|
Job Security: The Big Lie,
by
Bobbi Buchanan
A neighbor who works at Ford
confided to my husband David, "If I lose my job, I’m screwed." He said
assembly-line work is all he’s known the last 20 years. "I don’t have a
trade. There’s nothing else I can do."
Coal-Blooded Removal: Went to the
Mountaintop but It Was Gone,
by Janisse Ray
Not far down the road, Daymon carries us to a high point on a mine
supposedly reclaimed — it has been planted in non-native grasses,
although even grass will not grow in the piles of rock (the topsoil
was turned under) with applications of fertilizer. Beyond the high
point, we can see miles of mining. Dozers are at work in the
distance; something is burning. The mining is endless.
Daymon points. "That was a mountain last week," he says.
LIVING ON LESS
How Americans are living frugally, saving money
and feeling more secure,
by Ellen Anderson and Bobbi Buchanan
Emily Boone lives only on what she
needs, careful not to waste a thing. She once captured water from her
leaking toilet to use for her plants. "I try to live my life with as
little debt as possible, be frugal with resources without being miserly
and be socially and ecologically responsible."
6 Steps to Self-Sufficiency
and 5
Books Every Frugal Household Needs,
by Heather T. Shaw
Are you trying to save money and live a simpler life? I have five
wonderful books I use on a weekly, if not daily, basis that help save
money on home repair, the food bill, holiday gift giving and more.
Laverne Zabielski's
Wearable Art
Fiber
artist Laverne Zabielski creates wearable art — scarves, skirts,
shawls, stoles. Her work is characteristically composed of hand-dyed
silks, vibrant colors and textures that beg to be touched.
Beans to
the Rescue: Three Easy, Inexpensive Light Meals,
by
Heather T. Shaw
When you’re grocery shopping on a tight budget, stock up on bagged and
canned beans. Don’t do so glumly. Here are three great ideas for what you
can do with a sullen pile of beans and not much else...
FICTION
Sea of Tranquility,
by
Katy Yocom
Neil had once told me,
"I'd die if anything ever happened to you." But it was Neil who was
dead. I was alive, and oddly, I wasn't going to die. I wasn't even
going to mourn. This fact swooped down on me with jarring certainty.
I saw myself vaulting over the stages of grief like a gymnast and
nailing my landing on Acceptance.
POETRY
Motel 6, Paducah,
Kentucky
and
Clusters,
by Richard Garcia
request a free copy
BOOK REVIEW
More Thoreau or More Thorough?
by Joe Napora
So I was impressed then
in the ’70s and am even more so now, with Thomas Rain Crowe’s
refusal to take the "simple, clean and wrong" solution to the most
pressing problem of our time: how to live and how to write without
lying.
R&B
artist
Tim Dillinger goes against the grain of commercial music,
by Bobbi Buchanan
"Live music takes longer to record because you’re working with
people instead of machines," he said. The Muse features live strings and horns,
which produce a more distinct, higher quality sound.
Mom’s Favorite:
Coconut Cake and a Little Help Making it,
by
Kathleen Thompson
As sous chef, you can
shop for her, prepare the food, keep every utensil washed as she
cooks and clean up the kitchen afterwards. Liberated for her own
creative nuances, Mom may be moved to prepare a dish using fresh
coconut, a holiday tradition in the South. Fresh coconut is a must
for coconut cake, lane cake, Japanese fruit cake or a simple angelic
ambrosia.
Words of warning, words of wisdom:
Scientist James Fouts talks about extreme weather and other signs of
global warming,
by Thomas Crowe
"We are witnessing now
the rapid escalation of extreme weather systems and earth changes.
Everything is and will continue to come at us with
increasing volatility and frequency — North Atlantic ocean
oscillation, changes in locations of the jet stream..."
Getting Back to the Earth,
by
Leslie Smith Townsend
When
I was 23, I spent the winter in the stripping room of a tobacco barn
in Gravel Switch, Ky. The year was 1976. I’d like to claim I was
inspired by noble reasons to leave the city and set up residence in
the knobs of central Kentucky, but the truth is, I was lured by love
into living in sin.
Return to Archives
|
