To save their marriage and their sanity, the author and his wife sold their belongings, packed up their two-year-old son, and moved to a rundown farmhouse in the country without any plans past surviving the year. Living as though it were the year 1900, they struggled with recalcitrant livestock, garden-destroying bugs, rain that would not come, and their own insecurities, to ultimately discover a sense of community and a sense of themselves that changed not only their marriage, but the entire Swoope, Virginia community. Lyrically told and powerfully evocative, this memoir for the modern age deals with the growing sense of disassociation and yearning to escape the frenetic pace of daily life in today’s society.

Logan Ward worked as a freelance adventure-travel writer for 10 years and has written articles for House Beautiful, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times, Popular Science, This Old House, and others. He is a contributing editor for Southern Accents and has been a contributing editor for American Photo, Coastal Living, and Entrée. His 1998 book An Explorer's Guide to the Field Museum was the winner of the Illinois Association of Museums' Superior Achievement Award. He is one of the creators of the humor publication Bubba Magazine. He lives in Stounton, Virginia.