This understated book is a surprise. It is the story of a family living with the land on an organic farm in Michigan. The grow blueberries and fruit trees, make maple syrup, and plant organic vegetables while living a simple life that is short on the normal accouterments of today's farmers. They live with wood fire and for a period in that is described in the book they lived without electricity.
The story is one of adjusting to the snow, the drought, the rain, and the vagaries of frosts. It is about listening to the land, working on basic life needs and a lack of wants. We join the raising of a barn, rush to the hospital when there is an accident that hurts John and we feel the sadness of loss of family through death and the departure of children.
This book is more than being wedded to the land, which we learn is the true meaning of husbandry - the original term for farming. It is a personal odyssey that is private and insightful. We learn about adjustments and expectations, and the book is a lesson in perseverance.
Joan Donaldson is a fine writer who paints vivid word pictures - "Rural winters are snow leopards that pounce upon the landscape. They shake their prey, scattering isolation and loneliness." "Because dairy animals must be milked at twelve hour intervals, three hundred days of the year, their needs would establish the boundaries of time and distance."
I feel like I know and would enjoy this couple based on the personal sharing of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment