What's new with me?

Hey everybody!

If you are on Facebook and follow what I do or post, then you will have noticed that I am no longer on Facebook. The biggest reason for this, is that I want to get back to the basics. Facebook is fun, but I also find it invasive. I used to use it for marketing and for a way to broadcast the videos that we shoot on our job sites. I found that Facebook is also a place for people to say vicious things because they don't have a life. My advice to most people on Facebook, is (and you can quote me on this), "GET A LIFE".

I keep reading reports that say Facebook is becoming a bad thing for people and their lives. Why would I run to the computer on a Sunday afternoon to see if someone commented on a post I posted instead of hanging out with my family? I don't think Facebook should be considered part of a sustainable life.

Enough of my rant. To view the videos that we shoot, simply go to my website: www.adambearup.com and click on videos on the home page. From there, you will find the earth shelter videos and anything else that we shot on video. The videos will no longer be on Facebook.

Will I ever return to Facebook? The book people will no doubt want to use social media to sell my book. At that point, you will be able to like me, but not be a friend. I think this is non-invasive. I can go for that.

If any of you are on Facebook, please post the link to this blog so that the word can get out on why I left Facebook. After you post it for a day or two, then I suggest that you also get off Facebook. Facebook was nice to keep in touch with people, but, let's be honest, how many of your friends on Facebook really are your friends?

Put your attention to your family and friends in real life! I have decided to spend time with people in real life and to stop staring at my computer. I will update this blog more often if you are interested in what I am up to.

Have a great day!

The FALL Schedule for the Hybrid Home Guy

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since my last post and there has been a lot going on in the world of the Hybrid Home Guy!

First off, I need to thank all those who love and support me because I could not do what I do without you all!

As many of you have known for a while, I have been writing a book about my experiences over the last several years with several green building techniques. This is not a memoir book, but rather, a book that the reader will be able to make their own decisions on which technology is better. I actually finished the book and sent it to the editor who sent it back saying that it lacked my passion because I wrote it more as a text book. That was the best comment ever! I have gone back and re-wrote this book in the first person view and it turned the book into an interesting read. Now the book will not only help owners and builders, but will now be an entertaining look to see what it takes to build an idea into an industry changing trend. As you will learn by reading this book, I did not do this alone. Lots of people and companies helped out along the way.

I am just about done putting the finishing touches on each of the chapters. The next step is for it to go back to the editor who will make it flow better and chop it up. He is the expert on how the book will read. After that, the manuscript will go to the illustrator who will bring the print to life through pictures and illustrations. I am fired up that we are very close to this point! I can not give out too many details about the marketing for this book because the marketers will be upset with me, but let's say that we will be using similar marketing techniques to those that we used to make Hybrid Homes a nationally recognized company in just two years. I am excited to have the team assembled that I do to get this book out there. As with my work in video and radio, the book is intended to spread a message, a message about living sustain-ably and lessening one's load on this planet.

I hope that the book will be printed by October first of this year. There is a great deal of work to do to get it to the stage where it can be printed. Once its printed, look out, because we are going to be everywhere with this book. We are expecting to tour nationally with this book in 2012......stay tuned!

The Earth Shelter documentary has got pushed from its original release date and that was my doing. I felt that the documentary would not end properly unless we showed the homeowners living in at least the house dome. The documentary team's intention is to get all the video that we have shot to Airworthy Productions, the producer of this documentary, within a month. The majority of the funding for this project will come from investors who have been on board with us from the beginning. After the documentary airs on television, we will enter it in several film festivals around the country and in some cases combine the book tour with this film festival tour.

I am excited to get this documentary done, as I have been talking about it for so long. We are hoping that this documentary catches the eye of other television people and thus use it as a pilot for a television show that I would host. There are so many possibilities! However, I constantly tell myself to not put the cart before the horse, so first things first. Step by step! The most important thing that I have learned recently is to NOT LOSE FOCUS!

