Introductions are in order

I've avoided the online blogging world for some time, now. I have an older blog, somewhere, and figured a new one was a better start. We'll see how it goes.

This blog is about some of the experiments I do and will be doing, as well as sharing a bit about the lifestyle I am trying to guide myself into. My goals are to live in the desert more on the terms of the desert, using technology from 10,000 years ago as well as 10 nanoseconds ago. This is a learning process and I am within the same constraints as most others are with time, money and in convincing those I share a home with (my girlfriend and children) to take the same journey with me.

A bit on me. I basically bounced around a lot as a child from country to country, state to state, town to town, until I ended up in Mesa Arizona as a 13 year old. I grew up, not knowing anything about the desert I lived in, the history, the geology, the flora, fauna, or much else. I was in scouts and spent a lot of time hiking and camping and doing other scout-type things. I had a blast and loved it.

I shelved all of that as I became an adult, married, had children and started a career. It took a decade, but I slowly found my way back outside and returning to what I enjoyed as a teenager. A few years ago, I traveled to Italy and experienced a new world- one with rich history, rich tradition, rich strong roots as well as saw places that were built to adapt to the places in which they stood. This impacted me and I yearned for these things. A year or so later, I began to see that my home state and region did, in fact, have all of this. And I have been trying to move in that direction ever since. I don't claim to know it all, don't claim to have mastered anything, don't claim to have all the answers. But I have learned a lot and want to share some of that with you.