It's so easy being green

Sub-Urbia is located in the rolling hills of Southern California and is designed to be a demonstration home for those interested in aligning their lifestyles with sustainable philosophy.

Our original inspiration 35 years ago was the Integral Urban House in Berkeley, California. This house was designed to be independent of the grid and self-sufficient in an urban setting.

Our focus is on non-toxic gardening, free-range (and I really mean free-range) chickens for eggs, composting, reducing consumption, innovative use of old materials (such as broken concrete), producing clean energy through solar, biodiesel and other technologies, and most recently, the production of biochar.

We have a small vineyard, olive trees, a fruit orchard, a vegetable garden, seven hens, one pony, two llamas, three cats, two dogs, and a large herb garden. Nothing goes to waste here. Any edible substance that is not used for our nourishment goes into the compost, which is located in the "chicken Hilton." When our girls are not out free ranging, they are in the compost heap aerating it for us. They go through it with their claws searching for any tidbit that they may want to eat. In doing so, they turn it for us and cause it to stay fluffy, so that it never becomes too compact to do its work.

Frank makes all of our fuel. Our cars and his truck are all diesel, so we do not have to purchase fuel that originates from any Middle Eastern country or off shore wells within our own country. He uses used cooking oil, which keeps it from going to a land fill. The bi-product of biodiesel making is compostable glycerin.

We generate our own electricity with some left over that goes back into the grid for someone else to use. Our solar panels are mounted on trackers, so that they follow the sun and produce more than stationery panels.

Our goal is to reduce our footprint on the environment. Not just our carbon footprint, but everything. Reduce. Repair. Reuse. Recycle. Make our own. Grow our own.