Root Simple: 2015 in Review

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In my yearly review of the many blog posts and podcasts we created over the years I like to use the number comments they received as a gauge for their relevance. I’ve noticed over the years that the most commented upon blog posts tend to track where Kelly and my interests intersect as well as the general cultural resonance of the eclectic topics we discuss. As we enter our tenth year of blogging, I thought I’d take a look back at the blog posts that most resonated for us and for readers in 2015.

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Everything Must Go!
The series of blog posts Kelly did on decluttering, that spanned late 2014 and early 2015, are the most commented posts of the past year. The series began with Kelly’s review of Japanese cleaning sensation Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing Magic of Cleaning Up and continued with our, mostly successful, struggle to declutter our tiny bungalow. During a burst of last minute Christmas shopping, I kept seeing Kondo’s book everywhere from clothing stores to high-end museum gift shops. It says a lot about our culture that it can simultaneously offer up Kondo’s decluttering tome amidst the annual Christmas orgy of consumption. There’s an unhealthy Ying/Yang relationship here that is worth further exploration in the coming year.

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A Post-Wild Front Yard
The second most popular posts were about Kelly’s ongoing efforts to create a “post-wild” landscape in our challenging, sloped front yard. The last installment of these posts, Our New Front Yard Part 6 shows where we’re at now. We’ll continue, of course, to chronicle the transformation of our garden in the coming year.

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Not Going With the Flow
I don’t like to go negative, but after receiving dozens of emails and Facebook links to the Flow Hive, I felt I needed to write about this gadget (Kelly, by the way, re-edited my first draft heavily and made it much better). The post, The Flow Hive: A Solution in Search of a Problem, was the single most commented upon blog post on Root Simple in 2015. Subsequently, I heard from more experienced beekeepers than myself who felt the same way I did about this contraption and added additional concerns. By of the end of 2015, the Flow Hive folks had raised an astonishing $12 million and are in the process of shipping over 20,000 units. It will be interesting to see what happens to the people who bought Flow Hives and the bees they attempt to keep. I’m not optimistic about this but I hope to be proved wrong.

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Honesty in Urban Homesteading
We don’t do nearly enough blogging about the many hair brained notions and failed projects that transpire here at the Root Simple Compound and Labs. We did mange to chronicle a few of our shortcomings, such as our lack of a clothes line (Busted: Drying Racks, Clothes Lines and Cheese Puffs), the train wreck that was our summer garden (Our Disasterous Summer Garden and Our Grape Arbor is a Stacking Function Fail) as well as incompetent animal husbandry (A Painful Beekeeping Lesson) and our ongoing raccoon wars (My Apologies to the Skunk Community).

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Internet Issues
I have a love/hate relationship with the interwebs. On the one hand this blog reaches a lot more folks than my 1990s bus riding zine Power to the Peoplemover did and I don’t have to make runs to the post office or to Kinkos! On the other hand, I find the internet to be a source of incredible distraction and dubious ethics. Speaking of ethics, our unease about being an Amazon affiliate got a lot of comments (Our Amazon Problem) as did my post on Facebook distraction (Is Facebook Useful?).

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How-to posts
I really wish that I could do more how-to posts, but the fact is that they are the most time consuming. We did manage to do a few good ones: Stuff you Learn When the Power Goes Out (with El Niño storms approaching, it’s time to review this one), Restoring a Built-In Ironing Board, Three Things I’ve Learned from Baking Bread with Whole Grain and How to Make Hot Sauce.

Podcast Comments
Due to the nature of the medium it’s difficult for me to gauge the reaction of listeners to our podcast but I think the two most popular may have been the interviews we did with Larry Korn (064 One Straw Revolutionary Larry Korn) and Robert Kourik (069 Understanding Roots With Robert Kourik).

Half-Baked Thoughtstylings
In going through the past year’s blog posts I found quite a few unfinished ones. I’ve learned in the past that most of these should stay unfinished. But one of those posts caught my eye, “Is Freekah the New Quinoa?” (freekah is a kind of roasted grain from the Middle East that you cook whole). Perhaps I should rework it with a new headline, “Freekah Out”.

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A Big Thank You
Lastly I just want to say how grateful I am to our many blog readers and podcast listeners. When our young heart patient cat phoebe died in June there was an outpouring of caring and compasionate comments (just as when our beloved Doberman passed a few years ago). Many, many thanks to all of you for your support over the years. Like everyone, I have moments of cynicism, self-doubt as well as periods when the muses simply leave the building.  It means a lot to Kelly and I to receive so many thoughtful, loving comments and emails.

I hope that 2015 was a good year for you and best wishes for a happy 2016!

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10 Comments

  1. Just want to say thank you for all the time and effort you put into your blogs. I look for your latest posts the first thing and you brighten my day and get me thinking. A cup of coffee and Root Simple…the way to go. And being a former L.A. resident you have kept me abreast of ‘home’ as I have moved all over the place. May the new year bring you both peace, prosperity, contentment, and happiness.

  2. I also want to say thanks for all the work you put into the blog. Root Simple is one of my favorites, and I find lots of inspiration here!

  3. yes, i love your blog! Many thanks for all the hard work and thought you guys invest. I’m so happy to have stumbled over into this corner of the internet this year!

  4. You mentioned, it’s hard to gauge reaction to the podcasts. I enjoy all your podcasts but the ones that I remember most (that included other people besides you and Kelly) were the interviews with Winnetka Farms, the Dew Abides, and Garden Fork TV. I think it’s because they are also doing a lot of the things I want to do and I enjoy hearing about their attempts, fails, and successes. I also enjoyed the tidying series of posts and podcast. Thank you for all the work you put into your blog and podcasts.

  5. Hi Erik and Kelly,

    Just wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoy the listening to your podcasts while I do my weekly chores. I for one rarely comment the podcasts posts so please don’t just base its popularity on the amount of comments! 🙂

    Have a fantastic 2016!

  6. I’ve really enjoyed this recap. Its good to take stock–plus I’d missed a few post here and there, apparently. Thank you for the inspiration and hard work!

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