Farm Memoir

On a dark, rainy night in October 1900, George E. Bailey, caretaker of Breakheart Hill farm, disappeared. He no longer made his daily milk runs or stopped at the tavern for his favorite cherry rum. Some suspected foul play right away, as Bailey's "wife" had recently gone to Maine, leaving Bailey alone with his farmhand, John C. Best, who was known to be a drunk and a potentially violent man. Nine days later, when Bailey's dismembered body was fished out of a local pond, all eyes quickly focused on Best. Douglas L. Heath and Alison C. Simcox uncover the facts of this shocking tale.

This is an audiobook for anyone who enjoys being transported to another life and lifestyle, or who is interested in bees, homesteading, small farming, animals, organic gardening, farmers markets, human nature, and the hilarity and hardship that goes with all that. Funny, moving, and engrossing, you'll be transported to a world where one family tries to keep it all together as they juggle a farmyard full of animals, thousands of tourists in the garden, a hundred backpackers in the house, millions of bees in the air, and their commitment to the environment and each other.

The philosophy found in this work is the product of a childhood on a tobacco and cattle farm in central Kentucky, education at various schools, and a three-decade career in the US Navy while simultaneously contributing as a husband, father, and grandfather. The remainder of this book will be separated into phases reflective of the major changes in my life: the farm, schooling, and a navy career continuum from junior officer through flag officer. The lessons learned in earlier phases were often exported and applied later.

A gardening book for anyone who’s dreamed of going back to the land for a simpler life… After two city-bred Boomers weather their first, tumultuous year on their rural backyard farm, they discover their homesteading journey has only begun. The sequel to Susan Colleen Browne's award-winning memoir, Little Farm in the Foothills, Little Farm Homegrown follows modern homesteaders Susan and her husband John creating a hands-on life in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest. As they labor to transform an old clearcut into a working homestead, they experience the joys and challenges—and ...

Meet a pygmy goat who rides on top of a pony, marvel at flying lizards delivering messages, participate in a bloody rock-fight, sleep in a nudist colony cardboard box for two, witness the resurrection of a guinea pig, experience rattlesnake jewelry made before your very eyes, behold how a dead seal can save a family from a watery death.... But wait, that's not all. Ducks, dogs, cats, tortoises, horses, chickens, two best friends, two siblings, and two parents complete the picture, and, lest you think it was all fun and games: thousands and thousands of flies.

Experience the awe and wonder of a child who lives in a town in the early 1960's and has a holiday on his Grandma's farm way out in the bush. What strange things will he see? What things will he do that are just not done in town? Milking cows, making butter, emptying the toilet and more. Maybe you will reflect on some of your childhood experiences as you read this story.

In telling the story of five generations of her family and its farm in the Arkansas Delta, Margaret Jones Bolsterli brings together her own research, historical perspective, and family lore as it reaches her from the days of her great-grandfather down to her nephew. The result is a family saga that is at once universal and personal, historical, and timeless.

This is a memoir of the life of Elaine Hayob, from a farm in Missouri to the skies as a flight attendant. Stories of my life growing up on the farm, a lost love, ups and downs of being a flight attendant, my travels around the world, my love of art and my walk of faith.

It’s the summer of 2005, and Mardi Jo Link’s dream of living the simple life has unraveled into debt, heartbreak, and perpetually ragged cuticles. She and her husband of nineteen years have just called it quits, leaving her with serious cash-flow problems and a looming divorce. More broke than ever, Link makes a seemingly impossible resolution: to hang on to her century-old farmhouse in northern Michigan and continue to raise her three boys on well water and wood chopping and dirt. Armed with an unfailing sense of humor and three resolute accomplices, Link confronts blizzards and foxes, learns about Zen divorce and the best way to butcher a hog, dominates a zucchini-growing contest and wins a year’s supply of local bread, masters the art of bargain cooking, wrangles rampaging poultry, and withstands any blow to her pride in order to preserve the life she wants.

