Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Barn by
Catherine Friend
Real. Funny. One Of The Most Entertaining I've Read Of The "Country" Genre
Farms have fences. People have boundaries. Mine began crumbling the
day I knelt behind a male sheep, reached between his legs, and squeezed
his testicles. This took place one blustery November day when I joined
other shepherd-wannabees for a class on the basics of raising sheep. I
was there with my partner Melissa, the woman I’d lived with for twelve
years, because we were going to start a farm . When self-confessed
urban bookworm Catherine Friend’s partner of twelve years decides she
wants to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a farm, Catherine agrees. What
ensues is a crash course in both living off and with the land that ultimately
allows Catherine to help fulfill Melissa’s dreams while not losing sight of
her own. Hit by a Farm is a hilarious recounting of Catherine and
Melissa’s trials of getting back to the land. It is also a coming-of (middle)-
age story of a woman trying to cross the divide between who she is and

who she wants to be, and the story of a couple who say goodbye city life
— and learn more than they ever bargained for about love, land, and yes,
sheep sex.
Personal Review: Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend
No one was more surprised than Catherine Friend when her long-time
partner informed her that she'd always dreamed of being a farmer. Early
on in this hilarious memoir, the author writes, "Farming had never been my
dream. My dream was to grow my writing career into something I could call
'successful,' whatever that was. I'd already sold two children's books and a
handful of magazine stories. I was hungry for more" (p. 6).
But Melissa's dream had merit, and Catherine believed she could help the
dream come true. And so, "The classic face of farming in Grant Wood's
American Gothic was about to get a facelift: two thirty-something women in
bib overalls holding pitchforks" (p. 6).
Devoting a great deal of time, energy, and work to their project, the two
women researched farming, bought land in southern Minnesota, built a
house, and settled in to raise sheep, chickens, and grapes for wine.
Apparently that was the easy part. From auspicious beginnings, the road
they embark upon is filled with a learning curve so steep that shoveling
manure and mucking horse stalls might have been easier. While Melissa's
dream ascended, the livestock, crops, and natural disasters seem to
conspire to make Catherine's life miserable. Living off the land wasn't at all
the romantic idyll so often put forth.
By turns hilarious and sobering, touching and surprising, Catherine
Friend's memoir tells the tale of two thirty-somethings who not only have to
learn to love the barn, but also to find their way back to one another after
such a huge life-change nearly sideswipes them for good. It's a terrific
story, very well-told, and is cram-packed full of humor, insight, and a zest
for life that can't be vanquished. If you only read one memoir this year,
make this be the one. I give it my highest recommendation.
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