Pick Up Country Grit: A Farmoir Of Finding Purpose And Love Authored By Scottie Jones Shared As Digital Copy

real, unromantic side of farming from someone who was thrown into the farming business, not raised, I thought the author did a good job showing how difficult farming is, but also the community that surrounds farmers, especially those in our local Willamette Valley area.
I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, I have no connection with the author or her farm but do provide links below for informational purposes,

.Stars rounded up tobecause FARMS and FARM STAY!

Country Grit is a farm memoir or farmoir by Scottie Jones, who started the 'Farm Stay' movement in the USA and who is the founder and executive director of sitelinkFarm

Stay USA.
Her farm, sitelinkLeaping Lamb Farm in Alsea, Oregon, was the inception of the Farm Stay concept in the US back in, If you don't understand how important Farm Stay as a concept is, go check out this sitelinkWashington Post article in which children don't understand a distressing amount about what they eat and drink.
No Sally and Bobby, chocolate milk doesn't come from brown cows, The story of how Scottie and her husband Greg came to own a farm in Oregon after a hectic life in Phoenix was an interesting one to read, but the compelling stories of the animals and interesting humans around Leaping Lamb Farm are what really captures the reader.


Scottie chooses to respect the privacy of her community by melding stories of the people in it, and indeed the town itself which she calls Elsie, into composites.
She has done a good job with keeping these composite characters real, and some of their stories are quite poignant, I am still on the fence about the episodic nature of the vignettes she presents, some of which I wasn't always getting the feeling where in chronological order, thus making the memoir aspect slightly confused.
I felt that the book would have benefited from better editing, which might have toned down the episodic tone and made a smoother, and maybe even slightly longer memoir.
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book and am happy to provide their first review,

Scottie has also authored another book Paco the Dusty Donkey about her friend Jack's pet burro, I'm really feeling that her horse Tater deserves his own children's book, about horses with the magical power to open latches, This was a fascinating read by Scottie Jones, As you know, leaving behind the city or the suburbs for country life is a hot trend right now, Scottie and her husband packed up everything and relocated from AZ to the Northwest, This memoir is an account of the trials and tribulations of their adjustment, including almost quitting after three years, Scottie does an excellent job explaining how the profit margin is very slim for small family farmers, Her pragmatism takes the luster off the romantic bucolic image of farm life, Her honesty is refreshing. A must read for anyone considering a big lifestyle transition, A Memoir about Leaving the City Behind for Life on a Farm, For Fans of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and James Rebankss The Shepherds Life

In a world increasingly filled with questions of where our food comes from and dissatisfactions about our modern lives, Country Grit is a story that will resonate with countless people itching to get back to the land.
Told with humor and hardearned wisdom, it is also an account of what smallscale farmers across the country experience every day,

Scottie Jones lived a typical suburban, professional life in Phoenix until her husband, Greg, got into a nearfatal car accident, While recovering, he became convinced that they needed a change to a simpler way of life, more connected with nature and each other, So, driven by a desire to cut ties with a material and convenient suburban life that had left them feeling empty, they bought a peacefullooking farmhouse on sixty acres in Oregon and said goodbye to everything they knew.


