Amy Renelle has written a humorous coffee table book based on her experience of farm life.
Amy Renelle has written a humorous coffee table book based on her experience of farm life.
Inspiration for a coffee table book with a difference happened when Amy Renelle discovered the truth behind the saying “If you’ve got livestock, then you’ve got dead stock”.
She moved from Auckland city to rural Gisborne in 2022 to live with her partner Mat Burke on his family’s farm andstarted helping out with general farm work.
Struck by the number of dead sheep she would come across while driving around the farm with Burke’s parents Rob and Marie, it sparked an idea for a book.
While Renelle says it’s not a statistically significant number of sheep, she hadn’t seen a dead sheep in Auckland.
Stories followed about the dumb things sheep could do to get stuck and the various ways they could die; something all farmers could relate to.
So Renelle, a statistician with a PhD in the subject, set about making a book with flaps out of old beer boxes to give to Burke’s parents as a thank-you gift.
“It was a bit of a joke present to say thanks for having me and teaching me all about farming,” Renelle says.
Amy Renelle's humorous coffee table book with a difference comes with a warning – it is not recommended for children or vegans.
They started showing it to visitors who seemed to appreciate the humour, so she was encouraged to have it printed properly.
The result is If you’ve got Livestock, then you’ve got Dead Stock, a coffee table book that is not recommended for children or vegans, written by Renelle under the name WTF What the Farming?
Renelle said she loved the creative process and the physical act of crafting the initial prototype out of cardboard.
“I don’t always get to exercise my creative side through statistics – even making the book was super fun – I squirrelled away with scissors and glue and printed bits of paper and tried to make the mechanisms like discs that spun, which is why I knew how hard it would be to explain over the internet to someone in China."
She went on Alibaba.com and put out a request for what she wanted to do.
“The prototype had a bit more going on with discs that spun and more flaps and moving bits, but trying to communicate that over the web was really difficult, so I simplified it.”
She did the drawings using Adobe Illustrator.
“I’ve always liked writing, but I’ve never been particularly good at drawing – I struggle to get things to look like what I imagined in my mind, but the technology allowed me to do that.”
Renelle is thinking of a follow-up book about cows or maybe one called How to Swear Like a Farmer but for the moment her focus is on growing her statistics business, The Little Stats Co. She is actively seeking more contract work in the region.
The city slicker has adapted to rural life with ease and loves it so much that she and Burke plan to stay on and build their own home on the farm.
