Pragmatic and at the same time philosophical, this is a journaling of a couple's self-sustaining/homesteading lifestyle. Pictures and prose help you admire their life and might even stir you to try all or some of it yourself!

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It's important to consider the period of time that writing takes place, in order to correctly comprehend the authors thoughts. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, caused this couple to reevaluate their life in NYC. They hoped for a more fulfilling life, enjoyed at a slower pace, by living off the land in a small town in Vermont. Scott Nearing often refers to this as an experiment. We the readers, get to view their experiment as well as the results.
Whether or not the reader shares Scott's eco-political point of view, or his ideas about the exploitation of animals, I feel this is a great book to read. I can't help but admire their self-discipline and the clarity with which they pursued this life.
They leave behind a well written path to the self-sufficient life. It's an admirable accomplishment to have the Nearings' life work be so well documented.

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