Green Modern Kits

An off grid green prefab home where chickens and goats and dogs and children
and parties and noise and even straying cows will always be welcome.

This is the last I will say about the feathers flyin' over urban chickens. #FamousLastWords
Prefab house kit updates after this brief, fine-feathered jump.

Ultimately, the urban chicken issue in Richmond / Henrico is an educational and cultural divide, as well as an unwillingness of zoning to look at what their professional colleagues are doing nationally today in regards to sustainability.

[Prefab house kit updates coming up, after mah rant!]

1. Urban chickens highlight an cultural and educational divide – neighbors that garden love them, those that have Pizza Hut deliver nightly and ChemLawn maintain their lawn don’t.
2. Note the rise of preventative medicine as doctors are educated on - > educate patients on eating more healthy, better. With that education, eating lifestyles change / awareness of the benefits of local, non-factory farmed food. Neighbors adverse to chickens are most likely not connected to their food source.
3. Backyard eggs are HEALTHIER: http://www.motherearthnews.com/the-happy-homesteader/pay-the-farmer-or-pay-the-doctor.aspx
4. The real deal on USDA: http://transformation-nc.com/blog/usda-free-range-chicken-eggs/
5. Rise of people enjoying and relying on food gardening -> gives way to urban chickens as urban communities become more interested in sustainability.
6. It's about the right to provide your family with healthy, humanely treated, local chickens & eggs.
7. UN Human Rights Declaration, Article 25 http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a25

Welcome to 4-H!

We spent a lovely evening visiting our friends Lisa & Ali... To anyone gathered there that night (and it was a feast!) the issue of a few birds in a big, fenced in back yard was... silly. We left it behind, and instead focused on the delicious food and kind company (also in attendance were our dear friends Steve & Chris of Aults Family Farm, and new friends Eli of Eli Greens and Darby & Adam of Fertile Crescent Farm).

Freshly roasted (from their BACKYARD) chicken (ok fine I had to mention that...
; ) ), hearty lamb stew, a variety of delicious greens, cobbler, chocolate mousse... are you hungry yet? We eat WELL at farm potlucks. What fun! What good eating! Thanks, Lisa & Ali...

[I will now entitle this photo, "I Give UP!"]

We are UNDER CONSTRUCTION again with the plumbing, HRV, and solar heat installation to a point I can not delude myself otherwise.

Prefab Home - Off Grid Systems Update

Take a look:

Hmmmm... Um... To consider.
Meanwhile, I worked hard slowly waking up in the sunshine sipping coffee and watching Handsome Husband unscrew the grill, then turn the appropriate screw accordingly to adjust the freezer thermostat to be more like a fridge.  We turned it twelve full turns counter clockwise, and will see what the temperature reads as we experiment over the next weeks as we put it to use. The outer dial is set to 1.

Now... off to the Annual Madisonville Farm Auction!

Not a mile up the road, the annual Madisonville Consignment Auction was taking place.
EVERYONE was there. 
For many, it is a day long event- half the family is buying while half the family sells.
There's kids playing football, moms selling stew and bbq, the Amish had a huge tent selling sandwiches along with their usual fare of jams, breads, pies...
And in the corner of the field? Way far away? An enthusiastic game o' volleyball.
Let me tell you, there is NOTHING cuter than seeing a gang of Amish kids playing volleyball with a bunch of kids in camouflage.

Heading next to the recycling center to recycle the boxes in which the chest freezer & solar hot water tank came, we were pleased to learn about a new recycling program Charlotte County is implementing- "Take What You Want, Leave What You Don't"! Yep, Charlotte County is the ONLY local county that has EXCEEDED its state-wide requirements for recycling, and it taking it to the next level- freecycling! Nice.

Back To The Wood Cook Stove!
With the work on the HRV, the prefab house kit's efficiency is being affected again, but not nearly so as when we were installing the inverter.  Like then, we will take extra care to re-insulate any penetrations / thermal bridging.

