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Little Farm in the Foothills: A Boomer Couple's Search for the Slow Life
A Washington State Library “Summer Reads” book selection
“The Browne’s foray into slower living in Whatcom County is an enjoyable read. Their delightful, yet very real, experiences in making the big leap toward their dreams make for a humorous and charming book.” —Washington State Librarian Jan Walsh
“A delightful account.” The Bellingham Herald
Do you dream about life in the country?
When two Boomers flee the city for a slower, simpler, and more serene lifestyle, they discover that simplicity can get awfully complicated...and life becomes anything but serene. In this wise, yet lighthearted story for gardeners, nature-lovers, and dreamers of all ages, follow Susan and John's midlife pursuit of the new Great American Dream living closer to the land as they start growing their own food, living locally, and transforming an old clearcut into a little homestead.
When Susan and her husband John first came up with the idea of having a country place, they were settled into a comfortable and convenient home in the city, happily raising some vegetables and berries in the back yard. Being experienced gardeners, they figured that relocating would be no big deal—they’d expand the garden a little, have a bit more peace and quiet. So they bought 10 acres in the middle of the woods and prepared to pretty much transfer that comfortable town life to the new property.
But this modest plan becomes an adventure that is more life-changing than they could have ever imagined.
There was so much to this new life they never faced before—breaking ground by hand and wildlife predation of their first crops. Despite a tight budget and many roadblocks along the way, they must also cope with unexpected adversity like isolation, infrastructure failures, and extreme weather.
Little Farm in the Foothills is not a memoir about farming…it’s a warmhearted story of making a dream come true. As Susan writes of their Foothills home, “it’s not a farm, it’s not even a farmette, but it’s the dream of a farm.”
In 2014, Little Farm was selected by the Everson, Washington Library as part of a special collection, the Nooksack Valley Heritage Center.
More books by Susan Colleen Browne
The Village of Ballydara Series
The Secret Well, short story ebook
A Christmas Visitor, short story ebook and the sequel of The Secret Well
It Only Takes Once, A Village of Ballydara Novel, Book 1 (print and ebook)
Mother Love, A Village of Ballydara Novel, Book 2 (print and ebook)
Children’s Story
Morgan Carey and the Curse of the Corpse Bride, a lighthearted Halloween story for middle-grade readers (ebook, coming soon in print!)
“The Browne’s foray into slower living in Whatcom County is an enjoyable read. Their delightful, yet very real, experiences in making the big leap toward their dreams make for a humorous and charming book.” —Washington State Librarian Jan Walsh
“A delightful account.” The Bellingham Herald
Do you dream about life in the country?
When two Boomers flee the city for a slower, simpler, and more serene lifestyle, they discover that simplicity can get awfully complicated...and life becomes anything but serene. In this wise, yet lighthearted story for gardeners, nature-lovers, and dreamers of all ages, follow Susan and John's midlife pursuit of the new Great American Dream living closer to the land as they start growing their own food, living locally, and transforming an old clearcut into a little homestead.
When Susan and her husband John first came up with the idea of having a country place, they were settled into a comfortable and convenient home in the city, happily raising some vegetables and berries in the back yard. Being experienced gardeners, they figured that relocating would be no big deal—they’d expand the garden a little, have a bit more peace and quiet. So they bought 10 acres in the middle of the woods and prepared to pretty much transfer that comfortable town life to the new property.
But this modest plan becomes an adventure that is more life-changing than they could have ever imagined.
There was so much to this new life they never faced before—breaking ground by hand and wildlife predation of their first crops. Despite a tight budget and many roadblocks along the way, they must also cope with unexpected adversity like isolation, infrastructure failures, and extreme weather.
Little Farm in the Foothills is not a memoir about farming…it’s a warmhearted story of making a dream come true. As Susan writes of their Foothills home, “it’s not a farm, it’s not even a farmette, but it’s the dream of a farm.”
