This is a rumble strip and this is week two of a series I'm running called What Class Are You.

Today episode four, Kate.

I followed Kate along a snowshoe track through the woods to her cabin.

Kate is part of a community of young people here in Central Vermont,

or younger than me people, who live frugally and often communally in yurts and tents and buses.

Kate lived this way for 20 years, saving up money to buy this piece of land.

When I asked her what class she is, she said lower middle class by unconventional means.

Here's Kate.

The most important part of this story

is that for the last like 15 years of my life

I have never paid more than $200 in rent and it's changed my life.

Like I'm here, I was able to afford land because I saved a lot of money.

Like I work pretty full time, so it adds up.

Why was the rent solo?

It was honestly by the good graces of some wealthy people, some of whom live in the area and some of whom are out of state.

I had a neighbor who let me live in a farmhouse for $200 a month because she believed in what I was doing at the time which was farming.

I have work traded and lived in a bus and helped out an old Vermonter on their land and they were able, you know,

it helped them be able to stay there longer. I really wanted to live in the

woods in a cabin and the only way I could do it was having people be nice enough to offer me a spot.

And there's probably 20 people within three miles of us who are in similar situations that I have been in,

who folks with means have been generous enough to say, hey, put a yurt on my land.

Yeah, you can keep your sheep here and build a little cabin

...