An efficiency note, regarding our sealed up, fresh air piped in, retrofitted old cook stove: Once thing we've noticed about the chimney is that there is no smoke emissions, which means we've dialed up the cook stove in its efficiency to where it's... how do you explain this? It's almost like it's a flame-less fire? There is no wasted output that goes up in (literally) smoke? I'm so thrilled this special antique was able to be retrofitted to continue to work and function, today, and for many more decades...

More On Our Prefab House Lay Out With Off Grid Systems

A big, honkin' solar heat tank.

Because we chose slab on grade vs. a basement, and because we chose to be an off grid zero energy home, we have to adjust a bit to accommodate our off grid prefab's systems.

Where I would like to have an airy transition between the middle bedroom with a translucent, shelved wall that would allow light to filter through while allowing privacy, where I would have my kitchen farm cabinet with a work station and lots of open cabinets for my vintage pottery... we have SYSTEMS.
Big, honkin', awkward, but off grid STUFF.

Check out our solar tank, waiting in the corner to be installed. ->
We have one tank for domestic hot water, and a larger one for heat (pictured), because we have two systems- one is open loop, one is closed. So we might (hopefully never) run out of hot water but we won't run out of heat.

With the solar panels installed and the beginning of the solar hot water tubes rack, the prefab house kit is beginning to lose its airy open elegance and start to look like a machine. I embrace that. Like a daunting Clearly A Machine Not A Mini-Van sports car, it looks ready to elbow out the competition and race race race to the "I don't need ya, Big Oil!" finish line. And with "Inherit This, Childrenz, One Day, And You Can Be Sustainable Stylin' Too" durable, timeless style.

[The casa ti could be much 'softer' if one clad it in reclaimed wood, etc. I just like the hard, industrial, machinery style.]

And Community Gathered. Again!

ANY-HOO, dusk fell and we headed into the city, Pamplin City (which, by the way, being population 199, is like five times bigger than Madisonville), for an Old Time Dance with bluegrass and old time music featuring Deja Moo! Who were playing with some of their friends! And we even won a Deja Moo CD in the raffle, which now holds the honorary title of "This was the first cd ever played in our prefab house and it's from Deja Moo!"
We're thrilled!

.

An evening of bluegrass and old time music, lots of smiles, all ages dancing, everyone in a great mood raising money to help restore the Library / Train Depot.  I love how it is just yards away from the train track, and right in the middle of the Tennessee Waltz the train rumbled through!

Pamplin Depot Library Fundraiser

We're now back at the house kit, with the Deja Moo cd playing in a laptop, tapping our toes and reading and smiling that we are so fortunate to be here.

On our way back out to Richmond, we stopped by our oldest and beloved friends here, Steve & Chris Ault of Virginia's renowned Aults Family Farm, who then, knowing we were now urban hen-less, loaded us up with FOUR cartons of pullet eggs (my favorite) and homemade goat cheese... now THOSE are good neighbors, dear dear friends, OUR community.

Like many of our friends already here, we're taking month after month, year after year, to slowly get here.
Weeks like this remind me why.
Now we return "home," to a chicken-less yard and violet-obsessed neighbors.
Is that really home?
Maybe, even still under construction, home is already here.

Pamplin Depot Library Fundraiser

Well, what-a-weekend in the off grid prefab house kit that was!

Friday I raced to the prefab modern house, cleaned up, and met with a reporter. Then my family and friends arrived, and honeychile, we trashed the prefab house kit. Saturday we woke up and frantically cleaned up for the Prefab Open House, which was really fun! Thank you all who drove from so far to come visit us in the off grid prefab house kit, STILL with no systems! Then the Prefab Open House was over, and we promptly trashed the house, again. THEN Sunday we woke up and frantically cleaned, again! And a photographer came out. And then we trashed the house! Then I cleaned it again! I. Am. Pooped. It. Was. FUN. : ) We are very grateful to The Ault's Family Farm who not only let us take showers, but sent us back to the prefab passive solar house kit with cartons of gorgeous pullet eggs to give our guests!!! And, why yes, we *did* eat cake! : )

Handsome Husband spoke about the off grid systems we are installing in the net zero passive solar prefab house.

