Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
Superstorm Sandy forced millions of people to live without electricity for 2-6 days. Here in Oregon, we don’t get hurricanes, but we’ll eventually have a major earthquake, which will cause power outages. Wherever we are in the world, we are vulnerable to some form of natural disaster. And
Tags: expectations·Kathryn Harrington·power outage·Superstorm Sandy
This post has gotten thousands of views since I originally put it up in December 2008. It’s definitely the time of year to review how to conserve energy and the money we spend on it. The main principle in slashing home heating bills is to keep people warm, when they are in the house, rather than keeping unoccupied space warm. It’s [...]
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Who is winning what, you might ask. Last month I announced a giveaway drawing of a great book that I reviewed: Wild: Lost And Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by fellow Portlander Cheryl Strayed. To enter, you would subscribe to Diamond-Cut Life (to your right; easy to unsubscribe with a click at any time). If you were [...]
Tags: Allison Hamilton·Wild·winner
What’s the most profitable, secretive and possibly hated company in the U.S.? ExxonMobil, the subject of two-time Pultizer prize winning Steve Coll’s just-released book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil And American Power. I eagerly devoured
Tags: energy independence·ExxonMobil·oil·Private Empire·resource curse·Steve Coll
We planted our pathway garden over the gloriously sunny Easter weekend with our friend Scott Schreiner. He’s a former housemate, the second of three good people in our lives who have worked for rent. Scott drove his truck across the Cascade range from Bend, where he lives, first finding a carpool partner from Craigslist who [...]
Tags: Grand Canyon·green cards·payback period·solar panels·Steve Coll
We’d thought we couldn’t, since we live at the base of Mt. Tabor — but it turns out we can. Maybe you had thought we couldn’t, since Portland is so rainy — but it turns out that rain is not a problem. Our solar panels are going up onto the roof of our house this [...]
I wish I’d invented that title. World Made By Hand is an inspiring novel I’m recommending, written by James Kuntsler (Mr. Kuntsler is best known for his nonfiction books like Geography Of Nowhere and The Long Emergency). Why am I recommending this book in its own post, rather than simply adding it to Books I [...]
I learned awhile back that China passed the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.* What’s more interesting, though, is that Zhang Yue, one of China’s wealthiest businesspeople, has been slashing his own emissions as he conducts his business.
Tags: absorption chillers·Broad Air Conditioning·Climate Solutions·energy consumption·Zhang Yue
Winter has really set in here in Portland — coldness, darkness, incessant rain - so much so that it’s hard to believe we’re still three weeks away from the shortest day of the year (the winter solstice). I’m looking forward to my brother Mick visiting for Christmas. He’s a laughter-inducing
Tags: Burgerville·newts·solstice·writing
I am flawed in oh so many ways. I am impatient, intense, I don’t write to my invalid mother as frequently as I should, and while I no longer binge on Haagen Dazs ice cream, my sweet tooth is such that my husband terms my coffee a vehicle for sugar. In my favor, though, I [...]
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