The Unlikely Farmer

"I loved that tractor like I would have loved a horse and rode it many long days. I traded it and $3,500 for a Case 730, also bought a hay tedder at auction for $982."
-George Kempton


"We all went to church and then after dinner cut boys hair, and George and mine too, pleasant day at home."
-Pat Kempton


Read this book for a rare, well-rounded picture of what it was like to establish a dairy farm and grow a large family in the beautiful, remote, economically poor Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, 1962-1985. George's dry humor combined with Pat's matter-of-fact, but deeply felt journal entries will draw you into their eventful lives, and before you know it you'll be thoroughly immersed in the rhythm of the family and the seasons.


George Kempton worked as a valued farm laborer in southern Vermont until he and his wife Patty, a nurse, were able to buy their own dairy farm in 1962 in Peacham, Vermont. There, they raised their five children and integrated into a diverse, rural community during the restive years of the 1960s and '70s. Sadly, Patty died in 2012, but she left behind an invaluable record of family life on the farm in the form of a daily journal. George continued to live on the farm until the day after this book went to press in April 2018, when he passed on while reading a detective novel from the library.