A Rooster Named Alice: Stories from Riverbridge Farm

A maverick physician moves his family from a comfortable suburban-type life to a large cold farmhouse and they end up as perpetual workaholics. But they meet and work amongst a fascinating crew - people engaged in travel on the same type of treadmill - the one that feeds us all. We never would have experienced those few moments with a friend - a guy covered with the grime of his still-burning barn, and breathing the stench of his 100 burned cows. Nor would we have believed the bounty of nature that is there for those who take the time to think - to pause for a moment and look about them. Our time of the farm was a wonderful teacher, of lessons that are impossible to imagine until you are immersed in them up to the neck. And the lesson changes the student. Makes them able to adapt to the world. For instance: I never anticipated when I asked the family move to a farm, I would find my boss cow, Annabel, more reliable, and trustworthy, than a couple of the people in the Medical Center that I did business with on a daily basis. If this book encourages one or two academics to move onto the land while simultaneously working towards tenure, I will have done my job. Or if you are young and looking for a goal, think of a life on the land. It worked for us.