Real Farm: Encounters with Perception

When the author and her husband, a city-bred couple, could not find housing at the University of Iowa (where Mark worked toward a Ph.D., and both taught), they bought a farm. The 20 acres were eroded and overgrazed, too hilly for crops; the outbuildings were in shambles, but there was a working windmill to pump water. Westfall has written an engaging account of life on the farm and the perhaps inevitable outcome. Mark dreamed of self-sufficiency, of an idealized ``Mother Earth'' existence; the author, a realist, wanted a few chickens. They acquired the poultry, three goats and a pair of geese; they planted 2000 saplings to combat erosion and to provide a cash crop. After the marriage broke up, the author continued to farm alone. As she copes with a tornado that kills all but one of the chickens, failure of the well and installing an electric pump to replace the windmill, she muses on her own and civilization's concept of time. Westfall has since sold the farm and now teaches at the University of Ohio. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Oct.)