Did you choose to live simply or forced into it?

Once you have HUGGED a DONKEY you will want TWO,and live in the fresh air of the country. Hitch them to your wagon, full of what you have produced on your FARM, then go to the VILLAGE to trade. What a way to live. thedonkeyman...from Oregon. adadonke@cmc.net

I have a donkey.... when I hug him he gives me the hairy eyeball... cute kid, but I tink he would rather not be hugged.
I do it anyway.
the horse loves to be hugged. The donkey would rather ya just scratch his butt.

By choice also - my husband and I both had frugal parents who lived within their means and below their means when times were good. We got married in the early 80s, unemployment in our area was 25%. It is a lot easier maintaining a happy lifestyle when your cost of living is low. It seems we tend to get the "it must be nice" when we purchase something. We pay cash and the others live on credit. We bought a fixer upper house that his siblings (funny how siblings can be so different) would never live in. They'd come out to see us before and during remodeling but once it was all finished, we don't see them. I think most of us will weather this recession and probably worse times in the next couple of years better than most.

It was necessary for me because the alternative was to continue down the path of meaningless consumerism that I knew didn't make me happy. No matter how much I tried to fit in with mainstream society, I just knew it wasn't me. Urban living also made me emotionally, physically and spirtiually sick. I became someone very ugly because of the stress. The only logical solution was to return to my earth-centered roots of my childhood.

The only problems I've had are that I'm not remote enough yet for my liking and that on occassion my desire to simply be left alone isn't respected by some people. I've had to be more aggressive in the defense of my privacy than I would like and I come across as a very antisocial person. However, I grant that most humans annoy me and I choose to be around only those few people whom I wish to spend time with.

There is much satisfaction in living simply so that others may simply live. I have to have a certain amount of wants because of what I do to pay the bills. I need a certain amount of modern technology for work and to make up for the time that I can't be on the homestead to do things in a more manual fashion.

My garden is so-so, but it helps. My gathering of wild foodstuffs adds to the bounty as does my hunting.

I pass the time reading, reloading ammuntion, watching nature and researching things on the internet. Simplicity is the direction, but the process towards that goal is what pleases me the most.

Were it possible to live very simply, I would do so, but I can't as I have to have a certain amount of complexity to work with our current society. I have the ability to seek a much more basic existance, but the requirements of interfacing with what exists now holds me back. Still, what I have now is better than I had when I was in a city.

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Those who refuse to respect the natural rights of the individual and uphold their oath to protect and defend the Constitution deserve the punishment they receive.

I think that it will become more & more a necessity for most folks rather than choice due to world events. The gas prices are over $2.00/litre already here in Canada & Hurricane Rita hasn't even done her dastardly deed yet. 3 litres make 1 gallon.

Is your pinky finger hurting yet?

Just wanted to be able to live on the same land as my horse and donkey (who lives to be hugged).

I've always canned, baked my own bread, sewed, and did some homesteading type things. So this was a natural evolution.

The longer I'm here, I feel closer to the land and try to live more simply - although maybe I've just traded a closet full of clothes for a shed full of tools.
Still have a huge list of "have to's", but without the pressure.

It also is helping me financially as I get older because I can live more cheaply - after buying the tractor, building the hen house, building the barn, installing the wood stove, etc. Sometimes I wonder if it's a better trade financially??

Choice -
We live in NJ right now about an hour away from NYC. We leave on Tuesday for West Virginia and hope to be able to purchase the home that will let us live the life we have dreamed of. I look at the people we work with and know and cant understand how they do it. They are in debt up to their necks and live from purchase to purchase. They have all of the "toys" and gadgets they could possibly want or need or even should have. But what I see the most is the lack of humanity, compassion and respect for the Earth. They are so consumed with outdoing the "Jones's" that they dont see any other way. Lack of education? Lack of knowing that there is a way out? Not caring either way?
I despair and that is one of the reasons we chose to leave. I found myself yelling from my front porch at some horrible children who had been teasing my daughter and had actually put their hands on her. You know its time to get out when you're on the front porch of your house with an advertsiment of a home in the county in one hand and rage and anger making your other hand shake. I long for the silence, peace and knowledge of living in the country where reality is the Earth and how you live on it.

Simple: not complicated, not confusing, not complex, plain, unadorned, modest, done with ease, not difficult.

By choice, if one calls farming, living simply LOL(Many years ago I married a farmer). Farming is anything BUT simple. I love dirt, animals, crops and living in the country, but I wouldn't call it simple. It is stressful, physically hard, demanding and if your in it with extended family....it can make you crazy, if you let it. It can also become your god. The never ending battle against weather, breakdowns and bankers can sure take the romanticizm out of it..............HOWEVER LOL.........I would not have changed my life one bit.

AND.......I have no desire to live without electricity, my wonderful washer & dryer, indoor plumbing, gas furnace, 4wd pickups and about 50 other things that I thoroughly enjoy......but I could get along without them if I HAD to, but it wouldn't make life simpler. I am thrilled to pieces, to have conveniences that my farmer grandparents didn't have.