Managing a Non-Farm Business on the Farm 3

Our original vision for Longleaf Breeze was that both of us would be full-time subsistence farmers. That was before. That was before the brutal shakeout in market performance depleted the value of our investments, leaving us at once both poorer and more humble. So now we know that, at least […]


Staying Warm; Firewood 5

Amanda and I read a haunting piece on AlterNet recently entitled 5 Pieces of Advice for the New Paupers. The whole piece is worth reading, but the part that informs today’s post is about the necessity of finding a reliable way to keep warm: “You won’t even want food much […]


Clearing and Burning

We own 88 acres of land. Positioned at the junction of Tallapoosa River bottomland and the resumption of the craggy coastal plain, it’s gorgeous to us. The place where we are building the barn and plan one day to build our house is elevated enough to have a panoramic view […]


From Birmingham to Los Angeles in Seven Hours

Today Amanda and I fly to Los Angeles from Birmingham to see our brand new (and first) grandchild. If you do not yet have a grandchild of your very own, I apologize for oohing and cooing incessantly. If you do, you understand. We are, to put it mildly, fired up.


Saving Every Drop of Water We Can 4

This is that curious and exhausting stage of our lives during which Amanda and I effectively live in two worlds. Most of the week we work at our desk jobs, she teaching students at Samford University and I helping people survive divorce. Most Friday and Saturdays, though, we work at […]


Our Three Simple Principles 2

When we first started thinking and talking about this strange and delightful journey we’re taking, we knew it would challenge us in ways we had never imagined. We knew we would call on ourselves to accomplish things we’d never tried to do using skills we would need to develop as […]


Why We Are Doing This 1

When our friends find out that we, a PhD in interpersonal communications and a divorce lawyer who have never successfully grown so much as a tomato, are preparing to become subsistence farmers, their reactions vary from incredulity through denial to (occasionally) fascinated approval. The most frequent response by far, though, […]