Abby Quillen

Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Editor

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Launching the Ed Quillen Anthology

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DITHOTR E Cover

Last week, we launched my dad’s anthology into the world. It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, we started with a huge archive of columns — more than 1500 of them — and created a book. It was quite a journey from there to here, and I’m glad I embarked on it for so many reasons. Most of all, it feels great to honor my dad’s career and preserve some of his writing in a form more lasting than newspaper archives.

Leading and completing a big project, especially one where I got to collaborate with lots of interesting people — has been super satisfying. I got to sharpen lots of skills, including copy writing, copy editing, proofreading, fundraising, public relations, graphic design, and XHTML and CSS coding. I’ve also gotten a lot of practice waiting in line at the post office with two little boys, who strangely transform into bouncing balls of energy the moment they step into public buildings.

After I catch my breath, I’m excited to tackle another publishing project. I’m hooked!

Later this week, my family is heading to Colorado for a couple of book events, including one hosted by the Center of the American West in Boulder. You can learn more about the events and the book here. I’ll likely be away from this space for a couple of weeks. But in the meanwhile, you can find a column by me in Colorado Central Magazine if you live in that area, and look out for the new YES! Magazine to hit the stands. My short feature about Portland’s food carts will be in the winter issue.

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Cruising the Blogosphere

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Last week I asked you for your favorite blogs, and you gave me so many to explore. Thanks for your feedback! I’m already familiar with some of them, but it’s exciting to find a few new ones.

For anyone looking for new reading material, here’s a small sampling of the recommendations, described in the bloggers’ own words.

“I created the Art of Doing Stuff  because let’s face it, I’m going to do all this stuff anyway so I might as use my self diagnosed OCD to make the world a better, cleaner and more organized place. Because currently, my know-how only benefits my ungrateful friends and family members who make fun of my somewhat fanatical approach to figuring stuff out, and yet, call ME when they want to know how to rip the membrane off a rack of ribs. They can suck it.” – Karen Bertelson

“The idea of foregoing the convenience of modern America and embracing a do-it-yourself attitude is a daunting one for many people. But mostly? It’s about a change in attitude. In a world where soup comes in a can, pudding from a box, and bread from a bag it’s easy to forget that just a few decades ago those items were made at home from scratch – maybe even from foods grown right outside the door.” – Kris Bordessa

“After a conversation with my neighbor on Memorial Day 2008, we decided to become minimalist. This blog is about our journey. … This blog is about the joys and the struggles. It is written to inspire you to live with less. And find more life because of it.” – Joshua Becker

“My hope for this blog has always been to share kind honesty, beauty, and simple guidance through a hectic world.” – Heather Bruggeman

“This is a journal of my small organic gardens in north eastern Ohio, zone 5(a).” – Susy Morris

“I write about old-fashioned cooking, which means: from scratch, with real food, and great taste is more important than fancy presentation.” – Drew Kime

“As humans, our priorities have been skewed. We have lost sight of what true happiness is and can bring, succumbing to a lifestyle that is unsustainable, unhealthy, and so disconnected from the natural world that we have resorted to “saving” it. We have found false solace in the material while being dominated by its pursuit. This blog is about changing that.” – Bill Gerlach

Still don’t have enough to read?

There are many, many other great suggestions in the comments section here, and be sure to check out all the suggesters’ fabulous blogs as well.  In addition, here are a few blogs that I’ve discovered recently in other ways, which I think you may enjoy:

“6512 and growing is the story of growing a family (plus 7 chickens, thousands of honeybee, a large garden and a small orchard, while butchering an elk or two) at 6512 feet, our Colorado hometown elevation.” – Rachel Turiel

“FOTL is the intersection of food, foraging, and the outdoors.” – Langston Cook

“I created this blog because I saw a need to formalize the advice I was sharing with friends and family about ‘green living’ including habits and routines that are better for your health, the health of those around you and the planet.” – Lane’ Richards

“The Urban Country‘s mission is simple. We publish 2-3 quality articles per week to advocate for using bicycles as transportation in North America to improve our cities, our people, and the world. – James D. Schwartz

Happy reading!

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Attention Needed

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“Our attention is pure energy. It transforms whatever it comes into contact with,” writes David Servan Schrieber. “Animals and children know this far better than we do. Over and above food, warmth or money, it’s attention they’re really looking for when they come to us. And they bask in our attention like the sunshine….

“The ultimate proof that our attention is valuable is all the money spent on attracting us by advertisers and TV channels. ‘Look at me!’ they scream. Yet we are never sufficiently conscious of the rich resource we have.”

Lately I’ve been thinking about attention, namely the things that I’m paying attention to and the things that I’m not. In the last few months I’ve had significantly less writing time than usual. Too often when I finally get to sit down in front of my computer, I feel paralyzed. Where to begin? My mind zips through a list of ideas bursting with potential and a bigger list of projects simmering on the back burner.

