Seasons on the Farm: A Celebration of Country Life Through the Year - Hardcover

Michael Perry is a Wisconsin-based author who wrote Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbor One Siren at a Time.

Roger Welsch is a well-known rural scholar whose latest book is about how to keep your sanity while living in the country.

Jerrp Apps is a professor emeritus of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and writes about growing up on a farm.

Ben Logan also writes about his childhood on a farm in the driftless area of Wisconsin.

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.

The majority of everyday duties that happen on the farm revolve around the season. Considering that all aspects of farms are deeply connected to the weather, it s no surprise the occupations of stewards on the farm rely so much on the ever-changing seasons. This collection of essays highlights some of the many events that occur on the farm during the year.

The selections range from humorous to heartwarming and everything in between. Roger Welsch defines the sure and not-so-sure signs of spring, while Jerry Apps reminisces to the summer country dances held at his country schoolhouse when he was a child. Michael Perry is reminded of his past during a recent lambing season, and Ben Logan spins the kaleidoscope of memories and looks back upon Christmases past. Events such as farm auctions and baling hay are chronicled, along with well-established traditions that include deer hunting and harvest suppers.

Any amount of time spent on a farm is deeply ingrained upon one s soul, no matter if it is a pleasant or not-so-pleasant experience. These stories, along with archival and contemporary color photographs, that revolve the four seasons on the farm will hopefully trigger your own memories of time spent in the country.