The suburbs: The greatest misalocation of resources in the history of the world.

"There can be little doubt that paving over much of the nation's best agriculture land and cutting old growth forests to frame shoddily built McMansions was a tragedy of epic proportions, but the question is not whom to hang but what can be done with it now?"

Lately, I've been planning my escape from the city - out to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. It took us a few years to save up enough to make the pilgrimage, but we're doing it. In the spirit of such living, I've gotten back into reading and researching permaculture, conservation, forest management, ecology and horticulture.

We plan to go back to the land as much as possible with our new purchase. If all goes well, we'll be living off rain water, and pooping in a [well-ventilated] compost heap.

The latest read (and the source of the quote above) has been a book called The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane. The author goes into great detail about the many detrimental effects of city living that we so easily overlook every day. It's opened my eyes, and motivated me to move forward and make sure my children learn the skills they need to steward the land and appreciate and respect nature, so nature will remain for future generations.