Off Grid Net Zero Systems Talk Part 1 for Prefab House Kit

Off Grid Net Zero Systems Talk Part 2 for Prefab House Kit

As we mentioned, it's not just about a cool modern, energy efficient prefab house. It's about purposely spec'ing for less systems, for off grid, doing more with less. It's the fun treasure hunt to Make Somethin' Outta Nothin' - note as you look at pictures of the prefab, that almost *everything* has been recycled and reused - from the passing-down of my grandmothers bed, to the bookcase found in a thrift store used and already reused within our own family in four different ways before finding its fifth use in the prefab house. A nice woman from Maryland asked me how we got into "green living." (And she is in wildlife management! She should be giving us advice! : ) ) The simple answer is... we grew up with land, feel connected to it, see the cause and effect in how people treat it.  We grew up sailing, so understand the wind and sun and how to use it.  We camp, so appreciate bringing this all together to preserve but also shelter and sustain our family, comfortably. Plus supa coolio modern design is really fun on a shoestring. I like the hunt!

Seriously, it just makes sense. Living carefully, purposely, frugally just. makes. sense. And is tons of fun.

This is the FIRST of two energy audits.

Energy Audit #1, today's energy audit of the prefab modern house, is as we're at the "This is the modern house kit + cladding + the homeowner sealing around the windows stage", the second will be once we're "done, finished, kaput, as in done, done, done, done, don't ever want to think about anything construction related for at least another week DONE."

Our mission is to create tight, energy efficient, gorgeous passive solar house kits.  I admire rated, certified, even more stringent approaches, like Passive House standards, maybe we'll do this in the future, but we achieve what we want in an energy efficient home while incorporating great modern design on an average, reasonable budget.

Some highly energy efficient homes incorporate two door chambers to prevent temperature loss.
I picture the way I live, and it is just too chaotic and messy to make such an entrance successful.  Can you imagine a couple struggling with the stroller, dogs still on the leash, juggling a bag of groceries and a baby on one hip, getting the key in the door lock then screaming to the spouse...
"Quick honey, seal the chamber, we're losing LEED points!"
Obviously if you live in a severe climate, it makes sense. But we're in Normal Rest-o'-Tha-World here.

We're a muddy, raggedy bunch here... why do ya think we're bandits?
You can increase the thickness of the house kit panels, choose even more efficient doors and windows (our casa ti prefab green home is spec'd for Jeld-Wen and our, SIPs house kit with two stories, The R1 Residential, is spec'd for Marvin Integrity), seal it up even tighter... but my focus is on affordable energy efficiency in our prefab green homes, so we chose great solutions that fit within a moderate budget.

The average quote for the casa ti windows is currently about $9,000-$10,500. If you would like to spend more on windows to make 'em nano-crazy-efficient, go for it, we can adjust the shop drawings. But expect the added cost.

We hired energy rater Guy DuBois, of No Energy Loss, to come out and inspect the modern prefab house kit. 
These are the notes I jotted down during his cell phone call to me en route from the land. Mr. DuBois will guest blog later this week with more real data, but here are his initial verbal impressions of the still-under-construction, still-not-completely-sealed house kit:

"Well, we certainly smoked up your house quite a bit, there was nowhere for it to go!"

(Copeland's note: Ummmm, I assume he means it was some kind of smoke air test thingy? I hope he didn't mean he smoked in mah house?!?)

Ok, on to Mr. DuBois:

"Those windows - they are worth the money, they were very well sealed."

Copeland's note: Handsome Husband also sealed around the frames... OK FINE I will just stop commenting and just TYPE what he said!

"Your husband did a good job of sealing around the windows... there are two areas he also could look at if he wanted to seal further- along the south eave and that back door threshold.

It is surprisingly tight. I don't know why I say surprising, but I guess I didn't expect it to be so tight, even though I should have."

