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Simple Living News
Issue #75 — March 2010
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Copyright © 2010
Greetings, and welcome to the 75th edition of the Simple Living Network's free, on-line Newsletter!
As I write this, I'm looking out at a beautiful late-winter day here in Boulder, Colorado (Dave Wampler and The Simple Living Network are in Trout Lake, Washington; I'm in Boulder, Colorado). We received a small amount of snow last night, but with the warm weather and sunshine to come, it will be all gone later this morning.
As Simple Living advocates all know, it's the little things in life which bring the greatest joy. My own smile the past few days has come from my delight at the finches and chickadees which finally discovered the bird feeder outside our living room window. It's our "television", watching these cute little birds swooping around, grabbing a snack while starting on their nests for this spring in the surrounding trees.
After a cold and snowy season that always seems to go a little long for our tastes, we're now seeing the trees bud, snow and ice disappear, and warm coats and mittens go back to the closet where they belong. With the change of season, our thoughts turn to all the exciting things to do this year! We'll get the garden started, and maybe install some rain barrels this year to let us water with rainwater. Personally, I'm thrilled to be finally starting to install solar power on the roof! I've been learning a lot about it, doing all the work myself. I'm looking forward to writing an article for the Newsletter this summer, sharing the experience.
With the change of season comes some chores (time to file tax forms here in the USA), but also a time for personal enrichment and contemplation. Many faiths offer a form of celebration of the season, such as Easter, Passover, Nowruz, or simply recognizing the equinox. Regardless, it's a time to think through where we've been, and where we're going. Especially with current events worldwide right now, it feels particularly important to live consciously, intentionally creating the life we desire.
In that vein, we'd like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to long-time supporter Jonathan Allan for issuing the Valentine's Day CyberAngel challenge and to all of the 2010 CyberAngels who participated. All told, we raised just over $2000 in less than two weeks! Without your support, The Simple Living Network would be unable to provide the wealth of resources we've all enjoyed for over 14 years. The Simple Living Network has been here, walking the talk, from long before "Simple Living" became a popular concept. This is a small home-based organization that nearly squeezes Dave Wampler out of his home. I don't get paid; I'm a volunteer, just like the Discussion Forum Moderators and numerous others. This is a fledgling operation, squeaking by with modest Bookstore sales and the dedication of volunteers and CyberAngels. Won't you become a CyberAngel today?
We hope you enjoy this edition of our free, user-supported Newsletter. As always, if you'd like to write an article for us, please don't hesitate to contact me — this is our Newsletter, for all of us to share our experiences in the Simple Living community! To learn more, click to read the Submission Guidelines.
Warm wishes for springtime,
Fred Ecks
Newsletter Editor volunteer
The Simple Living Network
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Simple Living News
Issue #75 — March 2010
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Copyright © 2010
If you believe the government is behaving immorally, and that supporting the government would make you complicit in this, you must decide what to do about taxpaying. Voluntary Simplicity can be a safe, legal way to reduce your complicity in the tax-funded actions of the government while enabling you to contribute to society in ways that respect your values.
People who move from complicity to simplicity come from all over the political spectrum. For some, the straw that broke the taxpayer's back was government funding for war and weapons of mass destruction, for others it was abortion or the death penalty, for others it was the growing government leviathan and its Machiavellian values.
What these conscientious objectors have in common are these beliefs:
- the money you earn is a crystallization of your time and effort
- to lead a good life you must put your time and effort in the service of good values
- paying taxes means putting your time and effort in opposition to those values
"Our family did this starting back in the 1990s," says Ed Harris-Morgan of Petaluma, California. "We did not like how the government was spending and what it was supporting.... Eventually we stopped working for a paycheck and now just do the little amount of freelance work it takes to earn the cash we need. We stay under the poverty line and do not have to pay the government anything.... It took us a few years to get our spending down to this level but it is worth it."
In libertarian and conservative circles, this tactic is sometimes called "shrugging" or "going Galt" — named after the character John Galt in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged who goes on strike against the bureaucrats of a collectivist tyranny and sets up a Utopian "Galt's Gulch" where other such strikers can find refuge.
