Made By Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder
This book follows Mark’s attempts at DIY gardening, espresso making, chicken raising, guitar building, beekeeping, whittling and tutoring. The underlying theme of benefits to the DIYer are very zen-like: engaged, fulfilled, enrich, mindful, and making meaningful connections. It’s also important that the DIYer expect mistakes, be self-reliant, taking ownership, and relish in the control and accomplishment of each project.
- LINKS:
- Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea
- Seed Savers Exchange – heirloom seeds
- Post Carbon Institute – preparing for a post carbon world
- Homegrown Evolution Blog
- TED Rob Hopkins
- Kombucha
- An Island to Oneself – Tom Neal
- The Book of Puka Puka: A Lone Trader On a South Seas Atoll – Robert Dean Frisbie
- Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements – Bill Mollison
- Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn
- Mypetchicken.com
- The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City – Erik Knutzen
- Homegrown Revolution
- Wild Fermentation
- Whole Earth Catalog
- Psychology Today: Freedom to Learn
- BOOK HIGHLIGHTS
- Could the problem be less about how much money we were spending and more about how we were spending out time?
- Was there a better way of life out there, waiting for us to create it?
- Take more control of our lives
- Forge a deeper connection and a more rewarding sense of involvement with the world around us
- Life was simpler – people expected and were satisfied by less
- The focus wasn’t on getting ahead; it was on communing with nature, and sharing music, food, dance, and craft
- I promised myself I’d come up with something that would allow me to slow down, use my hands, and become more engaged with the world around me
- DIYers are not afraid to take responsibility for the creation and maintenance of things they use, eat, wear, play with, learn from, and live in
- DIYers welcome the challenge of creating, maintaining, and modifying their physical environment
- Become more mindful of our daily activities, more appreciative of what we have, and more engaged with the systems and things that keep us alive and well
- I learn more from my mistakes than I ever could by being a submissive follower of instructions
- Perspective of the world as a hackable platform, something to be remade/remodeled
- The things around your should have meaning, and his way of giving them meaning is by collecting, customizing, rebuilding and combining them in ways that make him happy
- You will screw things up. But that’s one step to overcome to get on the path of living this richer life or engagement, or having meaningful connections to the objects around you
- Mistakes are not only inevitable – they are a necessary part of learning and skill building. Mistakes are a sign you’re active/curious
- Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi – beauty found in an objects imperfections
- New trend in advertising, which appealed to peoples subconscious, irrational desires instead of their actual needs
- It’s not that you think you need a piece of clothing, but that you will feel better if you have a piece of clothing
- They make things not because they are born with a special talent for making, but because they choose to develop and hone their ability
- Natures components could be snapped together like Tinkertoys – pieces to create thriving ecosystems
- Homeowners in the US spend billions watering, mowing, fertilizing, and resodding ground they don’t actually use
- Approach gardening as problem solving and it will rapidly become a bore. Instead look at it as an opportunity to try stuff out. Ask yourself ‘what do I get to do?’ not ‘What do I have to do’
- The problem with DIY projects – you end up learning a lot when you do something the first time, but unless you want to tear it down and start over, you have to live with the mistakes you make
- EROEI – Energy Return on Energy Invested
- Food versus fuel debate
- Liquid fuels are very hard to make, so you should treat them very preciously
- Against the big guy and for the little guy
- They don’t like large, centralized suppliers of food, energy and manufactured goods – Shorten the supply chains
- Reduce consumption and produce locally
- We need to grow crops that will feed our communities
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