I am a 37 year old college student taking a research course for my History Major. I would like to write on Scott and Helen Nearing (considered the progenitors of the back to the land movement)and their simplistic living philosophy. I would appreciate any and all answers and don't expect one person to be able to necessarily answer all of the questions.

What influenced you to live a simplistic/back-to-the-land lifestyle? How is it different from the way you lived before? Did the writings of Scott and/or Helen Nearing make an impact or influence the way you have decided to live? In what way? What specific work/values/ideals of the Nearings have you found to be most useful and/or enjoyable? Do you think there is anyone today who could have the impact the Nearings had on the back-to-the-land movement? Do you disagree with any of the Nearings' views? Why? Do you find it hard to live a more simplistic lifestyle? Why or why not?

Please feel free to add anything you feel would be of value to me in writing this research paper. I thank you for taking the time to read this and respond!!

-- Patricia Riddlemoser (patriddlemoser@alltel.net), June 13, 2001

Answers

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

"Scott and Helen Nearing (considered the progenitors of the back to the land movement)" is a bit of a stretch, IMO. There has been an almost continuous ‘back to the land movement' (with influential writers) since ancient Rome.

Thoreau's Walden has probably been more influential and probably will continue to be more influential than the Nearings.

As for modern writers, it does not matter if there is a single charismatic writer. The conglomeration of writers that contribute to Countryside and other magazines for modern homesteaders have more influence in the aggregate than any single writer is ever likely to have.

I think most people are like me: they discover people like the Nearings long after the desire, at least, is there to move back to a simpler life.

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

I didn't know there was a back to the land "movement". Sounds like some snobbish ivy league university high brow stuff. I don't think the rest of us down to earth folk ever left the land!

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

I'm a homesteader gonna-be, so my opinions are as yet untested. I wanted to do it because... it feels real. I want to live my life in the company of nature and the people that I love. I'd already committed to the idea, then came across the Nearings as I did research. The Nearings seemed to be conducting a social experiment in self- sufficiency. They were awfully organized and cerebral about the whole thing. One thing I could not relate to was their committment to keep no animals. I will never keep animals for slaughter. It would break my heart. But it would also break my heart not to have at least a couple of dogs around. I was impressed with their goal of living with the cycles of their land, especially eating only what they could grow, when it was in season. I'm certain that's the right thing, but I'm not ready to give up my coffee and all that other decadence. I'm not sure anyone today could have quite their impact because they were ahead... or out of their time a bit. Now we tolerate about any kind of oddball. Besides, I think the common consciousness is moving across the threshold of self-sufficiency. I don't mean everyone is doing it, but a lot of people are thinking in that direction. A bit of recoil from the consumerism of this century? Did you see AFFLUENZA on PBS? Excellent and topical.

Good luck with your research!

-- witness (carlaevans@hotmail.com), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

Sorry for the too-simplistic reply I just made above. I have never heard of the Nearings, nor of any "movement". I never made a conscious decision to change my lifestyle. It just happened, but I'm glad it did. I shouldn't say that "it just happened" because I believe in the providential will of a Personal God: the Creator who made Himself known to us in Jesus. (Not that you have to be a back to nature type to know Him better.) There are two main appealing aspects of the homesteading lifestyle to me: knowing where my food comes from and the quality of it, and the pleasure of raising and caring for some of God's creatures. My wife breeds Nubian Goats and I keep bees. We also keep chickens for eggs, have a garden and have various cats and dogs for utility (guardians for the goats and mousers) and for pets. We have raised other animals as well and are currently raising two calves as a way to use excess goat milk. The farm is pure work and really ties us down, but there is a unique satisfaction in doing something that matters. We don't take vacations to travel (vacation time is for catching up on homestead projects). We don't go to movies or parties and seldom eat out. I look back at my suburban lifestyle on a city lot in a tract house as empty and fruitless. We were just marking time toward old age and spare time was spent playing.

No amount of watching nature shows on PBS comes near the escitement of helping a doe give birth and then raising that kid, keeping her healthy and breeding her the following year so that you can help her at kidding. We have a special bond with our animals. Each one has a personality. We don't do much in the way of gardening. Carrots don't talk to you.

