Sneak peeks at Paul and Shawn's upcoming book

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER

As a few of you may have heard, for the last 10 months Paul and I have been working on a book about building a better world in your backyard instead of being angry at bad guys. We've kept the project somewhat under wraps for a while, but today we decided that it is time for us to tell the world! Hello world!

The book process is moving along well and we are planning to launch a Kickstarter soon in order to help pay for all of the costs that come with making a book.

We have posted several chapters of our book in secret places on permies and there has been a lot of great discussion! If you are on the daily-ish email list you can see some of our content in the daily-ish forum and if you have PIE you can see even more content in the PIE forum. (Keep in mind you need to be logged in to view super secret forums like those ones.)

After far more iterations than I care to remember and discussions that took far longer than I had ever thought possible, we decided that this is our cover:



We also decided that we would like to share with you the current version of our table of contents! It's probably going to be tweaked a bit yet before we hit 'print' but I think it's looking pretty good!


Contents

Part 0: Introduction
Chapter 1: A Different Approach to Solving the World's Problems

Part 1: The Problems
Chapter 2: Environmentalist vs. "Environmentalist"
    The Wheaton Eco Poser Test
Chapter 3: The Wicked Lies About Lightbulbs
    Free Light Bulbs! Love and Kisses from China!
    Legally Pump Stimulants into Your Employees All Day with Blue Light!
    The Cartel That Rigged the Light Bulb Game
    It Says “Eco” on the Label - They Forgot to Mention “Carcinogenic”
    Big Energy Savings! (Except in Cold Climates)
    The Ultimate Example of Greenwashing
Chapter 4: Carbon Footprint
Chapter 5: Petroleum Footprint
Chapter 6: Toxic Footprint

Part 2: General Strategies
Chapter 7: The Wheaton Eco Scale
Chapter 8: Moving Way Beyond Recycling
    Attack of the Pizza Box
    Recycling 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0
Chapter 9: Vote with Your Wallet
Chapter 10: Radically Deviant Financial Strategies
    The Story of Gert: A Millionaire Life Without a Million Dollars
    Owning a Home Without Grovelling to a Bank
    Early Retirement Extreme
    Give a Gift to Your Future Self with Passive Income Streams
    The BEER Plan
    A Clever Recipe for More Luxuriant Living at Half the Cost
Chapter 11: Organic vs Local
Chapter 12: Vegan vs Omnivore vs Junk Food
    VORP - Expanding Our Vocabulary to Value Garden Food over Diet Cola
    When a Vegan Diet Has a Lower Carbon Footprint.  And When It Doesn’t.
    GAT:  Government-Mandated Acceptable Levels of Toxicity

Part 3: Within the Walls of Your Home
Chapter 13: REALLY Reducing Home Energy Usage
    63% of Home Energy Use in a Cold Climate Is Heat
           How I Cut 87% off My Electric Heat Bill and Stayed Toasty Warm
           The New Wood Heat: Smokeless and One Tenth the Wood
    19% of Home Energy Use is Hot Water
           Boom Squish
           Making Your Hot Water Tank More Efficient
           Saving Hot Water Without Suffering Another Cold Shower
    5% of Home Energy Use is LightingLighting
    3% of Home Energy Use is Laundry
    The Little Things
    The Physical Energy Footprint per Adult
Chapter 14: More People Living Under One Roof Without Stabbing Each Other
    "Obey or Else"
    The Knives Are in the Kitchen
    Dirty Cup CSI
Chapter 15: Toxic Gick vs. 20 Years of Your Life
    A Better Cleaning Strategy Than Replacing Dirt with Poison
    Cast Iron Can Be Non Stick; Teflon Is Always Poison
    Going Pooless
    Bug Killer You Can Eat!

Part 4: More Than Half of Each Footprint Can Be Resolved in a Backyard
Chapter 16: The Huge Link Between Food and Global Footprints (Vegans Too!)
Chapter 17: Double the Food with One Tenth of the Effort
    Transplanting? That's Unnecessary Work!
    Prepping the Soil to Not Need Prepping
    Planting Once and Harvesting for Years
    Mulching 2.0: Being Naked Is No Longer Required!
    3D Gardening - Big Berms Bring Big Benefits
    How Trees Nurture Gardens, Cool Your Home, Heat Your Home, and Save the World
    Replacing Fertilizer with Polyculture
    Monocrops Need Pest Control; Nature Doesn't
    Let's Do the Math
Chapter 18: The Dark Side of Native Plant Enthusiasm
    Native to When?
    Past Invasives Are Now "Native." When Will Current Invasives Become "Native?"
    The Shifting Definitions of "Noxious Weeds"
    Lipstick on a Pig: Native Plant Organizations and Herbicide Companies
    Myth: Native Plants Are Better Suited to Your Area
    Native Plant Enthusiasts Eat Only Native Crops, Right?
    One Person Managing 20,000 Acres vs. One Person Managing 10 Acres
    The Pow Wow Grounds in Elmo, Montana
Chapter 19: 20 Things to Do with the Twigs That Fall in Your Yard
Chapter 20: Not Composting
Chapter 21: Better Than Solar Panels: A Solar Food Dehydrator
    My Quick Tips for Making a "Down Draft" Solar Food Dehydrator
    A Natural Recipe for Solar Dehydrator "Black"
    A Few Things You Can Do with a Solar Dehydrator
Chapter 22: Breaking the Toxic Water Cycle with Greywater Recycling
    A Lifehack Greywater System
    Building a Simple Greywater System
    Cold Climate Greywater Systems
    Become a Certified Environmentalist
Chapter 23: Harvesting Electricity in Your Backyard
Chapter 24: The Conventional Lawn vs a Mowable Meadow
    Battle for the Sun Deathmatch! Rig the Game for Grass!
    Tough Training Leads to Strong Grasses with Deep, Resilient Roots!
    Deep, Rich, Magnificent Soil vs. Thin, Pathetic Dirt
    Free Fertilizers Stomp the Poopies out of the Commercial Offerings
    Long Term Soil vs. Short Term Fertilizer
    Bringing in the REAL Professionals (Hint: They Don't Wear Clothes)

