Friday blog review: Down to Earth

The Down to Earth blog by Rhonda Hertzel focuses on 'sustainability via house and yard work' - its simple, no fuss, no claims to fame - just humble honesty. This feels like a different sort of blog to me.

I take a further look and see a nice quote on the front page:

"We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives" - Laura Ingalls Wilder

I scroll further and see there are sponsored ads on this site, but they're relevant to sustainable home-making and obviously placed there with care (rather than consumer-abandon). I click on a link to eco-friendly organic yarns in Australia and feel my excitement growing (mmmm, new yarns to knit with, weaving and spinning tools...).

I scroll further and find links to all of Rhonda's tags. I click on 'aquaponics' because I've been thinking I'd like to know more about this for a while. Her post is informative and links nicely to further information.

I notice that she has been writing on home-based sustainability for a while and has many, many posts and tags. I definitely want to find the time to read further and can see how I will get a lot out of this blog.

As I write this review I'm at my parent's property in Bairnsdale, and reading Down to Earth reminds me of the myriad books on frugal, simple living which belong to Mum and Dad.

After I've perused Mum's bookshelves yet again I pick out two books that I've looked through before and come back to each time I'm here. Somehow they seem relevant to Down to Earth and Rhonda's message:

Domestic Goddess on a Budget by Wendyl Nissen is one and her writing always has me inspired to handmake anything and everything, grow what I can and really love my home. She's based in New Zealand.

The Hard time Handbook is the other book I pick out. It was written 30 years ago by Keith and Irene Smith (editors of Earth Garden magazine) and so sounds a little old in its language, but I like its no-nonsense way of explaining how to do stuff and the wealth of topics it covers. In particular I like the stories about a family who bought their food once a year and saved lots of money, of how to save seeds and the value of re-making worn-out sheets (plus plenty of others).

These books both remind me of the humble, down to earth approach in Rhonda's blog and I like this lack of pretense.

Of course, Mum's shelves are full of plenty of other books about sustainablity, frugal living, cheap and healthy cooking, green cleaning techniques... and I hope to write about all of those in time.

I wish you a day that is down to earth and very satisfying.