When I was designing our house I referred frequently to the Not So Big House books by architect Susan Susanka. She notes the efficient use of living space on a boat, where space is so limited that not one square foot is wasted. At the design stage, our finances forced us to shrink our house …

As I write this I’m eating homemade butter on homemade wheat & buckwheat bread. (What is buckwheat? If you can tell me without Googling it or looking in Wikipedia, you win! I have no idea what buckwheat is. Jessica ground some to put in muffins the other day and there was still some buckwheat flour …

We actually pay our bills automatically online, but I did a double take when I saw this bill-payment notice. It’s a good thing it wouldn’t be boasting to say that’s a decent power bill for nine people during the entire month of August, because if it were I’d be boasting. We’re part of a …