Back from the Mother Earth News Fair. It was a huge, fantastic event. If Mother throws one of these anywhere near you, you might consider attending even if you have to travel quite a way. I was also fortunate enough to connect with several delightful “friends I’ve never met” and to enjoy my time with Dave and Ilene; this is the first time I’ve met them despite all my years of writing for BHM, and they are great people. I’ll have tales (and tails!) from the fair later this week (and will also continue blogging “Middle-class shrugging”). But for your…
Category: Practical Freedom
A broad category of things we can do, or things others are doing, to increase personal freedom
Dead birds got me thinking about survivalism and situational awareness. Among other tchotchkes and geegaws the sellers of my new-old house left were a number of cutsy birdhouses in the backyard. I was going to pull them all down. But before I got to it, anonymous-looking brown birds moved into one, did what birdies do in the spring, and produced babies. I don’t know a lot about birds, but I’m guessing this pair has used this nest box before. I can’t imagine that they’d otherwise choose it — given that it’s smack in the middle of a small yard that’s…
I can now confirm that the rumors are true. The rumors aren’t as exciting as the ones about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child or even the ones about Botox Mom. But they are true. I’ll be with the Backwoods Home gang at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, Washington, on the weekend of June 4 & 5. I’ll be there signing copies of Hardyville Tales and (if the Duffys permit) taking orders for any and all of my books from other publishers. (I can also take advance orders and hand your autographed copies to you at the fair.) The event…
Aaron Zelman’s name came up this weekend when two important gunfolk learned for the first time that he was dead. I thought they already knew. Even though Aaron had longstanding health problems, he was such a force of nature and such a creative soul it’s hard to realize even now, six months later, that he’s gone. But JPFO is roaring on in his spirit. I dropped by the their website last night and had a look around. Among other things, I revisited a few articles Aaron and I wrote together during our seven year collaboration. I thought you might enjoy…
And the joys of a bad neighborhood in a bad economy Saturday May 14 is Give Your Stuff Away Day — or at least one earnest man hopes it will be. That’s the day he urges you to haul your excess stuff (or at least a politically correct and safety-checked assortment of it) to the curb and simply give it away to anybody who wants it. It’s not the political correctness that’ll keep me from participating. It’s the fact that I spring-cleaned my garage today, shoved the best of the gleanings to the front, put up “FREE STUFF” signs —…
When I was younger and attracted to the Bad Boys, I wasted a lot of emotional energy trying to explain to them how their more egregious behaviors hurt me. Or trying to fathom why they did certain things so that I could help “heal” them. (Yeah, go ahead. Roll your eyes.) “Why do you keep lying when you know I’m going to find out?” “But if you say you’re going to pick me up at 7:00, you should call if you can’t. Leaving me waiting until 8:30 without a word doesn’t make sense.” (Or in one case where the miscreant…
Well, no. You don’t gotta be contrary. You could declare your undying intent to be absolutely normal and conformist, adhering to whatever the dictates of popular opinion, government schools, or Parade Sunday supplement … er, dictate. But around here, even that would be a form of being contrary. So maybe ya gotta be contrary, after all. And in a second, I’ll get to some wherefores. But here’s what sparked my thinking about this. This comment by Roxy came up in Oliver Del Signore’s blog about Obama’s new birth certificate: I am sorry to see Backwoods Home getting into political commentary.…
After yesterday, I’ve concluded that manual labor is too much like work. We writers are prone to get all whiny about what tough jobs we have and how we suffer for our Art. But I tell you, by the end of the day yesterday, if I’d have had to haul one more slab of drywall up that narrow, twisty attic stair, I’d have sat down on the steps and cried. —– Ten years ago I drywalled Cabin Sweet Cabin by myself (except for the ceiling, where I assisted somebody else). So I thought “piece of cake!” when I merely faced…
What would you do? The upstairs room needs a new floor. It’s going to be laminate. I’ve found exactly the flooring I want for $1.89 per square foot at a tiny family-run business in my town. Obviously, there are cheaper laminates. And more expensive ones. But this is a good product at a modest price and it’s the type that already has the underlayment attached. So not bad. I’ve looked for it online and, once you factor in shipping, the local price is competitive. But. I can drive 90 miles to a chain store and get the same stuff for…
I’m going to be busy the next couple of days and might not have much for you. So I thought I’d throw out a question — or rather, repeat a question thrown out some time ago at the Balancing Beauty and Bedlam blog (love that name): Cheap vs frugal? Which is which? It’s an old question, but ever-relevant — and not just because so many freedomistas are also frugalistas, bent on getting value for their FRNs and avoiding messy money entanglements. It’s relevant to me in part because I grew up around somebody who believed himself to be frugal but…