note: at long last, we are beginning the process of converting the myriad resource files of the Smart Shelter into digital format and making them accessible on the Smart Shelter Website ...which is where you presently are, we hope. In its 8 years of existence Smart Shelter has identified over 300 subject areas dealing with Natural Building, Native Lifestyle and Environmental Illness (presently extending itself beyond private homes and property and into health-related public lands issues themselves). Prolific paper-based resource files have accumulate in 3 ring binders bulging with postit notes from conferences, case studies, etc...and an almost metastatically growing file folder system...soon to be housed at the Western Colorado Environmental Resource Council office in Paonia.

During this time, over 40 summary reports, hundreds of newspaper articles and many preliminary documents have been prepared from the ongoing research into workable natural and sustainable technologies for new and already existing homes and the landscape interface with nature which surrounds them.

What will be happening over the next few months (more realistically years) is that this information will be converted to digital format and published on this web site...right here...by alphabetical subject heading for your free and casual research, access and public use. These documents are also used as study resources for people taking personal lifestyle and professional or trades residencies with Smart Shelter...in which case, over a period of 4 years, these students review every single document in the Smart Shelter Resource inventory...along with our prolific library of videos and radio interviews.

What you will watch develop here is probably the largest and most accurate publication of scientifically documented research findings in these fields tailored specifically to South Western Colorado that exists.

We recommend you bookmark this location (as well as the Smart Shelter Home Page) and check back regularly for new postings and updates.

If you would like to help speed up the process by providing funding specifically earmarked to Resource File publication, contact Smart Shelter email at: gd@smartshelter.com

Click the Blue Underlined Title of the Document as it appears in the directory below and it will appear for you.

Please join us in the campaign to reduce paper construction by utilizing the amazing ease, speed, flexibility and searchability, freedom from disposal problems of the tree based paper industry. You can do this by accessing our digital files, storing them in your own alphabetized resource file, right on your computer and when they are obsolete...just push "delete" Please do not print them out on paper unless absolutely necessary. The paper freezes the information in time, it cannot be updated or changed, the printer inks themselves (and most papers) are toxic and accumulating paper files are sources of indoor air pollution you should not breath and are so easy to avoid. You're wasting usable space in your environment storing paper files, 95% of which you will never use past the first time and only have to move, dust or throw away (hopefully compost) later.

Why would we entomb state of the art environmental information with toxic ink on the tortured bodies of murdered trees?

...when digital is so quick and easy a habit to formulate. Zero space storage...speed of light searching and transfer...fingertip, zero impact disposal.

...A Further Note on downloading, filing and retaining Smart Shelter Resource Files...beyond not rendering these files to paper, you may find that it is not only redundant, but counterproductive to store them on your computer at all. All of these files will remain accessible on the Smart Shelter Website indefinitely. We update, correct and add to these documents regularly. You could bookmark the Smart Shelter Website or the Resource Files Index page (where you are right now) and simply come back to it when you need specific information. If you print or download a file now, you freeze it in time. If you need that information later, you have no assurance that it hasn't been updated at Smart Shelter. By simply bookmarking Smart Shelter as your "natural building resource library" each time you visit us and retrieve information, you know it is the freshest available...not to mention the myriad other items you weren't expecting that you will find in the process of your browsing. We recommend that you bookmark our Home Page and access it first...have a glance at the latest projects and bulletins there FYI and then link to the Resource Files for your research.

notes

***dates appearing with titles indicate dates of publication. Verify the revision date on the document itself. Be warned, especially if the date is old, that these technologies develop rapidly, information is accumulated constantly, conclusions and recommendations are the best summary of research at the date of publication, but may very well be obsolete by the time you retrieve it. Service providers and resources cited here come and go. These files and resources are screened by very high standards but are certainly not represented as up to date, completely comprehensive or to be used as certifying unwarranted levels of trustability.

Texts for Natural Homes #101-Introductory Video Course on Natural Building

Course Title Page (1999)

Copyrite Page

About the Smart Shelter Network

Am I going to Save the world by building my home out of mud and straw?

