Jennifer McGaha, a North Carolina English professor, ran into two strokes of bad luck. I see only two upsides to this:

She learned a lot

She wrote a book.

McGaha gave her book what must be the second-greatest title I’ve ever seen: Flat Broke with Two Goats. Who could pass that up?

McGaha and her CPA husband had plenty of money, enough that they let a lot of it slip through their fingers. There were private schools for their three children. There were weekends at their friends’ summer cottage. There were lunches out, gatherings in spacious homes, tickets to plays and concerts, lots of craft beer.

Then they bought their best friends’ house, which needed more TLC than they suspected.

Then the recession hit.

Oh, and there was a third stroke of bad luck — trouble can snowball like that — but I won’t spoil it for you.

Anyway, that is how they ended up in a cabin far, far out in the boonies, living life like grandma did, and dealing with mice, possums and other unwelcome critters.

The cabin had one redeeming feature, a nearby waterfall that “would become the soundtrack of our lives.”

If the McGahas are still looking to make a buck, and they’ve gotten rid of the mice and possums, maybe they could sign on with Air BnB. I’d let a little money slip through my fingers, just to sleep next to that waterfall for a few nights.

But I digress.

All this bad luck strains a marriage, and the reader will wonder if the McGahas are going to make it.

Meanwhile, McGaha copes by cooking and tending farmyard animals. Her style of cooking — straight out of the garden, organic, vegetarian — inspires a craving for some really fine goat cheese. In their former life, she filled that need with visits to gourmet shops. Now, her only route to goat cheese is to buy the goat, breed it and be the goat’s midwife a few weeks later.

Yeah, Flat Broke is a rather sexy book. Jennifer and her husband pull up a couple lawn chairs and crack open some beer as they keep an eye on “Waylon” and “Holly,” making sure that they, um, have an enjoyable afternoon. It’s the farmyard version of tracking your Amazon package.

On every page, McGaha copes with a life she never wanted to live. Will she ever make peace with austerity, and critters, and surprises, and lack of control? Will she ever love that cabin by the waterfall?

Check it out for yourself.

McGaha includes recipes, many charmingly named for life events, i.e. “Pre-Natal Pina Coladas.”

Photo credit: Rusty Clark ~ 100K Photos on Visualhunt.com / CC BY