Growing food, making things, writing, and surviving the anthropocene

I’ve been finding myself missing my blog, but as many times as I’ve tried to revive it, it just doesn’t take. And then this afternoon, I read someone speculating that the rise of newsletters is in part because we’re using our email boxes like we used to use our RSS feeds. A place to scan down a list, see what our friends have been thinking about lately.

So let’s try this out.

In a lot of ways I feel like I was set up to survive the pandemic — I’ve been growing food in this yard since 2002, and aside from those last three years at Montana State, I’ve also worked at home most of that time. I’ve spent years digging in, learning how to make and do for myself, preparing for a disaster I could sense was on the horizon, even if I didn’t have a clear sense of what form it would take.

I’m also finally making real progress on the Big Book About Grief — currently running on the working title Living Small. It’s been interesting revisiting the coping skills that saw me through the death of my beloved brother Patrick back in 2003, just as I turned 40, only a little more than a year after I’d moved here to Livingston.

I’d love if folks would sign up. I’m setting an initial goal of a small essay once a week — about some positive way I’ve managed to, as the Dalai Lama says “Make positive effort for the good.”

Sign up now and I’ll try to drop a little nugget in your inbox.

In the meantime, tell your friends!