"We have 'gone Galt' for many years now," wrote one anonymous shrugger, "but it was not Atlas Shrugged that changed it for us. It was a book called Your Money Or Your Life. We found more important things in life than paying high taxes, employing and supporting others, and earning top dollar in our own business while working ourselves to death."
A fellow who blogs under the name Prometheus told me, "I sold my business, moved to Montana, 'shrugged' and have lived comfortably near the poverty line since 2005. I have a friend who made seven figures a year and shrugged last year. 'Gulches' are popping up all over this country. Just because it's not really well known doesn't mean it's not happening. Most of us, myself being a bit of an outlier, keep well below-the-radar."
More above-the-radar, and more well-organized, are the war tax resisters, who try to end their complicity with war and militarism by cutting off their contributions to the government's military budget. Some war tax resisters are confrontational — refusing to pay their taxes, telling the IRS why, and preparing for the consequences — but others are content to reduce their income taxes to zero legally, by simplifying their lives and getting below the tax line.
This tax line can be substantially higher than the "poverty line." In the United States this year, for instance, nearly half of households will pay no federal income tax (the main source, other than borrowing, of American military spending). Americans who are opposed to war can feel more consistent in their opposition if they work to make sure they're not in the half of households who are paying for America's wars.
The pamphlet Low Income/Simple Living as War Tax Resistance put out by the (U.S.) National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee explains how to live comfortably at a below-the-tax-line income, and why you might want to:
By taking a stand that requires personal change and perhaps personal sacrifice, you demonstrate the depth of your commitment to a more just world. Anyone can complain about the government and ask it to change, but it means much more to change your own life and put your money where your mouth is.
Some resisters find that resisting the whole package of consumerism, overconsumption, and taxation appeals to them more than other tax resistance strategies. Some discover that by living simply they live more satisfying and meaningful lives, and would choose to live this way even if it didn't help them to resist taxes. Some prefer this method of tax resistance because it can be accomplished within the law, demonstrating their desire to be law-abiding citizens without at the same time having to violate their consciences....
Simple living choices can be part of a lifestyle of nonviolent resistance. The more you examine your economic behavior, the more you learn of your entanglement with the military-industrial complex and of your power to untangle yourself.
Many war tax resisters pride themselves on "tax redirection" — that is, keeping their tax money away from the government and its priorities and spending it instead on projects of public good that the government neglects. War tax resisters who get below the tax line have nothing to redirect... no money anyway. But money is just crystallized time and energy, and if you live a life of Voluntary Simplicity you may find that while you have less money, you have more time and energy to spend on things you value.
"For the most part my redirection of time and personal involvement has been possible by my choice to spend my hours in direct service and solidarity where my heart leads me, rather than in wage work geared to bring in cash," says war tax resister Clare Hanrahan.
"I do literacy volunteer work, stand in solidarity with Veterans for Peace and with Women in Black, serve on boards and committees, and in years past founded and managed a homeless advocacy center. I believe that redirection of time and presence provides a personal and potent contribution to the common good, a gift of self that has more dimensions than money alone. I redirect each time I give my time and energy in support of good work within my community."
The key for all of these people, whatever their politics or whichever bit of government spending was the last straw for them, is that they realized that their spending on government, via taxes, was part of their budget and part of the effect they were having on the world.
"Being frugal is not an end in itself," says self-described "frugalista" Wendy McElroy. "Frugality is a way to own your own time — rather than someone/something else having a slave-master claim on your life. The less you have to earn in order to maintain a healthy and comfortable lifestyle, the less you need to trade irreplaceable time for money — half of which will be stolen by State through various means from income to gas taxes, from licenses to fines. To the extent you work half the year to pay off the State, well, to that extent you belong to the State."
Belonging to yourself, being able to put all of your time and energy on the side of your values, being able to look yourself in the mirror and not see someone complicit with government crimes — these are the sorts of riches that tax resisters who use Voluntary Simplicity are unwilling to trade for money.