[Copeland's note: Um, yeah, thanks Mr. DuBois... ; ) OK, OK I'll stop commenting!]

"I'll go back at completion and run more tests.  This was a good time to go out there because if there were problems you could address them before everything was closed up.

As you know, it's so tight you really must have mechanical ventilation, which you will be installing (HRV), which is critical in these energy efficient homes. Most homes, most traditionally-built homes, leak willy-nilly so you don't ever have to worry about air quality, but in energy efficient homes like these they're so air-tight that air-exchange is imperative.

I saw very little air leakage... there is some thermal bridging you can address if you want but you certainly won't have a problem heating and maintaining good energy efficiency, that's for sure. How does it compare to a "normal" house? Superior!"

To continue to seal even further, concentrate on the areas where there is lumber vs. SIP (structural insulated panels)- the doorway header, add insulation around wooden framing, and if you're in really severe climates, you could add an exterior seal.

Mr. DuBois makes a good point:

"But you have to consider the climate- maybe if you're in Alaska or really south Florida you would want to consider that, but... we're in Virginia, how much gain will you really get by doing all that?!? You already know that with your off grid systems, comfort will never be an issue.

I will be punching in everything I did today and coming back with some data next week... you're not trying to get this house certified, so this is just more FYI info, but it will be cool to compare today with when you're done at the end of the project."

He also said that the amount of leakage currently (we're still not done sealing) in the prefab SIPs passive solar home is equivalent to about 6 x 6 inches, smaller than a basketball. Handsome Husband is chasing that number, with sealant in hand.

Later, Handsome Husband arrived home, and I had all these pictures and video to look at... and share with you now.

HOUSE KIT ENERGY AUDIT VIDEOS:
Mr. DuBois sets up...

SIPs House Kit Energy Audit #1 of 2

They start do to the smoke test and pressurize the modern house kit. SUDDENLY, a clerestory window pops wide open!  It had looked closed, but hadn't been closed totally, which certainly that had also contributed to our loss of temperature this winter at night!  It is securely locked now... : )

Smoke And Open Windows In The Affordable Prefab SIPs House

So, they pressurize again...

Energy-Audit-#1 of 2 In The Affordable Prefab Green Home

And then....they freakin' fill mah house up with SMOKE!
Note the comment about the south edge- later they discovered that when the door was installed they didn't put any sealant under that south door.  You as a home owner can seal that more if you live in a severe climate area. I knew the windows worked really well for our budget, but am pleased with how impressed he is! : )

Energy Audit 1 of 2: Smoke And Windows

Here Handsome Husband decides he's going to track down that durned elusive number.

Energy Audit 1 of 2: Husband Wants Passive Perfect

Then they go tramp around outside looking for leaks.
If there were gaps, you'd see the smoke drifting out.

Energy Audit #1 of 2 of the Prefab Net Zero Energy Green House

NOTE:The next week Handsome Husband discovered they hadn't sealed pipes inside for the audit + we haven't added the foam *around* the foundation, contributing to temperature drop / leakage. Stay tuned for Energy Audit #2!
Check out what it looks like when they crack the door (and how hard it was to open because of the pressurization - because the house kit was so tight!).

Energy-Audit-Of-Green-House-Kit

...And then they start calculating...
Which Mr. DuBois will go into more in his guest post soon.

Energy-Audit-01-16-2010-36 from Copeland Casati on Vimeo.

And thaz it, the latest from our passive solar green home!

Here is Handsome Husband's summary:

"This wraps up the initial test of the house kit. We now know what simple steps we have left to optimize the envelope of the SIPs house, and we look forward to the final testing after construction is (finally) completed. The general goal and idea of the casa ti has passed Mr. DuBois's testing with flying colors, as we already suspected in the prefab house kit's performance over the last few weekends where the design and structure were able to give us relative comfort in a hostile climate.

The great thing about the delays in this project is that we're able to thoroughly test the house kit without further improvements, this allows us to confirm the performance a passive solar house kit built with SIPs."

