Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer

by Antonia Murphy

“One month into our stay, we’d managed to dispatch most of our charges. We executed the chickens. One of the cats disappeared, clearly disgusted with our urban ways. And Lucky [the cow] was escaping almost daily. It seemed we didn’t have much of a talent for farming. And we still had eleven months to go.”

Antonia Murphy, you might say, is an unlikely farmer. Born and bred in San Francisco, she spent much of her life as a liberal urban cliché, and her interactions with the animal kingdom rarely extended past dinner.

But then she became a mother. And when her eldest son was born with a rare, mysterious genetic condition, she and her husband, Peter, decided it was time to slow down and find a supportive community. So the Murphys moved to Purua, New Zealand—a rural area where most residents maintained private farms, complete with chickens, goats, and (this being New Zealand)  sheep. The result was a comic disaster, and when one day their son had a medical crisis, it was also a little bit terrifying.

Dirty Chick chronicles Antonia’s first year of life as an artisan farmer. Having bought into the myth that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling endeavor that allows one to commune with nature and live the way humans were meant to live, Antonia soon realized  that the reality is far dirtier and way more disgusting than she ever imagined.  Among the things she learned the hard Cows are prone to a number of serious bowel ailments, goat mating involves an astounding amount of urine, and roosters are complete and unredeemable assholes.

But for all its traumas, Antonia quickly embraced farm life, getting drunk on homemade wine (it doesn’t cause hangovers!), making cheese (except for the cat hair, it’s a tremendously satisfying hobby), and raising a baby lamb (which was addictively cute until it grew into a sheep). Along the way, she met locals as colorful as the New Zealand countryside, including a seasoned farmer who took a dim view of Antonia’s novice attempts, a Maori man so handy he could survive a zombie apocalypse, and a woman proficient in sculpting alpaca heads made from their own wool.'

Part family drama, part cultural study, and part cautionary tale, Dirty Chick will leave you laughing, cringing, and rooting for an unconventional heroine.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Humor, Audiobook, Animals, Biography, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 22, 2015

About the author

Antonia Murphy is the author of MADAM (coming October 2024), her memoir about running a legal, feminist escort agency in New Zealand. MADAM has also been made into a fictionalized TV series by the same name, starring Rachel Griffiths and Martin Henderson.

In 2015, Antonia published DIRTY CHICK with Penguin Random House (USA/Canada) and Text Publishing (Australia/New Zealand.)

A San Francisco native, Antonia lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Marcela (BookaholicCat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb summarizes perfectly what Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy is all about. I will just add a few things to convince you to read/listen to this book.

This is my first time listening to an autobiography. If I’m honest I never thought I would enjoy a book like Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer, but after I read the blurb and listened to the sample I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give this book a chance and I’m soooo glad I did it. Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer is funny, informative, self-depreciating, emotional, and highly entertaining. I not only had an amazing time listening to this audiobook, I also learned a lot of things about farming, farm animals and more… Let me tell you, after listening to this audiobook I have new respect towards ducks… I used to like them, now… I’m kind of afraid of them… I won’t be able to see them with the same light as I used to… Why? You need to read/listen to this book, but I give you a two-world clue… Rapist ducks. Something else I won’t be able to see in the same light again are Alpacas noses.
Another very interesting tidbit I learned with this book is that homemade wines don’t give hangover. Why I didn’t know this? *runs to look for homemade wine recipes*

Read the rest of my review at The Bookaholic Cat

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Antonia Murphy grew up in the San Francisco area and never dreamed she would be a farmer. But when she and her husband are expecting their first child they decide to look for a slower and more affordable place to live than California. They settle in New Zealand, where it quickly becomes evident that most people there grow and raise at least some of their own food. Quickly Antonia has dreams of making homemade goat cheese and eating farm fresh eggs, but the reality is much harder and dirtier than she imagined.

