to try to kick your sugar cravings:
- Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis will know that significant amounts of cardiovascular exercise is one of the best "cures" for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.
- Organic, black coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains compounds such as cafestrol -- found plentifully in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee -- which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing foods.This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other substances, such as sugar.
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http://articles.mercola.com/
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When Eating Healthy Turns Obsessive
By Chloe Schildhause
In a vegan cafe in New York City, Nisha Moodley pushes a glass crusted with the remnants of a berry-acai-almond milk smoothie across the table and begins listing the foods she excised from her diet six years ago.
"Factory-farmed meats; hormone-laden dairy; nonorganic fruits and vegetables; anything hydrogenated; anything microwaved," the slender 32-year-old health coach says. "I would not eat irradiated food; charred or blackened foods; artificial coloring, flavoring, or sweetener; MSG; white rice; sugar; table salt; or anything canned."
Back then, a typical breakfast for Moodley consisted of buckwheat mixed with seaweed, raw cacao powder, flax oil, and flax seeds. Lunch was usually homemade brown rice with lentils, fresh vegetables, and kale, followed by a midafternoon snack of homemade flax-seed-and-buckwheat crackers. And for dinner, a salad with garbanzo beans, avocado, carrots, beets, and mushrooms.
Moodley initially adopted this diet to address recurring bad digestion. But her commitment to healthy eating - something to be commended, ordinarily— — turned into an obsession that took over her life. "I was terrified of food that didn't fit within my idea of what was healthy," Moodley says. "I was terrified of cancer, of dying."
She couldn't eat out with friends, attend dinner parties, or shop at certain grocery stores because of her intense phobia. Her anxiety was so overwhelming that her stomach problems worsened.
Moodley knew she had a problem, but she didn't view it as an eating disorder. Although she had been a self-described "emotional overeater" for most of her life, the naturally slim Moodley had never been concerned about her weight, nor had she ever purged after her binges. Her unhealthy fixation with healthy food was something else, and it was years before she realized it had a name: orthorexia.
Orthorexia is not an official diagnosis. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) does not recognize it, and some eating-disorder clinics aren't even aware of it. But orthorexia— — which seems to include elements of other disorders, such as anorexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder - can be a serious problem. Left untreated, experts say, it can lead to malnourishment, anorexia, or disabling anxiety.
One of the things that's tricky about our culture is that orthorexia is socially acceptable and often even heralded as a great statement of self-control and doing the right thing for your health," says Amanda Mellowspring, a registered dietician in Miami who specializes in eating disorders.
The key difference between orthorexia and simply following a strict diet, Mellowspring says, is that orthorexia causes distress and interferes with everyday life. "What it boils down to is, how much does it negatively affect their life?" she says. "How much does it affect their social life? How much time do they spend thinking about food?"
Although orthorexia shares characteristics with anorexia, orthorexics don't always lose weight since they fixate on the quality (as opposed to quantity) of food. And they usually lack the distorted, negative self-image - known as body dysmorphia - that causes some anorexics to look in the mirror and see oodles of fat when in fact they're severely underweight.
Body dysmorphia will make you miserable, and those with orthorexia tend not to have that," says Alan Kaufman, a licensed clinical social worker who works with patients with eating disorders at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Berkeley, Calif.
That's not to say orthorexia doesn't pose health risks. Some patients do become malnourished and dangerously underweight, and dietitians and therapists say orthorexia can become a gateway to anorexia or bulimia.
In fact, orthorexia may in some cases serve to disguise anorexia. Because it's more socially acceptable to say, "I want to be healthy," than to say, "I want to fit into these skinny jeans," some anorexics may use orthorexia as a cover for their behavior.
A dietary theory can allow women to seek the culturally accepted norms of beauty without admitting it to themselves. ...You can 'accidentally' live up to the Barbie image without admitting you believe in doing so."
Similarly, recovering anorexics or bulimics sometimes latch on to orthorexia. Elizabeth Dear, a therapist based in Reno, Nev., who works with eating-disorder patients, says she does not consider anorexics fully recovered if they judge themselves according to the quality of the foods they eat. "This so-called healthy eating can easily develop into eating-disorder thinking," she says.
How orthorexia starts
Orthorexic tendencies often begin as a result of health problems. Alena's obsession with healthy eating started in 12th grade, when she found out she had Candida (a type of yeast infection) and a homeopathic doctor asked her to stop eating yeast, wheat, sugar, and dairy for several weeks as part of her treatment. She was already a vegetarian, so she mainly ate rice and vegetables.
Then, when she was 19, she went to a naturopathic doctor with a collection of stomach symptoms, including nausea, constipation, and indigestion, and was again instructed to avoid processed grains, sugar, soy, dairy, and nuts. "And that's when I went crazy," says Alena, now a 22-year-old student at NYU. "I basically cut out everything from my diet. I convinced my mind that food made me sick."
Alena still goes through bouts where she swears off those food groups, and her forbidden list now includes carbohydrates, beans, tropical fruit, sugar, farmed fish, and potatoes that aren't from her own garden. Meat, nonlocal produce (such as bananas), juice, beer, and dairy are all "evil," she says.
