I profusely apologize for the recent lapse. Life managed to get in the way for awhile, but things are beginning to level off now. Please allow an explanation.
March 7, 2013, my wife expired, collapsed with no heartbeat or respiration. Four and a half minutes later, an ambulance arrived and CPR was initiated. She did survive, with substantial brain damage.
After my head-on collision with a deer in 2008, this was the second affirmation of my original plan for retirement. I realized twenty years ago that to enjoy any quality of lifestyle in retirement, I had to eliminate the hundreds of dollars of "typical" monthly expanses. Utilizing solar off-grid electricity, efficient building strategies, along with numerous other techniques, the only "typical" monthly ongoing cost we have had is cellular phone and, at times, mobile broadband. If not for the execution of this plan, we would have lost everything, twice!
I cannot express my gratitude to the brilliant folks that invented/discovered the technologies we are using. All the tools are out there, we only need to find and use them. (I despise politics, but I must now include this observation. Current president Trump has stated publicly that "solar is an unproven technology". Nasa has been using this technology for over sixty years! This reminds of the saying, "It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".) I attended a renewable energy exposition in Fletcher, North Carolina a few years ago and spotted a t-shirt that read "You can lead a man to knowledge but you can't make him think". That statement is quite profound.
I am attempting to restart writing and posting my articles on this website. I also hope to re-establish mobile broadband to allow publishing on the Mother Earth News website. I appreciate your patience and understanding.
I will resume with a short series of four articles to help explain my absence. Although these articles do not involve the actual building of my cabin, they do convey my experiences in trying to navigate life and are, at a minimum, indirectly relevant. Hopefully, they will be of some benefit to others. Afterward, I will resume the original series.
I wish to extend a warm "thank you" to you, the reader, and I sincerely hope these articles are a genuine help to some of you. Thank you all so very much, Jeff
March 7, 2013, my wife expired, collapsed with no heartbeat or respiration. Four and a half minutes later, an ambulance arrived and CPR was initiated. She did survive, with substantial brain damage.
After my head-on collision with a deer in 2008, this was the second affirmation of my original plan for retirement. I realized twenty years ago that to enjoy any quality of lifestyle in retirement, I had to eliminate the hundreds of dollars of "typical" monthly expanses. Utilizing solar off-grid electricity, efficient building strategies, along with numerous other techniques, the only "typical" monthly ongoing cost we have had is cellular phone and, at times, mobile broadband. If not for the execution of this plan, we would have lost everything, twice!
I cannot express my gratitude to the brilliant folks that invented/discovered the technologies we are using. All the tools are out there, we only need to find and use them. (I despise politics, but I must now include this observation. Current president Trump has stated publicly that "solar is an unproven technology". Nasa has been using this technology for over sixty years! This reminds of the saying, "It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".) I attended a renewable energy exposition in Fletcher, North Carolina a few years ago and spotted a t-shirt that read "You can lead a man to knowledge but you can't make him think". That statement is quite profound.
I am attempting to restart writing and posting my articles on this website. I also hope to re-establish mobile broadband to allow publishing on the Mother Earth News website. I appreciate your patience and understanding.
I will resume with a short series of four articles to help explain my absence. Although these articles do not involve the actual building of my cabin, they do convey my experiences in trying to navigate life and are, at a minimum, indirectly relevant. Hopefully, they will be of some benefit to others. Afterward, I will resume the original series.
I wish to extend a warm "thank you" to you, the reader, and I sincerely hope these articles are a genuine help to some of you. Thank you all so very much, Jeff