Terry O'Day
A Resilient Homestead
A Resource Accessible to All: The Willamina Resilient Homestead
This project will fill an important and as-yet underdeveloped niche in our community’s education ecosystem. While much of my work is focused on developing place and project-based outdoor learning environments connected to schools, these are subject to institutional budget, policy, and facility priorities as well as curricular needs, which all have an influence on how these spaces are used. But youth attending schools are only a part of our population. Regardless of occupation, most of us maintain households that interact with the environment in various ways. While these households provide multiple opportunities to apply learning about sustainable systems to everyday life, busy schedules and uncertainty about untried processes will likely inhibit many from attempting changes beyond diligent recycling and purchasing green products.
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In response to this situation, I envision a demonstration resilient homestead accessible to all. This household will continually work to develop and improve closed-loop systems that limit the importation of resources and exportation of wastes by connecting the inputs and outputs of internal systems. The property will be open to the public and will hold workshops and gatherings that build the support and connections between people that are essential to resilient communities.
To this end, I have purchased a 1.25-acre property in a central location and have been working for the past three years to implement the master plan that was developed with input from many. Site elements include a garden, food forest, aquaponics, small animals, coppice woodlot, biochar kiln, and more. As with all my projects, the site will be built and maintained through collaborative participation by community members of all ages and backgrounds. This project will take several years to complete; however, many of the elements are already in place. A bioponics system that will produce greens through the winter is in progress and will be completed within the year.
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The site will allow people to observe and interact with a variety of systems, which will help them gain the experience and confidence they need to incorporate some of these processes into their own households, thus contributing to the development of a resilient community that is well-prepared to adapt in positive ways to a changing world.
Site Plan
Biogas/Bioponics
Biogas System
One of the more complex components in the homestead plan is the biogas/bioponics element. This element is intended to recirculate nutrients on site while providing greens to eat through the winter.
System elements consist of:
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A greenhouse to house the system and modify the winter temperatures.
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A Biogas digester to consume household wastes and produce energy (methane) that will help maintain temperatures needed for efficient digestion. Biodigesters also produce an effluent that is an excellent fertilizer, which will be used in the growbeds for winter greens.
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A compost enclosure to break down waste from the chicken and goat housing for use in the garden. Composting will also produce heat, which can be used to help maintain water at temperatures suitable for plants in the growbeds.
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Media and deep water growbeds that provide an ideal environment for growing greens. Water enriched with nutrients from the biodigester will circulate through the beds to support the robust growth of plants.
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Biochar made from wood produced on site as well as waste wood from art studios will be used in the biodgester and biofilters to provide a substrate for working bacteria throughout the system.
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Rationale for Using Biodigester Effluent instead of Fish Waste in an aquaponics system
Recirculating Agriculture Systems (RAS) are an active area of exploration due to their land use/food production ratios, ability to control environmental conditions, and minimal water inputs and waste outputs. Aquaponics is a popular form of RAS, as it combines the needs of plants and animals to their mutual benefit. Fish waste becomes food for plants, which then clean the water for reuse by fish.
However, there are some concerns with aquaponics:
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Ethics | Fish must be stocked at high densities in order to provide enough nutrients for robust plant growth in an intensive system. Concerns have been raised about the welfare of fish under these conditions. While growers are concerned about stress as a potential limit to growth, the well-being of fish in RAS is an unknown quantity.
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Off-site inputs | Fish food is an input that is problematic in the same way that any industrial food supply is, especially if carnivorous fish are being raised. While it is possible to raise fish food on site (with duckweed ponds, black soldier fly larva, etc), these methods require work, space, and warmth and are much more practical in tropical climates than in northern ones that experience a winter cold period.
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Solid waste | In addition to ammonia, fish also produce solids that need to be broken down before distribution to plants in order to capture the full nutrient payload of the fish food input. These solids require a different treatment system (mineralization) than the liquids do, thus complicating the system. While solids can be applied as fertilizer to soil-based garden beds, they still must be collected. As well, the loss of those nutrients from the RAS will require additional inputs of fish food.
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Work load | Given the project goals of integration into normal household activities, the maintenance of a healthy fish population along with requirements related to breeding and harvesting may contribute to a workload over and above what the average household might tolerate.
Biodigesters and renewable energy
Home biodigesters are in use world-wide and many cultures accept them as a common household appliance that both recycles household wastes and produces a gas that can be used for cooking, heating, or lighting. Anaerobic digesters can process wastes such as dairy, fats, and meat that are highly discouraged in backyard composting systems. The gas they produce can replace natural gas, thus contributing to transition from fossil fuels. Digesters produce a nutrient-dense effluent that is highly valuable as a fertilizer. They also convert most solids to liquid form and do not require moving heavy materials for processing as backyard composting piles do, thereby reducing the workload needed to recycle nutrients back through the system.