On August 29th, 2011 at 10am, I will be making a return appearance on Shelley Irwin's morning show in WGVU morning radio. I am excited about this opportunity (as I am with everything else that is going on!) because it has been over a year and a half since I have been on her program. Back then, I talked about the new direction I wanted to take in life and also we talked about the Earth Shelter Project. How has this new direction in life treated me? Was it a good idea to fall off the radar for almost two years? What could I possibly be up to that I am so excited? The answers to these questions and more will be given on her morning show on August 29th! The one thing that I will say, is that we fully intend on winning every major national award with the Earth Shelter Project. I guarantee that there is nothing like it anywhere else in the country if not the world! This interview with Shelley Irwin is sure to be a great one, don't miss it!

But wait, there's more! I will be teaching a class on sustainable living at the Earth Shelter Project on September 17, 2011. This will be a class that has very limited seating. I mention it here because I want to make sure if you want to see this project first hand and see what we did up there in person, that you get your chance. The homeowner had originally told me that we would have an open house at the end of the project, that is no longer the case. She is ready to move in and start living at this amazing place and using it to teach students about living off the grid, and I don't blame her! If you are a builder, homeowner, student, enthusiast or someone who wants to be with a group of like minded people, call 989-773-3636 today to book your spot.

The cost for this class is $89. More than half of the proceeds for the price of admission will go to the Naturopathic Community Center which is where the crews stayed during the construction of the Earth Shelter Project. The director of the community center approached me to teach this class so that they could raise money to start a sustainability program at the center. I am excited to be part of the formation of this sustainability program. The remainder of the money will go to cover expenses and possible tasty, healthy treats! I promise that this class will challenge you to think outside of your normal thinking. The class will be held under battery power and I will show you how the entire place works and use chapters of my book as the outline for the class. Don't miss out on this opportunity, we will have a blast learning how to live a more healthy sustainable life! Call today to reserve your spot! 989-773-3636

For those of you who enjoy our trips to Washington State in search of Sasquatch and a more sustainable life, I just learned that we have booked another trip! There is much interest in how our friend Pam is doing as she lives in her completed Earth Shelter in Washington State. We will once again do some filming at Pam's earth shelter and rush the video back to see how it will fit into the documentary. We will make a short trip there at the beginning of October and bring the camera gear with us. The last time that we cruised around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, we saw major Sasquatch sign, but never saw the Pacific Northwest Icon. I have a feeling this will be the year to see a Sasquatch! We need an interview with it so that we can start our "What Would Sasquatch DO" environmental campaign. One thing we will definitely showcase on video while we are on this tour is the incredible beauty of that area of the country and show people that through proper forestry we can grow our society without destroying this prime Sasquatch habitat. SO, before you throw that empty Starbucks cup out the car window, ask yourself, "What Would Sasquatch DO?" Stay tuned for the fun and learning that will come from this exciting return visit to the Pacific Northwest!!

I have been very busy consulting on several projects and teaching about green building. I will be returning from Washington State and driving from the airport directly to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City to teach a large class about this "Green Revolution" that we are currently experiencing in this country. This class is three days long and is closed to the public. I mention this class because it is a great sign that more and more industries are concerned about educating their employees and contractors about living a healthy lifestyle. Some of the classes that I teach help educate the attendees about the motivations of people for making the choices they do when they buy products. This has been an exciting new direction for me and I am thrilled to be teaching in such a 'green' area of Michigan! Perhaps you will see me fishing in the area in the evenings after those classes. Be sure to say hi if you see me walking around town! If the book is printed by then, we will most likely line up a talk at a local bookstore or coffee shop in Traverse City. Keep your eyes peeled to facebook for updates!

Are you still with me? I will handle one more question then I will have to get back to writing the book. That question is, "With your busy schedule, do you intend on building anymore cutting edge hybrid homes in the future?" Well now, that is the question that many people are asking...for the answer, you will have to tune in to Shelley Irwin's Morning Show on WGVU radio at 10am on Monday August 29th!

