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打印8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so -- with my employer's blessings and half a year's pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket -- off I went.
第二年我們種了更多的作物，差不多就靠著從自家樹林砍斫的木柴以及僅僅100加侖的燃油過了冬。其時，我開始認(rèn)真考慮起辭了職去從事自由撰稿的事來。時機(jī)選得實在太差。當(dāng)時，兩個大的女兒肖恩和埃米正在費用很高的常春藤學(xué)校上學(xué)，而我們只有幾千美金的銀行存款。但我們一再回到一個老問題上來：真的會有更好的時機(jī)嗎？答案無疑是否定的。于是，帶著老板的祝福，口袋里揣著作為累積津貼的半年薪水，我走了。
9 There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, I've crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake Champlain "monster" for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.
那以后有過一些焦慮的時刻，但總的來說，情況比我們料想的要好得多。為了寫那些內(nèi)容各不相同的文章，我為《體育畫報》爬進(jìn)過黑熊窩；為《史密森期刊》替參賽的一組組狗套上過雪橇；為《科學(xué)文摘》調(diào)查過尚普蘭湖水怪的真相；為《終點》雜志在明尼蘇達(dá)劃著小舟穿越美、加邊界水域內(nèi)的公共荒野保護(hù)區(qū)。
10 I'm not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we don't need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor man's major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low -- only $560 a year -- and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA.
我掙的錢遠(yuǎn)比不上擔(dān)任全職工作時的收入，可如今我們需要的錢也沒有過去多。我掙的錢足以應(yīng)付每月600美金的房屋貸款按揭以及一家人的日常開銷。那些開銷包括了所有支出，如音樂課學(xué)費、牙醫(yī)賬單、汽車維修以及大學(xué)費用等等。至于保險，我們買了一份低收入者的主要醫(yī)療項目保險。我們需要為每一位家庭成員的任何一項醫(yī)療費用支付最初的500美金。醫(yī)療保險則支付超出部分的80％。雖然我們?nèi)砸Ц缎〔糠轴t(yī)療費用，但我們的保險費也低--每年只要560美金--而我們給自己生大病保了險。除了這一保險項目，以及兩輛汽車每年400美金的保險，我們就沒有其他保險了。不過我們每年留出2000美元入個人退休金賬戶。
11 We've been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments...
我們通過節(jié)約開支而又不明顯降低生活水準(zhǔn)的方式來彌補收入差額。我們每個月仍出去吃一兩次飯，不過現(xiàn)在我們光顧的是當(dāng)?shù)夭宛^，而不是城里的高級飯店。我們?nèi)匀ッ軤栁只牳鑴】窗爬傺莩觯贿^一年才幾次。我們?nèi)獬缘蒙倭耍坪鹊帽阋肆耍娪翱吹蒙倭恕ｄ亸埖氖フQ節(jié)成為一種回憶，我們把完成稿約作為度假的一部分……
12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we don't entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home.
我想，不是所有熱愛鄉(xiāng)村的人都會樂意過我們這種生活的。這種生活需要一些特殊的素質(zhì)。其一是耐得住寂寞。由于我們?nèi)绱嗣β担诸^又緊，我們很少請客。在作物生長季節(jié)，根本就沒工夫參加社交活動。吉米和埃米莉雖然參加學(xué)校的各種活動，但他倆大多數(shù)時間也呆在家里。
13 The other requirement is energy -- a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw.
另一項要求是體力――相當(dāng)大的體力。小范圍里實現(xiàn)自給自足的途徑是抵制誘惑，不去購置拖拉機(jī)和其他昂貴的節(jié)省勞力的機(jī)械。相反，你要自己動手。我們僅有的機(jī)器（不包括割草機(jī)）是一臺3馬力的小型旋轉(zhuǎn)式耕耘機(jī)以及一架16英寸的鏈鋸。
14 How much longer we'll have enough energy to stay on here is anybody's guess -- perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we'll leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what we've been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. We've invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again.
沒人知道我們還能有精力在這里再呆多久--也許呆很長一陣子，也許不是。到走的時候，我們會愴然離去，但也會為自己所做的一切深感自豪。我們把農(nóng)場出售也會賺相當(dāng)大一筆錢。我們自己在農(nóng)場投入了約35，000美金的資金，要是現(xiàn)在售出的話價格差不多可以翻一倍。不過現(xiàn)在不是出售的好時機(jī)。但是一旦經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢好轉(zhuǎn)，對我們這種農(nóng)場的需求又會增多。
15 We didn't move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family, I know we've found just what we were looking for.
但我們主要不是為了賺錢而移居至此的。我們來此居住是因為想提高生活質(zhì)量。當(dāng)我看著埃米莉傍晚去收雞蛋，跟吉米一起在河上釣魚，或和全家人一起在果園里享用老式的野餐，我知道，我們找到了自己一直在尋求的生活方式。
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