Basic Building Program Form

Basic Passive Solar Design

Bibliography-Natural and Sustainable Building

Biography-Gary Duncan-Director of Research-Smart Shelter Network

Comparative Building Shell Systems (from Natural Homes #101 course)

Design Principles for Natural Building

Facts on Building Related Illness

How Many Square Feet?...explanation and illustration of how square feet in buildings are measured, what they mean and how illusionary quotes regarding them can be.

How Much House will I need?...space efficiency and programming

Introduction (to Natural Homes #101)

Natural Building Materials Sources

Natural Building Systems...a checklist for natural building ingredinets and standards

Preliminary Building Cost Estimate for Owner/Builders

Project Budget

Resource File Subject Index...a listing of the paper file resource titles in the Smart Shelter Library at the time of Nat. Homes #101 presentation in 1999.

Roofs and Roof Systems (from Natural Homes #101)

Smart Shelter Network Business & Government Members

Site Selection and Planning Checklist

Smart Shelter Check List....outline for natural building project program

Smart Shelter Reports

Staying Out of Trouble: Owner Responsibilities in the Building World

Sustainable Building Materials...criterion for selecting environmentally responsible

ingredients for a building project.

Sustainable Building Techniques for Remodels and Retrofits of Existing Structures

Table of Contents (Natural Homes #101)

Water Catchment (from Natural Homes #101)

What Smart Shelter Can Do For You...a summary of the Network's functions

Why are the buildings we live and work in so important to a healthy environment?...Natural Building Fact Sheet

 

 Resource Files (by subject area...note-also check in the Natural Homes #101 File

above) (resource files are in the process of being published here as time affords)

 

Agriculture/ Permaculture

Air Quality

Burning

Arts

Brining/ Alkali-Based Laundry Detergent...an ei safe laundry detergent and washing system derived from self-harvested alkali salts and "brined" for extraction for use in clothes washing with an industrial technology base and environmental advantage for the future of the Colorado River.

Climate Change

Clothing/ Footware

Communities

Western Slope Communities List- a listing of environmental conditions of area locales examining air and chemical conditions for EI's and informed citizens...great for those relocating here or area residents with new or elevated EI diagnosis needing healthier places to live

Construction Process

Cooling

Design

Project Program Format...this is a comprehensive checklist of jurisdictions, statistics service providors and systems which should be completed prior to beginning design of any project...lack of adequate homework here will lead to problems later

Earthships

Smart Shelter Report on Earthships...a discussion of earthships and their reported viability from regional builders and owners, conclusions by Smart Shelter and listings of known regional buildings, service providers and information resources

Lecour Earthship Tour Report...a lengthy report summarizing construction standards, logistics and costs following a Smart Shelter Tour of this Ridgway earthship...contact info for video and owners info web site on earthships.

Economics

E.I. Land Steward Project

Overview of the E.I. Land Steward Project- a brief summary of a developing win-win solution ...placing those with environmental illness in safe places and creating functions that restore the land utilizing non-chemical weed control and permaculture/ forest garden biology to restore the habitat and land.

E.I. Land Steward Program Index- this is the index to the total accumulation of texts and subjects dealing with the E.I. Land Steward Program...including tamarisk, russian olive, land projects, steward residencies, etc.

Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMF) ...also see Environmental Illness

Introduction to EMF- a detailed discussion of what EMF is, where it comes from, what your're living with, what problems it can cause and what can be done about it.

The Ruth Davis Case ... Western Colorado's classic case of debilitation from long term exposures to EMF in living and workplace environments ending in a collapse, loss of living and working environments her legal battle for justice and help and the comprehensive restructuring of her life. This index page will lead you to myriad documents involved in her research and certification.

EMF Resources- a partial bibliography of research and publications regarding AC fields, including the work currently being done by the World Health Organization

Dr. Erika Elliot Quotes- exerts from "Prescription for a Healthy House"...a bible for nontoxic chemical and emf living by a Santa Fe MD, her architect and a professional E.I. builder...regarding the effects of electromagnetic fields themselves.

The Avetar Paradigm (note-this is a work in progress and is posted here for review and comment and to make available the work to date)....a Smart Shelter treatise on the causes and meaning of Advanced Discriminatory Sensitization (ADS)/ Environmental Illness...it began with an interview of 100 known regional E.I.s all of whom were asked: "to describe your immune system health prior to thresholding". 100%...every one of them replied: "I was the one who never got sick." Our labeling as the weak ones in the demography is not only catergorically in error (we are the most advanced immune systems in the species) it is also disaster in terms of identifying and removing what really is wrong...which is toxicity in the environment. But even when we do that, we are still missing the big question...why is this happening now ....and more importantly...who, or what is doing it??? A lot of questions...some very revealing answers.

