May the Work I’ve Done Speak for Me

...with Joanne Poyourow of Environmental Changemakers to transform a large unused area of lawn into a community garden. Part of the parking lot became a community bread oven. When the city couldn’t find a location for a child’s playground he offered another large part of the church’s property for that project. He taught regular yoga classes, hosted Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, provided space for music and dance groups and home schoolers, and built...

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Counterintelligence

...ing down on that cheese. Few things in nature are as deliberative as a cat making a call on jumping. The assault on our kitchen counters actually came in two parts, somewhat like finding an alternate route up Mt. Everest. The first step came two weeks ago when the cats figured out they could jump on the counter adjacent to the stove. From there they must have spotted the other counter and a week later made the dinner party assault on cheese summit...

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Is Facebook Useful?

...k and you’re signed up for an invasive and unpaid marketing focus group. I used to think that I could post quirky and random things in Facebook to throw off their algorithms, but I guarantee you that Facebook’s programmers are always one step ahead of us all. Who needs the NSA when we’re (myself included) willing to give up so much personal information? Competition for eyeballs At the risk of sounding bitter, Facebook takes eyeballs away from Root...

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An Early Resolution

...come in disposable cups. If I try to imagine how many disposable cups I’ve used in my life–say the earth (justly) vomited them all back at my feet–how high would the pile be? As big as my house? So I’m making a resolution. Instead of berating others, I’m declaring a personal moratorium on to-go cups–all disposable cups for both hot and cold drinks, actually, because why not? I banned plastic water bottles from my life long ago. Why it took so long...

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Why I’m Growing Vegetables in a Straw Bale

...ecause his philosophy demands that you to focus intent on the garden, thus making the act of gardening a kind of sacred duty. But, this winter, I’ve still got a lot of tasks to complete and don’t have time to develop either a biodynamic compost pile or, gasp, thoughtstyle my way to some new, alternative method of sacramental gardening. So I decided to try straw bale gardening again. My last attempt, that I blogged about and even did a video of, wo...

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