For the first eight years of our marriage, we lived in a rented
house in Southwestern Ontario, and we just could not save
fast enough to buy our own place. We were determined to
live Debt Free, so we learned how.
At that time a friend of ours Steve gave us a box filled with
old issues of Mother Earth News and Harrowsmith
magazines. That box opened up a whole new world for us.
Reading those magazines, we realized other people looked at
the world the same way we did.
In 1992, we purchased 20 acres of forested land in Eastern
Ontario, about 150 miles away from our original home. The
property was plowed in the winter and had school bus
service, but it did not have electrical power.
We were determined to live without the ‘monthly mortgage’,
as Jane calls it, to the electric company, and stay debt free.
The same friend introduced us to Living the Good Life, the
classic homesteading book by Helen and Scott Nearing, and
we discovered self-sufficiency. We began corresponding with
Helen (Scott had died five years earlier) about our move and
our worries.
In her motherly way, she patiently guided us through our
fears. I still have those letters.