Once a farmer's daughter . . .

I just finished "Coop" by Michael Perry. I was first made aware of this book on my DIL's book blog. (See sidebar - an excellent place to search for something to read.)

Sometime back I read a book about farming in Iowa. It spoke to and of my mother's generation. I was delighted to read "Coop" which addresses growing up on a farm during my generation. The author, Michael Perry, however, is also attempting to work a small farm in Wisconsin and provide those same experiences for his children. (I am just happy to have a compost bin as I try to harvest a tomato or onion or cucumber. I have considered buying chickens, but then I come to my senses!) This book is a memoir of his first year on his farm but is so much more.

I related on so many levels to the stories Perry tells. He describes in great detail the process of haying which took me right back in time to driving the hay truck (my father would have to jump back in at the end of the row and sift the gears and turn the truck around so I could steer it down the field again) including the demise of the mice. He also took me back into the milking barn with its vacuum tubes and dairy cows. I also returned to the barn loft where the baby chicks would strut under the warming lamps, always a favorite time of mine.

His descriptions of his father and mother and their parenting style also took me home. His parents were part of a fundamentalist religious group and mine were Mormon, but both were devoted to their God, gentle and steadfast in their child rearing, and hard working (each of mine holding down a second part-time job to make a go of it on the farm which had always been in my father's family.)

I enjoyed the author's often humorous writing style, but I appreciated more his introspective thoughts on the roles taken by he and his wife as they embark upon a new lifestyle and the care of their daughters as well as the pigs and chickens.

To read more about Michael Perry and his farming (and writing and singing) adventures go HERE.