The Bio-Energetic Anatomy (note-this is a work in progress and is posted here for review and comment and to make available the work to date). this work seeks to persue the missing links in Western Medicine, long posited and used by Eastern physicians...a human metabolic system electro-magnetic in nature which runs our entire physiology. The new discipline within the physics community ...called Bio-Physics...removes our addiction to chemical explanations for everything and proceeds to document the health impacts of the "glue of the universe"...electro-magnetism. But what do we look like when you take all substance away??? This is described in imagry in eastern medicine, but not with western science..especially not to a measurable and remedial extent. The now widespread advent of sensitization to man-made EMF makes this scientific venture even more poignant...we know how hypersensitives react and how to help them...but noone knows why. In physics, we make models for things we cannot see from known evidence...then we test them in or out of validation...we begin doing this with the EMF Sensitization community by assembling the known phenomenology which separates us from ordinary people (and even ourselves prior to thresholding). From this sylibus of symptoms we erect the challenges a viable model of the Bio-Energetic Anatomy must explain.

Environmental Illness (E.I./ M.C.S./ EMF)

What is E.I. (Environmental Illness)???- We begin in the work with environmental illness with a description of what it is. Looking at any disorder toward its environmental causes does not mean that another (medical) description or name for it is inaccurate. Medical terminologies such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Chronic Fatigue, fibromyalgia (muscle pain), sinusitis, acid reflux, sleep disorder, memory loss, etc .... all describe the cellular causes or the ones typified by identified states in the body. They do not identify the exterior anomalies that cause them: chemical roots for cancer, formaldehyde content in food products causing behavioral problems, methyl-ethyl keytone and toluene (carcinogenic solvents) in perfumes and aroma therapy products causing asthma attacks. In environmental illness we look to the cause, remove it and give the body a chance to heal itself.

Do I Have E.I.??? This is a questionnaire anyone concerned about the phenomenon can complete. It is designed as a preliminary screening tool listing the most common aggressors identified by several thousand E.I.s as the classic sources and reactions to environmental problems.

The E.I. Standard ...a comprehensive document in several parts describing environmental illness, its treatment, its relationship with toxic buildings and spaces, accumulated principles for recovery and safe living for those affected and proactive projects enabling and supporting the needs of the chemically injured, pesticide allergic and electro-magnetic sensitive.

The Alpha States- this is a system of grading the levels of environmental illness and gauges their relevant thresholds.

Candidiasis- a primary ingredient in environmental illness issues is the overgrowth of a naturally occurring yeast in our bodies due to a deterioration of the beneficial bacteria which keep it in check or the various immune reactions from environmental allergies which destroy that balance. It may be that candidiasis (yeast infection from candida albicans) is a cause of allergies too. The arguments of which came first are not as productive as what we're going to do about all of the problems at the same time.

The E.I. Bill of Rights- as the epidemic of chemically and electromagnetically induced health disorders escalates, the necessity of addressing the environmental anomalies causing it becomes increasingly urgent. Those suffering from damages induced by known toxic and health-threatening substances claim rights to live in personal and social environments free of them. We begin by delineating what our rights are. The bottom line right of every human being is the right to healthy, clean and breathable air. What you put on your body is your business ... until it leaves your body, enters the air and becomes something we both must breathe.

The E.I. Standard Bibliography- This is an accumulating listing and description of texts and sources for environmental illness reviewed by Smart Shelter and recommended.

The Avetar Paradigm (note-this is a work in progress and is posted here for review and comment and to make available the work to date)....a Smart Shelter treatise on the causes and meaning of Advanced Discriminatory Sensitization (ADS)/ Environmental Illness...it began with an interview of 100 known regional E.I.s all of whom were asked: "to describe your immune system health prior to thresholding". 100%...every one of them replied: "I was the one who never got sick." Our labeling as the weak ones in the demography is not only catergorically in error (we are the most advanced immune systems in the species) it is also disaster in terms of identifying and removing what really is wrong...which is toxicity in the environment. But even when we do that, we are still missing the big question...why is this happening now ....and more importantly...who, or what is doing it??? A lot of questions...some very revealing answers.

