Welcome to this last sustainable curation post for 2021 from the ecoTrain community! We have received so many posts on a great variety of topics, and this week i would like to share a few that touch on our core topics of sustainable living and building. If you are interested in learning the basics about solar power then 
wrote a great informative post that shares information on different types of solar energy and their pros and cons. Solar power really is a great option in most parts of the world, and solar panels are getting cheaper and more efficient every day! With power bills rising like crazy around the world, now might be a good time to invest a small amount to provide free power and a backup solution just in case! We also have a few homesteading posts which is always great to see, and one shipping container vlog from 
. Many people are working with these containers so you can keep up with his progress on his regular vlog. I always like to share a nice recipe, and 
and Lilith (her cat) have shared an original plant based nut loaf recipe with a delicious looking vegan cheese dip. That and more in this weeks curation!
If you post content about anything to do with sustainable living and building please do share your posts with us on the ecoTrain community. We curate and support everyone who is working toward living in a way that is not only better for the planet, but also provides real security and freedom to all. I hope you all have an amazing new year and wishing you so much positivity and abundance in all its forms in 2022!
@ecotrain is a global Hive community gathered around the concept of natural giving, living in harmony with nature and making our world a better place. Changing the world starts with changing ourselves and the way we live, love, work and create together as communities .
We deliberately and consciously curate those posts, blogs & vlogs which speak to the issues, challenges and needs of community living and the emerging Hive ecoVillage communities around the world.
Here are some of the topics we support and curate on:
"Sustainability, ecoVillages, Community, Self-sufficiency, Off-grid Living, Homesteading, Permaculture, Alternative Energy, Alternative Lifestyle, Natural Health, Cooking, Eco-Building, Earthships, Recycling, Esoteric, Inner Transformation, Spiritual, Nature"
Thank you to everyone who posts to the ecoTrain community. With special thanks to the people below who are featured in this weeks sustainable curation post!
Is solar energy the future of clean energy generation?
Hello dear friends of ecotrain. I hope you are very well and are having a very merry Christmas, to begin with I apologize for being absent in recent days. I was resting and spending time with my family, I am sure you will understand. Today I want to talk to you about a topic that has recently made news in environmental circles, and that is the rise of power generation using sunlight. I used to view this topic with some skepticism, since the information I had about it was that it might not be the most efficient solution to the problem of generating energy in a clean and efficient way. However, we live in a time of great changes, and sometimes those changes happen very fast, technology advances faster than ever before, and what a year ago was impossible, today can be an everyday reality. So I decided to update myself, do my own research, and present you here the results in a summarized form. But to start, we need to cover the basics.
Grow Tent Arrived, Freezer Pulled Out Of Basement, Christmas Tree Teardown - Monday
Much later morning that regular had us soaking after 9am. A whole lot of my day was spent trying to get the ISS images from various places around the world. I have managed to get 7 of the 12 images so far and have gotten my certificate award already. I will do a post just about the SSTV. While chasing the ISS UPS showed up and they brought me my grow tent, fan, and filter.
Super stoked and rather amazed by how light weight the fan is, it weighs only a few pounds and pushes air really well. 
Off to the Ranch #8: Computer died | The Mother Bunker of a Chicken Coop is finished!
Heeeyho Readers! More updates from our little ranch!
Have you tried turning it off and back on?
I have. Time after time and again. My trusty 15-year-old laptop has gone everywhere and halfway around the world without issues. It's been serving me on this wild journey of internet stuff since the beginning. But a couple of days ago, I thought it gave up; it wouldn't access websites, etc. I was locked in this weird thing called the real world. The colors there are brighter, and we certainly have more time to rest. However, a man has got to work and so, after some cleaning, organizing, and a few Youtube tutorials the beast was off the life support. Now back to work.
In the last update of the Mother Bunker of a Chicken Coop we fenced the dog's area. Our chicken coop has been working wonders ever since {woooho}. Let's see the final touches and the inside, where the poultry will stay.
New grow room for my plants
Many years back I made a sowing room for my seeds, this would allow me to start seeds for vegetables way before the frosts end. And I could get a jump on the growing season starting plants in this room and then move them outside around April once the risk of frost has ended.
Unfortunately I had to stop using this room for many years, as we needed more space for the cats that live with us. So the room was mostly theirs. But now the room is for me to use again and I put my Thyme plants in there, and plan on starting a bunch of seeds for next years growing season.
Plant based Christmas
Christmas can be just as good vegan and healthy. We had a nut loaf made with rosemary, sage, chickpeas, lentils, psyllium husks, flax seeds, yeast flakes, carrots and almonds, topped with glazed carrots and with a raw vegan walnut gravy, the all the trimmings including a vegan cauliflower cheese made with cashews, yeast flakes, which give it a cheesy taste.
Then we had raw vegan snickers cake with peanuts, peanut butter, coconut oil, raw chocolate, coconut cream.
See What 24.5 Pounds Of Recycled Items Gifted For Christmas Looks Like!
Merry Christmas!
Check it out...
Before adding one last gift just before I left to visit my family, I'd done my entire Christmas shopping from the curbs and thrift stores for 6 people for $12. I didn't have to go to one retail store, which is ideal given the new spike lately. I really wanted to be 100% recycled out of principle, but two thrift store items were $2 and $10 before tax. Ultimately, I added that one more item I'd previously bought for myself, but knew my brother-in-law could use it much more.
^This all brought my grand total up to $42. Not too shabby. See the quality of the stuff below and realize that you probably will have a hard time telling if it came from a store or not. In reality, almost all were personally saved from my curbs, and I'm proudly keeping them alive within my own family.
MAJOR PRIORITY PROGRESS - Shipping Container Lean-To
I'm getting there!
After I got the welding done, it was time to proceed with the wood and metal. This project has been a long time coming, and it's great to see it taking shape. In this video, I try to invest the next two days to getting this build done, but don't make it as far as I'd like... I have my reasons. Enjoy the show!
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