By Caitlin Rothermel Last month, the Loop Editorial Board reviewed and updated the “Health Disclaimer” run in every issue. We made changes based on input from a writer who pointed out that its language – applied to be legally protective, and typical of what you would see in a health disclaimer – was actually off-putting…
By Andy Valencia Over the years of my life, the US has been shedding ability at a pretty decent pace. We sent manufacturing overseas, and now we have almost nobody who knows how to design for manufacturing, how to set up injection molding, how to use a mill and lathe to fabricate custom parts. We’ve…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman “Hey Mike, he’s hiding under that patch of seaweed.” We were hunting crab with a pitchfork down at Manzanita on the south end of Maury Island. Crabs can move as fast as a person walks on dry land. Mike poked the pitchfork into the seaweed and scared the ten-inch…
There is a reason we are drawn to looking at the ocean. It is said that the ocean provides a closer reflection of who we are than any other mirror – Rick Ruben, The Creative Act: A Way of Being By Suzanna Leigh Behind us, our little 9.9 hp Suzuki outboard left a trail of…
By David Earle Last month, I wrote about Vashon and Washington State’s serious housing problem, offering solutions the King County permitting department could put in place to make it easier for lower-income individuals to buy land and construct housing. This month, I return to my point: “Land hoarding is a thing.” For instance, the Reed…
By Nellie Bly Prologue: This was written over the course of several deployment periods of one to three weeks. Aman Omid Village on Holloman Air Force Base closed at the end of January 2022, having in-processed and placed 16,000 Afghani evacuees. All but eight survived. For the five months it existed, and adjusting for average…
By March Twisdale When we’re dealing with human nature, concepts tend to last. Consider the phrase, “Out of the frying pan into the fire.” This has roots as far back as ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE, and its wisdom is summed up by two other well-oiled phrases: Sometimes, we get “caught between a…
By Michael Shook July marked 11 years at our property, and I feel I know the landscape now. The first trees I planted look like proper trees, rather than sticks. And the surrounding extant trees are familiar to me in ways they were not when first we moved here. To get to know a place…
By Hugh Lord How do you start a fire without a lighter or matches? Well, at the Vashon Sportsmen’s Club Kids Camp, that is one of the things they teach you. Even once you know how, it’s still not easy, but if you keep practicing it starts to seem easier. Until it rains, then like in Fallout (a…
By Eva Deloach We love the foods of the fall time and want to highlight from time to time some of the not so-widely used ingredients to add to your own fall food home-cooked creations. This time around, it’s Black Buffalo barley. We brought this very ancient, naturally hull-less barley in to Minglement a long…