I don't know if this qualifies as "simplistic". Sometimes it gets pretty complicated. What we actually have is a very small family farm business. Hope this gives a little more insight for your project. Visit us at: www.sundaycreek.com Skip in WA

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

Skip, Your comment about suburban leaving you feeling empty and fruitless really struck a chord with me. That really explains much of what I am feeling.

Read the Nearings a few years ago, but only after Thoreau, Countryside, Mother Earth News, etc. Took what I needed and left the rest.

WIshing you enough (and thanks!).

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

Scott and Helen were not by far the people who started the back to the land movement. They had a homestead and practiced homesteading but they were not the first. I have some of their books in my library and find them usful in many ways. I find their attitude toward animals rather strange along with many other ideas that are just not workable on any large scale. The way they homesteaded took too much space. Interesting people but I am not interested in following their example.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

I think one of the most fascinating aspects of Helen and Scott Nearing's lives was what they managed to accomplish at their ages! He was well over 100 yrs. when he built his last stone house. Then their deaths...his planned and hers a tragic car accident, in the next town over from me. Their homestead in Cape Rosier here in Maine is an amazing place to visit! They were wonderful people.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), June 13, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

It would be interesting to somehow link age (and the experience which comes with age) to the desire for a simpler life. From my reading of this newsgroup (and other readings)... I'm not convinced that it is always simpler, perhaps just different. "Simpler" and "back to the land" are somewhat vague.

Someone mentioned that the writings of Nearing were found after the desire to live simply. I'd bet this is true in the majority of people as they look to confirm and feel comfort with their decisions.

What influences me to strive for a "simpler balance" (in no particular order): family, pollution, food, the media, self reliance, age, history, nature, stress, people, work environment, the city, noise, money...

I've not read Nearing's words but will. I also look forward to reading the results of your writing on this subject.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), June 14, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

I can only speak for myself but I've only heard of the Nearings and never read their books. I went "back to the land" after being introduced to the self sufficiency concept in the TMEN and I'd read HDT years before that.

To me it just seems more "real" and less contrived than suburbia or the city. And fwiw there ain't much "simplistic" about it. Its a helluva lotta work that requires one to be constantly learning to better enable one to be more self sufficient, but again the skills you learn seem more relevant and real than one might apply in the city, shuffling papers and hiding behind ones money to get anything done.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), June 14, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

Always get a chuckle when I hear about the 'back to the land movement'. Many people never left the land. Funny as heck seeing people go to such preparations, all the books, etc when years ago people just basically showed up with what they could fit in a wagon or 2(if they were lucky) and went to work.

-- April (atobias@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.

Response to Simplistic Lifestyle and the Nearings

Patricia, good luck with your research and writing. I am the child of a New Mexico homesteader in the 30's, that was indeed basics only, and now homesteading/farm in Alaska by choice. It just feels right and the days and seasons just sail by. We have our successes and our failures and just hope to learn a little more each and every time. As for the Nearings, I got almost nothing from them that I could use myself. I did admire one thing about them tho' and that is the way they were together in their objectives. As I read the forum, I see a lot of people wishing their partner enjoyed and understood the life style more and would participate a whole lot more! Its really not fun nor productive dragging someone along. Let us hear more from you as time rolls on. Maureen in Alaska at Ravens Roost Farm P.S. How does one live without any animal of any kind??

-- Maureen Stevenson (maureen@mtaonline.net), June 14, 2001.

I grew up in Austin, Texas. Too many new people brought too much change. Like the native Americans before me, I was pushed out. Pushed out in the sense that I needed 15 acres in the middle of nowhere to hold on to my culture and my individuality. Urbanization creates homogenization.

I have never read articles/books by or about the Nearings. I acquired the confidence I could live well and happy in a rural setting from both sets of grandparents, my father, Henry David Thoreau, and a book called, The Boxcar Children.

-- paul (wprimeroselane@msn.com), June 14, 2001.

One a scale of one to 100, I would rate the Nearings impact on any, so called, "Back to the Land Movement" as about a one, if that. They conducted a somewhat interesting social (some would say socialist) experiment and that was about it. Periodicals, such as The Mother Earth News and Countryside and Small Stock Journal, can be cited as tremendous influences. Then there were widely read books, such as The Have-More Plan and Five Acres and Independence.

My guess is over 99% of those homesteading, for want of a better word, today have never read any of the Nearing books and know little, if anything, about them.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), June 14, 2001.