About The Author
David Gross "went Galt" when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, and he hasn't paid any U.S. federal income tax since. He's produced the books We Won't Pay: A Tax Resistance Reader, American Quaker War Tax Resistance, and The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals. You can find more of his writing on tax resistance, frugality, and related issues at his blog, The Picket Line: http://sniggle.net/Experiment/.
Related Resources
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Copyright © 2010. Reprinted from YES! Magazine with permission.
Long before we could pronounce Betty Friedan's last name, Americans from my generation felt her impact. Many of us born in the mid-1970s learned from our parents and our teachers that women no longer needed to stay home, that there were professional opportunities awaiting us. In my own school experience, homemaking, like farming, gained a reputation as a vocation for the scholastically impaired. Those of us with academic promise learned that we could do whatever we put our minds to, whether it was conquering the world or saving the world. I was personally interested in saving the world. That path eventually led me to conclude that homemaking would play a major role toward achieving that goal.
My own farming background led me to pursue advanced degrees in the field of sustainable agriculture, with a powerful interest in the local food movement. By the time my Ph.D. was conferred, I was married, and I was in a state of confusion. The more I understood about the importance of small farms and the nutritional, ecological, and social value of local food, the more I questioned the value of a 9-to-5 job. If my husband and I both worked and had children, it appeared that our family's ecological impact would be considerable. We'd require two cars, professional wardrobes, convenience foods to make up for lost time in the kitchen ... and we'd have to buy, rather than produce, harvest, and store, our own food.
The economics didn't work out, either. When we crunched the numbers, our gross incomes from two careers would have been high, but the cost of living was also considerable, especially when daycare was figured into the calculation. Abandoning the job market, we re-joined my parents on our small grassfed livestock farm and became homemakers. For almost ten years now, we've been able to eat locally and organically, support local businesses, avoid big box stores, save money, and support a family of four on less than $45,000 per year.
Wondering if my family was a freaky aberration to the conventional American culture, I decided to post a notice on my webpage, looking to connect with other ecologically minded homemakers. My fingers trembled on the keyboard as I typed the notice. What, exactly, would be the repercussions for taking a pro-homemaker stand and seeking out others? Was encouraging a Radical Homemaking movement going to unravel all the social advancements that have been made in the last 40-plus years? Women, after all, have been the homemakers since the beginning of time. Or so I thought.
The Origins of Homemaking: A vocation for both sexes
Upon further investigation, I learned that the household did not become the "woman's sphere" until the Industrial Revolution. A search for the origin of the word housewife traces it back to the thirteenth century, as the feudal period was coming to an end in Europe and the first signs of a middle class were popping up. Historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan explains that housewives were wedded to husbands, whose name came from hus, an old spelling of house, and bonded. Husbands were bonded to houses, rather than to lords. Housewives and husbands were free people, who owned their own homes and lived off their land. While there was a division of labor among the sexes in these early households, there was also an equal distribution of domestic work. Once the Industrial Revolution happened, however, things changed. Men left the household to work for wages, which were then used to purchase goods and services that they were no longer home to provide. Indeed, the men were the first to lose their domestic skills as successive generations forgot how to butcher the family hog, how to sew leather, how to chop firewood.
As the Industrial Revolution forged on and crossed the ocean to America, men and women eventually stopped working together to provide for their household sustenance. They developed their separate spheres — man in the factory, woman in the home. The more a man worked outside the home, the more the household would have to buy in order to have needs met. Soon the factories were able to fabricate products to supplant the housewives' duties as well. The housewife's primary function ultimately became chauffeur and consumer. The household was no longer a unit of production. It was a unit of consumption.
Housewife's Syndrome
The effect on the American housewife was devastating. In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, documenting for the first time "the problem that has no name," Housewife's Syndrome, where American girls grew up fantasizing about finding their husbands, buying their dream homes and appliances, popping out babies, and living happily ever after. In truth, pointed out Friedan, happily-ever-after never came. Countless women suffered from depression and nervous breakdowns as they faced the endless meaningless tasks of shopping and driving children hither and yon. They never had opportunities to fulfill their highest potential, to challenge themselves, to feel as though they were truly contributing to society beyond wielding the credit card to keep the consumer culture humming. Friedan's book sent women to work in droves. And corporate America seized upon a golden opportunity to secure a cheaper workforce and offer countless products to use up their paychecks.
