And although we want it to last forever, we know that nothing ever does. In the early 1990's David Hartwig, a Texas cowboy with dreams of rodeo stardom, struggled to support his family and, in doing so, discovered a dog with talents he himself could never realize.Together with David, Skidboot shot to international fame, despite tumultuous events that nearly sent this rural family to the brink. Skidboot is a true story of loyalty, sacrifice, discipline, love, and companionship. Skidboot--there will never be another.

    His account of this time perfectly captures the city-dweller's naivety and wonder both at the workings of nature and the toughness of life on a farm. Collis's thoughtful curiosity leads him to explore a broad variety of subjects - from humorous sketches of the characters he works alongside to beautifully written pieces such as Contemplation Upon Ants, The Mystery of Clouds, Colloquy on the Rick and celebrations of the earthworm, the pea and potato.Includes While Following the Plough (1946) and Down to Earth (1947).Cover illustration by Angie Lewin.

    The farm was high up a mountain, nearly impassable in winter. The neighbors were surly, or perhaps just unused to foreigners. But the setting was breathtaking, and soon it changed Jenny's and Robert's lives.What began as the somewhat conventional dream of a young, ambitious couple from London looking for a weekend home quickly became a different vision. Horatio's mother, romantic and tenacious, found it impossible to leave the fierce and beautiful land. She abandoned her job, her social world, and eventually her marriage to raise her two sons in the company of a herd of sheep, a few dogs, and the badgers, foxes, and mice who had prior claim to her new world. While other boys were going to films and listening to rock music, Horatio was weaning ewes and watching weather and surviving the furor of irascible neighbors. His childhood was marked by wonder and joy, and it is that wonderment that he bestows upon the reader as he recounts the story of the ancient, sometimes brutal, way of life on a hill farm. This wise book is a moving tribute to his mother, both beautiful and brave.

    With the style and wit that have made Capstick the acclaimed heir to Hemingway and Ruark, he again delivers a masterpiece of true adventure that is scarier and more suspenseful than any fiction--because it is true!

    From constructing coops to rearing chicks, you’ll learn everything you need to know to make sure your chickens stay happy and healthy all year round.Which breed of chicken is right for you? What’s the best coop-bedding material? What sort of feed should you use? Let expert chicken keeper Anne Kuo answer these questions—and many others—in The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens.The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens includes: All cooped up—Create the perfect home for raising chickens using detailed backyard coop designs and construction guides. From chickens to eggs—Find out how to pick the right breed, raise chicks, collect eggs, keep your birds safe from predators, and more. Learn to speak bird—Start talking the talk thanks to an extensive glossary of common chicken-keeping terms. Get your own flock started in no time—The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens shows you how.

    The forces of war are building across Europe, but this pocket of England, where the rhythms of lives are dictated by the seasons and the land, remains untouched. Albert Sercombe is a farmer on Lord Prideaux's estate and his eldest son, Sid, is underkeeper to the head gamekeeper. His son, Leo, a talented rider, grows up alongside the master's spirited daughter, Charlotte--a girl who shoots and rides, much to the surprise of the locals. In beautiful, pastoral writing, The Horseman tells the story of a family, a community, and the landscape they come from.The Horseman is a return to the world invoked in Pears' first award-winning, extravagantly praised novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves. It is the first book of a trilogy that will follow Leo away from the estate and into the First World War and beyond. Exquisitely, tenderly written, this is immersive, transporting historical fiction at its finest.

    By the time he died in 1991 he was truly the king of his remarkable wilderness, and internationally celebrated for his unique lifestyle.

    “When there are gaps in understanding, confusion, and thus frustration, worry, and even anger are sure to follow.”Horses often grow up with these “gaps” in their training and education. When this happens, it can be difficult for the horse to be a willing partner to a human, and he may need to be “restarted”—that is, given a second chance to learn what is expected of him and how he can find a place where he is confident and comfortable both beside a handler and beneath a rider.In order to restart a horse successfully, we need to know how to retrace the steps the horse’s education has taken and find the path missed the first time around. In this book, the first of the expansive library of books penned by Rashid to include full-color photographs, readers are guided through practical steps for restarting horses, using Rashid’s simple yet impactful concepts derived from years of study of martial arts. We walk along with him as he proceeds with the quiet sorting of experience that provides the insight we need to give any horse the new beginning he deserves.