I was really excited about this one because I love a good farm memoir, but I was really disappointed with this one. Antonia seems like a glutton for punishment and even when it's glaringly obvious they aren't doing a great job with the animals they have she keeps getting more. There life was so chaotic that it stressed me out just reading about it! And to top it off her older son is special needs and throughout all this animal chaos they are also trying to deal with his seizures and find the right medication to help him. I appreciate self-deprecating humor, but she just seemed really dumb to keep adding animals that they didn't know how to take care of to their already chaotic home - that they were RENTING! So, all along they knew there was a deadline when they would have to move, so why keeping adding more and more animals?! Instead of being funny, this book was stressful and not well done. The only redeeming part was the last 2-3 chapters when the community rallies together when a family loses someone unexpectedly. Overall, there are MANY other much better farm memoirs out there.

[Sarah Rouhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a member of LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I was actually surprised at just how much I enjoyed reading Dirty Chick by Antonia Murphy. I was concerned it would be a little too trying-to-be-funny with no actual humor, which can be painful to read. I was pleasantly surprised at the genuine laugh-out-loud situations that filled the pages, along with a few tender moments (particularly when discussing her developmentally delayed son, Silas).

There is definitely no sugar-coating here with regards to certain farming techniques - from the various types of animal poop being stepped on, picked up, and shoved in her purse, to duck rapists, there is certainly a sense of almost raunchy humor that may not be for the very weak stomached (yet adds a certain character to the book and is the cause of many funny moments).

This is a somewhat short novel (approx. 250 pages) and an even quicker read. Murphy spends just enough time on each situation/story before moving to the next - keeping the reader engaged and entertained on every page. Regardless of what page you open to, you will find a outlandish story being told with a hilarious narrative.

My only complaint throughout the memoir was some of the situations/descriptions of Murphy's choices seemed incredibly naive - but my enjoyment with the book as a whole allowed me to easily overlook these moments. I look forward to future works by Antonia Murphy.

[Armelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free as a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

The adventures of an American couple raising a family in a fairly rural community in New Zealand, Dirty Chick is a quick and quirky read.

Some people will be put off by the graphic descriptions of farm life - and there is an awful lot of poop in this book - but if you can make it through the introduction, you're mostly home free.

I can also imagine that some people may take exception to what sometimes seems like a snarky tome when discussing her disabled son (an alien...), to me it seemed like it was probably a pretty realistic description of her feelings - and it's clear that many of their decisions were based on what was best for him.

I liked it. I liked the people and the place. It's well written and easy to read. In some places it feels more like a conversation you'd have with friends while sharing a bottle of wine (and there's more than a little wine in the book, too...)I liked the alpacas and the goats and the kids and the dogs and the, well, you get the idea.

[Milton Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet Antonia and Peter, a couple who move from America to New Zealand and end up becoming farmers of a sort. This story has the story of how this couple traveled to New Zealand in a sail boat, how they started a family and then became hobby farmers. The hobby farm grew one animal at a time as their family constantly fell in love with the idea of a new animal to add to their growing herd. Not for the faint of heart, Antonia dishes on all the dirty details involved with raising different types of animals and what makes her enjoy the work still. Antonia's accounts of her first year of learning to farm various types of animals are honestly hilarious! Some pages had me laughing so hard that I would start to cry! Don't think this is a humor book though. She experiences some very wonderful people who help them along the way and has hard times just like all of us do. These stories will have you grabbing the tissues and pulling at your heartstrings. I have no desire to farm myself, however, the story of their family and farm is so very charming, funny, and endearing in our digital age.

Find It today: https://ent.sharelibraries.info/clien...

Ashley C. / Milton Public Library #CheckOutMPL

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing humor is risky business. If one writes mainstream fiction or nonfiction and the book is not well reviewed, of course it hurts--writing is always personal, at some level--but few things are as painful as the I-thought-this-was-going-to-be-funny review. In writing about her own family and friends, albeit with a few small changes to protect the privacy of the individuals concerned, Antonia Murphy takes her bleeding heart in her own two hands and offers it up to the public for consumption.

Personally, I have never laughed so hard in my life, or at least not recently. My thanks go to her and to the Goodreads first reads program for the ARC.

If my earlier reference to Murphy and the bleeding heart made you wince, you won't want to read her book, either, because it has lots of gooey, graphic, gross stuff in it. It is edgy humor out there on the edge of wild, like the hinterlands of New Zealand where she has made her home. Well, see for yourself. This is from the prologue, so it doesn't ruin the book for you:

"As I watched my goat eat her placenta, I was mostly impressed...Pearl had always been a strict vegan, so her sudden craving for raw meat showed a real taste for adventure...The placenta draped gracefully from her hindquarters, a translucent pink train enclosing a network of blue veins. There was a dark red, ropy thing inside, heavy with blood and the color of liver. It was this that Pearl tucked into first, craning her neck to nibble and swallow..."

