Helen and Scott Nearing wrote two books, The Good Life, and Continuing the Good Life, which are now available in one combined volume.  I picked it up for vacation reading, sort of as another take on the local lifestyle.

The Nearings left the US wage economy in 1932 and became Vermont homesteaders, living as much as they could exclusively in a use economy.  For them, this meant living without debt, buying on credit, etc., and producing as much of their own food as possible, building their own homes with found materials as much as possible, and having a small cash crop they produced to buy the necessities of life which they couldn't grow or produce themselves.  They did not work for wages or pay others for wages whenever possible, but bartered their labor when they could.  They lived this way for nearly more than 60 years-- from 1932 until their deaths.

It is a very interesting book: an odd combination of their philosophy (e.g., why they are vegetarians) and handbook (e.g., the measurements of their concrete forms for building their stone buildings and fences).  I'd recommend it as an eclectic-homesteady read, though it didn't change my life.

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