Farm families everywhere have a different lifestyle than many today. Yet we choose it knowing that tomorrow’s livelihood is never guaranteed, and that God is only as far away as the fields and the livestock barns—and all that happens there. These pages are filled with stories of an Iowa farm family, but it’s a book for all people. The Dirt is a book about life. It’s a farm wife and mother’s perspective on the things that made us laugh, cry, think, and even grow up in every possible way on the farm. A farm is a great teacher of life and joy and loss, and the lessons learned there cannot be found in any textbook, they can only be experienced. It’s all “the dirt” there is to know. Come and be entertained and inspired by our experiences; and imagine yourself and your own family in the heart of these stories. Author Karen Schwaller lives in Milford, Iowa with her husband on their family farm. Their three children are grown - proud products of the family farm, and proud to all be working in agriculture. She has been a writer and photographer all of her adult life, writing news, human interest stores and columns for various publications in northwest Iowa, on both a full-time and freelance basis. She especially enjoys writing about farm life and rural living, and all of the things (happy or sad) that happen on the family farm. She herself is a product of a family farm near Remsen, Iow