Conscious Choice: Goin' to the Country?

May 1998

Goin' to the Country?

Go with a new set of spectacles

by Marlin Nissen

Many of us have dreamed of having our own place in the country. Between daydreams of escaping the rat race of the city or wistfully turning magazine pages showing idyllic scenes; it’s a widespread phenomena. We know the place in our heads: a sturdy, cozy home on a few acres, with meadows and streams stretching beyond the barns where children and a couple barnyard animals have room to play. All day to swing on the rope swing, milk the goats, build a bonfire at night and .... What’s this? Wait a minute, this looks like: a 60-mile commute in the middle of winter on drifted roads. The power’s been off for several weeks. You only see your friends a couple times a year now and between your leaky old‘charming’ farmhouse, the goat’s vet bills and the fix-up bill on the barn roof, you’re too broke to take time off of work anyway.

Of course some would say that money could help fix most of the negative impacts in the second script above. But what if the money’s not there — or you would prefer to spend it in other ways? Does that mean your country dream is dead? Not at all. For those of us with more limited means and a sense of environmental awareness, there are ways to avoid or at least mitigate most of these potential pitfalls. The solutions require trade-offs that stretch the imagination, but they offer sustainable models for human beings as part of the life on the planet.

Many people have moved to the country only to return again, sobered by unforeseen harsh realities. Though romantic notions of country living may not always play out, an analytical way to look at any situation is to maximize the advantages and turn each disadvantage over to utilize its silver lining. The following scenarios are based upon real people and situations. They serve to illustrate just some of the possibilities of thinking expansively.

Christiana is a neo-classic single mom with a young daughter. Caught in a seemingly endless cycle of day-care and unsatisfying work, barely making ends meet in unhealthy, unnatural living conditions, she dreams of a better existence for herself and her daughter. As she has an avid interest in nature and gardens, Christiana is invited by her sister to attend a nearby‘natural’ building workshop. This workshop exposes her to the utter simplicity and elegance of building with native clay, sand, and straw (Cob) to create a healthy, inexpensive dwelling. In one short week she feels the first sense of power over her life she has felt in years. The very next summer she and her daughter move into her sister’s home and spend the entire summer working on a Cob home of their own, using some land loaned to them by a friend who had inherited it. They will lease the acreage just outside the city limits in exchange for caretaking and paying the taxes. Christiana plans to support herself as an herbalist, creating wonderful healthful products.

Christiana’s scenario works because it makes creative use of community. Many times people are waiting to be asked to help someone they care about realize their dreams. I have seen many such unconventional land arrangements work, and can visualize that there are still many more. Christina also took the route of using her own labor and that of volunteers to create a living structure, instead of paying specialists (for the majority of one’s lifetime) with a mortgage. By integrating her love of the land and her interests, Christina was able to create a sustainable livelihood and parenting balance. But she was willing to trade off private land ownership, a larger space, a suburban home style, and speculative housing values. In return she’s enjoying her life.

Andy and Luke were best buddies in college in the 1960s. Andy married Susan, a nurse at the university, and Luke moved to take a job an hour away. Short stints in the corporate world for both of them never dimmed their joint enthusiasm for moving out to the country someday. They began a process of looking for land together. The first farm that they bought (at a bargain) they sold before ever moving there, as the heavy livestock commitment proved too daunting. The property they decided upon included an old ramshackle farm house with a great deal of wonderful old wood. Andy and Luke formed a Community Land Trust, which assured the continuation of their project even if one of them decided to move on. As Luke was the handy man, he moved directly onto the property, and with the help of hired Amish neighbors constructed a passive/active solar timber-framed home for Andy and Susan. Meanwhile, without investing much in keeping up the old farmhouse, Luke prepared a location for an earth-bermed dwelling for himself. Luke lived a season in Andy and Susan’s new home and together with the aforementioned Amish crew, disassembled the old farmhouse and utilized nearly all the components in this new structure. During this time, Susan continued in her nursing career (which she loved) and provided the necessary financial upkeep. Luke and Andy were able to produce a nearly self-sufficient food and housing setup. On her way to work Susan often stopped at the local grocery to drop off produce and finished products, such as bread and maple syrup, that were created at the farm. Eventually they brought other people into the mini‘community’, some of whom were added to the board of the land trust that will outlive these original members.