As I read, I tried to analyze what it was that made her humor work. Part of it was her sense of remove, the dry commentary of the detached observer even when she is right in the middle of everything. But every now and again, something will happen in her personal life that shatters the entire I'm-just-watching thing. For one thing, she has two children, and when one meets with a really dangerous misadventure, Murphy is nearly consumed with the fear, the stress, the confusion that every mother on this planet, save for a frightening few misfits, would feel at such a time. So we laugh at all the icky stuff and her reactions to same, but now and again we remember that she is vulnerable to the same nightmares that we are. It gives us a stake in what comes next, and between the hilarity (most of the book) and the pain (deftly meted in small doses), there is no putting this book down once you reach a certain point.

Here's how it shook out at our house: I would read a passage to myself, then burst out laughing. I would hustle straight past my husband, a man of delicate sensibilities with regard to animals and biological detail. I knew he did not want to hear it, or read it, or even be reminded of it. Instead, I made for the younger daughter's room. She is a teenager with a great lust for gore, so of course she loved it. And I know that if I had headed for the adult-son-who-sometimes-lives-here, he would have chortled merrily also.

The narrative of this amateur adventure at farming just sat on my giggle button. Murphy, rather than wanting to control and fix every little (and large) thing that occurs, has this brilliantly mellow approach. Wow, the goats keep attacking the cars. A neighbor observes that eventually, they will break her windshield. Huh. Well...she loves those goats, so she isn't going to "dead" them (her daughter Miranda's word). She doesn't want to sell them, and after all, who would want them? And fences are very expensive. She is, after all, just a renter.

Occasional visions of the landlords returning to find their property trashed would wink into my head, then wink away.

Every time I think Murphy and her husband are in over their heads and everything is completely out of control, she takes on an additional project. When all is falling apart, why not find something more to add to it?

So there's Jabberwocky, the rapist rooster. They might have to dead him. Everyone likes baby chicks, and the hens can't get preggers without him, but the thing is, he's psychotic. Eventually she comes to understand that this is how it is with roosters. They start bad and get worse, and sooner or later, one generally HAS to dead them.

Good god. See what she's done to me?

I have four more outstanding quotes, but they are too close to the end of the book. and it would ruin it for you. And the fact is, almost every single page has at least one quote that is fucking brilliant. I think I mostly marked the pages that showed transitions occurring in the plot, and that's all well and good for academics, but this is not an essay, this is a review, and therein lies the distinction.

Because you, dear reader, don't want to know how the book ends, and you are capable of analyzing all its nuances yourself, should you choose to do so. On the other hand, you could also just get the book, have an outstanding weekend curled up in your favorite reading spot, and then be done with it.

For those not grossed out by the references in this review, this is a sure fire hit. Pick it up when you have the blues, and I guarantee that in minutes your worries will be smaller.

When you look at it that way, ordering a copy of this book is really the sensible thing to do.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read too many books lately that I didn't want to end, and I could have kept going reading this one. Antonia Murphy and her husband decide to leave their lives in the US and sail to NZ, and after a few years and two small kids find themselves housesitting for a year in rural New Zealand. Left to look after the animals at the small holding they live in, they gradually acquire a rather motley crew of adopted animals, alpacas, chickens, a rooster, goats and dogs.

With their two young children, fitting into the local community is a bit of a challenge, especially as their eldest Silas has special needs. It sounds like they found the perfect spot though with a school that is able to adapt easily to his needs.

I loved this honest and highly amusing story of novice farmers. I guess a lot of us have dreams of a small farm, but after reading so many stories about animal poop you might want to change your mind. I don't have too many illusions about it being easy, but this makes me think I would be mad to create that much work for myself.