I never left the land, grew up on a farm and I am still farming. The Nearing's, well I like there information on "Slip Form" building.

"The box Car Children" yes, they caught my heart and imagination, which was read aloud to our 4th grade class, I recently found a copy at a garage sale.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), June 14, 2001.

This must be an age thing. People cite TMEN as being influential, yet say they never read the Nearnings' workd. They wrote for Mother! Had a column for a couple of the magazine's glory years. They influenced me greatly, mainly because they proved it could be done. Yes, they had the income from their writings to fall back on, but they went to the country and did what they set out to do. I had discovered that homesteading was a viable lifestyle, did alot of reading on the subject and stumbled on Nearnings, Logsden, the Have- More Plan, Seymour, John Vivian. They all influenced me. As for the Nearings ideas about animals, I understand it but don't accept it for my life. I like having the animals around, although I recognize that it really is mutual slavery. As for Scott Nearing building a stone house at 100, he died at l00, so there wasn't much building going on. He did, however, stay active right up to the point where he decided to stop eating and die. Feel free to contact me directly if you want me to elaborate.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.

The Nearings havin an impact on Lil Dumplin and my lifestyle? Nopee! We were worlds apart from the Nearings. Their lifestyles and ours didn't connect at any point--in my opinion. They had never known what country liv'n was all about-just a desire to get out and live on their own. We already knew and knew what we were missin while livin in the city-workin there. Each day I longed for the country lifestyle that we had left and with anticipations [is that a word?] of returnin back to the land. After about 6 years of that dreaded city life we finally made it back to the dirt. "Ain't nobody gonna make us move no more" mentality has taken over and actually we don't really think the city life is in our future. Ole hoot and Lil Dumplin--country dwellers. Matt.24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), June 14, 2001.

I have a paperback Living The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing. I enjoyed it and would love to pass it on. The first person to reply will get it but they must read it then put it up as a pass on here in Countryside when they are done and so on. They lived off there land and build there own home out of the rocks on there land. They would not own any animals because it would restrict there travels. They did not even have a dog. So they were vegatairians. They had a open house policy but if you came to stay and visit with them for more than one day you were to put in so many hours work a day on there place. I don't think I could live like that. I love animals and when someone visits me I don't think I could put them to work LOL but I did enjoy the book. So if you think a read and pass along book sounds good to you send me your snail mail address and I will foot the stamps and send it to you.

-- Teresa Bourgoin (c3ranch@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.

I agree that the Nearings were a far cry from being "homesteaders" nor did they have any real impact on the back-to-land movement; nonetheless, they did impact me in thier abilities and determination to live a simplistic lifestyle late in life. It is a real example of what one can achieve at any age.

Scott Nearings choice of death was also a testimony to living AND dieing how you wish and in a natural state.

I homestead and live a simple life because of the following:

1. What is the world's oldest profession??? Nope, not what the rest of the world says it is...but in fact was farming. Adam was a farmer! The world was created that nature supplies our needs and we tend to it. Some how we sure got sidetracked!

2. I wanted my children to know that milk does not come in plastic containers, eggs in styrofoam boxes, and that "bull shit" is a real thing and not just a swear word!

3. We did not want to take life or each other for granted any longer and to work together in providing as much of our own needs as possible. To see miracles happen every day...to see farm animial babies born, to see a seed turn into leaf, then to plant, then to food, and then to jars, and then to give us life and energy. To see how all of God's creatures have "personalities", even the chickens are each thier own unique selves.

4. To feel like what we do each day has meaning. To wake up and know you are responsible to other lives and for tending to what gifts you have been given...big differance than in deadlines "because the boss says so"!

5. So than when, or if, the world some how does come apart at the seams, we are not sucked in with it but can survive and continue to keep our family in tack.

6. Because self-sufficiency and simple living is a journey....not a product. A goal to achieve that takes imagination, sweat, tears, and love to accomplish.

That's why I homestead!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.

You might find that the books "Malabar Farm" and "Pleasant Valley" by Louis Bromfield would be helpful in explaining that agriculture is indeed the oldest "profession", and that the more we get away from Nature and the Earth, the more we lose physically, mentally, & spiritually. I have a quote on my office wall that says, "Land is the only thing in the world worth working for and dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts" (by Scarlett O'Hara's father in the book "Gone With the Wind").

