October 3rd, 2006 - Moving Up Country
Moving Up Country: A Yankee Way of Knowledge by Don Mitchell did not meet my expections. It’s a series of magazine columns by a former city dweller who moves with his wife to Vermont. It starts with the typical back to the land, not knowing anything, idealism of many books I’ve enjoyed. But I didn’t care for his attitude for most of what he does–quite often he abandons the idealism very quickly when things get tough. He also doesn’t do his homework (a journalist who doesn’t research???) and quite often does things in foolish, stupid, expensive, harder ways. The books is supposedly “hilarious” but I rarely found him funny.
There’s no mention of how and where they have to money to do what they do. Most back-to-the-landers deal with the issue, whether it’s that they are scraping by, have an inheritance, or hold a full time job. I have no idea how they could afford what they did.
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:42 am EDT
I ust finished reading Small Farm in Maine by Terry Silber…I can highly recommend this one! I havent seen the one you read, but I am guessing I can avoid it now..check out Small Farm in Maine if you havent already, you will love it!
October 27th, 2006 at 2:49 pm EDT
[…] David recommended this book and I immediately checked it out (ILL rocks!) A Small Farm in Maine by Terry Silber. He was right–I did love it! Unlike most of the back to the landers, Terry and her husband Mark took things slowly and carefully and with a lot of education. In all fairness, this is more a book about building a small business (the farm and what it leads to) than going back to the land. […]