[Randal White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an early reviewer from Library Thing.
This is an entirely satisfying book. There were times when it made me laugh out loud. And times when it made me shake my head in wonder at how the author could have such a fantastic, irreverent sense of humor in the face of all she had to deal with. And there were times it made me cringe in revulsion at some of the horrors of farm life. It's an easy, quick read. I would recommend it to anyone who ever dreamed of moving to a farm and raising livestock. Murphy doesn't romanticize the pursuit like so many other books in this genre. She pulls no punches in describing her experiences. Honestly, how can you not like a book that has racist camel zombies (alpacas), stripper calves with satan tongues, cheeses that grow cat hair, and vampire worms? WARNING: if you are offended by salty language and strange descriptions of animal behavior, this book may not be for you. Especially the prologue.
I am looking forward to Murphy's next book.

[Denise Westlake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and quick book of very interesting farm animal facts. Author seems to be quite crazy, and equally lovable. Some pieces don't seem to fit, but so what? Just enjoy it.

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been on a streak lately of reading memoirs / nonfiction accounts of people who have made the change to smallholding / lifestyle farming. This was the first book I've managed to find that's actually NZ based tho - and bonus that the author is actually Californian, as I am. It was nice reading a similar-but-different account and having someone to relate to and that feels like a friend, though I only know her through the book.
I do need a picture of the ear headbands tho....

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this autobiographical story of an American couple and their mishaps as beginner farmers in New Zealand. Some parts were hilarious, others were disgusting and many were brutally honest about family life. Easy and enjoyable read.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“By now I’d learned that country life is not a pastoral painting. Sure, at various times during the year you might see fluffy white lambs prancing in the tall grass, but those moments are rare. Real country life, it turns out, involves blood, shit and worms.”

Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer is the first memoir by magazine journalist, Antonia Murphy. When the cost of health insurance in San Francisco sent Antonia Murphy looking for somewhere to migrate to, New Zealand looked promising for several reasons, and before long, Antonia and husband Peter were sailing the Pacific in a south-westerly direction. Eventually, they found themselves renting a house in the North Island town of Purua for a year while the owners were in Germany. And somehow acquiring animals: three alpacas, two cats, two dogs, a goat, two calves, a lamb, a rooster with insatiable libido, a flock of chickens, three turkeys and a pair of ducks.

By this time they had a developmentally delayed son and a feisty daughter. Luckily, they also had the help of a capable niece, and the support of a bunch of wonderful neighbours: “John scowled when I spoke, and I realised there was a time when I would have thought he was angry at me. But this was a man who’d offered to shave a sheep’s arse for free. What’s a better indication of friendship than that?” and “’We’re all a bit nutty to be out here,’ Abi agreed. ‘You’d have to be really. It’s not like any of us knows what we’re doing, with the animals and this country life…’” describe a few of the friends they made in Purua.

As she learns about chicken anatomy, goat care, milking, alpaca shearing, cheese making and wine fermentation, Murphy includes plenty of humour: descriptions of rapist ducks, alpaca noses, vampire worms, an ovine Brazilian, chicken physiotherapy, the perils of calf transport and an addiction to lambs: “That’s how that lamb seduced me. It was cute like a baby, but unlike my own children, it didn’t whine or annoy me….I felt sorry for people who didn’t have lambs, because their lives seemed so grey and predictable. Unlike me, they didn’t live in hyper-elevated lamb reality, full of cute things and sparkles.”

This memoir is delightfully funny as well being interesting and moving. Further adventures of the Unlikely Farmer will be eagerly anticipated. An excellent debut.

[Kara-karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to or reading autobiographies is something I haven't done since I was a teenager, but when I had an opportunity to review Dirty Chick I had to grab it with both hands. You see, Antonia's adventures as a newly minted farmer is something I could relate to and was intensely curious to compare with my own experience.

Personal reasons aside, this book is funny, at times hysterically comical, smart, self-deprecating and bittersweet. Antonia narrates it herself and does a fantastic job depicting various accents and characters of her friends and family. It's also a very quick listen (I recall sawing wood while I was at it).

Antonia and Peter move to New Zealand from San Fransisco in search of more affordable life, and when their son is born with a rare genetic disorder, they decide to stay for the health system and a way of life which would afford him an existence as close to normal as possible.

