I recently got back from a 7 day silent meditation retreat at the Bhavana Society – www.bhavanasociety.org. Everett told me he didn’t think retreat was the right word and I agree. It’s a retreat from everyday life, but definitely not a lay back and take it easy kind of thing! Once, I even heard a [...]
I was tetter-tottering back and and forth on whether I wanted to write and publish this post. I didn’t want to cross any ethical lines on whether I should use this forum for personal gain, but after much thought, and reassurance from a good friend, I’m going for it. After all, I assume most viewers [...]
Welp, it’s early July and my tomatoes are still green, but I have plenty of other things in my garden that contributed to a simple, yet delicious, meal this evening. I was outside working on my homestead and started getting hungry. Hungry for something natural and something local. So, I walked out to my garden [...]
Before I moved to Floyd County I used to take all of my old or unwanted stuff to Goodwill, Salvation Army, local thrift store, or, shamefully, just throw it in the trash. Not now. Since moving back to Floyd I have learned of the fine art of “Greenbox Recycling.” What I used to call dumpsters [...]
I belong to an email list for a local beekeeping club and for the past month it has been hot with folks postings leads on swarms – in buildings, on the side roads, in gardens and so on. It’s amazing how quickly beekeepers get on these leads and immediately snatch them up. Just the other [...]
Spring is fastly approaching. This evening after watering my peas (yes, they are up about an inch now!) I went for a walk around my property starting at the creek and noticed the skunk cabbage is about 3-4 inches out of the ground already. A little further I saw a bunch of new greenbriar growth, some [...]
A friend of mine forwarded me an email of a beer bread recipe he received. As I was looking at the recipe I noticed he, also a homebrewer, inserted his Murphy’s Ale as the beer ingredient! Not having a Murphy’s ale on hand, and not having much experience making bread with beer, I decided to use a trusty [...]
I guess I will start this article with a “disclaimer” similar to what Everett did on one of his posts a few months back… Disclaimer: This post contains words, information and pictures on killing and eating a live animal. I make no excuses nor do I feel guilty about my current omnivore diet. I have, [...]
I have a lot of power tools – a lot! And up to this point in time I have not acquired a tool that I could not figure out how to use within the first 15 minutes. Welp, it took at 9″ band saw, several hours of my time, and finally resorting to visiting a woodworker [...]
When I first moved to Floyd a dozen years back one of the first things I fell in love with was the summer sky. The sky seemed more blue than I had ever observed and vastly big and reaching for being in the mountains. At that time I was doing a lot of odd jobs and construction, and [...]
Everett writes about voluntary simplicity. This blog catalogs his search for "the good life" as he tries to strike a balance between work and play, freedom and responsibility, simplicity and comfort.
