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Average Customer Rating:

good read	Customer Rating:
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.

Required reading if into experimental living

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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}. Seems like alot of work for subsistance living,very engrossing read though.

Dated, redundant, and inconsistent but a fairly good old book.

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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. 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. 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. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold. When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous. They preach about not using animals for food or labor. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings). 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). ??? Were they hypocrites? 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. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. (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?) so they could create a large commune. 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. They simply wanted to barely get by. Were they lazy? (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. There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. 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.

Thank You Scott and Helen-If Only We Could Have Met

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I am profoundly grateful that the Nearings took the time and trouble to write this book. I am trying something similar in North Central Florida, and while their conditions in New England were quite different in some ways (a shorter growing season, and the availablity of stone are examples), their advice, enthusiasm and encouragement across the years are a great comfort, as well as a good read (by oil lamp!). This is an American Classic, and should never be forgotten.

This book helped change my life

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These books have inspired me to start my own farm and live a life of simplicity and hard work. I share some of the strong principals that Scott and Helen Nearing had. I only wish I had their courage. Once you have read their books do some research on Scott and Helen then you will learn why they were the way they were. Scott was a real Pain in the *** to a lot of folks prior to the great depression. His ideas on child labor were way ahead of his time. Helen was his soul mate and partner and a darn good writer in her own right. They both lived long lives Scott 100, Helen 91 she was killed in an auto accident. With their strong beliefs and not always endearing manners they weren't always appreciated by their neighbors and friends. However, they were right about so many things and inspired so many people they became cult heros during the sixties and beyond. These books are about them as much as about their farm.