Till the Cows Come Home

With a newborn baby in tow, Lorna Sixsmith and her husband swap their office careers for the dream of "the good life," returning to Lorna’s ancestral farm at Garrendenny, Ireland. Now Lorna’s children play in the same fields—and their adventures echo those of generations of Sixsmiths before them. The discovery of rural life proves more transformative, overwhelming, and enriching than anyone could have imagined—but, above all, life-changing.

• A truly "down to earth" account of country life.
• A rare and lovely glimpse of living in rhythm with nature, the seasons, and the farming calendar.
• Gently humorous and deeply personal, one woman’s story of leaving her comfortable urban life to re-root herself in the land her family has farmed for generations.

Lorna brings to life the men who plowed, tilled, and harvested, who loved to work the fields with horses, never quite taking to tractors. Also vividly portrayed are the indomitable women who churned the butter and kept the chickens—selling eggs to earn their "hen money." Peppered with chat about the weather and the price of cattle, this insightful, witty book gives an authentic sense of the poverty, the rituals, and the unchanging aspects of country life. As machinery, technology and shifts in social attitudes bring change, the highs and lows of farming life and its people stay rooted in community, landscape, and nature.