for mother's day, kenny (or rowan and sawyer and the baby) bought me Hit by a Farm.

i love the subtitle of this book: "How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn."

despite my desire to live in the country and perhaps even raise animals other than cats and dogs (as a side note: anyone want to adopt two grown cats?) some days, i tend to be a worrier when it comes to country, or farm living.

we don't technically live on a farm. but we could turn our new yard into one if we wanted to. we have a great old barn that could stock some cattle, a few horses and some sheep and goats. we have plenty of land for a few of these animals, and we really, really want to raise chickens.

and i still find something to worry about living out here: what if our well runs out of water? what if our septic system starts to bubble up into our lawn? what if there really are bear that decide to make our land their new home even though it's so totally out of their nature to do something like that? what if a big hawk mistakes one of my children for a rabbit or something?

yes, these are really silly things to worry about. i think this is one of the reasons kenny bought me the book (although he told me he bought it because it came highly recommended by garrison keillor who happens to be one of my favorite authors).

so far, it's a great read. it's written by a woman who never had a desire to live in a small town, let alone become a farmer. but she did it because her partner wanted to farm. that's dedication. i'm learning a lot about farming sheep, chicken, and goats. and growing grapes for wine. although it takes place in minnesota, there is a lot i see in the characters that remind me of kenny and i: like how they absolutely fall in love with chickens. you who live in the city might think i'm a bit crazy for thinking chickens are beautiful and fascinating animals, but i'm finding i'm not the only one.

did you know chickens have belly buttons????? incredible.