Jill, Thank you so much for this article. I am also a child that came of age in the "back to the land" movement times. My girlfriend (now wife of 36 years) both of us city and suburban raised moved to a rundown property with a small house built in 1912 and a barn built in 1952. Apropos of your story, my father moved to the USA from Norwa…
Jill, Thank you so much for this article. I am also a child that came of age in the "back to the land" movement times. My girlfriend (now wife of 36 years) both of us city and suburban raised moved to a rundown property with a small house built in 1912 and a barn built in 1952. Apropos of your story, my father moved to the USA from Norway after WW2, to attend college, met my mother and married.
We raised chickens, large gardens, but made our livings with art fairs, which paid the bills, sometimes handily, sometime barely. I did side work in graphic art for advertising agencies, printers and some of my own clients. Rural Northern winters were cold and tough and art fairs didn't come around until Spring unless one wanted to travel to the South for the winter, which doesn't work with keeping the homestead running. Winter was also the time we needed to jury for the art fairs and pay show fees. I always said my investments were in art fair futures. But we loved the rural life and have no regrets. Now we have radically downsized and live on a couple acres. The property sale gave us most of the retirement grubstake we have. Not wealthy, but should carry us through if we are careful. It can be done with work and without much wealth.
Jill, Thank you so much for this article. I am also a child that came of age in the "back to the land" movement times. My girlfriend (now wife of 36 years) both of us city and suburban raised moved to a rundown property with a small house built in 1912 and a barn built in 1952. Apropos of your story, my father moved to the USA from Norway after WW2, to attend college, met my mother and married.
We raised chickens, large gardens, but made our livings with art fairs, which paid the bills, sometimes handily, sometime barely. I did side work in graphic art for advertising agencies, printers and some of my own clients. Rural Northern winters were cold and tough and art fairs didn't come around until Spring unless one wanted to travel to the South for the winter, which doesn't work with keeping the homestead running. Winter was also the time we needed to jury for the art fairs and pay show fees. I always said my investments were in art fair futures. But we loved the rural life and have no regrets. Now we have radically downsized and live on a couple acres. The property sale gave us most of the retirement grubstake we have. Not wealthy, but should carry us through if we are careful. It can be done with work and without much wealth.