I.T. Geek to Farm Girl Freak - Leaving High Tech for Greener Pastures
by S.A. Molteni
Have you ever wanted to ditch the nine-to-five job and move as far away as possible from the rat race? Have you ever just wanted peace and quiet in a rural setting away from the sprawl of suburbia? Have you found yourself daydreaming about pasture lands and farm animals on a daily basis?
That's exactly what the author found herself contemplating - more often than not - while working at a high tech job in Seattle.
With her husband 3,000 miles away in Florida and the passing of her father, she knew it was time to make some serious changes in her life. She was ready for an adventure, but little did she know what lay in store for her at the 'fixer upper' farmhouse she and her husband would soon become the owners of.
S.A. Molteni has spent over thirty years in the Information Technology field working for various Fortune 500 companies. During those years, she and her husband had always dreamed of living on a farm once they became retired from the rat race.
This collection of essays follows the author in her sometimes humorous transition from "I.T. Geek to Farm Girl Freak" and depicts the lessons that are learned along the way once farm animals become a large part of her life.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
“I met my
future husband in a computer programming class.
I would like to say that it was love at first sight. But honestly, he irritated me quite a bit and
I was not interested in him at all as a potential partner.”
“We had never
had goats before and thought that rescuing one was a good thing… After a few
weeks, she regained her strength and became a bossy little handful of horned stubbornness.”
My Review:
I rarely – meaning
never – read nonfiction for pleasure, as I do far too much of that on the job
and want to spend my off hours reading for entertainment. However, I don’t recall ever reading a more simply
written and entertaining non-fiction accounting or memoir in my long and varied
life. The Molteni’s are a successful
professional couple who decide to retire early from the IT sector and establish
a “Hobby Farm,” which is something I was not aware even existed in the real
world. These intelligent and lovely
people knew next to nothing about the animals they decided to raise and care
for, and dutifully went about researching and studying each species as they
took them in. They were soon experts on
everything hoof, feather, and fur related.
They amassed a veritable Noah’s Ark as they deemed the best course of
action to slowly start with two of everything.
However, given their willingness and soft hearts, they seem to have a hidden
knack for selecting special needs animals.
Each addition to their menagerie was quickly found to have a unique
problem or issue that required special or additional accommodation,
modification, research, treatment, and or handling. Their veterinarian probably put his children
through college or bought a vacation home from their fees alone.
Despite their
best efforts and good intentions, they were never able to obtain milk from the
cows they hoped would provide them with dairy products. They also dealt with a lonely goat with an
attitude who demanded an intimate dining experience, a grieving pig, quackless and
runaway ducks, a quarantined and confused turkey, and hearing impaired
bunnies. I particularly enjoyed the
accompanying pictures and maxims at the end of each chapter, summing up the
lesson learned from each species adopted.
While not highly stylized or literary prose, their story was a quick and
enjoyable read that will leave a smile on the face of any animal lover.
Empress DJ
S.A. Molteni
S.A. Molteni can be found on the following social media sites:
Amazon Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HXPZKAU
Blog - http://samolteni.blogspot.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/author.samol...
Twitter - https://twitter.com/samolteni
*** Daily updates of the happenings on the farm and the latest adventures of the farm animals can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/
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