Part 5: Counter the Footprint of 20 People on a Homestead
Chapter 25:How Vegans Benefit from Caring for Cattle, Chickens, Hogs, Etc.
    Contemplations in Pampering an Animal
    How to Get Five Times More Garden Growth by Gardening with Animals
    Building Your Soul with a Plethora of Life Instead of Zappity Zap Zap
    If It Smells Bad, You're Doing It Wrong: Never Mucking out a Shelter Again
    The Very Best Predator Control Is Not a Fence
Chapter 26: Replacing Petroleum with People
Chapter 27: Wrestling with Poop Beasts and Peeing in the Garden
    Creating a Magnificent Jungle with Your Urine
    An Exploration of Pooping Contraptions
           Making Poop Jerky and Saving It for Later
           Feeding Poop Beasts, Killing Them, and Building Stuff out of their Bones
Chapter 28: The Solutions to Colony Collapse Disorder are Embarrassingly Simple
Chapter 29: Destroy Your Orchard to Make a Food Forest
Chapter 30: A Building Design That Solves Almost Everything
    Setting Our Design Criteria Extremely High
                We Can Do Better Than Straw Bale Designs
                We Can Do Better Than Cob Designs          
                The Dirty Secret of "Sustainable" Building
                The Joy and Heartbreak of Earthships
                Prevent Wildfires by Building a Home
    From Junk to Genius with One Simple Design Change
    A Freaky Cheap Home That Doesn't Look Freaky Cheap
    Using the Heat from Summer to Heat Your Home During the Winter
    The Strict Definition of "Wofati"
    A Modification for a Year-Round Freezer
Chapter 31: Natural Swimming Pools
    Keeping the Water Clean
    Avoiding the Ice Bath
    How Do I Build One? Gimmie! Gimmie Now!

Part 6: Conclusion
Chapter 32: Hey! You Know What Would Be Cool?

Appendix A - World Domination
Appendix B - Tabular summary of solutions
Acknowledgements
About the Authors


CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER

Too much fun you guys! Can't wait!

Woooohooooo!!! Really looking forward for the Kickstarter!

Wow, I am so excited about this! I love all the topics and it will be great to have all the info in one place.  I am looking for land right now and keep coming up with all these questions about what kind of home? What is the best way to......? How do I make this work...?  Should I do this..or that?  I think this will help answer some of my questions. Thanks for taking the time to put this all together. Looking forward to the kickstarter!

Is this an ebook or a real book? Will there be an ebook version? Thanks

Super excited! Hope we don't all crash Kickstarter signing up January 2. We bought 7 acres a year ago, and still don't know where to start.
 So what's with the font size change?

The BEER plan....lots of people can get onboard with that :)

Wait...that's not what you guys mean?

Can't wait to get this book and find out!

Thanks for showering us with love! It's exciting to think about how many people are excited for this book!

Jasper Tomas wrote:Is this an ebook or a real book? Will there be an ebook version? Thanks

The book will be available as a physical book and as an ebook. We are even talking about a possible audiobook if the kickstarter goes well enough.

So what's with the font size change?

Ugh. I'm trying to delineate between parts, chapters, sections, and subsections as best as possible within the constraints of the forum software. We'll make it look much nicer in the actual book. And, for example, instead of "Chapter 5.6" it might be something like "Chapter 17" ... but we don't want to put numbers in and then forget to change them in the hustle and bustle of getting everything finished.

Shawn Klassen-Koop wrote:

So what's with the font size change?

Ugh. I'm trying to delineate between parts, chapters, sections, and subsections as best as possible within the constraints of the forum software. We'll make it look much nicer in the actual book. And, for example, instead of "Chapter 5.6" it might be something like "Chapter 17" ... but we don't want to put numbers in and then forget to change them in the hustle and bustle of getting everything finished.

