Download Somewhere in an Oregon Valley One Family Adventure Taking Care of a Ranch in Northeastern Oregon Blue Mountains Jon Remmerde 9780595094202 Books

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Product details Paperback 300 pages Publisher iUniverse (August 1, 2000) Language English ISBN-10 0595094201

Somewhere in an Oregon Valley One Family Adventure Taking Care of a Ranch in Northeastern Oregon Blue Mountains Jon Remmerde 9780595094202 Books Reviews

• Jon Remmerde's Somewhere In An Oregon Valley describes 8 ½ years of the author's family of four living and eking out a living on a section of a cattle ranch in a remote mountain valley in northeastern Oregon. Without electricity or potable running water in a small, drafty, ramshackle cabin, enduring hot summers and bitter cold winters, the author spent long days mowing hay and feeding cattle, maintaining irrigation ditches, mending fences, repairing mechanical breakdowns, and cutting firewood. He also helped his wife home-school their two young daughters. And the whole family experienced daily, delightful encounters with wildlife--coyotes, eagles, elk, beaver, snakes, deer and killdeer, and sand hill cranes--in sun and rain and snow.
  
  Not an idyllic life, to be sure, but one filled with human warmth and love and fulfillment. No, not an Eden, but they grew a vegetable garden, and not even a complete disconnect from the outside world machines are needed for the work, and sometimes the machines unavoidably destroy the wildlife they love, as, for example, mowers kill snakes and voles and ground squirrels as they cut the hay for cattle feed. "The needs of the industrial society," as the author puts it, are still given their due. Yet, despite the urgent need to work the ranch, much time is spent in play--drawing, reading, writing, play-acting and poetry making, swimming in the river, enjoying the abundant wildlife and the occasional, remarkable humans who pass by or stay a spell.
  
  The book's 30 chapters are filled with meticulous detail of these experiences. The chapters are for the most part slightly revised versions of earlier essays, and as such they are essentially self-contained units. So the book may be taken in short sessions at a sitting or as a continuing--though not chronologically ordered--narrative. Whichever the approach, there are rewards for all readers in this honest tale.
• The thin-walled house, without electricity or phone, could be an artifact of the 19th century. But from the descriptions of ranch work, with a motorcycle, various trucks and harvesters, we know it's sometime in the 20th. In this book of thirty essays, Jon Remmerde describes his work and family life, in a location so remote it's hard to find even on a map. He makes detailed observations of nature and wildlife, gardening, cutting firewood, the needs of cattle and ranch. Life rhythms are governed by the season there's the relief of plunging into the river after a hot summer's day of work. In the coldest part of winter, three woodstoves stay fired up all through the night. School is too far away for a daily commute. Home schooling will allow two bright and well-adapted daughters to learn at their own pace, informed by attentive parents, a generous supply of library books, and all outdoors.
  
  Each essay, complete within itself, serves to capture a particular day, theme, or event. There's no overall narrative the reader is stopping by to look in on friends, to see how they're doing in this place so far away. Food for thought Without common distractions, like TV or an easy trip into town, the natural world -- animals, birds, plants, the seasons - takes precedence. And, though not always easy, it's a rich world indeed.
• I always wanted to live this way . . . Close to nature, free of most machines, and in harmony with the seasons. At least I got to experience The Life vicariously through Jon Remmerde's vivid descriptions and his sensitive portrayal of the experiences of his wife and two lucky daughters, as well as his own. Even if you are just looking for an armchair vacation to a life more real than your own, this is the book for you.
• I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jon's book Somewhere in an Oregon Valley. I felt immersed in the natural world riding right along with Jon on his motorcycle or skiing on the meadow or cleaning out irrigation ditches because Jon's writing style is vivid and includes the reader every step of the way. I felt like the mouse in Jon's pocket experiencing his life right along with him. I didn't want to put the book down.