Flat Broke with Two Goats

A Memoir

De: Jennifer McGaha

Narrado por: 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

Reseñas de la Crítica

" 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.

Loved this story

Great narration and wonderful articulate writing. l live in an old cabin now,after living in a beautiful neighborhood for 18 years and raising 5 kids there. When I needed some clothes to go on a trip to go back home to Phoenix, I walked into a Talbots. I hadn't shopped in a store like that in years. When I wen't to go check out with all the discounts of 50% sale prices, the ladies asked me where I was from. I explained my new life of goats and chickens and livestock guardian dogs. One of the the ladies said you have to read this book. So I downloaded it, and really enjoyed it. Great descriptive writing
and very inspiring in many ways.

Flat Broke with Two Goats

Loved this book! True transformation from a slick, shallow city girl forced to try again in the country after losing it all in the city. She becomes a competent, self sufficient woman but not without a LOT of troubles and trials! Inspirational!

A Story About Finding Yourself

Great story; beginning to end. Love stories where we think we have our life planned out, or we have ideas about how it should be or could be, then we find ourselves living our best life in ways we could have never imagined.

I don’t understand the reviews about not liking the first part? That’s part of the story, and the bad stuff is where we find the good stuff

Entertaining But Uneven

I appreciate a true story about hardship that is NOT brought on by bad luck, but instead brought on by reckless behavior. I liked the details and the despair -- and the gradual comeback. I did not like the narrator's performance because she sounded like an old woman. Her voice was clear and precise, but the phrasing was unmistakably that of an old woman. It was as if she was trying to sound like an old person. That was incongruous because the main character was probably between 35 and 50 during the events of the book. Way too much minutia about about goat mating and health problems. The book could have used a good climax, and there was an obvious one that went unexplored. The author should have sought out the climax, if only to tell us how it went.

An immediate read-2xs-back-to-back book!! 🥰

I adore this book, the narrator, ... all of it. So many ways for me to personally relate such as financial situations, nature, some gardening, homesteading, animals, personal emotions, funny stories, and finding joy in the little things. Also, it is inspiring and a reminder to everyone that life goes on after bad things happen & sometimes you can end up in a better/happier place than you ever thought you could - or at least have the potential to.
Already recommending this book to many I know & excited for her newest book to be released! 👏🏼😍🤍