Seasons on the Farm: A Celebration of Country Life through the Year »

From the awakening of the land in the spring to trudging to the barn on a chilly winter night, life on a farm revolves around the seasons of the year. The rural music of this seasonal rhythm sounds through the pages of this volume.

Seasons on the Farm: A Celebration of Country Life Through the Year chronicles the many seasonal events on the farm. Michael Perry takes time during a recent lambing season to look back on his childhood, Roger Welsch uses his rural expertise to identify the signs of spring, Jerry Apps reminisces about country dances from his childhood, and Ben Logan remembers Christmases of the past.

Some funny, some poignant, these evocative essays offer memories of farm life and reflections on its seasonal unfolding, from tapping maple trees to collect sap in the spring through the back-breaking task of baling hay on a blistering summer day to harvest suppers in a two-room schoolhouse and bundling up to feed the animals on a cold winter day. The essays are illustrated with black-and-white historical photographs and crisp color images that conjure the life of a farm for readers who have known that world intimately or have only dreamed of it.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Spring

-Signs of Spring by Roger Welsch

-Making Maple by Robert N. Pripps

-My Father’s Flock by Michael Perry

Chapter 2: Summer

-Learning How to Walk Through Life One Auction at a Time by Jessie Kay Bylander

-Frank, Pinky, and Harry by Jerry Apps

-The Church of Cold Beer, Wrestling, and Women of Questionable Virtue by Lee Klancher

Chapter 3: Autumn

-Scarecrows on the Farm: Images of a Rural Autumn by Samantha Johnson

-Harvesting What We Have Been Given by Philip Hasheider

-Harvest Suppers by Carolyn Lumsden

Chapter 4: Winter

-Feeding the Critters by Gwen Petersen

-Winter Tales by Bob Becker

-Christmas Kaleidoscope by Ben Logan