In
Working the Land: Building a Life, Fran Cirbo writes about a remote part of everyday life in America, farming. In the book, Fran recalls life on her family's farm in Eastern Colorado. It s a book filled with history lessons and poignant stories told in a vivid narrative, giving a snapshot of life on the plains in 1920s and 30s Colorado.
The book begins in turn-of-the-century Czechoslovakia, better known then as Austria-Hungary, where her parents Andrew and Lucy Kochis farmed with their families and the rest of their community in a small village called Rudnik. Andrew, Lucy and their first-born son John came to America in the early 1900s eventually settling in Matheson, Colorado where they had received land through the Homestead Act of 1862. Many farmers gave up working the land, but not Andrew and Lucy; they stayed and persevered amidst the winter blizzards, summer droughts and dust bowls.
Lucy gave birth to Fran in 1927. As the youngest of 14 children, Fran had the benefit of learning about her family's struggles and triumphs through the stories her parents, aunts and uncles, and older brothers and sisters told to her. Her book captures it all--the lessons learned and the lessons taught. In Working the Land: Building a Life, Fran describes her life on the farm in a way that brings every word to life. Her storytelling is interactive and puts the reader right alongside her, center stage on the farm, watching the seasons and technology change, riding the tractor, working the cream separator, canning the vegetables and harvesting the grain. Anyone raised on a farm can relive those times through the pictures Fran Cirbo paints her book.
Working the Land: Building a Life is a tribute to homesteaders and pioneers, not just those from the Eastern plains of Colorado but everyone who grew up under blue skies and knee deep in Mother Earth. It reveals a culture of values, tradition, family, hope and prayer, a culture that epitomizes the old saying, "an honest day's work for an honest day's pay."
Fran closes her book with a chapter titled Bits and Pieces, where she continues her story in vignettes that offer flashes of her last years on the farm. Working the Land: Building a Life is truly authentic in both its writing and structure, written with all the rawness and freeform of a personal journal--all of which makes Fran's book even more endearing. This book captures and draws its reader into its pages.
Fran Cirbo is grew up in the 1920s and 30s, one of 14 children on a farm in Matheson, a rural town on the Eastern plains of Colorado. She continued to live there after she married in 1945, and it's the same community where she raised her six children.
In the early 70s, long after the kids were grown and gone, Fran decided to get both her GED and a college degree. It involved driving a distance from the farm to Colorado Springs to attend Blair Business College where she received an A.A. degree in Accounting in 1980. Her first job off the farm was at Conrad's Madam Shops. She also spent time working for Invesco, an investment firm.
This is Fran s first book. She never intended to become an author; all she wanted to do was document the memories of her childhood so her grandchildren knew their legacy. However, Fran soon realized other people raised in rural farm communities might enjoy sharing in the memories too... and thus Working the Land: Building a Life was born.
Fran sells her book like her family sold their butter and eggs, by driving the back roads of Colorado. She goes from community fair to firemen's picnic to small town festival where she sets up a table of her books. She loves telling her stories and hearing the stories of others who grew up on farms or whose parents or grandparents did.
Fran, now 81, is passionate about health and nutrition. She avoids prescription medicine and uses only what Mother Nature provides for food and nourishment. She is still very active, which she attributes to her wholesome upbringing.
