Issue 3 - May/June 1970

CARE
Who will, if - we don't???
OK, gang. Earth Day (April 22) is over. Remember all the slogans and the buttons and the long lists of Great Ideas That Will Save The Planet? Where are they now . . . now that we should be living them? Maybe - with the politicians and the slogan-sellers and the button manufacturers already three "causes" on down the road - it's worth the effort to go back and reconsider at least one of those lists. This one, distributed by "Priority", is as good as any. It doesn't have all the answers and real purists are guaranteed to be offended by at least six different points. But the concern and good intentions shine through. Or . . . was it . . . just . . . the thing to do . . . at the time . . . 1. Don't use colored facial tissues, paper towels or toilet paper. The paper disolves properly in water, but the dye lingers on. 2. If you accumulate coat hangers, don't junk them; return them to the cleaner. Boycott a cleaner who won't accept them. 3. Use containers that disintergrate readily. Glass bottles don't decompose. Bottles made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) give off lethal hydrochloric acid when incinerated. (That's the soft plastic many liquid household cleaners, shampoos, and mouthwashes come in. Don't confuse it with the stiffer polystyrene plastic, used mainly for powders.) The Food and Drug Administration has now approved PVC for food packaging, too. Don't buy it. Use decomposable or "biodegradable" pasteboard, cardboard and paper containers instead. If you can't, at least reemploy nondecomposable bottles; don't junk them after one use. 4. Don't buy nonreturnable containers. Hold aluminum can purchases to a minimum. If you're living around New York, Denver, Houston or San Francisco this summer, bring in aluminum cans for a half-cent apiece (also: Old TV-dinner trays, old aluminum lawn chairs, etc.) They're worth $200 a ton to Reynolds Aluminum. 5. At the gas station, don't let the attendant "top off" your gas tank; this means waste and polluting spillage. The pump should shut off automatically at the proper amount. (True, too, for motorboats.) 6. If you smoke filter-tip cigarettes, don't flush them down the john. They'll ruin your plumbing and clog up pumps at the sewage treatment plant. They're practically indestructible. Put them in the garbage. 7. Stop smoking. 8. Stop littering. Now. If you see a litterer, object very politely ('Excuse me, sir, I think you dropped something'). 9. If you're a home gardener, make sure fertilizer is worked deep into the soil - don't hose it off into the water system. Phosphates (a key ingredient) cause lake and river algae to proliferate wildly. 10. Don't buy or use DDT even if you can find it (and, unfortunately, you sti ll can). If your garden has water, sun, shade and fertilizer, it shouldn't need pesticides at all. If you must spray, use the right insecticide. (If at all possible, use botanicals - natural poisons extracted from plants - like nicotine sulfate, rotenone, pyrethrium.) 11. To reduce noise, buy a heavy-duty plastic garbage can instead of a metal one. Or sturdy plastic bags, if you can afford them. They're odorproof, neater, lighter. 12. When you see a junked car, report it to your local Sanitation Department. If they don't care, scream till someone does.

13. If you don't really need a car, don't buy a car. Motor vehicles contribute a good half of this country's air pollution. Better, walk or bicycle. Better for you, too. 14. If you have to car-commute, don't chug exhaust into the air just for yourself. Form a car pool. Four people in one car put out a quarter the carbon monoxide of four cars. 15. Better yet, take a bus to work. Or a train. Per passenger mile, they pollute air much less than cars. Support mass transit. 16. If you still think you need a car of your own, make sure it burns fuel efficiently (i.e., rates high in mpg). Get a low-horsepower mini-machine for the city, a monster only for lots of freeway driving. 17. Bug gasoline manufacturers to get the lead out. Tetraethyl lead additives are put in gas to hype an engine's performance; they can build up in your body to a lethal dose. Indiana Standard Oil Co. has a lead-free fuel now (Amoco); Atlantic Richfield has announced they'll introduce one if all car manufacturers rework engines to make them burn up every breath of fuel, so lead's not needed. One Detroit leader has already promised new engines on all 1971 models. Pester the others. (Lead, by the way, chews up metal - including new antipollution catalytic mufflers.) 18. If bagged garbage overflows your trash cans, shake it out of bags directly into the can and tromp it down to compact it. 19. If you have a fireplace . . . abstain. As much as possible. If you must send up smoke, burn wood - not murky cannel coal. 20. Burning leaves or garbage is already illegal in many towns. Don't do it. Dispose of such material in some other way. 21. If you see any oily, sulfurous black smoke coming out of chimneys, report it to the Sanitation Department or Air Pollution Board. 22. There's only so much water. Don't leave it running. If it has to be recycled too fast, treatment plants can't purify it properly. 23. Measure detergents carefully. If you follow manufacturers' instructions, you'll help cut a third of all detergent water pollution. 24. Since the prime offender in detergent pollution is not suds but phosphates (which encourage algae growth), demand to know how much phosphate is in the detergent you're buying. Write the manufacturer, newspaper, Congressmen, the FDA. Until they let you know, use an unphosphated - nondetergent - soap. (Bubble baths, you may be happy to know, do not cause detergent pollution.) 25. Never flush away what you can put in the garbage. Especially unsuspected organic cloggers like cooking fat (give it to the birds), coffee grounds or tea leaves (gardeners dote on them). 26. Drain oil from power lawn mowers or snowplows into a container and dispose of it; don't hose it into the sewer system. 27. Avoid disposable diapers if possible. They may clog plumbing and septic tanks. 28. If you see something wrong and you don't know whom to contact, bombard newspapers, TV and radio stations with letters. Get friends to join in. Media will help with the message if you're getting nowhere in normal channels. Remember: Publicity hurts polluters. 29. Protest the SST: Write the President. Today's Boeing 747 can already move more people farther without earshattering sonic booms. 30. Help get antipollution ideals into kids' heads. If you're a teacher, a Scout leader, a camp counselor, a summer playground assistant: Teach children about litter, conservation, noise . . . about being considerate - which is what it

all comes down to. 31. If you're in a relatively rural area, save vegetable wastes (sawdust, corn husks, cardboard, table ;craps, et al.) in a compost heap . . . instead of throwing them out. Eventually, you can spread it as fertilizer - nature's way of recycling garbage. 32. Remember: All Power Pollutes. Especially gas and electric power, which either smog up the air or dirty the rivers. So cut down on power consumption. In winter, put the furnace a few degrees lower (it's healthier) and wear a sweater. 33. Use live Christmas trees, not amputated ones, and replant them afterward. City bound? Contact your Parks Department. 34. Protesting useless pollution? Don't wear indestructible metal buttons that say so. 35. Fight to keep noise at a minimum between 11 PM and 7 AM. Studies show that sounds which aren't loud enough to wake you can still break your dream cycle - so you awaken tired and cranky. By the same token, be kind to neighbors. Suggest that your local radio and TV stations remind listeners to turn down the volume at 10 PM. 36. When you shop, take a reusable tote with you as Europeans do - and don't accept excess packaging and paper bags. 37. Patronize stores that specialize in unpesticided, organically grown food in biodegradable containers. There's probably such a health food store near you. The ne plus ultra : Boston's Ecology Food Store, opening this spring, which plans handcrafted products books and household ecology counseling. (Write Boston Area Ecology Action, 925 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139. They need help.) 38. Radicalize your community. Do something memorable. One group is giving Polluter of the Week awards to deserving captains of industry. In traffic jams, other groups have handed out leaflets titled, "Don't You Feel Stupid Sitting Here?" The leaflets list advantages of car pools and mass transit. 39. You, as a citizen, can swear out a summons and bring a noisy neighbor to court. If the problem' s bigger than that, talk to a lawyer about a class-action lawsuit. A group of people, for instance, can file a class-action suit against a noisy airline or a negligent public antispollution official. 40. Last, and most important - vitally important - if you want more than two children, ADOPT THEM. You know all the horror stories. They're true. Nightmarishly true. And that goes for the whole American economy: Unless we stop fanatically producing and consuming more than we need, we won't have a world to stand on.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW

This issue's PLOWBOY INTERVIEW originally appeared in BLACK BARDT, an excellent alternative life publication put together by Theodore Merrill, 4154 Sacramento St., Concord, California 94521. Theodore is a dedicated, hard-working individual and MOTHER recommends BLACK BARDT highly. If you send a dollar to Concord, you'll probably get a couple of issues in return. Theodore Merrill: What sort of organization is this? Ed Van Buskirk: The Arbor? Thm: Yes-the Arbor Cafe. Ed: Well - it's owned practically by two people, myself and another guy and we own it and set it up. When we first started out, we needed help but we didn't have the money to pay anybody and so people began to work here for meals and stuff - or people that just wanted to work here,wanted to get experience came and started working. Some people would stay only a couple of days or a week, or something like that and other people would stay nine months or a year. It's still the same kind of thing. It's like the two of us own it and, like, whatever money comes out of it is, like, we pay taxes on it and it's our money. Some of the people who work here now live in the house and work, getting room and board and some money for working a certain number of hours a day. Other people live outside and work here, maybe four or five hours a day, and they get rent and some money for that. So it's a business, as I was saying, but it's also got a communal aspect to it. People are sharing the responsibilities - you know - learning how to do all the different things in the cafe and just getting experience doing it. Thm: What got you into it? Ed: Well - I was looking to buy a natural foods retail store or to start one, but I didn't really have the money I thought was necessary to do it. A friend of mine, who opened this and started it, wanted to sell it, so I bought it for a very reasonable price. He just wanted to see it continue on the way he had started it, and he wanted to get his money out of it. Thm: What sort of things are necessary to start a store. I mean, what sort of legal hassles and things like that? Ed: Well, essentially, you have to have a business permit for whatever city or county you're in. Thm: Is it very hard to get a permit? Ed: No - pay money, and you get a business permit. If you're going to be selling stuff to the public, you have to get a bond from the State Board of Equalization and the State Tax Board. You just give them some money and they hold it. You have to have a place that's suitable for the health department and suitable for all the fire inspections and health inspections. Sometimes it's easy; sometimes it's hard. And, like, you just have to have enough money to begin - you know - to get a little stock of food and get some things you need to cook with; however you're going to do it. But you can start pretty small, because there's money coming in right away (some at least); and just an idea is all you need (and a little money to back it up with), whatever you have. Thm: What's the idea behind natural cookery? What kind of philosophy do you have? Ed: Well - there's many different people that have different philosophies about natural foods. People have written books and have all sorts of nutritional theories. One for me is as good as another. It's like, for each person to find his own way. So what we try to do here (we're the only place in Berkeley - I can't really understand why - but we are), is just offering as much as possible: food that's free from processing and free grown organically and free

from preservatives and chemicals and just good natural food that has the taste of the way food tastes, and is prepared, usually, pretty simply. That's the way I see it. It's just a business that goes on but we try to keep this going where people can come here and eat natural grown foods that aren't devitalized. They haven't been processed and all this kind of stuff, but are as close as possible to nature's foods. Thm: What are some examples of, like, natural foods that would make a good, cheap meal? Ed: Well - people like rice. Rice is a good staple food - brown rice. Thm: That's kinda the usual fallback staple? Ed: Yes, rice or any kinds of grains are cheap. There's hundreds of things with grains. There's flour and rice and millet and things like that you can make: bread and pancakes and - everything. You know. Thm: Where can people get, like, large quantities of rice or grain or whatever? Ed: Well - for people that aren't in business that want to get them, there's the ORGANIC FOOD COOPERATIVE in Berkeley, which is on University between Grant and McGee; and there's FOR LOVE OF PEOPLE, which is on 7th and Telegraph in Oakland; and then there's a place called THE FOOD MILL out at 3033 McArthur in Oakland, which does a lot of bulk stuff, like a hundred pounds of rice or whatever quantities you want. There, they package it up for you. They have flours and they make nut butter, peanut butter, things like that. For produce, vegetables and fruit, BUTLERS NATURAL FOOD, on College and Ashby, or the ORGANIC FOOD CO-OP, are about the best. Then there's the Farmer's Market over in Daly City, which is a place where small farmers come and have their stalls there and deal directly with the people. Some of them are good and some of them aren't good - you have to be selective. Some of them are pure organic grown while others aren't. But there's a lot of good produce going through there all the time. Thm: Do you know very much about growing food? Ed: Just what experience I've had with organic gardening. Thm: What are some of the principles of it? - Of organic gardening. Ed: Well - it's like, first of all prepare the soil to get a good rich soil using a compost, which is made out of organic ingredients. Garbage, waste that you would normally throw away, you make a compost pile of it. You can put anything in there: orange peels - you know - anything, old rotted stuff. Just take all your food garbage and put it in a heap and build a little wooden frame around it or something. Water it every once in a while. And you can put leaves in there, scrape up leaves, anything that is part of the natural process. Thm: How long does it take the compost pile to work? Ed: You can just take the garbage and sort of put it on the ground to start out. We have a garden here, and we just started taking out garbage from the Arbor and putting it on the ground and kinda turning it under and watering it for about a week. It's better if its completely decomposed. It becomes sort of a gooey mess. You mix this with the soil. Then there's, like, organic leaf molds and fertilizers that are free from chemicals or anything like that. You plant, and it's just natural from there. You observe that it's good to do it astrologically-you plant during the fertile time of the month, and you weed and stuff like that during the barren times. Thm: What phase is that? Ed: I'm not too sure about that. I usually just look it up. I can't really rap about that off the top of my head. That information is available, like, in FARMER'S ALMANAC and stuff like that - you know. It's around; it can be had; and it works. It's right. The thing people have most trouble with in organic gardening is pests and things like that. There's hundreds of poisons, chemical sprays and stuff on the market to get rid of pests; and they'll kill the pests, but they'll also screw up your food. There are natural sprays and stuff that you can just make out of onions and all kinds of different things. There's a very good book called ORGANIC FARMING AND GARDENING. It's a complete manual and it's got anything. Thm: Do you know who it's by?

Ed: No, I don't, but it's the only one called that. It's a big thick book and it has everything you want to know. Just get that and start going. You can get it out of the library. Most libraries have it. Thm: I've talked with some people and they say that eating organic foods gives your body a different feeling after a while. Ed: Oh very definitely. Sure. It's natural foods there. They come from nature. The thing is, for so long they've been processing foods - like a farmer will grow something, and it'll have to go through fifteen peoples'hands before it hits the consumer. Everyone's got to get in there and make their dollar off of it. In order to do this, there's all these refrigeration techniques and preservation techniques and things they've developed that don't have anything to do with the nutritional value of the food. They just have to do with someone making money off of this whole process. In places where the supermarkets are, usually it's very bad. It's been through all the processes. They put ridiculous chemicals and stuff in the food. One thing is for people just to go into supermarkets and read the labels. Like I said before, there's lots of different philosophies, if one chooses to get into it in that way and follow any one kind of diet, or anything like that. We try to satisfy as much as we can all of these things at the Arbor just to have the foods there and going over the counter, and there's no special thing. We feel, like, we just like to have a place where Maher Baba's pictures and things are available, and where people can find out about Maher Baba, and also to keep this thing which is sorely needed in most places: fresh, untampered - with food for people to eat, at pretty cheap prices - as cheap as we can get. I mean, there's a lot of people walking around with no money, and they get some money, and they go out and get a coke and stuff like that. Thm: Do you think, like, if someone wanted to set up another one in Berkeley that there'd be a big enough market for it? Ed: Yeh! Thm: How big a market is there, do you think? Ed: In the year or two that I've owned the Arbor, our business has increased three times, and the health food stores around here, the same thing. It's just all of a sudden going vboom, man. There's more and more new people coming into the Arbor. We've never advertized anywhere. It's just grown sort of organically on its own. It's just people talking one to another. That was the way that I wanted it: was, not to make an advertizing thing out of it, but just the idea that if you continue to, every day - you know - prepare good food and serve good food, it will grow on its own. We're getting too swamped now. Sometimes we don't have the time to do a lot of things that we'd like to do. With so many people coming in, it gets so crowded sometimes. We either need a bigger place, or, if someone has the same idea to open a place in Berkeley, we wouldn't consider them competition at all. They'd be welcomed - it's needed you know. While this is going on, the plastic food industry is getting more plastic and more plastic. Just the idea that people are digging this themselves, and talking with other people. It's spreading, you know. It's like, people are concerned with purifying their body and their mind, and those are two things that go one with the other. Purification of the body is a necessary part of getting your mind clear, and people are jumping at it. They want to find out. It's just not spread widely enough. You don't read about it in the newspaper or the magazine. But it will come. There's more and more people getting into it. I find it's a really good business, man, I mean ninety-nine per cent of the people I meet are really nice people - you know - it's a good business to be in. Ten years ago (and there still are some), the health food stores were kind of a racket. They sold pills and real high priced things, and some of the stuff sold was not that good. The health food always had a real high price, and people would go for it and get sucked into something that wasn't really helping them anyhow. Now it's getting - there's more and more people just wanting to do without the profit motive or anything like that, wanting to make things happen. There's people going out on farms and communes and trying to grow stuff, and now the problem is getting the food to the people. BOOKS ON NATURAL FOODS COOKERY The Natural Foods Cookbook by Beatrice Trum Hunter. 95 postpaid from Pyramid Publications, Inc. 444 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022

Zen Macrobiotic Cooking by Michael Abehsera. $6.25 postpaid from the Order of the Universe Publications, Box 203, Prudential Center Station, Boston, Mass. 02199. (Both of the above available through THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS) Walnut Acres. Free price list for organically grown food (they do mail order). Write to: Walnut Acres Mill and Store, Penns Creek, Pennsylvania 17862 Stores in Bay Area listed in above article.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

THE INDIANS' HERBAL ANSWER TO THE PILL

The Shoshone of Nevada are said to be sophisticated in herbal medicines, collecting their own plants in nearby mountains. It was among these people in the 1930's that the use of Lithospermum rudeale as a contraceptive was discovered. The first reports indicated that a cold water infusion from the roots taken daily as a drink for a period of six months would ensure sterility thereafter. Under U.S. Department of Agriculture auspices, pharmacological research was carried out on this plant, and in 1945 a laboratory study was published confirming the effectiveness of this plant as a contraceptive. Since 1945 a dozen or more serious laboratory studies on animals have been made, all confirming the contraceptive properties of the plant. The active principle, called Lithospermic Acid (LA), in low concentration acts specifically on the pituitary gland, suppressing the production of gonadotropins (hormones which stimulate the sex glands) and certain pituitary hormones. This type of "antihormonal" action is said to be pharmacologically unique and the effects of the drug do not seem to be duplicated by other known compounds. LA is highly soluble and may be extracted by cold water. The resulting solutions are usually yellow or brown in color. The use of Lithospermum extract produces suspension of the estrus cycle, (the entire sequence of changes in the female reproductive organism and a dimunution or inhibition of the secretion of estrogens and androgens (sex hormones). In one laboratory test the suspension of the estrus cycle was maintained for eight months. Removal of the animals from the Lithospermum diet produced an immediate return to relatively normal capacity. The immediate return to normal estrus cycle indicates the Lithospermum produces no permanent or irreversible changes within the body, and examination showed no damage to the pituitary gland. Normal animals previously on a regular diet in turn, responded within ninety-six hours to Lithospermum extract. Depending upon the type of test animals and the concentration of Lithospermum administered with the food succeeded 51% to total effectiveness. The relative abundance of Lithospermic Acid in the various parts of the plant is as follows: The flowers and seeds contain the maximum concentration; the roots are second and the leaves third; the stems contain very little. The plant tops maintain a more or less constant amount of activity over the growing season; in the roots, the concentration is at its lowest in June and at its highest in September (apparently when the active principle leaves the root the plant begins to grow). There are six species of Lithospermum and all showed marked antigonadotropic activity. Extracts of Lithospermum latifolium, L. croceum and L. ruderale are active at less than 1 mg. dose levels. A test of the root L. ruderale after three years storage showed that the active principle was still highly effective. There is no appreciable difference in activity between fresh and dried root extracts. The activity of the root extract, however, rapidly deteriorates. For those interested in finding this plant, it grows on the high, dry slopes and plains from Placer to Modoc counties in California. In testing other plants during the early laboratory examination of Lithospermum it was found that two others had a comparable amount of activity: the common Borage (Borago officinalis) which belongs to the same family as Lithospermum, and the leaves of a common Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), the dried plant being better than the fresh.

The Raspberry proved inactive, however, which is too bad, as you could then enjoy the fruit and gain its side benefits at the same time. - San Diego FREE DOOR

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

How To Retire 6 Months Every Year

Date: March 18, 1970 To: Personnel Dept. Subject: Retirement

Four weeks from this date, on April 15, 1970, I shall be retiring, and this constitutes my four weeks notice in conformance with company standards for professionally classed employees. I realize that retirement is an odd term to use at my age, but it is the only one that can validly be applied. The circumstances of my life are such that I need only work half the year for my physical support, and rather than spend or hoard the excess for 25 years, which is the usual custom, I would rather take my retirement in easy stages while I am still young enough to make good use of it. It is really sad that the only work choice open to people is that of the 40-hour/50-week year, or none at all. There are so many reasonable combinations which might be put together that each of us could live his life in a human, rewarding fashion if the alternatives were actually available. Instead, in an economy that brags about its affluence and leisure, we are working at the same mad pace that was required in far more austere periods of our history. This is something which exists because each and all of us permit it to exist, as though we do not run our own lives or our own business functions. A business is no more than a collection of individuals, and when they decide to control their own destiny, they shall. Fortunately, there are still personal alternatives available, and this is mine - periodic retirement. Most Sincerely, Irv Thomas

Barely eight months before the above resignation was written, I had arrived in Seattle with less than $400 in my pocket and the suit on my back. I did not know a soul in town, and had no idea where or when I was going to find a job. I had just left a shattered marriage behind me in California . . . along with all my worldly possessions and a job paying $12,500 per year. That my wife and I had been living to the hilt of our income was evidenced by the small amount of cash I had brought with me. And yet, here I am, loftily telling my boss where he can stuff it because I don't need any more of his filthy loot! Fantastic? In a way, yes . . . but not nearly so fantastic as the way all of us have been thoroughly conned into the idea that we really have to work all year to stay alive and pay our bills. It just isn't true, and I'm going to prove it and show you the way out. Though it may be very hard for confirmed rat-racers to believe, neither economics nor social pressure is keeping you from living the kind of life you'd like for a large part of the year; of having the time to develop the creative or academic activity to which you would really prefer to be devoting your life. The price is a willingness to accept less income, and that's what this article is all about. Three thousand per year is not a poverty level existence for a single person, even in the inner city. You who need five, eight or ten thousand a year are victims of a cluster of addictions that can be broken. There are easy and hard ways of breaking habits. There are even pleasant ways. This is not a theoretical concept. I have lived through the breaking of these addictions, and although some of it hurt, I have learned how to keep my balance. I can pass many of the creative tricks on to you. There are withdrawal pains to be sure, but be consoled - they are only temporary and there are many ways of easing them.

HOW I GOT THERE My own way out of the morass was forced upon me. The costs of resettling, getting a job and just the barest of living essentials drove my pocket cash into the ground in no time at all. I had isolated myself completely and intended to stay that way, so there was no answer but to dig in hard and just hang on. I laid out what I called a 'bare bones' three month plan for myself, and just counted the days, knowing that if I stuck with it, I'd be okay. My monthly allowance was:
$ 95.00 15.00 10.00 Rent (low by my own previous standards) Phone and utilities TV rental (this was to fill the lonely hours)

The rest of my $400 cash on hand went to bills I had left back in California, and toward paying for a job referral. This was a prudent investment since it enabled me to get my first paycheck before I was reduced to begging in the streets.

130.00

I did live through it. I'll spare the details, for they are incorporated in the rest of the article, but I should say here that a good portion of my idle time was spent planning the luxurious life I was going to live after the Everything else: Food, laundry, ordeal was over: How I was going to get a brand new VW bus and haircut, clothing, cigarettes, transportation, household, you name outlandishly outfit it as a live-in camper.
it. Figured at $30.00 per week.

But a very strange thing happened before the three months were up: I realized that I was no longer hurting; I no longer had withdrawal pains. I $250.00 Total per month. had actually adapted to this spartan schedule and felt almost as fully provided for as back in the days when I used to have trouble keeping my monthly expenses within an $850 per month net income! At first this was merely curious - an interesting little insight into the intricacies of the human mind. Then the real implications slowly began to dawn on me. Two hundred and fifty per month is $3000 per year, which equates to about 4.5 working months at the salary I was earning. Wow! True, it didn't provide for a few occasional extra expenses like doctor bills, a new suit, and perhaps something set aside for real emergencies - but how little more that would require! I began to see the real nature of what I had achieved - a kind of independence that all my remaining years in the system would never have been able to buy.
CHART NO. 1 Number of months fulltime work required at a given rate of take-home pay (horizontal base) to provide a specified monthly survival cost (vertical base). Some interesting relationships can be seen from this graph. Relatively small increments in monthly income will release each month up to about six, but beyond that point the required increase for each free month becomes more prohibitive as you go up. This is an automatic guard against ambition creeping into the picture. Ambition is simply not worth it. Also, strange as it seems, the less you are earning, the easier it is to gain free time! At $300/month, each $25 you knock off your living expenses gives you a free month, while ar $600/month it takes a $50 reduction to gain another free month.

I have since cut my monthly costs to $220 by eliminating the TV (it turned out there were not many lonely hours), newspapers (I'm happier and have much more time without them), and cigarettes (this just seemed to drop of its own weight when I got the bicycle.) And there is still some slush left. I'm convinced that I can do quite well without the phone, for instance. It may sound, by now, as though I'm leading a sterile, ascetic existence - but nothing could be farther from the truth. I don't mean to imply that I am only spending $220 per month, but merely that this is the cost of my

necessary support. A few well-chosen and inexpensive activities keep my hours well filled, and my life is richer and more rewarding right now than it has even been within my memory. No small part of this is the immediate prospect of a half-year of total removal from the rigors of the rat-race. At this point you are probably wondering what is the big secret. How is it done? Well, it's really a series of little secrets - a kind of mental tug of war with yourself. You keep the lid on until you think something is going to explode, and then you let off a bit of steam - but in another direction. That is to say, you reward yourself when the pressure is too great . . . but in such a way that you move in the direction you want to go instead of sliding back in the direction you are trying to get away from. It is difficult to select an illustration, because the reward must be a very personalized thing, and if I give an example that doesn't happen to turn you on, the point may be lost. But I shall try anyhow, so keep that caution in mind. During the period I was going through automobile withdrawal, and before I had my bicycle to compensate, the dreary weekends of relative confinement started to weigh heavy. All that beautiful northwest country around me, and I could not get out to it. Renting a car would be far too expensive; talking a friend into a country drive would only rub in the deprivation I was going through and bus rides leave me cold. But then ferry boats are something else again! Seattle has long ferry routes out to country islands in the Sound, and for a cost of just a few dollars for the whole day, I was in another world. I returned much refreshed and laughing to the skies at those poor people busting up the freeways to get away from town! That was a piece of creative withdrawal - I removed the pressure, at the same time moving closer to the goal. I also fortified myself with knowledge of a relief valve that I could call upon again. Replacement is another technique. This is really a longer term reward that fills the gap left by something you've given up. Let's say you've got the habit of fraternizing down at the corner bar every Friday night and you always drop ten or fifteen dollars before Saturday morning rolls around. So you make the Great Sacrifice. Don't, for God's sake, try to sit home on Friday night with a book or TV. You'll be back in the bar within two weeks. Find something you've always wanted to do that involves other people, for that is really what you're looking for. Try a neighborhood discussion group or volleyball at the high school gym. Even if it, too, costs money. The important thing is that you're breaking an addiction, and each one you break gives you that much more confidence. Then there is the principle of making it easy on yourself; which is sort of an overall guideline. In the first flush of determination; it is so easy to go plowing ahead and damn the torpedoes. But it's a lot wiser to consider the expected consequences of every move you make, and try to gear yourself to the effects. If you are moving from a three room to a two room apartment to save $30.00 per month, for example, what will the space reduction do to your daily living? The advance preparation you make to offset the sudden feeling of being cramped and stifled will affect your ability to accept the adjustment. This principle is of vital importance in dropping out of the automobile game. THE AUTOMOBILE This is a good point to begin detailed examination of how to live better for less, for the automobile is way ahead of every other flagrant money-waster in our lives. First of all, let's see what you - YOU - are really paying for the questionable pleasure of driving one. I am going to detail my own cost figures here, but it's very important that you get a pencil right now and figure your costs alongside mine, for unless YOU realize what YOU are paying, you will not find the necessary incentive to give up your chariot. Mine was a modest car, price-tagged at $3400, with a four-year turn-in value of $1000 . . . and I've been very reasonable with these estimates. It is possible to spread the capital expense of a car over more than 4 years, of course, but repairs have a way of catching up with the paper savings, quality being what it is. Most studies have shown that the difference between new and used car total operating costs is not very great. These are the per year figures:

MINE Capital cost ($2400 divided by 4 yrs) Finance charge ($2400 financed 3 yrs. at 1 % / Mo. on decreasing balance, or $432 over 4 yrs.) Insurance License (averaged over 4 yrs.) Gasoline (est. at 1000 mi/mo, 12 mi/gal, 35 cents/gal.) Home garaging or inner city regular park (most people have at least one) Lube and oil change (est. at $2.00/week) Misc. parking (est. at $2.00/week) (this includes meters, lots and parking tickets) Tires ( 2 new sets over 4 yrs.) (you might stretch a bad set over trade-in, but they'll deduct it) Repairs (annual estimate of zero, $100, $200, $300, prorated) Annual total $600.