Before long, the second family income was no longer an option. In the minds of many, it was a necessity. Homemaking, like eating organic foods, seemed a luxury to be enjoyed only by those wives whose husbands garnered substantial earnings, enabling them to drive their children to school rather than put them on a bus, enroll them in endless enrichment activities, oversee their educational careers, and prepare them for entry into elite colleges in order to win a leg-up in a competitive workforce. At the other extreme, homemaking was seen as the realm of the ultra-religious, where women accepted the role of Biblical "Help Meets" to their husbands. They cooked, cleaned, toiled, served and remained silent and powerless. My husband and I fell into neither category, and I suspected there were more like us.
Meet the Radical Homemakers
I was right. I received hundreds of letters from rural, suburban, and city folks alike. Some ascribed to specific religious faiths, others did not. As long as the home showed no signs of domination or oppression, I was interested in learning more about them. I selected twenty households from my pile, plotted them on a map across the United States, and set about visiting each of them to see what homemaking could look like when men and women shared both power and responsibility. Curious to see if Radical Homemaking was a venture suited to more than just women in married couples, I visited with single parents, stay-at-home dads, widows, and divorcées. I spent time in families with and without children.
A glance into America's past suggests that homemaking could play a big part in addressing the ecological, economic and social crises of our present time. Homemakers have played a powerful role during several critical periods in our nation's history. By making use of locally available resources, they made the boycotts leading up to the American Revolution possible. They played a critical role in the foundational civic education required to launch a young democratic nation. They were driving forces behind both the abolition and suffrage movements.
Homemakers today could have a similar influence. The Radical Homemakers I interviewed had chosen to make family, community, social justice, and the health of the planet the governing principles of their lives. They rejected any form of labor or the expenditure of any resource that did not honor these tenets. For about 5,000 years, our culture has been hostage to a form of organization by domination that fails to honor our living systems, under which "he who holds the gold makes the rules." By contrast, the Radical Homemakers are using life skills and relationships as replacements for gold, on the premise that he or she who doesn't need the gold can change the rules. The greater one's domestic skills, be they to plant a garden, grow tomatoes on an apartment balcony, mend a shirt, repair an appliance, provide one's own entertainment, cook and preserve a local harvest, or care for children and loved ones, the less dependent one is on the gold.
By virtue of these skills, the Radical Homemakers I interviewed were building a great bridge from our existing extractive economy — where corporate wealth has been regarded as the foundation of economic health, where mining our Earth's resources and exploiting our international neighbors have been acceptable costs of doing business — to a life serving economy, where the goal is, in the words of David Korten, to generate a living for all, rather than a killing for a few; where our resources are sustained, our waters are kept clean, our air pure, and families can lead meaningful lives. In situations where one person was still required to work out of the home in the conventional extractive economy, homemakers were able to redirect the family's financial, social and temporal resources toward building the life-serving economy. In most cases, however, the homemakers' skills were so considerable that, while members of the household might hold jobs (more often than not they ran their own businesses), the financial needs of the family were so small that no one in the family was forced to accept any employment that did not honor the four tenets of family, community, social justice and ecological sustainability.
While all the families had some form of income that entered their lives, they were not a privileged set by any means. Most of the families I interviewed were living with a sense of abundance at about 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That's a little over $40,000 for a family of four, about 37 percent below the national median family income, and 45 percent below the median income for married couple families. Some lived on considerably less, few had appreciably more. Not surprisingly, those with the lowest incomes had mastered the most domestic skills and had developed the most innovative approaches to living.
Rethinking the Impossible
The Radical Homemakers were skilled at the mental exercise of rethinking the "givens" of our society and coming to the following conclusions: nobody (who matters) cares what (or if) you drive; housing does not have to cost more than a single moderate income can afford (and can even cost less); it is okay to accept help from family and friends, to let go of the perceived ideal of independence and strive instead for interdependence; health can be achieved without making monthly payments to an insurance company; child care is not a fixed cost; education can be acquired for free; and retirement is possible, regardless of income.
