The farm was never a money making operation and morphed into a sanctuary for abused and abandoned farm animals. Some had been taken away from their owners, some were purchased to take them away from pure cruelty and some were surrendered by owners who had fallen on hard times. All were ill or injured.
We followed the stories of piglets named Rusty ~
and puppies found in dumpsters. ~
We met lame horses ~
and kittens that weren't wanted because they played too much. ~
This is the farm that rescued my Gert and Maude and hundreds of other chickens. This is the farm that set up the pilot project that allows social workers to bring at risk boys, from group homes, in to work with rehabilitating the chickens. That project is so successful that the boys have named my daughter "Mrs. Awesome".
Animal lovers and people who support the child programme have donated cat cages, blankets, pet food and, believe it or not, hand knit sweaters for the featherless chickens in winter. Some have donated their time and others have donated money. But, housing and feeding the ever growing menagerie is a very costly venture and most of the expense is shouldered by my daughter and her husband.
They had two children and adopted four more. Caring for all the animals and raising six kids left little time for blogging and Farm Girl gave it up.
Two years later, with the requests for more stories still coming in, she decided to edit the posts into a book. Her literary agent had great faith in the book but she has decided to publish it as an e-book on Kindle.
The pygmy goat on the cover is Tallulah and she was the very first rescue. We all loved her dearly and she leaves a legacy of hope and sanctuary for all the rescues that pass through these barn doors.
Click here to read an Excerpt from The Flawed Farm.
It's only 99 cents to buy the whole book and every dollar helps the work go on. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download Kindle as a free app to your computer, right from the Amazon order site. I learn something new every day!
I believe in Farm Girl's work and I'm sure you'll love to meet all the characters at the Flawed Farm. I didn't even ask her to edit out the parts where she talks about growing up in a show biz family! She'd only have rambled on at me about artistic integrity anyway and I'd know she heard all that from me when she was a kid.
ps - When you get to the show biz part, I was monogamous and DID NOT do drugs. I can't claim the same for all the artists in the 70's and 80's. I did like to say, as I left for work each day, "Time for more sex, drugs and Rock & Roll". It was the title of a book and seemed funny at the time. How could I know I was raising a writer?