YOURS ......

108.

......

120. 40. 350.

...... ...... ......

120.

......

72.

......

104.

......

40.

......

150. $1704.

...... ......

That is $1704 per year! If your net take home pay is $850 per month, you are putting two months work a year into supporting that car. If your net take home pay is $570 per month, that car is making you work three months a year for its support. Since this about spans the normal range of take home pay, it means that some 20% of all the work done in this country is solely devoted to supporting automobiles! Are you quite sure you want to be a part of that addiction? There are alternatives if you don't. I would like to say that I quit driving because I reasoned this all out and exerted a tremendous force of will power to sell my car and be done with it. I didn't, of course, and I don't think anyone really can. There are more creative and pleasurable ways to give up addictions. Certainly more effective ways. In my case, I was literally forced out of my auto addiction - I had no car and no money to buy one. There is a lot to be said for this method, since nothing in the way of will power is required. Unfortunately, these conditions cannot be artifically created, so those of you - other than the lucky few who are flat broke (and they are lucky) will have to approach it from another direction. A little relocation of your life might be necessary and, as you consider the plan that I lay out, you might think about the 2-1/2 to 3 months each year that you're working to support that bummer out there in the garage. First of all, you will have to find some way of getting your job and your home within a mile or two of each other. Whether this means changing one or the other is for you to decide, but it is a basic requirement, for nothing can kill resolve faster than a bad commuting trip twice a day. A rare exception to the "two mile" rule can be made if you have access to a truly good transit system. But don't rely on one that takes an hour in each direction and don't

rely on car pools or good neighbors who happen to be going your way. Part of your purpose is to learn how to live without the beast. The moving bit may be required for other reasons. It is essential that you live within close walking distance of a reasonably good shopping district and that there be some kind of public transit (preferably a couple choices) within range of your home. Those are the hard requirements. Beyond that, I would suggest thatyou be near a library, a park, some decent inexpensive eateries, and in the kind of neighborhood you think you might enjoy (people, trees, whatever turns you on.) What we have accomplished by this move is the neutralization of potential pressure points. You still have the car, but you're going to stick it in a garage. You might not be using it very often any more. Now you are going to walk to work - every day, rain or shine. If the weather really gets heavy, treat yourself, to a bus ride, not a car. But try to avoid any kind of ride. This is psychological conditioning. You are re-experiencing your youth and relearning patterns of living that don't involve an automobile. And you will do one more thing during this breaking-in period. Each day you walk to work, you'll set aside whatever it used to cost for driving to work. Gas money, parking money, bridge or highway tolls if there were any. When the pot has $100 in it - or sooner if you can't wait that long - go down to the local bicycle shop and order yourself the flashiest 3 or 10 speed bicycle you can find because you have earned it. The walking has put you in good enough condition for you to start riding the bike the day it's ready. Now you are really on your way to beating the game. During the weeks you've been walking to work, you've probably gotten further into the spirit of the thing by doing most of your shopping on foot and using the bus lines for short trips that are outside the immediate neighborhood. You have found that many things you habitually went downtown or to a favorite store across town forare obtainable right in your own neighborhood, and you have even begun to develop a sense of identity with the shops in the area. Now, with the bike, your neighborhood will expand from one mile to several, and you'll find yourself seldom taking the bus anymore except when weather dictates or you know you'll bring back packages (although you'll be surprised at how much a bike carrier with a few straps can hold.) If you have not been leaving the car in the garage that much, it's time you begin to do so. This is the part you'll have to put some will power into to start, but very soon you'll be realizing that 'that trip wasn't necessary' after all. Remember: It is the automobile itself, not the need of it, which encourages its use. Set yourself a countdown period - say 30 days - at the end of which you'll just get rid of the car. Period! Again, think of the 2-1/2 to 3 months. The leap has got to be made, and the psychological value of the countdown is that you will be emotionally pacing yourself toward a point in time. When it arrives, you'll be ready. Depending on how addicted you are - how much you've actually been using the car these last few weeks - you may panic at this point, so it's best to be prepared for it. Line up some family, friends or neighbors who will agree to rush over at a moment's notice if some emergency need for a car develops. It won't. This is just your last minute emotional ploy to keep the habit. I have had only one-single occasion in the past eight months when I had to have a vehicle - to pick up some goods from a warehouse - and I rented a truck for a few hours. If an emergency does come up, there are always ways. I am not trying to say that you won't be making certain sacrifices. Like you won't be able to go out to that wonderful place in the hills that serves a fantastic dinner for $6.00. So you'll save the price of two fantastic dinners in the hills. You won't be able to see that new movie on the other side of town that everyone's talking about. Funny thing about that sacrifice; you'll be surprised to find out you don't really care. Movies are like impulse purchases you want them right now, but they're so very easy to live without. My rule of thumb has been that if anything is worth travelling half way across town for, it's worth taking a bus for. It's amazing how discriminating my taste has become. When I talked about $1700 per year for the car itself, I didn't even mention the hundreds of dollars you'll probably save on things that really weren't worth bothering with anyhow. You'll come to realize that there are a lot of little addictions which support the big ones.

There are other dividends awaiting you, too. Suddenly you are no longer living in a metropolis, but in a community. Your basic horizons have pulled back in, and you begin to feel a closeness to the neighborhood you call home. Neighborhoods haven't vanished since your childhood, as you might have thought, your orientation has just overstepped their boundaries. You have `progressed' from the intimate seminar to the lecture hall, and now you can return to where relationships are once more on a human basis. You probably learned that on your daily walks: There actually are people along the way. Animals too. I used to have a regular morning chat with an Alaskan husky and a couple of squirrels on the way to work. Pity the prospect on the crosstown freeway!

ABOUT BICYCLE A word on bicycles if they are so far back in your life that you can't conceive of a grown man riding one . . . or if you're afraid that you'd be confused by the geared variety: Bicycles are a popular form of transportation for all ages in many European countries. Most of Scandinavia boasts a ratio of one bicycle for every two inhabitants. This country was also going in that direction during the 1800's, before we became crazy about power and 'progress'. Get a copy of BICYCLING Magazine at any bicycle shop, or look up the local bicycle club or American Youth Hostel chapter. You'll find that there are a great many older people who ride bikes quite unselfconsciously. Gears are easy to learn and worth their weight in silver. Don't let them scare you off. If you are absolutely certain that you'll just be riding around the neighborhood and to work, a 3-speed will probably do. But if I were you, I wouldn't bet on any such certainty. A 10-speed bike is not just a 3-speed with 7 more gear ratios. It is as different from a 3-speed in performance and handling as a 3-speed is from a balloon-tire 1-speed bike. There are so many delightful things you can do with a touring bicycle that you may be cheating yourself if you don't go all the way: Long weekend rides in the country, camping vacations, hosteling in certain areas, air-freighting yourself and bicycle to faraway places, etc. All of these can be done with 3-gear models, but are easier and more enjoyable with a 10-speed bike. If you're in doubt, find a place you can rent or borrow one a few times. Frame size and seat adjustment can also make all the difference in the world, so check these carefully with someone who knows the answers before you come to any conclusions.

And, speaking of freeways, have you any idea what it's like to be without that mad, blasting speedway for a part of every day? Think about it the next time you're cutting into the morning traffic mess. It also feels good to know that you have made a personal contribution to cleaning up the atmosphere. Suddenly you're aware of all the hypocrisy being spouted around as everyone waits for Big Brother to do something about it. You stand a little taller. In fact, there is something in you that stands a lot taller when you realize you've busted the habit. You know you're no longer the pawn that you've been played for much of your life. .You have just whipped the most powerful mesmerism that the industrial complex has been able to throw at the American public, and you feel damn good and clean about it. In a way, that one single fringe benefit has been worth more to me than all the dollars I've saved. I simply know I'm my own man now, and the system can never enslave me again. There is much more to be said about cutting your cost of living, but the automobile is the cornerstone to the whole subject. All the other savings you can put together, in one fat bundle, may approach - but will never equal - what you save by doing away with the automobile. This is probably true even if your 4 wheels is a second-hand clunk that will never see another used car lot. So if you can't make the car break, my advice is to forget the rest of this article and accept your servitude. I am sure there are hardship situations where it really is impossible to be without a car and, if that's the case, you'd better work toward altering the situation before tackling this approach. LIVING QUARTERS While no other waste in our addicted lives carries anywhere near the impact of the automobile, housing is probably the closest runner-up for most of us. The standard societal myth says that 1/4 of your income should go for living quarters, which is ridiculous. Obviously the man who earns $800 per month needs the same living space and comfort as the man who earns $400 per month. So much for mythology. It is safe to say that everyone could

probably cut his cost of housing by 10% and never feel it; by 20% and just begin to feel it. Some of us could probably whack it by 50%! I have always been personally sensitive to the quality of my living quarters (isn't that a beautiful example of a rationalized addiction?), and when I began looking for a place in Seattle, I regarded a single bedroom apartment as 'bare essential'. I found a fairly nice one at $115.00, but it would not be open for another month. Since it was a bit lower than most in the neighborhood, I took a $95.00 studio apartment in the building to wait the month out. I thought I'd feel cramped, but I really didn't. And that's how easy it is to save 20%. But you have to be careful with substitutes that add up to less than what you were really looking for. Any of a hundred little things - sometimes as insignificant as the way people can look into your window from the street may send you running for the door after you've been inside for an hour, and that can be fatal to an economy drive. Somehow, after you've moved in, an apartment never looks the same as it did before. I have not been able to figure out this illusion, but it never seems to fail. So proceed with caution and look carefully at everything, especially those things that are most important to you, personally. A good idea is to settle back quietly in your present quarters and think about the things you have consciously appreciated. Make a list of these points to watch for in your search. Check the neighbors, both around and above, for you are likely to be hearing their TVs, parties and arguments. Are they the kind of people who have much of these and - if so - are they tractable? Pay particular attention to the managers, for they will have a lot to say in your life. They should be easy going, tolerant people (but not too much so, for they also rent to your neighbors.) Naturally you'll make compromises, but try to follow your real feelings, and don't make compromises where you can't emotionally afford to make them. It's a matter of knowing yourself. Neighborhood, to help you drop the auto may be more important than the actual residence itself: Near your job, near good shopping and near transportation. It is also good to be close to whatever institutions have direct relevance for you: Schools, gyms, churches, parks, libraries, community gathering places, or whatever. These are general points to look for in house hunting, but they assume a greater significance in the context of saving money. You are going to be thrown hard upon your personal resources, and it is most important that the environment be as supportive as possible. If you do find yourself committed to a certain neighborhood, there may be the temptation to take a place as expensive as you've been living in for 'just a month' while you look around the district for something more reasonable. Don't do it. You are are giving in to the addiction and only making it harder on yourself in the long run.

SINGLE, MARRIED OR MULTIPLE Most of the information in this article is directed to the single person, for that is the nature of my own experience. For larger family units, some approaches - such as the question of shared living quarters or eating out versus eating in - may have to be changed. The general proposition of buying back your life by cutting addictions, however, is just as applicable to any size family unit. The critical question is not how many individuals are living on how many incomes, but rather: How many unnecessary addictions are those incomes now covering? A family living on one income will - of necessity - have already slashed (or never developed) some addictions and will, therefore, have less to cut. On the other hand, a couple with two incomes may have so many 'monkeys on their backs' that they simply won't believe how much they could cut their working year. Regardless of family size, however, the automobile is a common addiction that cuts across all income levels. It's safe to say that no matter what your family situation demands in other respects, the release of the automobile will return to you 3 months of every year, and give you the opportunity to find a new lifestyle. KNOWING YOURSELF How well you know yourself can be the deciding factor in whether your withdrawal trip is an easy or a hard one. Each of us has his own private hangups - things which are critical to our enjoyment of life. To the extent that your real needs have been

obscured by addictions, you may have some difficulty determining what these personal quirks really are. It is worth putting some serious thought toward finding them. Many years ago I tried to cut expenses while in school, and I rented the smallest, ugliest, most miserable room I could find because it was also the cheapest. I learned very quickly that I have certain basic living requirements which I cannot deprive myself of, at least not yet. I can put up with a good deal of other kinds of privation as long as my living quarters have an aura of comfort and cleanliness about them. It is worth it to me to maintain this indulgence for my own peace of mind. If you seem to be having withdrawal pains out of all proportion to something you have dropped, look closely to see whether you have stumbled into such an area. But examine it carefully, for the real emotional need may be hidden under a facade.

One thing I've found to be true in rentals is that there are price patterns that seem to go in steps. You may find very little difference in rentals from $100 to $120, but then $125 seems to be a large jump in quality. Look around enough to determine these patterns, and then try to rent at the bottom of a step. If you're geared to sharing living quarters with others, you are in a position to cut way back on housing expense. It should not be difficult to arrange lodging at $40 or $50 per month, or even less. Obviously, this can mean a sizeable saving to one who has been living in private quarters, and is worth considering if there is any likelihood that you can so adapt. There are various arrangements to suit individual tastes - all the way from sharing living rooms to sharing beds - with several steps in between. Older multiple-bedroom homes can be shared by 4 to 6 people with a good deal of personal privacy possible, but there are several tricks to watch for. If the owner is offering on this basis, he may be using the gimmick to charge 50/ more than the rental is really worth. Or the prime renter may be subleasing in order to cover his own rental cost and expect to pay nothing himself. Check the situation closely, and look for equivalent values in the neighborhood. Also be wary of the situation with 4 or fewer co-renters, where the departure of one would throw an abnormal rent burden on the others. Years ago, boarding houses used to be a popular answer to inexpensive living for single people. In the large cities there are still some good residence houses - as the more presumptuous ones call themselves - but most are generally much deteriorated from former glories. The few good ones are not cheap. I would advise you to avoid this approach unless you want to afford the good ones. Most of the others are no bargain when you find out that their food often drives you out to restaurants. Those of you who are buying homes have an entirely different set of circumstances to contend with. In any other context than this article I would be hands down in favor of the home, and where you now have other values going than those advocated here - country property, productive acreage, a real retreat from urban life - I still advise you to hang on to the place. BUT . . . if you have a cute little suburban box with 27 inches of grass to your neighbor's property line, the answer is no. The very simple reason, of course, is the car. Suburbanites are commuters, and the automobile is the cornerstone of suburbia. You will have to decide if your home is worth slavery to the car. The choice is that direct. If you own or are buying what I call productive country property, you should bend every possible effort to get your job out to where you live. Or find some dependable alternative to your own automobile for transportation to work. If neither is possible then you, too, are going to have to face the slavery-to-the-car question. It should be becoming increasingly clear how much we are really slave to that smog belching monster. It not only robs us of 20% of our personal lives, but it has forced upon us some powerful pressure points to perpetuate its own existence. It reminds me very much of the computer in Star-Trek which refused to let anyone pull out the plug. EATING: IN AND OUT I'm sure this will come as quite a surprise to most of you, but I eat almost all my food out. I manage to do so for under $20.00 per week, thus defeating another popular American myth, that it is cheaper to prepare your own food. It might be for two persons, but not for one.

I didn't come by this through any brilliant revelation, but as a natural development of my 3-month 'bare bones' program. My studio apartment had a fine electric stove and refrigerator, and I drew up a list of the most essential cooking and eating ware I felt I would need. It came to almost $15.00 - just enough to have to put off for a couple weeks. So I decided to make do with hamburgers till I could afford the plunge. Whether it was fate or luck or purely the conditioning of necessity, I don't know, but I found a place in the neighborhood that served the most fantastically delicious and filling broiled cheeseburger on a french roll that I had tasted since I was a kid. This, with a large salad and coffee - a full meal - cost only $1.40. I am still eating those cheeseburgers 4 or 5 nights a week, and if the thought of such monotony makes you sick, they are still delicious, nevertheless.
VERSATILITY IS POSSIBLE

The breaking of consumer addictions gives us a radically new frame of reference. Many kinds of living - which seem remote, if not altogether impossible in your present straightjacket way of life-become reasonable. I got to wondering how one could live in the country and work in town without owning an automobile nor being subjected to daily bus commuting. This is the basis of one variation of the HAVE-MORE Plan in Issue 2 of THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS. At first it appears impossible, but there actually is a creative way and it illustrates how to mold this plan to your own needs. Let's say you have a piece of country property now, about 50 miles out of town, and you drive the distance and return daily. If you take the bus, it's $2.00 each way - $88.00 a month - plus the agony of the daily trip. Other than that, you can get along on $250 a month and your take-home pay is $500 per month. This means a basic work requirement of six months per year. But there's another way: You could share an inner city rental close to your job with friends at $50 per month for the five day work week. This cuts your commuting to one round-trip a week at a cost of about $17.00 a month. That's a total of $67 - which is high - but still lower and easier than the straight commute bit. What would this actually do to your six month work plan? Six times $67 is $402 . . . or one more month of work. Seven months of weekend farming, and five months of full-time country living!

I vary it occasionally with something healthy and inexpensive like liver, fish or ham and eggs. But in all honesty, the price and quality keep me coming back to the cheeseburgers. My weekly dinners are less than $12.00, even including the indulgence of a good $2.00 chinese meal every weekend. Where is the housewife who can keep a dinner budget much below that level? Lunch is a passable hot meal in the company cafeteria and costs about $1.00. On weekends I try to avoid a midday meal because I usually have an earlier and somewhat larger dinner. The only thing I eat at home is breakfast. During the week this is simply a bowl of dry cereal with a rich mix of milk and half & half, and a glass of orange juice. On weekends, I sometimes switch to soft-boiled eggs with melba toast and fresh grapefruit. All breakfast supplies cost, perhaps, $1.50 per week. I used to bring home cookies and pastry for the in-between hours but that tapered off. Hard candy - a good, cheap energy source - and seven-up are my only pacifiers now. I made one small start at setting up a kitchen six months ago, and it taught me to let well enough alone. I'd gone fishing with friends, and brought home 8 or 10 'free' trout. Well, that meant a frying pan with spatula, one dinner plate, silverware (other than my one spoon), butter, bread, lemon and who ever heard of fresh fish without fresh tartar sauce, so mayonnaise and pickles, and such a dinner would need a salad, so two kinds of lettuce, tomato, vinegar and oil! My free trout dinner cost me nearly $10.00 plus an hour of preparation and cleaning up. The pickles, oil and vinegar are still sitting on the shelf. One cannot, of course, call food an addiction. But the creative preparation of food can be an extremely expensive hobby, with literally no end to its possibilities. In the old days I used to follow the 'live to eat' school of thought; but I have reversed my field, and I think I have lopped another few weeks off my working year in the process. If I were to try and draw generalized rules from my experience, I would make them these:

1. Keep home foods down to the simplest of preparations, mostly those that can be mixed with milk or water. 2. Breakfast should always be a home meal because it requires the least of all utensils and condiments. A non-fried breakfast is best for digestion early in the day. 3. Avoid processed store foods like TV dinners or any completely pre-prepared foods. You pay a tremendous percentage for the convenience, and if some seem cheap it's because the quality is poor. 4. Find the best of the neighborhood restaurants (they may be the moderately expensive) and stick to their cheapest foods. There are such things as 22 cent burgers, and I suppose there are people who can stomach them, but I have never been one of those people. 5. The most reasonable meals, and the ones you can usually depend on for quality are eggs, fish and liver. Don't overlook salads; $1.50 might seem expensive for 'rabbit food' but it can be an entire meal in itself, and very healthy. 6. Eat at the counter so you don't feel obligated to tip. I have found, to my happy surprise, that I get every bit as pleasant service from waitresses I consistently never tip. Another myth busted. 7. If you pay more than $2.50 for any meal, you are paying for atmosphere, not food. If you are irresistably drawn to dinner dating, try Saturday afternoon lunch. It's easily as rewarding socially, and far more economical. 8. Try to find a good Chinese restaurant. They have a huge variety of very healthy and inexpensive dishes especially for group dining - and it can really take the edge off a monotonous economy diet. Chinese and Filipino cooks, incidentally, are among the best you'll find anywhere. 9. If the place you work does not have an inexpensive cafeteria nose around some nearby large companies. They are frequently open to the public but, even if not, it isn't at all difficult to move right in as though you belong. These should be 20-30% cheaper than commercial eateries. 10. Many people do quite well on two meals a day, a late breakfast and an early dinner. Excellent if you have that kind of flexibility in your day. A bowl of soup is an effective and cheap in-between dinnerpostponer. So is toast and coffee. 11. Try to stop thinking of food as an experience or a reward, and see it simply as fuel. Tasty fuel, to be sure, but that's all.

EATING IN I have lived variations of my own "work six months - retire six months" plan for 12 years and I agree with almost everything Irv says in this excellent article. It has been my experience, however, that one person definitely CAN enjoy a more varied, more filling, infinitely more satisfying and less expensive diet by eating IN. As a matter of fact - although a refrigerator is indispensable - a stove isn't even necessary. A simple little one-burner hot plate will do the trick and a two burner unit can really set you up in grand style. The capital expense won't bankrupt you, either. I've bought used, single-burner models from the Salvation Army for $4.00 and the most expensive push-button, twin-burner, chromed, variable-heat hot plate I ever saw (and purchased in Seattle four years ago) only set me back $24.95. That seemed a big investment at the time (as did the $4.00 unit when Barry Slothauer and I split the cost in Honolulu) but it's already had a lot of rough use from the west coast to North Carolina to Ohio and should faithfully serve for another 10 or 20 years. The only real drawback to a hot plate is the limited heat range of the average unit. The lowest heat is always far too

intense for simmering stews and other lazy cooking. I solve this problem by bending the wire from three or four heavy coat hangers into a series of triangular, three-legged racks of various heights. Using a combination of the heats on the plate and a high or low or in-between rack, I can vary cooking speeds over a greater range than the most expensive electric stove. Incidentally, these racks get HOT so I always switch them with the same pair of pliers 1 used to make them. I have an old Army surplus mess kit that cost me - I think - two bucks 10 years ago and it fits a round hot-plate burner perfectly. It has a tight fitting lid and, over the years, I've eaten some heroic stews out of that rig. Stews are beautiful. Just brown one or two or three kinds of meat, throw it into the pot, add all the vegetables you can find, top with a layer of barley and some vinegar and - adding water as needed - let the whole savory mix bubble lightly for about three days . . . if it lasts that long. Dip out steaming bowlfuls as you desire. I've even baked cookies and cornbread on a hot plate by draping an aluminum foil "oven" over a flat pan set up on a high rack. The idea, of course, is to set the foil up so it directs as much heat to the top of the "cookie sheet" as the burner applies to the bottom. By substituting a blue enameled roaster for the flat pan, I have also "oven roasted" some memorable pork shoulders and chunks of beef. Have you ever baked a potato by burying it in the sand near a roaring beach fire? I've worked a variation on that by wrapping a potato in foil, covering it well in sand in a big tin juice can and baking the whole thing on my trusty hot plate. All in all, with a cheap burner, a pair of pliers and a few odds and ends, I've eaten exceptionally well for months at a time on $8.00 to $10.00 a week. - JS

ODDS AND ENDS By the time you have gotten rid of your car, cut down your rent and faced up to the tyranny of the local supermarket, you will begin to see all the creative possibilities of cracking myths and breaking habits. I wondered for weeks if I could live without knowing what was happening in the world around me, and finally made the bold move of cutting off newspapers and news magazines. The world and I went our separate ways. I, perhaps a little more ignorant, but a few dollars and many hours richer. The straight press never had much to say to me anyhow, and I'm able to put more reading time into things of value. I'm constantly telling myself that I must see this or that show, but I seldom get as far as the box office. When I do, the price almost always turns me off, and I have somehow survived without all the great epics I've missed. The rented television was my original creative attempt to kill the theatre urge, and it worked very well, so I considered it a good investment. But eventually it, too, became a drag and I turned it in. If I had owned the set, I'd still have it, but now I'm in the unique position of living in a nearly non-advertising society (except for billboards) and it's really kind of nice and quiet. My head is less bothered without all that crap, and the tiresome breathless news reporting that goes with it. After awhile, excess addictions begin to fall away freely, as you sense - on a deep emotional level - that you can live without them. One week in December, my smoking dropped from a pack a day to one-third that amount. I neither pushed nor fought it. After a couple weeks, I raised the nerve to try and go all the way, and it was easier than I had expected. But even there, I exercised a creative touch: When the urge became too strong, I filled a pipe. Now I smoke perhaps 3 or 4 pipefuls a week, and there is no guilt or strain involved. If you've ever added up the cost of cigarettes, you'll find that they're a considerable expense. A pack a day costs a week of work a year to support! The whole trick to this business is to try not to drive yourself into the ground. Be alert to withdrawal pains and find a creative compensation. You won't always be able to, but each time you do, it gives you a lift and makes the whole trip that much easier. You're not out to prove the strength of your will, but the agility of your imagination.

