From Beverly Hills to shoveling manure on a farm (Laid off 100K insurance worker)

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/02/26/economy.survivor.farm/index.html

Story Highlights
Leah Bird and Ed Wright have have traded their Beverly Hills life for a trailer on a farm

Wright, who once made $100,000 a year, was laid off from an insurance firm

They feed animals, clean manure and fix the landscape

"I feel like a fish out of water. I'm so out of my element," Bird says



CNN) -- They bid farewell to their beloved trips to the opera and museum, the beach and Buddhist temples. They ate one last time at their favorite restaurants serving Indian curried chicken and warm bowls of Vietnamese pho.

Leah Bird and her husband, Ed Wright, have traded their comfortable two-bedroom apartment and jobs in Beverly Hills, California, for life in a trailer on a five-acre Oregon farm.

No longer do the couple hear roaring fire trucks in the street or chatter from patrons dining at outdoor cafes. On this farm, the dominant silence is occasionally interrupted by the sounds of frogs and crickets.

"It's not necessarily a lifestyle that has ever seemed attractive to me," says 28-year-old Bird, between tending to the farm animals: two sheep, two Nubian goats, miniature horses and geese. "I always saw myself as more of a metropolitan person, but you know, without money, this was our best option."

The couple's drastic lifestyle change -- one they chose -- came last October when Wright, 48, lost his job managing life insurance portfolios for millionaires at a private firm in Beverly Hills. His niche company, which relied heavily on capital flow, had felt the pain of the credit crunch.

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With meager savings, Bird and Wright knew they couldn't maintain their costly Los Angeles lifestyle in an area where, they say, image is everything. Even if they had stayed in Beverly Hills, they would have needed to move into a smaller apartment and rely on Bird's modest salary as a financial manager. Exhausted from the rat race, Wright decided they needed another option.

[ogneopasno]

1. "Meager savings"? Obviously they're doing just fine; they got the land and trailer from parents.

This is such a non-news story I can hardly stand it. No one is in this position. "Oh look, rich Hills types now are comfortable on-the-land types! Cute!" Bah.

[geardaddy]

4. Exactly.

You said it. Reminds me of Green Acres. :puke:

[ogneopasno]

8. I just hate articles about rich people playing poor. It provides such a fake picture of what people

are actually going through. ARGH.

[geardaddy]

2. They should consider themselves lucky.

Where can the rest of us go to work on a farm. Hmmm?

[gratuitous]

3. From Beverly Hills to Hillbillies?

That's just a tad insulting. But never mind.

It appears from the story that young Mr. Wright might actually come out of all this a different person. And by that, I mean eating piping hot pho instead of "warm" pho. Yuck-a-doo!

[mrcheerful]

5. Con fluff piece riches to rags oh golly gee

aren't they special can shovel horse shit and still live decent and so can you lazy welfare bums.

[Ron Green]

6. "Chop wood, carry water."

Didn't they tell him that at the Buddhist temple?

[fasttense]

7. Doesn't sound so bad to me. It could be worse. They could have to raise children

under conditions like that.

[zeemike]

12. Or worse, have children and sleeping in their car.

But they had options that far to many people don't have.

[formercia]

9. Someone hand me a tiny violin...

[tularetom]

10. Um how are they making money?

Two sheep two goats miniature horses and geese.

At one point we had over 100 sheep and a small flock of goats and we'd have starved to death if we both didn't have fulltime jobs as well.

[mike_c]

11. exactly-- that's not a farm, at least not in any productive sense....

MAYBE two people can partially feed themselves on it-- assuming they grow a lot of food and preserve it-- but they certainly can't make a living doing that and I'll bet they'd starve, even on that land, without additional income.

[WI_DEM]

13. Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?

[Dora]

14. She wants to buy a cow for milk?

Wouldn't the expense of feeding a cow be greater than the expense of buying milk? How much milk does a cow produce? Enough to provide for a family of four adults, plus extra to sell/trade to neighbors?

Is it worth it?