Renting a farm house in rural New Zealand for a year, Antonia decides to have a go at being a farmer imagining this picturesque, wonderfully calm living where she potters round and create these wonderful artisanal produce for sale. The reality is far from what she imagined.

Soon she is overrun by a herd of animals who are more pets than valuable produce, the fence is collapsing, the goats ruin any cars parked nearby, there is sh*t everywhere, her kimchi is a disaster, her cheese is mouldy and her evenings are spent in a blissful haze due to the copious amounts of homemade wine.

However, the sense of community is wonderful, her friends are always ready to lend a hand or a roast chicken, and when disasters strike (and they do!) all people around her unite to help.

I mentioned that this book is bittersweet, and I admit, because it's mostly humorous, when something bad happens it cuts you worse than usual. I had tears in my eyes a few times, but I finished this book with sense of wonder and I felt inspired.

Very much recommended.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a goodreads first reads winner of this book. it is an ARC. I had a lot of fun reading this humorous book. Antonia Murphy did a good job writing her memoir. This is one of those "fish out of water" stories. Antonia and her husband Peter sailed from San Francisco to New Zealand.After living in the city in their adopted home. The couple decide they want to live in the country and raise all kinds of animals. They are also parents to two small children. A five year old boy and three year old girl.their five year old Silas was diagnosed with developmental delays and they felt he would have a better chance in a school that was located in a rural area.
This family have no experience raising animals on a farm but they are brave and take on the challenges. Eventually they have a goat, a cow, chickens, alpacas. Baby lambs. the funny part is they had no experience with any of them.they are learning as they go along with some mishaps along the way. I found this book a blast to read. I like those fish out of water type stories. as of this review the family has moved to a home of their own still on a farm and learning the frustrations and joys of a farm family. Antonia Murphy has a great sense of humor. those of you who enjoy reading about animals of all kinds may find this a nice book to read. I did.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I wasn't sure whether I'd really get into it the story, based on the author's politics (left wing Bay Area), but that turned out not to be much of a problem. For the most part it's the story of settling down in a small community. Antonia (pronounced An-tone-EE-ah, as in the Cather story) is easy to relate to as a character; her husband works in an outside tech job (which is how they qualified to emigrate), so they aren't large scale farmers, more that they happen to have several critters. It might help to be an animal person a bit to appreciate the story fully, but I'm not and rarely wished she'd move along. There are stories involving friends and neighbors, as well as the challenges regarding their disabled son. Their three-year-old daughter I found a tad precocious at times, but that could have been partly due to her odd syntax (as though English were her second language). All in all, the book is definitely recommended!

The author's choice to read the book herself was a wise one. In spite of her disclaimer that her accents may not be the greatest, she seemed to do NZ ones quite well. As a matter of fact, she might even be a pretty good narrator if they were looking for another source of income.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving Chickens made me pick this book up. The front cover got me. I have not had a laugh out loud book in such a long time. Antonia and Peter have the most amazing life moving from San Francisco to New Zealand (actually sailing across) to become hobby farmers. It happens by chance really. They rent a place with a few chickens a dog and a cat and then keep adding more animals (19 all up) and more crazy funny stories. I will never think of a duck the same or an Alpaca for that matter. Antonia learned to make fruit wines and goat cheeses. But life isn't all fun & laughter for Antonia & Peter they have a son Silas who is mentally delayed who a few scarey times at hospital with fitting and no one knowing why. But like everything they do, they carry on forward chin up. And Silas is a happy little boy. They also have a cute little girl Antonia calls "Magnolia". They live in a wonderful community of people. Who turn out to become their very good friends. I found this book so easy to read. It is a fairly short book, 255 pages. Whilst ready I felt like she could be me in some ways. Some may find the language a bit rough in places but thats farm life!

[Ita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book to read while you are eating, too many disgusting details! I feel like I am an unlikely farmer myself after we moved to the country this year. It's a good thing my husband is the hobby farmer and I am the librarian, he knows what he is doing and I haven't got a clue about farming! We haven't got all the animals Antonia has yet, but we only started with animals last month and we already have ducks, chickens and a puppy. Goats are next on the list, I hope we can make nice cheese with their milk! Wish us luck!

[Mandy Radley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Francie who I work with for recommending this book to me, it's usually the other way round.