No matter how well you fight the battle, there will be days during those first few months when everything seems to fall in on you. Here's a tip to remember: When that happens, sit yourself down in total privacy and quiet, with a notebook, and just write about it. A letter to yourself, with all the deep feelings you can pull out. I don't know why, but it takes the pressure off. It does more, but I'll leave that for you to explore. FRINGE BENEFITS By now, this might sound like a real monastic trip, and you're probably wondering if a few months to yourself each year is really worth it all. For my part it is, even if that were all there was to gain. And there is so much more. The release from work is only the piece de resistance. First of all, let me make sure you understand very clearly that you are not expected to confine your spending to $250 per month, or whatever figure it is that you finally arrive at. My checkbook is full of things like $30 for a U course, $100 for a bicycle, $10 for an underground magazine, and so forth. It may seem as though I am defeating my own purpose. Far from it! These are all discretionary purchases, not addictions, and they each enrich my life. The main difficulty with most budget plans is that they lump discretionary and supportive expenses together and kill all incentives by putting a clamp on both. The purpose of this program is to return your life to you. The benefits can be either six or more continuous months of free time each year or an equivalent amount of discretionary cash. If you are wise, you will mix these alternate possibilities in some equitable combination based on your own personal needs. I am quite content that I can afford any luxury I care to purchase, but I habitually measure the working cost of these luxuries against their real value to me. As a result, I work a month or two longer than I might absolutely have to in order to give my life the level of meaning that I prefer. I am willing, in other words, to work 4 days out of this year to buy a bicycle, but I am not willing to work 68 days of this and every year to pay for an automobile. It is as simple as that. Now we can talk about some of the fringe benefits. We're usually inclined to measure our various consumer addictions in terms of money alone. In this article, I have so far related them to working time, but some of them ` can be related to another kind of time that I'll call active time. The cigarette habit cost me 6 days a year in working time, but virtually nothing in active time since it is not done to the exclusion of other activities. The newspaper habit - on the other hand - returns only 2 days in working time, but its dividend in active time is out of sight. If you spend only half an hour each day with the daily newspaper and 3 hours each weekend with the Sunday paper (not at all abnormal), you are putting 312 hours per year of active time into that pursuit. If we relate that to the 8-hour working day, we can say that the equivalent of 39 working days is spent reading newspapers! It does not take long, with the concept of active time, to build a sizable vacuum in your personal life when you start dropping addictions. Newspapers, TV, movies, meal preparation time, unnecessary auto trips - there is a huge void to fill, and it has to be filled positively during the critical withdrawal period if the program is to be a success. This is your golden opportunity to start living the way you want . . . even while you are still tied in to the rat race. All the hobbies you've never had time for; all the pursuits of youth you had to drop when you entered the system; all the activities you have only dreamed about until now become new grist for your imagination. At one and the same occurence you have both the discretionary cash and the discretionary time with which to begin reshaping your life. If you've only recently become embedded in the system, the ideas will be quick and the choices easy. On the other hand, you may draw a total blank if you haven't enjoyed this kind of freedom in many years. Which way to move and for what? The following suggestions may help: 1. Get the course listings of the local night schools - preferably university, but adult secondary school if necessary - and find something that you just feel like taking. Perhaps in a field you have always wondered

about. Don't take any course to advance your career or because you think you should. 2. Go to the library. Not to read, but to browse. Walk along the open stacks of non-fiction and pick up whatever interests you at the moment. Follow your own intuition. If this doesn't work at once, try it again. You will soon find yourself drawn to some part of the library for either a study-type or an activity-type subject. Pursue your interest wherever it leads. Branch libraries are best for a start, if you bury easily under sheer volume. 3. Also at the library, ask about local clubs or discussion groups. If you're bashful about this, turn to the telephone book under Clubs and run down the list. If something sounds good, phone or write for more information. 4. Check the local recreation department for sponsored community activities and groups. Find something to fill those vacant hours. It is far better to have too much to do than too little. If you feel pushed, you can always cut back again.

DISCRETIONARY SPENDING

The concept of discretionary expenses may need more clarification. In your current lifestyle, discretionary expense is the major portion of the budget because - by definition - it is that which is not necessary for life support. The object of this program is the entire separation of discretionary spending from support expense. Then - with the awareness that it IS totally discretionary - to turn such spending toward that which has real meaning in your life. The support expense, once its true level is achieved, is necessary and inevitable. It should equal from 4 to 8 months work per year (see Chart No. 1). Discretionary spending, however, competes directly against free time and must be evaluated accordingly. There can be no hard rule on this spending because it is a function of each individual's needs and many variables are involved. But there are some good guidelines. Chart No. 2 will show you the cost in work time for different levels of discretionary spending as a function of your take-home pay. This will enable you to arrive at a target amount according to how much additional time you are willing to work. But beware of judging the discretionary limit by your current standards if you are intent on attaining and preserving your freedom. There are two basic rules for discretionary expenditures: One, each should be a single purchase and not a continuing series; Two, the purchases should not be immediately consumable. A bicycle is a beautiful example. Even though relatively expensive as a single purchase, it is a one-time purchase - practically maintenance free - and will last for years. Other good examples are musical instruments, well made clothing, a radio, reference books or a typewriter. The pitfall to watch for is the item which appears to be a one-time purchase but requires or induces continual outlay. Phonographs, cameras and golf clubs are examples. These must be considered carefully lest they create new addictions. A night school course is consumable in a sense, but it can be the medium for permanent enrichment. It also comes to a definite end without any requirement for repetition. Neither statement can be made for golf clubs. In this context a $50 allowance per month is a considerable amount. It would not be so for addictive expenditures. Going out to dinner and a show every week could blow the allowance and leave absolutely nothing to show for it except a craving for more.

On hobbies, anything is fair game as long as it's something you really want to do, but beware of one pitfall! Some hobbies, like rock collecting or pencil sketching, require a modest initial outlay and almost no sustaining expense. The first cost is almost all of it. Others, like photography or golf, are a perpetual drain on your funds. You never stop paying for them, and they eventually assume the status of an addiction in their own right. Try to avoid these whenever possible. As a general rule, the nature hobbies and the creative hobbies are the most reasonable, unless as with some musical instruments - extensive personalized instruction is required.

CHART NO. 2

Additional amount of fulltime work necessary for discretionary spending (vertical base) based on given takehome pay (horizontal base)

I hasten to add another word here: There is no requirement that your activities be either outside or people oriented. If you've always wanted to sit down and write poetry or paint still life, now is as good a time as you will ever find. Even just plain relaxed reading can be rewarding. Find your own mix, and watch carefully for the emotional signals that will tell you if you are leaning too hard in a particular direction. If anything seems to become a chore or a task you wish were over, drop it. At least one night a week should be devoted to a really exhausting physical activity. This is not just for body conditioning. It also serves wonderfully as a general tension outlet. Gym activities like volleyball or basketball are excellent, and swimming is also good. Bowling or golf do not do it, and are a continuing major expense besides. I have always felt a sense of almost ecstatic relaxation after a couple of hours of volleyball and a shower. Awhile back, I tried something new and it was every bit as effective: soul-rock dance lessons. THE SECURITY HANGUP If you're thinking seriously about this plan - and for the sake of your own freedom I hope you are - there is probably one big nebulous question still lurking in your mind about . . . Security. The great American hangup: Job security, health security, old age security, the whole bit. Before one can possibly consider breaking out of the system, one has to come to terms with these fears: What if I get sick . . . What if I can't get a job . . . What about old age . . . What about my career . . . What if two or even three disasters strike at once . . . What about a depression . . . What about my age . . . Whatabout . . . Thereis literally no end to the fears, and they - not society - enforce our slavery. I wish I could give you some magic prescription - some golden rule - that would banish all these fears. I can only tell you of my own approach, my own attempt to cope with them (for it is just an attempt), and my own view of the future as it applies to me. If you can draw strength from this, you are welcome to it, but I'm afraid that each man is largely on his own in this area. To begin with, accept your fears. If you deny their existence, you cannot reason with them, and that is ultimately your best weapon. These apprehensions are a part of the fabric of our society, and you would be strange indeed if you did not possess them (more correctly, if they did not possess you.) They seem to increase with age, and it is my personal theory that they are a counter-balance for the competitive pressures of society. I suspect that the aggressive drives decrease with age and, since we must remain in a competitive environment in the ordinary course of events, we have developed this obsession with security in order to compensate. If I'm correct, the deliberate removal of ourselves from a competitive way of life will tend to release the grip of this insecurity. In the meanwhile, we must constructively cope with it. Our insecurity fears basically fall into two classes: The 'act of God' such as illness and accident, over which we have no control and those others such as unemployment, which are at least in some degree responsive to our own actions. An 'act of God' can strike anywhere, anytime and in any fashion. This total unpredictability has left most of us

paying for half a dozen insurance policies covering a hundred different 'acts' but somehow, as often as not, failing to cover the very act that happens. That's because insurance companies simply cannot afford to cover the things that most frequently occur. So the system operates against you. We fearful people usually overlook the fact that there is extremely little likelihood that two acts will strike at the same time. How much more simple, then, to set aside one fund to cover one act . . . but any one act. How large a fund? There is no absolutely right answer. I feel a bit safe with $1000; for you, it might be twice that amount. Naturally, I could be busted by one big calamity, but so could I with all the insurance policies I've ever had. There is some point where faith and fear must meet, and for me it is $1000. At least I know that whatever does happen - anything at all - will be'covered' $1000 worth. Even more important, I can replace the entire fund with the excess earnings of two months work. I have to laugh at the way people are so relieved when their insurance 'pays' a $200 medical bill that they have covered many times with policy premiums since their last claim. If you are wondering whether you could set enough money aside, I would say it depends on the intensity of your fear and the legitimacy of your desire to be free. As with everything else in this plan, it is squarely up to you. Just as coping with 'acts of God' requires some level of blind faith, coping with the second class of fear requires a measure of faith in yourself. For some reason, I have always found this more difficult, even though I have proven myself to myself many times over. I have come to the conclusion that I must confront these apprehensions over and over, like stage fright, and whip them each time. In that sense they have come to be familiar opponents, and each new challenge is like the reopening of an old contest. I have had my share of wins, and that knowledge gives me the confidence to have at it again. The battle is real each time, but there comes to be almost a gritty pleasure in it. In order to gain your freedom for part of each year, many of you will have to face the recurrent insecurity of looking for a job about once each year. The plan itself will lead you to answers after the first few times around, but in order to face that hard start, there are certain emotional tricks that can help. The next section will consider a few job possibilities that are nicely geared to this program, but right here let's look at a protective emotional approach to the job interview itself. We have been raised, most of us, to respect the omnipotence of the personnel interviewer, and he uses that lever to its best advantage. Now we must learn to turn the tables in our own minds, and here is how I go about it: 1. I am at a distinct advantage in this encounter, for I know all about myself and I should know at least something about the work in question. The employer knows the work, but he knows absolutely nothing about me except what I want to tell him, either true or false. So I control the interview even though he thinks he does. 2. I watch and listen for clues to what he wants to hear, either in his attitudes, his questions or in his reactions to my replies and I proceed to tell him as much as possible exactly what he wants to hear. 3. He thinks he is evaluating the kind of person I am. But I know exactly what he is looking for because it is standard image for all employers: Intelligent, alert, neat, responsive, pleasant, etc. So I play that part of me to the hilt and leave out all else. As you can see, I am making a tactical game of the interview. This prevents me from really investing my emotions in the encounter, so I don't give fear a chance to work. In addition, I try to lay a barrage of interviews so that no one or two will assume any great importance. I bring blind faith into play by knowing that there is some percentage for me - however small - in the law of averages, and sooner or later I have got to connect. I have developed this form of attack through well over half a hundred jobs in my work history. It has worked every time, in widely diverse fields, usually within a week or two. Yet I still have to persuade myself, each time, that it will work again. The question of old age security is neither an act of God, as I am using that term, nor something we can control. It is in a class of its own; an inevitability, like death. Most older people deep in the system have locked themselves up tight because of their fear of approaching old age. They become more and more concerned about what they will

do after 65 than about the 10, 20 or 30 years before 65. The fact that they are worrying so intensely over a probably 7 years, according to life expectancy tables, seems not to enter their heads. My own answer is a very simple and personal one. I accept the fact that one way or another I shall have to provide my own income until I die. And so what! That simple decision saves me all the agony of retirement problems and being tied to a job I don't want to keep. As my resignation points out, I am getting a fair share of the good years right now, and I won't have to look toward any stultifying inactive years later. I have been asked how I will get a job at that age, but there are so many creative possibilities of earning an income, especially when one can subsist on a 'poverty' level, that the question really doesn't worry me. The question of career advancement assumes a new meaning in the context of this program. Very possibly, its original meaning. Instead of working for increased income - which becomes meaningless - you will find yourself working toward self-fulfillment. Possibly self-fulfillment in the arena of your present activity, but more likely in an entirely new direction. You'll be able to make a separation between a job that satisfies your financial needs, and a career that provides deep personal involvement. It is possible the career will produce income but, for the first time in your life, it will not be necessary! Play with that thought for awhile. AND WHAT KIND OF WORK? Do not worry, at this point, about the shape your working life will take after you are well along on your own freedom trip. Your personal feelings will go through a regenesis that is impossible to contemplate now, and your real capabilities and interests may do more to determine the final outcome than your present employment. You might approach your current job on a free-lance or part-time basis, or you may find that the required skills can be used in consulting related businesses. The next few months will bring many new possibilities to mind so do not be impatient. In case your creative opportunities are temporarily limited, there are certain kinds of work that require little or no experience. Over the course of my own job ramblings. I have found them beautifully adapted to transiency and personalized living. If you are well acquainted with the city in which you live and can stand being in traffic all day (after awhile you just get kind of numb to it), you can always drive a cab. This is a very easy job. You are almost completely on your own, frequently have some choice as to your shift, many people to talk to or not at all - as you choose and much time for reading or studying if that's your thing. Transiency is not usually held against you as long as your driving record is okay and drivers are almost always in short supply because there is no 'future' to the job. The pay is a percentage of what you take in plus tips, and should run close to $500 per month. Seven months a year could see me through quite easily at this rate. In a sense, the mobility of the job is a fringe benefit, but it will keep you partially addicted to a vehicle, so be careful. If you live in one of the larger metropolitan areas, you might look into process serving. This job normally requires a car, but each large outfit usually has a 'downtown route' which can often be done on foot or bicycle. It's worth looking into because business addresses are the easiest to serve, and it's possible to make $10 to $15 in just a few hours. You are not expected to work all day, but merely to cover a route, which may include 20 or more stops in a concentrated downtown area. It is straight commission - usually $2.00 and up per service - with no required experience, very transient and easy to get. The important thing is turnover of new services daily, which a small outfit may not have. It is possible to work for two or three outfits at once, but keep it to yourself if you do. This does not double the work, it merely concentrates it.
DEPRESSION?

A depression (economic, that is) worries me not at all. Far from having difficulty finding work, I shall be in a position to offer my services for less than most men can live on. I shall have long since adapted to conditions that will have others jumping off buildings. And when 1 really can't get work, I'll be able to live like a prince on unemployment while others - trying to support an automobile on the same check will be starving. No, I shall welcome depression with open arms, for it will be the start of a new society and I will already be part way there.

Also in the large metropolitan area, if you look in the yellow pages under 'Shopping Services', you'll get a lead to another interesting - if poorly paid - occupation. Sometimes also listed under Detective Agencies, store shoppers are the people who unobtrusively go from firm to firm making purchases with company money simply to see that it's properly rung into the cash register. They travel between stores - and frequently between towns - in company cars, as a group, but do their work individually or in pairs. The pay is low, but out of town expenses are covered, and the daily route usually includes one or two eating spots for a free lunch. Turnover is high, and it's partially deliberate to keep shoppers from being spotted too often. The job is easy to get, it's fun and interesting. One kind of work with a conveniently built-in transiency factor and an unbeatable environment is the resort circuit. You can take your choice - summer or winter - sea or ski, mountain or desert. Cooks, bartenders, maids, waitresses, desk clerks, handymen and specialties like life guards, social directors and baby sitters are in demand. Experience is preferred but there are often last minute or emergency mid-season openings when they'll take the first halfway reasonable choice they can get. These are 4 to 6 month jobs that usually provide room and board and also pay an additional $200 to $400 or more. It's a wonderful opportunity for a change from the city. The food is usually good to excellent, and employees can use the resort's facilities during their free time. The short-term aspect of the job should entitle you to immediate unemployment pay and you can work both ends of the circuit, as many people do. Usually one or two employment agencies in a large city - particularly near a resort area - will specialize in this type of placement. The action begins about a month before the season starts and lasts right up to the last minute and beyond. These are offered not so much as suggestions, but as assurances for those of you still fearful about leaving the good old security of the good old rat-race. Even if your present occupation does not have transient or part-time possibilities, such qualities are not hard to find. I think, however, that within six months your entire approach will alter - as mine has - in a way that you can't possibly now envision and I suggest you ride loose on the question of employment. Without being pressured to earn in order to buy, so many things become possible. WHAT COMES AFTER? This brings us to the very edge of the great unknown. I cannot really write the end of this article. I can only speculate upon it, for I have not yet crossed into that promised land. But I have though about the question enough to know that I am going to experience something far more deep and significant than merely free, unstructured time. Consider, for a moment, the last occasion you looked forward to a broad expanse of unstructured time. For me it was summer vacations in junior high school, about 30 years ago. By high school, those vacations had already been converted to summer classes and jobs. It is difficult to recall - but I am able to remember - the fluid sense of joy and life which arrived with the last day of the school year. Three months was a significant portion of a lifetime at that age. Thirty years since I have not been pressured by calendar, clock, appointment, itinerary, schedule or bill collector! Fully half a lifetime since I have owned myself . . . with all the delicious implications of impulse and spontaneity. I wonder, first of all, if one can really retrace the path to that stage of idyllic innocence and adventure. And then I wonder how one copes with the emotional shock of such a return. And finally: The question of what middle age maturity might do given the freedom of early youth - is the most intriguing prospect of all. By the time this is published, I will be somewhere in Canada - with bicycle and sleeping bag - finding the answers. I don't expect that they will come easily, for very little that is worthwhile does. But I will learn as I go, and try to react with the same kind of constructive

creativity that has brought me this far along on my own personal search for freedom. I don't really care how long the road is, nor where it leads, because the joy of life is in the journey, not the arrival.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Don't Be boxedin

Build Your Own - Energy, Materials, Imagination

Resort to ecological principles: MONEY DOES NOT EXIST. ONLY:

JOE HRYVNIAK

Energy, perseverence and imagination are needed but these resources are limitless - unaffected by the laws of supply and demand. So go ahead and DO IT. Pay homage to the SUN - the original source of all your energy. No one can tell you the WAY to build a dome or a zome or whatever. CREATE. You are your own architect. Work with what you have - ENERGY - and scrounge the rest. Play with models. Experiment. Use stiff cardboard cut into geometric shapes and taped. Get your energy going and the dome's SYNERGY will carry you. SCAVENGE AND SCROUNGE. As Amerika rots in its garbage, you can survive on the waste. Materials can be had from schools, construction projects, demolition sites, people, industry, lumber yards. Much is laying around dumped. Pig Amerika, in its greed, will give us our sustenance. From dead cars in junk yards you can get valuable metal tops, sometimes just for the effort. More information can be found in libraries and government documents. Check the Whole Earth Catalog. Ideas are free and the energy is there. Liberate YOUR ecosystem. Ecology begins with yourSELF.

We are at a college. A commune - Libre - visited here and turned us on. Now we have a 22 foot DOME added to our environment. We got FREE: Tools, space, use of a station wagon, railroad ties, 2 by 4's, nails, fiber board, siding, paint, plastic skylight, money, and advice from a professor who built his own house. We had no plans on how to build a dome in one hundred and seven easy steps-there are none. We did not know what we were doing when we started, but we learned a lot. It will all be useful again for our survival in the coming environmental crisis. Return to your MOTHER EARTH and live in a dome. Get, for a dollar: DOME COOKBOOK. From: Lama Foundation Box 422 Corrales New Mexico 87048

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

TOM McNAMARA TELLS:

HOW I SURVIVE IN THE CITY

Why even try to survive in the city? Everybody knows the green fields of Nature is where it's at. So why stick it out where the air is sooty, the noise clattering and there's a distinct possibility of getting robbed, arrested or worse? Because it's exciting, for one reason. Because you have friends not yet as free (even) as you. Because, if you know how, you can live very well for very little in the biggest and best of the world's cities. And because there's nothing to keep you from having both a city and a country home. Maybe you'll think I'm lucky. I've got a small, quiet penthouse-like apartment on New York's Lower Eastside (also erroneously referred to as "the East Village"). My pad has a roof to sit on, a courtyard kept breakfast plate-clean by our hardworking superintendent and all the necessities: Stove, refrigerator, etc. Everything but utilities are covered by a monthly rent of only $50. The three good-sized rooms are in a small rear building - like a carriagehouse - so I don't even hear most traffic except for the music of an occasional horntoot. Before I moved in, I invested a few hundred in improvements: Burlapped walls, acoustic-tiled ceilings, wood louver shades and interior doors, a paint job and pull-chain Japanese lights with big globes (a big mistake, they're too fragile and expensive). Even put in a dimmer switch to rest these tired-of-typing eyes and hired some local guys to do the work. My friends were amazed. "You mean you're spending $1200 to fix up your apartment?" "Sure," I said, "other people spend $40,000 on a house and work forever to pay for it. Why shouldn't I spend $1200 on a place I expect to live in at least two years?" Well, I've spent almost five happy creative poetry-producing years here now and I couldn't be happier. But what about you . . . especially if you're coming into town for the first time and you're coming in broke? OK. Arriving in the city without money is not a good idea and I don't recommend it. But it is possible to arrive with very little and to survive, especially in the towns (San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, etc.) that have somewhat organized hip communities. The key to the help you can get on arrival is the underground paper in each city. Most services center around the hipper churches, some of which provide temporary food and shelter, referral services, temporary jobs, medical services, etc. If you've got enough bread to carry you for a few days, your first order of business will be to, as they say in New York, "get located". New York is great. It's got strong rent control laws (unlike other big cities) but rents in the East Village - still the best cheap place to live - are going up anyway. Presently, there is a general apartment shortage in town as landlords withhold empty places in an effort to force raises through the city council. (Can't happen. Everyone knows there would be riots.) It is common to have to deal through an agent (the fee is set by law at one month's rent) or to have to pay "key money" to a tenant in order to get a good apartment. Particularly if the apartment is low-rent and most especially if the tenant has improved the place. Under the law, key money is illegal and it is important that you get a signed lease before paying it.

Ads that say "furniture available" mean the apartment will be sold to the highest bidder. Sums of hundreds of dollars are not unusual in these transactions. The best deal, particularly if you have little money, is to get the cheapest good place you can find and fix it up. As soon as you move into your good, cheap place, spend a few dollars improving its security or you're liable to find everything you own stolen the first time you're out. If it's any consolation, the rate of violent crime is lower on the Lower East Side than elsewhere in the city but - Oh, those second story men! Once you have your lease file an application with the City's Department of Buildings to make sure the correct rent is charged. Don't let the weird New York rent rates confuse you, either. Controlled rents almost always end in an odd number since increases are pegged at 15% every two years unless the tenant remains. Obviously, under this system, a tenant who stays put enjoys relatively less and less costly rentals as the years roll on. Report all violations (substandard conditions in your apartment or building) to the Buildings Department unless the landlord not only promises to have them repaired, but does so immediately. The City, slow as it works, will require the landlord to comply with regulations. By the way, living in the slums of the Lower East Side can be a real trip if you've ever dreamed of going to Spain or Puerto Rico. When I moved into my place, I used to be awakened every morning (about 11 a.m.) by the trilling of a canary one of my Spanish-speaking neighbors down the courtyard kept. As the years passed, it was the melancholy voices of housewives singing in a manner reminiscent of the Portuguese fado that woke me. For a short time it was the exceptional singing of a man (who turned out to be a professional performer in Spanish stage shows) serenading his children on the fire escape near my window. The Puerto Rican people are very friendly and optimistic in spite of their poor lives and they are excellent neighbors. Anyone moving into the area should be prepared to learn a few words in Spanish to get to know them. Once you're located in an inexpensive apartment, you'll find many other ways to live on little in New York City. The local supermarkets have special bins of damaged cans (be careful, don't buy cans which are rusted or unsealed or which have bulgy tops). Search out the day-old bread stores (there's one on 9th St. near 1st Ave.) They have excellent buys on broken, quality cookies and good pastry. If you smoke, roll your own cigarettes. The Tobacco Center on St. Mark's Place near Tompkins Park has inexpensive rollers and a large selection of good tobaccos. Walk as much as possible (transportation fares are up and the exercise is good for you and, anyway, where have you got to go once you've seen uptown a few times?) Fix up your apartment and cook and entertain at home. Forget about the expensive commercial entertainment spots and "first run" movies. This may sound hard to believe, but I save a lot of money because, after years of seeing all the great films, I don't need to go much anymore. By "great" I mean the movie classics that are always so available in a city like New York. That's the main reason for living here, of course: The great diversity of things to see and do; the exposure to the smorgasbord of our culture. This exposure doesn't take much money. The museums are free. The libraries are free. There are plenty of places to meet fellow artists-to-be that are free or inexpensive. New York probably has more museums than any other city and many of them are free. The Metropolitan, alone, is so big you'll need a year to see it all. And there's the Museum of Natural History where Murph the Surf and friends picked up a.diamond bigger than the Ritz. Or how about the Morgan library of famous manuscripts? There's uncounted other collections of exciting things around town. The Main Library on 42nd Street has plenty of good branches within easy walking distance of the East Village. They're all free. If the branch you're visiting doesn't have the book you want, the librarian can use the central

locator to find it for you. You can then pick it up or, for a few cents, have it delivered to your branch on the next truck. There are still good coffeehouses where a night of talk, chess, sharing dreams and creative arguing can cost you 25 cents or less. The De je vu, on East 10th Street between Avenues A and B, is one and it stays open all night. The zoo in Central Park is free and the big one in the Bronx is free on certain days. Cooper Union, a college on the gateway to the East Side, has lectures, dance programs, concerts and other activities three nights a week during the winter. All free. The now-famous avant-garde La Mama, just one of the newer off-off-broadway showcases for talent, puts on a new play every week. The Judson Church in the West Village and St. Marks on the East Side also present such offerings. All for contributions, but reservations may be necessary. The YMCA shows great movie classics for about $1.00. Poetry readings are held somewhere every night of the week, usually for whatever you can contribute. If you need any more ideas, the Village Voice lists a whole page every week and hardly anything -concerts, recitals, lectures, poetry readings, dance groups, discussions-costs more than a dollar. If all else fails, the Staten Island Ferry is still only a nickel and peoplewatching on 5th Avenue or St. Marks Place is free! Now that your basic living and entertainment expenses are pared down, you may not care to work full-time. Is it possible to find part-time employment in New York? Easiest thing in the world! Even if you have "no skills" at all. New York is swarming with temporary help agencies that always need typists and file clerks. If you can't type, tell `em you have experience filing. After all, any idiot - even me - can file stuff. Experience!?? Friends of mine pick up bigger chunks of money in less time by working on non-union piers unloading ships. For these jobs, though, you've got to be strong and know your way around. You can also make good money with little effort and time as a nude model if you're well-endowed physically. The underground papers are full of ads for both guys and gals in this category. Seems amazing there should be so many painters and photographers these days ... but who am I to ask questions? If worse comes to worse and you absolutely can't find a job anywhere, it is still possible to get on the welfare rolls in New York and other cities although the latest reports from the west coast indicate a general clamp-down and pruning of welfare out that way. Actually, you should feel no guilt about accepting welfare, especially if you're a creative person using the money to survive as you learn your art in order to make a greater contribution to Society later. I tell young people that welfare is their own Guggenheim Grant (since the real Guggenheims go only to the well known and connected . . . people who don't need them anyway). It's really a shame that more creative people don't take advantage of welfare funds and free food rather than get ground to gristle in the corporate monsters. We think nothing of allowing our government to grant billions of dollars to a corporation in subsidies and grants for the development of another overkill war machine . . . yet consider it almost a crime for the same government to guarantee a minimum existence to a single citizen while he develops his human potential - an infinitely more valuable commodity. Getting on welfare is easy if you've ever been in a mental hospital . . . or you can simply say that your parents won't help you and you desperately need funds. Talk to the Welfare Rights people or people of your age who are receiving checks and they'll help you. Many workers in the Welfare Department are quite sympathetic to young artists (even so-called "hippies"). A friend of mine who is a welfare investigator once said to me, "I am beginning to realize the only thing that separates me from my clients is my title." Unfortunately. Just a few years ago I really hit bottom. I was broke and starving. I was too disgusted with "the system" and too

depressed to get a job. I could have gotten welfare easily but I didn't know that. I survived that bleak period - and survived fairly well - by cutting my expenses to the bone, rolling my own cigarettes and scrambling for corn the markets threw away. And never did corn taste more succulent! There is great strength to be gained by overcoming such adversity and not "copping out". Those lean days are now past for me. On about $150 a month, I live very well in high Bohemian (a Bohemian is somebody who gives up the "necessities" - on occasion - to afford the "luxuries" . . . like Life, Liberty and the Pursuit and Conquest of Happiness) fashion. What I am saying is that it is possible to live freely and very comfortably in the city. City living has many advantages over the country: The great diversity of things to do; intellectual stimulation counterbalanced by opportunity for solitude; the freedom that city life's anonymity offers; the sense of privacy and toleration of differences which - while far from Utopia - is considerably more advanced than you'll find in the American small town of my acquaintance. I'm now planning - with some friends - to establish a country retreat. But I don't think I'll ever quit the city entirely. Not unless things get I realize that I've just scratched the surface much worse than they are now. For me, survival in the city is with this article and that you may have definitely worth the effort! further questions. If so, I'll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability (I enjoy corresponding). GEORGE METESKY wrote the following three or four years ago and he says it's all FREE of copyright and may be reprinted by Just write to me at 258 East 4 St., New anyone at any time. So be it. York, N.Y. 10009. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. FREE is specific to New York City andmore specifically - to the New York City of three or four years ago. But it's techniques may Tom McNamara easily be adapted to any large city at any time.

