Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the launching of the Low Technology Institute website and blog. It has been a busy year. We’ve moved from St. Louis, Missouri, to Cooksville, Wisconsin, a historic village 25 min south of Madision. Last winter we became a legally recognized corporation in Wisconsin, and we were granted 501(c)(3) status by the IRS this last summer. This means any donations are tax deductible and we can apply for a wider variety of grants to fund our research.
In this year, we’ve held workshops and developed our first major research project (Home Solar Water Heating). We’ve published 294 blog posts, 28 podcast episodes, 42 lectures, and a number of videos. As of this writing, 9,864 people from 87 countries have visited the website. Our most popular posts were Upcoming Workshops — Wood-Fired Bread — Dec. 3, 10, and 17(?), 2016, Beehives Three Ways: Long Lanstroth, Layens, and Trågkupa (for sale, too!), and DIY Project — Making a Broadfork — From Contributor Matt Miles. The most popular podcast episode was No. 13 — Dark Mountain.
We hope to see continued expansion in the coming year. We’re offering more workshops this fall and winter, including building your own snowshoes, knife and tool sharpening, Walipini earthbag greenhouse construction, and more. Growing our member and support base will be a priority this year, and we hope to secure funding to carry out more research. We’re optimizing our solar hot-water system and starting to look at home wind power.
If you want a look back at the first blog posts, follow any of the links below.
Sep. 15 — New Book — Why Did Ancient Civilizations Fail?
Sep. 16 — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5 — Summary
Sep. 20 — In Defense of Luddites
Sep. 21 — Introducing the Bee Report — Fall 2016
Sep. 22 — What is Low Tech?