Sustainable compromises : a yurt, a straw bale house, and ecological living

Boye, Alan 1950- (author.).

Summary: "Living simply isn't always simple. When Alan Boye first lived in sustainable housing, he was young, idealistic, and not much susceptible to compromise--until rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, and loneliness drove him out of the utilities-free yurt he'd built in New Mexico. Thirty-five years later, he decided to try again. This time, with an idealism tempered by experience and practical considerations, Boye and his wife constructed an off-the-grid, energy-efficient, straw bale house in Vermont. Sustainable Compromises chronicles these two remarkable attempts to live simply in two disparate American eras. Writing with hard-won authority and humor, Boye takes up the 'how-to' practicalities of 'building green, ' from finances to nuts and bolts to strains on friends and family. With Walden as a historical and philosophical touchstone and his own experience as a practical guide, he also explores the ethical and environmental concerns that have framed such undertakings from Thoreau's day to our own. A firsthand account of the pleasures and pitfalls of living simply, his book is a deeply informed and engaging reflection on what sustainability really means--in personal, communal, ethical, and environmental terms"--

Record details

ISBN: 9780803265035
ISBN: 0803264879
ISBN: 9780803264878
ISBN: 0803265026
ISBN: 9780803265028
ISBN: 0803265018
ISBN: 9780803265011
Physical Description: 1 online resource : illustrations.
remote
Publisher: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Multi-User.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:	What I Lived For -- Sustainable Compromises -- Where I Live -- Water -- Design -- Foundations -- El Sol -- Economics -- The Beautiful Tree and Other Disasters -- The Amoeba -- The Straw That Broke The -- Finances -- Collaboration -- Artifacts -- Solitude -- Visitors -- Thick Skin in a Winter of Discontent -- Spring -- Higher Laws -- Postscript: Mistakes Were Made.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note:	Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.