WhatsUp dear Hivers! Its been another inspiring week in the ecoTrain community with so many new people joining us and a great variety of posts on the topics that we know and love to promote. This weeks curation is a lovely mix on topics such as homesteading, vegan cooking, eco building, and of course mental health related issues. Thank you to everyone who has posted, such great quality and depth, it always makes me happy to see. It makes me equally happy to see nearly all of the posts in our community receiving so may wonderful up votes from the many curators that are here on Hive sharing the abundance where it needs to go.

@ecotrain is a global Hive community gathered around the concept of natural giving, living in harmony with nature and making our world a better place. Changing the world starts with changing ourselves and the way we live, love, work and create together as communities .

We deliberately and consciously curate those posts, blogs & vlogs which speak to the issues, challenges and needs of community living and the emerging Hive ecoVillage communities around the world.

Here are some of the topics we support and curate on:
"Sustainability, ecoVillages, Community, Self-sufficiency, Off-grid Living, Homesteading, Permaculture, Alternative Energy, Alternative Lifestyle, Natural Health, Cooking, Eco-Building, Earthships, Recycling, Esoteric, Inner Transformation, Spiritual, Nature

@zeesh

Depression - How can we help others?

Depression became so common nowadays, you never know who is facing this. Even the happiest looking person can have severe depression. It's something people don't like to take about. Also, there are many taboos about it, so we also don't feel comfortable listening to it.

Another thing is our lack of knowledge about it. We don't know what it is, how a person feels about it, and how to help them. Well, we don't have to master on it but there are few basic things we should know; so that we can help others/our dearest one when they need help.

The first thing, I must say is, showing that we are ready to hear. You can build a nice communication with your friends, family, and others; so that they can know that they can open up about depression to you. Most of the time people don't find anyone to talk about their pain and how they feel. So this one step can help many.

@ultravioletmag

Raw vegan key lime pie Recipe

For this I merged a couple of recipes together with a few of my own mix ups and twists

I made the buckwheat pastry base first

I started by blending 1/3 of a cup of sunflower seeds so they were more of a flour like texture. I then added 1 cup buckwheat flour, pinch of salt, zest of a lime, 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, a little agave to taste (personally I only added about half a tablespoon but add up to two for personal taste. Blend in a food processor adding a little cold water at a time till you have dough like texture.

I then rolled out the dough adding extra buckwheat flower to stop it sticking to the board and rolling pin.
once done I pressed it into a tart tin and popped into the dehydrator till slightly crispy. I kept mine a little more doughy as I like that consistency.

@jedenjenda

Power of Independence

What does Independence mean to you? Independence is a very broad term and is applicable to every possible thing you can think of. Independence is intangible; it cannot be touched but literally speaking, it must be in the air around you all the time and one must be able to feel it.

While we talk about independence, it is very important to understand the value of this word. Independence revolves around us like all the time. When we are at home, while we are in the office, while we are at a restaurant, or when we are driving, or even when we are sleeping. The sense of independence in itself is so beautiful that it makes you feel confident and more productive. An independent person is always more capable, he has to power to make decisions and to judge what's right and wrong.

@engrsayful

Visiting to Roof Garden of my friend's mother

Hi, Dear friends. I hope you are well and enjoying your time

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Many are interested in doing something for the environment. As well as bringing some prosperity to themselves through this work. I was surprised to see a garden on the roof of a close friend's house. So, I made a video of his roof garden. And I am sharing today among you.

The day was a rainy day yet I couldn’t stop myself from visiting the roof garden because it was a very nice plan. This work is mainly done by his mother. My friend's father and he are always busy with different things. So, they can't give much time to this work. Can't but I'm really surprised to see the good work at roof.

▶️ Watch on 3Speak

@solominer

Controlling weeds with cardboard and woodchips

I have been helping out to care for some thornless blackberry plants, the weeds all around have been encroaching on these plants so something had to be done about it. The weeds will leech the energy from the fruit plant, so its really important to keep the weeds away from the vine. As the blackberry plant needs as much energy as it can get to produce some tasty berries for all to eat. The cardboard will break down under the wood chips, its possible the mycelium inside of the woodchips will accelerate this as well.

@rawadventuress

Let's Detox - How to Navigate its Challenges

Every body deals a bit differently with a transition to more cleansing foods, like when diving into the raw vegan diet. Some instantly feel the higher vibrations, more energy and increased joy - for others the transition might turns out to be a bit more bumpy with uncomfortable detox symptoms coming up.First of all, detoxification happens in our body all the time, it is so important since it works on getting rid of naturally occurring waste in our body, but also pathogens like toxins, heavy metals, excessive mucus, viruses, harmful bacteria etc. Detox symptoms are signalling us that are body is currently trying to discard so many such pathogens that it can get a bit overwhelmed with the job.

Detox symptoms are not a bad thing since it means that our body is doing a big clean up right now. Which is awesome! But it can also mean that we are moving a bit too fast and our body can’t handle all the released pathogens. This can result in them being reabsorbed instead of discarded. Hars

@fenngen

Learning Solar Energy #1 | Monocrystalline, polycrystalline , and thin-film

Welcome to this series where I will be sharing my journey to learn about solar energy. I am quite ignorant regarding electricity in general but I am to learn enough on this matter till I can feel knowledgeable enough to buy and install panels in the forest shelter. If you want to support me in this adventure learn more here.

Today I begin reading a book called "Photovoltaic Solar Energy" by Oscar Perpiñán Lamigueiro and while going through the intro he mentions that the most common panels for home are able to offer 100 w or 200 w of power. So I went online and searched "200 w solar panel" and found one that specified it was built with monocrystaline cells.