"What I do eat are a lot of vegetables. I have to have vegetables in every meal or I feel sick," she says. "I eat whole grains like barley, whole-grain kasha. Not rice, because it really hurts my stomach and for political reasons, because it is shipped from too far away. I eat seasonal fruits, fish, and eggs."
For Alena - who has never been to a therapist or nutritionist to discuss her behavior - anorexia and orthorexia go hand in hand. She has experienced bouts of body dysmorphia and sometimes exercises excessively to make up for minor eating binges, such as overindulging on dessert. She also exhibits other traits common among those with eating disorders, such as living vicariously through the diets of others. She often bakes for her family and roommates, and urges her sister to order hamburgers at restaurants so she can watch her enjoy them.
"The distinction for me is, anorexia is about what I look like and orthorexia is about my lifestyle," Alena says. "I want to feel good about what I'm eating. I want to feel cleansed and detoxified. And at times it is related to image. But I worry that if I start eating in an unhealthy way I'm going to start having stomach issues."
It may not be a coincidence that Alena studies food and agricultural policy in school. Few studies have been done on orthorexia, but some researchers have speculated that restrictive diets and orthorexic tendencies may be more common in dietitians and nutrition students.
Moodley's interest in nutrition and career choice certainly influenced her diet. Her burgeoning orthorexia seemed to worsen when she began studying at a nutrition school in New York City. (She stopped eating frozen vegetables, for instance, when she was taught that plant cell walls expand and break down from low temperatures, sometimes resulting in lost nutrients.) "If I had to draw a line, I'd say that my interest in nutrition spurred orthorexia," she says.
Moodley no longer considers herself orthorexic. Her work with clients made her realize that the correct diet is different for each individual and helped her overcome her orthorexia. But when she discusses her diet today, a sense of pride still lingers in her voice.
To some, her diet was the epitome of healthy perfection. She said she still maintains a healthy diet, but now it is a preference as opposed to an obsession. She prefers fresh vegetables, but isn't opposed to eating them frozen and she doesn't think of all sweets as junk anymore. She says her fears of "bad" food are gone.
But it still takes Moodley several moments of silent reflection before she can recall the latest treat she ate. Finally, after some deep thought on the matter, she remembers: "Two days ago. I had a cookie. An organic cookie."
http://health.msn.com/
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Orthorexia: Obsessed with eating healthy
The Toxic Dangers of Dryer Sheets and Fabric Softeners
Are Dryer Sheets and Fabric Softeners Toxic?
This topic goes straight to one of the issues that aggravates me most about modern society… it challenges a belief that so many otherwise intelligent, health and environmentally aware people have bought into. Throughout the Western world, people have been duped by extensive advertising campaigns into believing they have to use fragrance-laden dryer sheets and fabric softeners to be clean and acceptable to society.
What they don’t seem to realize is that those dryer sheets and fabric softeners are loaded with TOXIC CHEMICALS that can seriously harm their health and the health of their children.
People today think that hanging clothes out to dry in the sun is old-fashioned and not done anymore. Throwing them in the dryer is so much more convenient and faster.
Using a dryer may be faster and more convenient, but if you’re using toxic dryer sheets, you are going to pay with your health.
Ever wonder why more Americans are getting Alzheimer’s earlier than ever before? I suspect it’s all the toxic chemicals they are breathing in all day on their clothes, and all night from their sheets and blankets. These toxins go straight to their brain’s most sensitive neurological centers and wreck havoc. You simply can’t assault the most delicate and sensitive part of your body – the mastermind of all your body’s other functions -and not affect your health.
The truth is, thinking your clothes are cleaner when using chemically-fragranced dryer sheets is a complete fallacy. The sun’s rays act as disinfectancts – killing germs, bacteria and dust mites that might have survived the wash.
In fact, a few hours in the sun is one of the best, and ONLY ways to get rid of dust mites. Dust mites are very tenacious -they survive both wash and dryer cycles.
I saw a question on “Ask Science Man” recently about which kills more germs – hanging clothes out in the sun, or drying them at high heat. Here’s Science Man’s answer:
“From the standpoint of the clothing, drying in the sun is far superior (less damage to fibers). From the standpoint of the environment, drying in the sunshine is better (less energy and associated greenhouse gases).
To my thinking, there is no reason to use the dryer if drying in the sun is an option.”
But the bigger reason to dry your clothes in the sun instead of the dryer is to avoid toxic dryer sheets.
Go ahead and read the ingredients on your dryer sheets – if you can find them. For some reason, dryer sheets seem to have escaped having to list their ingredients on the package. Could it be the manufacturers are trying to hide something?
…Like the fact that those innocent-looking dryer sheets are saturated with chemical fragrance and synthetic coloring. They wouldn’t want you to know that what is in them is lethal.
Most people are fooled – the fragrances smell fresh and clean to them. Some, (like my neighbors), pollute the entire neighborhood every time they do laundry!
