Flat Broke with Two Goats

A Memoir

By: Jennifer McGaha

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Jennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. Or to be setting Merle up on dates and naming his doeling Merlene. She didn't expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it "date night." Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.

When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes - a lot of back taxes - her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a 100-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer's life began to more closely resemble the lives of her Appalachian ancestors than the life she experienced in her middle class upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the joys and challenges of living close to the land.

Told with bold wit, unflinching honesty, and a firm foot in the traditions of Appalachia, Flat Broke with Two Goats blends stories of homesteading with the journey of two people rediscovering the true meaning of home.

©2018 Jennifer McGaha (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

" Flat Broke with Two Goats is a funny, moving and unflinchingly honest reckoning. This sweet miracle of a memoir tells the story of a struggling couple who have to lose their house, and just about everything else, to find home." (Tommy Hays, author of The Pleasure Was Mine)

Wonderfully Beautiful

I had thought this was an educational book on Goats. I ended up being both a grat story and Educational to boot. Very nice. Narrator did a great job.

good yet lacking

I was very disappointed in the abrupt ending felt unfinished.
Would've liked more human depth less goat mating details.

A comic tale of the economic bust

I enjoyed learning the life lessons of scaling back, facing your marriage and financial situations head on through the humorous and somewhat awkward way of the narrator. Homesteading wouldn't be for me, but the way its portrayed in the book, makes me think I would try for a weekend.

Loved!

This book was excellent. It reminds you that money is not everything and sometimes life changes in a blink of an eye. Also sometimes those changes make your life better :-) The wit the author uses makes the story come to life :-)

Good Second Half

The confessional first half of this book was not really necessary to the second half... If you want to know about her mistake ridden life then go for it. I don't know her - I didn't need it.
The second half - dealing with overwhelming debt and devastating transition was very interesting.
She learned to make not "lemonade" but "soap" and it was good.