Lots of lessons there! In addition to a passion for "back to the land," this crew used brain power to their best advantage. Their wise purchase of land is coupled with an observation that the huge commitment to raise animals contradicts some of the romanticism of nostalgic country living. Debunking another romantic myth, they astutely noticed that the value of the old wood frame house they inherited was indeed in all the old wood that was contained within, and not in the unsustainable time and money pit that was the house itself. They also got in touch with their community from the start; rather than duplicating or competing with neighbors’ skills they complemented them. Ironically, in many small towns there is little locally-grown produce. Often food at rural groceries is considerably higher in price and poorer in quality than in city markets. Andy, Luke, and Susan’s emphasis on creating a partial local economic life for themselves limited the commuting of the group to the one person who truly benefited herself and the group by the travel. This group’s savy and its balanced decision to create a partially self-generating power system saved them money and provided for small conveniences during a major winter power outage that left all of their neighbors without power for months. Beyond the scope of this discussion but certainly pertinent to this and many other land use issues was their development of the Community Land Trust (see resources) to help this new version of‘family farm’ avoid the pitfalls that beset other farms.

Dan and Jean, being products of a different generation (50s, 60s) could not see retiring to a typical retirement area like Sun City. To this end they, along with a trusted consultant, devised a workable lifestyle scheme to address their needs. They had a straw bale house (see resources below) built on a piece of property they had owned for several years, utilizing a part of their windfall from selling their city dwelling. The home itself incorporates a combination of highly efficient modern appliances with simple backup systems for any period when their modern‘conveniences’ fail. Vegetative, self regulating buffers have been planted around the property and a hay farmer cuts and bales one of the open fields that remains. Dan has built each of their children a cabin for seasonal occupation, ensuring visitation from family and friends. One regular tenant is a holistic nurse who barters part of her out-of-pocket expense by regularly performing checkups and making dietary, herbal, and exercise suggestions. Because of her, Dan and Jean regularly practice yoga and utilize herbal remedies specifically directed towards aging. Then are even contemplating opening a part-time camp on "age and natural ways."

Dan and Jean’s successful move to the country was filled with forethought. The long-lasting, cold-and heat-impervious, low-maintenance aspects of a straw bale structure capitalize on the benefit of not having restrictive building codes. To limit their maintenance they purposefully chose to design their property to incorporate a natural self-care landscape. The open spaces provide beauty and utility (both human and animal) and provide an income that also employs a neighbor. And the backup, low-tech systems in their home, such as hand water pumping and wood heat, have actually added to their enjoyment. One interesting creative aspect of this design is the way Dan and Jean limited their isolation by increasing the visitation of family and acquaintances, several of whom will ensure continued upkeep on the property and may very well be the future inhabitants.

Many country people will follow the well-worn path of the city dweller, working 30 years and spending up to half their disposable income for what can hardly be called their dream house. These outflow burdens perpetuate a cycle of many long commutes that can be one of the banes of country living and can trap individuals into spending a great deal of time at jobs that don’t coincide with their "back to the land "goals. How would you like to escape both the city and a mortgage when you go back to the land? How would you like your independence to extend even to the utilities there?

Make some plans, but make sure you talk with someone who might know the route you want to take, a consultant of sorts or a friend with a clue about the details of country living. And remember, everything is a trade-off. Some of the scenarios you just read required trade-offs of things or ideas long held. The main thing you will probably have to lose is your built up resistance to think expansively. We’ve all been trained to think within a fairly narrow box of possibilities. Stepping outside that box can be a breath of fresh, country air.

Marlin Nissen is an inhabitant of the Great Lakes Bioregion who writes, teaches, and consults on Natural Buildings and Lifestyles.

Resources
Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks, by Randall Arendt

Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country, by Les and Carol Scher

The Good Life, by Helen and Scott Nearing

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