Location: 340 – 3rd St, Craik, SK, Canada price: $80 000 $59, 900 (as is)

(photos/slide show in links and posts below)

Unique, off-grid, straw-bale wrapped home, on the main street of Craik, SK. Situated on 2 large lots (formerly 6 small ones) for a total lot size of 150 (frontage) x 130. The lots are zoned commercial, well treed yet loads of space for gardening (pesticide free since 2006, at least).

The home is a 1 ¾ story, 3 bdrm stick frame house built in 1906. eco-renovations and upgrades include: new windows; insulated attic (cellulose); new wood stove and chimney; extended roof, newly covered with tin in 2009; straw-bale wrap around the exterior of home on 3 sides; Solar Electric power system (small, yet expandable. Easily adjustable panels (from inside) mounted on roof to.

NOTE: This is an incomplete renovation, hence the reduced asking price.

It is approximately 1000 sq ft with living, kitchen and bath on main, and 3 bedrooms up. There is a small dugout basement with easy access to plumbing, also a fantastic cold storage. There is a small, enclosed back porch and garden shed out back. The home is connected to town water and sewage, but not to gas or electricity (reconnecting is doable if you wish).

Besides being situated on the beautiful Canadian prairie, Craik is adjacent to Arm Lake, and the Arm River valley. Situated close to those are the Craik Eco-Centre (5000? Sq ft straw-bale building with many other ecological features. It house the Solar Garden Restaurant, gift shop, meeting rooms and golf clubhouse); Craik Eco-Village (burgeoning community with many different styles of eco-construction underway (straw-bale, earth-bag, buried shipping containers, etc)); Craik Regional Park (camping, fishing, outdoor swimming pool); and the Craik Golf Course.

Being on Main (3^rd) Street of Craik, this home is within a very short walk to the Co-op grocery store; community greenhouse; post office; bank; pharmacy; library; farmers market; bar and grill; community hall (Legion).

Other amenities in Craik are: K – 12 public school (with growing enrolment); Co-op hardware and gas station; Regional Health Centre and local Doctors office; Catholic and Untied Church; Motel, RCMP detachment, community hockey and curling rink.

Craik has gained notoriety for the past several years over it’s decision to embark on a path of sustainability. The Craik Sustainable Living Project (CSLP) was formed and it’s first project was the eco-centre – open in 2003. Since then the Eco-village is being developed, the golf course attained Audubon Certified status for it’s eco-initiatives (current status?). A brand new ‘Mainstream’ bio-filtration water plant just came on line in August 2009. Many new people have moved here, or in the process of, to pursue their own green dreams and open businesses (Riverstone Studios, Shorland Kitchen and Bath, Titan Clean Energy, etc)

Craik is approximately half-way (130 km) between Saskatoon and Regina on the double wide hwy 11 (Louis Riel Trail), and also approximately equal distance (650 km) to Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary.

The CSLP has been very active over the years organizing community events such as the Annual Solar Fair; hands on workshops (straw-bale construction, masonry, composting, greenhouse design and construction, etc); Local Food challenges. CSLP membership is open, and they meet once monthly. Another sub-group was recently formed (CSLP Health Committee) and they’ve taken on pesticide education, anti-idling campaign, eating healthy, etc. A newly formed 4H Sustainability Club has been active helping kids learn about gardening, greenhouses, and compost.

More info:

slide show of house and property at www.boilingfrog.ca

Town of Craik www.craik.ca

CSLP www.craikecovillage.ca

Kelly: 306-734-2823

Slowly but surely our work at the home of boilingfrog is coming along. Many people have come to lend a hand here and there, enjoy the beautiful space, and eat yummy food. How about you? Maybe you’ll come in time to meet the cyclists on their Pedal for the Planet stopover in Craik on Aug. 10

Thanks to all those that helped start the plastering of our house on August 6^th. The CSLP hosted a strawbale workshop that brought 20 participants to four different builds in Craik. Our house was one of the lucky candidates that were ready to except a plaster party.

Dan Kreuger, (workshop teacher along with David Dale) muscles his way through the first batch of plaster

Approximately one third of the first coat was completed.

A lot has happened at the boilingfrog home this summer. Kelly has been busy with the roof and it is mostly on but still has some details to finish. The most important being the ridge cap as it has been raining lately. Big Thanks to Jim, Jacquie, Crystal, Glenn, Sherry and her daughter Ashley (?), Mark, Darwin and everyone else who loaned a hand.

