Is the U.S. too big for trains — or just too trained to drive?

Money + logistics aren’t the problem. New piece on why high-speed rail is more possible than we’re told.

#PublicTransit #HighSpeedRail #CarCulture #UrbanPlanning

"Now that’s a sunflower! 🌻🔥 Photo by @nmrocks.bsky.social. Would love to see one of these in my own garden."

#sunflower #gardening #flowers #NewMexico #nature #homestead

I'm always dying; everything is. Not bleak—what Buddhists call Maranasati. Reminds me to appreciate each moment, accept change. Even climate change.

Jessica's (@jessicawildfire.bsky.social) essay on moving from collapse awareness to acceptance is a balm.

#collapse #climatechange #mindfulness

First sign of winter here on Taos West Mesa.

#winteriscoming #Taos #NewMexico #offgrid #homestead

Did you "consent" to be governed by these people?

The theory behind the U.S. Constitution is that the people are in some kind of "contract" with the government—like we agreed to it. Justin McAffee exposes the lie of that—thoroughly!

#SocialContract #PoliticalPhilosophy #Anarchism #ThinkForYourself

Spotted this tent in Taos's Kit Carson Park. 😢

Rumor says Santa Fe & ABQ started bussing their homeless here. True or not, cities have played hot potato with the homeless for decades.

Taos is small, few services. 😔

Seeing more homeless where you live?

#NewMexico #Taos #homelessness #socialissues

These onions walk! 👣

Walking onions grow little bulbettes on top that bend over, root, and start new plants—wandering across the garden over the years. They're perennials, too!

#perennialvegetables #offgridliving #homesteading #selfreliance #permaculture

The higher the office, the bigger the jackass. That’s not a glitch — it’s a feature. Hierarchy rewards the ones who claw, kiss up, and step over.

Solution? Skip the hierarchy. Nobody on top, nobody on bottom, nobody forcing you into “team-building” trust falls.

#politics #anarchism #leadership

Flat tires: the off-road tax.

This was yesterday, on a forest road halfway up the mountain in Valle Escondido, NM. Tired of the tax, TBH.

Not as bad as when I got stuck on a desert sand dune for three days!

Story: tinyurl.com/oakie-stuck, or link in profile.

#OffGridLiving #FlatTire #Storytime

Taos Land Trust and friends have birthed a brand-new horno at Rio Fernando Park.

Other day, I thought the Redi-Wall was stuffed with bubble wrap. Nope. Just a bubble-wrap toupee over every kind of plastic trash you can imagine.

#Taos #PizzaOvenGoals #WhatsInTheWall

Cool map of New Mexico’s pueblos.
1️⃣ Names shown are Spanish or Spanish-ized. Acoma call themselves ʔáák’u (Western Keresan), Hakukya (Zuni), Haak’oh (Navajo).
2️⃣ Not one culture—4 language families: Keresan, Tanoan, Zuni, Uto-Aztecan.

#NewMexico #PuebloHistory #IndigenousVoices #Southwest

At Rio Fernando Park in Taos: a traditional adobe horno (outdoor oven, under construction) surrounded by Redi-Walls made of steel gabions and recycled bubble wrap.

Volunteers are finishing just in time for a pizza cookout this Tuesday (Aug 12).

Video's on Instagram: instagram.com/reel/DNELcTTKbIC

My little potato patch is finally dying back—just as expected. Harvest time!

Mostly growing sunchokes this year, though. Better survival crop where I'm at. Wrote a Substack article about why.
👉 tinyurl.com/oakie-sunchokes

#gardening #sunchokes #offgrid #oakiemcdoakie

I once got stuck for three days on a desert sand dune. No passersby. No tow truck willing to help. No idea if I’d save the van. (Spoiler: I lived!)

“Stuck in a Hole Where No Tow Truck Goes”
oakiemcdoakie.substack.com/p/stuck-in-a...

—Oakie McDoakie, #OakieMcDoakie

#Vanlife #NewMexico #Storytime

After Helene, my neighbor went home to Boone, NC. Roads erased, power and phones down, and still the world moved on.

The Big Collapse is already here—in pieces.

But maybe the new world coming will be better? I hope.

A+ piece by @jessicawildfire.bsky.social

#climategrief #Boone #oakiemcdoakie