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

by Catherine Friend

Overview

Farms have fences. People have boundaries. Mine began crumbling the day I knelt behind a male sheep, reached between his legs, and squeezed his testicles. This took place one blustery November day when I joined other shepherd-wannabees for a class on the basics of raising sheep. I was there with my partner Melissa, the woman I'd lived with for twelve years, because we were going to start a farm . When self-confessed "urban bookworm" Catherine Friend's partner of twelve years decides she wants to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a farm, Catherine agrees. What ensues is a crash course in both living off and with the land that ultimately allows Catherine to help fulfill Melissa's dreams while not losing sight of her own. Hit by a Farm is a hilarious recounting of Catherine and Melissa's trials of "getting back to the land." It is also a coming-of (middle)-age story of a woman trying to cross the divide between who she is and who she wants to be, and the story of a couple who say "goodbye city life" — and learn more than they ever bargained for about love, land, and yes, sheep sex.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781569242988
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	03/28/2006
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Catherine Friend is the author of Hit by a Farm and The Compassionate Carnivore, as well as several children's books and novels. She farms in Minnesota with her partner of twenty-eight years.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2014
Children's author Friend and her partner Melissa purchase a farm in Minnesota, filling it with chickens, goats, sheep, and a host of successes and failures. (LJ 4/1/06)

Library Journal

In Catherine Friend’s memoir, she and life partner Melissa Peteler decide to live out the latter’s longtime dream and become farmers in Minnesota. While Peteler has some experience with animals, Friend has almost none. Nevertheless, the pair buys a farm, a pickup truck, and more than 50 lambs for breeding. And as they attempt to “get back to the land,” their often hilarious trails and tribulations begin. Friend’s narration is entertaining and workmanlike, but at times she sounds as if she’s reading to a group of school children. And this solemn but upbeat delivery isn’t always appropriate. Nonetheless, Friend’s enunciation is crystal clear and her pacing is perfect. A De Capo paperback. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Audio