Further Reading

Once you’ve exhausted the content I can offer you, I encourage you to keep on surfing along to some sites I enjoy reading. Some are friends, some are folks I just appreciate the work of, all are worth some time. You’ll find them in alphabetical order.

• Dan Luu, who writes long-form articles about being better at both technology and at being a human in general, particularly with an eye for thoughtfulness to other people.

• Ed Davies, who knows an enormous amount about off-grid and/or otherwise alternative living, and about electrical systems therein.

• Hundred Rabbits, made up of Rekka and Devine: minimalist sailors, artists, and developers of smol tools for smol computers. Strong believers in exploration and fun for the sakes of exploration and fun.

• Jake Bauer aka @jbauer, who manages to eke out more years of life from old computers than I would have thought possible.

• Joshua Stein aka @jcs, a developer of OpenBSD and of utilities for classic Macintoshes, among other things.

• Kyle Brown aka @kdb424, a lifelong friend who dabbles with 3D printers, hi-fi audio, mechanical keyboards, and is often helping ensure I don’t sawzall my leg off when doing boat work.

• Low Tech Magazine (solar edition), exactly what it says on the tin. The site is available only if the solar-charged battery can keep the server running, which may particularly be of concern during the deepest bits of Northern Hemisphere winter. Try again in a few hours if it’s down. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

Bonus: Further Watching

These are all YouTube channels (sorry for the proprietary links), but ones I’ve found helpful, inspiring, relaxing, or otherwise worth taking time out of my day to watch long-form content from. Some of these have content warnings associated (generally for hunting or fishing), but beyond those factors are generally all safe for work… if you’re for some reason watching videos at work.

• Blue Moon Life, fellow 20-somethings in the PNW showing off the realities and complications of living aboard a small sailboat (a Catalina 30) while still holding down traditional non-remote day jobs.

• Free Range Living, sailors-turned-homesteaders who circumnavigated Australia on an extremely simple, robust, and small sailboat (a Clansman 30), showing off the beauty of several Australian states’ far-flung areas. This channel contains a seemingly unending treasure trove of boat maintenance and refit tips, without which my own work on Cloudy Day would have been significantly more stressful. They’ve since sold Mirool and moved ashore, caretaking a homestead in Western Australia.

  • Content Warnings: fishing, processing homestead animals

• Sailing Uma, architecture grads turned electric sailboat evangelists and world explorers (including taking an electric boat to Arctic Norway). Their later content includes a decent bit of sponsored stuff and generally takes a more cinematic turn, but the first ~2-3 years of the channel especially are full of scrappy DIYing on a seemingly-tight budget

• Simple Living Alaska, lots of keep-it-fairly-simple, neo-rustic off-grid living and extensive gardening, preserving, and DIYing/self-sufficiency in south-central Alaska. They also serve as yet another data point in the “you can be in your 20s-30s and still do all this stuff” list.

  • Content Warnings: hunting, fishing, processing homestead animals, guns, heavy use of fossil fuels