As for domestic skills, the range of talents held by these households was as varied as the day is long. Many kept gardens, but not all. Some gardened on city rooftops, some on country acres, some in suburban yards. Some were wizards at car and appliance repairs. Others could sew. Some could build and fix houses; some kept livestock. Others crafted furniture, played music, or wrote. All could cook. (Really well, as my waistline will attest.) None of them could do everything. No one was completely self-sufficient, an independent island separate from the rest of the world. Thus the universal skills that they all possessed were far more complex than simply knowing how to can green beans or build a root cellar. In order to make it as homemakers, these people had to be wizards at nurturing relationships and working with family and community. They needed an intimate understanding of the life-serving economy, where a paycheck is not always exchanged for all services rendered. They needed to be their own teachers — to pursue their educations throughout life, forever learning new ways to do more, create more, give more.
In addition, the happiest among them were successful at setting realistic expectations for themselves. They did not live in impeccably clean houses on manicured estates. They saw their homes as living systems and accepted the flux, flow, dirt, and chaos that are a natural part of that. They were masters at redefining pleasure not as something that should be bought in the consumer marketplace, but as something that could be created, no matter how much or how little money they had in their pockets. And above all, they were fearless. They did not let themselves be bullied by the conventional ideals regarding money, status, or material possessions. These families did not see their homes as a refuge from the world. Rather, each home was the center for social change, the starting point from which a better life would ripple out for everyone.
Home is where the great change will begin. It is not where it ends. Once we feel sufficiently proficient with our domestic skills, few of us will be content to simply practice them to the end of our days. Many of us will strive for more, to bring more beauty to the world, to bring about greater social change, to make life better for our neighbors, to contribute our creative powers to the building of a new, brighter, more sustainable, and happier future. That is precisely the great work we should all be tackling. If we start by focusing our energies on our domestic lives, we will do more than reduce our ecological impact and help create a living for all. We will craft a safe, nurturing place from which this great creative work can happen.
About The Author
Shannon Hayes wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Shannon is the author of Radical Homemakers, The Farmer and the Grill, and The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. She works with her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in upstate New York and hosts two websites, grassfedcooking.com and radicalhomemakers.com. Copies of her books are available through those websites.
Related Resources
- Radical Homemakers
- Simplicity Parenting
- Living Simply With Children
- Hold On To Your Kids
- Treehouse Perspectives
- Shop Class As Soulcraft
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Copyright © 2010
Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from The Walden Effect weblog at www.waldeneffect.org, reprinted with permission.
Lettuce was the first vegetable I learned to grow, and it's still one of my favorites. I tried a bunch of different growing methods, then meandered my way back to the same method my father taught me from the start. My method will take you about an hour the first time you build the cold frame and, if you have some old boards lying around your barn, will cost about fifty cents in screws and seeds. After the first time, planting will take ten minutes or less.
Timing
Lettuce is picky about moisture and heat. If you don't have enough of one and if you have too much of the other, you'll end up with bitter lettuce. (I tried to grow Batavian lettuce, which does wait longer before it bolts, but it still got bitter in the summer.) I recommend planning your planting dates to avoid bitter lettuce season.
Here on the border of zones 5 and 6, I plant my lettuce as follows:
- February 4 (cold frame)
- March 4 (cold frame)
- April 4 (no cold frame)
- Take a break — summer's not lettuce time!
- September 9 (no cold frame)
- October 19 (cold frame)
Notice that I plant a new set of lettuce about every month — I grow leaf lettuce and like to eat it at the delicious baby lettuce stage, then pull it up once the first hint of bitterness comes in. (I often let the April planting self-seed, which means I don't have to do any actual planting for the September "planting")
You can find out what your zone is here, and adjust your planting dates accordingly.
Cold Frame
If you want to extend your harvest into the winter, you'll need to build a simple cold frame. I tried a lot of complicated cold frames, then came to the conclusion that the simplest one was the best all along. To make your cold frame, measure the size of your permanent bed and cut 2x10 boards to the appropriate length — two for the length and two for the width. I like to use a miter saw because it has a safety guard and keeps my fingers well clear of the blade, but you can cut your boards with a hand saw or a table saw if you'd rather.
