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Stories about re-skilling, preparing for peak oil with style, and gardening.

Radical homemakers

By April 22, 2013
cozykitchen

Confucius said that the health of a nation could be determined by the integrity of its homes. If we apply that standard, we’re in trouble. Culturally, most Americans don’t even have homes anymore. They have houses, not homes. Homes are something that are made, not bought. And, homes, thus, require homemakers. That’s right, plural: homemakers. I'm not talking about just women. And, I'm not talking about Ozzie and Harriet stereotypical housewives. I am talking about what Dr. Shannon … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Books, Re-skilling Tagged With: , , , , , ,

For health, smarts and resilience, drink your beer

By April 8, 2013
beer inforgraphic cropped

Anybody interested in buying more food from local farmers and learning how to cook and preserve it at home knows that taking control of what goes in your mouth is a powerful way to get healthier. But if you're trying to eat more organic kale, more free-range eggs and more pastured beef, you may also be trying to cut back on booze to stiffen up that beer belly or shrink those love handles. Well, if you don't think about drinking more IPA as the high road to a healthy body and even a sharper … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Transition Tagged With: , ,

Junk thought

By February 15, 2013
Thought Bubble Bike Stand

Human life is messy, and human beings even more so. Working out our "stuff" together is no easy feat. And it's made no easier by the flood of all kinds of information into our minds, too much of which pollutes our internal lives rather than edifying our personal existence. The powerful tsunami of junk info we face daily largely comes in the forms of advertisements, which are pervasive, continual, and overwhelmingly manipulative. And ads are so commonplace that we forget that a constant tide … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Education

Our local eco swap

By February 1, 2013
ladies on bikes

I've written before about the merits of swapping clothes and accessories you no longer want for "new-to-you" items instead. The three top benefits are: Saving money — one of the the keys to prosperity is spending less/saving more. Eco-friendly — reusing stuff helps avoid adding to the landfill. Fun! — getting together with others for a good time beats solo shopping zombiedom. But while I had researched and described how to host one of these events, I had not yet thrown one or … [Read more...]

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The heart of my home

By January 25, 2013
kitchenshape

The kitchen is the heart of my home. It’s the hub of the domestic wheel. Since it’s where the woodstove is, this time of year, it’s where everyone gathers. And, everything of any importance takes place there: meals get prepared, recipes shared, bills paid, horse grains mixed, tinctures made, messages exchanged; kombucha brewed, coffee sipped and books read. Sometimes I take for granted that the kitchen is the living heart of my home. That is, until someone reminds me. And, invariably, … [Read more...]

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Four things that were better in 1899

By January 23, 2013
Gibson print

It's no accident that the 1960 film adaptation of The Time Machine opens with host HG Wells welcoming four friends to a dinner party in London on January 5, 1900 to recount events that had occurred since he last met them, on New Year's Eve, 1899. What year could be more symbolic of the end of an era, for good or ill, than 1899? Since Americans worship at the altar of progress, we hardly need to be reminded that plenty of things in the 1890s were certainly much worse than they are … [Read more...]

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The 2013 in and out list

By January 7, 2013
bacon tee

The end of 2012 brought with it a rash of the same-old same-old "In and Out" lists issued by the lamestream media and their corporate overlords. To wit, the annual Washington Post "List," this time tarted up by putting two newbies at the helm to give it some so-called edge. Bwa-ha ha! It still stunk of too much product placement, too many contract obligations, and a crap load of deference to the corporocratic taste makers; which reminds us — oxymorons are in! So we're back again with … [Read more...]

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Revenge of the amateur: the future of culture after peak oil

By December 3, 2012
La clemenza di Tito

Does anybody else under the age of sixty like opera besides me? I'm not talking about musicals like Cats or Starlight Express or even light opera or operetta like Die Fledermaus or The Merry Widow. I'm talking about hardcore, five hours long, it-ain't-over-till-the-fat-lady-sings grand opera. This weekend, at our art house movie theater in downtown Staunton, Virginia -- yes, our town of 24,000 souls is lucky enough to have a movie theater that shows foreign films and documentaries -- I … [Read more...]

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In the low-tech future, looking sharp, or not

By November 23, 2012
manakins in window

With a sufficient supply of water and food secured, the next item on the list of basic material needs is clothing. The primary function of clothing is to keep us warm, and its secondary function, at least in our state of society, is to cover nakedness. However, those functions are all but forgotten in consumer societies today, where clothing’s purpose has evolved to become primarily about expressing one’s identity or social status. In a sufficiency economy, the fashion industry would be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Transition Tagged With: , ,

Gratitude to trees

By November 9, 2012
Tree

Written as a guide to prepare students from two classes—“Place and Identity” and “Conservation Biology”--for a walk into the woods beyond Dominican University of California. Morning: Listening Trees transform, shield, shade and provide oxygen, fruit, and beauty. They offer many other gifts. Without trees, humans wouldn't survive. Through the magical process of photosynthesis, tree leaves and other green plants release oxygen by transforming carbon dioxide and water. As our human … [Read more...]

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