Joining her husband in the fight to create a home out of a rugged stretch of sagebrush, rattlesnakes, and sand
in Eastern Oregon, Jane Kirkpatrick uneasily relinquishes
the security of a professional career; the convenience of
electricity, running water, and a phone line; and, perhaps
most daunting, the pleasures of sporting a professional
manicure. But the pull of the land is irresistible, and the
couple dreams of gathering their first harvest from a yetto-
be-planted vineyard.
Rather than the simple life they had envisioned, Jane
and Jerry find themselves confronting flood and fire,
government bureaucracies, and runaway calves, among
other disheartening setbacks. Jane frequently questions
the sanity of pioneering in this remote area, known as
Starvation Point, and she fights against panic with each
trip they make down the seven-mile, boulder-strewn,
rut-carved "driveway" she calls "the reptile road," which
threatens to spill them into the ravine with every lurch of
the truck.
But as