The inhabitants of Morningstar and Wheeler's Ranch were the counter-culture's counterculture. There is only so far out one can drop and remain attached to the planet. Ramon Sender Barayon has done a remarkable job of telling the story of these two noble experiments in free-form living on pieces of land "Access to which is denied no one." The truly boggling parts of this story are how much enmity - cultural, personal, political, and legal - was brought to bear on people whose only goal was to live simply and (mostly) self-sufficiently waaaay off the grid of the dominant American culture of the late-60's. By 1973 both Morningstar and Wheeler inhabitants had seen their homes bulldozed and been sent packing as a result of ordinances and laws that were enacted after the fact specifically to foil their desire to live peacefully as their individual choices dictated.The story told here by a wide array of the people involved is a wild ride, a jaw-dropping collection of improbable characters and tales (some rather tall tales amongst them) starting when former folk-music star Lou Gottlieb opened his Morningstar ranch property to a small coterie of visionary friends - including Ramon Sender Barayon - and saw it become a safe haven for psychedelic refugees of the Haight Ashbury during the over-hyped and over-stimulated Summer of Love. By the time the Powers That Be had drained away his fortune in legal fees and officially closed the experiment down , Bill Wheeler, another neighbor with a much larger property had opened his gates wide and the game was truly afoot.If you thought you knew what the late 60's was really like, think again.