Fascinating! I guess it helped them to have the framework of the village already in place -- would have been tough to build all of that from scratch. The ultimate reuse/recycle project. Maybe I missed it in the video, but I was wondering about water -- both sources and quality...seems like water will be the issue in most regions of the world, no matter what lifestyles people choose.

Beautifully said.

I love-hate this idea of cutting back, Rob. On one hand I'm nodding along in agreement, and on the other, my hedonistic tendencies are saying, "c'mon, you gotta relax and enjoy life." At some point a few years ago, my habit passed through "an occasional drink" to "daily drink", and from there it's progressed (regressed?) to daily-drink-and-often-several. I don't feel like it's a huge issue, but really, it's so unnecessary and expensive, never mind hard on the body. It becomes a stretch to consider it a treat when it's so regular, yet it seems hard to give it up when it feels like a nice reward. I can keenly relate to your feeling of looking forward to a drink at the end of the day, and admire your efforts to cut it back. Lately I've been trying to skip days (no drinks at all), and then feel like such a martyr that I expect a pat on the back or whatever. Jeez.

I found her stuff fascinating when you pointed us to it a while back -- very thankful for the recommendation, although I wish now that I had read it just before we had kids. That said, I think we're in a similar cycle with our youngest right now, where his reactions fit this model all too well. Neither of our reactions (rage or coddling) work to make him feel secure in his place, or help him understand the order of things.

Oh my, this photo is incredible.

Fantastic! I'm sure you'll be very happy there.

You've moved to Knowlton?! Fascinating. Dear childhood friends of ours from Manitoba moved there about 15 years ago, and we went to visit them for several days in 2002 -- the only place we went to in Quebec other than a half-day in Montreal. Wonderful little town, accessible and quaint. What led you there? Congrats!

Great interview! Nice to reflect on this chapter of your life -- it sounds like you've had a great experience. Good luck with new adventure(s).

Fantastic. You look about 50!

I've been thinking of how difficult it is to map this type of parenting over a different way of living -- our society is set up on some assumptions that make this nearly impossible. Our networks are very small (and not tight like tribes), and although we have proven that we can live well on one income, we look (and sadly, feel) poor by the standards of our society. There's got to be a better way to set up communities to foster these kinds of connections within and between families.

Rob, I wish I had taken your advice and read The Continuum Theory in 2005 (or earlier) -- I'm finding much to agree with, and I think we succeeded in following a more sensible (and ancient) path in raising our kids by following our gut -- but the book would have been a powerful antidote to some of the pressures we felt to do things the "usual" (modern) way.

Much appreciated! I've come across so many interesting things when people link back to my pictures...it's one of the main reasons I use the CC license. Cheers!

I've got Creative Commons licenses applied to my photos so they can be used for excellent posts like this. Attribution is key to that concept -- having the photo link to the original and a text link below would be great. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyhiebert/3698577995

Yes, agreed about community. I love the tiny houses too. The trick is finding affordable land, at least if growing food becomes a primary focus. It's funny (ironic) that my family moved away from the prairies, where we had both: community and cheap land. We grew a lot of food too, a full generation after most people stopped living off of their gardens.

You had me looking at PEI real estate again. It doesn't really make sense for us to move away from our people here, yet this conceptually this makes a lot of sense (and is very attractive) -- we can't afford to go back to the land here when a crappy house on a small lot is $300,000.

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing, Rob.

Tannis also pointed out that we're talking about cloth diapers, which includes self-laundering. Yes, we made it hard on ourselves...

I didn't trust my own estimate, so I went to a more reliable source. My wife says: "when you were on leave probably 75%, maybe dropped to 50% when you were working." Which she then amended with: "I know when you were there, you usually changed them. No idea what percentage of the time that was though." So nowhere near James' 90%, but on the right side of half...

This makes so much sense. Seems like some generalizations there about most doctors, but still...

Yet in Finland they have better educational outcomes with their kids only starting school at age seven. It's probably safe to assume two things: that what they're doing in school is working better than what we're doing, and that those kids are better prepared for school when they get there. As we haven't been able to improve learning in school with our existing models, I'm not sure why we'd assume that we'd do better using those models on younger kids. I guess if it meant taking the best current pre-school practices, bringing them into the schools, and funding that sub-system properly, you'd improve educational outcomes for kids from families with less education and lower socioeconomic status...but I also believe that it would come at a cost in undermining relationships in all families.

What a wonderful tribute! Better than any obituary.

Lookin' good! Inspiring...

This guy's a used-car salesman...hard to trust a cheesy pitchman with something to sell. Of course people have better health outcomes when they give up wheat, but the vast majority weren't eating "healthy whole grains" to begin with. They're cutting out white bread, bagels, pizza, cakes, muffins, sandwiches loaded with salt and fat, cookies, fast-food burgers, etc...things loaded with processed junk, fat and sugar. Not sure what the exact ratio would be, but I think that for most people it's primarily the removal of the sugar and over-processed junk that improves their health when they stop eating grains. What if those same people all gave up sugar instead? Or gave up sugar and switched to actual whole grains -- real whole-grain bread and pasta (but less of it than average), lots of legumes, brown rice, etc. For some of them with wheat sensitivities, the outcomes might not improve as much, but for the rest of them, I suspect their outcomes would be improved just as much (if not more). I think when people cut wheat, it's often as part of a wholesale lifestyle change, usually in response to some health threat or crisis -- usually they cut sugar and dairy too, and often change their activity level at the same time. Which is all good, but then you can't attribute the entire change to the removal of grains. As far as I know, the concept of glycemic index has not yet been discredited. Paleo diets are almost by definition low-glycemic, so it's no wonder they're good for controlling insulin and weight. Yet there's huge variation in glycemic index levels for different grain-based foods. French baguette is 95 (nearly straight glucose, which is 100), real whole-grain bread is under 50, which is lower than bananas. Instant white rice is 87, brown rice is 50. Lentils are around 20, which puts them near meat for their effects on blood sugar. Again, I'm not trying to be Mr. Contrarian. I'm all for eating smarter, especially in reducing the consumption of foods that contribute to diabetes and heart disease (that would be high-glycemic-index foods). And I know that many people are sensitive to wheat and benefit immediately from removing it. But I also think you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater when you label all grains as evil. I believe that there are good, cheap, healthy, low-glycemic foods in that category that you could reintroduce into your diet in reasonable amounts right now with no negative health outcomes.

Inspiring, Rob. Thanks for sharing your story.

Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's Hurt has always hit me hard, particularly the video, which flashes back through his past as he approaches the end of his life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clq01TXQR0s