Depletion and Abundance
I read a lot of blogs, but only a handful
captivate me enough that I talk about them with Mark around the dinner
table. Sharon Astyk's blog is so thought-provoking that we
discuss "blogger Sharon" at least once a week. Since Sharon is
also an author, it seemed like a no-brainer to check one of her books
out of the library.
Depletion
and Abundance
fleshed out the thesis I've been picking up in bits and pieces on
Sharon's blog --- peak oil and climate change are going to change the
face of our world, and we need to be prepared for a lower energy future
full of good food and friends (and hard work.) Then there's the
Anyway clause --- even if you don't believe in peak oil and climate
change, the actions you would take to prepare for those eventualities
are just the right thing to do anyway.
Unfortunately, since I'd
been reading her blog for months, I was a bit disappointed to be
getting the same information again in book form. I kept hoping
we'd make our way out of the big picture and that Sharon would write
more about the minutae --- for example, I was aching to hear about how
her family cut their energy usage to 10% of the national average over
the course of a year. (Perhaps that tale is in one of her
other books?)
People who enjoy
philosophizing will probably take to Depletion
and Abundance
better than I did. I tend to look for solid answers when I read a
book (or at least for a record of what worked and didn't work in the
author's own experience.) Instead, Sharon's book is full of
thought-provoking questions about home and community, but not enough
hard data to really suck me in. Still, I'd recommend that you
pick up Sharon Astyk's book, or at least add her blogs to your reading
list for exactly the minutae I missed in her book --- milk goats,
homeschooling, canning, and much more. Sharon writes one blog
about "food, farm, and family" and another on Science Blogs
about the more technical side of peak oil and climate change.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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