In the Garden: Fall time planting

In the organic community garden at Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community, we planted Heirloom Garlic and a peach tree this past weekend.

A couple of tips for you gardeners out there...

Fall is one of the best time for planting fruit trees. It give the roots the fall, winter and spring to establish its roots before the sumer heat comes.

Also, If you planting garlic before Halloween will provide a delicious garlic harvest next July. yummy

Check out Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community, just outside of Asheville, at www.HickoryNutForestEcocommunity.com

Simple things for sustainable living: Heating

As the fall nights get cooler, some people may be turning on the furnace, wood stove or other heating device.  Statistics show that nearly half of all the energy used in our homes is wasted. In our desire to live ever more sustainably, here are some tips to for more efficient heating.

Conserve
You may have overlooked the simplest heat-save method of all......during the winter months, wear a sweater indoors and turn the thermostat down a couple degrees. It's perfectly comfortable, and the cooler air indoors keeps one from getting dozy.

Draft Check
The one home improvement which saves the most energy with the least investment is draftproofing.

A simple way to locate outside air coming into your home is with a stick of incense. (Some hardware stores sell "smoke pencils" for this purpose.) Light the incense and inspect your home, from the inside, for air leaks. Choose a breezy day, and go around windows, areas where plumbing and wiring go through walls, attic doors, entry doors and fireplace dampers.
How much the smoke drifts horizontally from the incense will reveal how serious the leak is.

Most leaks can be quickly plugged with exterior silicone caulk - be sure to caulk the leaks from the outside of the house, or moisture will build up inside the walls. Weatherstripping and door sweeps will fix the door leaks quickly and easily. For larger voids use easy to apply insulating foam.

Work the drapes
Most heat loss in the average home is through and around the windows. Drawing the drapes at night is an effective block, making it harder for your warm air to escape. Lined drapes are best. Drapes will also help reduce window condensation because the space between the drapes and the window is cooler than the room air. Drapes can be lined with less expensive material or re-used bed sheets. The cost of the material is recouped by the savings in energy.


Door Sweeps and Draft Guards
The warm air in a heated home exerts a "pull" on outside colder air, drawing it in wherever it can. Under the door is the common site for cold air entry.
Door sweeps are available online or at home supply stores for about $10. They can be installed without having to take the door off its hinges. Simply slide the sweep under the door and cut off excess length with a hacksaw. A few screws, provided with the sweep, hold it in place. Draft guards are also available to stop drafts coming from under interior doors.

Block drafts from electric outlets
Rooms in many homes may have cool air seeping in through the electic outlets on walls which face outdoors. A simple draft check (see above) will let you know if this is the case in your home. Simply plug the outlet with inexpensive outlet safety caps to prevent drafts. This is also a safety measure if there are young children who might otherwise poke things into the outlet slots.

 Ceiling Fan
Although ceiling fans are most often associated with home cooling, they can also help with home heating. Most of the heat generated by your heating systems rises to the ceiling where it slowly dissipates or radiates into the upper walls and ceiling.

If you have ceiling fans in your home, check to see if they are reversible. In winter, the blades should rotate clockwise. This reverse rotation will collect warm air from the ceiling and pull it downwards. Set the fan at its slowest speed so as not to create a breeze. The energy savings will only be realized if you lower your thermostat correspondingly. For each degree you lower the thermostat, heating costs will be reduced by 3 - 5%.     

Miles, London 

Community coming together

This past weekend was Hickory Nut Forest's Third Annual Apple Festival.  The day was filled with great sweetness and abundance.  Imagine a magestic orchard on a sunny fall day filed with a diversity of people picking apples, pressing cider, and lifting their spirits in celebration.  The abundance not only included the apples as they fell (or in some cases were shaken) from the trees, but also the abundance of shared community, good food, and combined effort.  The sweetness was experienced in the taste of pies, the crispness of the air, and laughter as people connected in new ways.

It was a splendid event, and the kind that Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community is inspired to support and host.  We look forward to many more events that bring people together to remember the beauty of the natural world, the support of community and how spirit moves us in amazing ways.

