Customer Reviews

Sharing Fencelines: Three Friends Write From Nevada's Sagebrush Corner

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Many readers may not realize there is a little-known area in the northwestern corner of Nevada, up on the border with California, that is a part of the West every bit as beautiful, inspiring, [endangered] and sometimes controversial as anyplace in the better known tourist destinations of the "other" West. It is in the Great Basin area and is cattle and ranching country.
This book is unique in that three very unlikely women that live in the area have written personal essays describing their lives in what has been called the Sagebrush Ocean. Linda Hussa is a published writer of both fiction and nonfiction and the winner of the Nevada Writers' Silver Pen Award. She lives on a ranch near Cedarville, CA. Sophie Shepard is an accomplished artist and environmental activist living in Lake City, CA. He paintings have been exhibited in galleries from San Francisco to Montana. Carolyn Duferrena is a freelance writer, geologist, and grade school teacher. She lives on the Quinn River Ranch in Nevada. All three women came from different backgrounds and cultures but found a common ground in their love for the area and their desire to protect the environment while at the same time continue their livelihood of ranching. Many scholars argue that the two goals are incompatible and cannot be accomplished in any meaningful manner. These essays refute that argument and are a testament to the progress that can be made when friends and neighbors care enough about a place they call home to listen to each other and work together to protect their unique place in the West.
This collection is special in that it relates down to earth, on the ground stories of families living off the land and caring for the enviroment in equal measure. This is a close to the real West as a reader can get without actually living there. There are stories of the familar, constant struggle to conserve water when "...most years there is sand in our drinking glasses by the end of July. We run the drip lines to the garden at night to minimize evaporation. We haul water to the sheep, move the cattle farther into the high country. We wait. Dry years teach us to wait." There are stories of the U.S. Air Force's proposal to use the airspace in the area for bombing runs and practice flights; of living for the first year in Surprise Valley with no outhouse, water, or electricity; of a flood of devastating consequences; of the ever present fear of developer's plans to turn the area into a Disney World complex; and a host of events and issues that face western families on a daily basis. Nothing fancy here, just heartfelt stories of real people struggling to live in, and protect, a special part of the West. For those who claim that the much-debated issue of ranching and environmental protection is virtually unsolvable without decimating one or the other I submit this book as exhibit No. 1 to refute that doomsday prediction. This is a good as it gets in describing the real West.

My brother and I traveled through Surprise Valley and the Black Rock Desert last Sept.19,'02.We camped at Onion Valley Reservoir(20 miles N of Quinn River Crossing at road 140). What looks to be dry and desolate desert, these three authors bring to life. As usual with really good books, It's the people that make it ring true. You would think living out in the sticks would get you away from government hassels: it ain't goin' to happen, partner. A beautiful read; go for it!

I just became aware of this book recently and it was heartbreaking to read. It seemed like a mockery of my wonderful late father who was one of the kindest, most sensitive, loving, honest and intelligent men I have ever known.

It's clear the author had only a superficial acquaintance with my dad, but that didn't stop her from using him in a cutesy characterization that had little to do with reality. It was clearly a marketing ploy, and should not have been presented as non-fiction.