Then simply screw the boards together to make a box. You'll find it simplest to pre-drill the holes (three per edge), then screw in three inch screws. Much swearing is bypassed if you do this with a friend...
You can also brace the corners, which will make it easier when you move the cold frame. But I tend to go for the simplest possible method because I want my lettuce to go in the ground now. The bed above is on its third season, is made out of half-rotten barn wood, and has been moved twice ...and I think it'll last at least three more seasons. All for about a quarter's worth of screws.
Planting and Covering
If you've got a good permanent bed, you'll just need to pull out a few weeds and rake the ground in preparation for planting. If working on new ground, though, you'll want to till the ground well first. Either way, after raking, I sprinkle lettuce seed liberally (about 5 seeds per inch) over the ground. I choose to buy cheap lettuce seed in bulk from the feed store where it costs about $3 per cup. (Yes, we're talking about a baking-sized measuring cup.) That cup of seed will last me a year or two of lettuce beds. I've also bought fancy mesclun mixes, but haven't found them to be all that much tastier and the price just isn't right.
If you're planting in the late spring or late summer without a cold frame, you're done! Otherwise, you'll want to cover your bed with some sort of row cover fabric. I got my row cover for free using the catalog coupon from Gardens Alive, and now three seasons later they're just about ready to be replaced.
I've tried a bunch of different cold frame covers and have settled on simply weighing the row cover down with a few rocks. Using windows as the cover is problematic because the lettuce bed can get too hot during sunny days and I'm incapable of remembering to water plants which are outdoors during a rainy season. Mark and I once built a fancy screen-door type cover for a cold frame out of furring strips with row cover fabric stapled on top, but it was a pain to open up so I didn't eat much of the lettuce. Simple is always best.
Harvest
Then you wait a few weeks, but not very long. I start eating my lettuce when it's just an inch and a half tall. I use scissors to cut off the tops of the plants like I'm giving the lettuce bed a haircut, being careful to leave about half an inch at the base of the plant uncut. You might need to pull out a few weeds, but you should have planted the lettuce close enough together that it shades out most of the weeds.
In warm weather, I cut half of the lettuce in a 4X8 foot bed every day and the lettuce grow fast enough that I can alternate from half to half and eat salad almost every day. In colder weather, the same bed may only feed us lettuce two times a week.
Don't forget to check out our recipe page giving you ideas for in-season salads! And don't let the length of this page scare you off — once you learn to plant lettuce you'll realize it's the easiest vegetable to grow, and far tastier than store bought.
About The Authors
Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton are a couple of back-to-the-landers living simply on 58 acres of swamp and hillside in southwest Virginia. When they arrived on the farm in September 2006, a hundred year old barn stood amid a mass of blackberries and honeysuckle so thick they could hardly push their way through. Since then, they've cleared a few acres (leaving the rest of the forest to grow naturally toward its climax state), installed a free trailer to live in, and are learning to farm.
"The Walden Effect" is a term Mark uses to describe the changes he's experienced since moving onto the farm. He's given up television, the fast food life, and even paper towels, and finds that his mind is clearer than it's ever been before.
Read more at Anna and Mark's weblog at www.waldeneffect.org.
Related Resources
- The New Seed-Starters Handbook
- Building & Using Cold Frames
- Building Your Own Greenhouse
- How To Build Your Own Greenhouse
- Greenhouse Gardener's Companion
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FinancialIntegrity.org (The New Road Map Foundation) has extended the submission deadline for the Writing Competition. The new deadline is March 31, 2010.
Anyone courageous enough to strive for integrity has stories to tell. In this economy, anyone striving for Financial Integrity has stories to tell with unique points of view. Whether you started the journey before the turmoil or were inspired by it, we'd like to hear about you, what's worked, what hasn't, what made you laugh, and what hurdles you've hit whether you crossed them or not.
