Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living

by Kristy Athens

For hard-working office workers Kristy Athens and husband Michael, farming was a romantic dream. After purchasing farm land in Oregon's beautiful Columbia Gorge, Athens and hubby were surprised to learn that the realities of farming were challenging and unexpected. Get Your Pitchfork On! provides the hard-learned nuts-and-bolts of rural living from city folk who were initially out of their depth. Practical and often hilarious, Get Your Pitchfork On! reads like a twenty-first century Egg and I . Get Your Pitchfork On! gives urban professionals the practical tools they need to realize their dream, with basics of home, farm, and hearth. It also enters territory that other books avoid—straightforward advice about the social aspects of country living, from health care to schools to small-town politics. Kristy Athens doesn't shy away from controversial subjects, such as having guns and hiring undocumented migrant workers. An important difference between Get Your Pitchfork On! and other farm/country books is that the author's initial country experiment failed. Ravaged by the elements, the economy, and the social structure of their rural area, Athens and husband sold their farm and retreated to Portland, Oregon, in 2009. This gave Athens the freedom to write honestly about her extraordinary experience. Having learned from mistakes, both Kristy and her husband are currently saving up to buy another farm, and this time to live a practical dream rather than an uninformed nightmare. Kristy Athens ' nonfiction and short stories have been published in a number of magazines, newspapers, and literary journals, most recently High Desert Journal , Barely South Review , and the anthology Mamas and Papas . In 2010, she was a writer-in-residence for the Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence program and Soapstone. This is her first book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

380 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2012

About the author

Kristy Athens’ nonfiction and short fiction have been published in a number of magazines, newspapers and literary journals, most recently High Desert Journal, Barely South Review and the anthology Mamas and Papas. In 2010, she was a writer-in-residence for the Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence program and Soapstone. Kristy has served on the boards of the Hood River County Cultural Trust, Independent Publishing Resource Center, and Northwest Writers. She has been a guest blogger for New Oregon Arts & Letters; editor of Columbia Gorge Magazine; and coordinator of the Columbia Center for the Arts Plein Air Writing Exhibition, and of Literary Arts’ Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships programs. Her book Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living is forthcoming from Process Media. Kristy lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is office manager at Oregon Humanities. Learn about her writing and text-infused, repurposed collage artwork at http://www.kristyathens.com.

Reviews

[R. C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author take a grumpy, serious look at what it is really like for a leftist from downtown Portland to move to a place where it ain't even legal to subdivide smaller than twenty acres a lot. I found myself nodding in agreement based on my experiences living in unincorporated wilderness in Wyoming, but also was saddened that the positives (your neighbors WILL be nice to you no matter what because you're they're only hope in an emergency) didn't get acknowledged as such, and even the avoidable negatives (what happens if you wear open-toed shoes to feed the chickens) were presented with deadly serious caution. If you want the bad news and the good news straight up, in book form so you can shut it when it gets to be too surly, this is the book for you. But don't let it scare you away. And read more.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a genius.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A broad anecdotal assessment of everything to consider and be cautious of if you’re a city wanker thinking of moving to the country. It’s not all peaches and cream and there’s lots to know, and a lot of hard work ahead. Get your pocketbook in order and build up those muscles! And then do your research! Get Your Pitchfork On is a great place to start your research on the way to your dream.

--Ashland Mystery

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get Your Pitchfork On! is a perfect reference guide for the city mouse moving to the country. It's not really the kind of book you read straight through, but is very well written, with humor to round out the factual information.

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have ever read about country living. Plus, the author is fantastic! The book is funny and helpful and, if I planned to move to the country, I am certain it would be very helpful. :)

[Fernleaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

An utterly depressing look at what country living can be, which is I guess the point. The author aims to disenchant you with a country 'dream' by providing you with the nitty-gritty details of moving to a rural area. While I applaud the intent: encouraging folks to really research what they're getting into and go into it with both eyes open rather than skipping with naivete, the result is really quite dismal.

Even having some experience homesteading and raising my own food for the past 4 years I finished this book thinking, "well I guess it's time to move back to the city." A large part of that is the tone, everything is 'a lot' of work (which while true - isn't quite the same thing to people who love that kind of life, which I don't feel the author truly did,) and she presents pretty much every kind of animal as either being obnoxious, overly expensive, or otherwise not ideal. The gardening section was a snore-fest and I like gardening, and the whole ending section on community makes you feel like rural living is the opposite of community.

3 stars for a reality check, but seriously needs to be tempered with some optimism, I know there's some out there.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information. I have a hard time reading nonfiction with a story attached to hold it together. I thought that the information was great. Maybe not a book to read straight through. The ending was rather abrupt.

[Lormo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a genius.