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Local author publishes collection of farm stories

Close-Call-on-the-Farm-coverClose Calls on the Farm: Survival of the Funniest

By Alex Weddon

Paperback, Jones Lake Press, $10, 140 pages.

As summer gets underway, it’s time for some reading suggestions, and I’m pleased to begin this series of book reviews with a new, very fun read by local author Alex Weddon titled “Close Calls on the Farm: Survival of the Funniest.”

Close Calls is a delightful collection of short stories — some of which might be familiar to readers of “The Grass Lakes Times” as Weddon has been publishing them in his weekly newspaper since 2011.

They tell the tales of a life in a simpler time; one that’s filled with adventure and awe and wonder. When youthful ideas that seemed so promising in the planning stages, sometimes ended with hard-knock consequences.

You’ll delight in the adventures of Alex and his brothers, Todd and Brad and the author’s two sisters, Patrice and twin Amy.

For anyone who grew up on a farm in the 1960’s or hung out with farm kids, I’m sure that many of these adventures will bring a smile to your face. Or, spark a reminder of how you got a certain bump or scar.

Each tale is down-home wonderful — even if you didn’t get to spend your summer days at the pond, in the hay barn or helping with the farm chores before or after school. Between milestone and rite-of-passage moments, “Close Calls on the Farm” will take you back to a time when life was oh-so-much simpler and you made your own fun, outdoors, with your imagination and whatever you could find around the farm. There were no video games, cell phones or ipads to distract you.

Weddon grew up on a farm in Stockbridge with a dad who was a doctor and a mom who, like so many farm moms of the day, remained cool and calm in the face of broken bones and the bloody aftermaths of raising children around animals and farm equipment.

In their old farmhouse, face-downs with wild critters and daily doses of rambunctious youngsters looking for something to do “in the wild were just a part of life.

Alex Weddon
Alex Weddon

“My sisters encouraged me to write down all those stories we had shared around the dinner table growing up,” Weddon says, adding, “We all had accidents, but with our family’s sense of humor, we usually found something to laugh about when the news made it to a family forum.”

Readers will meet cats and ponies, dogs and snakes, and chuckle at the crazy shenanigans of youthful ideas that make growing up on a farm something quite special.

A little about the author.
Weddon and his wife, Colleen, have lived in Chelsea since 1983. The last of their four children graduated from Chelsea High School in 2010. Alex Weddon ‘s known in the community for his Local News Network, one of the first all-digital cable news channels in the state, according to a press release.

Weddon was “camera man, editor and producer of hundreds of hours of programs, including the first sixty-five episodes of  “Around Town with Linda”‘.

In 2006, Weddon bought the award-winning “The Grass Lake Times,” which was named the 2011 Jackson County Communicator of the Year by the Jackson County Farm Bureau.

“Close Calls on the Farm” is the first of a 3-book series and on its third printing.

The second, “Close Calls on the Farm; Second Chances” is expected to publish this month, while “Close Calls on the Farm: Off to School” is almost complete and Weddon plans a 2014 release.

The book is available locally at Just Imagine Books, Zou Zou’s, Chelsea Print and Graphics and Reed’s Barbering. Excerpts can be found here  and here. The book has a facebook page as well.

Sweet and sassy, clever and funny, if you’d like a glimpse of what growing up on a farm is like, get your hands on this book.

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