We live, then, in a dark time here on our tiny precious planet. Ecological devastation, political and economic collapse, irreconcilable ideological and religious conflict, poverty, famine: the end of the overshoot of cheap-oil-based consumer capitalist expansionism.

I love spending time reading, thinking and bending ears about the clusterfuck we’ve gotten ourselves into. But lately I’ve been thinking the rewards in saying “I told you so” might not me worth the time and effort. The people I admire the most lately would also agree with Ernest Callenbach, but are too busy solving these problems to have read the article.

Coming back to North America has been equal parts inpsiring and depressing. I get overwhelmed with all the problems, but amazed at the solutions. To quote Neil Young: I have hope, but you can’t eat hope.

This is a little block sander I made with some scrap walnut from the cabinets, which are now finished! Thanks to Scotty for the info on finishing.

We also had to make a few trips to Detroit to pick up some supplies, which is always interesting. This time we ended up in Birmingham, which was very weird to see.

I am now officially anti dust jacket. As of 2012 all of my books have been liberated.

The new moriarty album was hard to resist downloading, but definitely worth the wait.

Mel’s hanging up her DIY blinds.

Fixing up my Beaver 6200 Table saw. Thanks to Mel for helping me move this. Two weeks of disassembly and rust removal just makes it that much more satisfying to use. Big thanks to Scotty for his saw knowledge.

With the new saw, we finally dimensioned rough lumber! Big thanks to Shabby, sorry about all the dust.

My finished push shoe, made with scrap black walnut. More things must be covered in tung oil – asap.