The most fun book I've read in a long time!

Just finished reading Living High by June Burn. It’s about the life of June Burn and her husband Farrar, who decided they would ‘retire’ before they built their careers, working only enough to survive so they could spend time touring the country in search of adventure, exploring nature, and raising their children.

They found an island in Puget Sound that they could homestead, surviving on subsistence farming, fishing, and doing odd jobs when they need cash income. They built a small cabin using what they called beach wood (presumably driftwood). The construction required bringing other building materials and tools from a larger island, a 2-hour trip by rowboat, then carrying everything up the steep cliffs on the island.

Sounds challenging, right? Not enough for them. They soon took jobs on Alaska’s Aleutian Peninsula, living the lifestyle of their Native American neighbors. Jane taught in the island’s only school, which required chopping wood and building fires before the school day, (no small task in the Alaskan winter), then teaching all grades in a single room. Farrar took on several civil service responsibilities, including managing the town’s reindeer herd.

You guessed it – soon this lifestyle seemed tame, and they set off in search of adventure. The rest of the book tells of their travels around the country, enjoying nature, raising their family on the road, and building careers as writers and musicians. They home schooled their two sons through the early grades. Both boys eventually went to traditional high schools, graduated from college, and had successful professional careers.

This unusual autobiography is a wonderful story of a family living out their deeply held values, refusing to be dominated by the constraints of traditional jobs. Their nomadic lifestyle allowed them to stay centered on keeping family time a priority and living simply in close contact with nature. BTW, despite the title, there is nothing about drugs in the book. They considered living their bare-bones life very much living the ‘high life’.

The book is fascinating, a fun read, would be a good choice for a book club. Originally published in the forties, it has been updated several times, most recently in 2022. It’s the most fun book I’ve read recently, yet there is a powerful underlying message as well. It’s available from the Bellingham Public Library and Amazon (of course).