A Dirty Life

A Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball is based on the first year the author spent living on a farm and becoming a farmer.  Kimball didn't grow up on a farm, or live on a farm, until she met Mark, a farmer.  She was living in New York City working as a writer.  He was farming on someone else's land.  Together they found a place to start their lives together, as farmers.  The first year had a steep learning curve for Kimball-she learned how to milk a cow by hand and how to work with a team of horses.  If you grew up on a farm or live on a farm, you will relate to some of the things Kimball learned the hard way (by experience).  If you don't have a lot of familiarity with farming, the story will make you appreciate more fully the resourcefulness and work ethic a farmer possesses.  Though this story is nonfiction, in some ways it reads like a novel...you wonder how Kimball will come to grips with the reality of her newly chosen profession.