Forty Acres and a Fool: How to Live in the Country and Still Keep Your Sanity

by Roger Welsch

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.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Roger Lee Welsch (November 6, 1936 – September 30, 2022) was an American news reporter who was a senior correspondent on the CBS News Sunday Morning program, and was featured in a segment called "Postcards from Nebraska." An author, humorist and folklorist, Welsch was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the only son of Christian Welsch, who worked in a Goodyear tire factory and Bertha (Flach) Welsch, a homemaker.[1] He lived outside of Dannebrog, Nebraska.

Welsch earned a bachelor's degree in 1958 and a master's degree in 1960, both in German and both at the University of Nebraska. He also studied folklore at the University of Colorado and Indiana University.[1]

Welsch was the 2005 winner of the Henry Fonda Award from the State of Nebraska Travel and Tourism Division.

Reviews

[cheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The guy who was known as "the fat guy in overalls" on CBS Sunday Morning Show wrote this book. He moved from Lincoln Nebraska to this little bitty town of 352 people. He has some great advice on planting trees, water ways, property boundaries, what agencies to contact about the soil in your area, ways to get assistance from those agencies. Advice on being a good neighbor and what to expect, or not to expect from country folks. All in all this has turned out to be more than a memoire, it's some pretty good advice.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does not miss a thing about Rural America. He tells it like it is lie it has always been and how it will always be. A must read if you are considering a move to country living.
It might even entice you to the Country. A place to retire with lots to do!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a new favorite author. Great experienced writing about country living. Funny, honest and helpful, this is more of a guide than I expected. Sure there's plenty of memoir but the whole point is educating the reader before they go country. Great stuff, can't wait to read more from him.