The greedy-for-living thing is something I totally get. There's so much to do, not only for the cause, but just to straight up *do*.
I've never built a cob oven, or converted an old Dodge Challenger into an electric car and put 'Quiet Riot' on the bumper sticker, or read even a fraction of what I check out at my library, learn archery or guitar or... lived on a land project! That sounds rad.
Oh I cannot wait for the B&P episode! They radicalized so many of us in 90s Central NY and Western MA, served me bread in my late teens I still consider the sourdough standard, and occasioned the first conversation I had w my then 9-yr-old about the Israeli settlements. (Also now I apparently have to go subscribe to a new print publication?)
By which I actually mean, thanks for everything you've brought into my life!
I've lived about a quarter to a fifth of my life in rural areas and my father grew up in the rural Deep South so we visited regularly. I like to say that I know enough about rural living to neither romanticize it or fall for easy stereotypes. I am only reading between the lines of your posts, and I wouldn't dream of violating your privacy, Margaret, but I think you live not too far from where I spend three formative childhood years. I can confirm the live-and-let-live attitude, in its positive and negative manifestations.
What I think you are getting at in the last paragraphs is the network effect and that is very hard to produce in rural areas. I think the land project and things like it are an attempt to create it, but yeah, creating community from scratch is hard and I think we don't appreciate how often it fails. Even when you have access to generational wealth or government support. I occasionally feel the pull of the mountains but I've come to realize that at this point in my life there are certain non-negotiables that can really only be obtained in cities or large towns.
I also want to clarify that the tone of my comment was "excited to tell Margaret that this bird she likes actually speaks to the goth that lives in everyone's heart and got its name from that", not judgmental pedantry
Thank you 🙏🏼 I really liked how you shared the piece about intergenerational wealth, it’s hard to name. probably a dumb question, but is there any reason we don’t start more land coops? Given that the economic barriers to getting on land are so high, and the legal risk is also when it’s put all on one person, I’m curious why we don’t start more coops or shared llcs. Except for the fact that many of us (me included) are allergic to systemic visibility and paperwork. Any thoughts?
The greedy-for-living thing is something I totally get. There's so much to do, not only for the cause, but just to straight up *do*.
I've never built a cob oven, or converted an old Dodge Challenger into an electric car and put 'Quiet Riot' on the bumper sticker, or read even a fraction of what I check out at my library, learn archery or guitar or... lived on a land project! That sounds rad.
Oh I cannot wait for the B&P episode! They radicalized so many of us in 90s Central NY and Western MA, served me bread in my late teens I still consider the sourdough standard, and occasioned the first conversation I had w my then 9-yr-old about the Israeli settlements. (Also now I apparently have to go subscribe to a new print publication?)
By which I actually mean, thanks for everything you've brought into my life!
I've lived about a quarter to a fifth of my life in rural areas and my father grew up in the rural Deep South so we visited regularly. I like to say that I know enough about rural living to neither romanticize it or fall for easy stereotypes. I am only reading between the lines of your posts, and I wouldn't dream of violating your privacy, Margaret, but I think you live not too far from where I spend three formative childhood years. I can confirm the live-and-let-live attitude, in its positive and negative manifestations.
What I think you are getting at in the last paragraphs is the network effect and that is very hard to produce in rural areas. I think the land project and things like it are an attempt to create it, but yeah, creating community from scratch is hard and I think we don't appreciate how often it fails. Even when you have access to generational wealth or government support. I occasionally feel the pull of the mountains but I've come to realize that at this point in my life there are certain non-negotiables that can really only be obtained in cities or large towns.
Here is my translation into German again: https://www.trueten.de/archives/13741-Leben-auf-dem-Land,-Leben-am-Rande,-gutes-Leben-oder-Margaret-mag-das-Foghorn-Mag.html
I think the bird you're talking about goes by the much more goth name of "mourning dove"
good to know, fixing it now!
I also want to clarify that the tone of my comment was "excited to tell Margaret that this bird she likes actually speaks to the goth that lives in everyone's heart and got its name from that", not judgmental pedantry
Thank you 🙏🏼 I really liked how you shared the piece about intergenerational wealth, it’s hard to name. probably a dumb question, but is there any reason we don’t start more land coops? Given that the economic barriers to getting on land are so high, and the legal risk is also when it’s put all on one person, I’m curious why we don’t start more coops or shared llcs. Except for the fact that many of us (me included) are allergic to systemic visibility and paperwork. Any thoughts?