I’m moving the fam to the midwest, letting the kids run around barefoot in overalls, and going off the grid thanks to this

The device – about the size of a credit card – pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly.

Energy Independence Now!

New to my blogroll today is Letter from Hen Waller written by a couple recently transplanted to Portland, OR who are making a go at the slow-food, small footprint lifestyle. (Jank, don’t miss the pig roast done on a spit turned between the bottom brackets of two bike frames)

I’m actually recommending it based on the only other piece I’ve read so far — a well-told story about chickens, permits, and the meaning of neighborhood.

It made me feel naive in my hope for community. I know that I do not have great skills in this area. I, like many people in my generation, did not grow up in place. But I also reject my neighbor’s representation that what neighborhoods are about is not bothering anyone. I fear that this definition is what has resulted in the culture of deep alienation we live within.