Looking for fellow homemakers in your part of the world? Post your whereabouts here, and see who turns up! Please be sure to return now and then to announce or read about any happenings that might be of interest to the other Radical Homemakers in your area.
Name (can be an online name)
State
City or Town
A few words about yourself
PS: Spider Nick
Huntington, NY
Contact me at thespidernick@gmail.com
or at the contact page at http://www.spidernick.com
Nick! So wonderful to hear from you again….what a post! You wouldn’t believe how many people send me private emails asking about radical homemakers’ matchmaking. You are a brave soul, and I admire that you choose to move forward in this world with your heart on your sleeve. Shannon
This post is mainly for Lindsay Sledge, in case she ever checks back. I live in Hampton VA and this book was recommended by a member of the Grownups Playing in the Dirt meetup group in the Hampton Roads area of VA. We are a group of adults who garden and homestead in whatever fashion works for us. We get together (hopefully monthly) to share food, learn new skills, swap produce and seeds, and generally encourage each other to play in the dirt. Please look for us on meetup.com
I’m Jen, from Morehead, KY. I saw that Katherine Grigg is also from near Lexington! If you are in my area, please post. We’ve just moved here, and we’re looking for like-minded friends!
I’m Rosi from Hopkinsville, KY. I just recently saw your info in the ACRES, USA magazine and was intrigued by the title of your book Radical Homemakers. I have just recently moved into the position of homemaker (working on being radical!) through marriage to my Orcharding husband. We are trying to move away from consumption to production and though it is difficult at times for me, a big transition, it is very rewarding to look for new ways to do things to things to save money and make a positive impact on our family and our community. I really love being at home with our family of seven….homeschooling,baking bread, starting seeds, having lots of animals, running our orchard business, hanging clothes on the line, living without television, pasturing chickens, raising goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, and rabbits. Would love to connect with other Radical Homemakers in our area.
Hi, I’m Jacquelyn from King of Prussia, Pa. This book has truly been inspirational. My husband and I have been moving towards a more simple and sustainable lifestyle since we were in college. Now in the past year or so we have really transitioned into a more “radical homemaker” lifestyle, not as much as we would like but we are getting there. We make just about everything from scratch from food to deodorant and toothpaste, sew, fix, thrift, canning, don’t have cable, recently got laying ducks, and are looking to expand our veggie garden this year to cover the whole yard. It is nice to know that there are lots of people out there with similar ideals. We are young (25) so most of our friends are not quite settled yet and even the ones that are just think what we do is weird. We would love to connect with other RHs in our area.
Hello!
I live in the middle of Michigan (Mt. Pleasant & Central Michigan University) and I am starting up a model sustainable farm on 5+ acres, with the help of one really innovative foundation and private benefactors. I am looking for compassionate people who may be interested in joining in. I founded a 501c3 non-profit in 1998 and we have done some really amazing things. The non-profit is called Starry Night, Inc. and our motto is, “enjoining creativity in service of compassionate communities.” Contact me at:
lannen222@gmail.com
on Facebook as Starry Night’s Max’s Place Pilot Project at Central Michigan University at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=112010672154496
This post is for Jacquelyn, from King of Prussia, PA. My boyfriend and I live in Pottstown. We are the neighborhood weirdos, who have chickens running around their yard and hang their laundry outside even in the winter.
I’d love to meet you!
Email me if you want to meet up: littelltwins@yahoo.com
Hello, fellow Radical Homemakers…. I’m an American Exile over in the Hinterlands of Telemark, Norway, where what we do (radical homemaking for the last 19 years without electricity or running water, unschooling the wee ones, spinning and weaving and soap-making and goat-milking and cheesemaking and haying/ logging with a fjord horse, sewing with a hand-cranked Singer, etc. etc. etc…… oh, and making SAUERKRAUT from garden produce!!!!) is deemed utterly backwards…. It’s sooooooo lonely!!!! But I’ve decided, now that my husband is retiring, to spend half the year in Vermont to be near like-minded R.H.s and Unschoolers…. I’d but swoooooon to connect with anyone and everyone…. What I’d love is a tiny shack or room or broom-closet on someone’s farm or homestead, where I could garden or goat-milk or churn butter or darn socks in exchange for housing…. I’m multi-skilled, having been a R.H. for 19 years and doing a bit of everything imaginable, including beekeeping and basket-making!!!! There’s a little t.v. documentary that was made about my farm a couple of years ago, which I’ll soon try to pass on, if I can figure out how!!!! (I’m also a Neo-Luddite, and never touched a computer until November!) Anyhow, I’d also like to invite all R.H.s to a free and beautiful place to stay here, in the mountains of Norway…. We’ll have endless things to talk about and skills to exchange…. Adoringly, Jenny of the North XXXOOO
P.S. Here’s the t.v. show “link” about Radical Homemaking in Norway, if anyone cares to watch (though it’s rather embarassing): http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/454076/ (sorry, I guess you have to hand-type it!!!)…. and here’s my e-pistle address, in case anyone cares to write: jennifarious@gmail.com …. or call: (47) 3507 3614. (I have to take the horse-and-sleigh to the library in the local village to check my e-pistles, and only do this a couple of times a week….) XO, St, Jennefarious, Martyr of the Soggy, Smoldering Firewood
Location: Elk Point, SD
I am a 28 year old Mother of a blended family. We live in a part of the country where there are hundreds of farms, but nothing to eat. We believe in sustainability, self-sufficiency, and other “old-fashioned” concepts. We are slowly discovering like-minded people in our town and in the larger cities close by, but would love to find more! It’s not like I can walk up to someone in town here and say “so, what did you do with your bumper crop of swiss chard?” … most wouldn’t even know what I was talking about.
