The Hard Fifty Farm

Small farm of rescue animals run by the Pioneers Press staff and 100% supported by Pioneers Press sales.

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When you buy books from http://PioneersPress.com/ you help feed and care for animals like Hard Fifty Farm rescue Jackson. #hardfiftyfarm #pioneerspress #goatsofinstagram #goat #rescueanimals

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Gnade is affiliated with Pioneers Press, a publishing house and small-press distributor that focuses on sustainability, health, gender, sexuality, social justice and food movements, as well as up-and-coming authors. It is located on a working farm in Kansas, where Gnade also lives and works on his music, his writing and stuff that needs doing around the farm. Getting his hands dirty while working up a healthy sweat is good for the mind, body and soul, he says. 'It's easy to stay up in your head when you're writing for a living," he says. "But it's not enough. You won't write as well as you can if you're staying put all the time. 'If you're lucky enough to be able to do it, getting out there and using your body for something physical will help you think better. It'll jam oxygen up into your brain; get your heart pumping like a wild motor. I think best when I'm swimming in a river or pushing a tiller through hard ground or getting thrown around at a punk show. I believe in the healing power of the 'strenuous life' Teddy Roosevelt talked about.'

Adam Gnade on farm life in an interview about the Chattanooga Zine Fest, which happens on Saturday

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Painkillers, pill schedules, and a neck pillow. Araby’s long and hard recovery begins today.

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Araby’s back from the vet. One ruptured disk in her neck, two staples in her scalp, throat scope, four inches of vertebrae cut off her tail, x-rays, three rounds of meds, one inflatable neck thing, one massive vet bill but ALIVE. Next stop, spinal surgery unless the pain resolves itself.

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Araby, the second rescue we took in, is currently in pretty serious emergency surgery. Huge thanks for all your book/zine orders because that’s how we pay for medical stuff for all the farm’s rescues. Every little bit helps!

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Farm breakfast

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Jackson, one of our first goat rescues

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Billy.

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Lately...

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Meet the rescues, take 3. Edith, one of our newer pals.

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Meet the rescues of the Hard Fifty Farm, take 1. Teddy is one of our younger rescues we’ve taken in. He and his pals’ welfare is 100 percent funded by Pioneers Press sales.

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Meet the rescues of the Hard Fifty Farm, take 2. Select members of the chicken and duck flock. Basically, if you buy one of our http://www.pioneerspress.com books it feeds these sweeties.

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Meet the rescues part 4. Our first rescues we took in. Lucien and Araby.

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Meet the rescues of the Hard Fifty Farm, take 1. Teddy is one of our younger rescues we’ve taken in. He and his pals’ welfare is 100 percent funded by Pioneers Press sales.

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See above. This is where I live.

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Q: Tell us a little bit about Pioneers Press and the farm you help run in Kansas. A: Jessie Duke started Pioneers in 2012 after she split away from an older publishing house a bunch of us who became Pioneers’ original staff were involved in. I don’t work for the press anymore on a day-to-day basis but a big part of its operations are run out of the farm. I’m mostly kind of an in-house author for the press but I help out here and there when needed. The farm is called the Hard Fifty Farm and it takes its name from the backstory of a previous tenant who was a drug cartel hitman. We have livestock, raise hay, crops. Not for money. Just for fun. All the money comes from the books. Living rural is shit a lot of the time. I won’t pretend it’s all romance. That’s there too but it can be a struggle. We work very hard to be where we are. Living close to the land and having wide open spaces makes it all worthwhile. It’s also good to use your body in very physical ways when you spend a lot of time in your head. A vigorous physical life is good for your mind. If you’re lucky enough to be able to do it, you should go see the world as much as humanly possible.

From Cultured Vultures’ interview with Adam Gnade about his new book, Locust House, out now via Pioneers Press and Three One G

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