“Rekenen,” Dutch: to count Am I reckoning month 5 already – or only? Sometimes it seems like we’ve been doing this all our lives, other times it’s like we only started yesterday. It shows that we’re not totally “in the habit” yet. I’m 16 (!) days late in reporting. Also, this month is ugly: our …
Category Archives: future worries
Things Afoot
My apologies for the spotty posting. We’ve had to cope with sickness – Amie and Mama last weekend and now Amie again. A dear friend of mine has also galvanized a project I had set aside as not fitting our current schedule: the communally oriented side of “Transition” (yes, the more I think about it, …
You Grew Up, Rabbit, That’s Why
Amie and Pooh Bear It was our co-houser’s birthday so Amie and I baked some cookies and sang Happy Birthday while he blew out a candle. Then we sat down to eat, and we each had a glass of milk. Amie repeated that she had made the cookies for him and Rabbit (Amie picked the …
Coperthwaite, A Handmade Life, Review Part 1
Here’s another article I wrote for Suite101.com, the copyright of which passed to me so I can share it with you here. It’s of William S. Coperthwaite’s book A Handmade Life, In Search for Simplicity. It was one of the first books I read after making my turn-around regarding a Simpler Life in a Better …
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How Much Is the Garden Worth?
Kitchen Gardeners International has an interesting article on the worth of a home garden. The author, Roger Doiron, weighed the food coming out of his 1600 square feet garden in Maine (zone 5b/6) and calculated how much this food would have cost had he bought it in a conventional grocery store, a farmer’s market, or …
Riot Reckoning: Month 4
“Rekenen,” Dutch: to count Gasoline: doing much better at 16% Between us we consumed 20.3 gallons. That’s 6.77 gallons/person, that’s: 16% of the US national average. I have this great deal with another mom from Amie’s preschool: in lieu of my watching her kids for four hours a week, she watches Amie for two hours …
First Seeds Sown
Yesterday I sowed the first seeds of the season: early lettuce (Black-seeded Simpson) in one flat; celery (Redventure), onion (Clear Dawn) and eggplant (Applegreen) in another. Amie joined me to sow the larger eggplant seeds. What a joy it was to see her nimble tiny fingers handle those seeds! Then I watered the flats and …
Poll: Why Do/Don’t You Simplify/Prepare in the face of Peak Oil/Global Warming?
{This is a second attempt at this poll. I deleted the first one: the polling service wasn’t working properly. My apologies to those who already voted; please vote again.} I am curious about how my readers think about Peak Oil / Global Warming. Do you think the threat is real? What do we hope/fear for …
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My Joy in the Present and My Fear for the Future
I am preparing two bags; 1) A field bag, containing compass measuring tape pencils and pencil sharpener paper/journals for Mama and Amie eraser watercolor and water bottle, brushes baggies for collecting clear tape camera I might add a baggie with Plaster of Paris for capturing animal tracks and a mixing tin. 2) A run-out-of-the-house emergency …
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Riot for Austerity Month 3: An Average Winter Month
Gasoline: 25% After our road trip splurge last month, we did better this month: we used 31.1 gallons between the three of us, which makes for 25% of the US national average, but more than our first month Rioting (19%). The reason was the schedule changes that necessitated DH to take the car into school …
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