To me, dryer sheets smell like sappy gunk covering up the smell of puke. After the first whiff, the odor gets worse and worse until my skin crawls, my head aches and my stomach churns.
For good reason. The toxins in dryer sheets are intense. Chemically sensitive people need to stay away from them. Using them is a double-whamy because the toxic chemicals enter your body two ways:
- Through your skin – when you wear clothes dried with dryer sheets, your body warmth and moisture “dissolves” the
chemicals. Your skin then “takes them up” – they are absorbed directly into your bloodstream through your skin. It’s one of the fastest and easiest ways people get poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals.
- Through your brain – the synthetic fragrances in dryer sheets enter through your olefactory system and plug up
receptor sites in your brain -Receptor sites that are sitting there waiting for healthy substances to enter get plugged up, so that when the healthy substances do come by, the receptors cannot take them up. There are many other negative health effects as well.
Chemicals Found In Fabric Softeners And Dryer Sheets
Here is a list of just some of the chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets from this website and their effects:
http://www.ghchealth.com/forum/post-325.html:
- Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
- Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
- Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)
Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system
disorders
- Limonene: The synthetic version is a known carcinogen
- A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal
edema, and central nervous system damage
- Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list
- Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
- Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
- Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
- Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled
So how could products with pretty names like ‘Soft Ocean Mist,’
‘Summer Orchard’ and ‘April Fresh’ be so dangerous?
The chemicals in fabric softeners are pungent and strong smelling — so strong that they require the use of these heavy fragrances (think 50 times as much fragrance) just to cover up the smells. Furthermore, synthetic fabrics, which are the reason fabric softeners were created in the first place, do not smell good either when heated in a dryer or heated by our bodies … hence the need for even more hefty fragrances.
In other words, remove all the added fragrance that endears people to fabric softeners and — like the cliché wolf in sheep’s clothing — the real smells of the chemical-laced fabric softener and the synthetic fabrics they were designed around may prompt people to shoot their laundry machines and be done with it.
Are “Soft” Clothes Worth It?
Fabric softeners are made to stay in your clothing for long periods of time. As such, chemicals are slowly released either into the air for you to inhale or onto your skin for you to absorb. Dryer sheets are particularly noxious because they are heated in the dryer and the chemicals are released through dryer vents and out into the environment. Health effects from being exposed to the chemicals in fabric softeners include:
Central nervous system disorders:
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Dizziness
- Blood pressure reduction
- Irritation to skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract
- Pancreatic cancer
Don’t wrap your family in chemical-coated fabric-softened towels! Simple baking soda will leave your laundry soft and your health intact.
Soften Your Clothes Safely With These Tips
Even if you don’t feel the effects of these chemicals today, they can affect you gradually over time, and children, whose systems are still developing, are particularly at risk. There’s really no reason to expose yourself to these risky chemicals when natural alternatives exist. Not only are they safer for you, your family and the environment, but they’re much more economical too:
- Add a quarter cup of baking soda to wash cycle to soften fabric
- Add a quarter cup of white vinegar to wash soften fabric and eliminate cling
- Check out your local health food store for a natural fabric
softener that uses a natural base like soy instead of chemicals
Using dryer sheets destroys your natural sense of smell over time. I have noticed that my relatives (who use two dryer sheets per load) can’t smell anything. They can’t smell good food cooking or flowers blooming. Nor can they smell rancid towels that go sour from being too damp too long. It’s as if they have no sense of smell left.
I have also noticed that this affects people’s intelligence and ability to make good decisions. Anything that affects the brain so directly, affects reasoning ability and many other abilities.
My advice is, don’t ever use conventional dryer sheets. I’ve been air drying my clothes for years and love it. I love the truly fresh, clean scent of sun-and-breeze-dried laundry. In the winter, I dry clothes on dryer racks in the house. It works great, you just have to plan ahead.
If you must dry in a dryer, get fragrance- and chemical-free dryer sheets at your local health food store.
And another thing – did you realize the the odor from the chemicals in the sheets does not not fade for years? If any of my clothing gets “contaminated” with synthetic fragrance, I have to boil it, air it out, then bag it up for 3-4 years before the article can be wearable. Sometimes the odor never comes out and I have to discard or give the item away.
I used to have a big problem when I stayed at relatives whose bedding and towels reeked with toxic dryer sheet fragrance. Normally, I bring my own towels and sheets, but once in a while, I got stuck with theirs.
How To Remove Chemical Fragrances From Clothes
In the past, I would have to boil all the laundry and clothes that could be boiled (this destroyed only some of the odor), then put the clothes away for years. But I’ve recently discovered a fantastic de-odorizer that works better than anything. It’s Thieves Household Cleaner – it’s a blend of odor destroying essential oils in a non-toxic cleaning base.
All I do now is mix a little bit of Thieves Household Cleaner(http://essentialoilworld.com/) into a bucket of warm water and soak the items overnight. In the morning, I wash them as usual and dry. Usually all the smell is gone. If I encounter an especially stubborn odor, I repeat the soaking.
