Jason
Reinhard,
I stumbled across your sites via a link on the Freakonomics blog.
I've had vague ideas lodged in the corner of my head for quite a while, and you seem to have reached the same conclusions. I like what you're doing. One similar practice I've adopted is baking all of our bread. I've said that if people want a real workout with more than just muscles as results, they should knead bread. Not only do I get an upper body workout, we save money, and we eat lots of good bread. I've toyed with the idea of working up a tongue-in-cheek diet/workout routine centered around traditional household chores such as baking bread and gardening and biking to the grocery store.
It gets me that people I know buy gas to drive a mile or less to and from work each day, and then go walk in circles on a track or walk nowhere on a treadmill each evening. Or they pay a monthly fee to go to the gym and walk. How absurd! We've completely lost any sense of integration.
I'm also interested in a design system called Permaculture, which attempts to design environments and lifestyles using natural patterns. It involves a lot of observation of natural systems and rethinking traditions. It emphasizes using elements (such as a chicken) in as many ways as possible and in as natural a way as possible. Chickens like to scratch, so put them in a place where their scratching accomplishes something. Permaculture is much more complicated than that, but you'll have to read for yourself if it sounds interesting.
In a similar way, I don't like to separate out a "workout routine" for myself. Instead, I try to structure my life so that my daily activities inherently keep me fit. But it's a bit easier for me since I'm remodeling our house and doing lots of physical labor. For people who are stuck in a city or an office job, I really like your ideas.