It's that time of year again, when you collect the photos from the year and send 'em off to the far-flung great-aunts and uncles.

Looking over these months, I enjoyed seeing again our net zero prefab green home take shape. There's still much to do; but even before the interior is completed, the prefab SIPs house can be beautiful with its use of light, open spaces, and special touches.

Here are some pictures of the interior as it has evolved this year...(with a few exterior pics thrown in...)

We will be dragging out a *lot* more (most of it reused, recycled) furniture this month...

It's amazing how you really can make a home out of little recycled elements, and a lot of love and creativity.
It is now also clear that my accessory and design elements incorporate... dogs.

In the meantime... Enjoy!

I could not help but recall our own prefab house kit construction when I read in the paper that a local landfill wants to quadruple the amount of construction debris it receives.

Here's an idea: Instead of increasing landfills to accept more waste, how about if we get the construction industry to WASTE LESS?

"The landfill can currently accept a maximum of 900 tons of waste per day. The proposed modifications would allow up to 3,500 tons of waste per day and increase the capacity by about 25 percent to 2.6 million cubic yards."

The majority of  the landfill's intake is construction and demolition waste. WHAT? What ever happened to
1. creating less (how about zero?) waste, and
2. re-purposing and reusing materials instead of just demolishing?

I called the modern prefab house architect David Day to have him weigh in.

"In new construction, you can recycle leftover drywall, concrete, etcetera; there are a lot ways to recycle materials instead of putting it into a landfill. Better yet, don't buy and cut unnecessary materials.

There are standard material sizes. If you work within those dimensions, there is no need to cut or waste material. If there IS waste, often it can be reused on the same site or repurposed for something else. There's a whole section in LEED standards about reduction of construction waste.

Copeland's husband mentioned to me the door landings on their prefab house kit were built from the small pile of leftover wood that they reused for the prefab modern house! Even that pile of wood could have fit into the trunk of their car if they wanted to repurpose it elsewhere.

Do we need to tear down buildings to begin with? How often can we rehab and reuse buildings? Think of Habitat for Humanity's Restore Richmond or Caravati's - often there is someone looking for that exact material you want to throw away!

From a builders standpoint, it's a money-saving, good business decision."

It's not just construction waste.
In the U.K. (I can only imagine what it is in the States) more than £12 billion in food waste goes in the garbage every year.  I think everyone needs to rethink waste.

We will begin to have guest bloggers (weren't you tired of listening to me anyhow?), people who know a heck of a lot more than I on the next steps of the prefab SIPs house kit as it goes from a modern house kit shell to a sustainable modern homestead in the years to come.

Please welcome Heather Barber, founder of Topos, LLC, a landscape design studio dedicated to purposeful design through creating unique natural environments in Richmond, Virginia.

The sustainable landscape plan by Topos was earlier mentioned here; today, she talks about visiting the off grid prefab modern house for the first time, and how sustainability is connected in the kitchen.

The rest of the post is her own.

Sustainability and landscape go hand in hand, but to really understand sustainability from a livable principal you must put form in the background and set the focus on function. The two do not have to live entirely separately, but the thing that has driven landscape design for centuries must become secondary to to the primary purpose of function. A sustainable landscape does not have to leave beauty out of the picture, but it is there for many more reasons than just aesthetics.

Let’s take green modern kits casa ti as a prototype for understanding the adaptation of the built object to the site rather than the normal process of site adaptation to accommodate the built object. casa ti is a melding of modern living principles with a centuries old notion of living with the land, off the land, and of the land. casa ti is sited in the middle of rural farmland in Virginia.

At first sight, it seems as though there is a modern box sitting in the middle of this soft, rolling earth...still viable earth that is now a repository for a very static looking building. Understanding modern sustainability will turn this perception on it’s ear. casa ti, a prefabricated green modern kit home is actually a very dynamic part of the earth and a living, breathing entity that sustains the land it inhabits. The landscape that surrounds casa ti becomes a fulcrum that allows the exchange between the site, the building and the family that lives on the land.