It has made a huge difference in my life to be able to safely and effectively remove toxic odors.
http://www.holistichealthsecrets.com/
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The Bleaching Power of the Sun
By C. Jeanne Heida
When my children were infants, I would wash two loads of diapers every week. But instead of tossing them in the dryer, I'd hang them out on the clothes line for the day, where the sun bleached out the stains and left the cotton smelling sweet and fresh.
The sun not only whitened our diapers and tee shirts, but left all our clothes smelling clean. My mother used to tell me the sun was a natural disinfectant, and killed the odor causing bacteria that caused our clothes to smell. I really never quite understood exactly how that worked until recently.
The power of ultra violet radiation
You might remember from high school science class that the sun is an enormous ball of mostly helium and hydrogen gases. Inside this swirling mass of gases is a gravitational force so powerful that it squashes the hydrogen atoms together to form helium and energy. The energy produced in this nuclear furnace consists of both heat and different forms of light, such as visible light, infrared and ultra violet light, known as UVs.
The ultraviolet radiation produced by the sun is quite strong. It can break apart molecular structure and change the way color is reflected back. This photochemical change is what causes stains to disappear on soiled laundry and brighten whites. Left in the sun for several hours, the ultra violet radiation will also kill the bacteria on textiles and other household goods. This bacteria fighting quality makes sun bleaching a perfect way to disinfect & freshen old rugs, seat cushions, sleeping bags, and draperies. It even works on non-textile items such as foam, plastics, and garbage cans. Some book restorers are even harnessing the energy of the sun to bleach yellowed and dingy book pages!
The effects of too much UV exposure
Small doses of sunlight on your household goods is a natural way to clean, whiten, and disinfect. It's also an excellent solution for disinfecting and freshening up those items that can't be washed.
But too much exposure to the sun can cause a whole range of problems. Left out in the sun too long, the visible light spectrum and the heat generated by the sunlight's infrared component can ruin fabric permanently. This is why carpet and draperies fade after years of sun exposure through south and west facing windows, and exterior lawn furniture and children's yard toys eventually take on an air of slight dereliction.
It's fine to leave your seat cushions and laundry out in the sun for the day, but a few weeks of leaving an old quilt on the line can fade and damage the fibers. Delicate fabrics such as grandmother's old lace can also be damaged if dried directly in the sun. For these items, filtered sunlight is best for sun bleaching. This is done by hanging the garment beneath a tree or under a patio umbrella.
The benefits of line drying in the sun
Despite the infrared and ultraviolet light generated by the sun, line drying is still much safer on clothes than adding bleach additives to the wash or tossing them to dry in the dryer.
Chemical bleaching will cause textile fibers to break down over time and can even ruin the elastic in underwear, gym clothes and swimsuits. And, unless you wash your laundry in scalding hot water, you won't be able to kill the bacteria lurking in the fibers.
And what about the damage caused by the dryer? The heat not only shrinks your garments, but fades them over time.
Line drying gently whitens and disinfects without having to add bleach, and without shrinking your clothes. And, best of all ~ it's great for the environment and completely free.
http://voices.yahoo.com/
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Homemade Detergent
Irrigation Techniques
Various types of irrigation techniques differ in how the water obtained from the source is distributed within the field. In general, the goal is to supply the entire field uniformly with water, so that each plant has the amount of water it needs, neither too much nor too little.The modern methods are efficient enough to achieve this goal.
Surface
In surface irrigation systems, water moves over and across the land by simple gravity flow in order to wet it and to infiltrate into the soil. It is often called flood irrigation when the irrigation results in flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land. Historically, this has been the most common method of irrigating agricultural land.
Where water levels from the irrigation source permit, the levels are controlled by dikes, usually plugged by soil. This is often seen in terraced rice fields (rice paddies), where the method is used to flood or control the level of water in each distinct field.
Localized irrigation is a system where water is distributed under low pressure through a piped network, in a pre-determined pattern, and applied as a small discharge to each plant or adjacent to it. Drip irrigation, spray or micro-sprinkler irrigation and bubbler irrigation belong to this category of irrigation methods.
Advantages
- low investment
- no wetting of the foliage (favourable for preventing foliage diseases and when using saline water.
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Disadvantages
- low application efficiency if not carefully executed (run off, percolation, inadequate distribution). With short furrows the efficiency is better than with long furrows.
- obstacle for mechanization, especially so if short furrows are used
- risk of spread of diseases ( Brown rot) and risk of water lodging if fields are not properly drained and levelled
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Drip
Drip irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation, functions as its name suggests. In this system water falls drop by drop just at the position of roots. Water is delivered at or near the root zone of plants, drop by drop. This method can be the most water-efficient method of irrigation if managed properly, since evaporation and runoff are minimized.
In modern agriculture, drip irrigation is often combined with plastic mulch, further reducing evaporation, and is also the means of delivery of fertilizer. The process is known as fertigation.
Deep percolation, where water moves below the root zone, can occur if a drip system is operated for too long or if the delivery rate is too high. Drip irrigation methods range from very high-tech and computerized to low-tech and labor-intensive. Lower water pressures are usually needed than for most other types of systems, with the exception of low energy center pivot systems and surface irrigation systems, and the system can be designed for uniformity throughout a field or for precise water delivery to individual plants in a landscape containing a mix of plant species.
