From Publishers Weekly
In a book reminiscent of Richard Rhodes's Farm , Pistorius ( The Country Journal Book of Birding ) takes us through four seasons on the 350-acre Vermont dairy spread of Dick and Joan Treadway and their four children. Dairying, as we're shown graphically, is more than milking cows--fences must be mended, animals moved from barn to pasture, milking equipment cleaned regulary. Summer is haying; cutting, baling and storing require machinery, which needs frequent repair. There is deep concern about weather and taxes. During the year covered, family and beasts alike have medical problems; a cow dies and a calf is born. At sugaring time, the Treadways hang 1300 sap buckets, but the harvest proves disappointing. With fitting admiration Pistorius acquaints us with folk of grit, a family that in the tradition of its forebears tenaciously holds fast to its farm.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Comparable to Richard Rhodes's Farm ( LJ 10/1/89; "Best Books of 1989," LJ 1/90, p. 54), this book tells the story of the Treadways, a farm family struggling to preserve a way of life that is too rapidly disappearing. To research this book, Pistorius lived for one year in the family's Vermont household. He shared their work and play, their joys, their worries, and their disappointments. We see them planting in the spring, baling in the summer, harvesting corn in the fall, and hanging sap buckets in the winter. Throughout the book, the reader is given a feeling for the rhythms of life on a farm and is quickly drawn into that life. Recommended for most libraries.
- Randy Dykhuis, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Randy Dykhuis, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