When I opened the book of instructions on how to become a real estate agent, the first sentence was, "Under all is the land". I love that! I believe that most people who choose a simplistic lifestyle are people who have enough confidence and courage to THINK FOR THEMSELVES, and not buy into all the garbage that all the forms of media are throwing out every day (all designed to take your money and control your life in every way - usually by guilt and fear). People don't always need a mentor like the Nearings. I believe the courage to live as they want comes from within each individual by listening to what their own heart tells them is right for them.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), June 14, 2001.

I haven't read all of the Nearing's books, but what I did read was useful and inspiring. Their philosophy and religous views were very diiferent from mine, but other than that I gleaned a lot of wisdom from their books. I don't agree that their impact was negligible. TMEN and C-side were instrumental in the back to the land movement, and if you look back through the old TMENs you will find that not only did the Nearings have articles and a monthly column, but many of the other writers were strongly influenced by the Nearings. Whether directly or indirectly, the influence was there, and I think that if you were to really dig deeply into many of the other figures of the time, you would find that many of them had read or even visited and apprenticed under the Nearings.

As for me personally? I hated living in the city, it strangled and poisoned my spirit. Living in the country was the only way to go. The problem was that we moved up to the northern woods thinking we knew it all and finding out differently. TMEN and Back to Basics(by Reader's Digest) were the backbone of our knowledge about homesteading. A lot of stuff we had to figure out through trial and error. We had a lot of mentors and people who helped us learn. How many of those had been inspired by the Nearings? It's impossible to say. What aspects of the Nearings did I find useful? That somebody was REALLY doing it- really living almost entirely off the land, that it COULD be done. Their way of cutting out all the fluffy, materialistic frills that just complicate and hinder our lives. Setting goals and doing it. That two elderly people could start over building their own house all by hand, no nasty power tools. That a person could live on a homegrown, completely vegatarian diet and enjoy the kind of health that would allow them to accomplish such work. That they didn't spend the whole day working! They had a time just for doing whatever they wanted to, work was limited to a set amount each day. That a woman could live such a life married to a man 20 years her elder and have a happy fulfilling life and marriage. (I was engaged to a man almost 20 years older and our dream was to homestead using only hand tools. Everyone said that we were absolutely crazy and that it couldn't be done. It was heartening to read otherwise.)

I agree with the Nearings on not keeping pets. And the goats probably are more labor and money than they're worth, but I honestly don't know if life would be as full without goats! Is there anyone who might have a similar impact today? yes, he already has, JD Belanger. I think it is entirely possible that others will come along, and we can never know the full impact that we have on others.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), June 14, 2001.

1)What influenced me to live a simplistic/back to the land lifestyle? Partly because I was raised on a homestead and partly to live in harmony with nature as my Native American ancestors did.

2)How is it different than the way I lived before? N/A

3)Did the writings of Scott and Helen Nearing make an impact or influence the way I decided to live? Yes, they confirmed what I already thought.

4)What specific work/values/ideals of the Nearings have you found to be most useful and/or enjoyable? Their method of building, the fact that they refused to reproduce, and their sense of community.

5)Do you think there is anyone today who could have the impact the Nearings had on the back-to-the land movement? The Belangers do a good job, also John Seymour has influenced a lot of folks over the years.

6)Do you disagree with any of the Nearings' views? Why? Actually I agree with most of their views, because they work.

7)Do you find it hard to live a more simplistic lifestyle? Why or why not? No I don't find it hard to live simply. I find it was much harder to try to live the consumptive "gimme lots now" and to h*ll with every other living species lifestyle.

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), June 14, 2001.

"...considered the progenitors of the back to the land movement..."

The reason this statement seems so strange to so many of you is because you arent looking behind the scenes...

The "back to the land movement" was what hippies participated in when they ran off to their rural communes to escape the "evils of capitalism". The Nearings were doing a great deal of their writing around that time and the hippies glommed on to them as part of the Pantheon of High Hippiedom. Eventually some of those hippies went back and finished college. Those hippies are the professors of today. Those professors are the ones who have assigned the title of "progenitor" upon the Nearings. The idea that they werent the actually the first people heading back to the land or that some might never have left has never dawned on them as they were the ones involved in THEE "Back To The Land Movement". Get it?

