My wife and I sort of did this. We owned a great house near the beach in California and had "regular" jobs. We moved to the mountains in central Arizona (Sedona), she stopped working and I write and do some software development work.

The trick was cutting expenses: less expensive area to live, bought a much smaller (and well insulated) home, and get our joy not from buying material crap but rather from cooking, hiking, hanging with friends and family.

It is all about deciding what is important to you in life.