i would like to know exactly how simple of a life should a person live. I expressed an interest in being self suficient to my family and they said sure lets just sell everything and sit in the dark and count our money that we'd be saving. that kind of stunned me and caused me to think. any ideas?

-- mark (mhlee@wcoil.com), December 16, 2000

Answers

MOve away from your family now! All kidding aside you will get this from a lot of people .Do what you feel is good for you .Don't expect most people to understand or agree with you .

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), December 16, 2000.

Well Mark I'm a firm believer in getting your life exactily how you want it. So I'd say start with very very little and slowly start adding. Only add what you need. Its a very beautiful thing simplicity! Less is always more to me because I want to be rich in time. Watch how much time people waste with expensive junk and you'll see what I mean. I guess when you have it right you'll notice you walk around with a perfectly relaxed smile on your face 90% of the time!!!.....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), December 16, 2000.

Tell your family that you don't want to count your money, you want to count your blessings, which is facilitated by a nice, quiet country life without all of those distracting commercials to make you lose count.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.

Homesteading for me isn't about leading a simple life. I know there are those who want to live off the grid (done that) hand pump water (done that) etc. etc.. Believe me doing things that way is anything but simple! I also find that men are much more willing to do these things since the mundane day to day tasks of living and raising the kids are left up to the women. During our Y2K drill, my sister, my daughters and myself found it amuzing the lists that were to be left to the gals around here, and the very small lists that were to be the mens chores. Between cooking, laundry, gardening, cleaning, canning and animals, the 4 of us gals would have been working nonstop all daylight hours.

Simplfying our lives came years back with no mortgage, no bills, our own business, which then frees up your cash and your time to do whatever it is you want to do. Rasied beds instead of weeding and tilling, now the donkeys to mow the lawns instead of mowing, goats to keep the forest from reclaiming itself. Goats for meat and milk, hens for eggs, gardens for vegetables and fruit trees, so I don't have to shop very much. But if your family hates cleaning barns and weeding gardens and don't eat vegetables, it doesn't sound simple to them, or very much fun! You chose this lifestyle for yourself, I doubt seriously given a good education and freedoms to choose, that a whole lot of our children will still be here when they are grown. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.

It was my dream to live in the country, not my family's. Any work that needs to be done, I do it alone or listen to grumbling the whole time. Living in the country doesn't appeal to everyone. There are times I wish I never moved.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 16, 2000.

How simple a life to live seems to be a highly individualized question. One good way to determine what you need is to ask yourself. Do I really NEED this? Do I really NEED a new electric kitchen gadget that will do a dozen things when I probably won't use it very often and got along perfectly fine without it? Do I really NEED a new car when the old truck gets me from point A to point B? Another good question is....How does this enhance my life? We recently got satellite (hubby swore he would die without one)....this has definately NOT enhanced our quality of life...fact is it has significantly lowered it! Not everyone wants to get so simple that they cook over an open fire, haul their water by hand, or grind their corn between two stones. Now I have been having fun lately melting snow and using the water instead of buying the expensive water we have to have hauled in to our cistern. Just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Most folks would think I am off my rocker. Just decide what is important to you and for the most part ignore people that disapprove.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), December 16, 2000.

We call our life "modern homesteading" as Countryside defines it. We are now positioned in such a way as being between "roughing it " and living only for the rat race. We combine old value and modern technology and convienences (ones that are atainable free or cheaply). Our lifestyle now reaps the maximum benifit from not only old wisdom as is found in Countryside, but also the Dissipative attitudes of industrialation and the rat race. If you have the current issue of Countryside, you can read my contribution on getting on line, which actually demonstrates the concept of benifiting from the common dissipative society. Don't overload your family, instead, share little things one at a time and they will join with it naturally. My wife said when we got together that if I told her one day we would be on an acre gardening, harvesting plums for wine, raising worms in bins, fish in wading pools and decomposing cardboard to make wall panels, she would have run to Huntsville screaming. Now its just life. She and I read your question and agree, Homesteading is not simple, its very complex and educational. Its an education in living as comfortable as possible, while having the skills to overcome catastophic changes in society with minimal effects on the core family. I am sure the Countryside "family" grew tremendously as a result of Y2k when no one "knew for sure", but Jd and all gave us security in knowing "this will work if you need it" We survived 2000, now we all look to uncertainties every time we watch the news. Modern homesteaders watch these events and instead of wringing their hands, go about their chores and decide what projects to attempt.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 17, 2000.

Steve and I were talking about this on the way to town yesterday. Even though we love this place, we are thinking about selling it to pay everything off, and take what's left over and get 40 acres of woods either in Ky or TN. Get a large Quanset, 1/2 for us and the other half for the animals. Stay off the grid, get solar, generator, ram pumps and portable sawmill. No bills. Except maybe a small payment on the land. This money thing is hard to get away from. Everything costs so much, and we allready are living more simple than anyone we know around here.

I even started searching on-line last night for property. I'm ready to get REAL simple. Plus we would like to be free to do missionary work around the area we choose, Habitat for Humanity and things like that. Having bills, you are never free to just go somewhere and help when you want.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 17, 2000.

Mark, your family's opinion of the simple life should make you think, BUT your decision about what your simple life looks like is yours. Mine has varied as circumstances in my life varied. When I was a young wife and my children were young,it involved making as much of what we ate from sratch as I could, wearing attractive and comfortable clothing purchased reasonably instead of fashion wear and driving an older model car -these things enabled me to work at home with my children small. When I became single working professional woman, mother of two young pre-teens and a 3/4 time graduate student- simple living looked different. I bought simple ingredients the children could use to put together meals for themselves on nights I went straight from work to the University, wore clothing purchased from the local consignment clothing stores and rode the bus the 30 miles each way to classes, eating at home when I returned rather than eating out ($$$). Now that I am commuting 100 miles a day to a job I love from a home I enjoy and have only one older teenager at home, simple means planning meals that can be microwaved later when only one of us is home in the evenings (I still attend classes 2 nights a week and my son works after school 1 or 2 nights), the commute means a newer model used economy car and simplified cooking during the week. In between these extremes I've raised our food in the garden, milked goats, made cheese and raised animals for the freezer, I've also utilized Taco Bell and the local pizza 'take-n-bake'. Simple living is in the attitude as much as it is in the phsyical action. I hope to be able to move to my dream 'homestead' after my son finishes high school. I want 40 acres with poultry, goats, horses (I know, not practical-but I love them) and scotch highland cattle, a few Jacob sheep(and a partridge in a pear tree)- I want to be off grid (solar power) but want phone and computer service to communicate with my children as they spread out over the world. The basic attitude is "what do I really need" and then what will make my life blessed. I love watching cattle graze, I love the smell of horses, leather, pine woods and light rain on the meadow grasses. I love the sweet smell of goat milk and the grain as I squat next to the milking stand. I love watching chickens looking important as they search for whatever it is that they search for with such zeal. I am a practical, aging romantic and my simple life won't look like anyone else's-yours should reflect your basic wants and needs. You got good advice, start out extremely basic (even if only in your mind) and add only what you really need. You will find your simple life and I know you will love living it. God bless you and keep you as look for it. betty

-- betty modin (betty_m9@yahoo.com), December 17, 2000.

As simple as YOU feel comfortable with.

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), December 20, 2000.

PLEASE! Do NOT confuse "self-sufficient" with "simple"! I am self- sufficient. Algore is simple. And never the twain shall meet! GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), December 21, 2000.