Advantages:
- high efficiency of water use and water savings of up to more than 50%
- requires little land levelling
- savings on labour costs for irrigation and fertilizer application
- more efficient use of fertilizers
- lower humidity in the crop with as a consequence a lower incidence of Phytophthora and Alternaria
- foliar applied products for disease control are not wash off by irrigation water
- less problems with surplus water contributes to less (bacterial) rots
- less crop damage by handling irrigation equipment and by persons that enter the field
- saline water may be used
- simultaneous application of water and fertilizer
- higher yield, better quality and uniformity of crop production
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Disadvantages:
- drip – lines have to be renewed regluarly
- requires a good soil tillage in order to prevent that water , due to large soil aggregates drains to the sub-soil too quickly
- relatively clean water and an efficient filter system is required
- the system is vulnerable for rodents, rats
- ridging and re-ridging requires much attention
- salt leaching problems may cause soil becoming saline
- requires qualified technical management
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Sprinkler
In sprinkler or overhead irrigation, water is piped to one or more central locations within the field and distributed by overhead high-pressure sprinklers or guns. A system utilizing sprinklers, sprays, or guns mounted overhead on permanently installed risers is often referred to as a solid-set irrigation system. Higher pressure sprinklers that rotate are called rotors and are driven by a ball drive, gear drive, or impact mechanism. Rotors can be designed to rotate in a full or partial circle. Guns are similar to rotors, except that they generally operate at very high pressures of 40 to 130 lbf/in² (275 to 900 kPa) and flows of 50 to 1200 US gal/min (3 to 76 L/s), usually with nozzle diameters in the range of 0.5 to 1.9 inches (10 to 50 mm).
Sprinklers can also be mounted on moving platforms connected to the water source by a hose. Automatically moving wheeled systems known as traveling sprinklers may irrigate areas such as small farms, sports fields, parks, pastures. Most of these utilize a length of polyethylene tubing wound on a steel drum. As the tubing is wound on the drum powered by the irrigation water or a small gas engine, the sprinkler is pulled across the field. When the sprinkler arrives back at the reel the system shuts off.
This type of system is known to most people as a "waterreel" traveling irrigation sprinkler and they are used extensively for dust suppression, irrigation, and land application of waste water. Other travelers use a flat rubber hose that is dragged along behind while the sprinkler platform is pulled by a cable. These cable-type travelers are definitely old technology and their use is limited in today's modern irrigation projects.
Advantages:
- relatively high water use efficiency
- requires little or no land levelling
- applicable on level to rolling land
- applicable on soils with medium to high infiltration rates
- easy to operate and handle
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Disadvantages:
- moderate to high energy requirements
- wind may influence uniformity of water distribution
- leaf wetting may promote development of late blight
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The most common sprinkler units are:
- mobile multi sprinkler lines
- mobile multi sprinkler lines with lateral flexible hoses
- travelling sprinkler unit with hose winch
- centre pivot: travelling sprinkler line
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Manual using buckets or watering cans
These systems have low requirements for infrastructure and technical equipment but need high labor inputs. Irrigation using watering cans is to be found for example in peri-urban agriculture around large cities in some African countries.
Automatic, non-electric using buckets and ropes
Besides the common manual watering by bucket, an automated, natural version of this also exist. Using plain polyester ropes combined with a prepared ground mixture can be used to water plants from a vessel filled with water.
The ground mixture would need to be made depending on the plant itself, yet would mostly consist of black potting soil, vermiculite and perlite. This system would (with certain crops) allow to save expenses as it does not consume any electricity and only little water .
Wikipedia
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The Rain Garden is an Effective Tool
By Rose Judd-Murray, NGA Staff
In some homes, you know it's spring when you hear the sump pump switch on and off for days at a time. Keeping water in the right place during rainy seasons or even extremely rainy days can be one of the biggest challenges for any homeowner. If you worry about a wet basement, muddy pools of water in your yard, or streams of thick water running from your pump into the street, you may want to consider the benefits of adding a rain garden to your landscape.
Rain gardens are an effective tool for improving drainage in your yard. Essentially, a rain garden is a garden bed space often inhabited by native or water-loving plants. To determine how a rain garden can fit into your landscape, examine your home from the street or at a distance. Identify areas where water cannot effectively penetrate the soil, such as rooftops, driveways, sidewalks—even some low-lying turf areas. Installing a rain garden will allow you to direct the water from these types of surfaces into the garden via downspouts, pipes, or swales. The plants in the garden, along with a few design techniques, help the water drain quickly into the soil, keeping it out of your home and from filling storm drains. A well-designed rain garden will drain within a few hours of the storm event, eliminating concerns about problems associated with standing water (hint: mosquitos).