But the road to pastoral bliss is fraught with hardship, mishap, and financial risk, When the burden becomes almost too much, Scottie hits on the idea of creating a Farm Stay, where people could visit and learn about Leaping Lamb Farm.
The Farm Stay becomes the niche that rescues them from foreclosure, Having found a sense of purpose and a sense of place, the couple now had the means to sustain it, This edition includes a new foreword by Joel Salatin, As a former ag teacher and dreamer of my own small operation, I found this book heartwarming, informative, and real, We bought some land. Now for the hard part, . . “Grit” is the perfect word! Great but not every farm fails, Scottie and Greg Jones lived a normal suburban life in Phoenix, Arizona, But, when Greg is in a nearfatal car accident he decides life is too short for long commutes and highstress life, So, he and Scottie buy a sheep farm in rural Oregon and Country Grit is the story of the farm's firstyears, Becoming farmers in middle age there is a steep learning curve, but thankfully the Joneses find a community of likeminded people in their new town who don't mind helping and sharing advice.
After a particularly hard year on their farm they are ready to admit defeat and sell, but one last crazy idea is able to turn their farm around financially.
Part memoir and part farm startup guide, Country Grit show just how hard it is to survive financially on a small farm, but how it can definitely be well worth the risk.
A wonderful read about a couple who leave an urban life in Arizona to manage a sheep farm in Oregon, This book possesses those rare qualities of holding it allhumor, pathos, mystery, education, and the story is well told, At times I laughed out loud and twice tears immediately sprang to my eyes, I read it slowly, and I found myself amazed at how well Scottie Jones captures the wonders and trials of trying to make a go of a small farm in America.
I learned about the challenges and also about Katahdins hair sheep a type of sheep that sheds its coat instead of having to be sheared, This is very different from the sheep we have around the ranches where I live, I think she a great job of showing just how filled with ambiguity and unexpected joy, tragedy, trials, and opportunity running a small farm brings, It's a challenging life filled with ritual but also daily newness, It's an interesting life filled with vigor and problem solving and wow some unforgettable human and animal characters, Highly recommended. And while you are at it you might consider visiting Leaping Lamb Farm as it is now part of Farm Stay USA an organization of American small farms that host guests.
I am a city girl who loves reading Farmoirs: This one was filled with Great stories of the journey that got them to buy a farm and the things they endured while there.
Super sweet story with a few tears, yes I cried, I really recommend this one , and will be passing this copy to someone who also loves farm books Love the term 'farmoir'.
Most farmoirs, the ones where some city slicker moves to the country in search of their inner farmer, seem like one debacle after another, but this one is different.
It was intelligent and not whiney at all, The last Farmoir I read the author couldn't kill any animal and so ended up with a huge menagerie of animals, This author moves to the farm realizing that in order to make a living animals have to die, And yet she had a lot of compassion for the animals, I know I couldn't do it, I would love to have a few chickens but they would have to be for eggs only as I could never kill them, Anyway, I don't know how to explain why this 'city girl moves to the country' memoir stands out from the rest, but it does, Scottie Jones shares a glimpse into her life with humour and grit, I went to the Leaping Lamb Farm with my family and stayed in their rental house, which we found incredibly charming and beautiful, I highly recommend it for a relaxing getaway for a reasonable price, Not knowing of the hardship and near demise of their commitment to stay at the farm, I am happy that Scottie found the resources to continue through the renting out of the cottage.
For anyone who loves nature, farming, Oregon, the specialness of living in a small community, this is a lovely read, A good read about the struggles of maintaining a profitable family farm in the era of industrial feed lots and mega growers, Jones takes you through the first five years after buying their land, detailing the complexities and hard work required to stay afloat through bad weather, animal attacks, and broken equipment.
She weaves a cast of interesting and relatable characters not all of whom are human! who quickly feel like family, just as they did for Jones.
This book is a great addition to the "farmoir" genre, It's been almostyears since I wrote my first desperate email, From Oregon, . . Dear Diary, back to friends in Arizona, I wrote almost every day to start, Then my emails became a blog, I continued to write for seven years about daily and then weekly and then monthly experiences on our farm, When the stories began to repeat and animal escapes, equipment breakdowns, and mother nature no longer brought tears and fright and frustration bubbling over the top, I stopped.


Writing this book was about telling a story that made sense, when it seemed we had none moving from the city to the country.
And, yes, the sheep still get out from time to time this morning, for example, but we have learned to walk more slowly in herding them back to the pasture.
It's a bit of a metaphor for our lives,

I hope, if you are romancing the idea of moving to a farm, that you will laugh with us, you will cry with us, and you will have a better idea of what you are getting into before you ever chase your first sheep out of the flower beds! Loved this! Super inspired to start my own Farmstay.
Anyone who's harbored secret fantasies of leaving it all behind for a tranquil life on the land should read this memoir, After Scottie's husband Greg is in a serious car accident in Phoenix, the two decide it's time for a change, They purchase a sheep farm in the Coast Range of western Oregon, an idyllicseeming green space, But when they arrive with horses, dogs, and angry housecat in tow, they discover that things aren't quite what they expected, There are holes in the fences, sheep in the garden, and mice living large in their farmhouse,

But as they worktogetherto make the farm liveable, they discover some home truths about their neighbors, the country, and themselves, This is not a starryeyed vision of farming, Jones is cringingly honest about the difficulties they, and most small farmers, face every day, It will make you look at agriculture and food supply in a whole new way, .