In 2014, Little Farm was selected by the Everson, Washington Library as part of a special collection, the Nooksack Valley Heritage Center.
More books by Susan Colleen Browne
The Village of Ballydara Series
The Secret Well, short story ebook
A Christmas Visitor, short story ebook and the sequel of The Secret Well
It Only Takes Once, A Village of Ballydara Novel, Book 1 (print and ebook)
Mother Love, A Village of Ballydara Novel, Book 2 (print and ebook)
Children’s Story
Morgan Carey and the Curse of the Corpse Bride, a lighthearted Halloween story for middle-grade readers (ebook, coming soon in print!)
212 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2009
About the author
Susan Colleen Browne
24 books64 followersSusan Colleen Browne weaves her love of Ireland and her passion for country life into her Village of Ballydara books--feel-good novels of love and family set in the Irish countryside. Susan's new series, The Fairy Cottage of Ballydara Mini-series, now includes The Little Irish Gift Shop and Becoming Emma...with #3 on the way for 2021!
Her 4th Ballydara novel, The Galway Girls, is a warmhearted tale of women's friendships and finding love where you least expect it.
You'll find Susan's favorite Irish books and movies at www.susancolleenbrowne.com, and free books too! She's a big fan of authors Jenny Colgan, Liane Moriarty, and Marian Keyes.
Her award-winning memoir, "Little Farm in the Foothills," is a lighthearted tale for gardeners, nature lovers, and dreamers of all ages. If you like backyard farming, cooking with homegrown food and country living, you’ll find stories and pics on her Little Farm blog.
Susan has also penned a fantasy-adventure series for tweens, set near Seattle, that's family-friendly too!
A creative writing instructor, Susan writes and gardens at Berryridge Farm in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Many of the farm adventures in The Galway Girls were inspired by her real-life experiences...and when not writing, you’ll find Susan wrangling chickens, tending vegetable beds, and dreaming up new Irish stories!
Her 4th Ballydara novel, The Galway Girls, is a warmhearted tale of women's friendships and finding love where you least expect it.
You'll find Susan's favorite Irish books and movies at www.susancolleenbrowne.com, and free books too! She's a big fan of authors Jenny Colgan, Liane Moriarty, and Marian Keyes.
Her award-winning memoir, "Little Farm in the Foothills," is a lighthearted tale for gardeners, nature lovers, and dreamers of all ages. If you like backyard farming, cooking with homegrown food and country living, you’ll find stories and pics on her Little Farm blog.
Susan has also penned a fantasy-adventure series for tweens, set near Seattle, that's family-friendly too!
A creative writing instructor, Susan writes and gardens at Berryridge Farm in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Many of the farm adventures in The Galway Girls were inspired by her real-life experiences...and when not writing, you’ll find Susan wrangling chickens, tending vegetable beds, and dreaming up new Irish stories!
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 30, 2010
As someone who thoroughly researches out everything that I decide to do, I find it slightly...off-putting that this couple would continue, time after time, to put themselves in difficulties (often life-threatening) simply because they never took the time to understand what they needed, and what the actual cost of everything was going to be. Who doesn't stock up on bottled water after the *first* time your electricity goes out, leaving you unable to draw water from your well and unable to leave your mountain? These folks didn't even do it after the second time! And their travails with their woodstove? I don't know what sort of stove they had, but I've heated my house solely with different varieties of woodstove all my life, and I've had NONE of the problems she says happen to 'everyone'.
But the book *was* compulsively readable - if only to discover what problem they set themselves up for next!
But the book *was* compulsively readable - if only to discover what problem they set themselves up for next!
February 9, 2013
Absolutely loved this tale of boomers heading for the hills and making a new life in the country. So enjoyed the author's voice and sense of humor. A must-read for those who appreciate heart-felt memoirs. After reading, you may even begin dreaming about starting your own little farm!
