Flourishing in a 24' x 24' "mansion".

COUNTRYSIDE: Our family is homesteading outside Rawlins, WY, and your magazine is just what we need. It's great!

We managed to find 160 acres of undeveloped land for $150 an acre. No fences, no buildings, no trees, just lots of sage brush, antelope and coyotes.

We just moved into our cabin (24'x 24') after living in a 12'x18' army tent for 6-1/2 months and it feels like a mansion! There is no phone, so no one bothers us except a hunter every now and then, but it's sure nice not listening for the phone to ring. We have no electricity so we use kerosene lanterns for light. We have a propane cookstove, just as we did "on the grid."

It will be another year before we can get a well drilled, so we haul water.

Right now we only have a cat, four dogs and five puppies. Come spring we will be buying goats, sheep and whatever else seems to belong on the ranch. (We have a lifetime of experience raising every type of domestic livestock, including rabbits).--Brad & Beth Barton, Rawlins, WY

Those poor souls who couldn't live without their phones, and electricity, and running water, and houses full of rooms they seldom even use, probably feel real sorry for you folks. But it's a sure bet that plenty of your fellow COUNTRYSIDERS reading this are green with envy!