Whatever causes someone to take to country life will be made better by two things, a house and a barn. You might call that barn a shed, garage, smokehouse, summer kitchen or whatever. The reason for the two is so that you can live in one and keep your *truck in the other. Stuff begets more stuff and the elimination of unnecessary stuff makes for good employment. It would be redundant to say more except to define unnecessary stuff as those things we acquired in a hurry but are lacking in quality and long term durability. Make no mistake about it though, you need both, house and a barn.
The poor man is made richer by a good space of land. Timber, garden, pasture and Orchard all make for a good supply in all seasons of the year. Water as well! A spring, stream, well or pond is a great asset otherwise you have to haul and that is a hinderance in so many ways. Rain can be collected in a cistern as has been done for thousands of years.
Of course there is a dilemma in all of this; living in this fashion is a dying art at least in some parts of the world. The key is education although we don’t often think of the farmer or the woodsman to be an educated man, book-wise at least. Truth is, the skill and the knowledge of living directly from the land is worthy of a Ph.D.. No need though, the country man or woman has no one to impress.
*truck ~ used in the sense of stuff you have to haul, supplies as it were.
The Frontier View 