Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn

One day would like to move to land and create a sustainable farm. This book is so real and honest about the hard work and daily struggles in takes to run a farm and I really appreciated that. I learned so much from this book about sheep and llamas. It took me a few days to read this because it was so entertaining! She is a great writer and made me laugh multiple times through out this book.

No one was more surprised than Catherine Friend when her long-time partner informed her that she'd always dreamed of being a farmer. Early on in this hilarious memoir, the author writes, "Farming had never been my dream. My dream was to grow my writing career into something I could call 'successful,' whatever that was. I'd already sold two children's books and a handful of magazine stories. I was hungry for more" (p. 6). But Melissa's dream had merit, and Catherine believed she could help the dream come true. And so, "The classic face of farming in Grant Wood's American Gothic was about to get a facelift: two thirty-something women in bib overalls holding pitchforks" (p. 6). Devoting a great deal of time, energy, and work to their project, the two women researched farming, bought land in southern Minnesota, built a house, and settled in to raise sheep, chickens, and grapes for wine. Apparently that was the easy part. From auspicious beginnings, the road they embark upon is filled with a learning curve so steep that shoveling manure and mucking horse stalls might have been easier. While Melissa's dream ascended, the livestock, crops, and natural disasters seem to conspire to make Catherine's life miserable. Living off the land wasn't at all the romantic idyll so often put forth. By turns hilarious and sobering, touching and surprising, Catherine Friend's memoir tells the tale of two thirty-somethings who not only have to learn to love the barn, but also to find their way back to one another after such a huge life-change nearly sideswipes them for good. It's a terrific story, very well-told, and is cram-packed full of humor, insight, and a zest for life that can't be vanquished. If you only read one memoir this year, make this be the one. I give it my highest recommendation.

As an aspiring hobby farmer, I wanted to read this book to get an idea of the transition one makes when starting a life in agriculture. While I was expecting this memoir to cover the fish-out-of-water aspect of an author not raised in farming delving into cultivation and animal husbandry, I was surprised to find that it became in the second half a saga of loss and repair. Starting a country homestead was Catherine's partner's dream and not her own. She was supportive of Melissa through the years, but when the reality of farming duties hit her she found her ambitions as a writer sinking to the bottom of the heap. Friend is more candid than most memoirists about the anxieties and temptations to give up that she felt through the early years in the country. Many people would throw in the towel, but Catherine hung on until finding a balance between her partner's career choice and her own. I recommend this book not only to those wishing to farm, but to anyone in a relationship where one person's ambitions take up more space than what's comfortable (for example, a career in medicine or international diplomacy). Additionally, for farmers, this is unlike any other book about agriculture out there. Friend has been able to fill a void both in literature on relationships and books on farming. I hope she publishes more of her humorous and enlightening insight.

I have not enjoyed reading a book this much in a long time! The content is so real that I find myself drawn right in, and Catherine has such a gift with writing that sometimes it takes me back. I can't tell you how many times I have called a friend, just to read a page or two...or a chapter, and each quickly responds, "I have to buy that book!" Thank you for such an enjoyable experience.

I gave this memoir a full complement of stars because it is such a pleasure to read. It also deserves a handful of stars for its serious side. This author is an excellent writer. Her timing with a punch line will cause any entertainer some envy; and there are plenty of punch lines. I have read the chapter titled "Even my Bra was More Supportive," and also "Chicken Sex," aloud to a number of people and it always causes much laughter. On the other hand, the book is the very real story of someone without any farming background taking on the challenge of helping start a farm from scratch. I was born on a Montana ranch and know that this is a supreme challenge that a person can't even visualize before the fact. This book is also a touching story of a woman struggling to balance two sincere loves; her love of a person and her love for her writing career. It is obvious that the success of both the relationship and the farm hung in the balance at various times. The reader cheers each time a chapter of struggle is followed by a chapter of success and fun. I fully understand why Garrison Keillor said in the New York Times that he never wanted this book to end. After talking to a couple of people who belong to book clubs that read "Hit by a Farm," I re-read it. It was better than ever. There is a rumor that there will be a sequel. That would be great.

It's been a long time since a book has made me laugh out loud and mist up with tears - all in the same chapter. While Catherine Friend's humor hooked me into her story, her clear-eyed and honest descriptions taught me much about the realities of raising sheep, and goats, and chickens and ... She may have intended to write and capture what it really means to farm, but what I learned is what it really means to love.