While Kelly was doing that I (bridget) was painting in Waterton National Park. I came home in time to help with the second side of the roof.

There is more opportunity to trade room and board for labour. It is fun to figure out how to work in live in a modestly powered home. Check out our previous post below for details.

There’s a community greenhouse next door, eco-village across the highway (with many other interesting build projects in various stages) eco-centre, Audubon certified golf course, regional park with outdoor pool, and a dynamic local organizing body co-ordinating most of the fabulous eco-initiatives.

UPDATE: the strawbale workshop this year will spend one day at our place. ther’es still a few spots available. see this pdf for details.

There’s a ton of opportunity for people to experience off-grid living, sustainable building, organic gardening and the awesome summer weather (we hope).

If you are a good fit for this scene (activist, artist, free-thinker, dedicated environmentalist, etc), drop me a line.

Willing to trade, barter or otherwise negotiate an exchange of labour, expertise, enthusiasm, etc on your part for expertise, skill share, home grown organic food, and a very cool place to stay.

Currently need help planting and tending garden, rebuilding roof, installing rainwater capture, and plastering the bale wrapped house.

cheers,

kelly reinhardt

this little slide show represents some of the work we’ve done up to spring 2009. as of this posting, the roof is being extended in 4 directions in preparation for new covering. Then, the tarps come off, we have a big party, and the next day or so get to work on finishing the job.

see more great opportunites at planetfriendly.net

watch them all here, or go to the SODFMC youtube channel

Some would say we’ve come a long way in the last four decades. DDT and other harmful chemicals have been banned. A global treaty to protect the ozone layer from CFC’s has been in effect since 1987. And, since 1972 nations have gathered under the U.N. umbrella to deal with the preservation of bio-diversity and a climate changing build-up of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol was one outcome of these gatherings. It was signed in 1997 and ratified (reluctantly, and to little effect) by us Canadians in 2002.

We’ve learned to practice the three ‘R’s – reduce, re-use and re-cycle. Of course our generation can’t take too much credit for these particular advances because our forefathers and mothers regularly practiced them, albeit more likely due to economic necessity and everyday practicality than for environmental stewardship.

But, despite all the efforts we make on an individual; community; national or planetary basis, our environment becomes more foul by the day. Chemical contamination pervades every species up and down the food chain, including us. Every year thousands of new chemicals are added to the mix. Greenhouse gasses continue to build. The climate is changing. Deserts are growing while the forests and glaciers shrink. And, species extinction is taking place at a rate of 70,000 to 130,000 species per year – a rate not dissimilar to the last great extinction period 65 million years ago.

Even if these things weren’t happening, we’re still in a very serious situation. The green revolution (which was ironically not green in the sense we mean it today. It was accompanied by massive chemical fertilizer and pesticide applications, and a move away from bio-diversity and small, mixed farms) gave us a rise in global, land-based food production and the accompanying rise of the human population.

Now, our food production system is seemingly addicted to chemical inputs. A soil deadened by un-natural inputs requires ever more because the natural soil has become depleted. The run-off and seepage has contaminated our water: underground; fresh surface water; and our oceans too! In Saskatchewan, all the surface water and one third of the groundwater is contaminated. There are more than 400 dead zones (and growing) in every ocean of the world.

Other side effects of a system struggling to feed nearly 7 billion people are the potential extinction of up to one third of all known fish species, including 90% of all large predatory ocean fish that have already disappeared, and increased deforestation to make way for more cropland.

To add insult to injury, the same corporations and economic geniuses that delivered us this mess have been deploying what some have called the second green revolution. This is being achieved through advances in biology; genetics; and chemistry, mixed together in the engineering of life forms never before possible.

One common example is the engineering of chemical pesticide resistance within a crop. The result is an increased use of chemicals because the crop won’t be hurt by multiple and increased applications. There are two simple, yet opposite explanations for this development. One: the ability to kill every pest and plant in a field besides the intended crop may bring higher and more consistent yields, thereby benefitting farmers and their communities. Two: the corporations that genetically engineered plants to resist pesticide also market the chemicals, guaranteeing an increased flow of capital from the farm and farmer to multi-nationals and their shareholders.

This brings us to the crux of the problem. Our global economic system depends on growth and profit. This growth is built out of the debt we generate, both in dollars and in depleted resources. Our future generations may be able to pay back one of those debts.

Our environment depends on diversity and a recycling of life’s building blocks within a finite system. Simply put, infinite economic growth in a finite environment is bound to crash both systems.

