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.
Hit and run alert: through the magic of DK4, I am writing and scheduling this diary to publish in advance via the fancy scheduling function, because I am on vacation and the laptop wasn't invited (though I will be cheating and bringing the smart phone with me, so I'll likely read and rec comments, even if I don't participate much). But seeing as it's just an open thread and not a proper diary, I don't believe I am violating any rules of netiquette. I'm sure y'all can carry on just fine without the author in this case.
So, to round up the week's diaries: republished to Living Simply was veritas curat's I am Defined by What I Love, Caj's House Hacking I: I turn a cellar door into a greenhouse, and citisven's USPS Releases Go Green Stamp (An Ode to the Letter). Published to Living Simply was PSWaterspirit's Work Smarter Not Harder: Gardening and Composting for a Busy Life. There's some great stuff here, so if you missed any of these folks' fine work, go check them out!
Speaking of vacation, our little trip is a frugal and simple adventure (hmmm...I smell a real diary brewing). It's National Park Week, so we're packing up and heading out camping. No electricity, no water hook-up--just a $20 per night primitive tent site. During our trip we'll be taking advantage of the fact that there is no admission fee to any of the national parks this week and heading out to the mountains of western Virginia and Shenandoah National Park. It may be a bit more humble than its rocky cousins out west, but within the Appalachians--and this park--are some of my most favorite places. Areas of the mountain range are ecologically important biodiversity "hotspots." The southern Appalachians alone are home to approximately 14% of the world's salamander species, several of which are endemic only to this area (if you really want to geek out on salamander info, here's a report by the National Zoo (PDF) on the squirmy little guys). I also often think of Shenandoah Park itself in a political context (it's a total socialist work of art): the park was eventually created after Roosevelt set the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to work constructing Skyline Drive (the 105-mile highway that runs north-south along the entire length of the park) shortly after the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. Driving through the park often sets me to wondering why we don't just bring back the CCC (or something like it), but that's a topic for another day.
Open thread's all yours. Projects, weekend plans? What are you doing to live more simply?