Scott

[Kat Kanning]

Boy you sure have aged recently.  I saw your photo on your avatar.     Want to join the blue-lettered old-farts brigade?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Is your avatar an image of another Scott, by any chance?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Well....Scott did not respond to my question, so, I did some research on my hunch and, can say that without doubt, Scott's avatar is an image of Scott!

[Lloyd Danforth]

See!  I told ya!  Helen was more attractive.

[Lloyd Danforth]

[Lloyd Danforth]

Yes, they inspired me too.  A little Commie, easy to disregard and a LOT of self sufficient!

[Kat Kanning]

Never heard of em.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Babies,  they're a laugh a minute!

[Kat Kanning]

Whaaaaaa!  Don't call me names.  I might have to tell my mommie.  Then you'll have the white-haired granny with the shotgun after you.   

[Lloyd Danforth]

And with her ass wanting to chew tobacco!  No....wait... that was gramma!

I probably don't have this 100% correct,  but, the Nearings were academics and socialists, who, probably because of their beliefs had trouble getting teaching positions and bought some land in VT during, I think, the depression.  Eshewing all forms of power, except an old pickup, they built a nice homestead .  The collected rocks and gravel found on their property and built stone buildings.  They improved the crappy soil using compost they made. They didn't use any animal products at all and lived on what they grew with occaisional trip to town for flour.  They canned a few things, but, pretty much ate what was in season.
They wrote a book called: 'Living the Good Life', among others.
With the popularity of downhill sking after WWII they found themselves in the middle of a ski mecca, sold out, and moved to the coast of Maine and started all over again.
In the 1970's they became the darlings of the back to the land movement.

[Kat Kanning]

Cool, thanks for the bio

[KBCraig]

Cool, thanks for the bio

Wikipedia has a good entry about them, including their son,  John Scott, who was a double spy.

[AlanM]

Cool, thanks for the bio

Wikipedia has a good entry about them, including their son,? John Scott, who was a double spy.

He was a spy spy?  ???

[KBCraig]

a double-nought spy! </jethro>

[Lex]

I'm reading The Good Life right now, up to page 151. I definitely like the fact that they are very encouraging of the idea of stone houses because that is currently my dream, to build my own stone house when I get up to NH.

And while they definitely have very strong socialist leanings I don't think it ruins the book in anyway, it's easy to just ignore those parts. Well, the only part where my blood pressure went up a little is when they spent several pages describing how the government should more thoroughly regulate the food industry...

In any case, from what I have read so far I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in self sufficient living. I also think it's a really good starting book (at least this is the first book I'm reading on the subject and I feel like they cover a very broad area from building their own house to gardening and cooking). Once you read this book you will have a much better idea of what it takes to be self sufficient and have an idea of what else you need to learn to be successful.