FREE
FREE VEGETABLES Hunt's Point Market, Hunt's Point Avenue and 138th Street. Have to go by car or truck between 6-9 A.M. but well worth it. You can get enough vegetables to last your commune a week. Lettuce, squash, carrots, cantaloupe, grapefruit, melons, even artichokes and mushrooms. Just tell them you want to feed some people free and it's yours. All crated and everything. Hunt's Point is the free people's heaven. FREE MEAT AND POULTRY The closest slaughterhouse area is in the far West Village, west of Hudson Street and south of 14th Street. Get a letter from Rev. Allen of St. Mark's on the Bowerie, Second Avenue and 10th Street, saying you need some meat for a church sponsored meal. Bring a car or truck. There is some law that if the meat touches the ground or floor they have to give it away. So if you know how to trip a meat truck, by all means. FREE FRESH FISH The Fish Market is located on Fulton Street and South Street under the East River Drive overpass. You have to get there between 6-9 A.M. but it is well worth it. The fishermen always have hundreds of pounds of fish that they have to throw away if they don't sell. Mackerel, halibut, cod, catfish, and more. You can have as much as you can cart away. FREE BREAD AND ROLLS Rapaports on Second Avenue between 5th and 6th streets will give you all the free bread and rolls you can carry. You have to get there by 7 A.M. in order to get the stuff. It's a day old, but still very good. If you want them absolutely fresh, put them in an oven to which you have added a pan of water (to avoid drying them out), and warm them for a few minutes. Most bakeries will give you day old stuff if you give them a half-way decent sob story. A&P stores clean their vegetable bins every day at 9 A.M. They always throw out cartons of very good vegetables. Tell them you want to feed your rabbits. FREE COOKING LESSONS (plus you get to eat the meal) are sponsored by the New York Department of

Markets, 137 Centre Street, Thursday mornings. Call CA 65653 for more information. CATERING SERVICES Check the Yellow Pages. You can visit them on a Saturday, Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. They always have stuff left over. Invest 10 cents in one of the Jewish Dailies and check out the addresses of the local synagogues and their schedule of bar mitzvahs, weddings, and testimonial dinners. Show up at the back of the place about three hours after it is scheduled to start. There is always left-over food. If you want the food served to you out front you naturally have to disguise yourself to look straight. Remarks such as "I'm Marvin's brother" or "Gee, Dorothy looks marvelous" are great. Lines like "Betty doesn't look pregnant" are frowned upon. Large East Side bars are fantastically easy touches. The best time is 5 P.M. Take a half-empty glass of booze from an empty table and use it as a prop. Just walk around sampling the hors d'oeuvres. Once you find your favorite, stick to it. You can soon become a regular. They won't mind your loading up on free food because they consider you one of the crowd. Little do they realize that you are a super freeloader. All Longchamps are good. Max's Kansas City at Park Avenue South and 16th Street doesn't even mind it if you freeload when you are hungry and an advantage here is that you can wear any kind of clothes. Max features fried chicken wings, swedish meatballs and ravioli. THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS is located at 26 Second Avenue. Every morning at 7 A.M. a delicious cereal breakfast is served free along with chanting and dancing. Also 12 Noon more food and chanting and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 P.M. again food and chanting. Then it's all day Sunday in Central Park Sheepmeadow (generally) for still more chanting (sans food). Hari Krishna is the freest high going if you can get into it and dig cereal and, of course, more chanting. FREE TEA AND COOKIES In a very nice setting at the Tea Center, 16 East 56th Street. 10-11 A.M. and 2-4 P.M. Monday to Friday. THE CATHOLIC WORKER, 181 Chrystie Street, will feed you any time but you have to pray as you do in the various Salvation Army stations. Heavy wino scene is the Men's Temporary Shelter on 8 East 3rd Street. You can get free room and/or meals here if you are over 21 but it's worse than jail or Bellevue. It is a definite last resort only. The freest meal of all is Tuesdays at 5 P.M. inside or in front of St. Mark's Church on the Bowerie, Second Avenue at 10th Street. A few yippie-diggers serve up a meal ranging from Lion Meat to Guppy Chowder to Cantaloupe Salad. They are currently looking for a free truck to help them collect the food and free souls dedicated to extending the free food concept. LIBERATION NEWS SERVICE At 3064 Broadway and 121st Street will give you up-to-the-minute coverage of movement news both national and local, as well as a more accurate picture of what's going on. Call 865-1360. By the way, what is going on? FREE LAND Write to Green Revolution, c/o School of Living, Freeland, Maryland, for their free newspaper with news about rural land available in the United States and the progress of various communities. The best available free land is in Canada. You can get a free listing by writing to the Department of Land and Forests, Parliament Building, Quebec City, Canada. Also write to the Geographical Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Parliament Building, Quebec City, Canada. Lynn Burrows, c/o Communications Group, 2630 Point Grey Rd, Vancouver, 8, British Columbia, Canada, will give you the best information on setting up a community in Canada. FREE SECURITY For this trick you need some money to begin with. Deposit it in a bank and return in a few weeks telling them you lost your bank book. They give you a card to fill out and sign and in a week you will receive another. Now, withdraw your money, leaving you with your original money and a bank book showing a balance. You can use this as identification, to prevent vagrancy busts traveling, as collateral for bail, or for opening a charge account at a store. FREE BIRTH CONTROL INFORMATION AND DEVICES Clergy Consultation Abortion, call 477-0034 and you will get a recorded announcement giving you the names of clergymen who you can call and get birth control information including abortion contacts.

DIAL-A-DEMONSTRATION 924-6315 to find out about anti-war rallies and demonstrations. DIAL-A-SATELLITE TR 3-0404 to find out schedules of satellites. NERVOUS can be dialed for the time. WEATHER REPORT WE 6-1212. DIAL-A-PRAYER CL 6-4200. God is a long distance call. If you want someone to talk you out of jumping out of a window call IN 23322. If you have nothing to do for a few minutes, call the Pentagon (collect) and ask for Colonel John Masters of the Inter-Communication Center. Ask him how the war's going. (202) LI 56700. If you want the latest news information you can call the wire services: AP is 757-1111 or UPI is MU 20400. FREE GAS If you have a car and need some gas late at night you can get a gallon and then some by emptying the hoses from the pumps into your tank. There is always a fair amount of surplus gas left when the pumps are shut off. THE NEW YORK TIMES RESEARCH BUREAU 229 West 43rd Street, LA 41000 will research news questions that pertain to the past three months if you believe there was a past three months. FREE lessons in a variety of skills such as plumbing, electricity, jewelry making, construction and woodworking are provided by the Mechanics Institute, 20 West 44th Street. Call or write them well in advance for a schedule. You must sign up early for lessons as they try to maintain small courses. MU 7-4279. FREE RENT There are many abandoned buildings that are still habitable especially if you know someone with electrical skills who, with a minimum of effort, can supply you with free electricity. You can be busted for criminal trespassing but many people are getting away with it. If you are already in an apartment, eviction proceedings in New York take about six months even if you don't pay rent. FREE COLLEGE If you want to go to college free send away for the schedule of courses at the college of your choice. Pick your courses and walk into the designated classrooms. In some smaller classes this might be a problem but in large classes, of which there are hundreds in New York, there is no problem. If you need books for the course, write to the publisher telling him you are a lecturer at some school and are considering using the book in your course. If you look relatively straight you can sneak into conventions and get all kinds of free drinks, snacks, and samples. Call the New York Convention Bureau, 90 East 42nd Street, MU 7-1300 for information. You can also get free tickets to theatre events here at 9 A.M. FREE MOVIES New York Historical Society, Central Park West and 77th Street, Hollywood movies every Saturday afternoon. Call TR 3-3400 for schedule. Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, Art films Wednesdays at 2:30 P.M. Call TR 95500 for schedule. New York University has a very good free movie program as well as poetry lectures, and theatre presentations. Call the Program Director's Office, 5982026 for schedule. FREE PARK EVENTS All kinds of events in the Parks are free. Call 755-4100 for a recorded announcement of week's events. FREE PETS-ASPCA; 441 East 92nd Street and York Avenue. TR6-7700. Dogs, cats, some birds and other pets. Tell them you're from out of town if you want a dog and you will not have to pay the $5.00 license fee. Have them inspect and inoculate the pet, which they do free of charge.

FREE CARS If you want to travel a long distance the auto transportation agencies are a great deal. Look in the Yellow Pages under Automobile Transportation and Trucking. You must be over 21 and have a valid driver's license. Call them up and tell them when and where you want to go and they will tell you if they have a car. They give you the car and a tank of gas free. You pay the rest. Go to pick up the car alone, then get some people who also want to go to help with expenses. You can make San Francisco for about $80 in tolls and gas in four days without pushing. Usually you have the car for longer and can make a whole thing out of it. You must look "straight" when you go to the agency.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

AN IDEAL FUN WAY FOR A COMMUNE TO MAKE HEAVY BREAD

It's not hard to organize a commune, "tribe", "family" or loose coop these days. Everyone - it seems - knows of, has lived in or has eyes for some such federation. Bread, to finance the venture, is another matter. Usually, nobody - but nobody - has any money or any idea of a groovy way to get the loot to convert the bus or buy the land or do all the other things so dear to the heart of the average communard. And don't start giving me that rap about "Comes the Revolution, we won't need money" because I've heard it all before. This is still before the Revolution, brother, and even the Berkeley TRIBE needs rent money. I don't see Abby Hoffman or Jerry Rubin turning down those heavy speaking fees and book royalties: So, OK. Wouldn't it be great if there was only some way for the whole "family" to work together . . . when and where they chose . . . for as long as they wanted . . . in a fun atmosphere . . . while doing a good ole-timey downhome gig . . . and still make some heavy bread . . . with almost no investment? Well, interestingly enough, I noted just such an operation last summer . . . not once, not twice . . . but three times. In every case (including-and most especially-the one operated by gentle freaks), it was doing a land office business. What is it? A lemonade stand. Yeah, I know. That brings to mind a vision of little kids on the front lawn. Believe me, this is an entirely different proposition. I saw the first of the three stands last summer at the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In at Rockford, Illinois. It was run by a real family: Grandpa down to belt-high grandson. They were selling a 12 oz. cup of freshsqueezed lemonade for 25-cents from an obviously home-made stand . . . and they were selling a lot of those cups, too. Their establishment had windows on two sides and it was quite common to stand in line five minutes waiting to be served. There's a little Lake Erie resort town in Ohio called Geneva-On-TheLake and that's where I saw the second stand. It was a permanent circular stucco resort town monstrosity and the customers in front were lined up three deep. The third stand was a "grab" tent pitched under a shade tree outside a display barn at the Great Geauga Co. Fair in Ohio. This was the one run by the freaks: Several teenage kids of various colors and dress and one bearded guy in his early 20's. There was 4-6 people in the tent all afternoon and they were selling 16 oz. cups of made-while-youwait lemonade for 35-cents each as fast as they could serve them. I'm sure there must be a number of similar lemonade stands scattered around the country, I'm sure they're all doing as well in the summer and I'm sure there's room for many more. All three of the stands I saw used the same gimmick: A tangy, fresh glass of lemonade individually and personally made right in front of the customer's eyes. Get the picture? None of this premixed, pour-it-out-of-a-jug stuff. The really interesting thing to me was the fact that SnoKone and other refreshment stands at the fair were doing only a so-so business while the Fabulous Furry Freaks were serving up a storm of lemonade. Why? Well, I can't answer for all the other folks who were plunking down their thirty-five-cent pieces, but I know why I bought a couple of shots of lemonade: (1) It was good and tangy and thirst-quenching whereas most of the prepared colas and other plastic drinks were (bleah!) sticky sweet, (2) There was no question about it . . .the

lemonade was made fresh right in front of my eyes and (3) That cutting and mixing and shaking was downright fascinating compared to the bored pushing of a tap at the other booths. There is no secret formula to making lemonade the way these kids were doing it: (1) The bearded fellow sliced both nub ends off a lemon and cut it in half. (2) He took one half of the lemon and quartered it. (The other half is then quartered for a second glass. (3) The quartered half a lemon was then put in a heavy 16 oz. glass (it looked like a laboratory beaker) and mashed with a wooden pestle or cut-off potato masher. The Rockford family used a metal container from a drugstore milkshake maker and a small hand lemon squeezer). (4) The glass was next handed to one of the kids who ladled in about a quarter cup of sugar and 8 oz. of ice. The glass was filled brim full of water. (5) A 16 oz. paper cup was then placed upside-down over the glass and the whole thing shaken vigorously for 15-20 seconds. (6) The glass-cup assembly was inverted and the brimming cup of icy lemonade handed to the customer. I priced this operation out the other day and I found that fresh lemons are available from wholesalers in cases of 120-140. Each case costs, in the Cleveland area, about $6.00. This means that an individual lemon runs 4.3 to 5-cents each and-since one lemon makes two servings - the lemon for each cup will cost you about 2.5-cents. The sugar will run about'/2-cent a serving. As will the ice. The cup costs two cents and the water will be included in the price of your location rental. Raw materials for a 35-cent cup of lemonade, then, cost you about 5.5-cents. A typical fair or carnival will charge you 12 to 30% of your gross for allowing you to set up your "grab". And you'll have to write off the capital expense of your tent and figure in transportation costs and other miscellaneous expenses. Actually, the tent isn't that big a problem. I checked three suppliers that specialize in carnival tops and found old but serviceable 10 x 14 tents complete with side wall, bag, poles and stakes for as little as $25.00 complete. A brand new tent of the same size can go as high as $200.00. Here, if you're interested, are the names and addresses Garber Canvas Products Co. P.O. Box 36 74 Hollywood, Florida 33023 Mankato Tent & Awning Co. 1021 Range St. Mankato, Minn. 56001 Mason City Tent & Awning Co. Mason City, Iowa 50401 Transportation shouldn't be a big problem, either. If you can haul the gang around, a few supplies and a tent should fit in somewhere. OK. How do you get booked? Well, if I were to give this a try (and I may), I'd write or call the chairman of every EAA and other fly-in (since I'm a home-built airplane nut) and arrange for space at every possible meet. Then I'd travel from one to another all summer. If you're an old car enthusiast or dig muzzle-loading guns or want an excuse to tour all the antique swap meets or whatever, you can do the same thing in almost any field. To go the carnival route, your best bet is to subscribe to Amusement Business Magazine, 2160 Patterson St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45214. Each issue of this weekly publication has pages of ads soliciting stands for various fairs and AB puts out some special issues that are even more helpful.

There's other possibilities, of course: Making a deal to set up in a shopping center parking lot, for instance, or a city park on weekends or at rock festivals, etc. But is it worth it? If you're in it for the money, judging from what I saw last summer, your tribe might gross as much as $400-$500 a day in a good location. Maybe more. After all expenses, you might net $150-$200. A few good weekends can make the down payment on that farm! Not bad on, say, a $50.00 investment. And will you be doing a good thing? Well, since most refreshments now served are pre-fabbed plastic and since your product is definitely fresh and as authentically "old time" as a porch swing . . . yes, of course, you'll be doing a good thing. And, since you'll be working and sticky to your elbows before the day is over, you most certainly won't be ripping anyone off. You'll earn your money. Of course, if you're on the wholesome foods trip, you may object to selling that much white sugar. If so, forget it. The really beautiful part of the whole deal, of course, is being able to wrap up travel, pleasant work with the people you dig and a fair return on your time and investment all in one bag while you strike a small blow against the pre-packaged world. If you decide to give it a whirl, line up the lemons from a good wholesaler, sugar from a grocery broker or wholesaler and ice from whatever source (ice company, grocery store or gas station or your own machine) is cheapest. The cups are handled by any good paper wholesaler or you can get them from Gold Medal Products Co., 1825 Freeman Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45214. Needless to say, make a trial run or two to make sure you have your system down pat . . . and keep your stand clean and neat. Let me know how you do. - JS

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

MY $25.00 LOG CABIN

LAWRENCE GOLDSMITH There is no need to think in terms of a multithousand dollar expense for a house. A warm cozy log cabin can be built easily in a few months time for a cost of under $100. My 12 x 12 log cabin at the Heathcote Community took 2 1/2 months and $25 to build. If I had had more knowledge or prior skill the construction would have taken less time and the cabin could have been larger. As it is, the house is both asthetic and functional and should stand a number of years with only minor repairs. Since you will probably cut down the trees you use, you should consider a site close to your source of wood. Other things to consider in choosing a site are drainage, flooding of nearby creeks, sources of water, availability of electricity (we don't have any) and distance for supplies to be carried. You should clear dead trees from near the site and not build too close to any live trees. Your tools are a matter of choice. I found that a sharp axe beats a poorly running chain saw, but a good gas driven, light weight chain saw saves time and effort. Basic tools should include an axe, sharpening stone, assorted nails, hand saws, drill, tape measures, carpenter's square, shovel, level and plumb line. You can improvise a jar of water and a string with a weight on it for a level and plumb line. Available scrap or low cost used lumber often determine what supplies you should purchase and it wouldn't be a bad idea to gather much of this, including used doors and windows, beforehand. My roof is made entirely from used doors and windows and whatever scrap lumber I couldn't use was quickly consumed as winter firewood. Good sources of free wood include town dumps, construction sites, and barns or buildings that are being torn down. You should also be looking for a piece of metal or asbestos to go under your cast iron stove. I bought my stove for $4 at a junk yard but don't feel bad if you have to spend up to $35 for one. Because of our interest in ecology, we do not cut any live trees at Heathcote. Standing dead trees in good condition are excellent to use and there is no problem of live logs shrinking while they are drying. Another method, if you have time, is to season live trees for six or more months. Almost any type of wood can be used if you have a high and dry foundation, but you may want to avoid aspen, basswood, buckeye, cottonwood, poplar, and willow. Strip the bark to protect against insects and rot and you are ready to build. In setting down the foundation, you must first consider the size of your house. If you plan to use plywood for the floor you will save sawing by having your inner dimensions divisible by 4. My inner dimentions ate 12x 12 and I placed nine foundation stones a safe 6 feet apart on all sides and in the middle. A good method for a stone foundation is to dig 2-feet-deep holes and fill with medium sized stones. Fill with earth and place two large flat stones on top. Your cabin should set at least 12 inches off the ground. If stones are not available you can use poured concrete or blocks. However, a wooden post foundation is more asthetic than concrete. Strip the bark and treat your cut posts with concrete or another wood preserver. Old crankcase oil is said to work also. Place a flat stone in a 3 foot deep pit; place your post and fill around the post with small rocks and subsoil. My next step was to lay 3 sturdy 14 foot logs for floor sills over the foundation stones and to lay floor joists, 18 inches apart, cross-wise over these. I was lucky enough to find scrap 4 x 4's to use for floor joists but old railroad ties, straight logs, or 2 x 4's could also be used. Your floor may best be nailed onto the joists after the roof is completed so that it won't be ruined by rain. I used plywood but almost any type of wood can be used for flooring. I then determined the placing of door and window framing. Since I was able to locate scrap doors and windows

easily, I didn't restrict myself on their use. A layer of plastic tacked on protects against heat loss and the extra light and airiness make up for this slight deficit. Another advantage of many windows is that you do not have to have as many long spans of logs. To save money, locate used windows and doors and build your framing accordingly. The simplest window to install is one on hinges.

ALL LOG FRAMEWORK BEAMS SET IN "STEPS

ANOTHER TYPE OF ROOF FRAMING

MY ROOF FRAMING

BASIC FRAMING You are now ready to begin the walls. Each log set down should be notched on the under side and set on top of the log going the other way. You'll only need nails to steady logs to door and window framing but not in corners. The notches lock the logs in place. If notches were made on the top side of the logs, water may collect and of the ten or twenty other methods of fitting corners, I found this easiest or soundest. Do not worry about spaces between logs; they will be filled latter.

Throughout this construction don't forget the level and plumb line. I tried to sight my floor by eye and have a slight slant. There are so many types of roof possible that I am sketching both mine and another that may be better. Plan on a 1/4 pitch for snow safety. I have about a 1/6 pitch, but Maryland snows are not too heavy. I built the walls 8 inches higher than the windows and door in the front 2/3 of the cabin and then proceeded to set the front roof beams up on blocks or posts to create the pitch. Two methods of doing this, are illustrated. You can have a one slant or two slant roof and you can fill spaces left by this method with cut and fitted logs or cheat (like I did) and use scrap lumber. I used scrap doors (some with glass for skylights) for my roof which I placed on 14 foot log beams spaced 2 feet apart. Over the doors I used 3 rolls of tarpaper roof ing and caulked all seams. The local hardware store sold these supplies and explained their application. Exterior plywood, shingles, scrap wood and hand-made shakes can also be considered for roofing. You are now ready to fill in the cracks. Whatever couldn't be done with thin logs and scrap wood or bark I filled with mud. This was done by digging a foot into the ground for mud richer in clay than humus and mixing it with straw, dry grass or stringy inner bark. Balls of this were made and shoved into all open spaces. This took more time than imagined and if you can invite friends over for a chinking party it wouldn't be a bad idea. If you overhang your roof a foot or more on each side you will protect these walls from heavy rain or snow. Although much rain, snow and wind has blown against the cabin, the chinking has held well. I would recommend a wood burning cast iron stove over a fire place. It is inexpensive, easy to install, burns for a long time, throws off sufficient heat and is as asthetic as it is functional. Place sheet metal or asbestos underneath and around near walls in case of sparks and excessive heat. Then cut a hole in the roof with a keyhole saw leaving at least 4 inches around the stove pipe and extend it higher than the peak of your roof for the best draw. Fittings which connect the stove pipe to the roof are illustrated and further explained at many rural hardware stores or supply companies. If you want extra warmth inside, place corrugated cardboard over your floor and place padding and rugs over that. On the walls you can also place rugs, material, dyed burlap bags or blankets. For even more insulation place a layer of plastic in-between the material and the wall. I did this for warmth but make sure the roof beams and other logs still showed to retain the natural beauty of the log interior. Further information can be secured from books such as How to Build your Home in the Woods by Bradford Angier and by visiting log cabins or talking to old timers who may have built some. As my cast-iron stove begins to heat, I write by the light of a kerosene lamp and hope that your log cabin is as cozy as mine.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970 Communes come and communes go. Why, when so many are started with such good intentions, do they so often fail? Here - with - love- is the reason WHY one community crumbled.

Jane Bevans

revisited

PATSY SUN

Freefolk community is abandoned except for the winter birds and the snow rabbits and maybe the deer have come back, now that we people are gone. We left over a year ago. Gradually the others did too. I've meant to write about it all since then, but it took time to heal some wounds and then we got into some other things ..... Freefolk was a small, rural anarchistic, commune that some of you know of, maybe, and others don't. It flowered briefly for a year and a half, then died out the way a lot of communes do that you hear about and then after a while don't hear about anymore. I like to think of our attempt there as part of a larger experiment. Somehow what we discovered may help others who want to learn and live together in community. There were times at Freefolk when love bloomed, when we sang together, worked together as sisters and brothers, felt in us the power of our mother earth. There were also times when we didn't speak to each other, or care enough to reach out when someone clearly needed us. Because we lived a life peeled down to the good necessities; because we lived without the shelter of all these institutions that protect and separate people from each other; the high times were really high...... and the bad times pretty ugly. Eyes stopped meeting, hands stopped reaching and we became strangers living in the same house. A lot of people think communities flop because of economic hassles or pressure from the outside. We didn't find that to be true. Through highs and hassles the work did get done. We ate well and kept reasonably warm (though sometimes friction kept us from getting things done as well as we might have.) With a minimum of effort we were able to maintain open and friendly relationships with our neighbors. I guess I can't say why "communities" flop, but I have some ideas about why Freefolk isn't there anymore. Partly from necessity, partly because we didn't appreciate our own needs for separateness (what some people call privacy, but that word always reminded me of bathrooms), we attempted to live too closely. Each family or individual had a sleeping place of his own, but in the long Minnesota winter we just couldn't keep all those shacks warm all day. So we had to spend most of our waking hours together in the community room (10 x 20, wood stove, table, chairs, sink) with three toddlers who had a harder time learning to share than we did. Idealists that we are with a strong vision of how men ought to live together, it was really difficult for us to admit that we were uptight, needed more room, more time for ourselves or really didn't care that much for each other sometimes. Each of us had a vision - really amazingly similar - about the way we wanted to live. But because we weren't there yet, it was the small things that caused friction. We all wanted to live a simple primitive existence. We all were content to live without rules, electricity, power tools, or running water. In fact, we strongly felt that a simple life was necessary for our emotional, spiritual, economic and political survival. What hung us up was whether we should eat all our honey in the fall or ration it through the winter; whether we should tie the cow or let her move around in the barn; whether we should fence the garden around front or back;

whether we should restrain the kids or let them clobber each other. And it wasn't the fence or the honey that really mattered. It was partly the fact that we had no other personal creative challenges to divert our energies - the garden, the food, the children were our chief interests in life - and partly the fact that we started at the pinnacle of a vision where people shared and cared for one another intensely but, in reality, that was just not where we were at. The mountain crumpled tension rose, we grew away from each other. Maybe things didn't have to go that way. There were a lot of strongly individual types at Freefolk. Meaning, I guess, people who liked having their own way. People who had an urge to see the world move when they pushed it. But then that's the kind of individuals that seem attracted to community. People who want to change their environment, not just fit in. People who find meaning in struggle. People who probably aren't real groupie types. Maybe we could have made it together and adapted to meet our various separate and collective needs - if we had tuned into what was happening sooner. We were blinded by dreams, I think. Trapped living so closely. And, saddest of all, unable in a year and a half to learn to talk to one another; to tell each other straight what it was we felt or thought; to be open about our needs and our hurts. Bitterness grew and silence grew until it filled up the clearing and now we're all gone except for the winter birds and the rabbits..... So, where do you go from there..... ? We each went different ways, still looking, still experimenting ..... The land is a part of us and people and loving. Got to find a way to put it all together.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Tangy red tomatoes, butter peas, crisp lettuce, sweet onions, corn on the cob, watermelon that drips off the chin and other succulent goodies . . . fresh from your own garden. All pure, natural and organically grown. It's a great dream - but where do you start? Especially if you were raised on concrete and have no handle on terms like "compost,""rock phosphate "and "ecological balance." Well, we've all got to begin somewhere and Jeanie Darlington has written a great little book that is subtitled "An Introduction to Organic Gardening. " It is just that and MOTHER will be featuring sections from time to time. Here, then, is the first installment of Grow Your Own. I haven't been a mad gardener all my life. In fact, I really only began in the spring of `68 with a vegetable garden. I had tended a small flower garden behind our flat in London, but this was my first real attempt. And it was the first whole summer Sandy and I had ever been in one place since we'd met 6 years before. We moved into a cottage in Albany, California, just north of Berkeley, in August the year before. There was a nice size back yard full of dying roses, 3 foot tall grass and 35 year old fruit trees - apple, pear, apricot and plum. The house was all overgrown with vines and looked straight out of Hansel and Gretel so we left it that way. But we did cut the grass, prune the roses, and spray them and the fruit trees with some poison or other. It seemed like the right thing to do. We didn't do much else until the next spring when I decided I might try planting some tomatoes. I was working at a nursery at the time, so I had plenty of knowledge about all the super fertilizers and magic bug killers. And I was pretty good at selling these to the customers. One spray company even paid the employees dividends each month according to how much of their product we sold. Naturally I pushed it. Fortunately, it was the least toxic spray we carried and was safe (?) to be used on vegetables within one day of harvest. It didn't contain DDT. But I wondered, 'If it kills all the bugs it says it does, how come one day will make it safe for me?' Here's a sample weekly ad from the nursery: We've got 'em . . . we've got the guns to murder your weeds, kill them so that they will lay off for awhile. Come in today and ask for a killer. And then there were the combination chemical fertilizers, 0-10-10, 10-20-10, the numbers denoting the nitrogen, phosphorus and potash (NPK) content. The box told what the fertilizer was for, and that was that. Easy. But a few customers swore by manure and manure alone. How could this be? Luckily, I happened to pick up from the floor one day an introductory offer to 10 months of Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine at half price. It dawned on me then, that I wanted to learn how to garden with natural fertilizers and without poisons. I could hardly wait to receive my first issue. With the offer, I was sent a handy pamphlet as well, called "Organic Fertilizing - Secret of Garden Experts." From then on, I was on the road to discovering about the mysteries of blood meal, ground rock phosphate, kelp meal and other such exotic sounding things. I had thought Organic Gardening was something weird old spinsters in Marin County did, like saving seed from year to year for the past 35 years and things like that.

