Absolutely the best book concerning sustainable living I have ever read: Little House on a Small Planet

By Shay Salomon, with photos by Nigel Valdez, Little House on a Small Planet is by far the most inspiring and deeply useful books on sustainable living I have ever read.  I'm am so overwhelmed by the beauty of the photography and the author's insight that I'm not even going to try to explain my feelings about the book.  I just hope that as many people as possible will read it.

The San Antonio Public Library doesn't have a copy but it can be borrowed via the free Inter-library loan system.  Here's some information you'll need:  The Lyons Press (September 1, 2006) ISBN-10: 1592288685, ISBN-13: 978-1592288687.

"Living like Ed" by Ed Begley Jr. is a good introduction to green living

"Living Like Ed- a guide to the Eco-Friendly Life" is an intelligent, understandable, introduction to the basics of sustainable living written by Ed Begley, Jr. and growing out of the HGTV series "Living with Ed".

The book is a tour through Ed's life with explanations and suggestions on how to become more efficient in housing, transportation, recycling, energy, garden, kitchen, clothing and skin care.

With just enough statistics to back up claims and sidebars by knowledgeable people, the book does a good job. Ed is no dilettante. He has experimented and implemented his ideas.

"Living with Ed" is among many books on green and sustainable subjects available free of charge from the San Antonio Public Library. Be sure to check them out and reserve a copy on line at the library website.

CHECK IT OUT - - "Water in Texas" by Andrew Sansom

This small 319 page volume, "Water in Texas" by Andrew Sansom, former executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife department and current director of the Rivers Systems Institute at Texas State University is a survey of Texas watersheds, water law and water issues.

Richly illustrated in color and printed on thick stock, this book is slightly too large for a pocket, and not a field guide. Rather it is a book for any Texan interested in water whether for recreation, protection of habitat or for consumption.

It is currently available as a new book at the San Antonio Central Library, and may be reserved on line. The library pays attention to which books are borrowed, so when you check it out you are increasing the chance that more books like it will be added to the colllection.

CHECK IT OUT! "Greasy Rider"-by Greg Melville, Two dudes one fry-oil -powered car, and a cross country search for a greener future

Among the new books at the San Antonio Public Library is "Greasy Rider"-by Greg Melville. Published in 2008, this is a road trip memoir of Greg and his buddy's adventures and misadventures as they travel across America in a worn out 1985 Mercedes converted to run on vegetable oil. Instead of taking their oil with them in a tank trailer, they set off with the goal of collecting oil from restaurants (and restaurant dumpsters) along the way.

In a fun, self-depreciating way Gregg describes what lead him to his long drive and explains what he learned about alternative fuel.

You can reserve this book online for free at the San Antonio Library website. By checking out these sorts of books we can encourage them to add similar titles to the library collection, and we can all save money for other things like workshops and energy efficient upgrades.

Radically Simple Sustainable Living (on the cheep!) and mostly at the library

I have been researching ways to reduce water and energy waste in my life. Elegantly.

Not with complicated stuff. Tanks aren't required to collect rainwater. Solar panels aren't necessary for capturing the sun's energy. Tanks and panels do have their place, but I lean towards cheap and easy.

By the way, I don't own any of the these books. Most are available at the San Antonio Public Library and the rest are available free through inter-library loan. Since I have several checked out, you may have to place them on hold for pickup (at your local branch - very cool!)

1. Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg
The Rhizome Collective has done an impressive job of enacting simple permaculture and sharing it with the public. A phenomenal resource to calibrate your brain for true sustainable living.

2. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 1): Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life And Landscape by Brad Lancaster
Brad is a charismatic rainwater guru from Arizona. I highly recommend you Google him and visit his site and watch the few videos of him. Simple changes in the contours of your yard can retain thousands of gallons of water.

3. Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather Coburn Flores
Maybe I am too demanding of the plants I put in the ground. Aren't beauty, oxygen production and shade enough to justify a few square inches and a splash of water? I lean towards plants that offer up some food for my family or my chickens. If it's a perennial, all the better!

4. The New Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems - Includes Branched Drains by Art Ludwig
Art has provided me with wise counsel - Slow Down! I look forward to water trees with my laundry water, but I don't want to burn out my washing machine or kill my trees. That would be counter-productive. Art provides the philospohy and the How-To for greywater reuse.

5. Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks by Art Ludwig
Dee and I attended a Design-Build-Live rain jug workshop in Austin a few weeks ago. With a chicken wire, a bag of cement, a pinch of sand and a little bit of guidance means that you can make beautiful rain jars without a kiln or a potting wheel.

6. The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book by Ianto Evans
I have been pulling up asphalt in my backyard to encourage water retention. Turns out my soil is clay. Bummer? Nope- I can build a house or an outdoor oven. Ianto's book leaves me with a sense of peace and purpose.