Patricia, just for your notes...
My family never really left. Pa ran a decent sized dairy operation well into the 50's still using horses and raising all the other critters/crops on the homestead to feed the family. Now all these years and a couple small tractors later, Im planning to move back to horses.

-- William in Wi (gnarledmaw@lycos.com), June 14, 2001.

Nearing's writing did not influence me to "go back to the land" one bit - it was more my grandmother's influence who at 80 was still gardening, raising chickens and hawgs (as she called them) and could still drive herself to church the week of her death. Walden came later and after reading him, I read "country women". That was what really got me started thinking that yes, I could do that country thing, and so bought some land and have been here ever since. Many folks never left the land, some, like me, left for a year or two and came back, and some are still trying to get there. I think what really influences people is what is inside their souls. That tiny little voice that, even at it's dimmest, still cries out for a better life, a less complicated life, or just plain "I gotta get outa here and back where I can breathe". In any event, most of the folks here know that voice, some know it and will not acknowledge it and some turn away from it. But for those who listen - they are the ones who are homesteading, homeschooling, and looking for land and starting over and leaving corporate jobs and commuting so they can one day leave corporate America. My fiance says "life is what gets in the way of what you thought you were going to do". In my case, doing what I am doing is my life. I don't you'll find one person in this forum could point to just one single person like the Nearings and say "he/she is the reason I'm homesteading". A person might follow someone into this life or be made to come along, but if their heart and soul isn't into it, they will not last long. Homesteading is definitely not for the fainthearted, even those who have all the modern conveniences, we still have to work the land, tend the stock, raise the kids (both goats and human) and sometimes work off the farm to make ends meet. It is not an easy life, but is very fulfilling if you just listen to that little voice inside.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), June 14, 2001.

The Nearings were influential in our lives. However, we had already made the commitment to our current lifestyle by the time we read their works ( I have read three Nearings books.) The biggest influence to me was the concept of "Bread Labor" in that you can work ~four hours a day and have the rest of the time as a kind of daily Sabbatical, wherein you can spend important time learning and studying, etc. This is different from the way a lot of homesteaders live; i.e., working sunup to sundown. The Nearings made conscientious decisions not to have animals for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that doing so would keep them tied down when they wanted to tour, lecture, etc.

A lot of people visited them for many years. They were "rediscovered" during a phase of "back to the land" which many of us oldsters remember happened in the late 60s and early 70s. They were gettin' on in years even then.

We have "Living the Good Life" on tape and listen to it sometimes in the winter. I like that better than reading it b/c I can do hand work while I listen.

Good luck on your research.

-- sheepish (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.

Funny I just picked-up another Nearing book at the library a while back. The book is beat-up, dog earred, bent, taped, written on and generally used up!!! Librarian said it was one of the most checked out books there. Maybe thats a statement or maybe not. One thing about the Nearings is they set out to something and they do it! That is one hellofa homesteading model right there!!....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), June 15, 2001.

We started homesteading before we heard about the Nearings and we later bought their book, "The Have More Plan". I like some of those above saw it as an experiment in socialism, with only a little I could use, most of which I already knew. I only lived ona farm for a few years as a youth and wanted to get back every since. I too, felt my city years were a waste and just waiting to die. We have lived in the city for the past year and I really know what I didn't miss. I will fight with all I have to stay "on the land" the next time we get there. We are currently overseas but will find a place when we return, hopefully with like minded people around. We have always been considered outsiders and oddities since we raise our own meat and most other food and dairy products and don't go on vacations. When asked, I told everyone that I felt every day was a vacation. Certainly it was hard physical labor most times, but the peace of taking care of God's good earth outweighs all the troubles. If we could just figure out how to do it full time instead of going to town for work, Heaven would indeed exist here on earth.

-- Chris Tomlinson (tomlinsonchris@netscape.net), June 15, 2001.

Chris:

Ed & Carolyn Robinson wrote The Have-More Plan, not the Nearings.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), June 15, 2001.

Well, like others I think that "the back to the land movement" is sufficiently un-unified as to be a difficult subject for research. And I definitely think that anyone writing a research paper of any kind should look up the difference between simple/simplified and simplistic, which is *not* synonym and a really bad word to use in relation to something as complex as homesteading/self-sufficiency.

