We rushed up the highway into another world.  Farms are horse pastures surrounded by painted wood fences.  Home prices are slung in bold type on billboards --- "from the high $200s".  I imagine what would happen if life as we know it came to an end while we were stuck in this madness --- how we'd barter the six dozen eggs we'd brought as hostess gifts in exchange for gas to get us home, or maybe would find our way to the Appalachian Trail and eat our eggs as we marched south.

Tuesday night, we stopped to visit Sheila on a thousand acre property on the side of the Blue Ridge --- a breath of fresh air.  I've known Sheila for 8 years, and she hasn't changed a bit, except maybe looking more alive every year.  This is what I want to be like when I reach my 70s, bushwhacking up the side of a creek with the wind roaring through the trees.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.