Rain Garden Pictorial: Taken from The Family HandyMan Magazine. The location of your rain garden is one of the most important elements to the design process. It can seem like a great idea to place your garden in an already low-lying area where water tends to collect for several days after a rain event, but you'll most likely want to avoid that area due to the wrong soil type. These areas often have soil structures that are resistant to drainage—and proper drainage is the goal! You will need to locate an area with a slope from 1 inch (minimum) to 4-1/2 feet (maximum) to allow the water to flow into your garden. You can determine the slope of your yard by placing a long, straight board at the highest edge of the slope and allowing the other end to suspend over the lowest point of the slop. Measure the distance between the ground and the board. If you don't have at least an inch of slope, be prepared to do some digging and additional landscaping to allow for the difference in ground level. Make sure that your garden can be placed at least 10 feet away from your home. Otherwise, water from the garden may find its way back to the foundation of your home.
Determining the right size and garden depth is of great importance. A rain garden which is too small may overflow and drain into unwanted areas or flood water-sensitive plants. A rain garden which is too big will not be able to provide adequate moisture for thirsty plants. Ideally, you'll only want to capture as much water as will absorb in a few hours. Use the How-to Design Your Rain Garden worksheets [www.kidsgardening.org/Rain Garden] to help you define these necessary specifications. Keep in mind, that there are geographic locations where daily or weekly rain is a way of life—and often yards are smaller than what is necessary to accommodate a full-scale garden. It's always okay to adjust the size of your rain garden—after all, your garden is meant to fit your landscape AND family needs. A small rain garden can still yield big benefits. Rain gardens that are 30 percent smaller than ideal still handle nearly 75 percent of the storm water from a house; just remember to allow for a way to channel extra water safely away from the homes in your neighborhood (including your own)!
Depth Profile: Taken from The Family Handyman Magazine. There are several possible plant selections listed in the "How-to" worksheets. You may, however, find the best success with native plants. The term "native plants" refers specifically to those plants which are appropriate for your climate and geography because they originated in your location. These plants are most often perennial, hardy, and easy to care for due to their natural adaptations and evolution. Consult with your local growers, nurserymen, or county Extension agent to determine which optimal varieties. Take the time to nurture these plants in the first year—you may consider providing some extra PVC pipe to channel some of the water away from the rain garden until the roots of these new plants are well established. Allowing the plants some time to develop will protect your investment in the long term.
Using the Rain Garden as a Tool for Family Interaction
There are many ways to measure rainfall, but have you ever taken a walk in the rain to see "where rain goes"? Wandering through the yard or neighborhood together can be a great way to explore how water travels. Watch for the tiny rivers, examine the puddles, and listen for the sounds of water on the move. Ask your children about which direction the water is flowing, and see if they can identify if it is flowing along a steep or soft slope. Using words like steep, slope, hazy, and damp is a great way to introduce new vocabulary—and using them in the midst of an outdoor experience will increase the retention of the language. Use the book, The Listening Walk, to get your youngest children ready for listening to new sounds. The colorful sketches and easy text will help them to understand that some sounds are quiet and they might even need to whisper or stand very still to hear the special sounds of a rain storm.
Rain can also be an exciting medium for older children who enjoy art or creative projects. Using sidewalk chalk in the rain allows for a paint-like experience, where the colors blend together easily and can be spread with the fingertips. Artists will also enjoy drawing with washable markers on a piece of cardstock, then placing their work out in a light rain to let nature finish the piece. This is a great way to get an "Impressionist"-look to their illustration.
Rain gardens provide benefits to our environment and home landscapes; they can also serve as learning opportunities for families. By making a few landscaping improvements this spring you'll worry less about those April showers pooling in the wrong places—and spend more time showing your kids the "right" way to jump in a puddle.
http://www.kidsgardening.org/
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How to Install a Drip Irrigation System by Converting Sprinklers
The Beauty of Roundwood Timber Framing
by By Ben Law
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| Ben Law is a 21st century woodsman pioneering a new roundwood building style based on the timber framing methods of his British ancestors. Here he is in front of the Woodland House. |
Ben Law is a 21st century woodsman pioneering the benefits of roundwood timber framing, a low-impact, sustainable building practice that utilizes local trees rather than milled lumber.
Roundwood Timber Framing," by designer, architect and woodsman Ben Law, is filled with detailed drawings and color photographs that feature his beautiful and unique, low-impact roundwood buildings. Read how Ben has perfected the balance between environmental conservation and the use of renewable local resources through roundwood building, which utilizes materials straight from the local forest and manages woodlots for sustainable materials for future projects.
The building industry is one of the most high energy, high waste industries in the UK. Although building regulations are helping to create better insulated buildings, many of the components are mass produced and incur high building miles, being transported vast distances to the construction site. Mass produced fixings and features often produce soulless architecture and the social atmosphere of many building sites is far from welcoming. The building industry ploughs forward in a reactionary fashion, making small changes and concessions through new regulations but not stopping to consider methods that are low impact, locally sourced and workforce friendly.
Roundwood timber framing is one such technique. Working with materials sourced straight from the forest, using nature's shapes to create the structure, using techniques that can easily be learnt and passed on and a method of building that can continue without stalling in the transition to a post oil society.