I was predisposed to like the Nearings before I read them - I'm not capitalist by philosophy, and don't find socialism a turn-off particularly. I admired what they had accomplished. *But*, and this turned out to be a big but, I can't like their books or claim any particular influence. The books are terribly pretentious, condescending and humorless. We are reminded on every page how very moral and philosophically pure the Nearings are. I still admire what they accomplished, in a broad sense, and I think their stone-masonry techniques may be useful to me eventually, but I can't really like them. And I think that their lives were admirable in a sense, but only reproducable by those who decline to have children in their lives. Helen and Scott Nearing felt themselves responsible only to their own sense of what was moral - that is ennobling, but only possible when you have decided not to have other kinds of responsibilities in your life. It is perfectly fine choice, but I don't think that they ever give fair shrift to the fact that their life is only really reproducible for those who make the exact same choices.

I do think they are hugely influential - if you look around at other influential figures in the homesteading movement, lots of them have been influenced by the Nearings. Eliot Coleman (more a gardener than homesteader, but someone whose work on season extension sure makes me eat a lot better) is the most obvious figure, but Gene Logsdon, Joel Salatin and others refer to them frequently. They are important both as model figures, although I think people here are right that the Robinsons present a model more often emulated. The Nearings used some techniques (stone building, maple sugaring, the walled gardens, day labor) that some of us find admirable and are useful to some people, but ultimately I think they stand as important figureheads, rather than day-to-day influences. IMHO, of course.

Good luck on your paper,

-- Sharon in NY (astyk@brandeis.edu), June 15, 2001.

When I think back over 20 years ago why we moved towards homesteading alot of different memories come back to me. We orginally started as a young family with 2 almost teenage girls to find a home in the country/mountains for a more peacefull and quiet life. We opened the map up one night at the kitchen table and "plunked" down our finger and that is where we moved too. No money, job and knew no one !! Now that I look back I guess we had more dreams than brains but we made it !! We did leave a much better financially stable life in the suburbs but we didn't like what we were seeing in the schools and the nearby cities. We meet a family that "homesteaded" almost. Had goats, grew their own food etc. Thought it sounded like "fun". Boy, guess we have had our "fun" over the years too. But, we would not have changed a thing and wished we had done it years earlier. A neighbor after our move and we were renting a house next to them, gave us a copy of the "old" Mother Earth News. Now this is back in 1980. Guess you could say we came in at the end of the "back to the land movement". Again, we thought it sounded like something we could do and it would be "fun". After all, we grew tomatoes down in the suburbs and we were sure we could do it all !! I think mostly the people we met up here in the mountains and listened to and learned from influenced us the most. Nothing fancy, just simple honest (well most)folk who did things the same for many years and were willing to help us learn too. We read book,magazines and anything we could get our hands on and basically taught ourselves many things. Literally had the goat udder in one hand and John Vivian's Book "Homesteading" in the other hand the first day we bought our first goats !! What an experience but we learned. Yes, we have read the Nearings books and even though I admired them for all they did write about and teach in their books, especially about tapping and making our own maple syrup, I could not agree with their lack of love for this Country of ours. So I guess you could say "we took the meat and left the bones" after reading and even watching Helen Nearing on a garden show a few times. They did have many things to teach and for that I am grateful. I am sure there are many people who have had an influence even more than the Nearings but maybe not as public about it. Everyday people make a big difference in everyday lives of people. We are not totally self-suffiecent but darn near to it. We know that we can do most anything that we need to maintain our lifestyle without too much outside help from others. We always plant a large garden(s) and can and freeze. Heat and cook with wood. Have learned to do without when money wasn't available and when I think back a fews years I wonder if we weren't better off with less money and more time. We still don't overburden ourselves with stress of making more money. You will never have enough money but watching the sunrise on your own front porch, or seeing the deer cross your front garden is worth more than any Park Avenue couple has today with all of their stocks and bonds and fancy cars. We still take vacations to wonderful places and then wish we were back home on the front porch but that only makes for us to appreciate home that much more. I hope that this has helped you in some way with you college report. A little advice ??....just find what will make you content and happy in life, not by someone else's standards or dreams but your very own. If it be a 50 room house in Hollywood or a one room cabin in the woods, do what you want to do and you will have the whole world at your feet for many years !! Good Luck and I surely hope that you will try the homesteading "adventure" yourself someday. You just might surprise yourself !!!

-- Helena Di Maio (windyacs@ptdprolog.net), June 15, 2001.