7. Builder's Greywater Guide: Installation of Greywater Systems in New Construction & Remodeling; A Supplement to the Book "Create an Oasis With Greywater" by Art Ludwig
This is a guide for those of you who want to have your greywater system installed with city permits. This won't make it a slam dunk, but your efforts will pioneer the way for others.

8. The Green Lifestyle Handbook by Jeremy Rifkin
1001 tips from many smart people. Edited by Jeremy Rifkin.

9. Builder's Guide To Hot - Humid Climates. by Joseph Lstiburek
Joe Lstiburek is a Building Science rock star with compelling, common sense approaches to Advanced Framing, Indoor Air Quality, and Building Envelopes. Why invite hot and humid air into my vented attic to condense on my nice cool ceiling or AC ducts? Lstiburek didn't invent this, but he's the one who presented it best! (Buildsagreen.com podcast was first.)

10. Entropy: A New World View by Jeremy Rifkin
A sobering and simple concept introduced to me in high school. I forget what the concept was, but I am fairly sure I was sober...

11. Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin
Cover crops and poultry. How to improve your soil and feed your chooks. I am hoping to cut back on buying feed!

12. Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock by Judy Pangman
"Fun ideas. I built mine from recycled louvered screens from a bungalow in Mahncke Park. Lots of plans for chicken tractors for those of you who aren't ready to let your chickens wander."

Adapted from an Amazon Listmania by SASL member Joe Barfield. Republished with his permission.

CHECK IT OUT!: So you want to raise Chickens? Our library has the books and we have the list

SASL member and backyard chicken farmer Joe Barfield offers a roster of books on home chicken tending that are available at the San Antonio Public Library.

Books available include: Backyard Poultry Raising The Chicken-Growing, Egg-Laying, Feather-Plucking, Incubating, Caponizing by John F. Adams
The Chicken Book by Page Smith & Charles Daniel. Chicken Tractor : The Gardener's Guide To Happy Hens And Healthy Soil by Andy Lee. Chicks & Chickens by Gail Gibbons Chickens : Tending A Small-Scale Flock For Pleasure And Profit by Sue Weaver. Crie Gallinas by Enrique S. Peron. Egg To Chick by Barbara Wolff. Eggs 101 A Video Project by The American Egg Board. Gallinas : Las Mascotas Del Siglo XXI by Johannes Paul Y William Windham. Keep Chickens! : Tending Small Flocks In Cities, Suburbs, And Other Small Spaces by Barbara Kilarski. Keeping Chickens by John Walters And Michael Parker. Poultry As A Hobby by Michael Baumeister & Heinz Meyer. Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs : An Inside Look At The Modern Poultry Industry by Karen Davis. by Gail Damerow. Técnicas Y Prácticas Modernas En La Cría De La Gallina by Enrique Salcedo Perón. Where Do Chicks Come From? by Amy E. Sklansky. Window Into An Egg; Seeing Life Begin by Flanagan, Geraldine Lux.

CHECK IT OUT- - Glorious Mud! by Gus W Van Beek. Ancient and Contemporary Earthen Design.

In "CHECK IT OUT" posts we'll spotlight books on green subjects available at our own San Antonio Public Library. First up is "Glorious Mud" by Gus W. Van Beek with Ora Van Beek. This 500 page book, profusely illustrated with black and white photos, documents the investigations of the former curator for anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History into earth built buildings the world over.

Unlike other books on natural construction this book also looks into the ancient history of earth buildings. This is not a how-to book, it is more of a survey of earth building methods and their history. It might well serve as an inspiration to a modern builder to see the multi-storied mud brick buildings of Yemen or the the rammed earth houses of Germany. To hear that the longest lasting structures of ancient Egypt were made of mud might be give confidence to someone interested in rammed earth building today. Though Mr. Van Beek suggests at one point that perhaps "adobe" would be a more attractive word to use than "mud".

Ora Van Beek, travelling with her husband, was able to gain access to the female only interior quarters in muslim countries which her husband could not, this gives a new insight into daily life in present day Pakistan and elsewhere.

The sustainable building enthusiast will find much to enjoy in this book and will come away with a much broader understanding of the many methods of using earth for building. If only the pictures were in color. Black and white photos do not do justice to the beauty of these buildings.

This book is currently in the New Books section of the Central Library. It was given to the library in honor of Library Foundation board member, Lamar Spencer. Considering the book sells on Amazon for $99.95 checking it out free from the library is quite a bargain. You can even reserve it online.

Glorious mud!; ancient and contemporary earthen design and construction in North Africa, Western Europe, the Near East, and Southwest Asia.
560 pages, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press (December 28, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0978846001, SBN-13: 978-0978846008