The need to express one's creativity through freeform building and a need to comply to plans and regulations has always been a difficult balance, but through the evolution of roundwood timber framing, I believe I am finding a style and technique which satisfies both needs. Hand selecting trees with form and character that have their own intrinsic beauty and follow their own lines, rather than those that have been forced upon them by the saw and right angle, allows freedom of movement in a building whilst keeping within the parameters of the drawings on the table. The building itself has life, curves and natural form, the frames often looking like they are trees growing out of the floorboards. Each new building improves on the last and each joint is developed and refined. I feel roundwood timber framing has reached a point in its evolution where the joints are advanced, the timbers tried and tested and a range of buildings including sheds, barns, dwellings, educational spaces and industrial buildings have been constructed and passed the vigorous analysis of the construction engineers and building inspectors.
So it is time to pass on the fruits of this work, encourage you to search your local woodlands for timber, and create roundwood timber framed buildings in our landscape, which leave a legacy of hope to future generations. Roundwood timber framing is in its infancy, but what you will find here has its roots firmly grounded in the woodsman traditions of England ('Woodsman' is not a reference to gender, as men and women are equally capable of woodland activities. It comes from manus, the Latin word meaning "hand". Thus woodsman means 'hand of the woods'.) It is the love and knowledge of woodsmanship and its revival that has spurred us woodsmen to come out of the wood for periods during the spring and summer, to build our roundwood creations before returning to the woodland landscape to cut the coppice and continue the renaissance of the British forest dweller.
Ben Law's Early Roundwood Building
The first building that I constructed and lived in was a bender; bent coppiced hazel rods lashed together with string and then covered with a tarpaulin. It was a simple structure that more than sufficed as a home in the woods for a few years.
My next home was a yurt; a much more intricate framework of poles, advanced further by the use of steam to shape and bend the poles to extremes I could never have managed with the more simple bending of greenwood poles that formed my bender.
My next timber home was the "Woodland House"; a roundwood timber frame structure. I had evolved through the process of building to create a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing home, without straying from the use of roundwood.
Was it just that I was so well immersed with life in the woods, surrounded by trees and their natural form, that I missed the step where humans moved on to build with sawn wood? or perhaps it is through working with roundwood, that I have found a building practice that not only benefits woodsmen and foresters, but lays down a benchmark for a new architectural vernacular in low impact sustainable building?
I believe it is the latter. I have constructed sawn timber frames from green oak to gain ideas for the traditional framing joints. I have experimented with the scribe joints of the cabin builders of Canada and the United States. Both techniques are tried and tested over many years to produce solid and long lasting buildings but both have their limitations when we look to the future, at our available resources and the need to build from what is readily available around us.
Roundwood Timber Framing
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| Roundwood timber framing means working with materials sourced straight from the forest, using nature's shapes to create the structure, employing techniques that can easily be learnt and passed on, and following a method of building that can continue without stalling in the transition to a post oil society. |
Britain has a wonderful ancestry of timber framing tradition. Early timber buildings consisted of vertical posts placed upright in a trench which was then back-filled with earth. The effort of hauling timber over long distances soon helped to evolve the buildings by spacing the vertical log poles further apart and infilling with twigs and clay, an early form of wattle and daub. Attaching the roof to such a structure was more difficult and it became necessary to attach a wall plate across the top of the posts upon which the roof rafters could then be attached. With evolution it became clear that the posts no longer needed to be earthed into a trench but could be attached to a sill place below them to keep the building stable and avoid the log posts rotting in the earthen trench.
So the timber frame was formed and over time the skill and knowledge of medieval carpenters constructed some of the most beautiful and long lasting buildings in Britain.
The woodlands of Britain were the source for these buildings and coppice woodlands, with their productive yield of underwood for fires, charcoal and craft produce, aided the management of standard trees. These were predominately oak, which were felled and converted into the structural timbers for the traditional timber frame.
Early frames were often "cruck" frames. These were formed from a naturally curved tree, split down its length with the two mirroring halves joined at the peak. Pairs of crucks were then joined together to form a primitive frame. The addition of a collar or tie beam formed the A shape which give the cruck frame its strength and stability. In Britain, there are over 3,000 examples of these frames still in use. With improved tools and jointing, carpenters were able to create frames without the need for the curved cruck and hence the box frame was formed.
The simplest box framed structures consisted of corners and intermediate posts rising from the sill plate to the wall plate with tie beams running across at each end of the frame and at chosen intervals across the intermediate posts. Bracing was often achieved with wind braces, sometimes curved to avoid the frame from racking. One advantage of box frame construction was that the internal space could be squared or regularised as there were no protruding timbers as in cruck construction. A well designed building, however, can also make good aesthetic and practical use of crucks within the building.
