I have read about a town in New England and a town is Kansas that been been colonized by “Traditionalist Catholics,” but by a very different sub group in each case.
Here is an interesting development in Indiana. An internet discussion group I was member of had some members involved with this place.
Just 50 miles west of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) off Interstate 40 near Crossville, Tenn., 6,000 acres of woodland are about to be transformed into the kind of community that Jeff Christian once only dreamed of. Developers based in Overland Park, Kansas, have reached an agreement with ORNL for collaboration on Walden Reserve, a “green” residential development that would feature technologies tested and developed by ORNL’s Buildings Technology Center.
‘There are 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day and a significant number of them are ‘green’ oriented,” says Tom Bray, president/CEO of Walden Reserve. “Half of the retirees who choose ‘green’ would be willing to pay more to live in a green community.” Not much more, he adds, saying that incorporating energy-efficient technology and design into what he describes as “mountain/craftsman style” homes will add 5% to 10% to the price tag, with buyers paying $350,000 and up for the homes, and somewhat less for a series of townhouses and condo units also on the drawing board.
Sounds like a micro-grid type set-up?
$350,000 for a house, though, sounds like California. Yikes!
Wonder if their prices are going down as the economy slows…
Go spend some time with old folks. If we got dropped off the grid right now, and I mean the whole 9: power, water, petrol, grocery stores, and all the other luxurious crap that’s made us fat, lazy proletariats, I’d be fine. I’ve never picked up a “how to” book in my life, aside from the green-bound books Uncle Sam required. My daddy and his daddy and even his daddy have taught me everything I need to know and more.
Second, spend an equal amount of time with your environment. Really get out there and turn over rocks, peel away bark, dig up dirt. How many of you can tell the difference between a white oak and a red? A river birch and a gum tree? Poison Ivy and sumac? That’s important stuff. Get intimate with your land. Make it produce something, anything, even if it is just a small patch of your yard. You’ll be amazed how much knowledge you’ll gain in a season or two of watching something grow. Buy a rifle, kill some critters. Hippie? Buy binoculars and watch. Get game calls, learn to use them. Chop your own firewood. Wood stoves can be had for next to nothing on craigslist or estate sales.
Third, put it all into practice. Build and fix your own stuff. Tear up that linoleum (it’ll be shot in 5 years anyway), find an old barn and put the recovered pine down. Truck breaks, get the part and fix it. Don’t know how? You didn’t know how to read once, but here you sit. “I don’t know how” isn’t going to feed you when it all goes south. Learn and do these things and get out there and get your hands dirty. If anything you’ll save money, and for all you uber-nationalists, keep it out of the Jew’s coin purse.
How about a single subject and we actually write something about it? Here it looks like only links are arriving on this great idea for a thread here.
CANNING:
I am investigating canning and have the books but it seems the energy required by your stove to actually can something seems excessive and maybe not worth the expense of running your gas or electricity for so long. It said something like 3 hours to heat a pressure cooker of jars for certain vegetables. Now doing the math here is seems not monetarily practical. Our pioneer ancestors canned so they didn’t have to expend that type of energy did they?
This dependence on others to provide life’s essentials is gonna kill us. Gas or electricity? Come on, think outside the box modern comforts have put you in.
Sometimes our elders don’t know what to teach us, even when we ask. I’ve been asking and doing more in the garden of necessity of late, but too frequently the answer from my elderly parents is “buy Round-up and kill the weeds”.
I completely agree with your points, and ponder how blessed you have been. The knowledge you are heir to is without peer. Perhaps you yourself might mentor those of us who are willing?
Sadly I have had the same experience. We should try to get some of this stuff written when possible and share it with others.
Laurel Loflund - 15 April 2008 10:28 PM
Sometimes our elders don’t know what to teach us, even when we ask. I’ve been asking and doing more in the garden of necessity of late, but too frequently the answer from my elderly parents is “buy Round-up and kill the weeds”.
I kind of always feel a bit guilty about using poison, spraying earth with poison to kill everything just does not seem right. There should be a better way to deal with such.
Do you have a topic that you think is the first thing an agrarian-type should learn about before leaping head first into the agrarian lifestyle?
Thank you, Miss Laurel. I write how I speak (well enough that I feel certain old, departed Virginians wouldn’t be embarrassed to claim me as posterity) minus the drawl that so many Yankees have claimed I swim in.
I guess it’s best to start small when it comes to getting back to basics, and I suppose the road is a long one, considering what a time I’d have adjusting to urban/suburban life. There’s a whole heap to hold on to, but the best part is it’s natural, almost like breathing, and God has put it inside of us all. Sadly, many have buried it under mounds of shiny trinkets and pop culture. Let’s dig it out, shall we?
I’m starting a new thread. Periodically I’ll post new info in the direction I think most of y’all need to go, based on the feedback I get.
Thank you, Miss Laurel. I write how I speak (well enough that I feel certain old, departed Virginians wouldn’t be embarrassed to claim me as posterity) minus the drawl that so many Yankees have claimed I swim in.
I guess it’s best to start small when it comes to getting back to basics, and I suppose the road is a long one, considering what a time I’d have adjusting to urban/suburban life. There’s a whole heap to hold on to, but the best part is it’s natural, almost like breathing, and God has put it inside of us all. Sadly, many have buried it under mounds of shiny trinkets and pop culture. Let’s dig it out, shall we?
I’m starting a new thread. Periodically I’ll post new info in the direction I think most of y’all need to go, based on the feedback I get.
Perhaps you can start a title in the Knowledge Base Wiki? If that’s too much effort, just post here in the forums and I or JM can move it over there for a more permanent base of knowledge. We have some articles and reference links there already.
God bless and thanks again,
Laurel
who should get out the lawnmower today and mow our postage stamp sized patch of grass…
Perhaps you can start a title in the Knowledge Base Wiki? If that’s too much effort, just post here in the forums and I or JM can move it over there for a more permanent base of knowledge. We have some articles and reference links there already.
I don’t know what a Wiki is so I’ll leave it to you to put it where you want it.
Works for me…but just for reference, when you log into the main Kinism.net page, on the left hand side where your log-in field was (before logging in) you will see the following:
Knowledge Base -Help us develop this area by contributing your knowledge.
When you click on the blue text that says “Knowledge Base”, you will be brought the the Wiki page; we are gathering and editing useful information there, some taken from the forums, others generated there.
You have to be a member to access the Knowledge Base, which, of course, you already are.