Patricia: "Simplistic" lifestyle? Actually, it is a lot of hard work. It is a choice in lifestyle because you appreciate doing it for yourself. Is it work to spin wool for knitting, or is it for relaxation and pleasure (for me it is a pleasure...one I haven't done lately, actually). I personally have always been this way. My cousin and I, when we were little kids on his farm together, planned on getting married to each other, living on the farm, growing all our own food, and raising horses.

Living out in the country became my constant goal, and in my creative pursuits, PROCESS comes up over and over. I want to know HOW it is done. Eating venison wasn't enough after 13 years of being a vegetarian....I wanted to butcher the deer (meet your meat, know who you eat). Someday I intend to hunt it because I believe I owe it to myself, my family and the deer. Spinning wool wasn't enough, I needed to learn to naturally dye the wool, and I had to hand-card it...and then had to learn to clean and wash it, and then had to actually go sheer a sheep to understand it alll. I hope to get a couple in a year or two. For me, personally, I think we are too detached from our lives. "Beef" is stuff in a package in the store, not a cow. I want to be aware of where everything came from and what it was. Finally, two years ago we managed to move ourselves and two kids out to the country, and it has been hard work ever since, for this "simple" life. But we do love it (well, my daughter wants to live in town. she hates bugs.)

I love reading Helen Nearing's writing, especially her cookbook. I disagree with some of their ideas, but I love her writing style anyway. I don't agree with the stance of not owning any animals...but it is right for some, and it is less work. Still, when I sit outside and my chickens perch on me to get petted, I have to think about how great it is to count chickens as my friends. Her cookbook is a hoot, but really does reflect a fabulous notion of "it shouldn't take any more time to cook your meal than to eat your meal." I try to keep this in mind, and rarely cook those "fancy" dinners anymore. We still have too much work to do here for there to be much free time (hence no spinning for me) but are working to change that.

And, we aren't trying to prove a point to anyone. We may have a beat up old house, but we own it! We are "poor" but we don't owe anyone anything, and actually have more expendable income than most folks we know, some making a LOT more than we do. I have had folks say to me "I could NEVER live like you do" but I truly thank God every day that I don't live like THEY do. Luckily we live in an area of small organic farmettes, amish, those of the homestead mentality, and many folks live like we do, so mostly I can find others to ask questions of, and our kids don't feel like such "oddballs" anymore.

Helen and Scott are a great inspiration, but so are many others. I do like the "love story" aspect of it, because so few couples in our society seem to truly love and respect each other anymore (as my husband and I do) and it is nice to read about their love.

-- marcee king (thathope@mwt.net), June 16, 2001.

I grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of a farm girl who kept her children connected to their farming roots. My parents were both school teachers and we had a summer house in northern Vermont. Since we travelled there every summer, we had no pets or animals of any type. Our Vermont house was next to a dairy farm, where we spent many hours helping, learning and getting in the way! I'm sure my love of animals was nurtured on that farm and fueled by the lack of animals in my youth! My mom never grew a much of a garden because of our summer travels, but she would buy corn gleanings from a canning company and can corn. She would get produce from her father and can or freeze that. We would pick berries for jams and jellies. So even though I lived in a city, the homesteading attitude was born at home. Now, I live in a suburb in the country. I have about 3 acres and have sheep (for freezer lamb), goats (for milk), bees, a small orchard, and a fair sized garden. I now have all the things I wanted growing up, but I'm still in a suburb so my children have friends within walking distance. I have a convenience store within walking distance and a grocery store a couple of miles down the road. Unlike many of my neighbors, I don't own power toys, I don't watch T.V., I don't go on expensive vacations. I was amused to listen to 2 neighborhood girls discussing the merits of various Florida amusement parks, then tell my daughter she was so lucky because she got to go to the local Planetarium several times a year! I have enjoyed reading the Nearings books because I like many of their philosophies and I feel very tied to the States in which they homesteaded. I liked the fact that their work was their play. They loved building stone structures....that was as much a hobby as it was an excellent method of construction for buildings they needed. I enjoy gardening and animal husbandry in much the same way. And, of course, that would be one area where I differ in opinion with them...I enjoy animal husbandry. I provide my critters with a comfortable, well-cared for environment to grow and live for as long as their lives may be. On the other hand, I agree with the Nearings that not every minute should be spent working. I think that other pursuits are important and that we should never stop learning. I think that it is important that a husband and wife have their own pursuits, separate from each other and that each take an interest in what the other one does. I love the fact that they were best friends, and at least by what I read in their books, they appear to be a good role model for a good marriage. It's hard for me to say if anyone else could have the impact that the Nearings had, because they weren't a big influence in my following this lifestyle...I was already doing so long before I read their books. My big role models were my mother and grandfather, and the couple who farmed the dairy farm next door in Vermont. They will all be heroes in my mind forever. I would rather live simply and happily, then race around trying to buy happiness. Stopping to smell the roses (as well as grow them) lets me appreciate what I have, not wish for what I don't.

