Ankle High and Knee Deep: Women Reflect on Western Rural Life

by Gail L. Jenner

 Colicky horses, trucks high-centered in pastures, late nights spent in barns birthing calves--the trials and tribulations of farm and ranch life are as central to its experience as amber waves of grain and Sunday dinners at the ranch house.  Ankle High and Knee Deep  collects together essays about lessons learned by ranch women, cowgirls, and farmers about what they’ve learned while standing in or stepping out of “mud, manure, and other offal” in their day to day lives on the land. This collection of entertaining and inspirational voices offers unique perspectives on relationships, loss, love, marriage, and parenting and other universal issues. These are contemporary accounts of women struggling to keep a lifestyle intact, recollections of childhoods spent in open spaces, and tales of overcoming obstacles--inspirational reading for city dwellers and country folk, alike. 

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2014

Reviews

[David]

This is a very much of a target specific book, seemingly intended to invoke kinship and/or positive memories.

[Story Circle Book Reviews]

It is a joy to read this eclectic collection of stories and essays by fifty-four country women from the west. But you don't have to be from the west or even from rural America to enjoy this anthology.

Ankle High, Knee Deep is organized into seven categories: Fortitude, Horse Sense, Community, Self-Reliance, Memory, Resilience and Lessons. Inspiring real life stories by these hard working, strong women pack each section, and overwhelm me with admiration and respect for them.

I'm a Pennsylvania country girl; I grew up on a farm with horses, so it isn't surprising that the Horse Sense section is my favorite, though the other sections tie as close seconds.

"Bugsy," the horse rescue story is riveting. Spring floods suddenly swell Colorado's Elk River and a horse is stranded. I was right there rooting for Bugsy's safe recovery. Palpitations and all!

"Daddy's Girl" is a poignant essay about the cycle of life. It is also the name of the writer's horse. The writer states that those who live, work, and grow up with animals, learn the lessons of life, and death comes naturally. However, when her horse dies, she realizes that "our drive was defined by our hope to sustain life, and in the end, the failure to do so is simply against our nature."

Every year we hear about the great fires of the west, but the Resilience section drives home the personal horrors of these news reports. The first-person descriptions take the reader to the scene of the fires. In "Watching my Hills": "The storm had moved in and just seemed to stop. Thunder rolled. Lightening came in rapid flashes that sought the earth. It seemed to suck the oxygen right out of your pores. Then to the north—two miles away—a strike. And almost immediately a blaze in the dark... One night several years ago, I counted thirteen blazes from my lookout post..."

This is a book with appeal for everyone. As a country girl, I've read many books about city life to gain understanding of a life different from my own. If you have country roots, of course you'll love it. However, if you are citified, born and bred, you will appreciate your country cousins like never before.

by Ann McCauley
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

[Natalie Bright]

A great collection of stories from the women who work hard, live, and raise families in the vast ranch lands of America. I laughed and cried and cringed at their realities. These stories remind me of the good-hearted, tough group that I come from.

[Mary]

I won this book on Goodreads and enjoyed many of the short stories about women living on farms. Reminded me of when I lived on a farm as a child. Enjoyed the book very much.

[Kristin Poley]

Very interesting and fun to read! I could relate to a lot of stories and learned a bit from others.

[Judy]

Down to earth, delightful stories about women in the rural west.