February 8, 2021
Little Farm in the Foothills is a memoir written by a couple in their 50's who move from the city to raw land in the country in Washington state. The story begins during her first marriage's negative experiences with country life, move forward to her second marriage and their increasing discontent with the city, then head towards setting up a home on acreage. I found her story interesting, but could have easily put it down. Her analogies were driving me a little crazy: snow like cotton balls; stretched into its ninth month, like a stalled pregnancy; my newly discovered embrace-your-dirt approach was as freeing as a skinny dip. Turn a page, there was another one. It felt like she had taken a writing course and this was recommended. BUT she was realistic and wrote about the truth of what things can end up costing, the hardships of planting and having your garden destroyed by wildlife, the length of time things can end up taking to do, etc. They were a little irritating in the fact that they went through not one snowstorm, but two and still had not put away extra water in case their well seized and how when the power went out and they freaked because she couldn't cook dinner, but she ended up cooking on their wood stove. Um... sandwiches? Anyhow, I have her second book as well and will read it just because they are sort of a train wreck I want to watch, but likable, all the same.
November 3, 2021
Early this year, I subscribed to Alex Ayling and Carrie Rad (on youtube) who were moving from Los Angeles to New Zealand to live a homesteading life. I follow them because I am from New Zealand and I wanted to see how 2 Americans would cope in my home country. Especially when they were raised in the desert climes of California.
Alex and Carrie have had a relatively free and easy time in their first 3 months. Sure they have made some mistakes, but those were fixed. They are not too many miles from the nearest town, and they both have a regular income from their youtube careers.
You can follow Carrie and Alex on Youtube as they vlog their lives fixing up the house they purchased, managing the garden and raising the animals they have accrued - Waddles the duck, Woolsen the lamb and Lanka the dog they rescued from Sri Lanka.
See Alex Ayling and Carrie Rad on youtube.
What does this have to do with this book? Oh, the book is about John and Susan Browne, a boomer couple in their 50s. Empty nesters and retired. Their kids have all left home and they had originally settled down on the outskirts of town. The problem was that the town was now encroaching onto their peaceful lives.
So John and Sue decided to pull up stakes and move to a real farm. They had lots of experience in growing their own fruits and veges in their garden, so I think they thought that was all that was needed. That turned out to be rather naive thinking.
When one moves to the country, one loses the use of city services. The water, the sewerage system, the electricity and gas, and the trash pickup. On a farm you have to provide those things yourself and fix them yourself. You also lose the snow plough when it snows. You have to dig yourselves out.
This memoir tells the story of the bureacracy that held up their purchase and home building so that they were forced to live with Sue's mother for almost a whole year. Finally the foundations were sunk, and the house was trucked in and installed. Water Pipes, electricity and phone lines were all hooked up and the building inspector finally gave them the OK to move in. That was in August.
After they finally moved in and began working on growing fruits and veges, they had to contend with bears, deer, rabbits, mice and birds all stealing the produce they were trying to grow in their gardens.
Winter comes to the mountains a lot earlier than it does on the coast. In November after they moved in, there was a snowstorm and the Brownes were snowed in for 5 days - with no power, no heat, no dry wood to burn in their wood stove, no running water, no way to flush the toilet, no way to do laundry and no way to cook food. And the snow outside had turned to ice. There were also no snow plows. They could only live in their longjohns and hope the food did not run out. And this was just the first 4 months on the farm. Those first months on that farm were very difficult and stressful.
I shake my head at the naivity of John and Sue when they moved to the country. AS far as I can tell, they did not take any classes. Alex and Carrie took some classes on how to create organic food gardens.
This memoir has something like 80 chapters. These are short chapters, but there are lots of them.
That is why I gave this 4 stars. The last few chapters covering the November snowstrom and the epilogue, were a bit of a struggle to get through.
Alex and Carrie have had a relatively free and easy time in their first 3 months. Sure they have made some mistakes, but those were fixed. They are not too many miles from the nearest town, and they both have a regular income from their youtube careers.
