A rollicking adventure…
Pound, a Vietnam War veteran in Australian Army, presents in uproarious detail the life on a ramshackle farmhouse on a rundown farm to tell the entertaining story of how the enterprise worked out after he decided to retire from the army to the rural North-East Tasmania with his family and took on farming. He takes the reader on his journey though the ups and downs of building the rickety structure from scratch, his attempts at applying the first-hand knowledge acquired from tactical course during his military career to the whole process of construction, unpredictability of livestock breeding, shifting weather, ever-fluctuating crop prices, and preparations to settle down. Despite being meticulous and comprehensive in detail, Pound’s witty account and hilarious descriptions brighten up the narrative: the whole construction process; livestock breeding; the planting and harvesting of cash crops; farmer camaraderie (the Smartian neighbors with their familiar jibs and helpful gestures); a farmer’s battles with familiar government regulations; ever-dwindling finances and never-ending expenses. Although much of the narrative involves the vacillations of reconstructing the dilapidated farmhouse building (with less emphasis on actual struggles of livestock and crop farming), Pound’s account is unique for his clever prose, sly wit, the methodically researched detail, and his panache for showing the rural life in its full glory with highlighted local color, and how the farming years have impacted his and his family’s life. By following his own journey at Poverty Lodge, Pound has captured the complex reality of farming in Australia at the time.