What Would Sasquatch DO?

ADB

Exciting Developments at the Earth Shelter Project Michigan

Hello All!

Work continues at a steady pace at the Earth Shelter Project Michigan. We have been there working for nearly a year and a half now and there is finally an end in site! Being anywhere for 2 years of a person's life can be both challenging and life changing at the same time. I have lived in nearly every corner of the lower peninsula of Michigan over the past seven years and it has been so incredible to have met the people that I have. I thank everyone who took time out of their lives to make mine and my crews lives a little easier and more fulfilling while we lived life on the road!

Up at the Earth Shelter, we are nearly finished with the house dome and the homeowners have been moving their things into the massive pantries that we built. We have a few rooms to paint, a large Japanese soaking tub to build, and the cherry floors to install in the upstairs rooms, then it's done! Only four more domes to finish.

Recently, the weather allowed us to start installing the Velux Sun Tunnels at the Earth Shelter Project. The word 'WOW' is probably not a descriptive enough word for how much light those sun tunnels let in! They make the barn, which was dark as a cloudy night in the deep woods, look like day time! It's so bright in there! Temple Grandin taught us about how animals freak out as their eyes adjust from bright outdoor light to dark dimly lit barns. This 'freaking out' of the animals can cause serious harm to the handlers. Velux Sun Tunnels eliminated this phenomenon!

As you will see in a week or two on the hit Internet series, Earth Shelter Project Michigan, the flashing kits for the sun tunnels fit perfectly on the metal tops that we invented. This will be explained better in the video. I personally installed all of the sun tunnels so far so that I could see how that system would work. I was a little amped up to install the first one because I had no idea if it was going to work with the system that is concreted in place. But, it worked perfectly. I bent the sun tunnel flashing on our bender and it fit perfectly on the first try! I yelled wooo!

Recently, the Earth Shelter Team selected Nova Brik as the exterior of the Earth Shelter exposed wall. I lead this charge, because I felt that Nova Brik was the perfect compliment to the ICFs that were used on the exposed walls of the Earth Shelter. Nova Brik is a mortar-less brick system that installs quite quickly. More importantly, Nova Brik provides incredible strength to that exposed wall. When combined with our specially designed shutters, those exposed walls will be able to take a heck of a hit.

Stay tuned for an in depth look at how Nova Brik is installed and how it compliments the other aspects of the Earth Shelter Project. Given that we can be crazy from time to time, we are currently setting up a test area where we will try to destroy a Nova Brik wall.....oh boy!!

You can catch all of our Earth Shelter Videos at this link: http://vimeo.com/user2393100

Thank you all who keep in touch and keep us motivated. What's next after the Earth Shelter Project? Well, our team is currently setting up a national tour to coincide with the release of the Earth Shelter Documentary and the book that I am writing. I am currently discussing several projects with clients, but the ultimate project that Hybrid Homes will build next will have to be one that continues to push the limits and challenges us. It must be a project that has the ability to keep people interested and thinking. We have a long way to go to get people to think more about their environments, but we definitely have made some progress...stay tuned, things are just getting started!!

Think local,

Adam-"The Hybrid Home Guy"

Hybrid Homes, LLC

Hybrid Homes is re-working its website, so if you go to the website, you may be re-directed to www.adambearup.com. This is temporary as we build our new website. The current website is taken down because of some of the information on the website is outdated and we feel that we can no longer feel good about some of the information that is on that website.

The new Hybrid Homes website will be geared more towards information and showcasing the different styles of building that Hybrid Homes has built over the last 7 years. Hybrid Homes' mission has and will always be to build cutting edge houses that are ahead of the curve and to never become complacent. The new website will be more inline with that mission.

As they say, pardon our dust!

State of the State of Hybrid Homes

It is 2011 and with that brings another great year to grow and prosper.

