Wilderness Mother

In 1978 Deanna met her hermit husband in Northern BC while she was working as a forestry lookout attendant. For the next thirteen years she led the life of a pioneering mother in the wilderness. Over a hundred miles from the nearest paved road and cut off from most contact with the outside world, Deanna and her husband Jay built a life and raised their children in the stunning beauty and staggering isolation of the Ningunsaw Valley.

She describes the family's remarkable self-sufficiency in constructing their home, growing and harvesting their own food and eventually building a small dam to generate electricity. But the unrelenting work of a pioneer life is balanced with her deep love and connection to the natural world that surrounds them. Deanna has been a naturalist her whole life and nature breathes as a character in each of her books.