Welcome to the Friday open thread for the Living Simply group. If you are not familiar with our group, the basic idea, from our profile, is:
A group to explore and share sustainable, simple living ideas among fellow progressives. For the urban, rural, or wannabe homesteader, this is a place to share information to simplify everyday life. Sustainable skills such as gardening, food production and storage, do-it-yourself projects for the home or farm, and backyard chickens and other livestock, as well as eco-conscious philosophies such as cooperative living, eco-cities, the Slow Food movement, and being a mindful consumer are but a few potential topics of interest here.
So, I think this group needs a scheduled regular diary day. This doesn't mean that contributors can't post whenever they'd like to--as long as two people are not posting the same thing or at the same time, there's no reason not to post (or re-publish) something whenever it is convenient--but I think that there is value in having something scheduled on a regular basis. For example, I know that beach babe in fl is going to post her Meatless Mondays series every, well, Monday, so when I get home from work I know it will be there and I usually try to check it out. I'm always late to the party because I don't get home until well after it's been published, but because I know it's going to be there I make a point of looking for it in my stream and reading it.
For the time being, I would like to set up a regular day and an approximate time to have a regular Living Simply diary. Topics can be anything pertinent to the group. In the future, if there is interest, regular diary series on specific topics would be great, but right now specific isn't necessary. This thing is still (and probably always will be) evolving, and I'm just trying to get a feel for how the group can best be managed. I think the best place to start is both by getting more content and getting that content read by others.
So: What day and time? I personally lean Thursday, and in the evening. Diaries seem to get more "play" in the evening, for whatever reason. Thursday is simply the day that's most convenient for me, but obviously that's not of great importance, as I don't intend to be the only one writing. I sure hope I'm not, 'cause if I am, y'all are going to get real tired of reading about chickens and goats and feeding families on itty bitty grocery budgets!
Which brings me to: Who wants to sign up? I realize we need to set a day, but if you know you'd like to contribute next week--or the week after, etc.--let me know. I think the open thread will be a good place to organize (and advertise) what is going to be posted. Once we get organized I'll keep a running tab of what/who is coming up in the open thread.
And, as always, if anyone is interested in becoming a contributor, please let me know.
Comments and suggestions welcome below!