With the help of my management team and mentors, we decided in 2010 to take a different direction with Hybrid Homes. Ultimately, this had a great effect for the other builders who were waiting for Hybrid Homes to step off the fast lane. They are now handling the work that Hybrid Homes passed on and we couldn't be happier. I hope they find the joy in it that I did and that they are doing it for more than just the money that comes along with it..

The goal of Hybrid Homes from the beginning was to change an industry that was refusing to change. We helped create a demand for a greener home and the fact that other builders have stepped up to build a greener home is a major accomplishment for everyone that took part in this wild adventure.

Hybrid Homes is still alive and kicking, but with the taxes that small business is forced to pay in Michigan, we have found that we can have a wider impact through nationwide consulting and building cutting edge homes. Homes that are always ahead of the curve. The result has been very favorable on Hybrid Homes debt load, which was increasing by the day due to a number of variables.

Hybrid Homes saw a friend and fellow team member go out of business. We saw that same possibility for us here, but we were able to pull back on the reins, and keep control of our business with no customers getting hurt or losing money. I am happy to report, that our time on the Earth Shelter Project has allowed the company to fight its way back into a positive situation.

It is safe to say, that Hybrid Homes will never return to building multiple homes at once. That was never in our business plan, and is something that happened as a result of me not being able to say no. Also, there was a lot of pressure on the business to keep the subs working and others who were finding it hard to get work without Hybrid Homes drumming up the work.

The goal for Hybrid Homes was and will always be to build the most cutting edge houses for the advancement of the industry. The goal has never been to make everyone else happy, only to build homes to gather research on.

Hybrid Homes began as a company that was to gain research from each house it built. That happened. Every house that was and is built by Hybrid Homes has extensive journaling and reports on them as to how they perform and what it took to build them. This information is currently being compiled into a book so that everyone can have this information.

The videos that my team has put together on the Earth Shelter Project Michigan have been viewed by people in 77 different countries around the world and by tens of thousands of people each month. The move to create a documentary of the Earth Shelter Project Michigan began many months ago and is going well. We are moving into the post productions stage. Hybrid Homes is not part of this venture, only me and the production team.

The question that I get asked quite a bit is: "Will Hybrid Homes build any more homes?" As leader of the company, I would love to give a definate yes, but I really can't at this point because I am not sure how busy my team will be as we consult around the country and make a move to get on television. I am actively seeking a new management team to run Hybrid Homes and that would give us an answer of yes, we will build more homes.

It will be very tough to top the Earth Shelter Project. Projects like these do not come along very often, and since we are pouring everything we have into this project, I am afraid that I won't be able to find a project that will push me to the limits like this project has. I have many oppurtunities in life and after putting up with what I have over the last 5 years, the thought of putting myself back into a bad position is not very alluring.

There were several rumors flying around about me. Some are true and some are not, I encourage anyone who has a question about any of the rumors to email me and I will set the record straight. The best thing that I ever did was get off the fast lane and 'disappear'. I predicted that the press and impact of the Earth Shelter Project would be ten fold of what it was for the Onekama Project. The impact has already been incredible and on track to be the most ground breaking and incredible residential project ever. Secretly, we are building the company up to handle the the impact of when we release the Earth Shelter Project to the public. We will enter this project in for awards, and better yet, there will be opportunities to come to the Earth Shelter Project to see why I have changed my thought process on sustainability. It's not just a home, or recycling, its everything. The Earth Shelter Project will introduce people to the term 'symbiosis' and why this term is so important to a sustainable life. Stay tuned..

Thank you to everyone who continues to follow our progress. I had the best year of my life in 2010 and I am doing all I can to have a better year in 2011. I wish everyone success and that you may find symbiosis in your own lives...

Happy Holidays!

2010 has been such an incredible year!!

I hope that everyone has a great holiday season!