At about this time, I quit the nursery. A third of the products I was selling were only making Standard Oil richer and the air and earth more polluted. I felt rather guilty. In the meantime, I had begun my garden. I chose a small 10' X 10' grassy spot which received full sun all day. I didn't really know where to start, but I thought I should somehow kill the grass. This was before I'd found the magazine offer and I didn't know that I could simply turn the grass under and leave it to decompose. So I applied a lot of sulphate of ammonia, which is a super rich nitrogenous chemical fertilizer, to burn off the grass. (Chemical fertilizers used in excess, and without water, will burn.) I later learned that this was a big mistake because the fertilizer killed the earthworms, and because the sulphur residue left by the fertilizer ate away whatever organic matter I added for quite a while. Fortunately the magazine and the fertilizer pamphlet arrived in time to save me from other such disasters. I now had a 10' by 10' plot of hard, clay soil rich in nitrogen. With a lot of hard work, Sandy and I and my visiting sister and brother-in-law managed to turn over the soil. By the time we finished that, the fertilizer pamphlet had arrived. In it I read that I still needed to add some phosphorus (P) and potash (K) and some organic matter. So I dug in a sack of steer manure thinking that would be enough, organic matter. And I sprinkled on 5 Ibs.of bone meal (P) and a whole lot of ashes (K) from our wood stove. Then I was ready to plant. I planted a lot of things both seeds and seedlings. Beginner's luck was with me and most everything began to grow. But the soil was still hard as a rock. Water would turn it to gooey mud, and a few days later it was cracked and rock-hard again. I cultivated it, but that didn't help much. By then I was beginning to realize the importance of organic matter and proper soil preparation. That 10' by 10' plot could have used 10 sacks of manure. Good soil should contain 50% air and water, 45% inorganic minerals from rock fragments, and 5% organic matter or humus. I seemed to have no air and no humus in my soil, only hard clay and plenty of sulphur residue. In fact, this is the state of many peoples' garden soils. And then they wonder why they don't have green thumbs. The clay was supporting the plants and they were growing, but I wanted to improve the soil, because I was sure they would grow better. Compost seemed to be the answer. I could make my own humus out of weeds and grass and other things. And I had read that lots of compost would help reduce the toxic effects of a chemically treated soil. I began my compost pile somewhat sceptically. Would all those weeds and grass clippings and leaves really turn into the beautiful, black crumbly substance they said it would? I added some vegetable peelings and scraps to the pile too, but not very often out of pure laziness. It was easier by far to throw them in the garbage bag below the sink than to walk all the way down the back stairs to the compost pile. It never occured to me then that I could separate the garbage. I covered the compost pile with black plastic and it never smelled I kept the pile moist and turned it after a few weeks. After a month, I began to see evidence of a "black crumbly substance" and I was thrilled. This style of gardening really appealed to me. I felt a bit like an alchemist. Later on, when I began to see the effects of this "black gold" on my plants, I really believed in compost! Meanwhile, my 10' by 10' garden was coming along. Eight tomato plants crammed in amongst broccoli, zuccini, italian cocozelle, bell pepper, eggplant, beets, lettuce, italian flat beans, snow peas, and way too much swiss chard, out of loyalty to an early childhood memory. The taste of swiss chard from the neighborhood victory garden will always remain with me. A delicious earthy taste that I hadn't forgotten, despite the disappearance of swiss chard after the war - on our table anyway. My parents had always been enthusiastic gardeners. They had a compost pile and they threw around words like humus and manure (titter, giggle). I used to help my father root pachysandra cuttings in flats of sand, 100 plants per flat, a penny a plant. It was great fun. He used the plant as a ground cover in shady spots and under trees. My parents spent almost every available minute of the weekends in the yard, cutting grass, pruning roses, planting annuals, dividing perenniels, and

planting new trees. They claimed it was fun and relaxing. Now I see what they meant. Working with the earth, smelling it, improving it, watching things grow in it made me feel good. It slowed me down and made life seem OK even if I was depressed or sad. And so the first summer went by. Some failures, but not many. Mostly great success. Squash to give away, chinese pea pods that melted in our mouths, and the most delicious beans I had ever eaten. There were wonderful sweet tomatoes - all kinds - Beefsteak, Spring Giant, Pearson, Ace, Earliana, Jubilee, red pear, and cherry, all the way up to Thanksgiving. And lots of swiss chard. There were very few bugs and absolutely no need for poisons. The few bugs I had were controlled by putting ashes on wet leaves, planting marigolds and using a home ground onion-pepper-garlic spray. The Mexican bean beetle was there, but we still had plenty of beans. The tomatoes, planted too close together, twined all around each other and broke the stakes supporting them, but we still had plenty of tomatoes. And the hay mulch kept them from rotting. Mulch, that mysterious word, was largely responsible for the success of the garden. The early summer sun had been baking and cracking the hard soil, and I knew I needed more humus. My compost was on the way, but it would take several months. I did add some more manure and this helped some. Then I discovered mulch. Each month, Organic Gardening magazine would arrive with more good ideas to help me. I only wished I could have known it all to begin with. Mulch is a layer of organic matter laid down on top of the soil around the plants and between the rows. It keeps the soil temperature even, holds moisture in discourages weeds, prevents a hard top crust on the soil and eventually decays into rich humus. The nearest available mulch for me was right next door in the vacant lot - dry wild grass 4 and 5 feet tall. I cut a lot of it and put it down 6 inches deep between the rows and up snugly against the plants. Then I didn't have to cultivate or weed anymore. 1 found I used a lot less water. The plants seemed to like the even soil temperature. It acted like a thermal blanket, and it looked nice and felt good on my bare feet when I walked around picking things. Our cat, Lurvie, loved to lie on it in the shade of certain plants. She thought I put it down just for her. A few days after Thanksgiving, I took the turkey bones out to the garden to bury them. The tomato and squash vines were brown and dead from a very light frost. This left just a few swiss chard plants here and there. I buried the vines well in the middle of the compost pile so that the thick stems would decay sufficiently. The year was almost over and the garden was finished. I didn't think about things I might have planted for winter crops, not knowing then that it was possible. But I wasn't sad. It had been a fine summer. So I sprinkled the ground with bone and blood meal and put on a nice blanket of leaves. The hay mulch had long since decayed away into the soil. During the fall of that year, Sandy and I noticed how many birds there were in the yard and especially in the entwining rose and pyracantha trees outside our kitchen window. We had been living in our cottage for a year and four months by then, and hadn't used any poison sprays for the past 9 or 10 months. The birds had passed the word around and had already eaten every red pyracantha berry. The berries made them drunk. One tipsy bird flew into the window once, but luckily didn't break the glass. I made a bird feeder by tacking a 1 inch edge around a 2 by 1 foot board. I tied it up in the rose tree 3 feet outside the kitchen window and we spent many hours watching them. It's a lot better than the Today show at breakfast. Sometimes we layed out a smorgasbord for them of suet, birdseed, oatmeal, raisins and peanut butter. They even developed a snob taste for health food peanut butter, and wouldn't touch that cheap, hydrogenated stuff. The scrub jays were really funny. They came exclusively for sunflower seeds and would squawk and carry on so that they could have the whole feeder to themselves. They would try to fill up their beaks with three or four seeds and then fly away to a rooftop to eat them. Invariably, they would drop all but one seed while they were trying to stuff the fourth one in, but they would keep trying anyway. And there were catbirds, song sparrows, house finches and a

cute little thing I called fat fluffy. By mid-January, I was already planning for next summer. The seed catalogues had begun to arrive, showing all kinds of delicious things I could raise. It was too early to begin planting, but at least I could write an article for the paper Sandy had been writing for during the last year - the San Francisco Express Times. I wanted to help people get started on gardens and not make the mistakes I had. I wrote an article on soil preparation, so that the organic fertilizer applied would be in an available form come March or April. That was the beginning of Grow Your Own. By January 30, I had already made a crude cold frame for starting seedlings and I had cut the grass once. The rains were warm and my fingers were itching. A few weeks later, I was digging manure and lots of compost into the vegetable garden and flower border gardens. The vegetable patch looked pretty good although it still needed plenty more organic matter. It was a vast improvement over last year's clay patch. On February 14, I planted some snow pea seeds. The snails ate them all when they were one inch high. The snails were really thick, due to a very wet winter. But I planted some more seeds and devised a cheese-cloth cover. Soon after, my beets, carrots and parsley seeds went in. As the weather warmed up, I started a lot of seeds in peat pots for the cold frame. Meanwhile I had been thinking about how I could try to restore the ecological balance in the backyard. The birds had come back and were already busy eating lots of insects on the fruit tree branches. One night while out snail hunting, I encountered a lizard. It scared the wits out of me, until I remembered that they ate slugs. And I knew I could order lady bugs and praying mantis egg cases. In this case, when I speak of "restoring the ecological balance," I mean that I wanted to cut down on the plant eating bugs without resorting to bug sprays. To do that, you invite certain predatory, carnivorous insects into your garden, such as ladybugs and mantids. This is a little hard in a small backyard, because a neighbor's spray program could defeat the effort. But it was worth a try and it only cost me $4.00. The lady bugs and mantids arrived in early April. After eating their fill of aphids, the lady bugs mated, layed eggs and died because it was the end of their life cycle. By the end of May, the baby mantids had hatched and the new ladybugs had come out of their larvae stage. The lady bugs ate aphids, mealybugs, scale and many other tiny insects. There were plenty of them around. We never did figure out exactly what the mantids ate, but they looked fat and well fed and were very tame. I only saw one or two Mexican bean beetles, and it is said that mantids like them. All I know is that my bean leaves weren't eaten to a lacey remain of veins like they were the year before. And every once in a while, little pint-sized birds would hop amongst the rose bushes and gobble all the aphids off each new shoot. The peas grew 6 feet high, despite the fact they were dwarf grey sugar peas (2 and 1/2 feet maximum said the package). We were eating them from the middle of May through the end of June. Beets and carrots soon followed. Then broccoli and chard; italian and Kentucky Wonder beans; white corn, artichokes, zuccini, greyzini, italian cocozelle; oak leaf and ruby lettuce; escarole and endive; shallots, onions and leeks; and finally Spring Giant, Pearson and yellow pear tomatoes. The tomatoes ripened very late, but that was because I had rotated the crop from last year's spot and it wasn't as hot and sunny in the new place. Now I know that rotation isn't really necessary as long as you replenish the organic matter in the soil. The soil bacteria working on the humus will destroy any disease organisms connected with tomatoes if they are there. I also planted an herb garden containing parsley, tarragon, mint, borage, oregano, sweet marjoram, sage, chevril, silver and lemon thyme, lavender, rosemary, chives, comfrey and catnip. There were flowers here and there alongside the steps in a little triangular plot. Here I had sowed a few packets of seed - Old Fashioned Garden, California Wild Flowers, Morning Glory and Poppies. The result was really a knockout - a mass of every color but mainly pinks and reds and blues and purples. It was like having a full blown real life Matisse right in your own back yard for three solid months. Often Sandy would walk silently around the yard, staring at everything. It was a form of meditation. We loved watching the lady bugs, who especially liked to live in the upper leaves of the sunflowers. Often they

would fly down and land on our shoulders and walk along for a bit and then go back to their roost. A friendly hello. The mantids seemed to like the parsley and dusty miller best for their homes, although one even migrated to the long row of potted plants on our front porch in late August, where he contemplated a tiny piece of chicken we offered him for four hours before deciding not to eat it. We named him Manty and he stayed on the porch until early December, living in a pot of basil. He shed his skin three times and ate baby leafhoppers and a worm Sandy once brought him. On his last skin moult, he acquired a pair of long brown wings, and soon after he wandered away. To mate, then die? The Bay Area's weather is not mild enough for mantids to survive the winter. I hope this book will help people get started growing their own vegetables and flowers organically. Having a garden is such a wonderful experience. Some people still wonder why go to all the trouble to do it organically. I think it's much simpler to garden organically, at least on a small backyard scale. People are beginning to be aware of ecology. Organic gardening is something each of us can do to help. I'm quite sure it's cheaper to garden organically than with synthetic chemicals. You don't have to buy five different types of poison sprays and several different fertilizer mixes. Compost can be made for free or for a very little bit of money. For less than $20.00, I bought 100 lbs. each of blood meal (N), phosphate (P), and granite dust (K). That will last me several years. It's without a doubt more fun to garden organically. It's nice to have living things like Manty and the ladybugs around. They become friends. And it's a good influence on your children. It's a pleasure to dig into rich soil, full of fat happy earthworms. I love watching the birds splash around in our improvised bird bath and knowing that any bread I toss out to them will be gone in several hours. Organically grown food really does taste better. Unfortunately I have seen some pretty sad looking organic produce at some health food stores. I don't know if this is due to the problems of large scale farming, or bad shipping and storage methods or what. My vegetables almost always look beautiful enough to be photographed for seed catalogues and I'm no veteran farmer. Most importantly, it's better for your soul to garden organically. If you use chemical fertilizers, you are disregarding the fact that soil is a living breathing thing. Soil becomes only a medium which supports plants upright. Chemical fertilizers destroy many life forms such as beneficial soil bacteria and earthworms. Poison sprays not only pollute the atmosphere, but also kill many harmless insects and many helpful predators, thus destroying the balance of nature. Gardening organically is working in harmony with nature. Notes: 1. All of the dates in this book refer to the Bay Area, where the first killing frost comes around November 30 and the last killing frost comes around January 30. But as it still takes another month and a half before most spring planting can begin, the frost date is rather meaningless. In most cases, you can plant tomatoes one week after the last killing frost. Here we wait until April 1st at least. Check with local successful gardeners for the best planting dates in your area. 2. My experience with organic gardening has been with a small backyard garden. This book is meant to tell you the basics of what you need to know to garden organically on a small scale family basis. As the size of your garden increases, certain factors may change. But everything in this book can apply to gardens at least up to 100' by 200'. I didn't grow my garden to save money on the food bill. That would be pretty hard to do with a 10' by 10' garden. It probably costs about the same or a little bit more than buying vegetables at the supermarket. But I get so much pleasure going out to the garden on a cold December morning to pull some leeks for a nice leek and potato soup, and going out again a few minutes before dinner to get some tender oakleaf and ruby lettuce leaves for a crunchy salad. It isn't the same as supermarket buying. With a larger garden, you do begin to save money by raising vegetables. 3. Throughout this book you will be reading about N (Nitrogen), P (Phosphorus), and K (Potash). These elements

are very important. It would help you to either memorize the symbols or remember to refer back here. HUMUS Soil is a living, breathing thing. It is ideally made up of 50% air and water, 45% inorganic minerals from rock fragments, and the rest organic matter, which is called humus. The virgin soil of this country once contained an average of 4% humus. This figure is now down to about 1.5% or less. The amount of water and air is proportionately down to about 30%, due to the lack of humus. There is no room for water and air in hard, compacted soil. And the inorganic mineral content is up to 68.5%. Half of this mineral content is due to chemical fertilizer residues that have built up in abnormal and damaging quantities. The continued use of chemical fertilizers and sprays (which leach down into the soil,) is already a serious problem and is getting much worse, as you probably know by now from articles in newspapers and magazines. Fortunately, it is quite easy to correct poor soil. But it takes time. You see, with chemicals you get "instant" results, and that has a lot of appeal. Organic processes are natural, and slower. To correct poor soil, add lots of humus in the form of compost, animal manure, green manure (plant an area to clover, vetch or a legume, and turn it under), and heavy mulches. And add the right amount of organic minerals, such as rock phosphate and granite dust or greensand. Soil rich in humus has structural strength. Humus helps form aggregates of soil particles that cling together and give each other strength to resist crushing, so that there is plenty of air and water space in this friable soil. Humus feeds the microorganisms, the beneficial soil bacteria and fungii which in turn create a fertile environment for the plants. Earthworms, whose endless tunnelings and castings are so important to soil enrichment, digest humus and aerate the soil. Humus is where the plant nutrients are stored. Humus is the soul of the soil. Chemical fertilizers put your soil on a speed trip. The normal component balance of the soil is disturbed by the availability of more plant food than can be accepted. For a short time, everything that is living in the soil gets pushed way beyond its normal rhythm of life and of course the humus stores are depleted. A chemically treated soil is almost devoid of soil bacteria and earthworms. The structural strength of the soil is lost, and hardpans form that make it hard for water to penetrate deeply. This causes dust storm and erosion problems. A forest is an ideal example of good soil structure. The leaves, twigs, and everything else that falls to the ground, act as a mulch and gradually decay, leaving a spongy rich layer of humus just below the surface. It is well balanced in all the nutrients necessary to the soil below and to all the living things in it. All the reserves are there mainly in an insoluble form, and they are gradually released by the action of the weather, the bacteria, the earthworms, and all the other microorganisms in the soil. To create your own humus, make a compost pile, as described in the next chapter. Save all your weeds, grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps. Collect some seaweed and get hold of some manure. Layer it well, using some blood meal to help it break down faster. If you have access to stinging nettles, collect them with gloves on and add them every few layers. Their carbonic acid and ammonia will hasten the breakdown process. Keep your compost pile in a sunny spot and keep it moist. Cover it with black plastic and turn it every so often. When it is decomposed, apply it liberally as a mulch or dig it into your garden. Last fall, I looked at my dried finished tomato vines and felt sad until I remembered that they would go intothe compost pile and would carry the soul of last summer's garden over to this summer's garden. The other night we had some fine mussels for dinner. I crushed the shells and added them to the pile. Maybe it seems sentimental, but if this is the way gardening was done up until this chemical 20th century, there must be good reasons. If you take this much care, if you put your affection into the growing of your food, then you yourself become more a part of the living process. So add some soul to your soil and help rebuild the sick soil of this country.

COMPOST One of the basics in successful organic gardening is compost. You can create your own soil conditioner and fertilizer by simply using all your garden and kitchen wastes and whatever other organic materials you can come by. Compost enriches the soil with humus, and that is the most important factor in a healthy garden. Even if you never plan to have a garden, start a pile anyway and give the stuff away to your friends. Composting your garbage will help the ecology and besides, making compost is fun. Compost is decayed organic matter. There are many methods for making it. The original Indore Method was developed by Sir Albert Howard, the father of Organic Gardening. He found that decomposition took place quicker if you layered different organic materials. He first laid down a 5-6 inch layer of green matter, then a two inch layer of manure, and then a layer of rich earth, ground limestone and phosphate rock. He built a series of those layers up to a height of 5 feet, covered the pile with a thin layer of soil, made an indentation in the top to catch rainwater, and left it to decay for 6 months or more. While building the pile, he placed pipes through the pile, and then pulled them out when it was the full height, to provide aeration. This is an aerobic method. The bacteria rely upon a supply of oxygen to break down organic matter quickly and thoroughly into rich black humus. The process can be speeded up by turning the pile frequently. There is a 14 day method which involves finely shredding the material with a shredder or rotary mower, and turning and watering the pile on the 4th, 7th and 10th days. For more information on this, see the reference to the book Compost in 14 Days in the bibliography on page 82. I prefer an anaerobic method. By sealing the heap, that is by covering it with black plastic, there is no smell, no insect problem, a minimum of turning and water, and quick results: 2-3 months for finished compost. I don't have a shredder, so I don't put twigs and branches in the pile. But if you have a lot of land and a large garden, a shredder would be a big help. Shredders cost less if you have your own power source such as a power lawn mower. Or perhaps you could buy it along with several neighbors and use it jointly. A 4' by 8' area built to a height of 4 feet is a good size for a compost pile. If you have a large garden, make several piles. Choose a fairly sunny location and loosen the soil to expose the bacteria. Start with any weeds, grass clippings, dead plants and leaves. Layer these with liberal sprinklings of manure. Keep the hose handy and wet down each layer. All your decomposable garbage goes in the pile too vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea leaves, bones, moldy back-of-the-refrigerator gleanings, and the occasional recipe that flops. Most supermarkets will give you boxes of produce that are too old to sell. (Probably a lot of it will be edible, in fact.) Pine needles and seaweed are good additions to the pile. Lumber yards have plenty of sawdust free for the hauling. The wineries in Napa, especially Charles Krug, give away grape residue free. (They also use it as fertilizer for their vines.) You can get a truck load of manure, not well-rotted, but perfect for composting, at Grizzly Peak Stables in Tilden Park (Berkeley) for $1.50 a truckload, bring your own truck. I called the Steam Beer Brewery in San Francisco and they will give you spent hops. Here's how. Take a plastic garbage can with a tight fitting lid over to them. They will fill it when they do the next brewing, but you must pick it up promptly. Forget about Hamm's Brewery. They use extract of hops. You don't need all these ingredients of course, only what's handy for you. Cover the pile with black plastic. This helps soak up the sun's heat, keeps the rain from leaching out nutrients, and holds the moisture in. After a few days, the pile should heat up to 130-160 degrees, which indicates that bacterial action is happening. If the pile is not heating up, you need to add more nitrogen. If it should smell, add some natural ground limestone. The speed of the breakdown of compost depends upon the amount of

nitrogen available. Nitrogen is necessary as a source of energy for the bacteria and fungi which do the composting work. This is why you add manure. Alternatives to manure are: bloodmeal, bone meal, tankage or sewage sludge. I have stopped recommending cottonseed meal as a nitrogen source because of the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides on the cotton crop. If you put sawdust in the pile, be sure to put in extra nitrogen. Don't bother with commercial "bacterial compost activators." You will have plenty of bacteria naturally in the compost materials. Just b-- sure to feed them nitrogen. You may want to turn the pile after 2 or 3 weeks to check on the amount of moisture and degree of decay. Add water if it needs it and add nitrogen in any form if the center of the pile is not finished. Turn it so that the top and side materials become the center.

A SAMPLE COMPOST PILE

By now the earthworms will have made their way to your pile. Word 1. Water each layer - the order of layers is not travels fast. Or you can buy some red wrigglers to put in the pile. important. Red worms like partially decayed humus, whereas blue worms like it 2. Cover with black plastic. more completely decayed. The earthworms and soil bacteria release 3. Leaves tend to mat unless they are shredded, so the minerals, making them more readily available to the plants. The don't put them down in thick layers. 4. Add your garbage every few days by digging into more earthworms you have, the faster humus is digested; and the the pile, adding the garbage and covering it. more humus, the more worms. 5. Turn the pile after a few weeks. I seem to have plenty of worms without having to buy any, but you can get them from various places. See page 85 for addresses. Compost is a wonderful soil conditioner and humus additive. As a fertilizer, its value will depend upon what you put into the pile. Besides adding nitrogen (N), you can add phosphate (P) and potassium (K) in the form of natural mineral rock powders like phosphate rock (P) and colloidal phosphate (P) and green sand (K) and granite dust (K). Sewage sludge and bone meal have both N and P and wood ashes and kelp meal have K. Rock powders are relatively insoluble unless they are combined with animal manure or compost. The action of the manure acids on the rock powders causes the nutrients in the rock powder to be more assimilable to the plants. Therefore if these natural minerals are added to the compost pile, the phosphorus and potash will be in an immediately available form when the compost is applied to the garden and the finished compost will be a complete high grade fertilizer. ORGANIC FERTILIZER The three main nutrients you want for a productive soil are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). In this chapter, I will explain about some of the organic sources of these nutrients. By fertilizing the soil organically, you are giving the soil natural ingredients rather than synthetic formulas devised by some chemist to simulate the same natural ingredients. And in many cases, you are returning industrial and agricultural waste and by-products to the land, thus helping the ecology by diminishing the ever-increasing garbage problem. Nitrogen is responsible for the vegetative growth of plants above the ground. With a good supply, plants grow sturdily, mature rapidly, and have good foliage, color, food value and flavor. Phosphorus provides strong roots, healthy growth, fruit development, and resistance to disease. Potassium is essential for the development of strong plants. It helps the plants manufacture carbohydrate. Plants that lack potash do not adapt to heat and cold well, and their process of photosynthesis is slowed down. MANURE is the age old basic fertilizer. Dried composted steer manure is available in every garden store and analyzes about 1-2% N, 1-2% P and 2-3% K. Hot manure, such as horse, hen, sheep, and rabbit manure, is

slightly higher in nitrogen. For instance, rabbit manure analyzes 2.4% N, 1.4% P and 0.6% K, and poultry manure analyzes 5% N, 2-3% P and 1-2% K. If hot manures are fresh, they must be composted before applying directly to the plants. Manure should be stored under cover to prevent leaching of the valuable nutrients. If you mix in some rock phosphate while composting manure, you will reduce the loss of nitrogen. Or if you mix fresh manure into the soil at least 8 weeks before planting time, there will be only a slight loss in plant food. About 100150 lbs. of fresh manure per 250 sq. ft. is a good amount to start with. Poultry manure should be used more sparingly - about 25-30 lbs. per 250 sq. ft. Most horse stables will sell you manure very cheaply. They have plenty to get rid of. If it's from the barns it may be mixed with hay or wood chips. That's fine. Find out if they use spray in the barns, however, and use your discretion. LEAVES are a good source of minerals as well as of N, P & K, and they add organic matter. They can be used as a mulch, in compost piles, worked into empty garden beds in the fall, or dug into trenches between rows. When using large amounts of leaves, especially oak, it is wise to add ground limestone to offset their acidity unless the leaves are being used on acid loving plants such as rhododendrens and azaleas. GREEN MANURE is really a soil conditioner, but it also adds fertility. Soil tilth (looseness) and fertility can be improved by sowing a green manure crop in the fall and turning it under in the spring a good 8 weeks before planting. Barley, buckwheat, rye, oats, pearl millet and comfrey and many legumes are good to use. With legumes, such as clovers, field peas, soybeans, vetches, and alfalfa, it's a good idea to innoculate the seed. Coating the seed with nitrogen fixing bacteria enables the plant to utilize the nitrogen in the air, thus raising the yield and fortifying the soil with added nitrogen. There is a different strain of bacteria for every type of legume, so you must specify which type of legume you plan to grow. Legume innoculants are supplied in California by Nelson Laboratory, 1145 W. Fremont Street, Stockton, 95203. Seed catalogues also sell "garden mix" cultures, but these are only useful on pea and bean vegetable seeds. A 30 cent packet will treat 5-10 lbs. of seed. GRASS CLIPPINGS are fairly rich in nitrogen and good for working into the soil, as a mulch, or as a compost ingredient. WOOD ASHES contain 1.5% P and 7% K. The potash will leach away, however, if they are allowed to stand in the rain. They can be mixed into the soil or added to the compost pile. They are alkaline. SAWDUST is very low in nitrogen and can cause a deficiency while it decays if it is worked into the soil. But it is fine as a mulch if you sprinkle some nitrogen rich ingredient on the soil before you apply the sawdust. It is thought that sawdust will help neutralize highly alkaline soils. Or you can put the sawdust in the compost pile, if you add plenty of extra nitrogen. The same rules apply to WOOD CHIPS, although the bark causes them to have a slightly higher nutrient content. The nurseries sell redwood soil conditioner, but it is chemically enriched with nitrogen. HULLS and SHELLS of cocoa beans, buckwheat, oats, peanuts and rice are wonderful mulch and compost material. Hulls tend to be richest in K, although peanut shells analyze 3.6% N, 0.7% P, and 0.45% K. Cocoa bean hulls - 1% N, 115%o P, and 2.5% K can be bought in nice 75 lb. burlap sacks for $1.00 from the Guittard Chocolate Factory in Burlingame, California. Activated sewage SLUDGE contains 5% N, 3-6% P and can be bought in 50 lb. bags at just about any nursery under the name Milorganite. It's from Milwaukee's very best sewers and tends to be on the acid side. And now we come to the slaughterhouse by-products. TANKAGE contains 3-10% N and 3-10% P, depending upon whether it is meat or bone tankage. BLOODMEAL analyzes 15% N, 1.2% P and 0.7% K. When used as a fertilizer, 5 lbs. per sq. ft. is plenty. In the compost pile, it speeds breakdown and it is available at most nurseries. BONEMEAL is too, and it is an excellent source of phosphorus. It contains 1-4% N, 25-30% P. It is more effective on a well aerated soil, so use it with compost at 5 lbs. per 100 sq. ft. , or add it to the compost pile to aid breakdown. It helps reduce soil acidity.

