I've been a resident of the Town of Ithaca (and Ecovillage at Ithaca) for ~5 yrs. I work part-time as a software developer, and most-time as a spouse & father of 2 young boys. My desire for a "righter" livelihood and a smaller ecological footprint lead me to wonder whether I might find work in the future somewhere in the domain of green design and/or building. I'm especially interested in low-tech approaches using local natural materials. (Having read Tolkien around age 9, I think maybe my secret lifelong desire is to live in a Hobbit hole...) I'm anxious to see what other folks are doing in this region (and challenging climate!), and to get some hands-on experience with some alternative building techniques. My own direct experience is limited to what's been done at Ecovillage, mainly passive solar space heating. I'd like to explore various tweaks to our house to reduce its impacts, e.g. addition of thermal mass, PV, etc. One unique feature of our house is the bamboo flooring, which we've been pretty happy with. Information on the product we used is available at <http://www.plyboo.com/>. We've also had custom insulating shades installed by the local business "Home Comfort", which we've been pretty happy with (minor condensation issues aside). 'nuff said for now- Joe