LifeTrac II Update
We are making good progress on LifeTrac – Prototype II of the open source tractor. We have managed to fund its completion via crowd funding. We’ve got just about all the parts in, including hydraulic components. We will use Power Cube Protype...
Open Everything
Today, an Open Everything event will take place at the Paraflows Festival in Vienna, Austria. Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation is the main speaker. Franz Nahrada and Ralf Schlatterbeck will follow up with the hardware side of open production, with...
Factor e Farm: The Early Days
Today marks the 3rd anniversity of settling the land. We came with a hundred chickens, a goat, Massey Ferguson tractor with loader, Chevy suburban, trailer, Lister one-cylinder diesel running on waste oil for electricity, and a lot of dreams and desires.
CEB Vault Construction Workshop
Here is our formal initial announcement of the 10-day Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Vault Construction Workshop. It will be held at Factor e Farm, in the Kansas City area, Missouri, USA, at the end of September, 2009. Examples: Modern, earth-sheltered...
Factor e Live – Part 3
This installment of Factor e Live focuses on LifeTrac – the open source, life-time, design-for-disassembly articulating multipurpose tractor/loader. It is the key to powering the CEB Press, permacultural operations, as well as: well-drilling, sawmilling,...
Solar Conversion
Factor e Farm would like to announce that we are finally in the process of converting our operations from generator-based electricity to 100% solar electric. Thanks to Ronny’s behind-the-scenes work while he was with us this winter, we recently...
CEB Infrastructure
In order to build with the Compressed Earth Block press, and in order to produce these machines at Factor e, we need a certain level of infrastructure. Here is what we are doing: Say you want to fabricate CEB presses. Start with a facility: CEB walls...
Solar Cows
A friend of ours stops in from time to time unannounced, often with a technical question on his mind. Before the weather turned so cold, he asked if we had any ideas for keeping his pond open for the winter. We had nothing intriguing to offer; just a...
Turn On the Heat
When I was eight years old or so, my mom took us to the local lake. It was a particularly hot day and I put on sunscreen. After hours of fun in the lake, we came in for a picnic lunch. I was crispy. The swim suit straps had saved only a narrow stripe...
