Mother Earth Magazine Sucks

I used to subscribe to MEN way back when. It had already gone way downhill and I got stiffed TWICE on unfulfilled subscriptions when various owners went under. I have a couple of boxes of old issues around somewhere that I guess I'll save. I DID buy two of their CD's. The first ten years and the second ten years. This time frame pretty much covers the period when MEN was a decent magazine. You just have to remember the time frame these magazines were published in and some things, particularly when the price of something is mentioned, are laughable.

I subscribe to both Countryside and Backwoods Home. They are both excellent up to this point. I started sending Dave Duffy (Backwoods Home) my money from about the time he started the thing. I also own all of the "anthologies" of older issues.

Bob

Is "Mother Earth" ofering back issues on a CD format? If yes, are they worth it?

Unless they have stopped, yes. There were two - the "First Ten Years" and the "Second Ten Years".

It appears that they still do and now they offer a third archive CD:

http://www.motherearthshopping.com/b...px?Subject=ACD

I doubt if the third CD is quite as good, content wise, as the first two but it looks like they have a "package price" if you buy all three at once.

I'd say it's a bargain for the amount of reading material that you get.

Bob

Cards in magazines. It seems like everybody is doing it so I just gather them all up and every once in a while I just mail them. Don't fill anything out, just mail the blank card. Perhaps they will get the idea that this kind of advertising is not working.

Lots of magazines suck! I am glad many can be found in Tractor Supply. I look thru them and buy only if it interests me. I have obtained many original MENs. Super great magazine back then. I do like having paper copies. Hard to carry the puter around and I don't have a laptop. Yup the ads are the worst. Most mags now are just >Gloss and Fluff<, carriers for the advertisers. Same with NAPCAR... I used to watch the races until it has become so scripted it makes you sick to watch... And all the commercials, grrrrrr. Another thing in our area (SE PA) is the obnoxious car commercials on the radio. I drive truck and can switch radio stations in half a heartbeat. I DO NOT want somebody YELLING at me to buy a car. Besides people need to deal amongst themselves more and get away from the work and work more and more to keep the big corporations bottom line up as they continually move our jobs away. Even Hershey is exporting jobs at a fast pace. COME ON Hershey is PA. People say that the candy from other (than local) does not taste right. I don't eat it (food problems) but believe them. We are working harder and harder for less and less. My thoughts. Tom

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Tom Lavalette, Garden Farmer
Owner Toms Tractors, Buy, Sell, Trade Garden Tractors and Implements. Custom Built machinery by order.


If Farms were Smaller, Communities would be Closer.

"People say that the candy from other (than local) does not taste right. I don't eat it (food problems) but believe them."

Could be from going from cane/beet sugar to corn sugar.

I started subscribing to TMEN iin 1975, when I was still in the service. I still buy back issues of TMEN when they come into my local used book store. I have almost the entire collection up through the mid-1980s. After that, it went yuppie and became useless. I haven't bought a new copy in almost 20 years.

Ken, I heard that Jane Shettleworth got the Eco-Village property in the divorce settlement when she and John split in the 1980s and that she still ran various "green" programs out there. Haven't checked lately. Last I heard, John was living in the Denver area and had some serious health problems. That was two-plus years ago.

Backwoods Home up in the Pacific NW isn't connected to the old TMEN, altho Dave Duffy occasionally bows his head in John's direction as his inspiration. Back Home magazine is based in N.C. and has some of the old TMEN staff. They started it when a new set of owners moved the magazine to New York City. (The "nature" photo for the editor at the time was shot in Central Park, believe it or not.)

Countryside still has the same spirit and good practical information.

If you would like to contribute to C&SSJ here is an e-mail I recevied from them. Believe submissions need to go to csymag@tds.net (from top of head):

Greetings,

Here are some topics we'd like to see for future issues of Countryside
& Small Stock Journal:

* Butchering/preserving meat (fall '07)
* Preserving/drying fruits/vegetables--sauerkraut, fruit leathers,
storing apples, etc. (fall '07)
* Shearing/spinning wool (spring '08)
* Using/making dairy products (cow/goat/other?) for
cheese/kefir/yogurt/butter, etc. (spring '08)
* Rain gardens (spring/summer '08)
* Any build-it-yourself projects: livestock manger, garden trellis,
work bench, greenhouse, etc.
* Growing fruit trees--general info and varieties for extreme
conditions (high desert, northern U.S., dry/wet conditions)
* Health-related livestock topics--breeding/birthing, worms, rare
conditions, nutrition, hoof care, clipping/grooming
* Alternative housing (straw bale, cob building, off-grid, underground)
* Guard dog breeds/history, pros & cons of
• Alternative fuels
* New or heirloom varieties of fruits & vegetables

Hope this helps the creative juices flow!

