have received invitation to subscribe to MEN. is the new MEN any good? worth the money? i subscribe to Countryside and used to get the old MEN but cancelled when it so suddenly went down the drain. thanks

-- deborah harvey (djharvey@box.az), May 06, 2002

Answers

Deborah... MEN isn't what it once was. Personally i don't find much useful information for the common person. Don't get me wrong they do have some articles that i like from time to time . I really enjoy Backwoods Home magazine . I think it is more down to earth and much less yuppie than MEN (no offense to the yuppies) . Checkout MEN online and see if it right for you...

-- Doug in Ks (dudeatlarge@hotmail.com), May 06, 2002.

If you have a lot of money to spend on suggestions from MEN and from buying from there advertisers then MEN is for you. They have gone from a hippies homesteading and doing all there own work with what was available to yuppie homesteaders who have people do the work for them.

-- gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 06, 2002.

Does anyone else get the impression MEN is geared around the Boomers and their credit cards? Its like "gucci" homesteading. I mean, I am not knocking anyone with money...more power to them, but we certainly cannot afford 90% of what they write about or they advertise.

-- Najia (najia274@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

I have to wonder somedays about my sanity. I so dislike the new magazine, have since the Shuttleworths sold in the 80's and that Japanese company took over for a few yrs. Then it changed hands again and got more yuppish. Actually I noticed it in the late 80's. I still subscribe, don't know why, but what is interesting is looking back on the older issues, I collect them and am only missing afew editions. Guess i keep hoping they will get better.

I recently bought a yr of MEN off e-bay, got it cheaper than the ad they sent to me in the mail to renew. I wonder if enough folks commented on it to them that maybe they might change, but doubt it.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

I have been reading Cside for about three years and I love it. MEN by comparison seems kinda watered down, like something for people in suburbia. It's not really a homesteading magazine. It has some good stuff. My husband subscribed to it, but I find that it just doesn't interest me. When Cside arrives in the mailbox, though, I read it cover to cover!

-- Christine Baillie (towanda515@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

I read a issue of MEN, and was so sickened how far it had gone down hill, I was ready (heck, I wrote several issues and had several possible takers on publishing) to write my own darn magazine. That was until I realized: I was in WAY over my head (I was doing it alone) and... by then I found Countryside, and could see, though MEN had gone down hill, there was a superior non glossy alternative (still wish CS would pay for articles, even if it was only 5 bucks for a published article or something!).

My main gripe about MEN: the overabundance of wholeheartedly stupid ads that have nothing to do with homesteading, are way over our price range, and the absolute volume of "homesteading impliments" that use fossil fuels (tractors, etc, etc.). Homesteading, to my mind is not about making a tractor do all your dirty work. Homesteading is the guy with the shovel! And Mother Earth probabally wouldnt be to happy that a mag with her name in it has not only gone glossy, they extensively promote machinery that belches smoke in her face.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), May 07, 2002.

Just recenlty purschase a year subscription to MENS with the neighbor high school kids...selling for the school. Not thrilled but thought it might help the boy out with his contest. (hate this type of thing with school kids) It surely isn't like the old MENS but...what is anymore. Has a couple good articles and seems better than a few years ago. But...not really for homesteaders anymore, as was mentioned before.

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), May 07, 2002.

I agree that MEN isn't what it used to be. Every once in a while they come out with a good issue though. I thought the last issue was a very good one. Not Countryside good, but what is.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), May 07, 2002.

MEN , i still subscribe, a lot of the things they advocate can be priced down or scaled back, yes it is yuppieish , but lets face it mags advocate to who is buying them ... and theres the rub....

on a side note, for a little while they were sending me two issues, one to my old addy and one to my new one, when i called them to tell them abt it , they gave me a free extra year.....

so its not all bad...

-- Beth in ND (famvan@drtel.net), May 07, 2002.

Check out Backhome magazine. It's written by some of the same folks who staffed Mother Earth News when it was based in North Carolina.

-- Darren (df1@infi.net), May 07, 2002.

Backwoods Home is awesome! DH just bought me a couple of their CD anthologies for my b-day. www.backwoodshome.com for those of you who haven't already found them, but I would venture most of us already have... :)

-- Najia (najia274@yahoo.com), May 07, 2002.

I used to get the MEN in the 70s and decided to try it again last year. After one issue, I cancelled. It just wasn't for me!

-- cowgirlone in ok (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), May 07, 2002.

thank one and all for their responses. won't subscribe. countryside is the best and my only subscription due to tight money- or sometimes no money!!- but if i ever had extra cash i'd get backwoods home. i have seven of their anthologis gotten when theere was some cash, so if cash comes around again i want the next couple of anthologies. i was re-reading one of them last night, but countryside is always by the bed for necessary bedtime reading. i think the mother earth news people know about cash flow and that is why they opted for glossy. their just different people in what is now a different age. many thanks to all. deb

-- deborah harvey (djharvey@box.az), May 07, 2002.