guest post by Doug Hansmann Our architect gave us his shopping list for 73 joists, rafters, posts and beams for our new house today. He could supply everything from his woods, but we hope to find most of them on our own 44 acres. Here’s what it will take: Trees […]
As soon as the first snow accumulates 4 inches, I strap on my snow shoes, and I live in them off still spring. (Well when I’m outside of house and town – and there’s a part of my brain which says that the only time I am really living.) Snow […]
Both our girls made it home for Christmas. We lit some candles and exchanged a few presents on Christmas Eve. The highlight is a custom we picked up in the Netherlands, where the present exchange came with quirky, poems that hint at the object inside the wrappings and tease the […]
PLAN IT NOW PLANT IN IT NEXT SPRING During World War Two, 20 million Americans planted victory gardens to free up produce and the means to transport it for the war effort. In their own back yards, they produced up to 40 percent of the vegetables America ate. We can […]
When we lived in the Netherlands, we often watched village-dwelling farmers wearing wooden shoes bike out to their well-tended fields carrying some long-handled tool over their shoulder (yes, really). The Netherlands is a food exporting country, demonstrating that monster-sized agribusiness is not the only productive game in town. Those […]
Books are portals to other worlds. Opening the cover is like opening a door for me. I walk through and leave what I call Reality Number One behind. (I number my realities because I am usually reading several books at once, and they all take me to different places. Some […]
So, last weekend my husband, two grown daughters and I settled comfortably into our daughter’s Toyota Corolla (the greenest car among us as present) and motored down to Chicago to refill our spiritual cisterns from the wealth of cultural treasure only a city can amass and to check out some […]
GUEST POST BY DELLA HANSMANN Whole Trees Architecture and Construction Before you even start thinking about the specific design of your building, you can have a huge impact on its comfort and cost by choosing the site wisely. Issues of solar gain, prevailing winds, and drainage are key, as well […]
Because I don’t live on my land yet, I have to drive there, and I am painfully aware of the gas I’m burning up. It’s one of those shades-of-green things. I feel the work I’m doing on my 44 acres is good for the planet, but that good is sooted […]
Though I’ve already applied some of it, I’m still digesting the feast of info from 20th Energy Fair of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) June 19-21 near Custer, Wisconsin. It’s a great gathering of people who are learning how to live more lightly, and it just feels good to […]
Digging in the Driftless 