Read more >>

The past two weeks have been overwhelming, hence the silence, and aside from meetings, we haven't anything new to show regarding our own SIPs prefab house kit. [Now, about the *other* prefab house kits being built... (claps hands over mouth) Ahem, more on these later! : ) ]

Instead, we have spent time over the past weekends exploring Richmond's James River, which we never had access to until we bought a vintage Boston Whaler. It's amazing what a little river access can do for a family! We can now hook up the boat and in 15 minutes be at the river, watching bald eagles, blue heron, turtles and fish with our children.

Any-hoo, today, the prefab architect of the net zero house kit casa ti, David Day, came to visit!

Our original plan was to visit an artist's studio he built with structural insulated panels (SIP) but we digressed and instead sat outside watching the children play.... enjoyed the day and company of each other while discussing Woodstock documentaries, green living, and off grid net zero systems.

Ohhhhhhhh this off grid zero energy prefab house is never going to be done.
Ohhhhhhhh I'm exhausted (but excited).

Ohhhhhhhh. Wait a second: Once the prefab house kit is done, there's more to do:
The Land.

Ohhhhhhhh.

Well, thanks to the sustainable landscape architect Heather Barber of Topos LLC, our sustainable land management plan has been expanded beyond crop tree release and bush hogging.

And if you thought it took long to build the prefab house, wait until we journey years to gently shape the land to function more sustainably.

Great. I just set myself up with decades of more work. ; ) And we have no money.
But the landscape architecture plan by Topos is delicious.

And I mean that literally: There's blueberries and a root cellar in them thar plans!

So, c'mon, what are you waiting for? Let's check it out!

From Heather, the landscape architect of Topos LLC:

"casa-ti is a remarkable example of how far prefab residential architecture has come. this greenmodernkits kit home is located on 55 acres in a heritage area in the western portion of virginia. the most exciting yet challenging thing about the casa ti project is that it contradicts any idea that the landscape is a stayed design, or an anchor for the architecture. we are taking a very historical site contextually speaking and turning it on its ear...creating a post modern design that connects the home with it’s expansive environs. i think the opportunity to design a functionally sustainable, yet whimsical site plan for casa ti is a true honor and an evolutionary process. we are talking about the first kit / prefab modern home that is completely ‘off-grid’ / fully sustainable in the state of virginia.* this shows that the greenmodernkit home can translate anywhere, in any capacity. it is my job and again, opportunity, to create that threshold between the prefab sustainable home and the environs in which the owners choose to site it. this is a luxury for me. i can take a very simple form of architecture, which has it’s own inherent beauty in that it’s simple, and connect it to it’s site through the landscape architecture. whether it is urban, sub-urban, or farmland, the modern pre-fabricated homes that are greenmodernkit homes do, in fact speak the language of their location. and it’s a language that is very sensitive to the people living in it as well as the environment."

[ *Heather said we're the first off grid prefab in Virginia, I haven't heard of any others, but I don't know for sure if that's true... will research, but no, I haven't heard of any other modern prefabs that are off grid here... ]

Wow, Heather, I'm honored by your words! When Topos originally inquired into what our landscape architecture would be, I laughed and replied, "Um... a bush hogg, Handsome Husband and a shovel?"

I thank Topos immeasurably for giving OUR FAMILY the opportunity, through their experience, to turn an abandoned, briar-filled plot into, one day, a sustainable farm.

So... let's go through it:

• Starting with field #1, Topos created a figure 8 access road which allows us to easily navigate the drive, house, and shed while maintaining the field. This eight acre field was previously farmed. By bush hogging it regularly we have been reducing the briars which had cropped up before we bought it, and will start planting cover crops to enrich the soil this fall. Wildlife such as quail will be encouraged through allowing patches to not be mowed but to create the habitat quail, turkey, and rabbits enjoy.
• I also envision field #1 being used to grow potatoes and garlic...
• Field #2 is downhill from the house kit. Rainwater will easily help irrigate it.

