Riot for Austerity

[helwen]

The Riot is still ongoing. 288 members on the mailing list. Some are single (either truly single or only person in household trying to cut back on consumption) -- others are couples or families, of which only one is on the list. I'd say that at a minimum there are about 600 people in this little 'movement' now. And of course other folks who haven't committed to the Riot or who've never heard of it, are also working on being less wasteful. Yay!!

Just recently a person joined who lives in a park out west, and has for several decades. She has a service in a nearby city that burns her email to disk and mails it to a nearby neighbor every two weeks. She goes, reads the contents, and responds as she sees fit. No car, teaches others how to live more simply (although not necessarily as simply as she does) -- apparently she's been seeing an increase in students of late. So, when she found out about the Riot for Austerity, she joined to see what people are doing these days, so that she can better advise her students.

Interesting world we live in!

Comments

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

Have you heard about the blogoshphere's Locavore Challenge? September is set as a month to try to learn more about what is available locally, share the news, and use things from within 100 miles.

I'm not committed to the idea, but we are going to use it as a boost, to help find certain commodities in the area.

I'm glad the Riot is working out well!

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Hm, sounds interesting! I think if I weren't up to my eyeballs in packing/renovating/moving/artwork, I'd consider it.

I did get a book on native plants of New England this summer, which I'm hoping to start reading this week. Has lots of pictures, too :)

Also, Sharon Astyk's post today mentions lots of things that grow well in NE, but also that what specifically grows well depends on your specific weather, soil, terrain.

Yeah, the Riot's been interesting. People are really getting into some interesting subjects at times -- insulation and preparing for winter are coming up now, of course.

Good luck with finding those commodities!

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

We are using the Challenge to help us find source and resource for things we want to keep in our diets, and to eliminate things which ought not be there to begin with.

We don't need sugar if we have honey and maple, we don't need splenda if we reduce sugars enough.
We don't need factory food, though we sometimes want it, and knowing that other people are out there actively looking for the options and sharing them with the community at large for a brief intense period might just save us a lot of legwork. Who knew stinging nettle in sheepsmilk cheese would be so addictive?

I was worrying about the lack of good water around here til I realised I can make a solar still out of one of our spare panels. I'll just need to do some thinking, and maybe next year!

I like the idea of gardensharing, where we grow the onions, you grow the watermelons, and we trade. Reduce the work, share the profits.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Sounds pretty good. Although I have most of the things you've mentioned so far covered personally (especially by moving to Ashfield), I'm sure there are other things that would be useful. Could make for a good post in October, too :)

Gardensharing is good stuff! We've sort of been doing that, mostly between us and the farm. But would like to do it with more people.