A minor observation if I may.

Don't do chapters! Use an outline format --'Topic 5.6, wood heat.rocket oven'  as an example. You are dealing with a topic that is highly dynamic and new approaches pop up that are better than old methods for the same solution. Show my age here, but the old World Book encyclopedias came out with a yearly update with the set. You might want to think along the same lines. I'll go even further. Do it as a compendium with a subscription update service:

* Outline format for easy updating. Page numbering contained within any given topic/subtopic.
* Formatted for loose leaf format, 3 ring binder containment.
* Errata, subscription updates, etc can be downloaded and printed and added/deleted to the set. If no printer available provide a service to do so thru LuLu.
* Folded purchased printed plans can be added to the set.
* Exceptional user content could be provided as part of the subscription update.

Essentially the FoxFire series as a author/user contributed ever last book.

As a geek I love epub docs, but there are times when only physical format works best.

Thanks for the consideration.

John, thanks for your idea. I think it is an interesting idea, but it's not quite the direction we want to go with this project. Perhaps someday there will be a different project that this is a good fit for.

Thanks again for sharing.

Paul and I recorded a podcast where we talk about the book:

https://permies.com/t/93241/podcast-Building-world

I like the title and the cover. Contents look great too. I will post about it on my blog once the Kickstarter starts.

Yes please I hope the funding is generous enough for an audiobook! Sorry to pick on the font size-I thought is was more to do with the subject matter. Maybe a hidden meaning.  The poop chapters were in the smallest font!

Very Excited for this. I enjoy the cover as well.

I'm in.

It seems the unique strength of this book, judging from the outline, is that it focuses on lifestyle, rather than just techniques or philosophy.

I like John's suggestions. Modular is the way to go!

Paul and I did a YouTube Live video where we talk about another chapter from our book:

If you like this sort of thing let us know and we might do a few more.

This looks amazing AND funny. Congrats!! I have already posted a link on our town’s recycling page. The town wouldn’t pay anymore so so folks got together to create a new program. That has sparked more conversation about reducing in general. Looking forward to this book!

Cool story thanks for sharing Stephanie!

Love Paul's description of the humanure bucket walk when you have been procrastinating emptying. I had to make that walk many time and digging deep into the pile to deposit sucks when all you want is an empty bucket. I've now converted to a double chamber toilet, the second bucket is heaven when this problem arises.

Huge thanks to Paul and Shawn for this. Great stuff, keep em coming.

Wait! This book is already available??

Stephanie Naftal wrote:Wait! This book is already available??

Nope we're still hard at work trying to get it finished. The plan is to launch a kickstarter in early 2019.

I see. I thought someone said they’d read a chapter. Well, excited!!!

If you sign up for the dailyish (you can do so through your profile), you'll get access to a secret forum that has some chapters you can read

(And, if you get sick of Anne and I blabbling about permies threads, you can go back to just getting the monthly or weeklyish. Or, you can help us improve it! https://permies.com/t/73443/type-dailyish-Apple-Poll)

Stephanie Naftal wrote:I see. I thought someone said they’d read a chapter. Well, excited!!!

If you scroll up there is a video of us talking about the current version of one of the chapters.

Paul and I recorded another conversation about a chapter from our book. This one discusses honey bee care as an example of quality animal care.



The audio from this video was mashed into two podcasts:

Part 1

Part 2

Paul and I visit with Jacob Lund Fisker from Early Retirement Extreme about our chapter called "Radically Deviant Financial Strategies":

This keeps sounding better and better.  I really like the vids talking about the chapters.  Can't wait to get the book!

Here is a sneak peek of a few of the drawings I've done for the book.

Enjoy!

Cheers
Tracy

Tracy, those pics are beautiful!!!

Thanks, Greg, glad you like them. Lots more where those came from! :)

We have put in a bunch of work tweaking the table of contents. I have updated the first post of this thread to reflect the latest version. What do you think?

Tracy,  Love the pictures! They are great. My favorite is the woodpile vs gas!!!    :-)      

Lyda Eagle wrote:Tracy,  Love the pictures! They are great. My favorite is the woodpile vs gas!!!    :-)      

Me too Lyda!  It reminds me of my wife....she doesn't trust gas because of news of leaks and explosions, but she also can't stack wood without it falling over.  I giggle every time I see that picture!  I might need a copy to frame and put on the wall!  Tracy, is the original for sale???

Thanks, Lynda! I'm glad you like them. I've had lots of fun doing the illustrations for this book.

These sneaks peeks look great.  Terrific job with the artwork Tracy!

One general question I have about the book is what will the "language rating" be? I'm used to reading the website, but I know it would definately be a factor for ones I might want to gift a link to.

Tina Hillel wrote:One general question I have about the book is what will the "language rating" be? I'm used to reading the website, but I know it would definately be a factor for ones I might want to gift a link to.

Umm... Maybe PG13?

the language rating will be:  perfect!

We even made up so new words!