Learn the magic that happens behind the scenes when the doors suddenly open and unforeseen opportunities arise in the big city. In a half century of innovative ventures, the brash New Yorker never let dyslexia slow his creative mind and penchant for free thinking and deal making, even though he was functionally unable to read until he was in his fifties. Discover how he created the greatest men’s fashion development of the era—the leisure suit—and how it subsequently fell off a cliff.

Hop aboard a hippie bus and journey with 300 New Age settlers on their way to Tennessee to begin a new life and a new lifestyle, a meaningful lifestyle the world can afford - to live collectively, build a town and live simple, live close to nature - a remarkable experiment in collective living as thousands of high-minded people with heart join forces, pool resources, and attempt to create a gracious, meaningful, sustainable lifestyle.

After 200 years of farming in Yorkshire, the Benson family were forced to sell up. They found, like so many other farmers, that big business was wiping out a way of life they had known for generations.

Adopting an Abandoned Farm—a woman’s journey as a writer-farmer in a man’s world is a compelling narrative of a trailblazing woman who defies societal norms by pursuing both farming and writing in a male-dominated landscape. Leaving behind city life, Sanborn immerses herself in the challenges of rural existence while continuing to document her experiences through her writing. As the sole female farmer, she faces skepticism and astonishment from male counterparts at auctions and farm sales, where her presence disrupts expectations.

In 1985, the shocking murder of a family of five in a quiet country house in Essex rocked the nation. The victims were Nevill and June Bamber; their adopted daughter Sheila Caffell, divorced from her husband Colin; and Sheila and Colin's twin sons, Nicholas and Daniel. Only one survivor remained: the Bambers' other adopted child, Jeremy Bamber. Following his lead, the police - and later the press - blamed the murders on Sheila, who, so the story went, then committed suicide.

As a teenage Mennonite girl, Amanda lives with her close-knit family in south central Pennsylvania. Life revolves around hard work, faith, and commitment to the family. She doesn't question the daily routine; it's the only life she's known. Her father talks about buying a farm out west with a lot of land in one block. Not only will the family farm there together, but the parents hope to begin a new Mennonite community. To a 15-year-old girl, this move begins as an exciting adventure.

An irreverent and illuminating journey through a day in the life of the affectionately named Trauma Farm, with numerous side trips into the natural history of farming. Beginning naked in darkness, Brian Brett moves from the tending of livestock, poultry, orchards, gardens, machinery, and fields to the social intricacies of rural communities and, finally, to an encounter with a magnificent deer in the silver moonlight of a magical farm field.

On 7 August 1985, Nevill and June Bamber, their daughter, Sheila, and her two young sons, Nicholas and Daniel, were discovered shot to death at White House Farm in Essex. The murder weapon was found on Sheila's body; a Bible lay at her side. All the windows and doors of the farmhouse were secure, and the Bambers' son, 24-year-old Jeremy, had alerted police after apparently receiving a phone call from his father, who told him Sheila had 'gone berserk' with the gun. It seemed a straightforward case of murder-suicide, but a dramatic turn of events was to disprove the police's theory.

In Tales from the Farm by the Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda takes listeners on an evocative journey to Ravenseat, where she lives with husband Clive and their nine children, not to mention their flock of sheep, herd of cows, hardworking dogs and a formidable chicken called Linda.

These stories begin with brief family histories that bring the Peltier and the Scottish Keillor families together. John was the fifth of the 12 children that Wilburn and Barbara Peltier raised on the flat salt grass prairie of Southeast Texas after they married. The life they created for their family on their rice farm and cattle ranch provided fertile ground for the life experiences that are shared in these settings. At the age of 19, naïve and fresh from the farm, John was drafted into the US Army. After surviving boot camp and medical corpsman training, he found himself in Vietnam.

In this touching audiobook memoir about the relationship between father, daughter, and animals, Carole George explores life after adopting thirteen pet Karakul lambs. Throughout her years with the lambs and her aging father, she comes to realize the distinct personality of each creature, and to understand more fully the almost spiritual bond between man and animals.