The percentage of U.S. farms with high speed Internet access varies wildly from state to state and county to county, according to the recently released federal Census of Agriculture. Nearly 6 out of 10 farms in Connecticut had a high speed Internet connection in 2007, when the Census was taken. In Mississippi, only 2 out
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Of the 44 pheasants released last fall, about a dozen were released near the cabin and over the winter, I would often see them, sometimes in groups of 2 or 3, sometimes solo, and every so often in a cluster of 10 or more.
As warmer air has moved in, a group of 5 hens has
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While earlier this week, I shared Murphy and Bishop’s reporting on job losses affecting urban more than rural areas, their posting this week shows that in December, things got worse in rural America:
In the last 13 months, the number of unemployed people living in rural America has increased by 297,000. All but 15,000 of those
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The Daily Yonder reporters Tim Murphy and Bill Bishop report:
In the first 11 months of this recession, the most dramatic decreases in employment have taken place in urban counties. Rural counties, however, still have higher rates of unemployment.
Murphy and Bishop looked at the federal data
First we did two comparisons. First, we compared employment — the
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As someone who grew up immersed in the art of Grant Wood (I attended his namesake elementary school) the temporary return of the painting to Iowa is making news.  To understand American Gothic, Eldon, and how it relates to today’s world is the subject of a future blog post.

“Does it depict life today? Probably not,”
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There is a growing discussion on line and in traditional media about rural affairs.  Sometimes even the pursuit of a “simpler” life still requires paying attention to more global issue.  Steph Larsen posts this on the Blog for Rural America

The sustainable local food system we are trying to build relies on an abundance of small,
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I’ve mentioned Lou Ureneck’s cabin project as one I’m following, and in his comments, someone asked a great question:  What is a cabin?
The comments there bring an interesting mix and  Lou writes:
It’s a good question, though not so easily answered. A cabin is not a house, though it may be a home. Some cabins are
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This post originally was posted at John Raabe’s www.countryplans.com (see the  entire thread here)

Talk about asking the tough questions!  If I may, let me add my thoughts from my (narrow) point of view.  As a compliment to all before I begin, I know we all come from various backgrounds politically and socially and culturally, yet
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After enduring (there is really no other word) a long dark and cold winter, this afternoon was the third day of unseasonably warm weather in the high 50’s and clear blue skies.  A rooster pheasant greeted me in the drive when I pulled up in the car, and a pair of rosters were scratching for
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Thursday’s forecast was warm.  Today was even warmer but  in case this turned into a major repair, I wanted to have Friday as a back up day.  At about 9:31, the backhoe came down the drive way and we went to the back of the cabin.
The dogtrot has a bisecting deck that extends 24 feet
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