I will never walk past my local park and look at the ducks in the same way again.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book definitely takes the romance out of hobby farming. I almost didn't finish the book, but I was more interested in what happened to the author's disabled/delayed son.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered this book in one of my favorites used bookstores. Preface, my boyfriend and I are exploring the idea of homesteading and went on this particular afternoon solely to look at books on said matter. The title caught my eye, and I will say, I liked the double entendre. Before I knew it, I was crouched in the middle of the aisle, chuckling to myself every two or three pages. I decided I was taking this one home with me.
Fast forward to home. I don’t know, something about being curled up on your couch and not wrecking your knees on the trodden carpet can somehow affect your perspective? Perhaps. It struck me, as I got about fifty pages in, that it felt as thought the author was trying to one-up her own stories, either with outlandish content or running commentary.
Someone else pointed out on here that Murphy kept readers engaged by writing in an almost vignette-style; yes, at times, it felt like a collection of short stories, a picture album of farm-life-done-by-city-slicker. I take no umbrage with this arrangement, however, it seemed like one after the other mildly funny moment was embellished so as to make it more funny, meanwhile, some pretty serious things were going on the background. The fine line between not taking yourself too seriously and knowing when to be serious is pretty faint, I myself am pretty good at ignoring it. I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to interact with the author when I feel like she is trying to portray a somber moment but can’t help herself from inserting humor. I.e., How am I supposed to feel about the author’s special needs child and his scary brush with seizures and hospitalization when it is shoved in between crude and humorous stories about rapist ducks, slime-slinging alpacas, dumbass turkeys, and gang-raped goats?
I had to keep putting this book aside and coming back to it because it was just a little too much at times. Let me be clear. I’ve no problem with the poop stories; it’s that I think Murphy is trying too hard. I feel like Murphy is incredibly intelligent and can be so introspective at times. Unfortunately, not enough for me in this book. I’d be interested in reading her serious take on farm life and living with a child who struggles with something doctors can’t diagnose while raising 19 farm animals in New Zealand with a husband and four-year-old-going-on-teenager daughter.

[MsSmartiePants ...like the candy... · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose some books for my 'recreational reading' and this book's subject caught my eye: American ex-pat's move to New Zealand and begin to ranch with a variety of animals. The two protagonists are adventure minded people (and naive hippies) who sail all the way to New Zealand and take jobs in the southern tip of the country where it is always bitterly cold. As soon as they're approved for permanent residency they move to the northern tip and rent a ranch from another ex-pat couple vacating for one year.
Their first child is a 4-year old with developmental issues ("free healthcare!") while their 3-year old is a confident free spirit. They also take in their niece over her summer college break, providing hands-on animal and sometimes child care. They needed it!
This tale is told with few reservations and plenty of descriptives about what it takes to deal with their afflicted son as well as the variety of animals they immediately begin 'adopting'. Alpacas, a calf, sheep & lambs, a goat and kids, chickens, a horrible rooster and evil duck, on and on. These animals regularly escaped their paddocks because the owners really didn't manage livestock and so didn't have secure living areas for them.
The animals enter the home frequently but that's not the worst lesson they learn. Suffice to say that if you're even thinking about the classic farm with just a few animals you would do well to read this book! I have new-found respect for animal husbandry.
I loved the author's honesty and grimaced at some of the detail but overall it was a page-turner that I did not want to end.

[Tommie Nicholas]

Adult Content. I'll never look at ducks or alpacas the same way again. I was brought up to be a city girl, but in the summer, my parents would drop me at grandma's farm (chickens, pigs cows and lots of feral cats) I felt like Antonia Murphy when asked to do farm chores. I tried collecting egg, but the chickens pecked at me and chased me from the hen house. The cows were not dairy cows, being black angus they were raised for beef. They didn't want to be my friend and the one time I tried milking (yes you can milk beef cows), I spilled more milk on me than went into pail. I was told to stay away from the pigs as they were not petting pigs. My grandparents got up at 4:30 in the morning to listen to the farm report, which consisted of the price of corn, wheat, cows, pigs and other farm animals or crops. They napped after lunch and went to bed at 7:00. Thank goodness I had a full suitcase of books to read and spent as much time as possible in my bedroom reading. I would also go into the barn and read to the cats. This book sent me back to that time and place as I laughed and cried along with her while she manages her farm and her crazy kids and animals.

