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Growing on Good Land By Margaret Burkholder Mett Growing on Good Land is based on a journal the author kept during the years 1950-52, when she and her husband purchased a Minnesota farm and moved from Northern Iowa. The soil was deep and rich, but in desperate need of tile to drain the sloughs and potholes that dotted half the farm. Dilapidated turn-of-the century buildings needed immediate attention. A month of blizzards followed their move in March 1951. They had left their two toddlers with their grandparents for three days but the stay turned into four snowy weeks. Without telephone or mail and usually snowed in, they began to paint long neglected walls, putty windows, and sand floors. They contended with antiquated buildings during blizzards outdoors, feeding and caring for milk cows and bred sows in neglected and run down barns. At last on Easter morning, weather permitted the Mett grandparents to bring the children to their Minnesota home. During those hectic years they cleared away overgrown trees, fenced fields, began a major tiling operation, and their son was born. In 1954 Margaret resumed teaching English in Comfrey, Minnesota, while Morris kept their two pre-schoolers with him most of the time while choring or working on the farm. She reflects on the thriving small town of Comfrey, rearing a family, her teaching career, and women at work. Margaret evaluates the evolution of Minnesota farming and small towns. Above all, she exudes love of the land, gardens, teaching, and family.
B/W and color photographs About the Author Margaret Burkholder Mett grew up on a Clay County, Iowa farm. Sioux Rapids, Iowa was site of her birth and her hometown. She worked her way through college and taught English in three Northern Iowa schools before marrying Spencer farmer, Morris Mett. When the Mett estate farm, on which they lived and farmed, was willed to Morris's aunt and cousins they went looking for Good Land. Growing on Good Land, is Mett's second memoir and is based on a journal she kept during the years 1950-52, when they bought a Minnesota farm with deep rich soil. Margaret's career continued for 15 more years, the last five at Mankato State College, where she had taken fifth year night classes in speech and English. As she finished a Master's degree in English, she began to teach in the college. She reflects on the thriving small town of Comfrey, rearing a family, their church's importance and progress, the Mett family heritage, her teaching career, and women at work. Margaret evaluates the evolution of Minnesota farming and small towns. Above all, she exudes love of the land, gardens, teaching, and family. Her first memoir, In the Mirror of My Mind, was published in 1999. In this book she writes about her childhood during the Great Depression on the Burkholder farm that her father purchased just before the depression deepened. Reviews & Comments A Good Life on Good Land - Mankato Free Press |
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