Favorite Books about Homesteading??

[Junebugaboo]

Anybody have any good books they've read recently about homesteading/farming/self-reliance? Any favorites?

I've been leafing through John Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Life; one of my favorites about small-farm agriculture is Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America. I just recently read Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard and really enjoyed it.

 

[CrealCritter]

My grandfather married a full blooded cherokee Indian. My dad looks a lot like an american Indian. I never met my granddad because he died before I was born, but I have very fond memories of my grandma. My dad passed on a few native american Indian things to me, mainly food growing, foraging, hunting, fishing and survival in the wilderness. All of which I can do some what well although I'm not very proficient at any of them because like anything you need to put it into practice to become good at it.

I really wished I would have had the chance to learn from my grandma before she passed. She was a very wise woman. I learn best by doing, book learning is OK but it's not like just doing something.

A very wise man once told me, you want to learn how to build a house? Then build a house. I've learned I can substitute house for most anything else in life and it applies.

einstein said: "The only source of knowledge is experience". But I've found that experience is a really strange thing... you get it right after you needed it.

IDK where I was going with all this... Sorry for rambling nonsense.

 

[Britesea]

I love the Foxfire series too. I only have the first 7 of them. Someday I'll buy more.

 

[Britesea]

Wisdom comes from Experience. Experience is often a result of lack of Wisdom. ~ Terry Pratchett

 

[Hinotori]

I picked up a dozen of the Foxfire books at the used bookstore.

 

[Beekissed]

How about this one...."Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad."

 

[Beekissed]

I like the old Foxfire series but have lost the set over the years...only have one seriously worn out book left.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Third plug for Foxfire

 

[Beekissed]

I also love the Little House book series. Some think of it as children's books but they have amazing detail of how things were done, how food was produced, animals trained to pull, how clothing and shoes were made, and how one makes do on very little. Especially "Farmer Boy"...the meals she describes there are HUGE, varied and rich...but the work described tells how they worked off all that rich food.

They were working all year round, before daylight until after dark, and the details and amount of work described is just fascinating. We modern folk couldn't carry their tools for them all day, even the children.

 

[wyoDreamer]

They traced my Dad's geneology back to Jacques Pierre - who stepped off a boat from France way up in the Hudson Bay somewhere. He built a couple of lumber mills, had over 19 children in his lifetime. He had 5 wives in total - only one at a time. His wives must have had a hard life to all die young.

I have only read 3 of the Foxfire Books, but I loved each of them.