Daily Oil Blog

This is really getting bad as I watched the evening news myself, even the monks have taken to the streets to demonstrate on Yangon, the capital of myanmar.What has resulted in a peaceful demonstration has led to a military crackdown by the regime.

9 has been killed so far including a japanese reporter, and 11 are wounded.Army units raided the monastaries in Yangon and arrested the monks en masse.Why the people and monks suddenly fired up in this incident?

This may have something to do with the 100% fuel hike the government imposed last month.Real democratic movement cannot be developed if the country is too poor to feed themselves and that’s why to simply cite it’s a democratic protest is oversimplifying myanmar society.Asians are generally  pragmatic lot, what use is more freedom without food on the table?

As fuel prices increase, everything become more expensive like daily necessacities, transportation costs used to carry the goods will passed on the consumers.As a poor country,the myanmar people bear the most burden of this fuel hike.

I believe the monks also needed the patronage of the public to survive, how else can monastaries able to sustain without generous donations from the believers.If the people donations fall, can the monks survive without any sources of incomes for long?So by connecting the events from the fuel hike leading to  a mass demonstration by the monks proved that everyone is affected even if you removed yourself from a secular society which the monks found themselves in a petroleum led world.

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Many of you guys know the precious timber resources men used for paper, housing, making fire, etc etc.So you too know the profits coming from a timber market.When one got a parcel of timber land, one not own only the trees but the potential of the land beneath.

It’s double return for while one wait for the trees to harvest, the land value too grow with time. The thing about timber investment is like land is a long term play and one will not probably see returns for the next 10 or 20 years.Given the long time frame, the value of the land may increase more than the returns of the timber harvest.

There are 4 options that you can take part in investing timber directly or indirectly.

Share option

You can buy shares into a timber company whether it publicly or privately but the downside is you cannot own the land .You cannot profit from any land appreciation as timber companies are valued for cash flow not land worth.

Buying Trees

You can buy trees from tree farm.The farm management take care of the planting and sell the trees on your behalf but you don’t own the land.How they know which trees are yours
is a tricky proccess I’m trying to figure out.This is the most simple way of investing in timber but also the riskiest.

Private Forestry Trust

Buying into a forestry trust is the third option.By buying shares into this trust, you get the advantage of professional management and land appreciation.This is a much better deal and more so if you decide to build houses on the land for investement.

DIY timberland

The last option are those with both time and money to develop their own timber plantation. You need the know how of timber growing and management but the payoff
is the greatest in doing yourself or you could tiedup with a reliable partner.

Please make sure that whatever timber investment you decide to engage in it’s a sustainable development.Happy planting!

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After getting to know your land surroundings better and design your strawbale house .
One need to where the bales will come from.So while designing your house, secure your bale source as to know roughly the size.Don’t settle for second best, look around in your area for the best source of bales available.

Bale inspection

Go through the color of the bales as they tell you the history of the bales.Have they been outdoors and have proper ventilation?Surface mould is a tell tale sign that the bales had been through rain or improperly stored.If you hit the straws and white dust bounced off,they may have plenty of interior mould which you cannot see on the surface.If the smell is musty, then the mould must be in there.Please do not use the bales if it’s in a bad condition to save a few bucks.

Bale density

Density factor is important and if one living in the west, one should be aware of this is part of the building code.This requirement is important as you need to guarantee the building inspector the quality of your bales.

Moisture level

The moisture content is important when choosing your bales.A bale which reached 20 %
is something that mould growth and decay sinks in and grow.It’s difficult to do anything to reverse that trend once that level is reached ,getting accurate readings of the bale is important so check them out during neutral time of the day and not early in the morning.
Use your senses to source out quality bales and remember the nearer they are near your site location, the better as it will be of minimal impact on the environment.

Have fun choosing your strawbales!

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I know that many people would like to give a shot at designing their strawbale house after listing the benefits yesterday.However, one must be aware of a few considerations before rushing off their own designs.

Site visit

Do a comprehensive site inspection to understand the land you’re going to build your house on.Observe the rainfall and the direction which the sun rays falls on.Don’t be impatient and design a house that’s not energy efficient.Nature plays an important part.

Water is Life

Watching the waterflow on your site is important, knowing where the water will flow to when it rains helps in your design process of your property greatly.Placing your site near to a well is good if your land is not on city facilities.A septic system for your leach field have to be build and also situated at a safe distance from your well. An understanding of
the topography of your site will be handy.

Solar thy home

Knowing the sun movement is important to house efficiency.Harnessing the power of the sun is really important if you want to live off the grid.This provides all your electrical and heating needs.Size of roof overhangs also come into consideration too .

