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Loading... To the Woods: Sinking Roots, Living Lightly, and Finding True Homeby Evelyn Searle Hess
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is a 2010 memoir by an Oregonian woman who must be in her early 70s or maybe 60s now. It's nature writing with a dash of rugged hippie individualism and theme of discovery of oneself by living in the woods. Hess and her architect husband in 1992 buy 20 acres of wooded land in the foothills of the Cascades outside Eugene. They keep their in-town house, but buy a junky small trailer to live in on the land. The plans are to have a nursery and greenhouse on the land, and gradually they move to renting their Eugene house to pay the mortgage and to living full time in the woods, with no electricity or plumbing; it sounds quite like camping full time. They learn to live frugally & pretty lightly on the earth (there's no room for anything in the trailer!), and in tune with nature, which sends their way lots of blackberries, ivy, invasive weeds, and critters who find nursery plants delicious. The writing is decent though not dazzling; the naturalist parts are the best, such as her description of finding baby jumping mice, seasonal changes, and observances of the plants and creatures that are attracted to their new irrigation pond. I'm left with a decreased desire to buy land in the country - oof, that's a lot of work! And if I do, I'll be sure to build a cabin or "tiny house" (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/) because unlike the elderly writer, I just do not have the fortitude to live in a damp dilapidated trailer for so long! Wow. ( ) This is a 2010 memoir by an Oregonian woman who must be in her early 70s or maybe 60s now. It's nature writing with a dash of rugged hippie individualism and theme of discovery of oneself by living in the woods. Hess and her architect husband in 1992 buy 20 acres of wooded land in the foothills of the Cascades outside Eugene. They keep their in-town house, but buy a junky small trailer to live in on the land. The plans are to have a nursery and greenhouse on the land, and gradually they move to renting their Eugene house to pay the mortgage and to living full time in the woods, with no electricity or plumbing; it sounds quite like camping full time. They learn to live frugally & pretty lightly on the earth (there's no room for anything in the trailer!), and in tune with nature, which sends their way lots of blackberries, ivy, invasive weeds, and critters who find nursery plants delicious. The writing is decent though not dazzling; the naturalist parts are the best, such as her description of finding baby jumping mice, seasonal changes, and observances of the plants and creatures that are attracted to their new irrigation pond. I'm left with a decreased desire to buy land in the country - oof, that's a lot of work! And if I do, I'll be sure to build a cabin or "tiny house" (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/) because unlike the elderly writer, I just do not have the fortitude to live in a damp dilapidated trailer for so long! Wow. no reviews | add a review
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To the Woods is a tale of adventure, inspiration, and livinglife in concert with nature. It is the true story of Evelyn SearleHess, who, in her late fifties, walked away from the world of modernconveniences to build a new life with her husband on twenty acres ofwild land in the foothills of Oregon's coast range mountains.To the Woods describes Evelyn's day-to-day struggles,failures, and discoveries. It tracks the natural history of placethrough the seasons. It wrestles with issues like human impact on theecology of our planet. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)979.5History and Geography North America Great Basin and West Coast U.S. OregonLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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