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I grew up longing to be involved in farming from my earliest memory. As a youngster my father and I would have animals and by the time I was in my final years of high school, I actually peddled Golden Guernsey milk in cream top bottles to my neighbors as well as supplying my family.
My early schooling was difficult to say the least since I suffer from dyslexia and in the early 1950’s there were no recognized educational programs or assistance for schools to address this condition. Most of my education was gained from listening and not reading, and talking rather than writing.
Since I was twelve years old I worked on a dairy farm. I was right at home around dairy cows and absorbed everything I could and gained a great deal of confidence and knowledge during those years. I graduated college in 1967, with a degree in animal science. I took employment in the agricultural industry as a professional animal artificial inseminator. This was a wonderful job that took me to farms and exposed me to many more management systems.
Once we made the decision to try and secure funding to farm on own is really where my book starts. We were very fortunate to have been blessed to have three children join us on our adventure. As hard as building a family farm operation was, we would have done it all over again despite knowing what we know now. Dairy farming gave us daily wonders and joys.
Reviewed by Sefina Hawke for Readers' Favorite
Something New Every Day by Richard C. Smith is a non-fiction memoir on the life of a farmer. This is a book that would appeal most to a mixed audience made up of readers of all ages, especially those who enjoy memoirs and learning more about what it actually means to be a farmer. Richard C. Smith was born from a long line of farmers. Growing up, he watched his father work multiple jobs while still trying to farm. All this left the young man with his own desire to go into farming so he went to college to study dairy science, after which he found himself drafted into the military. When he was released from his service, he married his best friend and began looking for his own farm. Will Rich achieve his dream of having his own farm and becoming a farmer, or will his dream fail before it can flourish?
Something New Every Day by Richard C. Smith was an interesting read because, instead of being a dry textbook on farming, the book took me on a wonderful adventure alongside a young man working to have his own farm and become a farmer in his own right. I found myself learning more about what it really meant to be a farmer, while being interested in finding out if the young man could succeed where so many before him had failed. The author really made me care about the people in his book, and left me with an interest to discover more about what farming really is like in today’s modern world.
