Whatcha Been Readin'?

I love to read.  And I'm a book buying addict.

I can't walk out of a bookstore without buying a book.

The preferred decorations on my walls are bookshelves full of books.

I don't have any space on top of any table/bookcase/box/other flat surface because they are covered with piles of books. (And, unlike what my husband thinks, they are organized in fully functional piles according to topic and newness.)

A good day out involves a good restaurant and several used book stores.

I weep that I get motion sickness because I can't read on long road trips.  That and having motion sickness is not pleasant.

And I've found hours just past by mysteriously when I suddenly realize that one more chapter has turned into the rest of the book.

So, long story short, I love to read.  And I love books.

And I love reading about topics I'm interested in.  While others spend hours reading the latest mystscificantic books, I spend time reading about homesteading, and cooking, and historical diaries of random, middle class, women from Long Island during the Revolutionary War.  Because everyone is interested in that!

The point is that if it's a topic I find interesting, I'm going to read about it.  If it's something I want to study, I will definitely want to read about it.

So, this very long introduction to my reading habits now leads me to something I hope to do many times during this blog.  I want to tell the world what I'm reading, and what I think about it.  Because I know that's what the world really wants to know about. 

Now, there is also my series of self improvement books that I'm reading which I'll be talking about in my other blog "The Pursuit of Happiness" which I have a link to on this website! (I know, shameless plug.)  But, that doesn't stop me from the nasty habit of reading several books at once. So, while I'm reading my monthly self-help book, I've also been tackling my homesteading pile.

Title:  "Gaining Ground"
Author:  Forrest Pritchard

Where did I get this book?  From the Barnes and Noble, on the "New to Paperback" table.

What's the book about?  Forrest is a seventh generation farmer who works to save the family farm by using rotational grazing techniques and farmer's markets to sell his organic, grass fed meats.

And in one sentence I have made this sound like the most boring book in the world.  Or, if you're like me and love to read about farming techniques or homesteading lifestyles, then you think this is going to be a great book!  But it truly isn't as boring as I've made it sound.  It's not just Forrest saying "I'm going to save the farm" and then *POOF* it's saved.  He talks about the process he went through.  The stories of all the mistakes he made, and how he made the most of them.  And it doesn't end with "...and they all lived happily ever after."  It more is a revelation of that the process of managing and keeping a farm viable is constantly changing.  And it's about evolving with the times, and also about thinking outside the box as well.  Though his grazing techniques, his views on butchering, and the availability of his products seem to be readily available now, when he was starting out they were almost non existent in the main stream.  He saw the unconventional farming ideas and went with them anyway, because they seemed to make sense with what he was trying to achieve, which was organic, grass fed beef.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes I would.  I know it may not be everyones cup of tea, but I found it refreshing to read a book about farming and how it's not all rural simplicity and pastoral elegance.  It's about hard work, equally hard standards, and a realization that while that sunset is beautiful I'm also noticing that fence needs to be repaired by that tree over there, and the sun is setting and I haven't finished feeding and what's going on with the truck now that I can't get it started again. 

But farming and cute animals and broken-down trucks aside, it really is a story about how Forrest had the idea to save his family dairy farm in West Virginia.  And he realized that to do that he had to stop trying to follow the standards that were set by commercial farmers all over America at the time.  In fact, the first year he tried that way, he received a whopping $18.16 in profit for that year.  Well, at least he got a profit.  Now I'm not saying that there are not people who are successful with commercial farming techniques out there.  I just admire how Forrest decided to see if there was another way, not only to make a profit but also to make a better, healthier meat product, and a more personal way to get that product to his customers.  By thinking outside of the box, he has truly worked to make his farm viable for the future, as well as not lowering his standards he set out for himself to begin with.

And he talks about all this in a book that doesn't lecture on the topic of cows or rotational grazing habits, but it's a fun narrative of stories that link together.  And he doesn't mind making fun of his mistakes, and yet learning from them as well.

So yes, I would recommend this book even to people who aren't interested in farming because I feel it does a great job keeping you entertained even if you don't care about the rotational grazing habits of cows, or why chickens shouldn't be given the option for freedom, or why farmers of old would put rings into pig's noses.

Overall Grade:  A