Thank you to all who attended, and we look forward to seeing more of you in the future. Videos and photos will be added soon.

http://www.hickorynutforest.ecofriendlycommunities.com/

Living in an Eco-Village in Western North Carolina

One of the best-kept secrets in Western North Carolina is the quaint mountain village of Gerton, tucked high in the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge. The setting takes one back in time, having managed to stay relatively untouched in the midst of Western North Carolina’s rapid growth. Above this hamlet soars Bearwallow Mountain with breath-taking rocky cliffs. Through the main valley cascades the boulder-strewn Hickory Nut Creek with its many tumbling waterfalls.

What is Gerton like today? - the local social “Ecosystem”

Living in Hickory Nut Forest and in Gerton offers many diverse opportunities for recreation, entertainment and enjoyment of the outdoors. There are tennis courts, many miles of hiking trails, horseback riding, bird watching, fishing, picnicking, boating, over a dozen golf courses in the area, biking, gardening, and community social events. Amenities are within walking distance: Nita’s Grocery/General Store, the Post Office, Gerton Fire Department, the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center.

Hickory Nut Forest is just the beginning of what is possible for Gerton.

What would be worse than simply watching sprawling growth absorb this special place? Let’s envision a different future for Gerton. You can be part of creating the hub of an eco-village that retains the authentic, rustic feeling of the community and serves the needs of all its residents. Your ideas might include a village center with an old-time general store stocked with basic supplies for the village, small shops, a natural foods café and juice bar, fresh local produce stand, coffee shop, pub with local musicians, and a bed and breakfast. It could include work spaces for entrepreneurs, artists, and professionals. It could be an entirely “net zero renewable energy eco village” where people could live as well as work. It could include cohousing, seniors housing and neighborhoods for families and children. How does this sound to you? If you are interested, please contact Us.

Hiking the beautiful gorge at Hickory Nut Forest

We don’t feel we own this land. Rather, we feel more aligned as stewards, here to protect it. We are full of wonder and awe at nature’s intricate beauty. Living here is about discovering mysteries and miracles: and with fall approaching its a magical time.  

Forever wild, protected land surrounds Hickory Nut Forest, and covenants on the lots ensure that homes will blend naturally into the forest. We have kept the most special wild places: cascading streams, tumbling waterfalls, sheer cliffs, and distant vistas. There are over six miles of hiking trails that residents and visitors can enjoy and an adjoining 800 acres in both Little Bearwallow Mountain and Florence Nature Preserves. Just down the gorge are another 3500 acres of waterfalls and cliffs at Chimney Rock State Park.

Hiking in the fall is a wonderful way to experience the magic of this area. If you would like to come out to hike, please give us a call or email us.  Go to www.LaughingWatersNC.com or www.HickoryNutForest.com

Finding EcoFriendly Windows for "green" building

\Doug is building a sustainable home at Hickory Nut Forest Eco-community.  As he builds, he is sharing his experience so others can learn from his research.  Below is his investigation into "green" windows....

It’s time to place the orders for the windows. We just need to decide size, shape colour and finish  then find the best deal right….. no actually it’s a lot more involved than that. Here are some of the other considerations

1. Construction – air leakage
2. Ability to capture heat from the sun – solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC)
3. The rate at which a window conducts non-solar heat flow – U factor
4. Type of opening –  with a passive solar house, it’s critical to move the heat from the heated zones out into the rest of the building. These vital cross ventilation needs and opportunities dictate selection of casement vs double hung vs awning style openings

All of the above need to be considered and treated differently for each individual face of the house. To the south the priority is to soak up the sun so lots of glass. To the north, where there is minimal sun, we need to focus on minimizing heat losses and for east and west, somewhere between the two.

We chose Herd H3 frames with Cardinal glass (SHGC 0.7, U 0.3). The devil’s in the detail, look at the difference in construction quality

The Hurd product has a great seal and fully contacts the seal, reducing your energy costs and increasing your return on investment.

This product is supposed to be “the best” but look at this poor seal! Not to mention it has half of the wood structure as the Hurd product.

To complete the job, after careful installation and tight  sealing and insulation we will need to carefully select window shades and add window quilts for our biggest windows otherwise, when night falls, we’ll lose all our heat gains back through the windows…….!

