Wordy Birds

See You In a Hundred Years

Original airdate: June 22, 2007

Logan Ward and his wife, Heather, had traveled the world—Kenya, France, Peru. But nothing compared to their next adventure: a trip back in time, living the life of dirt farmers in rural Virginia circa 1900.

Disillusioned by city life, the Wards pulled their son out of daycare and traded skyscrapers for silos in search of simpler times. Adopting strict rules that limited them to only the tools that were available at the turn of the century, they faced a year of struggles, where unremarkable feats—putting food on the table, attending a neighbor’s 4th of July party—became the worthiest accomplishments of their lives.

With no phone, no computer, and few distractions aside from irritable livestock and a plague of garden pests, Logan and Heather began to reconnect and rebuild their fractured marriage. More than that, they found what they didn’t know they were looking for—community. As the skepticism of neighbors and family turned to admiration, the Wards developed a network of support and love bound by neither time nor technology. By renouncing everything from cell phones to supermarkets they discovered what’s important in life, whether a hundred years ago or a hundred years in the future.

Logan’s chronicle of the Wards’ four seasons in the farming community of Swoope is an honest and compelling account of one family’s struggle to reclaim their lives from our fast-paced, materialistic society—a memoir for our modern age. See You in a Hundred Years is for anyone who has ever daydreamed about the good old days—and wondered how good they really were.

Listen to the show:

Buy the book:

See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America

Visit the author’s website:

www.loganward.com