A Healthy Sustainable Lifestyle

Time and time again we have heard this saying "We are what we eat". In fact, I do not have enough fingers and toes to count the articles that start with this saying like I have. However, the statement, "We are what we eat", is very scary even if a person has only a spec of knowledge about the food industry. Because of this and recent health scares, I have decided to devote an incredible amount of time into not only helping people build a sustainable home, but now, helping people build a sustainable lifestyle.

Let's rewind time back a few decades. When I was a youngster growing up, my family was all about eating healthy back then. We didn't eat out at restaurants very much because we didn't have the money to do so. My mom prepared all of our meals from scratch and we took a steady stream of vitamins. I grew up in Montague Michigan and while I was growing up, Hooker Chemical was in full production of over 100 deadly chemicals. My mom recognized back then that the ground water could be contaminated, so we never drank one drop of the city water or well water from Montague's wells. Instead, my family would get ground water from my Grandmothers house so we wouldn't have to be subjected to potential contaminated ground water. As it stands, Hooker Chemical destroyed the area they are located in and around, and even though the Montague Plant has been closed for years, the area still is affected from the storage of those chemicals. Each time it rains heavy, over 800lbs of contamination flows into White Lake which touches the old Hooker Chemical land. When we were kids, we would go play at this "hidden lake" which was actually green or orange depending on the time of year. We saw frogs with 3 eyes in there regularly. If my mom knew that we played on that lake, which is now part of a super fund clean up site, she would have been fit to be tied. What lasting health problems could be a result of the exposure to those chemicals....I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Many of our friends parents from Montague who lived around Hooker Chemical have developed cancers that are no doubt related to the toxins that have leached into the ground water. This is horrible, but, not what this blog entry is about.

This blog is about what is in our foods or what is being used on our foods. It is not my intention to sound radical in any one direction or on any one subject, it is to report what I have been researching. This need to know recently lead me to the Acres Organic Farmers Conference in Indianapolis Indiana to learn more about the food industry. Many of us have seen the DVD Food, Inc. and other related movies and it helped us to change the way we eat. Believe it or not, even with my strong beliefs about saving the environment, I never really watched a show or read a book and immediately jumped on any band wagons. I would gather all of the pros and cons of a topic and then I would investigate issues until I formed a solid opinion about a topic. When I watched Food, Inc. I wasn't disgusted because I already knew how bad the food industry was. Food, Inc. helped me to direct my research more towards foods that lower income families were eating solely because of economics. What concerns me is that a family can get $1 double cheeseburgers at SickDonalds and that they could not get good quality foods for the same price, even at a garbage depot like WalMart.

As I mentioned above, I was raised to eat a certain way and to live a certain lifestyle. I have been a certified personal trainer, natural bodybuilder, and have a fair deal of training in nutrition. I have studied many areas of nutrition, including, the relation between High Fructose Corn Syrup and obesity in this Country. I have also studied about the relation between the weed killer 'Round Up' and birth defects. It's all scary, but my intention is only to report on what I have been up to, so you will have to research things for yourselves, with your own motives. You would think someone that does research like this would be healthy for their entire life, but it goes back to my first statement above, "We are what we eat". Perhaps a better statement would be, "We are what we consume". I prefer to eat Venison that I collect and fruits and vegetables from a garden or a local farm that I know produces products free of pesticides and herbicides. This doesn't always happen for me thou, so I needed to know if I could truly trust the word 'Organic'. Much like 'Green Washing' in products and materials, could there be such a thing as 'Organic Washing'?

I went to the ACRES Organic Farming Conference to seek answers about organic farming, and also to learn about growing plants naturally with no chemical fertilizers and no genetically modified anything. My motives were simple. I wanted to know how plants grow, what criteria the organic farmers had to follow, and how effective is bio-dynamics on growing plants. I did not go to Acres to jump on any band wagons or to get involved with any groups looking to change how things are done. What I found at Acres was incredibly passionate farmers and gardeners who were there for the same reasons as me. The group of people that I went to ACRES with all attended classes, as did I, to learn about the current food industry, what organic farming really was, and ways that people could be more than organic with their crops. I was at ACRES to learn more about what we, as a society, were consuming in our daily lives.

