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Part how-to manual and part philosophical treatise, the two books in this volume paint a picture of good old American independence. I read this book in 1990 as a freshman in college. From their experiments with farming to their commentary on living a simple life, it's a hard book to put down once you've picked it up. Over a lifetime, the Nearings try to live a life unencumbered by the burdens piled on the average laborer in the twentieth century--and by all accounts they succeed.The quotes that introduce each chapter are tedious, but those who skip those pages will not miss them. At the time I had never read anything like it. Leaving the big city, the Nearings set out to live a self-subsistant life.
I highly recommend it. I received my copy of the following book last week. It has beenvery hard to put it down.
A very good read for anyone who dreams of ditching the rat race and living a more relaxed life that is in harmony with nature.
Seems like alot of work for subsistance living,very engrossing read though. They didnt fit in urban society and when they moved to the vermont woods the natives thought they were whacko's.Okay so they were communists/marxists but they were very interesting people,learned, avante guarde and diverse, helen was even into UFO research.In this book you will see there experiment was basicaly a failure even they admit it at one point.the mistake i believe they made was there constant building projects and basicaly what became makework in my view. they brought into the woods there modern urban assumptions such as the view of work for works sake ,they even buy a rock quarry and start mining so they can get more rocks.Hauling stones around and garden food did keep them in shape but they were terribly dependend on trucks ,draft horses and had constant maintanance work[something early on they vowed never to do}.
To me they actually seem lazy.They say that when they feel a cold coming on they do as the neighborhood dogs and cats do, they quit eating until they feel fit again. (People that visited were talked out of working more than 4 hours a day).I'm reading it for the 3rd time in 25 years and it is enjoyable to read. Were they lazy. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous.They preach about not using animals for food or labor. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold.
There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. From what I've been able to piece together Helen and Scott must have been a couple of outcast university professors that were scorned for their anti-establishment (socialist). teachings. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book.
Did they eat shrimp cocktail and prime rib on Sunday afternoons.There is a lot of information that is repeated in the book.This book is way overrated. Were they hypocrites. so they could create a large commune. If you are considering homesteading then read some books that are more up to date and don't have such political influences.This is a fairly well written and somewhat entertaining book (actually 2 books in one) but it's worthless as a reference book for homesteaders.
They simply wanted to barely get by. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Instead, people seemed to come and go from their homesteads.It seems to be more of a treatise against capitalism and self motivation than for homesteading and self sufficiency. I think they must have been what would later become beatniks (and later hippies).Throughout their book (actually 2 books) they forecast the social disintegration of the US.They believe people should only work 4 hours a day and play the rest of the day.
(Here were are fifty years after the first of the 2 books were written).I felt that they may have been frustrated by not being able to establish a large following (as prophets). There is also a photo of them using horses to plow a field and another photo of Helen driving a pair of horses (two more examples of them not following their own teachings) on a snow covered road while she's riding in the wagon or sled (can't tell which since the picture is taken from in front of the horses). When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings).
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