So I'm still up and running and no response from the Dervaes family concerning the lawsuit filed against them by the lawyers of Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen.
It's been a slow week at the "sub"urban homestead but the weekend brought plenty of opportunity for us to get some work done. We are doubling the size of our garden and have cleared some land around the front of the property.
Last weekend I built solar evaporation still as a project and tomorrow will post the process and make some corrections to the method I documented on my FB account. Depending on how money looks, I'll also be getting the materials to start a couple of square foot garden beds and possible restart my herb garden that I had when I was stationed in Georgia.
Well, basically this was just a quick post to say I was checking in...should have pictures and other brick-a-brack up soon.
See you in the city...
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Reasons I'm Starting This Blog...
Basically it comes down to some group of individuals telling people that they had to stop or change their blogs and websites to some other phrasing because they now had the term "urban homestead" and "urban homesteading" trademarked. The said group is the Dervaes family of Pasadena CA. who have been urban homesteading for the past couple of decades.
While the Dervaes family have pushed the concept to the extreme, producing over 5000 pounds of food a year on their 6/10's of an acre, and have copious amounts of information on the subject published on their site, they are by no means the only practitioners of this philosophy...they are by no means the only contributors to the subject material, and are definitely NOT even the creators of the phrase, but are now asking people who have been writing and have copyrighted material in print to actually change the titles of their works. This is like trademarking the term "tennis shoe" and then telling Nike, Converse, New Balance, etc. they can no longer call their products tennis shoes.
This matter was brought to my attention last week. During that time I have watched facebook pages like Take Back Urban Homesteading, and associated websites numbers increase exponentially over the last several days. On the down side, it looks like we are going to be heading into a long and protracted legal battle with the Dervaes family (who, according to rumor is loosing most of their business because of pulling this stunt), but on the positive, we are discovering dozens, if not hundreds of other bloggers out there willing to share their information and experience. Who knew there were so many of us out there? I can tell you one group that had no clue...much to their chagrin right now.
So what do I intend to do with this blog? Well, my groovy life-mate hippie girlfriend has been homesteading her place as much as possible for some time now and I've been interested in it for years, but have only recently had a chance to get my hands dirty. Along with chronicling our experience through the year in our "sub"urban homesteading (we live "just" outside of town), I will be writhing about disaster preparedness (living in hurricane territory, tornado country and close to a flood plain we need to be ready), and permaculture or sustainable independent living and self-sufficiency.
Until the next time...or the cease and desist order comes in...
While the Dervaes family have pushed the concept to the extreme, producing over 5000 pounds of food a year on their 6/10's of an acre, and have copious amounts of information on the subject published on their site, they are by no means the only practitioners of this philosophy...they are by no means the only contributors to the subject material, and are definitely NOT even the creators of the phrase, but are now asking people who have been writing and have copyrighted material in print to actually change the titles of their works. This is like trademarking the term "tennis shoe" and then telling Nike, Converse, New Balance, etc. they can no longer call their products tennis shoes.
This matter was brought to my attention last week. During that time I have watched facebook pages like Take Back Urban Homesteading, and associated websites numbers increase exponentially over the last several days. On the down side, it looks like we are going to be heading into a long and protracted legal battle with the Dervaes family (who, according to rumor is loosing most of their business because of pulling this stunt), but on the positive, we are discovering dozens, if not hundreds of other bloggers out there willing to share their information and experience. Who knew there were so many of us out there? I can tell you one group that had no clue...much to their chagrin right now.
So what do I intend to do with this blog? Well, my groovy life-mate hippie girlfriend has been homesteading her place as much as possible for some time now and I've been interested in it for years, but have only recently had a chance to get my hands dirty. Along with chronicling our experience through the year in our "sub"urban homesteading (we live "just" outside of town), I will be writhing about disaster preparedness (living in hurricane territory, tornado country and close to a flood plain we need to be ready), and permaculture or sustainable independent living and self-sufficiency.
Until the next time...or the cease and desist order comes in...
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