Environmentalism/ Sustainability/ Prostainability

Finance/ Funding/ Investment

Food Sourcing

(pressing this link will take you to the Sol-Solutions Program master index list also available on the home page and includes restaurants, natural food stores and farmers market information for the region as well as resources and listing for organic/ nogmo food and solar cooking...including Lana's to-die-for solar cooking reciept: Sol-Solutions Program (that's the link...punch it)

Fuels

Greenhouses

Growth

Health/Healing/Medicine/Dentistry

Heating

Herbacides/ Pesticides

Insecticides

(note-this is an unverified source from outside the Smart Shelter Service area...it is included here provisionally and unverified. Please advise this network of any experiences pro or con..the concept warrants provisional posting here.)

From :Ron Whitehurst <ron@rinconvitova.com> 

non-toxic pest control. We produce beneficial insects to control pests - a big help for those with chemical sensitivities. We are now producing three quarterly email newsletters with tips, techniques, and new products for biocontrol. One is general in nature, one for fly control and the other an occasional new product announcement. BIOCONTROL BEAT quarterly publication contains short reports about new products and where to find out more, techniques and resources to control pests biologically, and features biocontrol practitioners.

FLY CONTROL BUZZ quarterly publication features effective and safe fly flea and tick control.

RVI ANNOUNCE occasional publication lets you know about the newest catalogs, protocols and products

Jan Dietrick & Ron Whitehurst

Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Inc.

P.O. Box 1555, Ventura, CA 93002

800-248-2847 * 805-643-5407 * fax 805-643-6267

jan@rinconvitova.com ron@rinconvitova.com

http://www.rinconvitova.com

 

Interiors

Invasive Species

Landscaping

Land Stewards (also see E.I. Land Steward Project)

Laundry (see "Brining")

Legal

Lighting

Materials

Adobe-Pressed Block Construction (report- Nov, 2001)- a Smart Shelter Report summarizing the design, engineering, fabrication and assembly of adobe blocks formed in pressing machines along with home owners, service providors and references using this technique in the Western Colorado region

MicroClimates

Micro-Habitat Living Environments

Micro Habitats- those with environmental illness require special housing at a time when they can least afford it and it needs to move quickly when toxicity conditions change ...we add to it state of the art sustainable technology and off-grid/ solar lifestyle.

Intrinsic Heat in Micros...at the Micro-size level (less that 150 sq ft per person, our body heat itself becomes a thermal design factor

Mining

Motorheads

Natural Building

Natural Building: A short definition and reasoning for Natural Building-originally appearing on our web page.

Natural / Native Lifestyle

Off Grid Technologies

Off Grid Technologies

Organics

(see Food Sourcing above)

Paints/ Finishes

Passive Solar Design/ Retrofit

Pest Control  

Planning

Politics

Products

 

Public Lands

Real Estate

Real Estate Warning- a Smart Shelter publication originally posted to our web page specifying the known precautions for buying Real Estate in the region based on environmental contaminants, site health and especially for hypersensitives. See our Communities listing above for a regional summary of relative community health.

Recycling

Religion

Remodeling/ Retrofits

Renewable Energy

The Renewable Energy Dilemma (the Short Paper...resolving the direction by complicating the criterio

a Smart Shelter paper on integrating health criterior regarding Alternating Current Electro-Magnetic Fields into our policy and directions for the ramp up of renewable energy...a direction toward D.C. localized supplies, the immediate possiblities of creating safe/healthy micro-spaces in your existing home...and the bigger pictures. Unless we incorporate health sustainability in the picture, no attempt at sustainability will work.

Restaurants (organic)

(see Food Sourcing Above)

Roof Systems

Site Planning/ Development

Smart Shelter Network

Solar Cooking

(see the Sol-Solutions Program on our home page, which will take you to indepth resources concerning solar cooking

Solar Dishwashing

Solar Electricity/ Photovoltaics

Solar Hot Water

Strawbale Buildings

Transportation

Urban Forestry

Water

Wastewater Treatment

Wildlife

Wind Power

Zero/ Negative Emissions