tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post3278543893781754923..comments2023-05-09T01:37:26.399-07:00Comments on Hearth and Home: rural/urban ramblings for parentsHousefairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158143680987249710noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-26888152207725775222008-11-12T06:45:00.000-08:002008-11-12T06:45:00.000-08:00oh my god, i could have wrote this. mind if i link...oh my god, i could have wrote this. mind if i link from my travel blog? wow.<BR/><BR/>(amber, who is posting under her other blog name because she is lazy)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-37232567107113183682008-11-04T11:11:00.000-08:002008-11-04T11:11:00.000-08:00Joy I've never done the rural thing, but before ch...Joy I've never done the rural thing, but before children we lived in Brooklyn for several years (preceded by 1 year on the Upper East Side, but we got priced outta there in a New York minute LOL). Park Slope, though yuppifying fast, our old tree-lined block of brownstones is totally the urban paradise you describe, but who can afford to raise a family in that setting without a wall street or corporate law job? No one I know. Our friends from there have either moved away, built serious careers, and/or still have no kids in their late 30s. <BR/><BR/>Right now, we are living the compromise too. In a city that's large enough to have a public bus system, in a neighborhood that you can walk downtown from; but we have a yard that's wider than the driveway and three trees grow on it -- and most of all there is plenty of diversity and a great sense of community!! It is a very happy medium. Plus there is a patch of real nature down the street in the park with real uncultivated wild woods and hiking trails up the hill to precipitous cliffs and breathtaking views below and we can see our rooftop from up there! :) <BR/>G had a friend over all day last Saturday. They were up the climbing tree from 7:30 am until about 2 pm, working on a very creative installation project way up in that tree. Passersby in the street stop to look at it now. It's assembled from a flag, a bucket, a bird feeder, and a tambourine hanging by strings fastened to a stick structure resembling a squirrel-sized tree house. :D<BR/><BR/>I second funpaul. The End of Suburbia is fascinating though terrifying. I was obsessed with its ideas and predictions for weeks after I viewed it.Judithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01310462426087335112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-20334751108045182892008-10-28T11:33:00.000-07:002008-10-28T11:33:00.000-07:00Well, I'm one of your "urban homesteading" friends...Well, I'm one of your "urban homesteading" friends with the rabbits and honeybees and a garden we really do eat out of ( but we have to beat the wild critters to the food ) and all and, as we've spoken of on many occasions, we dream of moving North......<BR/><BR/>I've come to the conclusion, however, that what I love about the Northern part of our State is the pristine wilderness of it and if everyone who dreams,as I do, of moving there actually does it; there goes "pristine wilderness" and eventually, the UP becomes a suburb too! So, I visit and I pay my respects and offer my love and stay put on my little urban farm so that the UP remains the UP.......<BR/><BR/>I really love urban homesteading, actually, because it introduces the idea of sustainability into an area and an ethos that doesn't typically think about those issues. Growing food instead of lawn makes sense ecologically and, for me, politically and socially as well. Opening my home, living in a state of hospitality where neighbors and friends drop in for dinner and hang out until our conversation runs it's course for the day...that is priceless to me. I have lived in this same neighborhood for almost 20 years now ( in June ) and I have that sense of "Place" that Wendell Berry talks about in his writing. I have children unborn buried in our garden, giving us life through the food we grow there. Our families first dog, a couple of our rabbits, are also part of the "land" out back......we couldn't leave. <BR/><BR/>I actually like the "grunge" of Detroit, the neediness of the city, having to deal with the reality of poverty and want and knowing that I can do something to change it. I wanted my children to be where they could understand and appreciate that there are people who are poor, and suffering, and my hope was always that they would grow into compassionate young people who would set their hearts to healing others. So far, I'm not disappointed. We can all bloom where we are planted!Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-83463860386072383412008-10-27T06:15:00.000-07:002008-10-27T06:15:00.000-07:00I saw an interesting documentary a little while ba...I saw an interesting documentary a little while back called "The End of The Suburbs"<BR/><BR/>http://www.endofsuburbia.com/<BR/><BR/>It suffered from a too much '50s suburban kitcsh for cheap laughs, but the information presented was interesting to me. I'd heard a lot of it before, but there were some points that were made clearer to me.<BR/><BR/>It starts with a history of the suburbs. The earliest arising in the 1920's as a kind of country home for affluent car owners. Cities at that time really were dirty, polluted, crowded and the notion was that country life was clean and wholesome, etc.<BR/><BR/>The development of street car lines led to the development of suburbs along rail lines, making the suburban life more accessable to broader sectors of the middle class.<BR/><BR/>After WWII: Levittown=type suburbs arise. GI Bill, chicken in every pot, everyone should own a detached home, etc. Made possible by widespread ownership of relatively affordable automobiles (and vice-versa: automobiles selling well because of the new suburbs).<BR/><BR/>Then: sprawl as each successive ring of suburbs becomes less rural.<BR/><BR/>The film explores the pluses and minuses of this new mode of life.<BR/><BR/>The interesting part to me was the pointing out that all this sprawl was possible only because of incredibly cheap gasoline. Once cheap gasoline is done -- and I would say despite the present dip in price, it is pretty much done -- the outer suburbs become incredibly expensive to live in. They will wither and die, becoming new slums, as the population tends to contract towards the center in order to reduce commute times and fuel costs. We hope that new mass transit schemes will figure into this.<BR/><BR/>I think it's interesting to think that suburbs in the American style are an invention only about 90 years old. The technological and industrial explosion revolutionizes social organization at a phenomenal rate, and we are holding on for dear life trying to figure out what happens next, whether we can find a way to influence what happens next, and how we can find a worthwhile way to live within the wildly changing world.funpaulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16067483070982795761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-74996789458291301752008-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:002008-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:00Good old Kelley--I feel like I blog for just you a...Good old Kelley--I feel like I blog for just you and me sometimes : ) Thank you for being so supportive and always "getting" me even when I bandy about more stereotypes than I probably should, and even when my thoughts are choppy and my verb tenses dont align. I love you!Housefairyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07158143680987249710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370154628832640.post-64834537758290834442008-10-24T19:18:00.000-07:002008-10-24T19:18:00.000-07:00Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Your writing abilit...Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Your writing ability is so lucid, so thoughtful. I think in all that spare time you have ( ;D ) that you should write a book. You really have a gift, Joy.Kelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16703334707738126703noreply@blogger.com