THE WISDOM OF HELEN AND SCOTT

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

As we've noted several times in these pages, Helen and Scott Nearing are light years ahead of most of us when it comes to getting back to the land and living a life of voluntary simplicity. As well they should be, since they originally homesteaded a run-down farm in Vermont's Green Mountains away back in the autumn of 1932.

Life was good for the hearings on that mini-farm . . . until the slopes around them exploded into ski resorts in the early 50's ® , forcing Helen and Scott to move on to a rocky inlet on the coast of Maine and start all over again.

And that's where you'll find the Nearings today: still clearing brush, still building honest stone houses (Helen and Scott are famous for their stone houses), and still raising most of their vegetarian diet themselves in unbelievably productive wholistic gardens … just as they've been doing for nearly 50 years.

Naturally (in more ways than one), the Nearings have learned a few things about homesteading and getting back to basics over the years. And, lucky for all of us, they've agreed to share some of that knowledge with MOTHER's readers in a regular question and answer column. If you'd like to get in on the action, send your question or questions about self-sufficient living on the land to Helen and Scott Nearing, THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS ® , P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, N.C. 28739. And please don't expect personal replies to your queries. The most important and most frequently asked questions will be answered here—and here only—where we all can read what the Nearings have to say.

My husband and I have been happily married for five years and will soon have our own homestead. We'd love to have children, but, frankly, we're worried about the future. The lack of available quality education, the problem of pollution (especially nuclear), the possibility of economic collapse, and the threat of war on an overcrowded planet all seem to be good arguments against bringing young people into the world. We'd appreciate your views on this subject.

In our childbearing years, we already had second thoughts about having children . . . for the reasons you have aptly outlined.

At present, the unsettled social conditions in the U.S. preclude any possibility of bringing up children normally . . . even in a secluded homestead environment. Television and schools are sure to provide corruptive influences. (However, a young neighbor of ours, Melissa Coleman—when given cheap candy at a school Halloween party—accepted it sweetly, didn't eat it, came home, and put it on the compost pile. She was wise beyond her years.)