One Acre and Insecurity
A Single Parent’s Account
by
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The second happening on Martha’s sixteenth birthday was John’s gift to her of a Great Dane puppy. When she came to happily show me this canine addition to our family, I wasn’t sure what type this large puppy was, not knowing that Great Danes’ ears aren’t naturally pointed and are surgically altered. I did realize that it would have a large appetite and add seriously to our already strained food budget. We named the puppy Zechariah as the last and best of our dogs. Zack turned out to be a marvelous animal--intelligent, loving and protective.
Because of his size he couldn’t fit into my Volkswagen “bug”, so we went shopping secondhand car lots for a second vehicle large enough to carry Zack. We bought the only one both large enough and cheap enough to serve the purpose--an old black hearse. It probably horrified our neighbors, but we never had to lock it when Zack was aboard. One growl from him would guarantee the vehicle’s safety. Besides, who but us would want such a vehicle?
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About the Book
When left to raise four children alone, their librarian mother relies on a practical volume with the title One Acre and Security. In a small house on nearly an acre the family struggles to raise most of their own food, but the results are mixed and sometimes hilarious. Read on to see how repeated crises and complications require creative parenting solutions.
About the Author
After years of teaching high school English, Lara Bonnell trained to become a college reference Librarian and Archivist because she needed regular hours on the job without evenings spent grading papers and preparing lesson plans. Why? Because she had become a single mother with four offspring--three girls and one boy--due to two divorces.
As a published poet, she also taught “Creative Writing” on an adjunct contract to increase her income.
This book details their struggles to raise most of their own food inspired by the book One Acre and Security with mixed, sometimes hilarious results.
The author hopes her desperate coping with a variety of parenting crises and complications may assist other single parents to persevere, especially through the dreaded teenage years.
She has three poetry collections and a novel in print with more writing now that her four offspring are finally solid, honest citizens on their own.