When life gets your goat, bring in the herdJennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. Or to be setting Merle up on dates and naming his doeling Merlene. She didn’t expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it “date night.” Most importantly, Jennifer … Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.
When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes—a lot of back taxes—her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a one-hundred-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer’s life began to more closely resemble her Appalachian ancestors than her upper-middle-class upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the joys and challenges of living close to the land.
Told with bold wit, unflinching honesty, and a firm foot in the traditions of Appalachia, Flat Broke with Two Goats blends stories of homesteading with the journey of two people rediscovering the true meaning of home.
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I listened to the audio version of this book and I think the narration by Pam Ward was probably the best thing about it.
Although I liked the writing style of McGaha, this certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. It was picked by my book club as something light. I recently lost my mother and it seemed like everything I picked up to read ended up being about death. Flat Broke with Two Goats sounds like it would be humorous. It wasn’t.
I think the only thing uplifting about the book was approximately the last three minutes. You have a woman in a bad relationship moving on to one in which her accountant husband hasn’t paid their taxes for four years. They move to what is basically a shack full of snakes and spiders with no purified water, etc. How depressing. The animals were the light part of the book…when they weren’t sick or dying.
Once again, the narration by Pam Ward was wonderful. I loved the inflection of her voice and the overall tone.
Tedious
I liked how they tried things they didn’t know how to do, and lived on a shoestring while doing it.
A bankrupt family moves to a rustic farm… Absolutely maddening to read about all of their idiotic life choices!
I don’t really think of this book as a “great” book but it sure was an eye-opener to “be aware, be very aware” when making life decisions. I am still thinking about the book a couple of months after reading it. Of course, some of the authors experiences were very similar to my own but without the stress. All in all, it was a good read.
It was an eye-opener to see how people face adversity and loss of trust. This author writes about a painful loss of her place in the good life and a bump in the road she thought was well-paved for a comfortable future. As her struggles mount she finds inner strength and experiences deep sorrow. She ends up with more than two goats, but her descriptions of becoming a goat owner and goat breeder add a deep whimsy. I’m very glad to have found this book because it really enriched my life.
Motivatonal. Love at its best! He wants to be something he’s not, she believes in success.
Together they try.
I enjoyed reading this gritty tale of real life. Jennifer’s story is a tale of tenacity and love that every reader can derive some life lessons that will benefit them.
This was a very interesting memoir about a couple that had to go from a well to do middle class life to living in a run down cabin in the North Carolina Appalachian mountains not too far from Asheville.
During the 2008 recession, they lost a lot of money and on top of that the author finds out that her husband had not been paying taxes for a few years. Their house went under foreclosure, and with no money except what they made from part time jobs, they had to move to the cabin mentioned above. The cabin had a lot of problems, from structural to being invaded by critters, but the setting was gorgeous with a waterfall right outside their door and wonderful land to hike on.
The author is a very good writer and the book kept me very interested throughout. She tells us about their lives before the move and also once they moved to the cabin how it affected them, their marriage and their children most of whom had already gone off to college.
Trying to figure out how to survive, they started first with chickens, then on to goats and I must say you learn a lot about how to care for these animals and what it is like to own them. She learns to make cheese and yogurt and even soap from the goats milk.
Another fun part was the way she gave us recipes for different meals, drinks desserts, etc
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and her writing, which is very relatable.
I would like to thank NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS for the ARC of this book