The more that people share their stories, the better. So, to encourage more stories, any story uploaded to the Stories section of the website, or emailed in to admin@financialintegrity.org by the end of March 2010 that also meets some basic standards will be entered. No entry fee. No word limit, though shorter is usually sweeter (under 500 words is best). No subject restrictions, though the story should be about your journey to financial integrity. We have in mind a few hundred words about Financial Integrity that others will find entertaining and useful, but feel free to surprise us too. Poems are welcome also.
There will be three awards and a member of the FI community is contributing cash prizes for each!
- Most Useful (specific hints or advice) $75
- Most Engaging (inspiring or entertaining) $75
- Best Poem (any format) $75
Remember that content is more important than style. What will appeal to people striving for Financial Integrity?
This year's judges will be the New Road Map Foundation board members. Next year's judges will include this year's winners.
All stories will be owned by the author, but the New Road Map Foundation and FinancialIntegrity.org will have rights for use on the web site, and in any communications, advertisements, and fund raising literature. The use of Creative Commons Copyright is encouraged.
Winners will be announced the day after Tax Day 2010. (That's April 16, 2010!)
Related Resources
- Your Money Or Your Life
- Transforming Your Relationship With Money
- Dream. Invest. Live.
- How To Get Out Of Debt, Stay Out Of Debt, & Live Prosperously
- Money & Faith
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Copyright © 2010
This episode of the Gems, we'll take a tour through the Simple Living Network's Bookstore. The Simple Living Network has just revamped its website, and I'd like to take the opportunity to show everyone how the rest of this organization supports and informs the Discussion Forums.
Say, for example, you've just found Your Money Or Your Life and you need a little help in carrying out the program. You might visit the bookstore and find just the thing to help you. Or if you want to know what folks think of the new edition, you can check out a discussion about it.
Maybe you're wondering how to simplify and organize your home. There's a whole section. There are also books on caring for that home. Or if that home is just too big and you need ideas for smaller living, you can check out The Not So Big House, in the Green Living - Housing. This book comes up periodically in the forums.
If you're trying to turn your lawn into a garden, the Simple Living Network has a whole gardening section at your disposal. We've discussed Lasagna Gardening in the Forums several times. Others are interested in building their self-sufficiency — they might want to check out The Self-Sufficient Gardener.
Some folks are more interested in becoming self sufficient in terms of energy. They're trying to stay warm in the winter, perhaps by replacing windows. They can find a wealth of information in the Energy Alternatives section. Or maybe they want to know how to use less water. The Simple Living Network carries the title Water Stewardship as well as many others on Greener Living to answer questions like these.
Other folks come to the Forums to talk about less concrete things, such as how to build community in their village. The person who started this discussion mentions the lovely How to Build Community poster. Another person is trying to figure out how to have a conversation with the kids over dinner. The Simple Living Network carries a number of books with activities for kids and the whole family that help you strengthen your most immediate community.
On a more philosophical note, participants discuss giving something up for Lent. There are a number of books on Spirituality and Simplicity that would be of interest to folks following their inner voice. They can also check out the partner organization, Alternatives for Simple Living. Which leads us to the Simple Living Network's Partners page. These folks are at the heart of the Simplicity movement. Many of their writings are carried by the Simple Living Network, and their names often come up in the Forums. You can check out what they're up to now through the Partners links.
Finally, if you saw an article you liked in the last Newsletter, you can always find it again in the Archives. If a friend comes up with a question that you just know you saw an answer to in a past Newsletter, just look in the Archives and find it. The new website makes sharing that answer easier with the new "share" button, which lets you share Newsletter articles and Forum topics through email, Facebook, Digg, and many other tools.
The Discussion Forums really are one big community. The Bookstore is our library, and this Newsletter is our newspaper. We hope to see you in a community conversation soon!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE INTRODUCTION
to our on-line community. Then join the fun!
About The Author
Ann Haebig is a part-time geek, part-time bicycle advocate, and dedicated follower and promoter of the Your Money Or Your Life program. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her partner, cat and guitar. Ann can be reached at ahaebig@pobox.com.
