I was really touched by all the comments relating to my previous post. Thank you for that.
Something will evolve into this space, I am sure, though I’m equally sure that I’m not sure what it will be or when it will happen.
But I look forward to finding out.
Ben Hewitt 
the future is the room with the best view
I look forward to whatever you offer. I used to be a newspaper columnist who wrote about my family. When the girls got older they didn’t take it as well, so I, too, found other things. I’d only just discovered your writing (and Yankee magazine), so I have a lot of catching up to do to while you figure it all out. Thank you for the gift of your words, Ben.
In the meantime, you could just put up links to Metallica videos. Lest people think you’ve stopped rocking out.
There you go! A perfect solution!
🙂 Metallica videos will probably lose me as a reader, unless of course there is Dirk and HAHillbilly and Jeff commenting.
Metallica? I’m much too old to listen to that crap!
“If it’s too loud, you’re too old.”
I look forward to finding out, too! I think that while sometimes blogging can seem burdensome and intrusive, it is also important to show another way of living and learning that challenges cultural norms. Your blog is inspiring in helping to highlight the choices we make, whether implicitly or explicitly. Hope you’ll be back soon!
I understand that your worry over people “living vicariously through your words” is only part of your decision to (at least) slow-roll the blog, but rest assured that the few minutes spent reading your blog have already inspired many days, even years or lifetimes spent enjoying inordinate amounts of time with family.
I eagerly look forward to whatever transpires here – shopping lists, head banging, whatever it may be. Be well, Ben!
Amen to previous comments. Viewers always have the option to bug off, but I like your writing and will be checking back every now and then. Good luck.
I keep stumbling across others who share your same sentiments. It’s like something is in the air.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/08/19/urban-tribe/
We would love to continue hearing about your experiences building and farming. It is refreshing and instructive to say the least. That said, of course I can sympathize with you wanting to limit time in this very public sort of superficial internet place and focus more on the real world around you. I applaud and appreciate people who are so principled that they can make tough decisions. You do what seems best for you. I never wanted to live anyones life but my own. I also really enjoy learning from others along the way, so there’s that 🙂
Take care and best wishes, as always.
Yes, Ben, your posts about your bucolic life in rural Vermont (is that an oxymoron?) were interesting and I will miss them. Which leaves me with this burning question; “What the heck do I do with the 30-30 deer slayers that I gathered for Fin & Rye?”.
Your article in Yankee about Jimmy and Sara Ackermann is a great read, probably my favorite piece.
Thanks for all that you have shared. Also, I loved your podcast with Ben Greenfield.
Been meaning to figure out how to shoot a pen and paper letter your way for two years. Got to admit now it ain’t gonna happen, so I’ll just leave this note here:
Thanks, dude. Of all the eye-opening stuff you’ve written, here and in print, I want to thank you most heartily for something kind of trivial- the off-handed mention of your household’s past vegetarianism. Cuz mine was veg for the better part of a decade, and as we make steps towards the life we want, we’re leaving that diet behind (an unpopular decision in my family of origin). The knowledge that you’d made the transition from not eating meat to butchering your own gives me- not permission, I guess, but- confidence that this is a path that can be walked. So maybe that’s silly, but that’s what I’m most grateful to you for. That, an explanation of money I could finally understand (your books are great), and publicly sharing a vision of unschooling that’s not all about programming video games, oy.
Hi Ben,
I miss you and your posts. I missed the chance to comment on your last post but wanted to add that, like everyone else, I totally understand why you won’t be writing (in the way you did before) AND I will miss your writing.
I’ve been thinking about you guys because some of our good friends who had been trying to build their own house (debt free) and live as much as they could off the land, etc are now getting a divorce. After two years of living camping style with three children and a half built house things started to fall apart. I always wondered how they could do everything they did and still stay healthy (mentally, emotionally). I guess maybe they didn’t. Anyway, I think that’s why people are so drawn to you guys, because you really are doing it and it’s working. While I am sure that it was hard to do all of that back in the days when that’s just what everyone did, I think it seems ten times harder now, in the age of “insta” and “everything”. You guys seem to have found the magic formula.
Anyway, I look forward to reading your future writing in whatever form that transpires. Good luck to you and your family and thanks for all that you have shared with us!
~Amy
Confession: after you wrote your last 2 books, I stopped reading the blog. The books contained all the info that I really seek from your blog, minus the banter betwixt cyber-personalities. Since then, I’ve been reading blogs less, and inevitably, I am coming to the same conclusion you did in your last post. Strangely, your post may give me the balls (courage?) to stop reading blogs, which, like a drug habit, feels good but I know it’s slowly killing me.
Thanks for all the inspiration, and enjoy the real world!
Ben, I just want you to know that you have inspired me in so, so many ways. Recently, I spoke with my husband about reading your blog each night, as a family. Although I understand your concerns, I want you to know that you have not encouraged us to “live vicariously” through you – In fact, you have encouraged us to look at and experience life in a completely different way – a BETTER way. I feel that I’m a better person for having read your blog, and I want my family to experience for themselves what I have experienced through your writings. I am so, SO thankful that you have opened your life up to us for as long as you have. I am excited for the things that are to come for you, although selfishly sad to lose you. Long story short: I want to say THANK YOU. It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that my life has changed because of you, and I am more thankful than I can say.
Rina
http://blog.rinamarie.com/2015/09/06/losing-our-blogs/