It started with the 1960s likely during the Viet Nam War when many people wanted time to "just live" and not become just "Another victim of a company somewhere". So, it is about becoming an Entrepreneur so you can have a business while owning land in the country. I learned this point of view from my Dad who also bought land in 1968 in the Desert to create his Retirement there by about 1980 when he would be about 65 years of age. So, starting in 1968 I helped my father build his desert Retirement home on Weekends. My Dad loved the High Desert above Yucca Valley on the Yucca mesa not to far from Landers. I however, like riding my motorcycles in the desert the most. But, living in the desert was not my idea of a good time especially in the summer when temperatures often were 110 to 115 degrees in the day time. However, the desert nights were really something with all those stars out. You could see the whole galaxy then like I can when the fog isn't there at night where I live now on the coast of Northern California.
So, it seemed sort of natural to buy land in 1980 for cash and start building a place for my brand new 2nd wife and my son from my first marriage and her two kids from her first marriage to live in. We were pretty happy there from about Summer of 1980 until 1985 when we moved towards the SF Bay area and bought a business because my wife's oldest son wanted to return to a public school. So, we bought a business and returned to the northern California business to see the kids through high school and college.
Buying land in the country and building yourself a home there isn't for everyone. It's better if you don't do this all alone because I have had friends who did this all alone and some sort of "lose it" because they spend too much time alone. Others don't succeed in this because of financial or emotional reasons or because there relationship with their significant other ends or something like that.
However, for me, it worked great and saved us I figure between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars in rent over those 5 years and gave me more time with my wife and kids to show them nature and to travel some with them and teach them a lot of things about life. We were also very lucky when we returned and bought a business on the coast to be able to take 4 months off and go to India, Nepal, Thailand and Japan from December 1985 until April 1986 with my wife and all three of our older kids at that time.
So, for me, the back to the land movement here in the U.S. was so inspiring for me it is one of the reasons I'm still alive today. It gave me what I needed to live now to my late 60s and it still puts a smile on my face to know I once lived a wonderful country life like that.
Here is the main problem to the "Back to the Land" movement here in the U.S. Finding beautiful remote property even with water isn't the hardest part. AC electrical lines aren't even a big problem with relatively inexpensive Solar Units to fit on your Roof or wherever.
The biggest problem now is the cost of building material. So, unless you disassemble and old home and get building inspectors to pass on the lumber be for you use it or do the same with Alaskan mills to mill your own wood from trees on your own land or something like that and still get building inspectors to sign off on that it will be very expensive to build much of anything at today's lumber and building material prices. But, if money isn't a problem for you then go for it. Because living in a really beautiful area with family and friends that you love is wonderful.
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