Views from the Back Forty

Book excerpt: "Views From the Back forty" is the author's first person story aboutrural life on what had once been the back forty acreage of a family farm. When the author and his wife purchased the land, partly for benefit of two growing sons, it gave the impression of being worn-out acreage. But after 30 years of living there and experiencing its inherent values, the authorfoundit to be much more: a trove of geology and natural history, a repository of human history, and one family's revelationsabout the enduring qualities of being home on America's rural landscape. After a short introduction, this booktakes the reader through23 chapters that comprise 15% personal memoir, 15% regional history, plus 70% natural historyand ecology that extend well beyond the back forty's geographical location in east-central Missouri.