So, here we are. Early 21^st century, and in case you haven’t yet noticed (Saskatchewan being one of the last jurisdictions in the world to feel it) the global financial and economic system is failing. Entire nations are going broke. Even the wealthy are feeling the hit (insert sad music here).

But, there’s hope. There is always hope. If, as a species we can engineer cities; spacecraft; and new life forms, then certainly we can engineer (or rather, re-engineer) an economic system built on sustainability, not on debt and growing profits.

Imagine an economic system that provides our needs without pitting us against one another for scarce resources. Imagine our farmers, academics, scientists, politicians and laborers co-operating with one another rather than compete down to the lowest common denominator. Imagine using up our remaining non-renewable resources (oil, coal, gas, minerals) in a responsible way, instead of manufacturing energy intensive tools and toys designed to become obsolete and thus replaced over and over again.

Imagine utilizing our renewable resources to maximum benefit. The sun always shines, the wind always blows and the water always flows… somewhere. For example, the amount of solar energy reaching the earth in a mere 15 minutes could generate our entire global electricity needs for a year.

Imagine working to provide food clothing and shelter on a local basis rather than trade your labour for taxes – which are then applied to the interest of a debt we shouldn’t have to begin with and is impossibly repayable anyway.

And perhaps best of all, imagine a society that rewards those who work towards those goals instead of what we see today – abuse; ridicule; scorn; and knee jerk discrediting. Imagine a society that takes pride in environmental stewardship and truly sustainable development. That’s what I imagined when we moved to Craik, on Earth Day 2007. Essentially, a blue-print of hope to be shared and built upon in community after community, across the country and around the world.

Maybe the fortieth Earth Day will help motivate the rest of us to embrace environmentalism full-time, not just give it a passing nod once a year, if at all. Well we’re at it we could restructure the global corporate economy too. It’s not a contest to see who recycles more, or uses less energy, but it is a contest for the survival of ours and every other species on the planet.

If we keep to “business as usual”, our progeny will curse us to their end. Let’s take an honest accounting of our priorities and the effects of our present actions. Maybe then our future generations will have something to work with. Maybe someday they’ll have what we lack – clean air and water; healthy soil, forests and oceans; a less erratic climate; and justice for all.

(or, download it here)

Craik hosts author and activist on tour

Andrew Nikiforuk, author of the recently released book “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent”, and former Saskatchewan Green Party leader, Sandra Finley, stopped in Craik on March 19, 2009.

They were travelling between stops on the “Great Tar Sands Debate Tour” with previous engagements in Prince Albert, North Battleford and Saskatoon. After Craik, they visit Regina, Moose Jaw and Swift Current, before Nikiforuk returns to his hometown of Calgary.

Some locals came out to the Eco-Centre to meet them over coffee. We learned about some of the disastrous economic and ecological effects that western Canadian tar sands production has caused. For example, our Canadian government over the years (Liberal or Conservative) has not saved one penny of this oil wealth for when the resource runs out, or for investment into green energy alternatives.

Instead, our provincial and federal governments would rather have us committed to bankrolling nuclear reactors with the sole purpose of further developing the tar sands – both here in Saskatchewan, and in Alberta.

Our own MLA, Lyle Stewart, told me personally that tar sands development in Saskatchewan would be green because nuclear power plants would be built to supply the energy needed to extract the oil from the deeply buried bitumen deposits. Nuclear power is not green in any sense of the word. Besides, they cost billions to build, maintain, and eventually decommission. And, if we do it, we’d be the only jurisdiction in the world stupid enough to use nuclear power to produce fossil fuels.

Another local connection we in Craik have with continued oil and gas development, tar sands included, are the pipelines which run through our RM 222. Apparently, the RM collects some dividends from the pipelines. Maybe this local level of government will have the wisdom to invest our share of the carbon wealth on green technologies. I think it’s a no-brainer, but what do you think?

If you’re curious to read Nikiforuk’s new book, it will soon be available at the Craik library as part of its extensive selection of resources donated through the Craik Sustainable Living Project. Check it out sometime. There’s not only a bevy of materials explaining the critical ecological mess we’re all in, but many books and videos that can show us all how to turn it around.

Take an audio tour with Glenn Hymers, retired school teacher and member of the Craik Sustainable Living Project (CSLP). Glenn connects our historical past to the future of environmental sustainability in Craik, SK. The majority of this tour focusses on the Craik Eco-Centre which features innovative and energy efficient building design and integrated heating, cooling and renewable energy systems.

