Rugged Sustainability

Arvo’s Place

Well, you should know right from the start that with a name like Arvo, something is afoot.

Arvo is a very interesting man and the ecosystem he has created in his exploration of sustainability is something that most people living in cities, with their high-fa-lootin’ sewerage, piped water and electrickery, can barely imagine.

A small section of the Southern aspect at 'Solar Ark'

Yes, Arvo has reinvented all of these at his place “Solar Ark”,  with ‘flushing meadows’ for his sewer, an massive tank and home made filtration beds for water, solar and wind for power and a bio-digester for gas. More on the bio-digester later…

The climate he lives in is 7000ft above sea level and is both very dry and very beautiful, in a rugged, surely you don’t want to grow food here, kind of way. Frosts can occur at any time of year and it gets to -20 C in winter with quite a bit of snow. Summer, of course, has days that sit in well over 30 C.

His house is massive and it requires one to help ‘sail’ it through the climatic fluctuations by opening or closing doors and vents at appropriate times, watering greenhouses, letting chickens out, putting them back in, insulating or exposing things, feeding the bio-digester, reusing almost everything and well, there are several dozen other rules and ‘guidelines’ that I shall spare you.

The inside of the grape greenhouse with lettuce galore

Now this may turn the average punter off having anything to do with his place, but once you get to know the systems and the rationales behind them, they make absolute sense. OK, it is hard work, and strangely enough it’s also totally satisfying. Helping this man on his quest to create an oasis in this harsh land is fascinating.

Arvo has multiple skill sets and I know that I have only just scratched the surface. He is a mechanic, electrician, farmer, chef, inventor, craftsman, landscaper, builder, plumber and pretty darn witty guy.

He is also a teacher, and one that you really have to pay attention to. His explanations are often way too fast and assume the prior knowledge of a PhD, but if you really really strain your brain, you get pearls of wisdom wrought by his years of experience.

My pet project has been the bio-digester.

Every day the Bio-digester takes all the fresh chicken poo (he has around 40 chooks) and a bit of water into its innards. There it is eaten by bacteria and turned into methane, which is then stored and piped to various stoves when needed. It takes around 300 days for the ‘poo’ to pass through the digester and what comes out the other end is watery and potent plant fertilizer.

The Bio-Digester Tank within its own greenhouse. Mmmmm, the smell of methane in the morning.

Just by using his chook’s guano, he is producing enough bio-gas for all his and his guest’s cooking needs, including baking four big loaves of bread a couple of times a week to sell / barter with. He is also producing enough fertilizer to supply his four greenhouses and five vegetable gardens.

Clever Man.

Our home at the Solar Ark is a wonderful studio called the ‘Hermitory’. It stands by itself alone in a part of his property frequented by deer, snakes, coyote and the occasional mountain lion. Wild and wonderful. The place has perfect solar orientation and needs no heating in the freezing nights due to stored solar heat re-radiating during the night via his trombe wall. The most incredible part though is the view.

There is more to tell, but you will have to wait until the next post.

Week 5 of WWOOFing – Sustainability in action – So much to learn!

A pretty fine way to start the day - view of The Hermitory