Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for January 2009. (Here are the results for 2008.) Even with the other stuff going on in our lives, Kris and I found time to begin planning our summer garden this month. Soon the winter [...]

Wow. Am I glad that month is over. January started off with a bang and flew along full-tilt until the fifteenth. In the two weeks since my friend Sparky died, my life has been a confused mess. I delegated to guest authors while I dealt with my personal life; fortunately, they provided some great articles. [...]

Last month, Alison from Diamond-Cut Life shared a guest post about providing lodging to a housemate in exchange for work (instead of rent). Her story prompted a number of readers to ask about the mechanics and practicalities of actually renting an extra room to generate income. For example, Penny wrote with the following: In August, [...]

The current issue of Newsweek (cover-dated 02 February 2009) has a fantastic article from Ben Sherwood entitled “What It Takes to Survive”. Ostensibly, this piece is about how people handle crises. Why do some people panic, some people lead — and most people stand around in a daze? This larger topic is fascinating, of course, [...]