Little Green Homes

Our plans to come up with plans for small, green, solar heated homes for Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community near Asheville took another step forward this past week.

First, I went to visit the Nauhaus being built by Clarke Snell, Jeff Buscher and Tim Callahan of
the Nauhaus Institute. (http://www.thenauhaus.com) It is a super-insulated passive house that Clarke
says could stay warm from body heat of 6 people! And the walls are made of industrial hemp, a great
insulator!

At SEEE I discovered a firm called Compact Cottage Company in Asheville,
(www.compactcottages.com) building very small affordable homes. We plan to meet next week to
discuss ideas for homes in Hickory Nut Forest.

I also learned about Katrina Homes (http://www.cusatocottages.com ), which were designed for re-
building after the hurricane. They also have some good ideas and designs for attractive affordable
homes. I am really excited about being able to offer folks GLASS houses - Green Little Affordable Solar and Sustainable!

If you're interested in seeing the sites where these homes might go, visit www.HickoryNutForest.com

Micro-hydro coming to the Eco-community soon

We are moving ever closer to finalizing our plans for a micro-hydro system that will power our new Laughing Waters Community Center and Retreat Site. Since we are fortunate to have year round stream running through the property, we are able to take a portion of this water to run a micro hydro turbine. (The remaining water is need in the stream to keep the trout happy!)

We have been studying and learning for the past two years and hope to be able to start construction next month. In future blogs we will explain all the components that go into a system like this including calculating the water flow, pressure, size of pipes, type of turbine, type of inverter, batteries, and grid tie. Since we plan to both sell power to the grid and draw on the grid and be able to run the building off-grid, all that adds more complexity to the design. There is lots of expertise available on solar systems, but much harder to find for micro-hydro. But we are determined and slowly it is all coming together. More later.

To see more future information go to www.hickorynutforest.com

Going to the Southern Energy & Environmental Expo

This week has been a very busy week putting together materials for the Southeastern Energy Expo. We will have a booth there to share Hickory Nut Forest Eco-community with folks interested in green building and renewable energy and living in a "net-zero community".

The S.E.E. Expo is the largest and longest running sustainable technology and green building event in the South. Participants can talk with the most leading regional businesses that offer cutting edge technology systems, legitimate 'green' building services and a host of products for sustainable living. They can also earn about the many conservation organizations and their efforts to protect our environment and boost the economy, and better yet, join a few!

Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community is announcing a new solar green home package of plans ranging in size from 750 sq.ft. to 1800 sq.ft. These are all passive solar designs and incorporate many features that make a home energy efficient, eco-friendly, healthy, beautiful and affordable. Buyers will be able to choose from locally harvested wood, SIP panels, rainwater catchment systems, radiant floor heating, timber frame designs, solar panels and various natural building materials. Prices for homes plus land start at $199,000. Stay tuned. More details to follow!

The Expo is this weekend August 20-22nd at The Western N.C. Agricultural Center.  For more information on the S.E.E. expo go to http://www.seeexpo.com/

For more information about the Hickory Nut Forest lots and land visit www.HickoryNutForest.com.

One resident's green-building journey at Hickory Nut Forest

1. Green building – guiding principles

So, we’d bought a lot and were ready to start to create our own dream home. What could we use to guide us on our journey with its many challenges to keep us on the right road to a home that is gorgeous, well-built and sustainable. The Hickory Nut Forest website and our community’s shared vision provided both the framework and the context. Here’s what we came up with for our house, something we could use to explain to visitors in one easy to remember acronym GREEN

Our ambition

Gift - grant wealth, opportunity and expression to our local people

Respect - live happily in harmony and low impact with our land and community

Energize - model 'positive energy' behavior and give energy back

Educate - learn, share and grow sustainable ways, challenge assumptions and take risks

Nurture - value the natural assets entrusted to us

When we’re not sure which way to go, this is our guiding star

2. Our dream design

We stood on the lot on the spot where the topography of the land suggested we should build. Gazing through the trees at the spectacular view down Hickory Nut Gorge we began to imagine how our house may look. With help from Ryan and John, we began to sketch out our ideas for a passive solar house. With George our architect and Sam our builder on board, these ideas soon took practical shape in the form of sketch-up drawings and formal plans and in what seemed like no time at all, the building permit was granted and we were ready to translate our plans into reality. Now we had to wait….for the unusually long and severe winter to subside so that we could put in a driveway and get started!

