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Closer To The Ground: An Outdoor Family's Year On The Water, In The Woods And At The Table (2012)

by Dylan Tomine(Favorite Author)

4.15 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1938340000 (ISBN13: 9781938340000)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Patagonia Books

review 1: Dylan Tomine writes of a year raising his two young kids in the outdoors, living on an island in Western WA. The book is pure memoir and divided into four seasons - he describes some family rituals in each season like digging clams, planting blueberries, and chopping firewood. The big takeaway is that in bringing your kids to the outdoors its not necessarily about the destination but the journey. As a former Seattle resident I felt a bit homesick reading about the Tomine family adventures. Very entertaining read, I recommend this for anyone looking to get back in touch with nature. It provided me some good inspiration for nurturing a love of the outdoors in my daughter. Good read!
review 2: Closer to the Ground is a book by Dylan Tomine about his family - not ... moreonly their experiences, but their way of life. When the pitch to review came in to New Age Mama, I asked for it because the intro sounded a lot like my family. It covers a year in the life with all sorts of outdoor experiences - salmon fishing, crabbing, digging for oysters, mushroom hunting, deer hunting, gardening, procuring firewood, harvesting, storing, and eating the bounty . . . how they manage it all together as a family.At first I admit I thought it a bit wordy; I laughed as I commented it's like there's 2 adjectives for every single noun! But, that is kind of the point - too often society no longer notices the beauty around us, we are so busy with the mundane details of our everyday lives that it's easy to forget nature is out there, waiting for us to explore it yet preserving it for future generations. A few chapters into it, it didn't seem wordy anymore, and I was asking myself why the F WE don't live there: near the ocean digging clams, out on the water setting crab pots . . . We do enjoy some of the same activites here though - gardening, fishing, hunting, and wild crafting. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, wild crafting is the harvesting plants in their natural habitat for food or medicine. I like to call it mushroom hunting. Or asparagus hunting. Or berry hunting. Or whatever I'm trying to find!Later I really began to appreciate the descriptiveness as Dylan doesn't hesitate to share tried and tested brands of gear, and what is best suited to what. It's not advertising, it's speaking from experience. We've been wanting to install a wood stove and I'm taking tips!Overall I think my favorite aspect of the book is how involved his family is in their way of life. I loved reading the experiences of the kids out on the water and in the woods as that is what we do, and will continue to do with our son. The closer to the end of the book, the more I wished there was of it to read. I hope that our experiences, too, make memories that our son will remember for the rest of his life.Don't just take the time - make the time; have fun and get dirty: get Closer to the Ground.***REVIEWED BY ANNE FOR NEW AGE MAMA**** less

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