History in the Making is the latest Green Town Times podcast by boilingfrog.ca at the rabble podcast network

download the mp3 directly

We remember being inspired by the Work Less Party, which seemed to originate on the west coast a number of years ago. A guiding principle that spoke to us was that working less is necessary to protect the environment. After all, most work is directly related to the degradation of the environment. Besides that, working more to accumulate more stuff doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. Since were already living our lives with these guiding principles, why not take it further.

For the last 12 years or so we already had fairly simple lives in small city apartments. Neither of us worked at jobs that directly hurt the environment. We both tended to choose to work for the solutions or take jobs that are about making a positive difference. So to further lower our impact on the planet we decided to move to a small town and become more self sufficient meaning supply our own power, grow food, and that kind of stuff.

We wanted to do all the things that environmental/social activists try to encourage others to do. Plus we wanted to go off-grid – not just off-grid from corporate energy providers but also from the supra-powered matrix like entity that controls our lives. This powerful entity is expressed in the political, economic and social grids. Oh, and that big media machine that spurs on the lies from this supra-powered matrix.

How could we unhook ourselves from this power? We wanted to find ways to invest in small community businesses rather than paying big corporations for our needs. We wanted to stop being part of the over consumption machine of the economic system. But the more we unhook ourselves from it the more we realize how we are still apart of this system. After coming close to the completion of our second year in Craik, Saskatchewan we can tell you some of our observations.

LESS power = MORE money

Power System

Our initial outlay was $1000, using our savings and donations of Canadian Tire money to buy a crappy off the shelf system. This was inadequate for a number of reasons. So, we saved and bought more solar panels. But the battery was too small, so we saved again. Then we bought new batteries, more panels, a fancy inverter and lots of expensive cabling.

Now, we have a system worth more than $4000, with good batteries and inverter, but still inadequate charging capacity.

Hot Water

Having disconnected the existing hot water tank and its accompanying water lines we were soon searching for ways to heat our water. One solution was to install a homemade solar hot water heater. But, being inexperienced, we asked the local plumber to help us out. He agreed, but to the tune of $1000 for materials and labour. We’ve yet to get that system installed.

LESS power = MORE work

Power system

Whether it’s the constant monitoring and adjustments of the solar panels, monitoring and maintaining the batteries, or shuffling our electricity priorities to accommodate the available energy, it all takes work.

We currently have 120 watts of solar power to power our needs. This is very small compared to what most North Americans consume. We live without a fridge or hot water coming out of our taps.

Hot Water

Although happy to use much less energy in our new off-grid life, we were soon bumming showers from some neighbours and friends. Lugging our toiletries across the street or across town was not exactly convenient. We soon set up our own water heater with much less money. Purchasing 100 feet of garden hose and using a reclaimed piece of black tubing, we created a system of heating enough water to wash the dishes and ourselves. This was a little more work than simply turning on the tap, but made us very happy nonetheless. Of course, both our hot water and electricity systems work best when the sun shines – which we do have more than average amounts out here on the prairie.

Refrigeration

During the warm months, we use a neighbour’s freezer to freeze blue bricks. We constantly exchange these bricks in and out of our insulated cooler bag. It takes of lot of work to continuously monitor and exchange the cold bricks and shuffle the contents of the cooler bag. Plus, we make more trips to the grocery store, taking advantage of their refrigeration too. We’ll eventually become more independent and create our own cold storage but there are many projects on the books taking priority. Besides, most of the year it’s not that hard to prevent spoilage of small quantities of food.

LESS Carbon + Money = MORE work

We wanted to heat with wood as it is more carbon neutral. Fossil fuels on the other hand have been locked underground for eons and burning them adds a new carbon source to the atmosphere. We purchase and installed a wood stove and new chimney. It cost us almost $3000, leaving no money to buy wood. So we scrounged from farmers fields with the generous help of friends and their trucks. The next year we bought wood. It cost more than $1600 for the shipment, and the 12 cords we bought may have been adequate for two seasons. It likely won’t though, as some went to thieves and some to friends. As well, a protracted cold spell still had us feeding the fire non-stop despite our beefed up insulation.

It isn’t just keeping the fire alive that takes work. There’s the sawing, stacking, chopping, stacking, then stacking again a couple more times before finally being fed into the fire. We finally understand how depending on wood for heat can warm you many times over. As a bonus the constant attention also helps chase away the winter blahs, and keep us conditioned for the warm weather work.

