Jack's Farm

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

In this tribute to her husband, Joan Earle uses the decision to purchase
and renovate an abandoned farmhouse as the mirror to reflect their
relationship, personalities, and marriage.

The farmhouse, located in eastern Ontario, was built in the mid-1800s
and has not been updated since c.1900. It has neither plumbing,
electricity, nor running water, and had been abandoned for several years
before Jack Earle took it on as a retirement project. He lived at the
derelict house for two years while working at the renovations; in the
meantime, Joan continued to run a bookstore and stationery business in a
nearby town.

The narrative includes something of the couple’s former careers and
hobbies, their often-troubled relationship throughout their marriage,
the kindness of neighbours, and the pleasures of living close to nature
at the undeveloped farm. This venture in “pioneer living” was
interrupted by Jack’s death from a heart attack at age 61.

The book is a “journal of remembrance” and a memorial to Jack, as
the author travels through her personal “tunnel of grief.”
Throughout the narrative runs an expression of a simplistic,
fundamentalist Christian belief, like a net on which the descriptive
material and tribute are suspended. This will diminish the acceptability
of the work for many readers.