But anyway, I’m posting this in hopes of finding people relatively close to me who are living the lifestyle I am/am striving to live. Anyone remotely in the area, or who would just like to ‘talk shop’ are welcome to email me at: megrosenbaum@knology.net
Namaste,
Meghan
P.S.S. I’m back again. Isn’t there some Radical Homemaker (or even Would-Be R.H.) who would like to share a shack or homestead with me in the Brattleboro, VT. vicinity (one of the reasons I like Brattleboro is the train-line, since I don’t drive…. N.Y.C. is therefore only a few hours away via public transport! I’m a former New Yorker, you see….)??? We could start a Bottle-Cap Candleholder business (one of my specialties), or sell home-made goat milk soap, or rag-dolls, or sauerkraut, or…. oh, there are myriad possibilities!!!! The Sauerkraut Missionary awaits a reply…. She’s feeling terribly forlorn in this bland foreign land, where EVERYONE shops at the equivilant of Wall-Mart…. It’s exhausting to always be an Outsider; but I certainly won’t join the ranks of these dutiful consumers!!!! Radical Homemaker Soul-Mates, I know you’re out there!!! Please write! I’ll be living in Brattleboro this summer…. perhaps we can meet over a crock of fermenting vegetables or a pile of holey socks???? XO, Yenny
Hi Jenny (Endresen)-
I am moving from NY to my husband’s hometown in Orange, Massachusetts which is about 40 minutes from Brattleboro. There are a lot of people from that area who live alternative lifestyles (around the Warrwick and Wendell area — there is a joke that old hippies don’t die, they just move to Wendell) – we are five years out of college and I just started gardening last year but my mother-in-law knows people who dabble in homemaking (they all still have day jobs, cars, and electricity). You should come by for dinner sometime in May or anytime over the summer as I would be interested in learning more about your lifestyle. The nearby neighbours have an organization called Seeds of Solidarity (seedsofsolidarity.org) and you may want to connect with them. There is also a great festival called the Garlic and Arts Festival held at harvest time each year (http://garlicandarts.org) where you might meet like-minded people- it will be held over the weekend of October 1-2 this year. You may also want to connect with Bekki who has The Roundhouse in Colrain, MA (http://www.roundhouseculture.com). I do not know her but I am friends of friends and recently spent a few hours there over a fiddling retreat/party. She might have more connections to the RH community. You might want to connect with the people at The Farm School (www.farmschool.org) which is a school where the students also work the farm in addition to lessons… the staff might also be good contacts/connectors.
You can reach me at daniella.i.brown@gmail.com.
Talk to you soon
-Daniella
Wow, this all is so interesting. It reminds me of the “back to the land” hippie movement of the 60′s – the communes and living off the grid. The motivation back then was a bit different, I think. But now we are seeing so much more abuse of our planet. The economic reasons for going “back to the land” are getting bigger and bigger too.
My wife and I planted a large garden last year, and it took a lot of work. We’ll expand it this year. We are considering chickens too. We live in town and have neighbors – who are usually very nice.
The ideas surfacing here are very inspiring. Thanks so much!
Stephen Mark
Menopause Relief
Hi Shannon! This is all phenomenal: the book, the people that you’ve attracted and the forum here. Well done! I grew up in Whitney Point, NY and graduated from Cornell in 2009; The Binghamton/ Ithaca connection put me over the top and I had to message you. I majored in Development Sociology and focused on sustainable food systems. I imagine we may have worked with a few of the same people: Gil Gillespie or Gary Fick? Anywho, I can’t thank you enough for this book- and, your subsequent articles for Yes! magazine. I gained enormous amounts from my college education and the only factor that keeps me wavering between career and domestic radicalization is the desire to provide my children the same opportunity. I’m deeply interested in the farming/homesteading life but equally interested in affording a quality college education for my children one day. I would love to connect with recent college grads out there to see how you’re coming to grips with this pull. I think many must agree that their college experience was beneficial- – so how can we give that to our children after straying from the lives that our parents led to give it to us? I’m currently living in Portland, OR but would love to hear from any and all of you. I’m a firm believer in seeking community support- both online & off!
Thanks, again, Shannon. You’re fantastic!