Ken Ilgunas
May 13, 2012
More chickenness
I am obsessed with chickens. Really. For the past two months, I’ve been raising five baby chicks. As I try to sleep at night, I can only...
Ken Ilgunas
May 1, 2012
Banning Gay Marriage
Can’t you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can...
Ken Ilgunas
Apr 22, 2012
It’s official: Vandwellers are banned from Duke
I was writing the epilogue of my book, and I needed to figure out one last thing: Have vandwellers been banned from Duke as a result of...
Ken Ilgunas
Apr 14, 2012
More chicken pictures
We’ve decided on names to give to the chickens, again with the theme of 19th Century English authors. We haven’t distributed the names...
Ken Ilgunas
Apr 11, 2012
Weekly Quote: Friendship
“A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do...
Ken Ilgunas
Apr 8, 2012
Spring chickens
We’re raising four laying hens at the Abbey. The two dark ones are called Barred Rock chickens; the two light ones are Golden Comets....
Ken Ilgunas
Apr 4, 2012
Warren Wilson and the Biltmore Estate: Travels in Western North Carolina
I spent last week in a little town called Black Mountain–just outside Asheville, NC–with some of David’s friends at their home called...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 23, 2012
Blue Ridge Parkway
Yesterday, I drove six hours of the Blue Ridge Parkway from the N.C.-Virginia border down to Asheville, North Carolina. The Parkway–a...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 21, 2012
Forgive all student loan debt: Interview with Robert Applebaum
[This is a series in which I talk with experts on the topic of student debt.] What if we got rid of all student loan debt? This is the...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 15, 2012
Spring at Acorn Abbey
I’ve been living at Acorn Abbey for over two months, finishing up my book and working on a variety of outdoor projects. Here’s the...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 13, 2012
Weekly quote: Solitude
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 11, 2012
Writing about nature
For the past five years, I’ve read 42 books a year on average. My selections are deliberately diverse: I read everything from 19th...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 9, 2012
Interviews with the indebted: Student debt guru, Alan Collinge
[This is a new series of interviews with people who are in student debt or experts who have something to say about the subject.] Alan...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 6, 2012
Weekly quote: The goodness of work
“If any man, whoever he may be, is ashamed to work in public armed with a cooper’s ax and girded with a leather apron, I see in him...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 2, 2012
Week at Duke
Last May, when I was close to broke, I tried to sell the van. I put it up on Craigslist for $2,100. After two weeks, I lowered it to...
Ken Ilgunas
Mar 1, 2012
In the news
1. Interview with the Indianapolis Star’s youth news network, Y-Press. Some time ago, I was interviewed by four teenage girls–all young...
Ken Ilgunas
Feb 27, 2012
What’s it like to be $200K in debt? (Interview with Kelli Space)
In May 2009, 23-year-old Kelly Space graduated with a top-notch education from Northeastern University. And a degree in sociology. And,...
Ken Ilgunas
Feb 24, 2012
A walk across Stokes County
I have friends editing the book at the moment, so–to stretch my legs–I took two days to hike the 28-mile Sauratown Trail that spans...
Ken Ilgunas
Feb 18, 2012
How to make shiitake mushroom logs
Last year, I inoculated two oak trees with shitake mushroom spawn. For the longest time I thought I didn’t do it correctly because the...
Ken Ilgunas
Feb 17, 2012
New Look
I figured it was about time that I spruced up the old blog. If just for the different colors, I liked the above picture (that’s Duke...