Hard Scrabble Author:John Graves John Graves named it Hard Scrabble when he bought it -- 400 acres of rough Texas hill country at the edge of what used to be the old Cotton Kingdom until overcropping, drought and hard winds stripped away most of the good dirt. Here Graves brought his family, built a house, raised goats and cattle, shot deer, wrestled the brush for some crops... more ». The rest he left to nature. We understand and share the author's commitment to this countryside. He includes us in his ramblings and makes us feel a part of the land, of its rocky ledges and growing things, its scrub and cedar, its wolves and wheeling buzzards, and its past, always present. "A 20th century Thoreau." --Lewis Gannett« less