Net

Geographies of the labour process: automation and the spatiality of mining Net – The summer solstice marks the highest point in the year for our net gain in solar energy production. But don’t count the winter solstice out. https://www.techlifetoday.ca/articles/2018/solar-shines-in-dead-of-winter-even-in-edmonton

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Moving

Move out. Move in. Put stuff in closets and drawers. Shake your head at the things you stored. Start another bag of things to donate. Remember what a privilege it is to choose to move…or to stay still.

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Landscape

Landscape: What to do with the stretches and swales of dirt around the house? I find myself at the juncture of looking and living, leisure and labour, owning and being, exchange and use, settling and decolonizing. (D. Mitchell, K. Olwig,…

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Koen Walls

Sketching away, our draftsperson reaches the foundation walls and asks, “ISF?” Our builder says no, he’ll put in the mold and then fill with insulation, to ensure it has filled properly. The draftsperson makes a note: “Koen Walls.” https://dewaaldevelopments.ca/

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Justice

Justice: “The other fork of the road — ‘the one less traveled by’ — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.” (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring) Province of Alberta is (again) taking…

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(More) Irony

Wildfire emergency evacuation orders for a host of northern Alberta communities, many of them Indigenous — and at the very moment that the UCP killing of the provincial carbon tax takes effect. https://globalnews.ca/news/5334212/alberta-wildfires-evacuation-alerts/

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Irony

As Edmonton air turned a heavy orange grey today, I was struck by the irony of our solar panels being blocked from the gift of the sun’s rays by wildfire smoke. 

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In Place

There is something about building anew, and with purpose, on a site you already call home. Less alienation. More neighbours invested in the outcome. Peonies that unexpectedly rise again in the same place.

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H2O

The condenser unit will leave a mound of 200 litres of ice over the course of a winter as it sucks the precious heat out of -20 air. Tiling our bathrooms and entryways required 20 gallons of water per day….

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HVAC

HVAC: I refuse to be that middle-aged woman on the Eco-Solar House Tour who couldn’t explain how her own house is heated and cooled. The ins and outs of condensation, evaporation, and heat exchange will roll off my tongue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14MmsNPtn6U

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Glazing

Glazing: I ask about % glazing we can have on the south wall. “As much as you want,” answers our draftsperson as he sketches away. Our net zero builder quietly writes “8 – 10%” on the edge of the graph…

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Forsythia

Forsythia: Somehow it survived the hubbub of construction. Planted in our front yard several years ago, it connects our home in Edmonton to Seoul, my first home, where blooming forsythia mark the coming of spring.

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