Eight and a Half Acres of Animals: Tales of Rualife

This memoir covers experiences, both challenging and humorous, in raising animals on eight and a half acres of land a few miles from the city of Boulder, Colorado. The authors grew pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens for clean meat. They kept a few other animals, including a potbellied pig or two, as pets. They bred goats as a source of milk and cheese, as show animals, and as enjoyable companions. In recounting rural adventures, this memoir addresses a much-debated topic: how farm animals raised for meat can be treated humanely. It also weaves into most chapters contrasts between the rural and academic worlds, based on the authors’ experiences as university teachers. As such it should appeal to academic audiences as well as general readers interested in agrarian life and raising animals on a small acreage.