Sigh. I find myself pretty constantly frustrated with this blog.
Because I sometimes just plain really do not have time enough to do it- and you- justice.
Right smack in the middle of an excellent discussion (last post/comments), I got desparately busy; and I still am. Today I have to travel to another state; and it just sucks the time right out of my life. Yesterday I was writing something I'd promised to finish. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. (movie quote.)
Brian M- Sean- and a dozen others- I really really hope I'll be able to continue the discussion and speak to your points.
But it sure ain't gonna happen in the next couple days.
That's something to remember here- if I suddenly get quiet for a couple days; count on it- I haven't abandoned the blog, I'm just up to my eyes in alligators for a while.
I'll be back. (movie quote.)
:-)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
38 years living "ultra" green- still going. How to. How not to. Why. Why not.
about me-
It's a play on Grandpa, and green, as in environmentally aware, and Pa, as in ... Pa. An actual grandpa twice, and a Pa three times.
68, kids from two marriages, currently with a 12 year old zooming around the house. The house is as advertised, a very small log cabin in the woods. Tiny. It's like living on a yacht; no closet space, which is maybe half of why #1 went away.
I've been living "ultra" green for 40 years. Off the grid always, business too. Electricity from solar; and a little gas backup in winter. Composting toilet, heat with wood. Not vegetarians; hunter/gatherer/gardener. Not opposed to people living in cities.
Good health; bad health. Good times, bad times. Poverty, intentional and not. Great friends. Unfriends.
The good news: STILL living Ultragreen. It can be done. I'll talk about how here; including towns and cities.
Education: MS and an "ABD" (all but dissertation of a PhD), in Biology. Focus: evolutionary ecology, botany, genetics, parasitology, mammalogy, behavior, ethology, psychology, language,... marketing...metallurgy... No, really, and I left some out, because you won't believe me anyway.
68, kids from two marriages, currently with a 12 year old zooming around the house. The house is as advertised, a very small log cabin in the woods. Tiny. It's like living on a yacht; no closet space, which is maybe half of why #1 went away.
I've been living "ultra" green for 40 years. Off the grid always, business too. Electricity from solar; and a little gas backup in winter. Composting toilet, heat with wood. Not vegetarians; hunter/gatherer/gardener. Not opposed to people living in cities.
Good health; bad health. Good times, bad times. Poverty, intentional and not. Great friends. Unfriends.
The good news: STILL living Ultragreen. It can be done. I'll talk about how here; including towns and cities.
Education: MS and an "ABD" (all but dissertation of a PhD), in Biology. Focus: evolutionary ecology, botany, genetics, parasitology, mammalogy, behavior, ethology, psychology, language,... marketing...metallurgy... No, really, and I left some out, because you won't believe me anyway.
Key to the Characters:
Spouse: my ex-wife
Spice: plural of spouse, obviously; current wife
Smidgen: 12 yr old daughter
Beelar: oldest son; 39 yrs
Middle Child: next son; 36 yrs,
Bookmark and Sharing Tools
Posts
Popular Posts
Followers
Basic Green Practices in the Little House
1) Off the grid. 38 years. Solar electricity
2) Limited power- house electricity has 4 golf cart batteries.
3) Composting toilet. Outside. (eew, you do that indoors!?)
4) No road to house. You gotta walk.
5) No running water in house. Water pumped by wind.
6) Showers solar heated; outdoors.
7) Heat with wood. One stove in house-..
8) Cook with wood 8 months, propane in summer
9) Most of our fuelwood now is from trees we planted
10) No refrigerator. 40 years, now. You don't need one either.
11) Big garden.
12) Eat locally when possible, not obsessive about it.
13) No pesticide use ever, gardens or crops; not even organic (ok, except a little in the outhouse and the greenhouse...)
14) Earth sheltered solar greenhouse (aren't they all solar??)
15) Shut up about it. Nobody likes preaching.
16. These are our choices- yours are yours.
2) Limited power- house electricity has 4 golf cart batteries.
3) Composting toilet. Outside. (eew, you do that indoors!?)
4) No road to house. You gotta walk.
5) No running water in house. Water pumped by wind.
6) Showers solar heated; outdoors.
7) Heat with wood. One stove in house-..
8) Cook with wood 8 months, propane in summer
9) Most of our fuelwood now is from trees we planted
10) No refrigerator. 40 years, now. You don't need one either.
11) Big garden.
12) Eat locally when possible, not obsessive about it.
13) No pesticide use ever, gardens or crops; not even organic (ok, except a little in the outhouse and the greenhouse...)
14) Earth sheltered solar greenhouse (aren't they all solar??)
15) Shut up about it. Nobody likes preaching.
16. These are our choices- yours are yours.
Blog Archive
Once and Future Topics
- pushing on icebergs
- Death by Retirement
- you can't have your Earth, and eat it, too.
- let's all chant "I can't."
- non-corrosive - culture
- real "sustainability"
- Toxic Growths
- The Walls Of The Erlenmeyer Flask
- you DO live what you believe
- We Have Not Yet Begun To... think.
- does my lightbulb make a difference?
- loopholes - Lost Horizons
- worms
- unintended consequences
- such a promising species
- purpose
- what's best for my kids?
- government
- predatory lenders; parasitic business
- primates
- change- and barriers
- violence for kiddies
- cultural senility
- genetic engineering
- the Religion of Science
- biodiversity
- the wealth of nature
- the nature of wealth
- salt
- work/ time
- how to talk to a normon
- the phone is a joke, right?
- finger pointing
- "the only way"
- where have all the mammoths gone?
- the odyssey of communication
- thermodynamics and the waterwheel
- small wind turbines
- grab that toid and run
- fad fad fad
- teflon? antibiotics? RF?
