Living Life through a Book ~ Letters of Woman Homesteader, By Elinore Pruitt Stewart

I must be crazy.  I bought this book several years ago, and never read it.  What is wrong with me?  Oh, my goodness, I fell in love the minute I started reading this book. 


I became so absorbed, I felt like I was Elinore, out on her camping trip to no where, enjoying the beauty and peace.  Can you imagine just up and leaving with no destination, a gun to supply food, and living completely from the land as you went?  I can.

Some days I sit on my front porch, and wonder how much more peaceful my days would start and end, if I didn't have the noise pollution of semi-tractor trailers, Jake-breaking right as they pass my house.  Or the high pitched beeping from the stone trucks backing up at the quarry not far from here.  Or the rocket style motorcycles racing by, going 80, 90, 100 mph, making that high pitched, ear piercing scream as they pass by. Sigh....

When I open this book and start reading, I am immediately back in 1909.  I'm riding the rough roads and hitting the bumps with her, I am fishing for trout in the creek, and I am absorbing the beautiful scenes she writes about.  I can see the pokeberry ink in the bible she reads.

I keep my homesteading journal nearby, and jot down notes for myself.  She talks about service berries, and I just had a woman tell me I need to plant some next spring.  I think I will.  I may be able to enjoy them for a few years, until the birds start blurting to the other birds that I have them.  I can imagine myself stocking up jelly on whatever was offered by nature.

The funny part about Elinore, is that she cannot write a short letter.  She has the urge to tell everything, telling a story, in each letter.  I'm somewhat the same way.  I have a hard time keeping blogposts short, e-mails short, and letters short. 

This book is a "keeper" for sure.  If you haven't read it, you really should. 

Info:  Letters of a Woman Homesteader, by Elinore Pruitt Stewart