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    Hit by a Farm: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Barn
    Hit by a Farm: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Barn
    Hit by a Farm: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Barn
    Audiobook6 hours

    Hit by a Farm: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Barn

    Written by Catherine Friend

    Narrated by Catherine Friend

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Catherine Friend was happy being an author and writing instructor. She always wore clean clothes. She never had anything disagreeable stuck to the bottom of her shoes. That all changed the day she agreed to help her partner Melissa fulfill Melissa’s lifelong ambition to farm in Minnesota. Catherine and Melissa embark on a rural odyssey filled with sheep, goats, chicken, llamas, and a host of other natural disasters. As it turns out, farming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

    Hit by a Farm is a coming-of (middle)-age story of a woman trying to close the divide between who she wants to be, and who she really is. After helping Melissa realize her dream, Catherine eventually finds a way to recapture her own in this unforgettable crash course in living off-and living with-the land.

    "A sweet and funny book in the classic Hardy Girls Go Farming genre, elegantly told, from the first two pages, which are particularly riveting for the male reader, through the astonishing revelation that chickens have belly-buttons and on to the end, which comes much too soon. It has dogs, sheep, a pickup truck, women's underwear, electric fences, the works." -Garrison Keillor

    "A charming memoir...with magical moments." -The New York Times Book Review

    "This honest look at collaboration and compromise, the pain and joy of partnership, and the hands-on of farming will find a ready audience." -Booklist

    "Alternating between humor and sad befuddlement, Hit By a Farm is going to make city folks chuckle and seasoned farmers laugh out loud. Ms. Friend isn’t afraid to poke fun at herself and her bookishness...." -The Country Today

    Published by Dog Ear Audio. Distributed by Big Happy Family LLC.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBig Happy Family
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9781935061144
    Hit by a Farm: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Barn
    Author

    Catherine Friend

    Catherine Friend and her partner of over twenty-five years raise sheep, ducks, and goats on their southeastern Minnesota farm. Her memoir, Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn, was an Insightout Bookclub bestseller and chronicles what happened to her relationship and her writing career when she agreed to help her partner start the farm. (It has a happy ending.) Hit by a Farm won a 2007 GCLS award and was a finalist for a 2006 Lambda Literary Award. Catherine has also written six books for children and was awarded a 2007 Loft/McKnight Fellowship in Children's Literature.Catherine's interests range from writing, to reading about writing, to talking about writing, all the way to worrying about not writing. She was an economist, a project manager for a technical writing firm, taught writing for ten years, edited novels, and has taken some very odd jobs to avoid returning to the corporate world. In her spare time she plays the piano, paints, and hangs out with her partner, who makes her laugh every day.

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    Reviews for Hit by a Farm

    4/5

    116 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Really can't express how much I enjoyed this book, and on multiple levels. Many hearty thanks to the author for this, it gives me hope.
    • 3/5
      The farm/homesteading is really good - I especially enjoyed the stories about the sheep, llamas and poultry. However, I was disappointed with the authors inability to understand farm life. It's sad that her relationship nearly self destructs and all the way through the book I just wanted her to understand that this life is THE life she chose when buying a farm.
      She complains that she can't write yet all the way through there is plenty to write about and she continued to work with and around writers.
      I'm glad by the end she finds her voice and gets sees the potential.
    • 3/5
      What I didn't love about this book: I was a little disappointed by how much the author whines about life on the farm. I understand that this is the story about how she *learned* to love the barn, which means that at first she didn't like it very much, but a lot of her complaints seemed silly to me and so I had a hard time feeling a connection with the writer. I am much more like her partner (in fact, I convinced my own spouse to buy a farm and totally change our lives) and so I had a hard time understanding the authors point of view especially when it came to conflict in their relationship. I feel like I'd get along great with her partner, though!

      What I did love about this book: so many of the stories she tells are absolutely spot on. I love the story about her roosters and their different styles of courting. I have had very similar thoughts watching our fellas out in the yard with their hens. In fact, some of her stories read so "real" that I had a negative reaction to them-- I'm not ready to laugh about them just yet! For example, the stories about chasing sheep around and around in a stall until you give up and realize a sheep has outwitted you. I think those stories would be funny to either people who haven't actually done that before, or those who have a bit more time between reading the story and experiencing the embarrassment and frustration of it! Many of the bits of advice she was given by experienced farmers, farming books or workshops are the exact same ones I've been given. It was very interesting and comforting to hear how similar our experiences were, both good and bad. For someone who is thinking of starting a farm, many of her stories provide accurate insight into what its like.

      In summary, I loved the stories about life on the farm and the challenges and rewards inherent to farming. I did not particularly care for the author's personal journey, though that is likely because I am a very different personality type than her and had a hard time empathizing.
    • 4/5
      This true story of the first four years of Catherine and her partner Melissa's adventures in setting up and learning to farm is warm, funny, poignant, and very heartfelt.Catherine is a writer, Melissa has always wanted to own a farm. When the economy tanks and they find the perfect piece of land they purchase a farm together. The fact that they are lesbians is a fact and not the centerpiece of the story. The centerpiece would be the farm with its chickens, sheep, goats, dogs and even llama. They grow grapes for wine, plant grass for feed for the sheep and do some pretty daunting things, especially lambing.It is the humor and the ability of Catherine to look at herself truthfully that makes this book work. She knows she isn't a farmer and also knows that she has committed to her partner to get this operation up and running. Her writing suffers (she writes children's books) and that part of her suffers in the beginning. This is a story of triumph and heartbreak and sheer strength of will to overcome and then enjoy the life she is living.
    • 2/5
      Convinced me to never raise sheep. It did, however, sell me on the idea of guard llamas.
    • 3/5
      Fun memoir about a couple who decide to buy a farm and raise sheep. It's a very quick, satisfying read. You learn waaaaaaay more about sheep and hard work than you'll ever want to.
    • 4/5
      Picture book author Catherine Friend and her partner by a farm to raise sheep, chickens and wine grapes . . . although neither have farmed before. This is sort of a modern version of The Egg and I . . . but I was particularly interested in how Friend eventually learns to balance her dreams of being a writer with her partners dreams of farming. Fun, fast read.
    • 5/5
      I really, really enjoyed this book. Loved it. Very quick read. I've often dreamed of starting a vineyard, and maybe also doing some farm stuff or cheesemaking. This book made me think otherwise about dealing with raising/managing livestock. I think I'll stick to grapes! But a very good read.