Sometimes I long for a freelance writing coach to step in and help me navigate the push and pull of this work-at-home life, someone to tell me what to squeak into the diminutive windows of writing time I’m able to eke out at the moment.

Of course, there’s no such person. This is my journey. My path. I must decide which projects deserve my attention. The consequences feel weighty. As Karen Maezen Miller writes, “Whatever you pay attention to thrives; whatever you don’t pay attention to withers and dies.”

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

What are you paying attention to right now?

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An Ode to Baking Soda

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If you’re trying to simplify and go green, you have a magic helper – baking soda. It’s almost too good to be true – cheap, natural, non-toxic, with a legion of uses. If you’re not using baking soda daily, you may be surprised at how many expensive products you can replace with this one simple substance. You could almost imagine it capable of any feat.

What exactly is baking soda?

Baking soda is a salt that goes by many names: NaHCO3, sodium bicarbonate, bread soda, cooking soda, sodium hydrogen carbonate, sodium acid carbonate, bicarbonate of soda, sodium bicarb, bicarb soda, or just bicarb. In its natural mineral form it’s called nahcolite, and it’s found in large quantities in Searles Lake, California and the oil-shale deposits of Green River Formation in Colorado.

However, most of the baking soda in the United States comes from a natural mineral ore called trona mined near Green River, Wyoming. Trona is mineral residue from Lake Gosiute, an ancient freshwater lake that once covered 15,000 miles of Southwestern Wyoming. When Lake Gosuite evaporated, minerals settled in the bed, creating the trona deposit, which is now 1500 feet below the ground. There’s so much of it there that it could meet the world’s needs for baking soda for thousands of years. Many companies mine the trona deposit, including FMC Corporation, General Chemical, and Solvay Chemicals. After trona is extracted, it must be refined to make baking soda – a multi-step process you can read about here.

In other parts of the world, baking soda is made in laboratories from brine and limestone using the Solvay Process. This method creates environmentally damaging byproducts like calcium chloride that increase the salinity of inland waterways when released.

So, is baking soda really “green”?

Baking soda production requires either mining or creates hazardous bi-products. However, it is a versatile, non-toxic product that replaces far more hazardous chemicals in most people’s homes. As cleaning products go, it’s fairly Earth-friendly.

Is there anything baking soda can’t do?

You probably know that baking soda helps quick breads and cookies rise and that a box in the fridge removes excess moisture and absorbs odor. Here are some lesser-known things you can do with it:

  • Smother grease and household fires.
  • Add it to bath water. It softens skin; relieves itching from chicken pox, measles, or bug bites; soothes a sunburn; or helps clear up a baby’s diaper rash.
  • Wash your face, body, and hair with it.
  • Dust it on in place of underarm deodorant.
  • Sprinkle it in garbage cans, diaper pails, cat litter boxes, and stinky shoes to neutralize odor.
  • Sprinkle it where needed to repel ants and roaches.
  • Clean with it – shower curtains, coffee pots, dentures, thermoses, refrigerators, garage floors, burned pans, marble, bathtubs, and drains.
  • Add a half-teaspoon to a glass of water to relieve heartburn.
  • Brush your teeth with it. Mix it with water to make a mouthwash to freshen breath and relieve canker sores.
  • Add it to the water when soaking beans to make them more digestible.
  • Clean the corrosion from car batteries with it.
(Originally published May 22, 2009.)

What do you use baking soda for?

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6 Secrets to Living and Working Together

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Today Shareable.net published my article about living and working collectively.

It starts:

Aprovecho is a 40-acre center 15 miles south of Eugene, Oregon dedicated to researching and teaching sustainable living practices and green skills.

Rosie Kirincic works there with six other staff members. She lives with four of them on-site. Those six people are coordinating the construction of a 2,500 square foot community-meeting hall using natural building methods. They manage rotating crews of work-traders who come to help with the project through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) organization.

They tend a 1.5-acre organic garden, and they actively manage 23 acres of forest using sustainable practices. That can mean felling trees with hand tools and hauling timber using a visiting team of draft horses.

They hold workshops in organic agriculture, permaculture design, eating a 100-mile diet, sustainable forestry, green building, and what they call appropriate technology, which includes building solar water heaters, bicycle grain mills, and composting toilets.

And they manage to do all of this without a boss. “It’s a consensus organization,” Kirincic explains.

You can read the rest of the article here. Thanks!

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Bartering for Waffles

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I published an article over on Shareable.net about a waffle house where bartering is part of the business model.

It starts:

Off the Waffle in Eugene, Oregon is not your typical waffle house. You won’t find pads of butter, bottles of fake maple syrup, or sides of hash browns and eggs here.

The owners, brothers Omer and Dave Orian, are in their mid-twenties and usually sport matching red afros. They and their seven employees serve traditional Belgian Liège waffles made from yeast-leavened batter. They use pearled sugar imported from Belgium, which caramelizes through the waffles, making them crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside.

And if you’re low on cash, Omer and Dave are happy to make a trade, because they’re big fans of bartering.

You can read the rest here.

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