If the slaughterhouse by-products don't appeal to you, there are various meals - soybean, linseed, peanut, coconut oil, corn gluten, and cottonseed meal. Cottonseed meal is the only one that most garden shops carry, but remember that until DDT is banned, the cotton crop will continue to be sprayed with it. I am told that the seed is well protected inside the hull, so you can make up your mind about this. These meals analyze 4-7% N, 1-3% P, and 1.5% K. They are valuable soil and compost additives and can be used at a rate of 10 Ibs. per 100 sq. ft. When iron ore is smelted to form pig iron, you're left with BASIC SLAG. It is rich in calcium and contains various trace elements such as boron, sodium, molybdenum, copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and iron. It is alkaline in action and is best applied in the fall. SEAWEED and KELP are high in potash (5%) and in trace elements. Use it fresh from the sea as a mulch or in the compost pile. Some people wash the salt off and some don't. I wonder if the salty seaweed or kelp wouldn't be a good snail and slug deterrent when used as a mulch. It is also available in a meal form at some health food stores. Finally, there are the natural mineral rock fertilizers. PHOSPHATE ROCK (30-50% P) and COLLOIDAL PHOSPHATE (18-30% P) contain phosphorus, calcium, iron sodium, magnesium boron and iodine. GREENSAND (6-7% K) and GRANITE DUST (3-5% K) are excellent sources of potash. Apply the rock powders as a top dressing or mix them into the soil at 10-15 lb. per 100 sq. ft., or add them to the compost pile. The availability of nutrients in rock powders is increased by applying them along with animal or green manure or compost, because the decay of the organic matter helps release the locked up nutrients in the ground rock. This is by no means the end of the list of organic fertilizers. Depending on where you live, you may find bat guano (1-12% N, 2.5%-16% P), dried jelly fish (4.6% N), feathers (15.30% N), red snapper and grouper fish scraps (13% P), NYC garbage rubbish (3.5% N, 1.4% P, and 3% K), hair (12-16% N), hoof and hornmeal (10.5% P), silkworm cocoons (9.5% N), and wool waste (5-6% N, 24% P, 1-3% K): And I could go on. You will most likely find the following organic type fertilizers in nurseries - bone meal, blood meal, cottonseed meal, hoof and horn meal, dried steer manure, and Milorganite. Beware of commercial compost unless it says organically composted. See the Fertilizer Directory on page 84 for organic fertilizer suppliers. In the Bay Area, David Pace of the Organic Farm and Garden Center sells the following things, mostly in 100 lb. bags, for reasonable prices; phosphate rock, granite dust, blood meal, cottonseed meal, dolomite, fish meal, hoof and horn meal, kelp meal, limestone and oystershell flour.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Locating and Buying Low Cost Land

LAWRENCE GOLDSMITH The first question that comes to mind is, "Is any free land available?" The answer is "Yes". . . with some qualifications. Several countries have free or very lost cost land for homesteading but the acreage is often undesirable for varied reasons. The land in the southwestern United States lacks water, for instance, while some on the western coast of British Columbia may have too much rainfall for your taste. There is free land available in Canada but much is located in cold regions with roads that are few and far between. Still, a few places look especially promising: If you have a knowledge of boats, you may be interested in the islands off the coast of British Columbia. Kootenai River and the western coast of British Columbia also appear promising for settlement.

Every province of Canada, for that matter, has a number of areas that might appeal to you . . . as do some of our own western states. For more information, write the Bureau of Land Management offices at the following addresses: Cordova Building, 555 Cordova St., Anchorage 3204 Federal Bldg., 230 N. First Ave., P.O. Box 148, Phoenix Federal Bldg. and U.S. Court House, 650 Capitol Ave., Sacramento 910 Fifteenth St., Denver 323 Federal Bldg., Boise 1245 N. 29th St., Billings, Mont. 560 Mill St., Reno, Nevada 113 Washington Ave., Santa Fe, New Mexico 710 N.E. Holladay, Portland Darling Bldg., Salt Lake City 670 Bon Marche Bldg., N. 214 Wall, Spokane 2002 Capital Avenue, Cheyenne,Wyoming Director of Surveys and Mapping, Dept. of Lands and Forests, Victoria, B.C.,

Alaska Arizona California Colorado Idaho Montana, North Dakota South Dakota, Nevada New Mexico, Oklahoma Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming, Kansas Nebraska British Columbia

Canada Dept. of Lands and Forests, (individual provinces or) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Climate and agricultural pamphlets are also available upon request.

Canada in general

There are advantages to buying land. You may even save money in the long run if you consider the cost of putting in the roads, houses, barns and wells that are usually found on settled farm land which is for sale. Some of the things to take into account when buying land are size, location, climate, price, farmable acreage, water access, roads and neighbors. In buying my farm I first consulted United Farm Agency, 612 W 47th, Kansas City, Mo. 64112 and Strout Realty, P.O. Box 2757, Springfield, Mo. 65803. I requested their free catalogs and used them to locate the nearest area of the country where land was reasonably priced. This happened to be north-central Pennsylvania and almost the entire state of West Virginia. By the way, there is no free land in West Virginia but much inexpensive acreage is available. The Market Bulletin, Department of Agriculture, Charleston, West Virginia lists land and other items for sale in the state. With my search narrowed to two states, a visit to the public library told me that the southwestern section of West Virginia had the warmest climate and a trip to the state did the rest. People in small grocery stores and local gas stations knew most of the land for sale in their area and the County Agricultural Extension Agent - there's one in every county seat - gave me much other valuable information about flooding, soil fertility, etc. in each county. Our rugged old truck helped get me to the back roads where land was one fifth the price of acreage on the main highways. After a week of looking, I found a 93 acre farm with a nice log house for $2700. A local lawyer checked the deed for a small fee, I bought the land through him and, soon, we shall set up housekeeping and homesteading.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Solution to Pollution
OK, gang. Let's face it. We're all in FAVOR of ecology and saving the planet and all those things . . . butit's a Royal drag, right? I mean, like, it's a lot of fun to tell the TVA to stop strip-mining Kentucky and it's great to demand that General Motors cut production of those smog-belching monsters . . . as long as YOU and I don't have to give up OUR electricity and OUR automobiles, right? Of course, if we were REALLY sincere in our protests, no protest would be necessary. Because we - YOU and I just wouldn't buy all that steel unless it could be manufactured "clean" . . . and we wouldn't use the detergents with phosphates . . . and there'd be no market for all those aluminum cans and throw-away wrappers. And - to both save our precious resources and drastically cut those mountains of waste - we'd find ways to recycle everything we use. Alright. Let's stop and dream a minute: Wouldn't it be beautiful if we could - for once and all - combine the best of both worlds: Live in perfect harmony with nature AND enjoy the fruits of technology. Set up a homestead or a commune or a whole community, say, 'way back in the hills . . . with electric lights and running water . . . but no smog, no polluted streams and no poisoned land. Got the picture? It's what most of us really want, isn't it? The Pure Life . . . with just a little sin on the side. Makes a pretty castle up there in the air, doesn't it? OK. As Thoreau advised, let's put a foundation under it. Because it IS possible. Right here and right now. It's possible, that is, according to C.E. Burr and Kieth D. Gilbert and the two following articles lay it all the way down. Gilbert is gonna give us the blueprint after Burr - since we can't act in a vacuum - tells us HOW we can have perfect waste disposal, free power, free fertilizer and a solution to pollution. How would you like to kill a whole flock of modern problems with one stone: Dispose of all organic waste quickly, easily and naturally; take a giant step toward conserving our precious fresh water; cut air pollution in half; save personal and tax money; and receive a double bonus of rich fertilizer and absolutely free power to boot! That free power, by the way, can be siphoned off in any form you want: Heat for your home, an industrial furnace, electrical energy, nearly pollution-free automobile fuel . . . you name it. Furthermore - if the bumbling politicos in your area refuse to process waste with the simple system that makes this possible - you can set up your own disposal on a village, commune, family farm or individual basis. We're going to tell you how. But first, we must understand Nature's basic law of growth and decay and become aware of the willful and wasteful misapplication of this law by most U.S. municipal sewage authorities. All animal and vegetable matter is part of a gigantic closed system that re-cycles endlessly. Organisms are born and live by recombining the protein (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and, in some cases, sulfur) of other organisms. When the new life dies, it decays and its protein is - in turn - recombined by other living beings. During the decay segment of this cycle, there is a biological process we refer to as bacterial action which always produces a stench. Anyone who has lived on a farm knows the smell of the grey vapor that rises from an opened manure pile on a cold day. This stench is hydrogen sulfide. The hydrogen sulfide is accompanied by another gas, methane, which is odorless. Both gases are combustible and, when oxidized, the hydrogen sulfide becomes sulfur dioxide and trioxide. If water (fog, rain or mist) is then added, sulfuric acid - which destroys everything but plate glass - is the result. These sulfides are heavier than air and stay close to the ground where they cause maximum damage. This is the stuff that ate the metal dome off the City Hall in St. Louis and dissolved the metal doors on the Port of Oakland. In the Delaware River, it has corroded the hulls of transport ships. It's one of the reasons smog makes you cry. The

cancer, emphysema or heart trouble that may kill you could well be traced back to all the sulfuric acid mist you were forced to breath during your short stay on earth. As if hydrogen sulfide weren't bad enough, the conventional disposal plant - which daily releases huge clouds of the gas - compounds the problem. In an effort to neutralize the hydrogen sulfide stench, great quantities of chlorine ($2,000 worth every month in San Francisco alone) are dumped into the sewers. This chlorine, of course, kills all the beneficial bacteria and does other interesting things. For example, it combines with the carbon monoxide our automobiles belch into the atmosphere to create the deadly phosgene gas that is used in chemical warfare. More cancer, more emphysema, more heart trouble.
AEROBE: A microorganism that can live and grow only where free oxygen is present. AEROBIC: Able to live or grow only where free oxygen is present. ANAEROBE: A microorganism that can live and grow where there is no free oxygen. Anaerobes get oxygen from the decomposition of compounds that contain it. ANAEROBIC: Able to live or grow in the absense of free oxygen. CHLORIDE: A poisonous, greenish-yellow, gaseous chemical used as a bleaching agent, in water purification and as a lung irritant in chemical warfare. HYDROGEN SULFIDE: H 2 S. A poisonous, inflammable gas with the nauseating smell of rotten eggs. METHANE: CH 4 . A colorless, odorless, inflammable gas formed by the decomposition of vegetable matter. Methane is present in natural gas and is used as a fuel and for illumination. NATURAL GAS: A mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons, mostly methane, that forms naturally in certain places in the earth. It is used as a fuel. PHOSGENE: COCL2 A poisonous, colorless gas formed by the union of carbon monoxide and chlorine in sunlight at a temperature of about 100 degrees C. It has 'a chlorine odor and is used in making dyes and as a lung irritant in chemical warfare. SULFUR DIOXIDE. S02 A heavy, colorless, suffocating gas used, in liquid form, as a bleach and disinfectant.

The average municipal refuse plant then completes its criminal negligence by rushing garbage through "treatment" in as little as two hours before the nearly raw sewage is pumped into open ponds, piped into the ocean, flushed down a river or pushed into "landfill". And so, ground and water pollution - with algae growth, marine and land life kills, hepititus and other diseases - are added to the rape of our atmosphere. When confronted by the fact that such "disposal" doesn't work, the authorities in charge almost invariably respond with more of the same . . . on a bigger and a messier scale. If you want a quick concrete example or two, I can supply more than a full quota from California alone: There is the $50 million sewage plant monstrocity at Los Angeles from which effluence was piped three miles into the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, the refuse washed back in to shore until Manhattan, Hermose and Redondo Beach brought suit for $30 million and Los Angeles had to spend $60 million to extend the discharge pipes another three miles to sea . . . from which it still washes back. Los Angeles has incinerators too. They cost about a million and a half each and they belch smoke all over the neighborhood. They're one of the reasons Los Angeles has had smog to spare. Modesto has spent $411 million on antiquated sewage plants and that city still has troubles. Santa Rosa's facility does not remove enough sludge to its digestion tanks to keep the plant operating and the sulfuric acid is eating up pumps and other machinery. Sebastopol's apple packers don't want to clean up their mess so they are syphoning off polluted water for irrigation before the bacteria has time to devour the putrification. We could go on, but that would be pointless. Especially since waste disposal doesn't have to be done that way. It's not really necessary for us to pay through the nose while our officials pollute the air, the land and the water. There is a much better, more natural and less expensive way to handle sewage: A way that benefits the planet by returning fertility - instead of poison - to the soil; a way that supplies - in an ecologically clean manner - some of

the power our cities are so hungry for. The basic trouble with the conventional sewage plant is that - after little more than a quick grind and dousing with chemicals - the effluent is pumped into open tanks and ponds for an aerobic digestion. All the gases - including the hydrogen sulfide, methane and chlorine - given off as the sewage decomposes are allowed to contaminate the air. Furthermore, since there's no way to positively control temperature, circulation, chemical and sludge dispersment and other variables in an open pond, much undigested and partially processed waste passes through today's overburdened sanitation facilities. There's a lot of free percentage being lost this way, you know. Consider the gases for a moment: We've already noted that hydrogen sulfide and methane are combustible. They certainly are. At Fifth and Hill Streets, in Los Angeles, sewer, gas once blew a manhole cover three stories in the air. It also tore out a full intersection from corner to corner at Ninth and Grand. You've undoubtedly heard of other such incidents. They happen regularly. And no wonder: Methane, a chief component of sewer gas, is also a chief component of the natural gas we pipe into our homes for heating, cooking and other uses. It seems kind of ridiculous to drill wells and pipe methane out of the ground for fuel while we allow clouds of the same gas to evaporate from the sanitation plants of every city and town in the country . . . doesn't it? We are just as wasteful with the solid portions of our sewage. The chlorine and other chemicals with which we "treat" the effluent further compounds the felony. The only real solution to the whole problem is the substitution of an anaerobic digestion of our garbage. With this method, sewage is processed in gas-tight tanks where complete transformation takes place. As gases are generated, they are drawn off and stored for future use. The sedimentation of digested sludge in the anaerobic tanks is chemicals and minerals. These are also drawn off and dehydrated over an incinerator in which only combustible rubbish (not the organic wastes that present systems try to cremate) is burned. The dried sludge is then mixed with incinerator ashes - potash - to make the finest fertilizer. All discharge water from this system is pure enough for irrigation and percolation to replenish subsurface waters. All the nutrients that now are passed along to cause algae trouble in our lakes are retained in the dried fertilizer. Gases that were drawn off as the sewage digested can be used to augment the incinerator fires or turn dynamos to electrify whole cities. It may even be used as fuel for internal combustion engines where - just like natural gas - it contributes only a tiny fraction of gasoline's pollution to the air. This system of anaerobic sewage disposal was designed by my friend, Russell P. Howard. Mr. Howard is a mechanical draftsman and consulting engineer. His anaerobic design is nothing but a glorified and refined septic tank and will work . . . as every septic tank demonstrates. A similar idea, the Imhoff tank system, has been employed in Germany for years. In Milan, Italy enough gas is generated by this method to provide electricity for the entire city. A few sanitation plants in this country have tried the anaerobic bacteria disposal system - but never on a 100% basis. In 1940, I visited a plant in Pasadena, California, where they had an installation of closed tanks for many years. Only about 10% of the sludge there was processed in gas-tight tanks but, still, enough gas was collected to run five internal combustion engines of 200 to 800 horsepower. In addition, there was a four-inch standpipe to the northwest of the plant which had been burning sewage gas 24 hours a day for fifty years! An incredible waste.

Russell Howard and I have been fighting this madness for 37 years. We've appeared before the Board of Public Works and submitted detailed proposals to the City Engineers of many towns. I personally was active for years as Chairman of Health in the People's Lobby of Los Angeles. And what has been the result of these efforts? Here's a typical example: In 1933, Russell Howard submitted plans for a sewage plant of his design to the city of San Francisco. This proposal was presented through the competent engineering firm of Lindgren and Swinnerton after Edward Hussey, Consulting Engineer of Oakland, had recommended that the Howard system be adopted. There was no action. Millions of dollars have since been spent on waste disposal equipment by San Francisco and Oakland and 90% of their raw sewage is still dumped into the Bay and the Ocean. Much of the other 10% is hauled by the S.P. Railroad to Visitation Valley for "cut-and-cover" land fill and the resulting rodent infestations that such disposal encourages. Has the Howard system been rejected because it costs more? No. It is one-third less expensive than other equipment. It also puts almost a complete stop to the garbage disposal racket which is one of the biggest political plums in America. (Los Angeles' last election for mayor showed - through Proposition A - what a lucrative business it is to pick up garbage.) Apparently the Howard, or a like, system will continue to be shelved until enough citizens demand an accounting of their tax dollars and an end to senseless pollution. Finally, after 37 years, that day may not be too far away. Ecology movement people and other honest folks are beginning to demand just such action. The sanitation authorities of several cities are also starting to realize that Milwaukee, Wisconsin has found a ready market for its Milorganite (made from sewage sludge) all over the country. In San Diego County, a Dr. Groth has developed enough gas from hog manure to electrify his property and run a tractor. I have been asked if the Howard system can be adapted for use by, say, a 50 to 100 member commune located in a region remote from outside power sources. The answer is yes. Fifty to 100 people will mean about five thousand gallons of water and 100 pounds of sewage and garbage sludge per day. This calls for three tanks, each approximately 10 X 10 X 10 feet, kept at a temperature of 85 Fahrenheit. It should be noted that the extent to which the effluent is purified depends on the capacity of the tanks in relation to the volume of waste that flows through them. There must be time, in other words, for the solids to settle in the tanks. At a temperature of 85 F, about 72 hours are required for this process. The tanks, then, must be large enough to hold at least three days' sewage.

After the initial 72 hours, during which the anaerobic bacteria do their job, all future action - which we term reclamation - is spontaneous. The natural process of bacteria action will devour the garbage as fast as it flows into the plant . . . just as every septic tank does. The effluent from the third tank will be clear enough for irrigation. Additional tanks can be built as population increases. This plant will produce about 500 cubic feet of gas per day with 650 British Thermal Units per cubic foot. The gas can be piped anywhere since it is natural gas. The only caution is that you must not breath it as it can kill you. One further caution about the water - or effluent - that flows from the plant: Anaerobic bacteria are not miracle workers. They, like aerobic bacteria, cannot digest nonbiodegradable compounds. If you flush detergents into your plant, they'll come right out the other side in the discharge water. Such water will ruin a boiler as the detergents leave an alkali buildup.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

NOW... electricity from manure gases

Reprinted by special permission from the May, 1963 FARM JOURNAL FARM JOURNAL, Inc.

"FLOATING" COVER, which fits inside the 6'x4'x11' manure tank (right), keeps the methane gas under pressure. Turn valve, and engine (above) is ready to start. Diagonal pipes carry hot water from radiator to coils in tank outside, thereby heating liquid to 95 and speeding "digestion" of manure.

Make electricity front hog manure? You're kidding! No, honest . . . I've just visited a farm where they're doing it. The owner is Dr. George W. Groth, Jr., who maintains 1,000 hogs in confinement on his ranch in San Diego County, Calif. They make the 10-kilowatt generator hum by capping a liquid manure pit - to trap the "sewer" gas - and tying it to a gas engine. "There's just about the right amount of electricity to pump our water and run the heat lamps for the baby pigs," says Dr. Groth. As the system stands, Groth has right at $2,000 invested, including labor and the $800 he shelled out for a warsurplus generator. Converting the generator to "hog power" was simple. All it took was a natural gas carburetor plus a frill or two to increase efficiency. For example, hot water from the engine's cooling system circulates through 300 feet of copper tubing coiled inside the liquid manure pit. It maintains a 90 to 100 temperature in the pit. "You get maximum 'digestion' of the manure at that temperature," says Groth. A small pump which runs off the fan belt pulley circulates the radiator water. The two barrels you see sitting on the cover in the photo above are half-filled with water to hold the cover in place when the pit really becomes gassy. The inlet from the hog house to the 6,000-gallon tank is a 4-inch pipe which enters the pit about half way down one side. The outlet is oil the opposite side and lower than the inlet. A complete digestion cycle takes about 20 days, but once under way, the process is continuous. The manure breaks down first into simple organic compounds such as acids and alcohols. Then, in the absence of air, it breaks down further into water, carbon dioxide and methane gas. With the generator idling alongside, the digestion process is

punctuated with burps, gurgles and a foaming action like that with household detergents. Besides the electricity , there are two obvious benefits: First, there are practically no flies; second, hardly any odor. Although Dr. Groth's hog manure power plant pray be the first one in this country, the idea isn't brand new. Similar systems have been tried on such fuel-short continents as Asia and Africa. What about bedding in the manure? "Straw slows the digestion process," answers Dr. Grout. Other animal manures? He doesn't know. As it stands, once-a-day cleaning of the hog house hasn't yet over-taxed his liquid manure pit. In fact, the pit is surprisingly efficient. "So little of the manure is left over that you wonder what happens to it," says Dr. Groth. END

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

How to Generate Power from Garbage

Now that we have the general story from C.E. Burr, it's time to get specific. HOW do we - on a very personal individual, family, tribal or community level - recycle garbage into fertilizer and useable power? CAN we do it ? Kieth D. Gilbert says, "YES!" Drawing on personal experience and-we believe - the World Health Organization's book, COMPOSTING, Kieth here presents a blueprint. Please note that this system requires users to somehow physically move wastes into and out of the plant whereas C.E. Burr's design automatically transfers such wastes. Burr's ideas, then, seem - by far - the more practical, trouble-free and desirable . . . even if details - at this point - are a little sketchy. Perhaps we can build an ideal recycling unit by grafting onto Burr's design the following details on how to generate power from garbage. This article is presented as an alternative to the usual wasteful disposal of manure, feces, and various other organic materials. By using the principles presented here for converting organic waste into methane gas, even the most remote wilderness cabin can have gas heating, refrigeration and electricity. All the home appliances and machines which run on butane gas can be made to operate on methane and by using a compressor you can probably convert your car or truck to operate on methane also. There is another point of view which you may also feel is worth considering: The gases which we harness and use in this fashion would have been released into the atmosphere anyway so we will be adding nothing to the pollution of our environment. In fact, we will be doing considerable good if we harness and use these ordinarily wasted gases as a partial substitute for other power sources. We'll do even more good if we also use the residue from our composters as fertilizer for the land. There are several basic factors which must be considered in constructing or purchasing a digester installation. These are: (1) Climate; (2) Single or multiple family installations; (3) Amount of wastes available; (4) Gas production; (5) Number and size of digesters; (6) Location of digesters; (7) Gas requirements and storage; (8) Materials and costs. CLIMATE Small digester plants can be used most effectively in temperature climates, where freezing temperatures are infrequent and of short duration. Decomposition and gas production are most rapid at about 35C. (95F.) but are satisfactory at temperatures above 15-20C. (59-68F.). Gas production practically ceases at temperatures below 10C. (50F.). The digester can be used satisfactorily in cold climates, provided the tank is properly insulated and/or heated. The additional heat required can be provided by burning some of the gas produced, by stacking manure and straw around the tank or by placing the tank above the ground so that it is exposed to the sun. When digester gas or an aerobic compost stack is used for heating the tanks, sufficient quantities of organic materials must be available to provide the additional heat as well as enough gas for other purposes. SINGLE OR MULTIPLE FAMILY INSTALLATIONS Either single or multiple family installations can be built, the choice depending on whether the single family has sufficient manure and other wastes to operate a unit. A minimum single family installation should normally include a digester tank of about 4-5 m 3 capacity and a gasholder of at least 2 m 3 capacity. Two or more digesters are desirable so that there will not be an interruption of gas production and so that one tank may be loaded while the other is digesting. A single gas-holder can serve more than one digester unit. If two or more neighboring families have only one farm animal each, it may be advantageous to combine their wastes in one digester installation from which the gas can be distributed to each dwelling. The plant can be

located to minimize transportation of wastes and to provide latrine facilities for the co-operating families. This arrangement would permit the use of more than one digestion compartment with a resulting, more uniform gas production. The cost of the mutual installation, per ton of manure decomposed, will be less for multiple family plants than for single plants. However, a multiple family plant serving more than two families may require such excessive piping of gas and transportation of organic matter as to make individual plants generally more economical. AVAILABLE WASTES Horses and cows each produce from 10 to 16 metric tons of manure per year, depending upon stabling conditions and the amounts of organic litter used for bedding. To this may be added garbage, waste straw, cane stalks, or any other organic material. Where night-soil is used as a fertilizer, it should be digested with other organic wastes before application to the land, in order to prevent the spread of faecal-borne diseases. While human excretement does not add much weight to the digester (30-60 pounds per person per year), it does provide appreciable quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus. These elements are necessary for biological digestion and methane production from cellulose and other materials with a high carbon content. The sanitary treatment of night-soil for the reclamation of nutrients is most important. It should be further mentioned that when night-soil and animal manure containing large quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus are digested, large amounts of waste materials such as straw, cane stalks, and sawdust, can be added to increase gas production. When night-soil is digested with other wastes, a digestion period of three months or more is desirable in order to ensure adequate destruction of pathogenic organisms and parasites. Stable manure and mixed organic refuse weighs from less than one-half to as much as one metric ton per cubic meter, depending upon the amount of moisture and the degree of compaction.