Good food = MORE money

Even when available at our small grocery store, healthy food is more expensive. Organics, when available, are expensive and often come over-packaged from far away places. To get more locally grown, organic foods, we take trips to the city or purchase from farmers. Since we do not have a car, we have to be creative in ways to get quality food. We either car-pool, borrow a car, hitchhike (the cheapest) or take the bus. This is also a lot of work. We want to contribute to our local grocery store but they claim that it is too difficult to stock locally grown foods and that there is not enough demand for the types of food that we would like to purchase.

Eating locally = MORE work

We have had two seasons of gardening with relative success. The second year produced more food, and the spuds we have in cold storage should last us well into spring. Of course this is a lot of work. Preparing and planting, weeding and watering, harvesting, storing, preserving and preparing the bounty. It’s no wonder more people don’t garden – where would they find the time? But we’re not complaining. We’d rather toil in the soil than punch the corporate tower clocks and eat processed garbage.

Cheap shelter = MORE money

With help from friends and family we purchased a house and some property in Craik, Saskatchewan for less than $5000.00. Although this would barely cover 6 months rent in any Canadian city, it was a lot to come up with all at once. And this house wasn’t just cheap because of its location; it was 100 years old and needs lots of work.

Little things like home and garden tools, and reno materials soon started to add up. Thankfully many new friends and neighbours donated or leant us many things to get us going.

Although we don’t have rent or mortgage payments, our average monthly expense for taxes, water, and telephone approach $250. If we add up all our investments and home reno expenses so far, it averages to about $1000 per month. Over time that average should come down, and we do have equity in the house, property and various systems. But in the short term it just may have been less expensive to stay in the city.

Cheap shelter = MORE work

Being gen-x apartment dwellers from the city we never learned the skills needed to maintain, let alone repair a house. The real DIY world was a little humbling. Our first roof repair was very satisfying, but as the snow melts again satisfaction turns to disappointment when we realize the roof is leaking again. Insulating the attic was also satisfying, but incredibly labour intensive. Most people use an electric powered blower to install the stuff. Having neither power nor the equipment, we did it by hand for several weeks.

We’ve also removed two old chimney’s, dug out part of our dirt basement, trenched around the outside of the house, and insulated the whole thing to the roof with straw bales. What seemed a simple process lasted well into fall, and we’re still not done.

Now spring is coming, and we have to re-do the entire roof, finish the straw bale insulation and apply the plaster coating. Learning from experience, we’re clearing our calendar this spring so we can focus more on the house. That means less contract work, and (sadly) less community organizing.

LESS Dependence = MORE Personal Satisfaction

Perhaps ironically, working less (for money) and simplifying takes a lot of effort. We wanted the pay off to be less dependence on the economic system while lessening our impact on the planet. Yet, still we end up living within the confines of an economic system that is forever demanding more. We trade our labour for money which we then trade for the things we really need.

The more we all work, earn and consume the better off the economic system is. This is growth, a.k.a progress. The opposite is retraction or recession. And when this happens it’s played up in the media like the biggest emergency our human civilization has ever faced. They never make the connection between economy, consumption and the environment’s destruction.

Instead, they report that trillions upon trillions of dollars are being injected into the world’s economies with the hope we can consume our way out of this mess. We’re not told where this imaginary money comes from nor are we told where we really get our wealth from. On and on this is supposed to go. Absurd!

It’s not the economic system but the eco-system we need to line up with. So, its not that we are against work but rather the degradation of our environment (and the obscene enrichment of the upper classes and super elite, but that’s another story…). It would be really interesting to rewrite the economic system so that it worked within the confines of the eco-system.

But perhaps even more interesting is that with a little effort and commitment we can learn to do with less today.

Bridget Haworth and Kelly Reinhardt operate the alt-media organization, boilingfrog.ca. When they find the time and power, they produce short films, audio podcasts for the rabble podcast network (rabble.ca), and get involved in a variety of community events. If you want to drop by and check out their off-grid life, you’re welcome. Even more so if you want to sling some plaster or tend the garden. But please call ahead (306) 734-5160.

Why Craik – A conversation with Shirley Eade, founding member of the Craik Sustainable Living Project (CSLP) and organizer of the annual Solar Fair.

download the mp3, or listen to on rabble where you can follow along in the show notes.

 

 

The designated sacred space overlooks the Arm River Valley at Craik’s Eco-Centre. Last fall when the unveiling ceremony was taking place, we went along and shot a little bit of video.

This is a short video and we were unable to represent all the faiths that were in attendance. But the main message we got is that regardless of what name one gives to the Creator, they are all the same.