[Azat Sultanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another personal account of a family which moves to New Zealand and tries to make a living and blend into a farming community in New Zealand with no experience whatsoever in farming and a delayed child as an additional challenge. Made me smile numerous times. They sound very optimistic and don't allow life challenges upset them taking it all with a pinch of humor. At least it seems like that.

The community they live in seems very nice. They give support to each other in every possible way. Every once in a blue moon I entertain the idea of moving into a similar place. This is only in my fantasy though. But...

I also liked the accent of the locals (I listened to the audiobook).

I wonder what this family is up to these days. I'll definitely listen to a follow up book if it ever comes out.

[Aviva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a funny and tragic year-in-the-life book of a fairly unusual family. I can only hope that Antonia Murphy was exaggerating her own and her family's cluelessness about animal care for dramatic effect. Other than that, they are charming and I wish them the best in all they do. I don't know what happened afterwards with her son's medical issues, but I really hope he's OK. I adored Antonia's audio narration, particularly her impersonations of her daughter. There's a bit of oddly prurient hilarity in how she writes about goat breeding and whatnot, but if you look her up and see what line of work she's in now, it's not at all incongruous. (She's a madam, ok? She literally runs a brothel. It honestly sounds like a better fit than alpaca farming.)

[Rosemary Race · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any hobby farmer(s) or idealistic explorer like myself who has a child or children searching for that extra zing in our lives ... What are you doing? Gawd I'd never thought crutching was ....my mind always thought it was something completely different like, er um, I dunno know...Magnolia save the day!

Witty not sarcasms' sad but true I did nearly cry but laughs are plenty and the New Zealand fermenting blend American Language - your ears won't burn its what we're all used too, another reason why this book is 'so good' tempting me. Nah!

Dirty Chick is bare ass reading on farming, ideas insanely easy to weirdo but doable and farm animals I've never heard of living peacefully together in a Nut House - well wallies do taste good!

You know you want to ....

[Ellen Pilch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an awful book about a n American couple with 2 children living in New Zealand. They start out renting a farm and caring for the animals that currently reside there and add to the collection. A lot of bad things happen to these animals including their dog eating some of the chickens. I thought it was awful of them to leave their goat on "love mountain" with several male goats so she could basically get raped for 2 months.
The author seems obsessed with poop too. Her 5 year old son likes to play with it which was too much information as far as I was concerned. If you like to think of living on a farm as a peaceful place then don't read this.

[Amy Magan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook of Dirty Chick and it was a pretty delightful experience. Anyone who has ever had a romantic notion of leaving it all behind for the pastoral country life should read this book, but not while eating. Murphy explains the full amateur farming experience in great detail right down to the worms and maggots and alpaca slime. The cast of characters who make up their New Zealand friends are the kind of people I want to know. The language is explicit sometimes and there are plenty of laugh out loud moments. The book ended and I find myself googling Murphy and her family to learn where they are now and what they are doing. I think that’s a sign of a successful memoir.

[Lisa Hinkley · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the style of the sample works for you, you might enjoy this book

My book club selected this book, and I couldn’t finish it on schedule, but finally decided it was time to take on finishing - it seemed like it could be a light, easy read.

It’s not technically a difficult book to read, but it never captured my attention in a satisfying way. No offense to the author, but the style and approach are not enjoyable for me. Clearly, the author and their family have persistence and resilience though, so I can see that others might really love this book.

[Vicki Moutoux · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read about a family in an unusual situation which sometimes tends to get away from them. They have moved to rural New Zealand and almost at once begin to accumulate an interesting variety of animals which they initially know very little about. This tells of their attempts to be better informed about their charges, to deal with a variety of disasters, and to manage their own family in the midst of the confusion.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, nothing deep here... and gives a lot of interesting information about farm animals, although I feel like the author is trying to make everything sound light and fun when really it isn't and she could drink less wine and pay more attention to her children's needs. Also, farm life to a city girl seemed way to easy physically and emotionally to be real and I think there could be more interesting stories if she had actually told some of the down sides of things.