Thursday, December 21, 2017

Shortest Day SALE - Living Legacy and last minute gifts

Happy Solstice!

If you are still not done Christmas shopping, or need a few quick cards that won't get delayed in the mail, we've got you covered.
(More below.)

If you have completed your seasonal obligations under budget and ahead of schedule, congratulations. 
Are you ready to think about giving something that means more than one person or one season?

When the 'givers' in our world stick together, we make things better for everyone.

Living Legacy Project


We get excited when we get an invitation from the Himalayan foothills, or refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, places where DIY heaters that are thrifty on wood could be life-saving and livelihood-saving.
However, as fellow 'highlanders' and economic refugees (we live in the back hills of the poorest county in our state), we can easily spend all of our time on these volunteer projects.  And we don't have the independent means to fly ourselves all over the world to give the best chance of success to these critical requests.

We do what we can through public forums, online consulting, and the occasional sponsored project.  But these skills are best learned in person; a single weekend workshop, or a 2-week series of projects, can save a new builder years of trial and error.
Wouldn't it be great if we had a not-for-profit support base, where we could tap donated funds for worthy causes, give scholarships to promising students, and invest in the research needed to find appropriate solutions at all levels?

Enter Seven Fires, an Oregon 501(c)3.
www.7fires.org

Their charter is "providing opportunities for children and elders, and preserving traditional cultures."  The director is a longtime friend, with ties to Cob Cottage Company, and a couple of rocket mass heaters in her guest rooms.

Seven Fires enthusiastically supports our work in education and traditional skills, whether that's building with earth, burning smokeless fires, or sharing with new generations the joys of traditional craftsmanship. 

That means you can donate to support our work, and get a tax write-off if you need it.  It also means we (and our colleagues and students) may be able to reduce the taxes we pay to Big Brother for the portion of our work that's really charitable in intent.  Here's the details.

Seven Fires:  (Tammy Van, www.7fires.org 541-347-7801).

Please mark any donations "Living Legacy Project"
Seven Fires Foundation
89001 Highway 42 South
Bandon, OR 97411
501(c)3 Tax ID 16-161-7279
PayPal to: dir@7fires.org

If you'd like to be a little more specific/restrict your donation, you could say
- "Living Legacy Village Project" (to directly support hands-on skill building, educational and economic opportunities for people on the margins), or
- "Living Legacy Mainstreaming Project (for research and development aimed at proving sustainable projects meet the highest global standards, such as emissions testing and case studies).

You can also donate gently-used or new items.  What is not needed for children and elders served directly by Seven Fires will be re-sold for their general fund.
http://www.7fires.org/getinvolved.html


And here are the gifties and goodies for you last-minute holiday shoppers:



Printable cards or e-cards:

(click on the image to see it full-size, then "save image as" to your own device.)

If you email a link to your local printer for a photo-print or paper cards, here is a copyright release for them.  (Copyright release: The artist (Erica Wisner) hereby allows reproduction of these images for non-commercial purposes.
Images dated 2005-2014, release dated 12/21/2017, effective until further notice.)




The image above is a printable card. 
We also offer DIY craft patterns, classes, and custom decorative cutouts.

How much paper snow do you want?
Theme request (optional)












Available for Purchase:



Annex 6" Plans - Digital or Paper?



Bonny 8 RMH - digital or paper?



Cabin 8 RMH - digital or paper?

Ely 8 RMH Plans - digital or paper?

Art of Fire - Digital or Paper?

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog during this busy season.  Warm wishes for holidays full of comfort and good company.

Yours,
Ernie and Erica

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Winter fruit countdown - 5 days until Ernie's Birthday

 Most people pick their apples before the snow is ankle-deep, but these ones were plenty sweet for apple butter and pie.  "Water-core" apples may even have extra juicy flavor, they just don't keep as well.

While in Portland, we paid a visit to Uwajimaya, and among the Dungees and lobster was one king crab.  We did not buy it, but got some other frozen seafood to take home for Ernie's birthday.


It is not allowed to be Christmas around here until after Ernie's birthday (Dec. 10).  So I tend to use it as a deadline for business-related things, too.  Since afterward the holidays do tend to take over.

This year, I'd really love to have our online store back up and functioning.
Since our old, well-appointed digital delivery service closed down, we've been selling our digital goods on Permies.com, but I keep thinking we should have our own online store set back up again, for folks who want an easy way to compare plans and books.

Or even to pick up something for the holidays ...

I've been experimenting with making PayPal buttons.  The buttons themselves seem to work OK (I've used one for someone to pay an invoice by credit card), but the process of handing inventory, and delivering digital goods automatically, is a bit more cumbersome.

See if this works for you:

The same button is displayed twice, once as a caption to this image:


How much paper snow do you want?
Theme request (optional)


And here's the button all by itself:

How much paper snow do you want?
Theme request (optional)

If $5 is feeling like Real Money this month, or you want to add a second item without paying much, we have this Helpful Test Button:




The Illusion of Choice


If you feel like spending a little money to support this experiment,
I would like to know if you can order multiple times (for example, a single snowflake with the theme "koalas" and a set of 5 with the theme "kangaroos", or one snowflake instructions and one Donate/Test), and see them correctly when you click "View Cart."