Into the Woods

Category Archives: Relocalization

The future of rain

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Projected change in summer rainfall by 2080-2099. See link below to full chart. Is it surprising that servants of the oil industry continue to deny climate change, even though they aren’t really fooling anybody? A poll last year found that 83 percent of Americans believe the world is warming, including 72 percent of Republicans. But […]

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I'm not complaining

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Corn on the cob in a few more days After several brutal summers, the summer of 2012 is going pretty well at the abbey. While 60 percent of the country is in drought, the abbey lies in a narrow no-drought area of western North Carolina. There was a period in early July when the temperature […]

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Democracy perverted, again

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Rep. Becky Carney, D-Mecklenburg, who cast the “mistaken” deciding vote to legalize fracking in North Carolina For months, tens of thousands of grassroots voters in North Carolina have been working to convince the legislature and the governor that fracking is a bad idea. We apparently succeeded. And yet we woke up this morning to find […]

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Magic always moves on …

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Above: From an Armistead Maupin status update on Facebook So Armistead Maupin is leaving San Francisco. For those of you who have read his books (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, etc.), this is a big deal. That aura of myth and magic around San Francisco was […]

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The delocalization of religion

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Watch this first, to better understand where I’m coming from Once upon a time, the gods were in your own back yard. To get an idea of how that might have felt — the wonder and magic of it — watch the video above. Or think of the world of fairy tales. Fairy tales, of […]

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First time canning: Pickled beets

Monday, May 28, 2012

I shouldn’t act as though it’s some kind of feat to can food, because of course people have been doing it for years. But today was the first time I’ve ever tried it. It also was the first time I’ve ever had a good enough garden to support canning. These were red beets, mixed with […]

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Where to start?

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The garden, this morning It’s been over a month since I posted. The abbey has been caught in a whirlwind of spring projects, spring farm work, and community organizing. I really appreciate the emails from those of you who have written to make sure everything is OK. Retirement is not supposed to be like this. […]

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The new crew of chickens

Monday, April 9, 2012

Photo by Ken Ilgunas — [click on photo for high-res] The abbey has a new crew of four chickens. They’re now a little over a week old. They should be laying by August. With only one adult chicken at present (Patience), the abbey kitchen desperately needs the eggs.

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San Francisco comes to Mayberry

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Allen, at Mayberry’s Ground Zero — Snappy Lunch in Mount Airy. We did not eat a fried pork chop sandwich. It’s not often that I get visitors from San Francisco. They get the full tour of Mayberry country. Allen Matthews, a former colleague at the San Francisco Chronicle, was here last weekend. He was in […]

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Ken gets a book contract