Stimson's fish-out-of-water memoir is chockablock with self-deprecating, belly-laughable vignettes. Stimson tells her tales with clear-eyed, self-deprecating humor, which makes Mud Season a breeze to read in a single sitting., 'Get your schadenfreude ready. And she knows how to spin a good, old-fashioned yarn. Mishap after mishap, Stimson compares their new life to 'putting out a fire using a hose of gasoline.' VERDICT: Written with self-deprecating honesty, this memoir is for anyone who has ever gone on vacation and fantasized about staying.', Ellen Stimson is funny. Stimson chases a goat while wearing a bathing suit and is forced to face the fragility of life when her family takes in lamb orphans. A hen in their 'yuppie chicken coop' turns out to be a rooster. Moving the bread in the store inspires town-wide gossip. But these city mice discover that country life is not exactly what they imagined. After taking over the old country store, they try to keep it afloat through the five Vermont seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter, and mud. Louis and moving into an old farmhouse in Dorset, VT (pop. 'A picturesque family vacation in rural Vermont inspires Stimson and her husband to pay a visit to what they call the 'Life Store' to shop for a new adventure: packing up their city life in St. Why? 'The bread,' they tell her, 'you moved the bread from where it used to be.' Can the citified newcomer turn the tide of mistrust before she ruins the business altogether?Follow the author to her wit's end and back, through her full immersion into rural life-swapping high heels for muck boots raising chickens and sheep fighting off skunks, foxes, and bears and making a few friends and allies in a tiny town steeped in history, local tradition, and that dyed-in-the-wool Vermont 'character.'

She dreams of patrons streaming in for fresh-made sandwiches and an old-timey candy counter, but she learns they're boycotting the store. 2,036, one of the oldest continually operating country stores in the country, she learns the hard way that 'improvements' are not always welcomed warmly by folks who like things just fine the way they'd always been. When she decides she wants to own and operate the old-fashioned village store in idyllic Dorset, pop. In self-deprecating and hilarious fashion, Mud Season chronicles Stimson's transition from city life to rickety Vermont farmhouse.

Mud Season by Ellen Stimson