Down on the Farm, Way Back When

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.