3. Building

With the summer underway the next dreams come...the Living Roof.   When we first drew up our plans we had this cool idea to have a roof garden over our garage. This week, that dream took a step closer to reality. With the house progressing to plan and our garage foundation in place , it was time to ‘ask the expert’. We had a visit from Emilio from Living Rooms Inc to help us in these unchartered waters. To our great relief he was able to reassure us that we had a great location for our 14 x 12 ft garden and that it was very realistic to envision a thriving roof garden outside our second bedroom window. So here’s what we need to do now to get ready

·      Up weight the floor joists to be able to take 55lb per sq ft – enough for 6in deep soil, plenty to grow whatever we wish

·      Build the roof with a slight slope (1/4 inch per foot) and a waterproofing layer to facilitate drainage

·      Build an 8-inch ridge around the top of the roof with a drainage mechanism to retain the soil.

There is much more to do, and step-by-step we make the dream a reality.  It's such a blessing to be part of the Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community, building a community that has the same green principles as us.  www.HickoryNutForest.com

What you really get!

Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community near Asheville North Carolina is a growing community.  I recently sat with one of the owners as he talked about why he decided to build there.  His words made me see the place in a new light.  "I didn't just buy a few acres to build a house. I bought a a piece of land that has conserved over 200 acres, has an organic food garden, streams, a beautiful holistic retreat center and a community committed to a sustainable future.  I couldn't do that all on my own."  Wow...what an insight.

To help get the word out about this amazing place, we have recently been listed with Green Eco-Communities.

Look forward to talking with you all more soon.

 

http://www.greenecocommunities.com/North-Carolina/Hickory-nut-forest-eco-community.html

From Mary & Keith's Excellent Adventure

 Today, after a brief visit to downtown Asheville for a delicious vegetarian Reuben and pumpkin spice decaf lattes (we eat out at restaurants or cafes only about once a week on average), we drove up winding mountain roads to the town of Gerton, North Carolina in order to visit the Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Village. We even crossed the Continental Divide on the way up the mountain!

From it's website, Hickory Nut Forest is a project described as "a unique eco-friendly community close to Asheville with plans to combine land conservation, green-built homes, organic gardening and renewable energy from wind, water, sun, and geothermal sources. Here, you can be part of designing a 'net zero energy homes community' that creates more renewable energy than it uses."

Another exciting aspect of Hickory Nut is the creation of a retreat/conference center which sits along a rushing mountain stream on the site of an old grist mill, with a basement yoga room located just alongside the stream. While we were visiting, we were also able to witness how the team is beginning the process of reconstructing several centuries-old log cabins on the site. It is obviously a labor of love, and the timber recovered from the ancient cabins is beautiful and enormous.

 As far as the sites for the homes is concerned, they are magnificent sites along a ridge overlooking the valley below, and the homes themselves will be certified green, using the best low-impact and healthy materials which will be conscientiously sourced. Water conservation, super-insulation, passive and active solar, geothermal and other technologies will also be employed in the building process, and waste water will be recycled using various cutting edge permaculture methods.

 The land surrounding the conference center is lush with tall trees, rhododendron and mountain laurel---a varied forested landscape. Adjacent to the conference center site is an organic orchard and garden which uses permaculture principles and may evolve into a form of community supported agriculture or similar project.

The Hickory Nut model is very captivating because part of our life's vision is to live close to the land in community, and potentially being part of a retreat center is very attractive to us based on a life-long dream of working and living in a retreat atmosphere.

While we are not currently in a position to buy a plot of land and begin the process of building a home in an emerging eco-village, we can see that the community that will emerge at Hickory Nut is one we will be sure to watch as it finds its feet and comes to certain fruition. We wish everyone at Hickory Nut the very best, and we hope to visit again to witness what will certainly be a transformative ripening of the vision behind this community.

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