If you liked that, you should also try Catherine Friend's story of starting a poly-culture farm with her partner. It's called "Hit by a Farm".

She also has a new book out on how to be a compassionate omnivore.

Ooooh, that stings like getting slapped in the face.

I had read an excerpt of his book in either Mother Earth News or Smithsonian and then went and picked it up at our library. As someone loves to live vicariously with those brave souls who can take much bolder steps towards sustainability than I can right now, I really enjoyed reading his tales.

Thanks for the link to his blog; will be bookmarking that for more vicarious pleasures.

And don't forget Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It starts out a little preachy, but then she gets into just describing the challenges of living off the land year-round in a humorous, fun way. The turkey harvest was particularly memorable.

You can find an excerpt from Fine's fine book in the current issue of Sierra magazine (for which Fine interned once upon a time: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2008/04/you-think-savin.html

You can also find a short interview with him here:

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2008/04/q-a-with-doug-f.html

"Usually we leave our engines running, since starting a diesel V-8 engine (on any fuel) is such an event that three or more simultaneous starts can affect oil prices worldwide..."

It is AMAZING how many people believe this. Actually the just want to believe it so they can be lazy and not turn off their engines. The only place it is even close to true is in extremely large engines like railroad locomotives that don't have electric starters. For any engine that has a key it is NOT true.

I had to tell a fireman to turn off his fire truck at the gas pumps the other day. He was under the mistaken notion that it wasn't hazardous to leave the diesel firetruck with all it's electric engine accessories running. Wrong!

From www.epa.gov/midwestcleandiesel/publications/presentations/in-08-05/lhaag.pdf

Myth vs vs Fact Concerning Diesel Fact Concerning Diesel Engines Engines

Myth #1: Diesel Engines must be warmed up utilizing long idle periods, especially in cold weather.

Fact #1: Today’s truck and engine manufactures often recommend a warm up time of less than 5 minutes

Myth #2: Idling is cost effective because it saves fuel.

Fact #2: Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine.

Myth #3: It’s better for the engine to run at low, idling speeds than to run at regular speeds.

Fact #3: Running the engine for extended periods of time at low speed (idling) causes more wear on internal parts than running the engine at normal driving speeds.

Myth #4:The engine must be kept running in order to operate equipment in the cabin (i.e., flashing lights, or radio). This equipment can’t be run off the internal circuitry of the vehicle because the battery will run down.

Fact #4: Such equipment can generally be operated for up to an hour without the engine running.