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See also the DVD of Simple Living, a companion DVD to this book:

You can see this video for free on youtube at:
Simple Living

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To Elizabeth and John
who lived out this adventure with  us

A note to this edition: We published The Treasures of Simple Living in 1987, and have left it here much as it first appeared. Radical Simplicity and the Fourth Step updates that story, but more importantly, tries to describe and distill how living in the forest changed the way we saw the world we had grown up in, and convinced us a better way of living was possible. Jim and Tyra, the forest, Summer 2004

Our future was set out for us: full-time jobs, mortgage payments for the next 20 years, and retirement at 65. Our children would go to school and we would see them as much as our busy schedules allowed. But such a future held no attraction for us. So we packed up, left it all behind and drove into the unknown.

Our journey took us beyond the electric lines, telephone, paved roads and television. We built our own house, grew salads year-round in a solar greenhouse, and taught our children at home, all in the midst of a forest where the nearest neighbors are wild animals, and the snow gets four feet deep.

The inconveniences were soon forgotten in the joys of living under our own roof, watching our children blossom, and discovering abilities we never knew we had. The simplicity took away economic pressures and gave us time to search for life’s deeper meanings.

PART I explains why we left  the city, how we solved the problem of earning a living and what we went through once we bought a piece of land in the middle of a forest.

PART II tells about the treasures we found in our simple life, and why our experiment paid us back a thousand-fold.

PART III describes common obstacles to creating a new lifestyle closer to nature, and some important skills that helped us along the way.

Reviews

"An idyllic but passionately challenging account of transition from middle-class, city turmoil to taking personal control..." Learning Unlimited Network of Oregon

"...full of practical tips and resources for creating your own simple living adventure." The Mail Order Catalog, The Farm, Summertown, TN

Readers' comments: "I received it in yesterday's mail and stayed up much too late..." "I greatly enjoyed The Treasures...It was like living through the whole experience with you..." "I picked up your book at my local library last night. I can hardly put it down!" "...such a free-flowing easy read - an encouragement in down to earth practicality without getting overburdened with detail."

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 2: LEAVING
   Our Own Business
   The Search for Land
   Amateur Surveyors
   Our Own Land

CHAPTER 3: HOME
   The Sun
   Building
   Heat
   Non-Instant Gratification Time
   House Building Conclusions

CHAPTER 4: PLEASE DON'T DRINK THE TADPOLES AND OTHER BASICS
   Wild Life
   Wastes 
   Electricity
   Telephone
    Mail
   Heat
   Wood
   Basics
   Neighbors and Community

CHAPTER 5: THE BIOSHELTER
   The $20 Lettuce Sandwich
   Even More Needs
   The Greenhouse
   Mad Inventors
   More Inventions
   The Inner Room
   The Root Cellar
   Why Bother?

PART I, Section 2: SIMPLE LIVING

CHAPTER 6: FOOD
   Meat vs. Tofu
   Bread
   The Bread Factory
   Yogurt
   Salads
   Wild Edibles
   Town Eating
   Vitamins
   Going Shopping

CHAPTER 7: WINTERS TRAVEL AND WILD PLACES
   Snow Bound
   Trip To Town
   Travel
   Skis
   The Snow as Guardian
   A Winter Retreat
   More Trips
   Wild Places
   Spring

CHAPTER 8: TELEVISION
   Passivity
   Emotions
   Concentration

CHAPTER 9: HOME SCHOOL
   School and What It Does
   Love of Learning
   Socialization
   Individual Difference 
   Boredom
   Together and Apart
   Books
   Tests
   Trust
   Play
   Touching
   Home School Today
   No Diploma

PART II: TREASURES

CHAPTER 13: MISTAKES
   Money
   Self-Employed
   Search for Land
   Home
   Utilities
   Food
   Winter Travel
   Wild Places
   Trees
    TV
   Home School
   Why?

CHAPTER 14: TOFU AND TEMPEH

A GUIDE TO VALUABLE RESOURCES, IMPORTANT INFORMATION
AND EXOTIC TIDBITS