Category — SPIRIT

Todd Ganovski, with Bishop Wayne Boosahda (right)

As of today, Todd Ganovski doesn’t think the world will end anytime soon.

But he does believe that trouble — either a natural disaster or economic crisis — is coming. And he thinks God wants him to help people prepare for it.

Ganovski is co-founder of Emergency Provision, an eBay site based in Tennessee that sells emergency food supplies online and through church networks. He thinks recent disasters like the flood in Nashville, the tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in Washington, D.C., are signs from God that a major disaster is on the way.

“If it does happen, I don’t want to have to jump through FEMA’s hoops to get food,” he said. (more…)

This December will be 4 years for us living 100% off grid, I can tell you it’s been quite the adventure, my only regret is that we didn’t do this earlier. Let me recap what we have been doing these 4 years…

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Homesteading, it’s a buzzword that means different things to different people, back in the day, it meant getting land for free as long as you lived on it and improved it for x number of years. It was a way to get people to move west (in the USA), back when travel was slow and painful, even dangerous.
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You won't find this on facebook

There’s close-ups of fireplaces, flowers and flooring. There’s design ideas, tech ideas, interior color co-ordination and bottle-reinforced walls. Oh, and did I say, there’s Earthships…galore? (more…)

Self-Doctoring: Chassidy Fitkin

“This is the first time in my life I’ve been excited about being sick. What better way to know if my herbal remedies work than to try them on myself!?

I have a headcold that started with a sore throat but quickly just turned into congestion, runny nose, and cough. I have a recipe I tried that is outstanding and has kept me from resorting back to the common over the counter stuff that always made me feel out of my head. (more…)

Amber and her first pair of Moccasins

Ask a farmer if he enjoys his work and he will probably tell you he’s tired. If you press him, you’ll learn he takes great pride in what he does, and that of course he’s tired — he’s actually working.
Many people today have never even been given the opportunity to enjoy eating things they planted. Nor enjoyed the warmth of a fire they lit themselves, nor taught their children how to stack firewood.
There are lessons to be learned in basic living and rewards to be earned, if we can just get back to it.

Does that mean I want dirt floors like my great grandmother? No. Not really.
But I do know that heating marble floors is a bitch.
So what’s the answer? (more…)

Chassidy collecting cures

“The seed of this idea was blown through my life in the beginning by lack of time. It was like I was in a daze created by the rush of daily “life”. Only if your not living it, really why is it called life?

It weighed on me every morning when I was pushing my kids to finish breakfast quickly so we could get to school on time, so that I could, in turn, speed to work- praying I wouldn’t get a ticket that I couldn’t afford. That thought would snowball into what bills were due & how I could arrange them to be paid on certain days…. This giving you a headache yet? (more…)

Its for their own good

Delightful new book by Susan Maushart describes how she unplugged her teenagers and gave them back their lives.

For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cellphones and video games. iPhones  no longer chirped through the night like “evil crickets.” And she stopped them carrying their gadgets  into the bathroom.

Like so many teens, they couldn’t do their homework without simultaneously listening to music, updating Facebook and trading instant messages. If they were amused, instead of laughing, they actually said “LOL” aloud. Her girls had become mere “accessories of their own social-networking profile, as if real life were simply a dress rehearsal (or more accurately, a photo op) for the next status update.” (more…)

Eco-travel web site http://www.travelgood.com reports a new kind of off-grid hotel has sprung up in the wonderful town of Marfa.

El Cosmico has no rooms — only yurts, tepees and trailers.  There is a shower block,and wireless internet in the lobby.  With incredibly low start-up costs, no wonder yurts go for $60  a night.