Country Grit

A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love

In this memoir filled with heart, hope and “abundant humor” a wife and husband give up their suburban existence and buy a farm in Oregon (The Oregonian).

Scottie Jones was living a comfortable suburban life in Arizona until her husband, Greg, got into a near-fatal car accident. While recovering, he became convinced that they needed a simpler way of life, one more connected with nature—and with each other—as they approached their later years.

So they said good-bye to their old lifestyle and bought a peaceful-looking farmhouse on sixty acres in Oregon. And though at first the grass may have looked greener, the road to pastoral bliss was fraught with financial woes, relentless rural roadblocks, and colossal failures.

Then Scottie hits on the idea of turning a house they initially built for their daughter into a Farm Stay, where people could visit and learn about the realities of farming. The Farm Stay quickly became the niche that rescued them from foreclosure. And, having finally found both a sense of place and purpose, the couple was determined to sustain it for themselves.

Country Grit is a story that will resonate with anyone itching to get back to the land. It “challenges us all to get the most out of life, even when change seems scary . . . and to make lemonade out of lemons if we have to” (Lainey Morse, author of The Little Book of Goat Yoga).