Lambsquarters: Scenes from a Handmade Life

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.

Lambsquarters is a slow-paced perspective on life on a small farm in
Grey County, Ontario. Sheep farming and wool production are the farm’s
focus, and the thread that carries the storyline of challenges met and
progress made as an old farm is reclaimed and modernized.

The narrative rambles around the farm over several decades, touching on
chores; the building of the flock of wool producers; the raising of a
family; the changing environment of field, barnyard, and woodlot; the
ebb and flow of the seasons. The content is too short on details and
specifics to be informative in any practical sense. Instead, the work is
intended to be a mood piece, a romanticized view of small-scale farming
as a satisfying way of life. There’s nursing sickly lambs, fencing,
kids waiting in the snow for the school bus, dyeing wool, helpful
neighbors, weeds (lambsquarters), and the risks of lambing too early in
the season.

While the topics are down-home cozy, the author keeps the reader at
arm’s-length, never permitting anything that might elicit a personal
or emotional response. Countless meaningless references to the classics
and too-precious word associations intrude, creating distance. A
disappointment.