Heather Bishop’s Solar House

I had been told that if we wished to write about significant alternative houses in southeastern Manitoba, we needed to include Heather Bishop’s house near Woodmore, a hamlet east of Dominion City. Heather is an artist, known for her music and painting, but she is also a different kind of artist, where her art is expressed in her building vision and building skills.

Click to read more ...

If not Natural Gas, What?

Last week in this column I bemoaned the fact that we have become utterly, dangerously dependent on natural gas to keep us from freezing in our Canadian winter. That’s bad enough, but the key actors in the management of Canada’s natural gas reserves seem intent on selling and exporting our gas as quickly as possible.

Click to read more ...

Deep Freeze Smashes Record for Natural Gas Consumption

The headline above, lead an article in the Winnipeg Free Press last Saturday. The article was buried on page C2, and the record was reported almost as if this was an accomplishment. Certainly no concern was expressed. But we should be concerned.

Click to read more ...

Upgrades and Pay-back Time

It’s a funny thing. People will spend thousands of dollars on upgrading their kitchen with new cupboards, fancy granite countertops, Italian taps, lighting, hardwood floors etc etc. Or similarly they renovate their bathroom with new everything, but those same people will not spend their money on putting solar panels on their roof. For some reason the idea of ‘pay-back time’ is applied to solar panels, whereas ‘pay-back time’ is not even a consideration with kitchen, bathroom or other upgrades.

Click to read more ...

Our Straw Bale House

We built our straw bale house 10 years ago. While living in Winnipeg, I came across a book on straw bale construction at our local library. We did some research and thought about it for awhile, then, because we wanted to move to the country anyways, decided to take the leap and build our own.

Click to read more ...