Editorial deadlines:
Sept/Oct 07--June 25th
Nov/Dec 07--Aug. 25th
Jan/Feb 08--Oct. 25th
Mch/Apr 08--Dec. 25th
May/June 08--Feb. 25th
July/Aug 08--Apr. 25th


Cordially,
Anne-marie Ida

I did like their last article quite a bit about pastuering chickens and the quality difference. They have about one good article an issue but I have seen online archives of all their articles and the older ones were much better then todays.

i just get them from the library and scan the good parts!

I was introduced to mother by my "hippie" aunt and uncle back in the 70's. Over the years I managed to acumulate most of the first 150 issues. A couple years ago I sold off all but maybe 10 that were published after issue #88, kept all the ones below that issue. That's around the time the Shuttleworths divorced and the magazine changed hands the first time.

If you like the early mother, then you should be reading "Back Home". Many of BH's staff are early TMEN people.

Donsgal, do you know when those 2 guys were murdered? I never heard about that and just read that article a few weeks ago. I remember when the young coupld and their child were mudered by a man and woman who read their ad in the magazine for like minded people to join them in homesteading. MEN's editor was really upset over that happening and almost cancelled that section of the magazine.

I remember that. I think it was around 1973 or 74.

I subscribed to Countryside for 5 years and when it went "slick" with more ads than useful articles in my opinion, I decided to save my money. The ad that made me to decide to drop my subscription was th month they first ran a mattress ad with sexy lingerie clad model.

Some folks in our area still subscribe to it and others such as TMEN or Backwoods home and I pick a copy up at the library sale for 15 cents on occasion, but after reading through them, I figure I bought 15 cents worth of worm bedding most times as they are all mostly advertisements.

Most of the rag publications offer comparable content as websites as HT do. The big difference is with websites as HT , the "reader contribution article" offers the added feature of interaction by other readers for further clarification or added information more easily.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

"Mother Earth News" needed to change its title to "Communist Times" long ago. I quit around issue #100.

I just started getting Countryside, and I love it. Basically written by the readers, who would know better. The last issue made me laugh out loud. Evidently a Southern homesteader was speaking at a convention of Northern homesteaders and mentioned that probably everyone in the room was just one toad strangler away from disaster. This nearly caused a panic until he explained that it meant gully washer or down pour. The way the writer put it was just hysterical.
Can't wait for the next issue.

I still have every issue of MEN until the first change in ownership. I was also a lifetime member. My marriage ended about the time the good quality of the magazine ended. I found Countryside about the time I remarried a few years ago. Hmmmmm. Anyway, now I'm a grandparent. None of my kids are interested in Living The Lifestyle but they have absorbed parts of their upbringing and do come and help when I get backed up on things. I am determined to teach our grandchildren that chickens do not have fingers and buffalo do not have wings and that there is more to putting food on the table than zapping something in a microwave for sixty seconds.

I was sort of confused when I first ran across MEN. I was raised on a "sustainable organic farm" in the middle of nowhere and couldn't figure out why PhDs wanted to live in a shack and milk goats.

Sure know better now :-)

I remember them! I'm so sorry they were killed. They seemed so contented with what they had. Was the info about their deaths in a later issue? While I remember the men & their "castle", I don't remember an aftermath.

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God bless,
Bonnie
Opportunity Farm
Northeast Washington

"While we have the opportunity, let us do good to all." Galatians 6:10

AFter reading some of the articles connected with their deaths I don't think it had anything to do with them being in MEN. It seems that the people who killed them did so because they wanted to be rich and were high on drugs. Still kinda creepy though isn't it.

The young couple though was killed because of the ad they placed. Those times seemed simplier but they turned ugly around the same time as Manson and some of the uglier side of drug usage and weirdness.

MEN s pure junk now like many mags these days. I quit AARP for the same reason. If I wanted People Magazine ( Which I detest), I would buy People magazine. The same with Organic Gardening.

__________________
United states of America

Born July 4, 1776

Died November 4, 2008

Suicide