For each of us, there is one event or series of events that shapes the direction of our lives. For the author, Raymond Evans Ballinger, that event occurred at age seven when his mother abandoned her family, leaving two young sons in the care of her husband. Raymond Evans Ballinger grew up with an obsessive need to understand what there was about him that had allowed his mother to leave. His life became a journey of exploration, complicated by his deep-seated ties to the land and family home, The Homestead where he was raised. Part memoir, part oral history, Earthbound is a story of...