Mother Earth News

I miss the old mother Earth News. I liked the way it was back in the seventies. Back when returning vets and hippies and Jesus freaks were fueling the back to the land movement. It was a hundred and one uses for baling twine and a guy in Hawaii building his home out of an old redwood water tank. All he had to do was take it down and move it up the side of a small mountain, sand down the wood and reconstruct it into a beautiful round house. It was fifty different ways to build a goat proof fence. It was a driving force behind bartering for services and a brand new version of the personal ad... (mountain man looking for like minded mountain man to share homesteading dreams and buffalo plaid shirts)

Now Mother is frighteningly mainstream. There might be an article on building a pole building that looks like any other pole building. Or how some guy in his McMansion put in a forty thousand dollar solar unit to be responsible for the environment. It isn't about scarcity or survival anymore. It's no longer "Popular Mechanics Meets Walden Pond" There is no grit, sweat or can-do anymore. It's really quite depressing, like watching another passing of yet another golden age.

So, here I sit trying to figure out how to build fence with nothing... trying to figure out how to build a small barn with nothing, and the best Mother can do is point me to some great deals. (10% off for subscribers if you order now, remember to say you read it in Mother's!) And I know that if the real spirit of Mother was alive and well, there would be an article about what new industrial byproduct was available and how it could be used to improve my homestead as not just a roofing material, but also in aiding water storage! Amazing! Not only that but they'll pay you to cart it away!

It leaves me feeling like the one thing this country needs is more underground newspapers.... and possibly more tie dyed tee shirts...and a methane powered willys jeep adapted to do numerous homestead chores. THAT'S the good life!

louie