The area around the prefab house is geared for high traffic and fun...
more on that in a minute!

• Back to Field #2: Being downhill, rainwater will naturally run towards this plot, and if you can look closely Topos has created furrows and a collection area for water- which is the way they used to irrigate fields in times past.
• Not only will we be using that existing field for crops but it will also harbor fruit and nut trees, and a berry hedge.
• This area is surrounded by woods that had been cut-over twenty-ish years ago. Lots of pine, cedar, but a surprising amount of diversity in the trees- poplar, birch, hickory, walnut...

Ok, let's get to the prefab house kit area:

• Pavers made with recycled fly ash for high-traffic areas in poor soil areas
• Cisterns for rainwater collection
• Baffle (you always wanted to know what a baffle was, didn't you?)
• Root Cellar
• Terrace for High Traffic Areas
• Retention Pool (more on what this does later...)
• Blueberry Hedge
• Berm to lounge against while watching Casa Blanca projected onto the side of the prefab house like David Day always wanted to do with a bunch o' friends
• ...and more...

I will go into this, and more, later, but in the meantime need to pack up for another camping weekend in the prefab house kit! In the meantime, check out Topos, a modern landscape architecture firm!

Last night I went to see Food, Inc. In my opinion the movie did not have much new to say about Big Agribusiness but it was well worth seeing, to see how many key people in government that have determination over our national food policy have previous relationships with companies like Monsanto, as well as reaffirm the fragility consumers have over their food choices.

The panel discussion that followed the movie included friends Lisa Taranto of Tricycle Gardens and Lisa Dearden of The Center For Rural Culture and The Goochland's Farmer's Market. The audience participation was lively- I particularly liked a cardiologist who said, "Everyone complains about the high cost of eating better, but don't understand that the medicine to treat the ailments caused by poor health and not eating well are more expensive. We all need to understand that we, individuals, need to be responsible for our own health."

One question asked repeatedly was "How can we make good food affordable for those that need it most and can't afford it?"

We rely on the grocers, the farmers. We can vote with our purchase dollars, telling these businesses that we, as consumers, want humanely raised, pastured meat, and fresh, local vegetables. But what was not discussed was that not only should you take responsibility for your own personal health (eat well, work out, to prevent sickness and disease), but that each person should have the RIGHT to responsibly grow their own backyard (and front yard) veggies, that each person should have the RIGHT to responsibly have a few laying hens and mini-goats for (here's where I reel it back to economics) AFFORDABLE fresh eggs and milk for their family.

Have you seen the statistics on childhood diabetes and obesity lately?!?

Address affordability, health, passing on a sense of connection to animals and land to our children while providing them exercise: If you have a back yard:

Get some chickens! : ) 

I promise you, your children will chase and play with those chickens allllllllllllll day long, while teaching them about animals and where their food comes from.

For those (including zoning) that feel chickens are messy and smelly, I offer up an urban coop for your inspection.

Chickens naturally want to be in the brush, scratching for grubs while being protected from predators. So in your average residential back yard, they will be eating the japanese beetles from underneath your rose bushes, hiding in the acuba, pecking through your ivy. Therefore, their "mess" remains in areas that are not trafficked by the rest of the family.

...If only the dogs behaved so!

Unfortunately, many counties and cities have forbidden responsible urban farming. Did you know that a pair of mini-goats, each about 50 pounds, can provide your family with a gallon of fresh milk a day? Both of my dogs are larger than that. My local zoning says I have have three dogs - so I could have three 200 pound mastiffs - yet won't allow a few laying hens in the same back yard?

This is where we, as consumers, need to not only buy locally, eat well, but tell our local government that it should be everyone's right to be sustainable, to have, if they choose, those affordable, healthy options for their family.

P.s. If you like, join our FaceBook urban chicken group, CHICKUNZ, and if you're local, sign the petition for urban chicken in Henrico!