GAS PRODUCTION In practice, about 50% of the carbon theoretically available for gas production is converted into gas. A metric ton of waste will normally yield about 50-70 m 3 of gas per digestion cycle, depending upon the proportion of organic matter and the carbon content of the waste. The digestion cycle will be shorter at high temperatures than at low temperatures, and the daily yield per ton of material will be greater. Considerably greater digestercapacity is required to produce a fixed amount of gas at a temperature of about 20C. than at a temperature of 30 35C. The following estimates are for gas production per ton of manure for different digestion periods at different temperatures: Temperature Gas production Digestion period (C) 15 20 25 30 35 (m3 per day) 0.150 0.300 0.600 1.000 2.000 (months) 12 6 3 2 1

Similar data on gas production and digestion time for sewage sludge at different temperatures may be found in books on sewage treatment. The amount of gas produced and the rate of digestion at different temperatures are the important factors in determining the size of digestion tanks to be used. NUMBER AND SIZE OF DIGESTERS The number and size of the individual digestion tanks of a plant will vary with the amount of decomposable material available and the amount of gas desired. A minimum of two, and preferably three, tanks is recommended 3 capacity (2m x 2m x 2m) has been to maintain more uniform gas production. A digestion compartment of 8 m found to be an efficient size. In small installations, where sufficient materials are not available to supply two digesters of this size, smaller digesters could be used, but the saving in cost of construction would be small. For larger installations, up to six

compartments of about 8-12 m 3 each may be used. It is doubtful whether more than six or, possibly, eight compartments would be economical, and for very large plants the size - rather than number - of individual compartments should be increased. LOCATION OF DIGESTERS The digesters should be located near the source of manure and waste material to avoid excessive handling and transportation. Also, it is desirable to place them so as to minimize the amount of gas piping required. In Europe I have seen composters built into homes and barns. Usually this was done when livestock was housed beneath the living quarters of the farm family. It is important to orient a digester so that it will receive the maximum amount of sunlight to help maintain higher digestion temperatures. Greater heating from the sun can be obtained when the tank is placed on top of the ground, but this involved lifting the materials higher when loading. If tanks are used only for manure and litter, it is common practice to place them partly below and partly above the ground. This arrangement also permits the placement of compost around the tank for heating. If a latrine is incorporated in the digester, the top might be as much as 0.7 m above the ground without necessitating too many steps. GAS REQUIREMENTS AND STORAGE The methane gas generated by a digester may be used for domestic purposes, such as cooking, food refrigeration, and lighting. The following are some approximate quantities of gas for these different uses: Domestic cooking, 2 m 3 per day for a family of five or six people; water heating, 3m3 per day for a 100 litre tank or 0.6 m3 for a tub bath and 0.35 m 3 for a shower bath; domestic food refrigeration, 2.5-3 m3 per day for a family of five or six; lighting, 0.10-0.15 m 3 per hour per light. The gas may also be used to provide power for engines, milk cooling and electricity. A two-horsepower stationary engine requires about 0.9 m3 per hour. For milk cooling on a dairy farm, the following approximate quantities of 3 for 55 litres; 1.0 m3 for 90 litres; and 1.25 m3 for 150 gas are required to operate a butane cooler unit: 0.8 m litres. Since the gas is produced continuously, day and night - but is used largely during the daytime - it is necessary to provide storage facilities so that the methane will not be wasted and will be available when needed. The storage capacity should be estimated to meet peak demands. For small installations, storage capacity for about one day's requirement of gas should be provided. This will usually be about half, or less, of the total volume of manure actively undergoing digestion. In warm areas the storage capacity might be reduced to half the amount required per day, but it is probable that there will be times when gas will be wasted from the digester because the gas-holder is full. At other times, when a considerable amount of gas is being used, the gas-holder might become empty. The volume of the gas-holder should not be less than about 2 m 3 , even for small installations. The gas-holder may be circular or square and should be provided with a water seal to prevent escape of gas or admission of air. The weight of the floating cover of the gas-holder provides the gas pressure. The usual pressure for gas-burning equipment is 5-20 cm (2-8 inches) of water. The bottom and walls of the gas-holder - which must be watertight - can be made of concrete, but the cover should usually be metal in order not to produce excessive gas pressure. Center weights on the gas-holder cover may be used to provide the desired pressure for the burning equipment. Gas may be stored in the digestion tank by using a floating cover as shown in Fig. 9. An additional gas-holder may be used with floating-cover digesters, in which case one gas-holder would serve several individual digesters. Copper piping is the most satisfactory for gas distribution because it will minimize corrosion problems, but galvanized iron or black iron pipes and, perhaps, plastic or fiberglass pipes can be used. Valves should be provided for shutting off the gas for the digesters and from the gas-holder. The piping should be

arranged so that the gas from the digester can flow directly to the burning fixtures and the gas-holder merely floats on the line producing the pressure, taking up gas when it is produced faster than it is consumed and supplying it when the rate of consumption is greater than the rate of production. A trap should be placed at the low point in the gas line to permit the escape of any water caused by moisture condensation. The trap can be placed in a pit next to the tank or at some other place where the low point of the line can be conveniently located. If the gas is burned in an engine, removal of hydrogen sulfide (which will also be generated) is sometimes desirable to prevent corrosion. This can be accomplished by passing the gas through an absorption tank containing ferric oxide. The oxide will remove very small concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and can be regenerated by exposure to the air.

MATERIALS AND COSTS Complete plants, either prefabricated or built of concrete at the site, may be purchased in several countries. I would suggest Germany, Switzerland and Japan as sources, if for some reason you just can't build one from local materials. The prefabricated plants may use steel or concrete digestion tanks with metal covers and gas-holders. You can reduce installation costs if you build most of the plant yourself. The digestion tanks and gas-holder base can be constructed of concrete or masonry. If masonry is used, the tanks should be lined with plaster to prevent leakage of gas or liquid.

The gas-holder cover usually has to be purchased since it is most satisfactory when made of metal. It must be gas tight, not easily deformed and built with sufficient accuracy to avoid binding in the guides as it adjusts to varying volumes. The piping valves and burners must also be purchased. Unless you're skilled in pipe fitting, the pipes should be installed by an experienced craftsman. The initial cost of a methane plant may seem rather high, particularly if you do not do a great deal of the work yourself. When this cost is amortized over a period of several years, however, you'll find that such a plant will provide a cheap source of fuel and a sanitary method of waste treatment. The operating and maintenance costs are relatively insignificant. Loading and removal of material is a matter of labor, part of which would be expended in the normal handling of manure from the barns to a stack or compost pile. The maintenance of equipment amounts to painting the metal parts with the same paints used in sewage plants, to prevent corrosion. One of these generators, if well built and protected, should last over 25 years. CHOICE OF CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS Most of the materials required for the construction of a manure-gas plant can usually be found locally: Sand and gravel for making concrete, and stones or bricks for masonry. Concrete structures are preferred because they can be made water and gas tight. When built above ground, they can also be reinforced to resist inside water pressure. Concrete does require construction forms, reinforcing steel and more cement than is needed for masonry-built tanks, however. In some areas, this may constitute a serious disadvantage. Before buying or building forms for a tank, try to locate someone who builds silo foundations and find out if his forms can be adapted to a gas plant. If they can, you will make a considerable saving in time and money. Tanks may also be built of stones or bricks, using a good cement mortar for the joints. Masonry walls should be designed to sustain water pressure, and inside surfaces should be lined with a thick coat of rich sand-cement-lime plaster in order to make the tanks water and gas tight. DIGESTION TANKS Rectangular tanks are easier to build than circular ones but during operation in cooler climates, they lose more heat because of their greater surface/volume ratio. Circular structures are also more resistant to both inside water pressure and outside earth pressure, if any, and consequently require comparatively thinner walls. Each tank should be provided with a manhole for loading, unloading and occasional cleaning. Once a tank is ready for operation, the opening should be kept tightly closed to prevent escape of gas. This may be achieved by inserting a rubber gasket, or a rubber caulking compound, between the border of the cover and the tank. A plaster of clay or concrete might also be used in an emergency. Figures 1 and 2 show an individual circular digester built of masonry and lined with plaster. Field stone, brick or cinder blocks could be used here. In this plant, the gas-holder is a separate unit (see Fig. 8). Several individual digesters may be utilized. The gas from all digesters is fed to the one gas-holder. Another type of individual digester, which uses a floating cover for gas storage, is shown in Figure 9. The cover is removed for loading. The digester can be circular, square or rectangular-depending on the ease and economy of construction. Circular covers are easier to keep from binding as they raise and lower. In areas where night-soil is used as fertilizer, it will be found advantageous to combine latrine and digestion tanks in the manner illustrated in Figures 3-7. Figure 3 shows the view of the plant with housing for the latrine. The housing may be of any suitable local materials. The door should be arranged so the latrine cover can be raised easily for adding manure, straw or other wastes to the digestion tank. It should be noted that these drawings show the Oriental style of opening for the user. This type of opening is far superior to the old-fashioned, midwest and southern out-house seating arrangement. Admittedly, it is not immediately as convenient as that to which most of us are presently accustomed, but from a health standpoint it is far superior to even the finest porcelain arrangement. Figures 4 and 5 show the plan of the plant and details of its cross-section, respectively. Figures 6 and 7 show the gas-holder and gas-piping details.

A suitable baffle should be provided between the digestion tank and the latrine pit to prevent the escape of valuable gas. Care should be taken during the operation of the plant to see that this seal is maintained. It will also be necessary to maintain in the latrine an adequate level of water in order to ensure operation in a clean and sanitary manner. In the design shown, the digesters are placed partly below ground level so that the floors of the latrines are not too high above ground. Steps could be made, however, if you desire to have more of the tank above ground level. The digester's gas piping is very simple. The only requirement is that the opening of the pipe collector should be sufficiently high (12-18CM) above water level to prevent it from becoming clogged by floating scum. In some tanks a ball-shaped dome is built as part of the roof for easier collection of gas. Outside the digester, a petcock followed by a shut-off valve should be installed, the petcock for occasional testing of gas-burning quality and the valve for shutting off and isolating the digester compartment when so desired. The digester should be provided with a short discharge pipe, leading outside to a spigot or valve, through which the tank's liquid can be drained into a lined pit. As this liquid is rich in nutrients and is seeded with microorganisms which are adapted to the environment, it is essential that it be returned to the land and not wasted. Some of the liquid should be used again with the next batch of manure loaded into the digester, the excess is what is put onto the land as organic fertilizer. The capacity of the pit need only be 1/2-1 m 3 for each 10 m 3 of digester space.

GAS-HOLDER The gas-holder consists essentially of a reinforced-concrete or masonry tank, filled with water and equipped with a floating cover. The cover moves up and down through the water according to the quantity of gas the holder receives from the digester(s) (Figure 8). The water caught in the space between the cover and the tank walls maintains a permanent seal against any escape of gas. The gas-holder may be any shape, but circular is usually the most satisfactory. Under the pressure of gas arriving from the digester, the cover moves upwards, the water under it is pressed down, and, at the same time, the water level in the space between the cover and the tank's walls moves upward, the difference in water levels corresponding to the actual pressure of gas stored under the cover. In designing floating covers for digesters, allowance should be made in the freeboard on the tank to account for the difference in water elevation inside and outside the cover (Figure 9). The tank should be sunk in the ground for structural reasons, and to help prevent freezing of the water in cold

climates. It is good practice to build the tank walls slightly higher than the bell-shaped cover. The cover is usually made of sheet iron, 2-3 mm thick, and should be strengthened and framed with angle iron or cross -braces. Otherwise the thin iron sheets may warp and bind against the wall surfaces of the tank. It is also necessary to guide the floating cover in its vertical movements. This is done by the installation of a system of rollers and U-shaped iron guides, fastened to the cover by welding or other means. Cylindrical floating covers require three guides, while rectangular covers need a minimum of four. It is also desirable to provide one or more weep-holes 5-8 cm from the bottom of the bell cover through which excess gas may escape when the gasholder is full and has reached the top of its run. It is the weight of the floating cover which imparts pressure to the gas. If the cover is too heavy, it may be necessary to install a counter-weight system to reduce excessive gas pressure at points of use. If, on the contrary, the cover is too light, additional weight is necessary to provide the recommended gas pressure of 10-20 g per cm2 (4-8 inches of water) at the outlet of the gas-holder, assuming that the latter is situated at a reasonable distance from the house and the apparatus which it serves.

A heavy concrete cover might be used if counter-weights on pulleys were provided to reduce the pressure. The following is an example of determination of gas pressure in the circular gasholder illustrated in Figure 6. It is assumed that the cover is built of sheet iron 2 mm ( 0.079") thick, weighing 16 kg per m 2 ( 0.023 lb. per sq. in.) Area of top of floating cover = 2.54 m 2 (3945 sq. in.)
Total weight of floating cover= 300 kg (661.5 lb.) Pressure of gas = total weight divided by surface area of top of cover = 300

kg/2.54 m 2 = 118 kg per m 2 or 11.8 g per cm2

= 661.5 lb./3945 sq. in. = 0.17 lb./sq. in. The piping of the gas-holder can be conveniently arranged in the manner shown in figures 7 and 8. A single gas pipe enters at the bottom and serves both to bring in the gas from the digester and to convey it to the points of use. The trap mounted at the lowest point on the gas piping in the adjoining pit collects and evacuates water condensation from the gas piping. HEATING OF DIGESTERS AND GASHOLDERS Various systems have been designed for insulating or heating digesters and gas-holders in cold climates. For insulation purposes, double walls are sometimes built, the space being filled with straw, sawdust, or fibre-glass. The simplest and most economical method of heating tanks consists in surrounding them with a manure pile of one meter, or more, thickness, as shown in Figure 10. The pile is built in layers leaning against the tank's outside surfaces, but sloping away from them. In this way, the heat generated in the pile is deflected upwards and sideways towards the tank walls. The top of the tank may also be covered with such a manure pile. The latter should be renewed every 2-3 months, in order to make use of its maximum heating potential. This method may be improved by heating the digester's liquid through the heat generated in an outside manure pile and recirculating it by means of pipes installed as shown in Figure 10. The heated liquid enters the tank at the top, the cold layers at the same time being drawn into the lower branches of the pipes. In this way, constant recirculation is ensured. In large installations some of the gas can be used to heat water in a boiler; the hot water is then circulated through heat-exchange coils in the digester. MATERIALS AND INITIAL LOADING Considerable care should be exercised in putting a plant into operation. Until the conditions have become satisfactory for the growth of large numbers of the organisms necessary for good anaerobic decomposition and methane production, there is a danger of acid formation, which will retard digestion and inhibit gas production. In first starting a digester, material which has been partly decomposed by aerobic fermentation for a period of 1-2 weeks should be introduced. This initial aerobic fermentation will eliminate some of the components which may cause production of acids. After loading, the material should be allowed to ferment aerobically for a further period of about three days to develop a high temperature. If available, it is best to add some digested humus and liquid from another plant which has been in operation and producing gas for some time. The remaining volume of the digester is then filled with water. After the tank has been sealed to provide anaerobic conditions, the material will undergo a maturing period

of several days before gas production starts. If the initial material is not satisfactorily decomposed and seeding from another tank is not possible, acid conditions can develop and it may be a month or more before the conditions become favorable for gas production. The addition of lime or of an alkali or ammonium phosphate will help to correct an acid condition and facilitate earlier gas production. Horse and cow manures are more alkaline, and usually less difficulty will be experienced if the digester is started with these materials after partial aerobic decomposition. The desirable pH is in the range of 6.8 to 7.5, with an optimum value above 7.0. If by some rare circumstance the initial material is highly alkaline (i.e., pH up to 9.5), the pH will soon be lowered by the CO2 produced by decomposition. Therefore, the need for correction of the initial pH by the addition of acid is extremely unusual. In no case should sulfuric acid be added since it would contribute to the production of hydrogen sulfide. The conditions for good decomposition and gas production will be established more rapidly if the temperature can be maintained near 35 (95 F). While it is not necessary to have this high temperature for developing digestion, it is most desirable to maintain a temperature of above 20C (68 F) during the initial stages. The valve on the pipe to the gas-holder should be closed while digestion is being established. The petcock which precedes it should be open to permit any air in the tank to escape as decomposition starts. After two or three days, gases of decomposition - mostly carbon dioxide - will begin to escape. An attempt to ignite the gas should then be made. The petcock can then be closed. Further attemps to determine whether methane production has started should be made daily by trying to ignite the gas as it escapes when the petcock is opened. It will take one or two weeks or often longer to establish the production of a satisfactory gas, the time depends upon the temperature and the success in avoiding development of initial highly acid conditions in the digester. When the escaping gas will provide a continuous flame it is ready for use, and the valve to the gas-holder and distribution lines should be opened, and the petcock closed. The rate of gas production may be determined when desired by diverting all the gas to the gas-holder for a known time and noting the change of volume, e.g., if one cubic meter of gas were collected in the gas-holder during 6 hours, the gas production would be 4 m 3 per day. DURATION OF DIGESTION FOR MAXIMUM GAS PRODUCTION During the digestion period - at any temperature - the rate of gas production in a batch operation will gradually increase at first, reach a maximum-rate plateau, and will finally decrease when a large part of the material has undergone decomposition. At the higher temperatures the rate of gas production will be greater and the digestion cycle shorter. The total amount of gas produced per ton of material in a cycle will, however, be approximately the same for temperatures from 15 to 35C. At 15C, the cycle will be about 12 months while at 35C it would be about one month. Since the rate of gas production from a single digester is greatest during the middle part of the digestion cycle, it is desirable when two or more digestion tanks are used to stagger the digestion cycles so that the maximum rate of gas production for one tank will occur at the time when the rate for the other tank or tanks is low. When three or more digesters are used, gas production can be maintained at a quite uniform rate. The operation of digesters of the type shown in Figures 3-5 on a more or less continuous basis, by intermittently charging and removing material through the latrine-submerged inlet, will result in a continuous rate of gas production. In relatively warm areas, or when an outside source of heat is provided, the digestion period will be 2-3 months for the most efficient utilization of plant capacity. In cooler areas where the digester temperature averages about

20C a digestion period of 4-6 months may be most efficient. At the end of these periods about 70% to 80% of the gas available from the materials has been released. EMPTYING AND RELOADING THE DIGESTER Before a digester is emptied, the valve in the gas line should be closed and the petcock opened to let the remaining gas escape. The digesters are emptied by removing the cover and forking out the decomposed material. Special attention must be paid to not smoking, lighting matches, or creating sparks, which would ignite the gas in the digester when it is first opened. After the gas has been completely diluted with air there is no danger of ignition or explosion. When the digester tank has been emptied and only a little material remains, care should be taken to permit the gas generated by the remaining material to escape and not accumulate in the tank. The cover should be left off and air fanned into the tank before working inside it or reloading. A further word: Gas masks are of no value when working with this gas and care must be used, as it can be deadly if breathed. About 5-10 cm3 of digested humus, and about half the liquid, should be left in the digester to provide seeding for the next load. When three or more digesters are used, the liquid from a tank which is ready for emptying can be transferred to a tank which is loaded and ready to start digesting, to facilitate the development of conditions for gas production. The digester is usually filled by forking manure and other materials from accumulated piles or from the stable. If the plant has three or more digesters, one can be left open for filling as the necessary materials accumulate, and digestion again started when the tank is loaded. In large installations it will be economical to convey the manure and wastes from the barn and dump them in an empty digester by means of a moving bucket on a tight cable or overhead rail. A crane-type frame and clam-shell-type bucket can be used to remove the material from the digester. After the cover has been sealed to prevent entrance or escape of air, the operation is similar to that described for the initial starting of a digestion tank. The valve to the gas-holder is left closed and gas from the petcock is sampled daily to determine when gas production has again started. In the case of reloading a tank, gas production will start quite soon because of the digested humus and liquid which were left in the tank. When removing humus from a digester (such as the one shown in Figures 4 and 5), which is more or less continuously operated, care should be taken to collect material from the bottom which has been reasonably decomposed and to avoid lowering the water level below the baffle seal. When night-soil is added to this type of installation and two digester compartments are used, the additions to a compartment should cease at least a month or more before it is emptied. If the latrine is combined with the digestion tank, this may be accomplished by providing latrines on both tanks which can be used alternately. In areas where the temperatures may occasionally drop below the freezing point, a one-centimeter layer of oil on the water surface of the gas-holder will help prevent the formation of a layer of ice, which would stopthe operation of the gas-holder. This layer of oil will also protect the gas-holder cover from corrosion. Straw or manure insulation of the gas-holder is effective against freezing.

APPLICATION I shall not try to advise you too much on how to use your new found fuel. There are so many ways that the products of the composter can be used that anything I would say would only add to the clutter in our environment. I shall suggest one consideration, and only one, which I think is worthy of the attention of every reader of this publication. There are currently available from Japan several models of steam engines which can be used for any number of things on the farm or in a small factory. They are quite inexpensive (the starting cost is about $100 for a small one), and will operate a wide variety of equipment including such things as: Electric generators, hammer mills and shredders, pumps, power saws for producing lumber, compressors, irrigation pumps, combines for threshing grains and beans, and other power machinery. One Japanese steam plant I observed was being used to operate a small saw mill and it did an effective job. It was a wood burner and cost only $60. Contact the Japanese Trade Legation for further information about this and other equipment.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

They have a dream homestead in British Columbia's Kootenay Mountains, the roof on their log cabin is hand-hewn poles and hand-split cedar shakes and they generate their own electricity. Who are they? We can't tell . . . but here's how one young couple did the whole number:

HOMESTEADING
IN THE KOOTENAYS
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO when we were married we talked of making a move to Canada, but at that time we were not really ready to make such a move. As time went on we acquired property and built a home, but even then we still talked of a future in Canada. Our definite decision to leave the States came when our property was reassessed, and the taxes raised! We knew then; instead of talking about it, it was time to make plans to move. My husband resigned from his steady job at a plywood plant, and we sold our place. As soon as school ended in 1961 weleft for British Columbia, Canada to search for land. Our first place was in Northern British Columbia where we found the growing season so short that even some vegetables are difficult to grow and fruit trees are non-existent. So, within a year, we moved to the West Kootenays in Southern British Columbia. The place we located here was just what we were searching for; abundance of gravity water, timber for buildings and wood, better climate, good soil and isolation. Here we can raise all the vegetables we need. We alternate a couple spots for our main garden; that is, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, corn, peas, beans, kale and onions. The year a spot is not gardened, we plant it to oats. (To keep grass from encroaching on our garden, we plant a thick border of oats or wheat around it.) As we have a frost problem, we plant early varieties of tomatoes, corn and beans. The corn we mainly use is Amazing Early Alberta. It doesn't grow very tall, but produces nice sweet corn. Most years we don't get dry beans, but we save them by shelling and canning them after the first frost. We have smaller garden spots near our house where we raise lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, squash, etc. Each year we try out a new type or variety of vegetable. Last year we tried Kindred squash; this year we will try a new early tomato. We have a variety of tree fruit; such as, apples, cherries, plums, prunes, and pears. Strawberries, raspberries and other bush fruit do well here, too. Some fruit trees were already established on this place, but we have since set out many more, in order to have plenty of fruit of our own in the future. At present there are still old orchards in this area where fruit goes to waste, and it can be had just for the asking. These orchards are mainly apples and cherries. (This used to be a commercial fruit growing area.) We store at least 20 boxes of apples for winter use. From the rest we make apple juice, cider vinegar, and slice many for drying. Presently, we raise only part of our hay needs, but hope in the future as more land is cleared, we can raise a sufficient amount of hay here. Our livestock consists of goats, rabbits, chickens, and four horses. One horse weighs about 1400 pounds, so he is used mainly for work, but we do ride him at times also. The other three are saddle horses. Although when

necessary we can harness one of them to help the work horse on the mower and plow. Our place was an old homestead, so the buildings were old but useable until we could replace them. The first one to be replaced was the cellar as it is very important to have adequate storage for fruit and vegetables. We feel that food storage should be separate from the house, because of the possibility of fire. Our cellar is built out of tamarack logs; two walls four feet apart with planer shavings between for insulation. It has a gambrel type roof so as to allow area above the cellar for storing empty fruit jars, boxes and other odds and ends. Next came the log house, which my husband worked on between jobs. The timber for it came off the mountain just across the field from our house. We used horses to skid the logs to the building site, and a hand winch was rigged to handle the logs into position on the walls. The foundation is rock and mortar. Tamarack logs were used because they are long, straight and durable. Because of my husband's excellent ability with hand tools (axe, adze, broad axe, etc.) he hewed all the floor and ceiling joists, stringers, and even the necessary 2 x 4's used in partitions. The only boughten material used was the lumber for floors and ceilings. Our house is 28 x 30 with three rooms upstairs. The stairs are spiral to save floorspace. In the kitchen we have a dumbwaiter to carry the wood up from the basement for our A pelton wheel is a pressure turbine which runs off old style cookstove. The house is heated by a woodheater in the a gravity water system. There is a rotor with cups basement, a cookstove in the kitchen and an antique Franklin evenly spaced around the rim inside the pelton fireplace in the living room. A lot of our furnishings are considered wheel. Each cup has a ridge in its center and a jet antique, but to us they are a necessity. A hand operated washing nozzle directs a high pressure stream of water on machine, and sad irons take the place of an automatic washer and this ridge to give the wheel its speed and power. electric iron. By use of a pelton wheel we can produce a small Pound for pound a pelton wheel is much more powerful than an electric motor. It takes about a amount of electricity for lights from our gravity water system. For ourselves, and our children, this move to Canada didn't cause us to have to adapt to a new way of living as we had always lived in the country. My husband was raised on a farm, and has spent most of his life working in the woods. I was raised in logging and sawmill camps. To do without electricity, and being isolated is not new to us.
150 foot head, or fall, for best efficiency, but will operate on less. For our use we have a 6" pelton wheel which runs a car generator for our lights. We also use the wheel for grinding and sharpening knives, tools, etc.

Homesteading has a different meaning now than it did years ago, but in the new meaning we are "homesteading." By raising our own meat, vegetables and fruits we try to be as self-sufficient as possible, and can get by on seasonal employment. It is quite a satisfaction to be out of the so-called "rat-race," and to be individuals rather than "cogs-in-a-wheel."

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

CAMP COUNSELLING
DEB SILLERS I was once skeptical of camps . . . till I found out how nice talking to an eight-year-old about turtles can be. Now I know that a summer job as a counselor can be just the right first step (especially for a girl) back to the land. It's a way to believe those Earth Mother dreams into reality and certainly beats sitting mournfully in a dorm while reading books on life in the wilds. A summer spent among children can be an educational, joy-filled experience. There are other valuable benefits: (1) It gives you some confidence in living with nature. This is especially important for those who have lived with wall-to-wall carpeting and motel vacations all their lives. (2) It gives you a definite starting point for beginning your move back to the simpler life. (3) It starts you with some money. Lots of camps pay from $300 to $500 a session. (4) It gives you time to be quiet and to think without being totally alone (a lot of girls are scared out of the forest by solitude when they try to "go it alone" all at once.) (5) It puts you in contact with other people who dig the woods and gives you a basic feel and knowledge of woodcraft. (6) A summer spent in the mountains (or wherever) gives you a real opportunity to get in touch with what is happening out in the hills: Not the people wandering through them . . . the hills themselves. Staying in one area the whole season will give you a chance to get to know the land - to learn what the woods have to say. If you can begin to understand just one creek or one ravine, you'll have the key to understanding the land wherever you finally settle. One word of warning: Camps are definitely not for everyone. If you don't dig being with kids a lot, DON'T GO. Most camps give their counselors ample free time, but you'll be living with children. Some of these children will be away from their parents for the first time and others have problems accepting the fact that they are always sent away to camp all summer. All these children need a lot of love. If you go, be ready to give: To the kids, the other people there, the animals and the land. You'll get it all back. I'm off this summer to a camp in the Adirondacks to hunt for things that other people haven't looked at, watery places in the forest and quiet spots under the pines. Here are a few agencies to contact for a counselling job. The first two are especially helpful: Association of Private Camps 55 West 42nd Street New York, New York 10036 (must be 19) American Camping Association Directory of Accredited Camps Bradford Woods Martinville, Indiana 46151 Cost $2.00, (317) 342-3042

Mountain Laurel Girl Scout Council 413 Morrison Building Charleston, West Virginia 25301 (304) 344-3676 Saginaw Valley Council (Camp Fire Girls) 1024 N. Michigan Avenue Saginaw, Michigan 48602 Girl Scouts of the USA National Branch Office Region II 2000 L Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036

New York State Department of Labor Division of Labor Professional Placement Center 444 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10022

New England Camping Association, Inc. 29 Common Wealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Camp Counselor Placement Service Box 143 Tuxedo, North Carolina 28784

R. M. Carpenter Teacher Student Vacation Employment Service P.O. Box 621 Independence, Missouri 64082

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Don't Be boxedin

Build Your Own - Energy, Materials, Imagination

Resort to ecological principles: MONEY DOES NOT EXIST. ONLY:

JOE HRYVNIAK

Energy, perseverence and imagination are needed but these resources are limitless - unaffected by the laws of supply and demand. So go ahead and DO IT. Pay homage to the SUN - the original source of all your energy. No one can tell you the WAY to build a dome or a zome or whatever. CREATE. You are your own architect. Work with what you have - ENERGY - and scrounge the rest. Play with models. Experiment. Use stiff cardboard cut into geometric shapes and taped. Get your energy going and the dome's SYNERGY will carry you. SCAVENGE AND SCROUNGE. As Amerika rots in its garbage, you can survive on the waste. Materials can be had from schools, construction projects, demolition sites, people, industry, lumber yards. Much is laying around dumped. Pig Amerika, in its greed, will give us our sustenance. From dead cars in junk yards you can get valuable metal tops, sometimes just for the effort. More information can be found in libraries and government documents. Check the Whole Earth Catalog. Ideas are free and the energy is there. Liberate YOUR ecosystem. Ecology begins with yourSELF.

