Tag: self-sufficiency

  • Permaculture and Me

    I am pleased to announce that I have just returned from the spectacular Vancouver Island to the also spectacular, if colder, Cape Breton Island, bearing a new Certificate in Permaculture Design: I can’t tell you how excited I am to show you this. Also, isn’t it pretty? A couple of weeks ago, I undertook the…

  • The Elitism Question

    “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan’s advice on what to eat from the New York Times, which has turned out to be surprisingly controversial. Real food? Everybody knows that’s just for the wealthy elite… Berkshire pork and morels at $180 an ounce, right? Something like that… certainly no relevance to the average…

  • The Economics of the Laundry Line

    If you are a dedicated environmentalist, but you still find yourself buying back your own time by using convenience foods and labour-saving devices, this is an article for you. I find myself making these choices almost every day: I currently have a frozen lasagna in the oven so that I can have back the 2…

  • The Recurring Cow Conversation

    “Do we want the local (conventional) milk, or the large-scale organic (shipped 2500 km) milk this week?” In case you were wondering, we’re not actually planning on getting a cow. We only have an acre and a half cleared, and the cow would need most of it for pasture. It’s swampy and we’re near a…

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring Cleaning

    It is the time of the year when young beekeepers minds turn to thoughts of honey. Not harvesting honey, not honey for people, but… whether there is going to be enough honey left in the hive to keep the bees alive until the flowers are in bloom. It is a great sadness to get the…

  • The Price Of Gas!

    Oh! It is time to run in circles and flap our hands! Gas is going up! Food will cost more! Who could ever have predicted this??? Here is one of the places where the division between structural analysis and the personal impact becomes glaring. It has become apparent to me over the last few years…

  • How to Build a 1500 Follower Facebook Page in 24 hours

    It turns out to be rather simple: Trademark a common phrase that is primarily used by freethinking radicals. OK. It won’t be your page, but if you want to galvanize a movement and you are willing to be the common enemy, this could be an effective strategy. There is a disturbance in the force today…

  • Little Steps to Home

    Sitting in the lounge at the mechanic’s this morning (don’t ask), I found myself in the company of a friendly sort, an older man who was definitely from here. I know this because as soon as I arrived, he asked me a question, I countered with a book, we chatted for about a minute, and…

  • Everything I need to Know I Learned from My Mechanic

    Today, my mechanic added a useful skill to my repertoire. Specifically, he taught me how to start a car with a burned out starter motor, and it does not involve hotwiring. What is more, he did this over the phone, thus saving me the $50 tow fee to get my car from my back yard…

  • Exotic Spices meet Local Food

    Right this moment, I’m waiting for the motor on my spice grinder to cool down so that I can make another batch of curry powder to take to our local farmer’s market. In a much earlier post, I wrote about the challenges we face balancing our desires for local, organic, sustainably produced, and healthy food…

  • Keeping On Keeping On

    I’m not supposed to be here. Well, I’m supposed to be here, at my desk. But I’m supposed to be over there, in my word processor, working on my proposal for a radio documentary on E.F. Schumacher and appropriate technologies. But man. Demoralized. Here I am, reading a book that was published the year I…

  • On Debates and Being Right

    Margaret Wente has declared the debate on Anthropogenic Global Warming over. Her side has won. We have decided what we are going to do about climate change, and the answer is… nothing. Congratulations, climate change deniers. You played your hand well. Apparently our culture is unwilling to make any sacrifices to preserve an uncertain future…