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), June 17, 2001.

Over the years I had several times picked up one or another of the Nearing books and TRIED to read - but always found myself putting it down after not too long. Well, as a Real Live Homesteader, I felt a dismal failure because I had heard all about how important the Nearings supposedly were to homesteaders.

Finally, this past December, I ended up trapped up here for 3 weeks due to unusual amounts of snow and cold weather (for S Central MO, anyway, y'all living up there in the Dakotas can stop laughing now) and of the 8 library books I had out, one of them was "Living the Good Life". I finally ran out of other books to read (including the 4 bags of books I'd just bought at the used bookstore) and finally sat down and read "the good life" all the way through.

Someone said:

"The books are terribly pretentious, condescending and humorless. We are reminded on every page how very moral and philosophically pure the Nearings are."

Yup, that's pretty much the tone of their writings.

They were a couple of dilletantes. They started out with money and got all high and mighty about how anybody could do this. Well sure if you start out with money. They also had a regular monthly income nobody likes to talk about, it was either state teachers retirement or Social Security, possibly both. Their attitude was just insufferable.

And their no-animals "rule"? Bull hockey! Right there in the book is a picture of Helen Nearing driving a horse and sleigh over the snow covered terrain. "No animals" - unless it suits them. LOL!

BTW, Scott Nearing was in his 70s when they built that last stone house, not "over 100". As I recall he was in his 90s when he starved himself to death - not because he was particularly ill or even slightly debilitated, but just because he wasn't as strong as he used to be. My god, what a stupid reason to decide to die. And there are some indications that Helen Nearing's "tragic car accident" may also have been suicide. Sorry, I don't admire people who kill themselves for such stupid reasons.

The writers who influenced me most were Gene Logsdon, John Seymour, Pat Crawford, and Joel Salatin. To a lesser extent Carla Emery. John Vivian. MG Kains. JD Belanger. James Miller, "Ten Acres Enough". Ken Kern. Recently, Wendell Berry and Noel Perrin ("First Person Rural"). Rodale Press (books like "Build it Better Yourself" and "The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening").

If I had to rank them, although I discovered John Seymour first, it was Gene Logsdon who influenced me more than anyone. John Seymour comes second, with pretty much everybody else running neck and neck.

You can tell I'm a Gene Logsdon fan because, well, I have the Unofficial Gene Logsdon Fan Club on my site. :D

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/4095/logsdon/logsdon.ht ml

But the Nearings? They were cold fish, and they left me cold. Very very cold. If they had been the ONLY "homesteading" authors I'd ever read, I'd still be a wage slave in thrall to corporate America. LOL!

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 23, 2001.

Wish I could help you but I wasn't even aware of the Nearing's though I must have read a little of their stuff if they wrote for TMEN.

Back in the 70's my parents subscribed to MEN and I think that more than anything planted the seed for desiring to live simply. About the same time, my parents bought 40 acres as an investment/recreational property. We would camp there during the summer and after a few years, Dad built a cabin from salvaged lumber and windows. They put in a well but not the plumbing to the cabin. Before the well, we either boiled lake water or went to town and filled a big cooler with the push button dispenser.

Anyways, I feel like someone else said about people being too disconected from where things come from and what it takes.

I do not live as simply as I would like because I am married and my spouse's work makes use of the phone/computer/financial markets a great deal. However, I hope I have influenced my children toward more simple living. I suppose it comes down to not being dependent on other people doing everything for you so that you have to go to the store for everything you want or need.

Being more independent (even in just growning your own tomatoes) helps to fight the tendency to let the government do more and more for you.

-- L.B.D., Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), June 23, 2001.