The box frame has formed the basis for the most of the timber frames built up to the present day, the majority of them being built from oak. Oak needs to be grown to a good age, 70 to 80 years in the UK, before it is good enough to use for timber framing. This is because of the large amount of sap wood that the tree forms during its early years of growth. Other species have been used in the past, and in the future it will be necessary to use species grown as locally as possible to the construction site, opening up the possibilities of mixed species frames.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
The community-owned, timber-framed, self-heating village shop
by Maddy Harland
In an economic climate where village shops are closing, woodsman Ben Law has helped his village open a new shop with a difference
The woodsman, Ben Law, is famous for building a roundwood timber frame house in his own woods in Sussex, getting permission for a new build in a Special Site for Scientific Interest and thereby changing a planning precedent in England. He enthralled millions on Channel 4's Grand Designs programme and his build was voted the best Grand Design ever.
So what does a man do to top that?
He builds a shop for his village for no personal fee, and agrees to underwrite the bill if the funding doesn't appear. Furthermore, he builds the new shop in four months, to budget, entirely from local materials.
A man of his craft
The picturesque village of Lodsworth in West Sussex is where Ben chose to live some years ago. First in a bender, then in a leaky caravan, and now in his woodland house. The woodland house marks the beginning of a new vernacular: roundwood timber framing. Since the original build - a synthesis of a traditional cruck frame with ecological design and materials - Ben has been practising his craft with other buildings in his region and training a team of people to help him. The shop in Lodsworth is his first industrial-scale building, and yet it is as stunning as his home.
Lodsworth had a village shop 15 years ago but, like in many villages across the country, it closed leaving local people with a 15 mile round trip to the nearest town to buy even a pint of milk. The villagers wanted their shop back and were keen that it should support local businesses and suppliers providing local produce.
They wanted a shop that could compete with the nearest supermarket on day-to-day staples, and not just be a pretty but expensive local retail outlet. They wanted it to function as drop-off and collection point for deliveries and be a centre for community information. The building had to have the highest ecological specifications, including generating its own electricity using photovoltaic panels.
In January 2009, with no funding and no acceptable design, let alone a team of builders, Ben was asked to get involved and he offered a design for a roundwood timber frame building, a design that came in at a quarter of the cost of an earlier proposal.
Local ownership
The community decided to raise funds from various private trusts and local councils. Because the build was to involve some training and introduced new skills - and there was an element of volunteering by local people on the project - the committee was very successful at raising funds from outside. They just had to raise a further £20,000 from the village.
To do so, 'The Lodsworth Larder' was turned into an Industrial Provident Society (IPS) with a shareholder scheme. Local people could buy a non-transferrable share for anything between £10 or £1,000, which allowed them one vote at the AGM. Critically, this is a model any village can replicate, even Ambridge!
Local materials
The shop was designed with a 79m2 (850ft2) footprint and is based on the same principles as the woodland house using timber from Ben's Prickly Nut Wood.
'The oak felled for the floor boarding, cladding and underfloor support beams was from derelict hazel coppice that hadn't been cut for 40 years. We restored the hazel stools and thinned out the oak canopy. A result of the coppicing was that during May over 30 violet helleborine orchids bloomed in that area,' says Ben.
The felled oak was taken to a sawmill in the parish (a mile away) and sawn, kiln dried, planed and delivered to the village shop site. It had travelled just two miles. Sweet chestnut formed the cruck frames, tie beams and lathes to take the lime plaster, and larch was used for the ridge pole and wall plates.
Ben used Douglas fir for the stud work and joists, and western red cedar for the roof shingles, both from the local Cowdray Estate. Ash, taken from derelict coppice, formed the internal windbraces. Ben even weaved the verandah infill panels from local hazel. He is passionate about using local timber, which, as often as not, is softwood that would more usually be sold as firewood or pulp for the mill.
Energy self-sufficiency
The building itself has no heating and is a passive solar design. The heat from the fridges is fed into a heat exchanger and pumped into the shop, but even last November the heat exchanger had to be used as a cooler rather than a heater because the levels of insulation are so high. Ben used sheep's wool and the walls are constructed with a double membrane to prevent cold bridging.
Electricity is provided by a 2.8kW array from Southern Solar and the lighting is all low energy and LED. There is no concrete in the building: like the prototype woodland house the foundations are padstones (reclaimed York stones), which bear the load.
Perhaps what is most amazing about this build is that it was started in June 2009 and the shop was opened for business on 7th November 2009. Ben built the shop with four experienced roundwood timber framers (who were paid) and, in true community style, others from the village and beyond got involved as and when they had time or when there was a particular need.
Evolving new patterns
So how does the Lodsworth Larder differ from the woodland house? 'This building meets industrial specifications and is engineered for load bearing required for a commercial building with storage,' observes Ben. 'Over eight builds we have also evolved and improved our jointing techniques, especially for roundwood framing. Many are unique.' The builds can also be up to 75 per cent cheaper than a conventional building.
But beyond cost and environmental specifications, Ben feels that a new architectural vernacular is being created and it is one that the planners like and actively support. The shop sits amongst the traditional old stone cottages with clay tile roofs in the village and yet it blends in seamlessly. It is a beautiful building.
And not without advantages of location, either:
'Being next to the pub, it's amazing how keen people are to nip out for a pint of milk,' Ben observes wryly.
http://www.theecologist.org/
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Roundwood Timber Frame
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