I met one of my idols
today. Ok, perhaps I shouldn’t call her an idol but more of an inspirational
person. Her name is Novella Carpenter and she is the author of two books: Farm
City and Gone Feral (if you haven’t read them they are good reads and funny).
Farm City was recommended to me by two dear friends, Hilary
L. and Elizabeth B. When I was living in
Chicago, I was lucky to have a small backyard that was solely mine. I had tried
to bit a vegetable gardening, but it wasn’t working out. It wasn’t an ideal situation.
I inquired with my friends about what to do and they suggested Novella’s book.
I loved hearing about her struggles and successes about
farming and raising animals. Her words practically jumped out of the book and
spoke to me. It said, “Malissa, I am doing these things and you should too.” I
thought I should get to work right away, but I didn’t.
First, I knew that I
couldn’t raise any animals on University property. Secondly, my husband’s work
wasn’t going as well as we planned.
We needed a huge break from life and went on a 2 week vacation
West and Idaho ended up being our final destination. As you may have read in my
prior posts, we fell in love with this state and were trying to figure out a
way to come here. When we returned back to Chicago, my passion to transform the
backyard was set aside. I didn’t want to invest time and money into a space I
no longer loved or cherished. It was time to move.
When Rich was denied tenure, we were a bit relieved and that
sealed our fate. Idaho here we come, but where? Luckily he was able to secure a
job in Pullman and it became a no brainer for us to move to the Idaho side.
Then the question remains do we live in town or buy some land? Our realtor
answered that question for us and found us a house with 3 acres.
I finally have some land to make a garden, have some
animals, and do whatever I choose. Of course we bought a chicken killer dog and
that eliminates the chickens. We are still exploring our area and getting settled.
I am sure we will be getting something at some point. Bees anyone? So when things get tough, I remind myself of
some of Novella’s experiences and tell myself I can do it.
Novella and I have a lot of similar experiences in life and
it was nice to be able to share mine with her. It was especially a treat to
share them with her sister as well. It is a funny feeling meeting the real-life
characters from a book because you feel as though you already know them before
you meet them. I was also thrilled to meet their daughters.
She stated she is going to
write another Non-fiction book and perhaps some fiction as well. I can’t wait
to read about her latest adventures.
As for me, you are reading
mine right now and perhaps one day I too will write a book from Idaho.