This all comes down to understanding one’s motherland and the natural forces Man has little control over despite our arrays of technology.Only by undertstanding the geography where we choose to build our straw house can we truly make them our homes.

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Many of you may be thinking of building self sufficicient homes off the grid.Things like price factor and energy sources will be top priorities, and as promised last week.I will try to share the benefits of some of this housing types. The first type will be strawbale housing.

Energy Efficiency 

Strawbale housing has the high energy efficiency as construction materials.This is clearly
an advantage when there’s higher costs of cooling and heating.This provides good insulation and 75% energy savings compared to brick & mortar housing is no joke.

Noise Suppression 

For homeowners who like tranquility, strawbale houses is quiet ,I’m not kidding.Thick walls remove much of the sound outside and if you’re living near the beach and want to hear the sea wave , just open a window in that direction.Design of the homes must be done with sound insulation  in mind.

Environmental Factor 

For those greenies, you will be helping to use the straws instead of burning them.
Why not build a healthier house with straws instead of polluting the air ?This could beckon a trend to reduce a sick house syndrome so common in our industrialised world.
By using natural materials like straws, we will be doing our part.

Ease of building

Homeowners will get a sense of satisfaction building their own strawbale house.The difficult part is electrical installation and plumbling which can be subcontract to qualified  people.With the right teacher, a whole family and friends can get together to build one and not only is this a fun proccess, it save one much labour costs too.The end product is really home sweet home as you DIY with yourtime and efforts:)

All the above are a few benefits using strawbale and why one should not dismiss this as a  good construction model for your homes.

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There’s been a lot of talk about housing that’s eco friendly and that’s pretty important subject I’ll be touching on next week.Stone housing, strawbale housing and adobe are some of the more popular choices of DIY homers nowadays.

That’s the cost factor, energy considerations whether the house geographical location is suitable for solar or wind, hydroelectric source.The way things are going is simplification,men has complicated the housing process ever since the advent of farming practices.

The decline of fossil oil will be the slow demise of suburbia and skyscraper types of housing, both are a dent into our human soul the past century with isolation and pride.
Stay tuned .

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Recently there are news about the burning man carnival near black rock city in the USA.
This activity is called radical self realization.Mankind sought to identify themselves in groups earliest times whether it’s in hunting or farming.The burning festival seems to be about different things to different people though the go green and crude awakening theme seems to be popular in recent years.

Creating one’s own world , particpants seem to drink lots of water to prevent dehydration.People make their own stuff depending on the theme of the day..
After that, you dismantle own stuff..at first I thought you then burnt those stuff after the end of the camp LOL.. later I realised the burning part is just camp fire for the night.

I personally feel theme camps like this may be fun and it’s not arnachic as people think it is.But it’s not survival camp nor much arts and crafts..one do not really learn much maybe except for self expression for pent up frustation for city dwellers coop up in their offices and apartments for too long.One can learn more by attending a permaculture camp instead without all the fanfare.

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My brother has left his ibook at home temporaily till we buy a new PC or Mac which I much preferred.I think Mac is much better than PC which is less buggy and user friendly which I can concentrate my blogging in peace without worrying about virus and troubleshooting.

If one thing about energy crisis in the next 2 decades that would bring internet costs up , then Mac is a good computer that will save one’s precious time and money relating to it.I’m wondering will pay by hour be back if monthly package by ISPs grow unaffordable.I’m keeping my fingers cross.

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My dear readers, my PC unexpectedly crashed on Sat and the maintainence store just called me to tell me all my harddisk ,motherboard and RAM has COLLAPSE.I do not  have a choice either I buy a new PC and will have to do my blogging in the internet cafe which I’m doing now.

This is a sort of scenerio which is likely during peak oil which less energy means less time spent online and maybe even restricted sales of PCs. Price of internet package will definitely shoot up making most households unable to afford hopefully this will not come true.Will internet cafes become centers of peak oil net infrastrusture  where limited usage will be the norm?

Now I’ve to go to the store downtown salvage my remaining CPU  , my postings will decrease  till I get a new PC

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Reading the newspapers today about crude oil prices rises above 80USD, a sense of how things will change as I looked out my flat facing the carpark.Will less cars be there in the near future?

In Singapore , most of us live in high rise public flats, a carpark is always a stone throw away.It’s a waste of space and not a pleasant sight clogging the spaces that land scarce island city  I’m  living in

With the end of cheap oil,the car parks will be lesser maybe even replace by gardens of potatoes or cabbages.Who knows? As of now…I look outside the carpark in disbelief as oil price continue to surge

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