http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog Out in Luckenbach, Texas, Ain't nobody feeling no pain. Sun, 29 Apr 2007 09:07:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Here are two excellent essays (or two parts of one) that strike at what I consider the heart of the matter. Which matter? Is there more than one? Read them slowly and with an open mind. The Idols of Environmentalism The Ecology of Work ....the violence that we know as environmental destruction is ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2007/04/29/to-the-heart-of-the-matter/ From Violent Acres: How many people here have ever kept mum while your boss verbally degraded you because you really needed the job and the money? Even worse, when you went home that night and vented to your friends and families, how many of you were congratulated for doing the mature thing ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/11/29/so-eloquent-more-about-employment/ Mark and his missus arrived to help out on Sunday. We fenced off an area we wish to cut for hay later on and then tried to move the neighbour's cattle. Without dogs or motorcycles. On foot. Yeah right! I thought I had it made. As I approached the cattle they came ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/11/07/i-am-not-a-farmer/ Warning: Reading this post and following up on the ideas might really be bad for your state of mind - for a while. Seriously. I have only presented sound-bite sized explanations and conclusions here. This subject is a big one. Now that I have some readers I am going to be ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/11/03/mikes-reason-2/ We took possession of the land today. We have arranged for one of the neighbours to graze 13 cattle for a while. That should leave me with plenty of grass for haymaking. We'll need the hay for mulch around the fruit trees when we get started on that. Our own livestock ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/10/25/possession-day/ Why would I want to turn my house around? It was built in the 60's (I guess), and the orientation would have been chosen to take best advantage of the views. The longest axis of the house (which is roughly 6m x 18m) runs north-south. Basic solar energy requirements are that, at ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/10/17/passive-solar-basics/ I used to have this philosophy about keeping stuff. If I hadn't used something in the last year then I threw it out. It was all about simplification. Now I think that one possibility is that I shouldn't have acquired it in the first place. Could I have done without, ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/10/16/just-in-case/ I'll expand on health as a reason for moving at a later date. Suffice, for now, to say that it is. Food is a major contributor to health. Growing your own ensures that you know what you are eating. Even the authorities won't keep you safe from bad food. Recently rice ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/09/22/coverup-of-gm-rice/ V. keeps saying that she really wants to do this and that she is very excited. But I am sure our reasons are slightly different. That's why the title says "Mike's reason" and not "Our reason". Oh, and my reasons aren't in order. The Environment Whatever your opinion on the mechanisms of ecological ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/09/22/mikes-reason-1/ I'm still coming to grips with the blog thing. In particular the subject matter. I'd like to think that my posts might be useful to someone, somewhere, sometime. So, I don't want it to get too wide. But it needs to be wider than what we are doing on the ... http://luckenbach.mlxvi.org/blog/2006/09/22/blog-subject-matter/