Athens, a freelance writer who gave up city life for homesteading in a narrow Oregon river valley, has created a comprehensive overview for urban folk contemplating the same transition, offering advice abundant from burn piles to bovines, all with a dose of dry humor. Dreaming urban dwellers will learn the skinny on vegetation control, the evils of fire ants, the pitfalls of the worm bin, and what happens when dogs find a deer carcass in the woods. The author returned to the city after six years, but also spent time with family in the Wisconsin countryside, adding those rural perspectives to her own. The result: 27 chapters offering plenty of answers, addressing land (realtor vs. for sale by owner, irrigation, septic systems), maintenance (fencing, trees, fire abatement), people (neighbors, church, sexuality/gender), utilities, livestock, wildlife, harvesting, kids, community events. Her observations hold plenty of joys and warnings for urbanites wanting to chuck it all or for those bluesy for the bucolic. (June 1)