Have you ever heard of genetically modified foods? Most of us have. These are foods that are designed in laboratories where scientists manipulate the DNA of a given plant or food to resist pesticides and/or to get higher yields on their crops. The biggest problems with these "GMO's" is that the human body reacts differently to the breakdown of these foods and it causes problems for humans. Of course, there is so much more to it, but it will be something that you can research if you are curious about these foods. Can organic labeled foods be GMO's? Yes. This is why I am concerned. I have ate organic foods and drank organic milk since they first showed up on the market and most are great for us! My goal was to find out if they were safe for me, and the jury is still out on that subject.

When Team Hybrid set out to change building as everyone had known it, we were looking to change specific areas of a home to help its inhabitants live a long healthy life. We addressed areas of the home like indoor air quality, lifetime design, passive solar, and many other areas. To my delite, many of our homeowners took this even farther and have gardens, recycle their waste, and try to live every part of a sustainable life. That is awesome, I applaud that! This got me thinking about a sustainable life being more than just the home. As simple as it seems, many people continue to focus on just one or a couple of things that make for a sustainable life. If someone can't really be sure as to what they are putting into their bodies for food, than how can we really guarantee that we will all live a long healthy life? Lets look at the dictionary definition of Sustenance (food):

Definition of SUSTENANCE

1: means of support, maintenance, or subsistence : living b : food, provisions; also : nourishment

2: the act of sustaining : the state of being sustained b : a supplying or being supplied with the necessaries of life
3
something that gives support, endurance, or strength

I yell, WHAT?!!

Have you ever given any thought to the word 'sustenance' and then thought about the food you eat, or how often you eat? I kept the word 'sustenance' on top of my mind while at the ACRES conference because I wanted to see what went into food that I was consuming to supply myself with the necessaries of life. Should we be concerned about putting bad food into our bodies? Absolutely! Should we immediately change what we eat? It would be a great idea to, but not many people are able to. Growing a garden or buying produce from a farm market or natural food market is a better idea than buying produce from WalMart because the nutritional value of the homegrown stuff if so much better. No one can expect to change their lives or habits at any given moment. Those types of life transformations come over time and I encourage everyone to start thinking more about what they are eating.

When we set out to build homes sustainably, we never asked people to immediately change their lives, only to give thoughts to the many alternatives there were to conventional ways of building. I am saying the same thing here. Be aware that not all the food that you are eating is good for you and that there are healthy alternatives available that can help you live a longer, healthier life. Find items with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. One example is Sierra Mist that is made with sugar, this is a good alternative to other sodas out there because it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup or any unnatural colors or additives. Again, you don't have to be scared or throw everything away immediately, just make sure you become aware of the healthier options that are available out there. The Organic Stamp on foods are a good step in the right direction in telling if a food is better for you to consume. In our busy lives and poor economy, it is not always an option for people to buy the more expensive organic foods, especially when you can get a McGut Bomb at SickDonalds for a dollar.

I ask you to consider what is happening to your health, especially if you are in the sustainability business. Do you, on your way to giving a talk about sustainability, stop and get a Heart Attack in a Sack? Most do, even I used to from time to time because it is so tough to do anything different than that. After I learned that I had some health concerns due to the lifestyle I chose to live, I completely changed the way I live and eat. I have my cheat days, but for the most part, I watch very closely what I eat to try to get myself healthier. Lifestyle is the leading cause of health problems in this country. I used to think that I could help with that by building sustainable houses, and sustainable housing does help. But there is more work to be done in this area. We can't control gas prices, contaminated foods, idiot CEO's, or lots of other bad things, but we definitely can control WHAT and HOW MUCH we use. This alone can help ensure that the statement "we are what we consume" is a part of a healthy sustainable lifestyle....