Rachel's Folly by Patrice Lewis (a book review)

Romance novels are not what I usually read although I will admit to having read one or two of them in my lifetime. So this review will seem odd to those who make a steady diet of them.

First, I want to lead off by saying that any book that is self-published is a masterpiece, just as any Whitetail Deer harvested with traditional archery equipment is a trophy. I am not going to point out tiny air-bubbles in the plot or events I might have written differently. Rather, I am going to point out what I think she did exceptionally well.

Homesteading is physically demanding

Mrs Lewis did not candy-coat the simple fact that homesteading requires an almost incomprehensible number of hours of physical labor every day. There are some upsides: You can eat phenomenally large amounts of food and still lose weight. You sleep like the dead. If you don't hurt yourself in the process, then you become physically much stronger.

The homesteader is at the mercy of the weather

As modern people, we benefit from a transportation system that smooths-out local variation in weather. You can live in Phoenix or Fairbanks and there are fresh fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores every week of the year.

Not so for the homesteader. Not only do they eat seasonally, but a severe weather event will impact their ability to feed themselves.

Mrs Lewis seamlessly worked those concepts into the story as part of the canvas that was the background for the couple's emerging relationship.

Recreation was productive

The couple went fishing: Even though it was "downtime", it was still an activity that had the potential to put protein into the diet.

They visited a neighbor: Even though it was "recreational", they still swapped things they had excesses of. The neighbor was good at sewing (for instance) while Sam did chores that were easier for a man to do.

Nothing was wasted

Right off the bat, Sam is singing the praises of pine-needles to Rachel. A bit of a rabbit-hole but that was probably Mrs Lewis's intention; to demonstrate that even commodities as common and boring as pine-needles or a match were not to be wasted.

Predators must be respected

Elk, deer, rabbits and mice want to eat the trees. Sam has a 10' tall fence around the garden.

Coyotes, wolves, bears, cougars, hawks, eagles and owls want to eat your livestock. This is not Disneyland. The livestock is shut in the barn every night. Any lapse in vigilance can be very costly.

Homesteaders think about time in a different way

Somebody who works in an office often works from a daily To-Do list. Somebody who works on "projects" often has a guide-book that outlines the specific order things must be done in.

Mrs Lewis doesn't preach about it, but she accurately describes how young fruit trees need time before they are productive. She describes how they must flower in the spring if they are to bear fruit in the autumn. Later in the book, she describes how a fallen tree must be cut and split and dried for a year before it will be dry enough to burn. 

She describes (in painfully funny detail) the steps that must happen to build a fire and cook eggs and bacon...it being clear that you cannot cook bacon if you cannot first build a fire.

These are all things that happen as cycles within cycles, like the drum cadence, melodies and themes that build and recur within a symphony. 

Diversity of tasks

A homestead is actually a conglomeration of a multitude of related enterprises. Keeping the cats marching in formation is a juggling act. Paradoxically, we fail at perfection but succeed at good-enough.

Every day is different. Even with in the day the tasks can bounce around from hour-to-hour.

Except for weeding the garden. That never goes away. 

Celibacy

Sam and Rachel did not become "physically intimate" during the four months they were together. Many readers will find that impossible to believe.

Mrs Lewis makes the point that physical intimacy early in a relationship stunts the incentive to get to know more about the other person. Not her words, but "Hey, I am getting my immediate needs met. There is no point in 'wasting' time getting to know more details about this person" 

Aging

Mrs Lewis makes the point that some power tools can make a huge difference in how long we can stay-in-the-game with a chainsaw being a prime example. As we get older we become more vulnerable to repetitive motion injuries and we take longer to heal. An hour with a chainsaw can do as much heavy cutting as one man can do in four days.

Summary

Mrs Lewis writes as somebody who has been-there-done-that. The plot (researching for a Reality TV show) carries exceptionally well. Some readers will zone-out during the information deep-dives, but that is OK. It is just like when I skim over gratuitous sex sequences in other books. Just because the words are there doesn't mean you have to read every one of them.

The background for Mrs Lewis's book presents "homesteading" with great fidelity as it carries the love story of two lonely (and wounded) people.