A friendly, easygoing account of how a pair of ex-urbanites bought an old disheveled house in the country, raised vegetables, chickens, canned and preserved fruits and made wine. Melvin reports on the construction problems involved in ""jacking the house up""--the section titled ""Building the Foundation Wall"" is followed by ""Building the Foundation Wall Again""--and Greer discourses on garden and poultry matters in a manner akin to the confidential back porch talk of seasoned English gardeners; she'll begin a report on preparation of a seed bed, for example, with ""What I do is this,"" and then proceed down the row explaining tools and processes with simplicity and clarity. Although Greet is an organic gardener, there are no militant speeches and her system for gardening as for child rearing is: "". . . do the absolute minimum to keep the plants (and child) absolutely happy."" The directions and methods for care and treatment of food are sensible and efficient and this is a very good general guide for those who would do likewise--and who do not wish sermons on the good life to interfere with the requirements for an all-weather chicken house. Some of those tasks don't seem so simple for city folk, but the Fittings make them appear feasible.