An Eastern Oklahoma Transplant

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Forty red hens supply our eastern Oklahoma homestead with all the eggs we need (and provide a welcome income from the sale of the surplus). Their male counterparts keep our freezer stocked.
Forty red hens supply our eastern Oklahoma homestead with all the eggs we need (and provide a welcome income from the sale of the surplus). Their male counterparts keep our freezer stocked.
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We're fattening a steer in a neighboring pasture, and a Charlais manages to satisfy our milk needs.
We're fattening a steer in a neighboring pasture, and a Charlais manages to satisfy our milk needs.
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In spring, violets and dogwood blossoms cover our north slope.
In spring, violets and dogwood blossoms cover our north slope.
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Instead of crowded cityscapes, we now enjoy peaceful scenes, such as this Oklahoma sunset.
Instead of crowded cityscapes, we now enjoy peaceful scenes, such as this Oklahoma sunset.
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A view of Shangri-La from the top of our mountain
A view of Shangri-La from the top of our mountain

It’s been over two years since my husband Karl and I traded the questionable pleasures of city life for 80 acres in this loveliest of all “poverty pockets” … good old eastern Oklahoma.

We started out with very little income (and so many things to do that we didn’t know what to tackle first), so we fully expected the first two years to be the hardest … and we sure weren’t disappointed! The workload is finally beginning to level off, however, and sometimes we even feel smug enough to pity our poor friends and relations still stuck with the traffic jams and pollution of city life.

So, if you’ve wanted to make your move to the country but feared you were either too old or too inexperienced (or both), I’d like to offer our story as evidence that it can be done … and it’s not even all that tough. In fact, your initial hardships (and the inevitable mistakes) will come to seem trivial when the first friendly neighbor says, “Just let me know anytime you need some help” and you realize that he or she means it!

That Special Spot

Karl and I were both well into middle age when we decided to make our big move, you see, and we had–between the two of us–exactly 18 months of farming experience (six of those were actually pretty questionable). Despite our “handicaps,” though, we knew we had to find some place where people meant more than machines.

  • Published on Jan 1, 1981
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