Although he might bristle at such a comparison, like Thoreau, Petersen is a man who chooses to live deliberately. For him, this means a nearly self-sustaining existence high in the Colorado Rockies. He built his own home, hunts for his own food, walks gently through the forest, leaves little trace of himself upon the land. Taking the reader through one year of his life, Petersen squeezes the essence out of each season in a dialogue that embraces both the metaphorical and practical aspects of living in the midst of nature's rapidly diminishing bounty. One comes to learn as much about the life cycles of the elk and bear that were the mountains' earliest and, he hopes, eternal residents as about Petersen himself. Nestled within his compelling and frequently humorous recollections of near-death exploits and mundane daily rituals, Petersen eloquently communicates his deeply held environmental ethos. Honest, outspoken, and unabashedly conscientious, Petersen is a passionate advocate for the responsible stewardship of the land and its inhabitants. --Carol Haggas Copyright 2005 Booklist

By eschewing such "distractions" as jobs, money and children, Petersen (Among the Elk; The Nearby Faraway; etc.) and his wife embraced a simple life on the edge of the wilderness in the Colorado Rockies, where the enduring rhythms of nature shape each day. In this extended meditation on that life, Petersen's prose can be overwrought ("Still hoping for a glimpse of the hawk,... I... lifted my face skyward in desperate faith, like some crippled, crawling pilgrim") and cranky ("What was once a middle-class paradise... has been reduced to just another rich person's playground of choppity-chop subdivisions and fenced-in ranchettes littered with a nauseating profundity of tacky trailer houses at one extreme, ostentatious and obscenely wasteful trophy homes at the other"). But he also writes movingly of the things he loves: his wife and dogs, the mountains, the grizzlies he camps among every summer and the elk he hunts for food ("the humane killing of a fairly and honorably outwitted prey is precisely the opposite of slaughter.... Does the wolf not love the caribou? And does she not, even so, undertake her daily hunts with enthusiasm and joy?"). While this book will not bump classics like Walden, A Sand County Almanac or Silent Spring off the environmental bookshelf, its mix of strong opinions and vibrant personality give it unique appeal. Agent, Carl Brandt. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A former marine and motorcycle enthusiast, Petersen (Writing Naturally) knew what it was to live on the edge even before he left the comforts of middle-class urban living for the Colorado wilderness several years ago. He lives and writes in the cabin he built on the edge of a mountain inhabited by bear, wapiti, and wild turkey. In this work, he discusses the life that he and his wife chose-living simply off the land by their own wits, unencumbered by debt and material possessions. He rails against the emptiness of consumer society; praises the simple pleasures of nature, family, and friends; and laments a world of unchecked, mindless development. Readers are educated about the fascinating aspects of the flora and fauna he observes on his daily hikes and topics as diverse as ethical hunting, animal intelligence, and animism. Opinionated and iconoclastic, Petersen writes with humor and a well-honed craft that will delight fans of Edward Abbey. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries with nature collections.-Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ. Lib., Sault Ste. Marie, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.