Then in their middle 50s, Hess and her husband moved to their 21 wooded acres in the Coast Range foothills outside of Eugene, Oregon in 1992, and she recounts their life there without house, electricity, indoor plumbing, and other modern amenities. The first section describes the land before they moved, and the others discuss the joys, burdens, and anxieties in each of the four seasons. She has run university greenhouses, taught gardening, and started a plant nursery, and now teaches nature writing. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)