is one of the things i use my solar panels for the solar panels themselves need to be at a particular angle which changes throughout the year in order to optimize the electricity they're able to generate so i had to make this adjustable frame which supports them and of course there are dozens of little things which make all the above possible hose clips and funnels chlorine dispensers electrical cables charge controllers not to mention all the tools needed to assemble and maintain everything now i know what you're thinking wouldn't it be easier to just stick with the buckets well the problem with that and i did do it for a year very much relates to the third question i'm going to tackle in this video and that's time because there are only so many hours in the day and the more time that you spend hauling buckets of water up a hill the less time you have to work on other really important jobs like maintaining the vegetable garden and restoration work making videos like this so the other alternative why not just get a mains water connection there are two reasons for that the nearest mains water connection to me is a kilometer away and it would be many thousands of euro to extend that to my land but more than that i love knowing that no matter what happens i will always have a supply of water and even here in ireland the sun never stops shining like today not entirely anyway so i will always have a way with these to supply myself with water and pump it to where i need it with electricity that's what self-sufficiency is all about for me not being dependent on a system which i have no control over and it's that independence from a system at least with some aspects of life not all admittedly which for me at least is so fulfilling but striking that balance between time and stuff is a really hard one which i wrestle with every year in various different ways one thing's for sure though a self-sufficient life is not one free from the need for tools equipment and resources perhaps uh if we were still nomads living uh like our hunter-gatherer ancestors used to wandering the forests um then to a greater extent it would be that that's just not the reality of living on a small holding like i do now on the subject of stuff and sustainability this video is sponsored by eco cart an eco cart is a simple browser extension for google chrome which gives you the option whenever you're making an online purchase from a participating retailer to make that purchase carbon neutral without paying a cent more or a penny more yourself and if all that sounds a bit too good to be true then don't worry you're not alone because it did to me too what actually happens behind the scenes is that the retailer pays a small commission to eco-cart for the sale which they then donate to ecological projects around the world to offset the carbon footprint i.e the impact of shipping for that purchase and those projects include planting forests in massachusetts the provision of clean water in cambodia and creating wind energy in turkey of course they take a portion of that commission too but you as the buyer pay exactly the same amount for the product that you want to buy in fact you can even earn money back vouchers the more you use the service those of you who purchased a mossy bottom calendar may have noticed if you really were paying attention in the dispatch confirmation that etsy the retailer i used also offsets
START_SPONSOR_TOKEN subject of stuff and sustainability this video is sponsored by eco cart an eco cart is a simple browser extension for google chrome which gives you the option whenever you're making an online purchase from a participating retailer to make that purchase carbon neutral without paying a cent more or a penny more yourself and if all that sounds a bit too good to be true then don't worry you're not alone because it did to me too what actually happens behind the scenes is that the retailer pays a small commission to eco-cart for the sale which they then donate to ecological projects around the world to offset the carbon footprint i.e the impact of shipping for that purchase and those projects include planting forests in massachusetts the provision of clean water in cambodia and creating wind energy in turkey of course they take a portion of that commission too but you as the buyer pay exactly the same amount for the product that you want to buy in fact you can even earn money back vouchers the more you use the service those of you who purchased a mossy bottom calendar may have noticed if you really were paying attention in the dispatch confirmation that etsy the retailer i used also offsets END_SPONSOR_TOKEN