We are at a college. A commune - Libre - visited here and turned us on. Now we have a 22 foot DOME added to our environment. We got FREE: Tools, space, use of a station wagon, railroad ties, 2 by 4's, nails, fiber board, siding, paint, plastic skylight, money, and advice from a professor who built his own house. We had no plans on how to build a dome in one hundred and seven easy steps-there are none. We did not know what we were doing when we started, but we learned a lot. It will all be useful again for our survival in the coming environmental crisis. Return to your MOTHER EARTH and live in a dome. Get, for a dollar: DOME COOKBOOK. From: Lama Foundation Box 422 Corrales New Mexico 87048

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

Food Without Farming

by JAMES E. CHURCHILL
STUDY SHOWS THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS GO TO BED HUNGRY
- RECENT HEADLINE

I hope no one who reads this article will ever go to bed hungry again. There is free food all around us. Here in Wisconsin it is impossible to walk through any field or forest and not spot dozens of edible wild plants. There are acorns, cattails, milkweeds, dandelions and many others. Look closely and you'll also see many edible and unprotected animals and birds. Turtles claw along sandy roads. Woodchucks peer from grassy knolls. Gophers sit up like tent pins. Crows and blackbirds whisk overhead. And, every time you pass a pond or river, you are passing fish and clams and crayfish and frogs.

I speak from experience, having studied wild foods for years and having spent many weekends living entirely on foraged fare. Last year I passed my final exam by living the entire month of August on wild foods alone. All my foraging was done on weekends and after a regular eight hour work day, and I never felt a serious hunger pang. Matter of fact, I gained two pounds. This article details some methods and recipes for finding and using wild foods. One thing to watch for is the tendency of a year to produce bumper crops of a food source. Last year, here in Southern Wisconsin, it was acorns. Acorns fell to the ground so thickly that even a multitude of squirrels could not begin to store them. This spring, when the snow melted, so many acorns lay on oak shaded lawns that homeowners earnestly discussed ways of raking them. To me, of course, it was all manna from Heaven. Experts say there are 54 varieties of oak in the United States and most bear acorns. Nearly all can be classified in either the White or the Black (sometimes called Red) Oak group. The White Oak family matures a sweet acorn in one year while Red Oak acorns grow more slowly, mature when they are two years old, and are usually more bitter. In our area, we find the best-eating acorns by selecting the biggest ones. All acorns are edible and the biggest ones are usually the sweetest. The degree of bitterness in acorns is caused by the amount of tannin in the meat of the nut, and tannin is soluble in water. To make acorns edible, then, first peel or shell the nut. Peeling can be done with a wide variety of gadgets. One of the best combinations for small amounts is a nut cracker and nut pick. A hammer and helper are advised for larger operations! The helper sorts meat from shells after the hammer has smashed them. When you have separated a goodly amount of acorn meat from the shells, washing out the tannin is next. You caji do this Indian style if you have plenty of time. Smash or grind the meats into fine meal and then build a leach plant. An Indian leach plant resembles an eagle's nest and is made by draping a cloth over a loose hollow of substantial twigs. The cloth is pushed into a lining for the nest and acorn meal is spread in a half inch layer over the bottom. Slowly pour water over this layer until the meal is sweet or neutral to the tongue. Two things to keep in mind when using this method are: (1) Locate the leach plant on a peak or rock and (2) locate it beside water. You want plenty of water available, but you want it to be able to drain away when it has filtered through the meal. A second and faster method of leaching meal is to grind the acorns and drop them in boiling water. When the water gets very dark, dump it out, add fresh water and boil agan. Two or three changes of water will usually be enough. Place the meal in a mesh strainer or porous cloth bag and dangle it in an unpolluted stream for about twelve hours and the processing is finished for you with hardly any effort. When the acorns are processed, dry and grind them again. This time grind them really fine and you will have a

good brown flour that can be used for most cooking and baking. Some recipes that turn me on are Acorn Bread, Acorn Flapjacks and Acorn Cake. Acorn bread is made by mixing four cups of acorn flour with three tablespoons of butter, 2/3 cup of sugar, three teaspoons of baking powder, 1-1/3 teaspoon of salt, two eggs and two cups of milk. Mix the ingredients in a large pan, beat well and spoon into bread pans. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Flapjacks are made by adding one teaspoon of baking powder, dash of salt and one egg to one cup of acorn flour. Add milk until this mixture pours well and bake it on a smoking griddle. Serve hot with butter and jelly. Acorn cake beats any prepared mix I've ever eaten. It's made by mixing one cup of wheat flour and one cup of acorn flour with 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Beat this together and then add one cup sugar, three eggs and one cup milk. Mix very well and bake at 350 for 3/4 hour. Sometimes you will want to enjoy acorn meats in large natural chunks. When you do, boiling is the best way to leach them. After this processing, a very good roasted nut can be made with whole, An Indian acorn leaching plant processed acorn meats by additionally boiling them in heavy salt brine for 15 minutes. Remove from the brine, dry the kernels on a napkin and then roll them till toasty crisp in a frying pan containing one quarter-inch of bubbling hot vegetable oil. Whole processed acorn meats also can be pickled by covering them with hot vinegar and pickling spices. Two months in a jar does the delicious trick. I have beaten acorn chunks, like nut meats, into cakes and muffins and found they were more than palatable. I also have parched acorns by the same methods used to make the roasted nuts and then boiled them until they dissolved. Result: Acorn coffee. The possibilities for these plentiful nuts are almost endless. If you decide to experiment with acorns, one good way to insure at least partial success is to substitute acorn flour for wheat or rice flour in any cookbook recipe. Acorns also make good animal food. I raised a brood of Mallard ducks on oatmeal, green grass and acorns . . . and they `et good. Hogs gobble acorns down and produce the best tasting pork imaginable. A commercial farmer, however, once told me that he had a heifer die from eating acorns. This is the only negative report I've ever heard on the subject. No one should have trouble picking up all the acorns he wants in any oak woods. We've averaged a bushel an hour in good picking. Acorns can be stored for winter use. I've frozen them and they kept well. I've also stored the nuts in tight-lidded glass jars outside in the unheated garage and used them about January. They seemed better for the storing. The Indians reportedly buried acorns in mud in the fall for use the following spring. I've never tried this yet but I suspect the nuts might wind up tasting a little like decayed mud. If acorns are stored for long periods where it is warm, many of the shells will be pierced by a tiny hole and hollow. This is caused by insects. The hollow acorns will bob merrily to the top of a container of water while healthy acorns sink, however, so it's easy to sort good from bad. Versatile as acorns are, there is another wild food that may be even better: The cattail. This plant is corn, potato, salad and flavoring all rolled into one. Experts say there are two kinds of cattail: Narrow leafed (Typhus Angustifolia) and broad leafed (Typhus Latifolia) and that the narrow and broad leafed have interbred to form hybrids.

Any observer can vouch for the fact that the leaf widths are different. Here in Wisconsin, they grow up broad leaf next to narrow leaf in perfect integration. When the pollen is thick on the bloom spikes and the wind blows, the air will be yellow. It's easy to see that hybridization is probable. Someone has called cattail "the supermarket of the swamps" It is more than that. With a few tools, I believe I could go into a cattail marsh at any season of the year and live with just the cattail furnishing both food and shelter. Cattails grow in marshes and other wet places. I have seen their corn-like leaves in otherwise dry hayfields where just a pocket of constantly damp ground was located; I have also seen them holding up Red -winged Blackbirds over three feet of water. It has been my experience that cattails growing on drier ground provide better food products from the roots, and poorer above-ground provisions. Keep your eyes peeled for cattails in early spring when they are just starting to sprout. The miniature leaves and white stalks are good "munching" food, sometimes called Cossack Asparagus. Just pull out a stalk by gasping the leaves and chomp on the tender white stem. Your taste buds will tell you at what point to stop eating and pull another one.

grinding acorns

cattail new shoots, flour root, potato lump and Cossack Asparagus

After you have consumed your fill of Cossack Asparagus, carefully run your hand down a stalk under the mud, until you feel the rope-like root branching out. Reach along this as far as you can, set yourself and heave - root, plant and all - out of the mud. Swish the root around in water until you have washed the mud away and then closely examine the sub-surface part of the plant. A cattail root looks like a brown rope out of which branch new, white tapering shoots. Every bit of this root, except the skin, is edible. The new shoots are more than edible. They are crisp and almost too good to be true. If the water is clean, bite one of the shoots right there. It will be the tenderest raw plant you have ever tasted. When you've finished eating raw shoots, pull up about a bushel of roots and take them home. Keep these roots wet, however, or they'll become hard to peel. When you get home snap the white shoots off, put them in a container and carefully peel the brown roots. Use a sharp knife and be very sure to keep the roots wet. They are hard to peel otherwise. When you have the bushel peeled, find a large container and fill it with cold, clean water. Dump the peeled roots in and mash them. A kraut stomper or a large stick or a potato masher works . . . anything that will smash the roots. When the roots are crushed, reach down, get a bundle and tear them apart. Wring and tear until you have nothing left in your hands but what looks and feels like a bundle of string. This is the fiber of the roots. Tear and roll the roots between your hands now until every bit of pulp is gone from the fibers and then remove the fibers from the

water. What you have left will look like sewer water . . . but don't lose heart. Instead, strain the water through cloth until you have a lump of pulp and starch left. Put fresh water on the pulp and strain it again. Do this three times if you have to but stop when the pulp is nice and white. This pulp is pretty good flour at this stage but I like to dry it and run it through the trusty grinder until all the pieces are reduced to powder. Then I can use it as I see fit. It has been my experience that this is the only way to make good cattail flour. Cattail flour tastes a lot like oat meal to me and my main use of it has been for Swamp Bread. Add one large teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to 1/2 cup cattail flour. Mix in water until it forms dough. Make a patty and fry in bacon grease until golden brown. If you watch cattails closely the last of June you will notice a green bloom spike emerging. When this spike is four to six inches long it is ready to be picked. Handling these spikes is like peeling miniature ears of corn. Snap them off and peel away the green outer layer of husk. Beneath will be green flower buds, underlayed with yellow. Drop the buds in boiling, salted water for about 10 minutes and eat them hot, coated with plenty of butter or grease and seasoned. I find I can gather enough cattail spikes in an afternoon to last us throughout the year.

the dandelion sketched.

... and photographed

Later in the season the green spikes will open and yellow pollen will stand thickly from every spike. This pollen is a fine foodstuff indeed. I gather it by taking a pail and taping a newspaper across the brim leaving about 1/4 of the diameter open. Gently bend the pollen-filled spike into the opening and shake the golden treasure into the bucket. Bannock will never be as good any other way as with this recipe: Blend 1/2 cup cattail pollen into 1/2 cup wheat or acorn or cattail flour. Add one teaspoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of salt. Mix in enough water to make dough and mold it into a patty. Bake in a low oven or fry in a frying pan until golden brown. I have also mixed cattail pollen with beef bouillon and new cattail root shoots to produce an excellent soup. The pollen imparts a "butter" color and a corn taste to anything in which it is used. Pollen muffins are tasty spread with butter and jelly. You can make them by substituting pollen for half the flour in an ordinary recipe or by using our favorite formula: Mix one cup of cattail pollen and one cup of white wheat flour. Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, three teaspoons of baking powder. Mix this well and then add two eggs, two tablespoons of melted butter and 3/4 cup milk. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 400 for twenty minutes. I tried storing pollen but it developed mold after a few days. It probably could be frozen, though, if one wanted it for winter use. Where the cattail roots join the plant is a lump the size of a small potato. I cut out this lump and boil it just like a

potato. I have roasted it and I've sliced it and fried it. It is passable each way. Therefore I have named it the potato lump. Try it sometime. Early in spring before the cattail has grown enough foliage to wave in the wind, another wild plant is ready to furnish us with food and drink. It's the familiar dandelion, which starts growing leaves underground even before the last frost is gone. Suddenly, on one of the first warm days, it shoots green sprouts to the surface. When leaves are about as tall as a cup it is time to harvest dandelion greens. Snap a pan of leaves off their base and take them to water. Spread them out and discard all discolored leaves and foreign matter. Wash the greens twice to remove all the grit, cover them with water and boil for about five minutes. Serve hot with butter, salt and pepper. Raw dandelion leaves, mixed with lettuce, makes a good salad. Use only enough dandelion leaves to give the lettuce some taste however, as uncooked dandelion greens are inclined to be bitter. Below the leaves and above the roots is a white crown. This crown is a good boiled vegetable. It is best harvested by cutting the leaves off where they start to turn white and cutting the root off where it starts to turn brown. The middle part is the vegetable. Wash this crown very well to remove any grit and boil it for about five minutes. Serve hot with butter, salt and pepper. Under the crown is the brown skinned roots. Thev are usually forked and get as large as your thumb. The roots can be used for a vegetable or a drink base. To make a vegetable, peel every bit of brown skin away and slice the white cores. Boil until tender in salted water. Serve hot with butter. The drink is made by roasting peeled roots in a low oven until they are as stiff and brittle as sticks. Remove the roasted roots and grind them in a food grinder to make powder. Mix one heaping teaspoon of the root powder to one cup of water and boil for about three minutes. After the flower comes out it is time to leave dandelions and look for other sources of food. It happens that one plant is just coming into its own at this time in Wisconsin. If I look carefully along the roadsides, open fields and even in sunny spots in the forest I will see a well known fuzzy green plant happily producing food: The common milkweed.

milkweed in bud, blossom and pod stage

W hen

... and in line detail

the milkweed is about six inches tall it is a good green. Later the flower buds will hang on most every plant and they are good boiled like broccoli. Still later these buds will turn to flowers, and then to seed pods. The tender young seed pods are the best eating imaginable. One handicap milkweed has is the sticky, white sap that flows through every part of the plant. This sap is bitter and must be flushed out before milkweed is edible. Flushing out the sap, however, is not too difficult. Drop the plant parts in a proportionately large kettle of boiling water. The water will stop boiling. When it starts again, drain it and add fresh water. When the second water starts to boil, drain and add a third water. Let this third

water boil for about three minutes. Drain it, fill the pot again and let the milkweed boil for about ten minutes. The processing is now complete. You will no doubt notice the deep emerald appearance of these fine natural foods. If we have processed milkweeds that were young and under six inches tall we have greens. Drain, add a pat of butter for each cup of greens, season and serve hot. The flower buds are served the same way; drain, butter, season and serve. The seed pods are good hot and buttered. They are also good covered with gravy, like potatoes, or they go very well in clam chowder. Fresh water clams (mussels) abound in the streams and lakes near my home so I use them often. Clams are a little hard to find, even in good clam country, unless you know how to locate them. I usually just look along the banks of streams until I find clam shells. Two or three shells in one place probably means a clam bed is located nearby. The shells are deposited on the banks by raccoons who know the location of these beds as well as we know the location of a supermarket. After I have found two or three shells I wade out into the stream and start feeling for the clams underwater. This process takes some familiarization and you will probably lift many clam-sized rocks at first. Soon, however, you will start to know the feel of a clam shell and you will have no trouble locating all you can use. For one cook-out, my son and I harvested 85 platter-sized clams in about a half hour last summer. Lake clams are usually located the same way or by spotting their tracks in the sand. A clam track looks like someone drug the point of a stick along the beach and it will sometimes end abruptly. Dig at the end of the track and you will quite often find your clam completely buried. Here's a good clam chowder, milkweed pod recipe: Open four large clams. I do it by sticking a knife in past the lips and cutting the muscle. Catch all the juice that runs out of each clam as you perform this operation. When you have the shell open, cut the meat loose, pinch out the dark stomach and discard it. The clam meat is then passed through a grinder until it is the consistency of hamburger. Strain the juice through a fine cloth and set it aside. Add 1/2 cup of diced onion and a cup of processed milkweed pods to two cups of clam meat. Barely cover with water and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove and add one cup milk, the clam juice we set aside, and a tablespoon of butter. Return to the fire and warm up to the simmering stage. Remove and serve very hot with crackers. When you are hunting for clams among rocks you will no doubt occasionally notice a small dark shape hurtling backwards through the water. If you are fast enough, grab these shapes. They are crayfish, crawdads or crabs, depending on your location. I have snatched hundreds by placing one open palm slowly behind them and feinting with the other at their head. They will jet backwards into the open palm. Of course, when you catch them this way, they catch you too with their lobsterlike claws. I have never caught one with strength enough to break the skin, however. Crayfish can be trapped, caught with hook and line or netted. The most effective way is netting. -Drag a minnow seine slowly over a creek bottom in crayfish habitat and you will catch them by the dozens. Cook crayfish by dropping them in boiling water that has been liberally salted and dosed heavily with caraway seed. When they are done they will be bright red. Remove and cool. Most of the meat is in the tail. Grab the tail between your thumb and forefinger and twist it gently. It should break from the body. Open the shell of the tail then and thumb out the vein that forms a black line down the center. The white meat you have left can be compared to and eaten like shrimp or lobster.

a selection of good freshwater eating the Establishment has forgotten

I either dip crawdad tails in a spicy commercial shrimp dip or I roll them in batter and deep fry them. The batter is made by beating one egg with two tablespoons of seasoned milk. Roll the crayfish tails in this and then in cornmeal or white flour. Fry in bubbling fat for about three minutes. Crayfish are widely eaten and any good cook book should contain other recipes. While feeling for clams you may also find a turtle. The snapping turtle, of course, is the biggest and the best. But don't let one bite you. I don't think they will bite while they are submerged though as I have felt them in the water, traveled my fingers gently around their shells and grabbed their tails without ever being attacked. Once you lift them clear of the water, however, hold them away from your legs. They are grouchier and more agile than a turpentined terrier, I prepare a snapper by chopping off its head and hanging it by the tail. to bleed overnight. The next morning I chop off the claws at the last joint and lay the turtle on its back. Use a sturdy sharp knife to cut all around the skin where it joins the upper shell. Cut deep especially at the tail. If you have done this correctly, you now can lift the entire body away from the upper shell. Skin out the neck and the legs and save the eggs, fat and liver for stew. Discard the rest. Be sure to cut the green bile sack away from the liver, though. Located in the very top of the upper shell is a strip of white meat that it is worth cutting through to the rib-like strips of bone to get. Cook snapper anyway you see fit. Roll it in flour, season and fry like chicken. Bake it or make stew. Good turtle stew is made by parboiling the meat for twenty minutes in salted water containing a cup of diced celery and carrots. After twenty minutes drain this water and vegetables and throw them away. Add fresh water, the liver and immature eggs. Crack the rubbery shells of white eggs and add them to the water also. Continue boiling until the meat is tender. Add enough milk to whiten the soup, drop in a pat of butter for each cup of liquid, season and serve. Other fresh-water foods I have eaten are fish and frogs. Thousands of volumes have been written on fishing and l could not begin to expand on these except to say, when fishing for food use natural bait - such as worms - and use as many hooks as the law allows. Get familiar with spawning movements such as the sucker runs up small streams in the spring. Carp also come to the shallows to spawn and smelt congregate on the shores of the Great Lakes. I catch frogs by dangling a fishing fly in front of them or I nab them by hand. Hand capture is best accomplished by an almost horizontal movement towards the frog's head - rather then a vertical slap. Secure a frog by some

method and get familiar with his motion capabilities. Thereafter, catching them will be as easy as picking up a stick. Frog legs are skinned and fried. Deep frying with the crayfish batter is as good a way to cook them as any. When you get tired of a fresh-water diet, there are many other food sources that are unprotected and scorned by the Establishment. Perhaps I'll have the opportunity of presenting some of them in future issues.

Issue 3 - May/June 1970

The Shepherder's Wagon

Victor A Croley The temperature was forty degrees below zero at 6 a.m., and I knew it would be one of the coldest days of winter there in the high country of Wyoming. Fortunately, there was no wind with it and only seconds were needed to leap out of the warm bunk bed, pull pants and heavy flannel shirt over the wool "longies" I slept in, and start a quick fire in the sheep wagon stove. This was an iron affair that stood to the left of the door facing out and occupied a space about two feet square and little more than two feet high. The six inch pipe was pushed through a sheet-metal guard in the canvas-covered roof and carried off the smoke. The stove burned either wood, coal, or what was wryly called "Hoover coal." The depression years were on us and luckless President Hoover was bearing the blame for a great many minor hardships and economies. "Hoover coal" was the euphemism for dried cow manure and, when we could get them, the paper-dry pies were carefully gathered and hoarded in a sack tied on the rear corner of the wagon strictly for emergency use. Hoover coal made a quick hot fire but not everyone appreciated the pungent fragrance. Lucky for me, the ranch boss had foreseen cold weather and knew I was in a sagebrush location where timber for firewood was scarce. He had sent me a sack of coal with the wagon tender on the last trip and I had it stashed away under the wagon with a bucket of lumps beside the stove. One lump in the small firebox lasted a long time and put out an amazing amount of heat, especially with the oven door open. The water was frozen and had to be thawed on the stove before I could wash the sleep from my eyes and start breakfast. All canned goods and perishables were wrapped in newspapers and stored in cartons in the lockerbenches on each side of the wagon. By now the interior of the wagon was already comfortably warm. I sat on the bench beside the stove and surveyed my little kingdom while the water thawed. The canvas-covered sheep wagon was roughly about seven feet wide by eight feet long. On the front end a door opened out of the middle and you stepped down onto the wagon tongue and thence to the ground. From the inside looking out, the stove was on the left of the door. On the right was a small wash stand with several wooden drawers for storage of linens, towels and socks. A bucket of water and washbasin were on the oil cloth covered top and a small mirror hung above the basin for shaving. Soap, toothbrush, razor and essentials rested on top of the stand when in location or were stowed in a drawer when moving. Across three feet of the rear was the bunk bed. It was raised about four feet from the floor with a large wooden drawer fitted under each end. A wooden table slid in and out under the center, and below this was a large storage space for boots, bed-rolls and anything else that wouldn't fit elsewhere. There were no stools or chairs. Instead, between the bed and washstand on one side and the bed and stove on the other, was a bench sixteen inches high and twelve inches wide, with a hinged top and a capacious interior. Dried and packaged food supplies, canned goods, and the like were stored on the stove side and the washstand bench held extra bedding, townclothes and other miscellany. To get into bed, you slid the table out of the way, stepped up onto a bench and just rolled in,

trying not to bump your head on the low ceiling. In the rear wall of the wagon, just above the bed, was a window. about eight inches up and down and sixteen inches wide. This provided light in addition to the sixteen inch square window in the front door. The rear window was hinged on one side so that you could have fresh air at night and cross-ventilation in warm weather. It also was an ideal port-hole from which to take a pot shot at a marauding coyote and maybe knock over an unsuspecting rabbit or sage hen. If the herder was single the window was bare glass, but if he had a wife there would be a dainty little film of ruffled curtain at both the front and rear windows. Every week or perhaps two weeks if the grazing was good, the wagon tender would come around with mail and supplies and would use his team to haul your wagon to the next location while you and the dogs slowly moved the flock of sheep in his wake. Ideal locations were near water and good grazing. The Powder River country has lots of small streams, many so narrow you can step across them, yet containing water enough for trout which lurk under overhanging grassy banks for a reasonably-easy-to-catch change of diet. In winter there was always plenty of fresh meat since it could be frozen and kept for long periods. But in summer one quickly tired of salt pork, bacon or "summer sausage" and welcomed a mess of trout, or a tender half-grown rabbit or prairie chicken. My introduction to the sheep wagon as a mobile home goes back to an age when I was just graduating from flour sack dresses to a boy's shirtwaist and short pants. There were no schools in the thinly populated sheep country and so during the nine months of winter and books, father was alone on the range while the rest of the family lived in Casper and we three boys went to school. But with spring vacation and the new baby, we were off to the ranch for a summer of following the "woolies." Six of us in a sheep wagon no more than seven by eight feet! If there were hardships, mother never complained or told me about them. For three young hooligans ranging from five to ten years in age, it was wild, hilarious adventure from sunup-when we were fed and pushed out the door - until dark when we were hand-scrubbed in the same bucket of warm soapy water and tucked into the big bed roll on the hard ground underneath the sheep wagon. After we were bathed, baby sister's diapers were put to soak in the same bucket of water. When you had to carry water half a mile you saw to it that every drop got full mileage. The secret of sheep wagon living can be easily summed up: Order and spic-and-span cleanliness. There were herders who turned their wagons into rat-holes and lived in a mess a hog would shun. The good herders kept everything tidy and ship-shape, eliminated non-essentials and followed Thoreau's dictum to "Simplify! Simplify!" With bed neatly made, floors, benches and oil-cloth inner wall scrubbed and spotless there was always room and a welcome for company. Occasionally, neighboring couples could leave the dogs in charge for a spell and ride their saddle horses over for cake and coffee, music and a game of Hearts or Old Maid. Before radio, every herder had some kind of instrument . . . a fiddle, banjo, guitar, flute or mouth-harp . . . and, though most of them played by ear, it all sounded like music to us. There was even dancing after a fashion when Uncle Jim and his bride showed up. The table would be shoved back under the bed, we boys would be up on top out of the way, baby sister snug in her basket, and mother bending over the stove to make sure the taffy syrup didn't scorch. Pa would tune a few notes on the fiddle and launch into an Irish reel that would tingle from toes to ears. Then Jim would tap out a jig step that set the floor boards rattling and the dogs howling, while Jessie - with hands on hips - replied in kind. By the time I was old enough to have my own wagon, radio was coming in and with crystal sets and ear `p hones we

could sometimes get high-brow music and some of the big dance bands. Progress! After a career in the big cities, I had been talking so much about the sheepwagons of my youth that my wife finally agreed to let me build one and try it out. They are still in use in some parts of the old west: Idaho, Utah, Nevada, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana, and no doubt modern plans are available from the western state agricultural colleges. But anyone with a minimum of tools, imagination and skill can build one. The old horse-drawn running gear is now replaced by a rubber-tired farm wagon. But hardware supply houses in the west still stock the compact sheepwagon stoves and the bent hickory bows that hold the canvas and tent and awning companies still have the patterns and skill to sew the coverings. Building the modern sheepwagon (above). Note rubber There were three layers of covering: a good heavy canvas on the tired wheels inset under wagon and five bows over top. The rope line down the center served no purpose outside; then a layer of coarse wool blanket for insulation; and a except to hold the bows until the canvas was stretched. fancy-patterned oil-cloth inner lining. The last might be replaced by Patchwork quilts and wool batts were used for plastic today. insulation over an inner wall of oil cloth. No stove pipe It was this triple-ply covering that made the sheep wagon so easily cooking. heated, snug and comfortable in subzero weather. In summer, too, The wagon on the road (below) behind an antique 7930 the insulated ceiling plus the cross-ventilation from rear - window model A Ford . . . for "old time sake." through the door kept the interior comfortably shaded and cool in the high altitude areas of the west. When I built my last sheep wagon, the rubber-tired running gear cost me a hundred dollars in used, but good condition. The rest of the wagon cost another hundred, and for two hundred dollars we had a comfortable trailer and mobile home. With an ancient (1930) Model A car we traveled from Casper, Wyoming to San Diego camping and sightseeing along the way - and with never a hitch or difficulty although in deference to the car, I chose the easiest route: Over Raton Pass and south to Las Cruces, then west through Tucson and Yuma and over the Lagunas. In San Diego I lifted the wagon body onto blocks and sold the running gear at a farm auction. We lived in the sheep wagon body while our home was building and then the grandchildren inherited it as a playhouse.
was necessary because a butane gas plate was used for