The original Survive LA logo.
Today, July 13th, is the tenth anniversary of our blog. In that time we’ve published 2,731 posts (and have abandoned drafts of 700 more!), numbers which are surprising even to us. Turns out that adage about a journey of a thousand miles starting with a single step is true.
We’d planned to do more to celebrate this milestone, but I’d be lying if I said this was a good week, or that I am in a celebratory mood. My elderly mom is not doing well and our lives are focused on caring for her. As a result, Kelly and I may not be doing much blogging in the next few weeks.
But I don’t want to let this anniversary pass without saying something. Writing this blog has been a tremendously positive experience. The subject matter we cover, a somewhat scattershot collection of the home arts and random opinions, somehow attracts very kind and talented readers, and it is your enthusiasm that makes us keep writing. We’ve been able to meet many of you in person and I hope to meet more of you someday.
A Short History of Root Simple
On the afternoon of July 13th 2006 I had a flash of inspiration. I realized that my disparate DIY interests could be gathered together into a blog. I felt like I had discovered a kind of unified field theory of home economics. That day I began the Survive LA blog that was later became Root Simple.
It took awhile to find our voice. Survive LA had a jokey, tongue-in-cheek prepper vibe. Some of my early posts make me cringe today. Coincidentally, I just found on my hard drive an incredibly embarrassing, downright offensive mission statement dating from the first few months of the blog that I wisely decided not to publish. Ultimately, I found it more productive to take our subject matter seriously and dispense with the posturing. It just takes a while to find your voice. Thankfully Kelly started contributing to the blog, and she’s a far better writer than I.
I should note that this blog had one false start: a blog about our parkway vegetable garden. That 2005 blog went to two posts before becoming an internet ghost site that I’ve lost the password to access and can’t delete it. The parkway itself is, ironically, still a work in progress. Our podcast, now in its 89th episode as of this week, also had two false starts but is going strong.
Much ink could be spilled on the influence on bloggers like us of events such as 9/11, Katrina, Y2K, climate change and the 2008 economic meltdown on this blog and others like it, but that will have to wait for another post or even a book.
Another blog post could be written on how Facebook has siphoned off readers from our blog and others like it. Hopefully we’ll all figure out a way to make the interwebs non-hierarchical again and send the Silicon Valley robber barons packing.
How the Books Happened
When this blog was young, Kelly and I went to a party at the house of the Jodie Willie and Adam Parfrey, independent and creative LA-based publishers. They read the blog after the party and commissioned a book from us, because we were covering territory which they wanted to include as part of their Process Media Self Reliance series. Unlike most publishers, Jodie and Adam are risk takers. We owe them a big debt of gratitude for taking a chance on two first time authors. The book that they commissioned, The Urban Homestead, published in 2008, went through many printings and is still selling copies.
After the success of the first book we got a lot of offers to write a sequel (or just another version of the same book for bigger publishers!). We ended up writing a how-to book for Rodale called Making It.
Thank You!
Root Simple is a group effort and there are many people to thank: our web designer Roman Jaster and our logo designer Eric Thomason. Caroline Clerc did the cute cartoons that adorn our masthead. And we thank our publishers Process Media and Rodale. We’ve also met many fine journalists after the book came out, such as Michael Tortorello who wrote a nice piece about us for the New York Times and Johnny Sanphillippo kindly made a video about us that went viral.
Most of all we thank you our dear readers for your support over the past ten years.
A note from Kelly:
Erik has said it all well, but I just wanted to add my thanks to his. Thank you, all of you, for your gracious and continual input, support and love. Somehow we’ve been blessed with an incredible community of readers and commenters, and we are so grateful for you all.
Congratulations, best wishes to you & your family & here’s to many more years of info sharing.
Congratulations on the blogging milestone! I have been enjoying Root Simple for more than two years now, and hope to see it around for many more years. M
PS Wishing you strength as you care for your mom.
Y’all have been wonderful guides as I have reoriented from working in a high-rise career and crashing at the house to viewing our urban bungalow as a center of industry. While I regularly leave home to complete work assignments, it is now the work I do to make our home and garden efficient, economical and sustainable which is the true center of my career.
Best wishes to you as you lovingly care for your mom.
Fanastic achievement (I have been following this blog ever since your U.H. book got released in Dutch over here). Absolutely love what you guys are doing, you’re such an inspiration – judging from the comments you got on the video by Johnny I think the rest of the world agrees.
All of the very best wishes to your Mum and all the strength to you two in these difficult times.
God bless you both on the journey of taking care of your Mom. I will definitely miss your daily posts as I look forward to reading your blog everyday.
Congratulations! I’ve enjoyed your blog for several years and learned a lot!
Congrats on 10 years!
It’s the blog that has inspired me most on my journey. As an example, my family and I are enjoying the apriums and the nectaplums you recommended in the blog.
My thoughts are with you and your loved ones in these times.
Looking forward to reading about your next adventures on the blog
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve been following you for a few years and I always look forward to your posts.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary. I nave been following your blog for 8 of those years.
I have both books and I can highly recommend them.
Best wishes in your future endeavours.
My thoughts are with you on this journey with your Mum
Marieann
Congratulations, thank you, and I look forward to the next ten years!
I can’t believe I have been reading your blog for 10 years! I feel like I should send you over a bottle of champagne! Thank you for all your inspiration and insights. And also the sweet reminders I find when I recall living in your area. (and some not-so-sweet ones)
I hope you will stay up with the blog and perhaps if you are too busy, throw in a repeat. I would love to reread some of those earlier posts.
Good luck with you Mom. Seems we are all dealing with that kind of thing now. Maybe some of your insights will help us carry on also.
Blessings to you both.
Congratulations! What was the name of this blog just previous to Root Simple? I hope your mom is better soon.
First it was Survive LA then our publisher wanted us to take the “LA” out so that it was not perceived as being just a local blog. Then we went through a many month search for an available url (all the good ones have long since been taken). It became Homegrown Revolution then Homegrown Evolution, neither of which we were satisfied with. Finally we discovered that Root Simple was available and grabbed it.
Congratulations and happy anniversary!!
You both continue to educate and inspire me.
Simple is my ultimate goal . . . I’m trying to avoid the detours along the way!
Thank you for all your posts, and for your diligent dedication for 10 whole years. What an accomplishment.
Sending thoughts of strength and compassion as you care for your mom.
Way to go!! Your commitment to your wonderful work is inspiring and I look forward to reading your posts.
Thank you for your dedication and intelligent conversations. and all the best with your mother.
Congratulations! I really enjoy your blog and books. My thoughts are with you as you care for Erik’s mom.
I love this blog for the ‘voices’ of two wonderful people who bring interesting and compelling topics for me to ponder and be inspired by. Thank you for all that you do!
With gratitude,
Diane L.
PS: wish you two were my neighbors 🙂
Thank you! Consider us virtual neighbors!
Congratulations Erik and Kelly, and here’s to many more years and blog posts (and podcasts, I thoroughly enjoy those as well).
My thoughts and best wishes for you and your mother.