Barbara Kingsolver's Latest Fiction - Life on the farm ain't always a picnic

Reason ^ | June 1, 2007 | Ronald Bailey

[kjo]

She’s a hair-brained lefty.

[pabianice]

But they “feel so good about themselves!”

[chimera]

One of my business ventures in a previous life was being a partner in a family farm operation. It was inherited by a friend from graduate school who knew farming but not the business end of it, which I learned and helped with. His sister was the best grade school teacher in the county but not very knowledgeable about farming, but eventually learned enough to take over my duties when the time came to move on. I'll tell you, I never saw people who worked so hard, dawn to dusk and then some, every day, all year round, no vacations, no holidays, nothing but work. And when it was my turn to pitch in, I never worked so hard in my life, either. It's backbreaking, dirty, hot (in summer), cold (in winter), often monotonous work, even if you have a decent compliment of modern machinery to speed things up (machines can't do everything). I have a feeling that if all the leftist, back-to-the-Earthers really spent their lives on a working farm, they'd sing a different tune about how romantic and pleasant it is.

Don't get me wrong. I admire those who choose farming as a professions. We literally owe our lives to them. And such a life does have it's rewards. It's just that those come at a price in sweat and labor that most people have no concept of.

[discostu]

Cool, Kingsolver doesn’t live around Tucson anymore, I thought the place smelled better.

[Old Student]

“Don’t get me wrong. I admire those who choose farming as a professions. We literally owe our lives to them. And such a life does have it’s rewards. It’s just that those come at a price in sweat and labor that most people have no concept of.”

Having bucked bales, and milked cows, and repaired miles of fencing, not to mention handweeding half an acre of family truck garden, I feel for the folks who try to make a living this way. I also escaped as soon as I could. I wouldn’t mind having a hobby-farm, raising critters or crops I particularly like, and getting to eat fresh foods from my own place, but as a means of making a living? Thanks, I’ll shop elsewhere. I LOVE working in air conditioning.

[chimera]

Well, so do I. That’s why I turned the reins back over to the family when I felt the time was right. It wasn’t the life I wanted to lead.

[Old Student]

“Well, so do I. That’s why I turned the reins back over to the family when I felt the time was right. It wasn’t the life I wanted to lead.”

My dad always wanted to be a farmer. He visited the family farm in Ohio as a kid, and loved it. When I was a teen, he moved us to Colorado, and bought a hobby farm of nearly two acres. I stayed for a couple of years, and moved back to California to finish high school, and he traded up to an 80 acre ranch, which he’s had ever since. When I visit, I help him with irrigation, and what ever, mostly letting him brag about what he’s accomplished since I last visited. It’s fun, but my step-mom will inherit, and she’s earned every dime of it. I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t move to the city when he dies, after selling the ranch. It’s too small to actually support a family, but it’s made him very happy for over 30 years. He’s put in his own pond, an orchard of various fruit trees, and he raises some really prime beef. He sold off the horses a while back, as they were getting to be too much to take care of by himself. I’ve got a brother and several sisters who live nearby, and none of them want to farm, either. To each his own. I hope whoever gets it loves it as much as my dad does. Ain’t gonna be me.

[org.whodat]

Funny, that’s damn close to where I live and I have never heard of either the kingsolver clown are the reporter Bailey. But there are a lot of nut’s in the area.

[chimera]

Good for Dad. That warms my heart. He got to live his dream, and we should be thankful for that. Had better luck than my Dad, who worked like a horse all his life just to die from cancer at a relatively young age. Breaks my heart to think of how hard that man worked, raising us kids, serving in WWII, paying taxes all his life. All I can do is honor his memory by being as good a person as I can be.

I think my friend felt an obligation to his deceased parents to keep the farm going, and keep it in the family. It was a struggle, but they made it. It's still running, far as I know.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

ping. thought you might like this article, since you linked me to the book.

[Old Student]

He busted his butt, and all my younger brother’s and sister’s butts, too, but he’s made something to be proud of. He worked for years as a coal miner to support it, and more years for the State Ag department, as well. He’s “retired” now, and my step-mom works for the VA, also supporting the ranch. I think she likes it better this way... She sure busted her butt to help him with his dream. They are approaching their 46th anniversary, IIRC. It’s funny, in a way. she was a city girl, and has adapted to the farm life quite well. I remember her getting sick to her stomach when she brought my pig, Porkchop, home from the packing plant, our first year there. Smart-alec teen that I was I yelled “Porkchop, I’m glad to see you! I’ve missed you!” as I started unloading boxes of butcher-paper-wrapped meat from the back of the station wagon. I think she’s earned it, what ever “it” is, even more than my dad. :)

[MoochPooch]

I read Kingsolver’s novel POISONWOOD BIBLE, which was total left-wing crap.

The problem with her kind is that their writing is utterly charming — they know how to craft sentences. It’s after you put the book down & realize how distorted are the ideas that you walk away furious.

[Ditto]

I work with a guy who grew up on a family farm and he recalled asking his father what he would do if he ever hit the lottery.

The old man said "Well, I guess I'd just keep on farming until the money ran out." ;~))

[Old Professer]

Hare-brained, like in rabbit-sized.

[neverdem]

I read Kingsolver’s novel POISONWOOD BIBLE, which was total left-wing crap.

The problem with her kind is that their writing is utterly charming — they know how to craft sentences. It’s after you put the book down & realize how distorted are the ideas that you walk away furious.

LOL! I'm glad I can't remember the name of a novel I have read since "The Godfather" over 30 years ago. Fiction isn't for me.

[Islander7]

I grew up on a family farm, about 20 acres, 3 of which were the family garden. It was an everyday all job through the summer months to plant, weed, tend and gather food to put up for the winter months. We had a milk cow, raised pigs and chickens for eggs and eating. My uncle was a professional butcher so he and my extended family would assist with butchering a hog when the weather got cool enough in late November each year.

There was 10 acres of corn planted for the cows, pigs and horses. And hay as well. It was hard work! We ate good, but had little else to show. I miss the food, but not the lifestyle.

[No_judicial_elites]

I don’t know, even if she’s a major leftie, it’s hard to argue against daily fresh-baked bread, home-grown vegetables, and meat from animals treated humanely and not drugged up.

[redhead]

The late, handsome, and extremely talented Mr. Redhead was one of 8 children on a family farm in Southern Minnesota during the Depression. No wonder he joined the military as soon as he could. But, those memories die hard, and after 25 years or so in Alaska, he began to dream of the "old ways" again. So when he retired, we moved back to Minnesota, bought a run-down "hobby" farm, and restored it.

Talk about WORK. We had a team of draft horses and two tractors. He had to mow the pasture so the horses would actually eat the grass. I canned what we grew, and took care of a 13-room house. No cows, but we had geese, who pooped up the doorstep so bad we had to fence it off, and chickens. It was hardly idyllic, but it was fun, while he had the strength and vigor to stay on top of it. But it only took about 5 years for it to get to be too much for him, and we sold it for twice what we paid for it, and hied ourselves to TOWN.

[sergeantdave]

I grow enormous fields of weeds every summer, without fertilizer, chemicals or any other artificial means.