Comments on: The Cinematic Funky Butte Ranch

By: satsuma

satsuma — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:08:44 +0000

This is inspiring. You are certainly an autonomous actor in the world. I loved the videography too.

By: Red Icculus

Red Icculus — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:48:05 +0000

I am by no means new-agey, but in this day and age sustainable living just makes sense. Can’t wait to pick up a copy.

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:36:53 +0000

Picked up your book at the DC Nat Geo talk. People on the metro must think i’m a freak…can’t seem to not giggle out loud while reading!

Goatie babies are so cute! Girl name? Stevie, of course.

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:50:11 +0000

Doug,

Thanks for such a great read! I bought it today, and read half before I even left the bookstore! I initially picked it up because I too love my Subaru! While the goats, chickens and solar panels are beyond me right now (maybe someday!) I can’t agree loudly enough with the idea of eathing local. Hopefully more people will start living that message.

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:35:33 +0000

George — Fantastic! Thanks for the kind words and it sounds like you’re on the way to carbon-neutral living. Sustainably-powering your home is definitely worth it, IMHO!

By: George

George — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:23:36 +0000

Hi Doug,

Heard you on NPR in the Dallas/FortWorth area the other day, and immediately downloaded your book from audible.com. The book is wonderful, and your reading of it really adds to the experience… very nice work, I appreciate getting more than I paid for. Speaking of which, I’m evaluating ways to get more than I paid for in terms of wind and sun. I can’t believe you made me genuinely worry about a goat, grieve about a chicken, and rejoice over a garden I’ve never seen. Best wishes… I set up an RSS feed from your blog to keep tabs on your admirable adventure.

George

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:15:28 +0000

Wow, Lynne, just saw your post this morning and what a great way to start the day. Thanks! And yep, anyone can easily approach carbon-neutrality.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:07:17 +0000

I just saw your presentation in Washington, DC, last Thursday (4/3). You are an amazing speaker. Today, I’m working on writing a response essay to your oration. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to make my life ‘greener’. Thank you so much!

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:42:22 +0000

Thanks Pete! Really appreciate it.

By: Pete Kowalewski

Pete Kowalewski — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:31:01 +0000

Hey Doug -

Loved the book…really look forward to the future posts about how things are going at the Ranch. Really enjoyed the video as well…Keep up the good work! Purchased an extra copy of the new book to share with friends and will encourage them to not only read this one but also the first…

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:03:59 +0000

I so appreciate these posts. I spend two years writing a book with no idea how it’ll be received, so comments like these really make my day.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:44:27 +0000

Hi Doug,

I just read your book in an evening, the first time in my life I’ve read a book straight through without closing it once. FANTASTIC stuff. Thanks for providing an informative and entertaining read and an entire evening spent away from the TV, using only the power needed for a reading light. Your eco-lifestyle spreads it’s influence far and wide!!

By: Cesare Augusto

Cesare Augusto — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:36:41 +0000

I hope that your book will be published also in italy soon.

By: Zengief

Zengief — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:49:31 +0000

Doug,
My wife bought me the book unknowingly on opening day. She bought it for me because she knows I love my Subaru. What a great read! I am giving this book to a friend so they can read it as well.
I enjoyed your sense of humor towards life in general. I think that if more people laughed (or, as in your case, made snarky comments) at the bad events in life, then the world would be a happier place.
I dissagree with one particular theme in your book. To me, the solution to our current energy issues and the growing one overseas is not alternative sources. To me a reduction in energy use and consumerism as well should be the main focus. If we covered the surface of the planet (or even the sun for that matter) with solar panels we would eventually consume more energy than was produced. Sustainability is the key and our current paradigm of consumption of every last resource available is not sustainable at all.
So as much as you love your ipod, subwoofers, laptop and ice-cream, they are all just driving us towards our own demise. Geez, I never thought of myself as a doom-and-gloom, the-world-is-ending type person until I just wrote that.

Anyway thank you for showing how to reduce your carbon footprint in a comical but insightful way. I hope that the sales of the book will let you become as confident, self secure, relaxed, and enjoyable as “Herbie” (without the run-in with cancer, I hope).

By: bryan

bryan — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:09:21 +0000

Hiya doug, great job! Good luck with the ranch, looks like a funky time.

I think for most of us out here in suburbia it could be even easier than moving hundreds of miles from the city, along with allowing us to stay close to friends and high speed internet =] the solution is:

- solar/wind power on the roof,
- a garden instead of a lawn (or local organic coop),
- bikes/busses (which already run on biodiesel/cng/electricity).

These changes would practically neutralize our greenhouse output and give the planet a chance to stabilize.

Your ranch has raised awareness of how practical and fun going green can be, thanks =]

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:55:57 +0000

Hey there Doug. Got your book from my husband for our anniversary and loved it. Even though we live in Indiana- a land which travel is counted by car in minutes and hour (45 minutes to the other side of town, 2 hours to the in-laws)- your adventure into clean living has provided laughs and inspiration. Thanks.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:32:17 +0000

Hi Doug! I am really enjoying your book, I got it on the day it came out after seeing your video via Boing Boing. You are doing what I would like to be doing in a few years.

I have laughed out loud several times while reading, especially at your initial description of Melissa. I will probably finish the book tonight. I keep falling asleep while reading anything and everything lately due to all of the cell dividing my body is doing growing a baby!

Also, your video actually got my husband more interested in all of this living with goats and chickens thing (I’ve been wearing him down slowly to those ideas for a while).

Wishing you were coming anywhere near Houston on your book tour!

By: John (& kaitlyn)

John (& kaitlyn) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:37:20 +0000

The reading last night in Abq was great, I’ve already set my TiVo for the DC one so Kaitlyn can see. Just out of personal interest, I’d like to talk to you in depth about how self-sufficience can integrate with high density urban housing. Not while you’re touring, I know it’s hectic, but I’d be really interested in the future.

By: SAL

SAL — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:14:53 +0000

Found out about you via c-realm, I am ordering your books today. This gives me hope that a dependant slave to the machine can extricate himself from the matrix and not only subsist…but thrive. This is very inspirational to say the least. The video on your site is very important as well….You should put DVD’s on this so as to teach your approach so that knuckle heads like me….that are awakening slowly can learn.

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:18:55 +0000

Marissa– So appreciate the kind feedback, and PS Bob, you ask good questions, which I do address in the book. Here are a couple thoughts — Johnny Weiss is President of Solar Energy International, one of the most respected non-profits in the field of renewable energy. I happen to be doing an article on renewable energy for a magazine t the moment, and just interviewed him. He believes that the solar system for an average house pays back its financial costs in five to seven years. But even discounting that, he points out, “What does you power boat pay back its production resource cost?” Many solar panels are warrantied for 30 years. Every one of those years, no natural gas has to be brought from the Gulf of Mexico in diesel trucks to your utility for your grid power, since you don’t use the utility. At the same time, Congress is close to passing new an expanded tax credit for renewable energy to bring down that cost per watt for solar energy — lobby them for this! And once critical mass is achieved in the consumer marketplace, solar costs will come down even more. Furthermore, payback is more than financial. The instant you use fewer fossil fuels, you help prevent environmental degradation world wide — in places like offshore in Alaska, not to mention violence in Nigeria. The resources that go into solar panels vary widely depending on where your panels are made, but already I rarely go to the gas station and write measly checks to a utility. So after thirty years (the length of the warranty on my panels), the manufacturing resources that went into my solar system will be long paid back in every form imaginable. But you ask a good question — we should try to make the production of our systems as sustainable as possible. Critical consumer mass is key, I think. Also, we need cleaner, better battery technology. I tell kids to go into battery engineering.