    Although containing vivid descriptions of the area's wildlife, Corbett concentrates on the visit of Princess Elizabeth to Tree Tops, where she learned of George VI's death.

    Who could have seen this coming? Many people, including myself, and that is why I wrote this story, to warn people of what could happen to this country if we stay on the present course. Taken from headlines from Hurricane Katrina and now Sandy, hospitals are particularly affected when the lights go out. Hard decisions have to be made and people die. People stand in the streets and shout at the cameras for the govenment to come to their rescue and take care of them instead of being prepared and helping themselves. This is a warning to readers, this book will be considered controversial and not politically correct by liberals and socialists. It is as much political treatise as a story of survival. If you do not believe in God, country and family, you might not like this book. It is about survival and includes guns, death, blood and guts. All the characters and events are just imaginary and fictional but the medical scenes depected here are exactly as they would be in real life and things I do and have done in my practice. I tried to tell a story as true to life as I could while making it as interesting as possible, so it is a fusion of politics and fiction. That being said, the story itself is about how the US economy collapses after America defaults on its loans to foreign countries. When the government is no longer able to send out checks widespread riots break out all across the country. Dr. Edwards is caught up in the riots in North Mississippi, just outside Memphis, Tn. He along with a few others are trapped inside while the violence rages on and destruction surrounds the hospital. As the riots rage on they struggle to save themselves and their patients. Dr. Edwards must also make sure his family is safe and try to rejoin them when and if he and some of his coworkers can escape the riots. Everyone surrounding the cities must cope with the effects of the mass exodus of people trying to escape the violence. Along with close friends and members of his own family, Dr. Edwards must come to grips with the aftermath of the riots and deal with the Takers and the refugees alike.

     During his lifetime, the “wild west” from the storybooks still lived and breathed in one of the last places to be modernized—Arizona. Joe, as he calls himself, took various roles throughout his adventurous life, including sheep herder, cowman, courter, tracker, line rider, and, most famously, that venerated breed of law man know as the Arizona Ranger. His story leads him to encounters with cattle rustlers, gamblers, saloons, stampedes, horse thieves, Indian trackers, outlaws, and nearly every other subject that later made its way into western legend. But this story is absolutely real, told in his own voice in vivid detail.

    Usually I decide to save the money so I do not have to earn more. En extremis, I repeat the old Yankee marching chant like a mantra: Make do! Wear it out! When it is gone, do without! Bum, Bum! Bum bi Dum! Bum bi di Dum, Bum bi Dum!

    In A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess she describes the age-old cycles of a farming year and the constant challenges the family faces, from being cut off in winter to tending their flock on some of Yorkshire's highest, bleakest moors - land so inaccessible that in places it can only be reached on foot. Writing with her trademark warmth and humour, Amanda takes us into her life as nine-year-old Miles gets his first flock, Reuben takes up the flugelhorn and she gives birth to a new baby girl. She is touched by the epic two-day journey of a mother sheep determined to find her lamb and gives a new home to an ageing and neglected horse. Meanwhile Clive is almost arrested on a midnight stakeout to catch a sheep-worrying dog and becomes the object of affection for a randy young bull. Funny, poignant and charming, A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess is a must for anyone interested in the countryside and those who farm it.

    All the sheep are bedded up and everyone is fed and watered. No ewe is lambing, and I have half an hour to myself. I stretch out my feet in my wellies and push them into the warm straw ...'Sally Urwin and her husband Steve own High House Farm in Northumberland, which they share with Mavis the Sheepdog, one very fat pony, and many, many sheep. Set in beautiful, wild landscape, and in use for generations, it's the perfect setting for Sally's (sometimes brutally) honest and charming account of farming life. From stock sales to lambing sheds, and out in the fields in driving snow and hot summer days, A Farmer's Diary reveals the highs, lows and hard, hard work involved in making a living from the land. Filled with grit and humour, newborn lambs and local characters, this is the perfect book for anyone who has ever wondered what it's like on the other side of the fence.

    An account of one family's life in a redwood forest describes how the Colfax's lived without electricity, running water, or a phone, and how they educated their sons, three of whom were accepted to Harvard on full scholarships.