- compact fluorescents - lead in Rome
- 30 years of quietly NOT holier
- spare time
- the THWASPCO
- fat fat fat
- one size gives all fits
- unstated assumptions
- unplugging your fridge
Basic Practices On This Blog-
1) I do not have time to dig out all the references for you- if you doubt something I say here, google it immediately- and don't bug me if I'm off by a couple of degrees.
2)"Eat compost and die" type comments will cheerfully be deleted. They won't even tick me off, I just feel pity. Really. So if I were you, I wouldn't bother. (Note to other bloggers- this requirement for basic politeness works- total # of mean comments deleted by me so far ~ 5; spammers deleted ~ 10)
3) Long comments on posts are quite welcome; don't worry about it.
4) I WILL try to answer questions, but it may take me a while to get to them.
2)"Eat compost and die" type comments will cheerfully be deleted. They won't even tick me off, I just feel pity. Really. So if I were you, I wouldn't bother. (Note to other bloggers- this requirement for basic politeness works- total # of mean comments deleted by me so far ~ 5; spammers deleted ~ 10)
3) Long comments on posts are quite welcome; don't worry about it.
4) I WILL try to answer questions, but it may take me a while to get to them.
5) I don't do memes. Sorry- fun, I know, but I really don't have the time.
6) I can't do email, either; I'm already drowning in the stuff from my other life; and I can't get into giving personal advice. If you want to contact me, just make a comment with your email address in it; I'll get back to you if I can.
6 comments:
No problem! :)
It's okay Greenpa! Leaving us the commentary that says, "I'm still here, just busy, but I'll be back at it soon" does make a difference! I look forward to the comments and reasoning that you provide.
We are OK with the obligations and the disappearing, Greenpa, but there is a dilemma. I have been there myself {work eating up my life} for many years, but the need to run off to another state doesn't happen much, as I am not in the states. Mostly I am just too busy on my little island. Very little island, but far too busy anyway.
We do all that we can to simplify and have very few actual needs for cash, yet after all is said and done, we still have to pay the bills or ride to someone's rescue {clients are often desperate in remote places} and so our simple little thing we have set up to live on goes on without us. In my case, I hardly ever have the time to enjoy simplicity unless I just tell everyone NO. Sometimes when they say, "I just don't trust anyone else to do this" I have to explain that one day sooner or later, I will be dead and they will have to replace me then. "So pretend I am dead and then do whatever you would do in that event." "Cut the crap and please come and help me now, I am in terrible straights" is the usual rejoinder. I take trips away so that I CAN pretend I am dead. "Hello? Sorry, I am 1500 miles away, yes really, yes please don't cry and hyperventilate like that, yes I will be back in two weeks, stop the sobbing, no I am not joking, go look at my office, I am gone, oh come on now it takes more than two weeks to go bankrupt, you'll survive."
I am easing the clients into my retirement and doing whatever I can to not meet anyone new. I often feel though that they should help themselves more and leave me to my simplicity. At least I have all the employment I need or would ever want. But when will the long awaited simplicity kick in?
A favorite T-shirt slogan:
"This working for a living is really cutting into my lifestyle!"
Hi Greenpa, when you get back would you mind referring to colin aka NIM's posted dated today, 7/18? Read the comments - there's a commenter who says he hasn't bathed in 5 years and uses some sort of bacteria as a natural deodorant... etc, etc... He swears that if you were standing next to him you'd never know it and swears he has no offensive odor... I'm just wondering about this. Does he not have an odor because he can't smell himself or does he really not have an odor??? Just wondering, as a biologist what your thoughts were on this? At the very least I think it would have an adverse effect on your sex life and at the worst, you're walking around stinky and no one has said anything... Sorry for bringing up such a goofy trivial subject... I bring it up here instead of over there because I didn't want to be confrontational as some of his commenters tend to get that way, and this is strictly curiosity...
Folks- I appreciate the understanding and cheer.
RC- yeah. There's a whole post coming in response to that one!
Colleen- yow. Actually, this is one of those areas where I AM unusually well educated and knowledgeable; the entire field of pheromones, and particularly human pheromones; is something I've paid special attention to. It'll be hard for me to shut up. :-)
The kind of universal answer to all questions about pheromones is - "it's possible." lol. I know that's not very satisfactory, but it's true.
For one thing, human scents are outrageously variable- and so are the sniffers smelling them. Some individuals don't stink; some do - to some people; some of the time.
Even the terminology here is very poor- "Do you smell?" can be asking if you stink, or if you are olfactorily sensing something. Evidence there that we would rather avoid talking about it.
It's DEFINITELY true that individuals frequently are unaware of their own scent- your own perceptions are highly unreliable. So I'd want to know what his 2nd best friend says. Not his wife- because you know what? She may BE his wife because she finds his scent attractive. Not his best friend- same thing! Getting a "straight answer" in the field is very difficult.
And- race confuses things too, and makes the topic very taboo. It's pretty clear different racial groups both have different "average" scents, and different perceptions. And the perceptions are likely to be colored by other factors- so mostly nobody talks about this stuff; and testing for "real" answers is just that much more difficult. My favorite example here - Chinese people will say, privately, that they DO think Caucasians sort of smell- like sheep. eww. But they mostly keep that information to themselves.
Did you follow that weird link from my post on Earth Lent? What people find attractive, sexually, is wildly variable- and has to be tested blind, because upfront answers are often not accurate- what's going on subliminally may be very different from the surface reaction.
It's as much fun as a barrel of sweaty bonobos!
Anyway- I doubt doing without soap will be a good green idea for most people; most of us stink, at least some of the time. Individually- go for it; but be careful to find out what others think about the results!
Post a Comment