Reprising ‘Green Acres’: Lawyer Gives Up Big-City Life for Goat Farm

A California lawyer who moved from the San Francisco area to run a goat cheese farm in the Adirondacks no longer takes heat and water for granted.

Sheila Flanagan still works 40 to 60 hours a week for her Oakland law firm from her new home, but she also farms with her partner, a former paralegal, the New York Times reports.

Back in San Francisco, the couple dined at four-star restaurants and went to the symphony. Now they live in a house heated solely by an outdoor wood stove and work as many as 20 hours a day to make sure the goats are tended, the cheese is made, and the barns are cleaned and raked.

“I think you get so much better awareness with this life,” Flanagan told the Times. “You take things like heat and water a little bit more for granted in a metropolitan area. Whereas out here, it’s a daily challenge. You come to appreciate what’s really necessary to keep life’s necessities going.”

The newspaper profiled Flanagan along with other professionals who decided in midlife to become farmers. “Anecdotal evidence suggests the number of urban professionals trading BlackBerrys for manure spreaders is growing fast,” the story says.