The Real Reason Melissa Gilbert and Husband Timothy Busfield Moved to the Catskills

Little House on the Prairie alum Melissa Gilbert and husband Thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield bought a cabin in the Catskills in 2019. Since then, Gilbert and Busfield have dedicated themselves to a slower, more natural lifestyle. They raise chickens, grow vegetables, and enjoy the quiet of the mountains. But why did they make such a drastic change?

Initially, Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield wanted a second home 

Though the “little house” in the Catskills is now the couple’s main place of residence, it started out as a vacation home for them to escape to when they wanted to leave the hustle and bustle of the city. 

“We were living in New York City and wanted a second home where we could escape into peace, quiet, and nature,” Gilbert wrote in her 2022 book Back to the Prairie. “We wanted space to think and breathe and stillness to help us slow down. We wanted to recharge and feel inspired.”

Busfield was scrolling through Zillow one day in 2019 when he found the little cabin they now call home. Though, when he found it, it hardly looked inhabitable. 

Gilbert and Busfield wanted to hide away from the ‘reasons the world is screwed’

“Admittedly, some of that life-is-getting-out-of-control mindset did contribute to our desire to find a place outside of the city,” she wrote. 

Some of these reasons include: “Global warming, pandemics, uncompromising politicians, the end of democracy, conspiracy theories.” 

But Gilbert and Busfield didn’t want to be too far from New York, where they both work. This made the Catskills the perfect location.  

“We didn’t want to be more than two or three hours away by car in case one or both of us had to work, cracked a tooth, or craved sushi,” wrote Gilbert. “In that respect, we were kind of like kids learning to ride a two-wheeler bike, yelling at their parents, ‘Don’t let go! Don’t let go!’”

Eventually, though, they learned to lean into the mountain lifestyle and they did, in fact, allow their parents (New York) to let go. 

Don’t call it a midlife crisis

Gilbert writes that she knows some people may look at how her life has changed in the past few years and call what she’s doing a midlife crisis. She doesn’t think it’s a crisis at all. But, rather, a shift in priorities that better align with her long-term happiness. 

“[It’s] my realization that real satisfaction and meaning, for me, at fifty-six years old, came from canning tomatoes and cleaning the chicken coop rather than implants and hair color and other efforts to stop time from marching across my face,” she wrote.

If the Laura Ingalls actor could sum up the past few years in one word it would be “simplification.”

And she’s much happier living a simpler life. “This is what I’ve always wanted,” Gilbert told People of her new life. “I’m finally happy in my own skin,” she said. “I’m so grateful and relieved and so much happier.”