Having ignored his mother's warnings about what will happen if he doesn't bathe after working on his family's New Mexican farm, Carlos awakens one morning to find a squash growing out of his ear.

When Carlos tries to show off for his friend Gloria by catching a skunk, he gets more than he bargained for.

In 1981, newlywed Sharman Apt Russell moved with her husband to an agricultural valley in southwestern New Mexico, hoping to create a simpler life. From building their adobe house to the homebirth of their firstborn to growing their own food and navigating the seasonal flooding of the Mimbres River, these luminous essays chart Sharman's journey toward self-sufficiency in a land as mythical and remote as the image of the prehistoric fluteplayer found...