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Forty Acres and a Fool

How to Live in the Country and Still Keep Your Sanity

Forty Acres and a Fool
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Author:

Roger Welsch

Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Item: 139850
ISBN: 9780760322567
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Specs
Size: 6 x 9 x .75
Weight: 1.313 lb.
Edition: First
Published: October 1st 2006
DC: AP
List Price: $21.95 $16.46
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At a time when so much manliness is played out on computer keyboards and TV or videogame remote controls, it takes a certain degree of grit and guts and plain pigheadedness to pull up stakes and move to the country. For those brave souls, the backward-looking gentleman farmers of our fast-forward-looking age, Roger Welsch has a few choice words. To homestead in the Old West, the saying went, all you needed was forty acres and a mule. For the 21st century, Welsch contends that instead of a beast of burden one only needs the stubbornness of being a fool.
 
In several hilarious essays, Welsch presents a guy's guide to leaving modern miracles behind and embracing productive Ludditism. Made famous by his laconic pieces on CBS Sunday Morning (while wearing his signature overalls), Welsch takes on new subjects, and even elaborates the principles of feng shui for the farmhouse, barn, and farmyard. He draws on a lifetime's worth of experience to counsel prospective migrants to rural America on what precisely not to do. Learn from the mistakes of a master, and laugh harder than you thought possible while doing it. Roger Welsch is in fine fettle in Forty Acres and a Fool, a light-hearted look at rural upstarts that puts the delights of country living-and the occasional advantages of urban life-into rare perspective.

            Roger Welsch can best be described as a cross between Erma Bombeck and Dr. Ruth, except male and living in Nebraska with his wife and dogs. Before turning his talents to canine psychology, Roger was best known as “the fat guy in overalls” on CBS’ Sunday Morning, where he offered up essays on rural and small-town life on the plains.

            Many also know him as the fat guy with the fetish for old tractors, as an advocate for Native American interests, and as the second most prominent citizen of Dannebrog, Nebraska, (pop. 352).

            He’s also an author of numerous books of fiction and folk humor, and writes for publications from Successful Farming to Reader’s Digest.

St. Paul Pioneer Press, Nov. 22, 2006

“It provides enough insight into rural living to help anyone decide if they want part of the action, or to stay safely within the confines of a metropolitan beltway.”

                                                                                                                                                                     

Two-Cylinder, November-December 2006

“Learn from the mistakes of a master, and laugh harder than you thought possible while doing it.”

Yankton Daily Press & Democrat, Dec. 29, 2006
“To miss this book would be just plain foolish.”

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Introduction: An Explanation of the Dedication and Introduction to the Work

Chapter 1: Considering the Ridiculous: Is a Move to the Country Even Something You Want to Consider?

Chapter 2: The Big Decision: Now That the Thinking Is Behind You, What Do You Need to Consider As You Look Ahead?

Chapter 3: The Setup: Now That You've Considered What You Have, What Are You Going to Do with It?

Chapter 4: Self-Reliance: Where Can You Get Help? What Can You Do by Yourself?

Chapter 5: Taking Care of Business: How Things Are Done in Rural America, and How You Can Do Things in Rural America

Chapter 6: Rural Zen: The Philosophies of Rural Living; Yours and Theirs

Chapter 7: The Very Nature of Rural Living-Rural Living Is Close to Nature

Chapter 8: The Social Life: Fitting In, Staying Out, Understanding, and Surviving

Chapter 9: Lawn Ordure-Your Garment in Action, Your Tax Dollars at Work: What Can You Expect from Your New Government?

Chapter 10: Be Prepared: Considering the Inevitable Emergencies

 


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