Sooooooo, what does that mean??!!

I guess that gives us a good starting point for this series about solar panels, it would be a basic thing to know the different materials from which they are built and their advantages, as well as their disadvantages (we'll get into what 200 w means on another post).

@steemmatt

I Found A Famous Late Painter’s Signed Sketch In The Trash & Sold It To Their Family!

Sometimes stars align and you just know you’re on the right track. Here’s a perfect example from just yesterday, plus a bonus sale from today summing to $525 in revenue.

A few months ago, I came across the typical scene of clear plastic recycling bags indicating that someone just moved out or passed on. When I find this, I also check the black garbage bags that are often adjacent to see if their belongings may be there as well. They often are, and sometimes contain the really good stuff. This is how I find a lot of my jewelry and gift cards.

In this case here, I went through several back bags of what were clearly an elderly man’s belongings, and came across a few framed pictures. In the set of mostly vintage animal photos, was this...

@lizelle

City Jungle Stress Buster!

There are times in our lives that we walk into a place and immediately feel a sense of peace.

This one was totally unexpected; the apartment was on a busy road in a cluster development; fortunately on the edge of that development which borders on undeveloped land.

Further afield one sees rolling green hills, something Kwazulu Natal is famed for. These were sugarcane fields which slowly are being replaced by urban development.

It was a cloudy hazy day so one could not see further than the first hill.

I would also have chosen this apartment if I was buying here, as the one side looks out onto trees and dense foliage giving it the feel of being in a jungle.

@kamran-rkploy

Overcome Your Depression , Don't Quit your Life...!!!

https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXBBmH1yZEzHh6zbxvkaTxLxRJwAJ64tZo97oX9py9QQm/images%20(51).jpeg

There can be many ways in which people define depression.

Depression in common term can be defined as that state of our body where we do not like anything and see constant unwanted mood swings.

People in today's world face depression and you would be shock to know that not many of them overcome the depression they are going through.

Like from a 14 year old boy to a 60 year old man anyone can face this problem but believe me you can find the solution if you recognise at the right time that you are under depression.

You had a bad relationship , you suffer depression.
you fail a class , you suffer depression.
you lost someone , faces depression.

@flemingfarm

Studio, First Tilling Of Year, Scouts - Wednesday

The first part of the day was spent in the studio putting the window framing back in and then installing the curtains. The curtains are more to block sunlight from bleaching anything inside since it is a craft studio and we will have yarns and fabrics on the shelves. I have left a gap on the top for some ambient lighting and also since I have the front overhang which blocks the sun effectively.

With the curtains put up on the upper windows that meant that the scaffolding was no longer needed so I was able to take it apart and set it outside. That opened up a large area where I then put together the second shelving unit. With them both on casters it makes moving the shelving around nice and easy. This one has only the 4 shelves so we can put larger containers on it.

@erikah

One Year After The Start Of The Pandemic - What Have We Learnt?

It's been roughly one year since the first lockdown but in fact it feels like two to me. Logic would say life slows down when you're forced to stay home and half of your old life is non existent as you can't do the things you did before, but that is true for some, not for me.

Today I decided to look back and see what has changed and how. Bear with me as it's an interesting journey, also you can write your own post about how you see life after one year of pandemic.

Healthcare

This invisible enemy has caught everyone off guard, individuals as well as institutions. No one was prepared for a life that followed after the first cases of covid-19 was detected.

The first shock came when all the gloves, masks, medical alcohol, sanitizers were missing for months. Then when these were available again, we had to pay 10x what normally one item costs. The first sign how vulnerable we are, how much we depend on other countries for simple items like the above mentioned ones.

ECOTRAIN SUPPORTS

Facilitating off-grid sustainable living, local trade & commerce!
ecoVillages is a new paradigm in self sufficient building and living, based on empowered groups that live off-grid with little to no bills or debt using earthship biotecture. What lies at the core of ecoVillages is that it is a model that embraces decentralisation in every way. We make sure every aspect of life is as close to home as possible, and under an individual’s control!

Our primary goal is to facilitate others to build and live in the most sustainable way using earthship biotecture, to provide a lifetime of self sufficiency with almost no ongoing bills and maintenance. Our model begins in rural areas with a lot of land available at low cost. Our model is decentralised and so homes will be spread out with each person or collective owning their land outright, but are a part of a strong and supportive community.

MORE INFO AT:
https://www.ecovillages.io

How To Support This Vision

1. Delegate or donate to @ecotrain to support this project.

I would be very happy to hear your comments, and any enthusiasm you might have for such a project! When I ask for people to delegate to the @ecoTrain, THIS is the ultimate goal of your delegation. Yes we support the amazing people that are on Hive with it, but there is so much more.. Who knows... some of you may well end up living in this very community, wouldn’t that make the perfect ending!

2. Donate some of your post rewards or Hive to @ecotrain

If you post using the #ecotrain tag and receive our up-votes then please consider donating something to @ecoTrain once the post has paid out. In this way we can make Hive more quickly and secure the land sooner rather than later! Of course you can always just donate without posting using our tag, and we will use it to keep empowering the @ecoTrain and the people who support us.

3. Donate Bitcoin:

If you want to donate any amount of BTC to the cause please send it to the following address. Any donations will be used to ensure this project moves at high speed! We REALLY need your support and a little goes a long way! Currently we are building accommodation and resources for volunteers who come to help us for our earthship building workshops.