Related Resources
- The Not So Big House
- Lasagna Gardening
- The Self-Sufficient Gardener
- Water: Use Less - Save More
- Consumer Guide To Home Energy Savings
- How To Build Community
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Simple Living News
Issue #75 — March 2010
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Earth Day Experiment
Celebrate Earth Day by taking part in our next No Impact Week. Recruit your friends and join eco-conscious people around the world on a one-week carbon cleanse beginning April 18th.
This is a free program.
For more info and to register, click here.
What Is The Experiment?
The No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse. It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It's not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern "conveniences" you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.
Joining is simple! Click here to sign up for our next program beginning April 18th. Visit How It Works for step-by-step instructions and download our How-To Manual for day-by-day guidelines. Watch inspiring videos from past participants about their lessons from the week and what motivated them to try it.
Thanks to our fabulous volunteers who produced this video with no impact, no money and no time!! Video Credits
Related Resources
- No Impact Man (Book)
- No Impact Man (Audio CDs)
- The Human-Powered Home
- Energy: Use Less - Save More
- Water: Use Less - Save More
- Biking To Work
- It's Easy Being Green
- Our Choice (Book)
- Our Choice (Audio CDs)
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Simple Living News
Issue #75 — March 2010
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Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Katy Wolk-Stanley's Non-Consumer Advocate weblog at thenonconsumeradvocate.wordpress.com, reprinted with permission.
Part of how I feel good about following The Compact is that by only buying used, I'm able to choose much higher quality items than I would be able to otherwise afford.
My family's Goodwill clothes are Nordstrom instead of Target, and the boys wear Vans brand sneakers instead of Payless Shoe Source. This may sound elitist, but the higher price usually translates to higher quality, which means that our stuff lasts longer.
But what about when it is okay to settle for less than the very best?
I have a friend who feels that it's very important to buy the very best for her family. Her tricycles are Kettler, her vacuum cleaner is Dyson and her son's clothes are Hanna Andersson. She would sooner shave her head than load up a cart at Goodwill.
My instinct is always to strive for the higher quality item, but I'm also aware that a lesser quality item will often do the trick. An example of this is my washing machine, which I bought for $45 from Craig's List around ten years ago. In my dream world, I own a high efficiency front loading washer in metallic apple green with hot rod-style flames that lick up the sides. In reality, my washing machine has been a boxy white number, which was most likely manufactured in the mid-1970's. (The faux-computer-style lettering is clue #1.)
But this make-it-do washing machine is completely functional, even though I'm fully aware that it uses more water than a high efficiency model would. Unfortunately, the closest approximation of my dream model is currently on sale for $1222.49. (I do have a recent model clothes dryer though, as current ones are far more energy efficient.)
My mother owns three guest cottages, which translates into a lot of sheets and towels to wash, and her washing machine was simply not heavy duty enough to keep up with her needs. So she went to the appliance store and bought a high efficiency metallic red set and offered up her old machine to me. Hmm . . . it wasn't my dream machine, but it was certainly newer than my Carter administration era washer.
So out went the old-old machine and in came the new-old machine.
The new machine is great! It may be twenty years old, but it spins the loads much drier than my old one which means less time to dry in the dryer or on the line. (An important factor in our damp climate.)
Maybe someday I'll own the washing machine of my dreams, but until then I'm completely content to wash my family's clothes in a perfectly functional white box of a washer.
I don't have to own the very best.
Are you are able to be satisfied with less than the very best, or do you strive for the best-of-the-best? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of The Non-Consumer Advocate weblog.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
About The Author
Katy Wolk-Stanley writes a daily weblog as "The Non-Consumer Advocate." She works part-time as a labor and delivery nurse and full-time figuring out the minds of her pre-teen boys. She is a library patron, Goodwill enthusiast, utility bill scholar, laundry hanger-upper and citizen. You can read her thoughts on living a responsibly fun and frugal life at: TheNonConsumerAdvocate.wordpress.com.
Related Resources
- Little House On A Small Planet
- The Consumer's Guide To Effective Environmental Choices
- Radical Simplicity
- Simple Prosperity
- Green Living Handbook
- Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping
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