|
Homestead
(2005)
Millions of Americans move each year, usually for job-related reasons. But Jerry and Jane Kirkpatrick did more than just change jobs -- they changed lives! The couple left successful careers to build a life from scratch on 120 isolated, rattlesnake infested acres along Oregon's John Day River. With no running water and no electricity, the Kirkpatricks eventually built a hanger, a barn, a road and a two-story energy-efficient home. They laid their own telephone lines and acquired water and electricity.
Homestead is pioneering at its worst -- and best. It's Jane Kirkpatrick's testimony of floods, fire, wind, lost cattle and crops, unexpected visitors and a bureaucracy of 18 government agencies. But this book is also a reservoir of love, hope, family, friends and faith. Here's the story of ordinary people who took an extraordinary risk -- and won.
“We were old enough to know better, yet still young enough to dream.” I wrote those words in 1984 as we prepared to leave suburbia and move to 160 acres of rattlesnake and rock along Oregon’s wild and scenic John Day River. While my husband, Jerry, had long hoped to make this transition to the land, I struggled with the leap of faith. My skills as a mental health professional would have little place on property seven miles from the mailbox and eleven miles from a paved road. For nearly five years, I resisted the move. But one day when I asked, “What will I do there?” a still, small voice said, “Trust. Go to the land and write.”
So in 1991, after living without electricity for a time, hauling water from the nearest town 25 miles away, building a house and barn, burying phone lines seven miles – twice, and finding strength for physical and emotional and family stresses neither of us had ever imagined -- I wrote Homestead. It’s not a “how-to” book. Even our address – Starvation Lane – suggests struggle and trial. Homestead is instead a story of our stepping off onto a cloud of faith believing we would not fall through. I hoped our story would encourage others – and people wrote to say it did. I also expected it to be the end of my writing career.
But stories have a way of finding their tellers and four years later, A Sweetness to the Soul, the first of eleven novels, appeared in bookstores. With these publications came connections to readers from around the world. Many asked about what happened after 1991. Homestead: A Memoir of Modern Pioneers Pursing the Edge of Possibility (WaterBrook Press, a Division of Random House) is my answer to their quest.
Homestead, re-released October 18th, 2005, includes a fourth section called “The Harvest of Starvation Point.” The Oregon Historical Quarterly called Homestead “A rich, compelling story that combines the spirit of adventure with the warmth and humor of a James Herriot tale… An uplifting testimony to love, hope, family, friends and faith.”
Whether you’ve ever longed to pursue a dream that others thought less than wise; or whether you’ve wondered if the strain and struggle we call life will ever have a hopeful outcome, I hope our story will speak to your journey.
Click on the book cover to order your autographed copy today!
Reviews
"Homestead is a rich, compelling story that combines the spirit of adventure with the warmth and humor of a James Herriot tale.... It's an uplifting testimony to love, hope, family, friends and faith."
--Oregon Historical Quarterly
|