You can follow Carrie and Alex on Youtube as they vlog their lives fixing up the house they purchased, managing the garden and raising the animals they have accrued - Waddles the duck, Woolsen the lamb and Lanka the dog they rescued from Sri Lanka.
See Alex Ayling and Carrie Rad on youtube.
What does this have to do with this book? Oh, the book is about John and Susan Browne, a boomer couple in their 50s. Empty nesters and retired. Their kids have all left home and they had originally settled down on the outskirts of town. The problem was that the town was now encroaching onto their peaceful lives.
So John and Sue decided to pull up stakes and move to a real farm. They had lots of experience in growing their own fruits and veges in their garden, so I think they thought that was all that was needed. That turned out to be rather naive thinking.
When one moves to the country, one loses the use of city services. The water, the sewerage system, the electricity and gas, and the trash pickup. On a farm you have to provide those things yourself and fix them yourself. You also lose the snow plough when it snows. You have to dig yourselves out.
This memoir tells the story of the bureacracy that held up their purchase and home building so that they were forced to live with Sue's mother for almost a whole year. Finally the foundations were sunk, and the house was trucked in and installed. Water Pipes, electricity and phone lines were all hooked up and the building inspector finally gave them the OK to move in. That was in August.
After they finally moved in and began working on growing fruits and veges, they had to contend with bears, deer, rabbits, mice and birds all stealing the produce they were trying to grow in their gardens.
Winter comes to the mountains a lot earlier than it does on the coast. In November after they moved in, there was a snowstorm and the Brownes were snowed in for 5 days - with no power, no heat, no dry wood to burn in their wood stove, no running water, no way to flush the toilet, no way to do laundry and no way to cook food. And the snow outside had turned to ice. There were also no snow plows. They could only live in their longjohns and hope the food did not run out. And this was just the first 4 months on the farm. Those first months on that farm were very difficult and stressful.
I shake my head at the naivity of John and Sue when they moved to the country. AS far as I can tell, they did not take any classes. Alex and Carrie took some classes on how to create organic food gardens.
This memoir has something like 80 chapters. These are short chapters, but there are lots of them.
That is why I gave this 4 stars. The last few chapters covering the November snowstrom and the epilogue, were a bit of a struggle to get through.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 6, 2012
This is a self-published book from a local gal who moves to a little farm with her husband, somewhere outside of Bellingham, Washington, I think (she doesn't name the specific locale, I guess so that we don't all move up there and urbanize the countryside!). Browne's writing has a straightforward and often humorous tone, and she had me smiling or even laughing in places. She does a nice job of warning us by example about the many things that can go wrong when you try to convert raw land into a livable hobby farm. For example, the well water can have a lot of weird sediment in it, or your well can go dry. I would recommend this book to readers who are considering their own escape from the city.
December 24, 2009
It's a good story about a couple who want to leave city life and move to the country. There goal is sustainable living - at least I think that's their goal, it wasn't that clear to me. What I liked about the story was that they were willing to share the difficulties such a decision brings. Our dreams are not without hardwork and disappointments, but the author is clear; our dreams are worth it.
Also, it is a local county story for me, so knowing the area made the story that much more interesting.
Also, it is a local county story for me, so knowing the area made the story that much more interesting.
May 30, 2014
With ties myself to nw Washington, I found this book memorable and personable. I appreciated all Susan and john experienced and shared in breaking new grounds, in life, in home, in family, and literally in dirt! This book will be shared with friends and family. Thank you for selecting me to win it on goodreads!
May 1, 2014
An entertaining book that I would recommend to anyone who is starting over in a new location or new life. I loved to hear about all the trials and tribulations that the Author and her husband went through to get settled in a new location and house. Very fun!!!
April 10, 2010
In your 50's & moving out to the land...a great account of how they did it. Very readable.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews