One Woman Farm by Jenna Woginrich

I was honored to receive this book for review through NetGalley.  I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland where the city had a yearly festival, the Corn Festival, while many of the corn fields became subdivisions over the years.  In high school, I was probably the only person I knew who wanted to grow up and live on a self sufficient farm.  (This was years before homesteading became a trend.)  I was in 4-H and FCCLA.  I had chickens, turkeys, rabbits, quail and pigeons.  I wanted nothing more than to someday have horses.  I dressed like I worked at a Hot Topic but I loved being in the barn or at a livestock show.  The joke was on me though.  I met my husband in college and we were married within the year.  His family is a farming family.  His mom grew up on a dairy farm and his dad runs a strawberry farm on their property.  My husband hated having cows.  He hates strawberries because at six feet tall, it kills his back to pick them.  He's allergic to almost everything with fur.  So for the first ten years of our marriage, I was resigned that my dreams were never going to come true.  But this year, we took the first step that would snowball into a future that I can live with.  We found the one furry thing that would snare the husband's heart and that he is not allergic to: Jaybird the hedgehog.  Jaybird opened the door for Red Robin the Bearded Dragon.  Then my father in law told my sons that they could keep 4-H animals at his house.  The husband won't be able to go near the rabbit barn but the kids and I can have them.  It's a miracle solution!   Jenna Woginrich had a different "gateway drug" but her book is much the same.  Here's the cover and the NetGalley description:

Jenna Woginrich’s inspiring journey from city cubicle to rural homestead has captivated readers of her blog and previous books. Now, in One-Woman Farm, Woginrich shares the joys, sorrows, trials, epiphanies, and blessings she discovers during a year spent farming on her own land, finding deep fulfillment in the practical tasks and timeless rituals of the agricultural life.

For Jenna Woginrich, the life of a cubicle dweller was wholly unfulfilled.  She went out searching for a place of her own in the world of agriculture and her new home would be the "gateway drug" that would take her into the world of a farmer.  She lives her life according to the calendar of the farmer.  In spring, it's a time for new life with lambing and new chicks.  In fall, you begin to stock pile wood for winter and you prepare the fields to lie dormant for the winter.  In winter, you eat your canned items from the summer and plan for the new year by ordering seeds and chicks.  In summer, you harvest, can and slaughter so you can eat over the winter.  This book is about life at it's simplest.  It's about being able to sink or float on your own merit.  It's about a time gone by.  So much today is dependent on "the market" and the state of the economy and Ms. Woginrich has decided to remove as much of that from her life as she can.  You can never get completely free but she comes close.  I love her descriptions of each of the seasons of her life on Cold Antler Farm.  The writing is beautiful and descriptive.  She lives on the farm full time and spends her time mucking pens, raising lambs and chickens and working with her local farming community.  She's living her life the way that she wants to and while it may not always be easy like on cold mornings without central heat, she is still in love with her farm and her life.  It's absolutely beautiful.

You can click here to add One Woman Farm to your Goodreads.  You can follow the Cold Antler Farm Blog and you can find Jenna Woginrich on Facebook.  This book will be published on October 16th so preorder this epic fall read now!  I give One Woman Farm 4 Fairies for a beautifully written story of life on a farm.