Steve, you need to read the chapter in Don Mitchell's Moving Upcountry: A Yankee Way of Knowledge. (Old farts, yes that is a pun on Don Juan). It's a marvelous combination of erudition, common sense, and humor targeted at himself and his ignorance about how to farm.

When he describes refurbishing a very old manure spreader and the, ah, "interesting" way in which it distributes its load, you'll be laughing.

If you like it, his sequel (Living Upcountry) has a fantastic chapter in which he decides to put half a septic tank in the basement as a combination in-house spa and solar collector heat sink. As he muses about it half out-loud to his sleepy wife at 2 a.m., she bolts awake at the juxtaposition of the phrases "septic tank" and "in the basement".

Rich