preface

 This is how it is:
   You can call me "Shua," because you are the internet-machine, and i will call you, "You," so we can feel engaged in intimate dialogue despite our digital disconnect.
  Ok.
  Maybe i should tell you a little about the situation:
  Recently married, my partner-in-crime and i have decided to stay in the suburbs until she can finish her degree.  Our goal together is to ultimately live, work and play on a small, virtually self-sufficient homestead.  To this end, i've done enormous amounts of reading, taken classes and workshops and done some small-scale gardening.
    i am a capable craftsman with artistic tendencies, plus i love getting dirty.
   she is a talented artist with a lot on her plate as she wends her way through the hallowed halls of academia.
The experiment:  can we survive in suburbia fantastically?  can we live more sustainably, intentionally and justly in a commuter-consumer environment?  can we systematically remove ourselves from consumer-culture and become producers of goods and services not just for ourselves, but for our friends, family, neighbors & community?
                                        i sure hope so, cuz i never really liked the 'burbs
                                                             but i love a good challenge.