[HCCN] FW: News from The Nearings' Good Life Center (forest Farm) at Harborside, ME

[Larry Dansinger]

Please pass along to others in your group or area. Thanks.

PLEASE NOTE IN THE RELEASE THAT THE GOOD LIFE CENTER HAS DISCOVERED SERIOUS
PROBLEMS WITH THE HISTORICAL NEARING HOMESTEAD AND THE LIBRARY INSIDE THE
HOUSE. BOTH THE BUILDING AND LIBRARY NEED FINANCIAL HELP TO BE RESTORED TO
GOOD CONDITION (the house is currently closed until mold and structural
issues are taken care of). ANY HELP YOU CAN PROVIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE CENTER,
AND THE HOMESTEAD, WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED.

Larry Dansinger

Please publish at your earliest convenience. Thank you. NCJ

February 23, 2009

 NEWS

Contact: Nancy Caudle-Johnson
207-236-6855

NEWS FROM THE NEARINGS' GOOD LIFE CENTER (FOREST FARM)

Harborside, Maine. February 23rd marked the 105th birthday of Helen Nearing,
wife and partner of Scott Nearing, a remarkable woman who left their home in
Maine to be preserved as the place now known as The Good Life Center. The
Homestead they named Forest Farm overlooks Spirit Cove on the Cape Rosier
peninsula in Harborside.

The Good Life Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1998 to preserve
the house, library, and garden of the social, political, and environmental
activists and back to the landers Helen and Scott Nearing, recently elected
new directors and officers.

Newest on the seven member board are Diane Fitzgerald of Blue Hill, Gwyneth
Thomas of Penobscot, and board secretary Nancy Caudle-Johnson of Camden. All
were friends of the late Helen Nearing and founding Stewards of The Good
Life Center, and Thomas was Forest Farm¹s caretaker for several winters
while Helen traveled.

Newly elected chair Jocelyn Langer of Hubbartston, Massachusetts is a second
term director, the former secretary, long-time Steward, and daughter of a
founding Steward and past chair. Treasurer Joan Cheetham of Monroe, also a
long-time Steward, is a second term director, past chair and past treasurer.
Also serving are the first term director and long-time Steward Joel Glatz of
China and first-term director John Vincent of Harborside who is the former
chair and former treasurer.

The board is actively working with fund raising and building and grounds
committees, and preparing to launch a capital campaign to fund needed
maintenance on the Nearings¹ historic home, as well as modifications to
protect the integrity of their valuable library of books.

The Nearings moved from Vermont to an old farmhouse on Cape Rosier in 1953,
and later in the 1970s, when Scott was in his 90s and Helen in her 70s and
assisted by visitor and friends, they built the stone house, tool
shed/garage, outhouse, greenhouse, and walled garden on a portion of their
original property. Helen¹s book, Our Home Made of Stone, chronicles the
endeavor.

Countless people have been inspired by visits to their homestead and their
many books, especially Living the Good Life, often called the bible of the
back to the land movement. Scott died in 1983 at age 100, and Helen followed
in 1995. But she left their homestead and library  as a Good Life Center,
that others might be encouraged to pursue their own ³Good Lives²

The Good Life Center
372 Harborside Road € Harborside, Maine 04642 € (207) 326-8211 €
www.goodlife.org