Dad would warn me to stay back from the barn door when he let the cows out for the first time at the end of a long winter. After taking a few steps outside, you might see a mature cow do something you wouldn't expect: Jump in the air!
Quite a feat, considering a mature cow weighs about 1,500 pounds.
Stephen Nelson's childhood memories are an impressionist painting of another time; a time when each family on the shared phone line had a particular ring, and a time when a little boy carefully carried buckets of fresh, warm milk to feed the calves by hand.
There's a lot that people who've never lived on a family farm don't know-and with farms consolidating fewer and bigger, snapshots like Stephen's are a rare breed. This collection is rich with sights, sounds, scents (not just the obvious one!), and the kind of details only someone who's been there can tell you. Down on the Farm, Way Back When is a walk down memory lane for those who know and a time machine for those who don't.
Enjoyable insight into farming life in Ontario
"Stephen sent me a pre release copy of his book to read as we grew up in the same region in Ontario. While I did have experience living on a farm, I am a decade or so older so our experience is not exactly the same and I was entertained by his insights. The target audience is people interested in farming, Northumberland County, Ontario history, people over 35, libraries, museums, and historical societies. While there are a few books written from this perspective in the USA, there are very few in Canada. The book’s purpose is to “give some insight about what a dairy farmer does today and what life was like from the 1960s to the 1980s. ” The book outlines and in places gives a lot of detail about the trials, tribulations, sorrows and joys that farmers in that era experienced and achieves its purpose. The one thing it took a bit of getting used to was the book structure. The author noted that ”I used to review the format and layout of manuals for several years in my career” and his book has a similar layout to such manuals, rather than mainstream books with just chapter titles and no subtitles. The manual structure does have some advantages though. Overall I enjoyed the book and recommend it to everyone (people who enjoy the James Herriot books will likely enjoy it for example), not just the target audience."
