My Newest Hero – John Wells
A few days ago I posted a short introduction to John’s tiny house out in the desert in Texas and was surprised at the number of other websites that picked up the story, Treehugger was probably the biggest of them all. Well that should make sense, after all I’m not the only one who can spot a great story when he see’s one.
Over the last few days I’ve been digging into John’s vast amount of online content and just at this very moment stumbled on this video of John reciting an original poem. At first you might think this post is completely off-topic but by the end of the following video I suspect John Wells might just be your newest hero too. Continue Reading »
The Field Lab – Extremely Sustainable Homestead
The Field Lab, also known as the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy And Sustainable Living Field Laboratory, is the 40-acre desert homestead of John Wells. John had been living in upstate New York for years but had a bit of awakening, like many of us, and decided to make his sustainable homestead dreams a reality. After purchasing his land in October 2007 he built this little house in 8 days for $1,600. It was habitable but needed a little detail work which he completed in about 5 months and for another $800.
John has created what many of us imagine, albeit in a remote and rugged territory. His energy needs are very low and all his electricity comes from a small photovoltaic solar array. His water rains down from the sky and is collected from his tiny roof and stored in a water tank. The desert gets hot and he’s designed a small swamp cooler that keeps his tiny house at 80-degrees fahrenheit even on the hottest days. His toilet is a sawdust toilet. Continue reading for more photos and a link to his website. Continue Reading »
