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Books of Skills on Self-sufficiency
As I mentioned earlier in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
peakoil_prep, I have a decent sized library of books containing skills that could be useful as the ramifications of peak oil make themselves known. Some of them are books on modern skills, and others are books on "lost" skills, often modern reprints of older books.
When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival by Matthew Stein
This book is a decent, modern start. It caters to the survivalist mentality, yet it contains a lot of information pertinent to a post-peak society. The author covers topics on how to survive in a world without ready electricty or water in a low-tech and earth friendly way. It contains many references to other sources which provide more in depth information on a topic. My only quibble with the book is its section on healing, where it goes decidedly new-agey and dabbles in pseudo-science and fringe treatments of ailments.
It breaks things down into the follwoing topics: An Introduction to Self-reliance; Present Trends, Possible Futures; Supplies and Preparation; Emergency Measures for Survival; Water; Food: Growing, Foraging, Hunting, and Storing; Shelter and Buildings; First Aid; Low Tech Medicine and Healing; Clothing and Textiles; Energy, Heat and Power; Metalworking; Utensils and Storage; Better Living Through Low-Tech Chemistry; Engineering, Machines and Materials.
Reader's Digest - Back to Basics
This book is also a modern volume. It is excellently written for a person who has decided to give up the rat race in the city and buy a place in the country where they can go self suficient by homesteading. It is very well written, and illustrated throughout. If you buy no other book, buy this one. Just know that this book scratches the surface on a lot of topics, and although it has sound advice and instructions, it is by necessity shallow in depth.
It breaks things down into the follwoing topics: Land Buying it - Building on It; Energy From Wood, Water, Wind, and Sun; Raising Your Own Vegetables, Fruit and Livestock; Enjoying Your Harvest The Year Round; Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead; Recreation at Home and in the Wild.
Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Complete Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival by Jack Spigarelli
This book is also a modern volume. It is an excellently written, no nonesense source book for preparing yourself for an emergency. It is designed to help you prepare your place for times of emergency. It will help you decide what food to store and how much, how to keep your electricity running, how to keep a working water supply, and includes a very brief section on guns. It is very strong on the topic of food preparation, needs and preservation but a little light in other areas. Some topics, such as surviving an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) attack are especially weak, as it just gives a brief overview that seems cut and pasted, then tells you to buy the author's other book on those topics.However, it makes up for that shortcoming by it's means of informing you on how to decide what to buy to prepare, rather than just giving a checklist of "Here's what I bought, you buy it too." It also has extensive source material, including web addresses, stores and books for further study. The author does not preach at you, he merely states the facts.
Storey's Basic Country Skills : A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance by John Storey
This book is considered by many to be a "bible" for the farm. It is a well written and researched tome, providing the "how to live on a farm if you were not born on one" type information. It is an encyclopedic type book, covering a wide variety of topics with a shallow depth, yet the topics are well written. It covers all aspects of farm life, from sun up to sun down, in all seasons and is invaluable as a general reference for most aspects around the farm and homestead.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Your Place in the Country; Your Garden, Yard, and Orchard; Country Cooking & Stocking Up; Your Barn Stable and Fields.
One Acre and Security: How to Live Off the Earth Without Ruining It by Bradford Angier
This book is considered to be a classic in the Back-to-Earth movement. First published in 1972, it has recently been revied by the publisher. It covers a wide variety of topics, but it has not been updated since the 1970's, therefore some of the information will be a little out of date. The editors of this edition decided that the best route to take was to leave the original text as is, and add a few updates and clarifications to it in italics. It is also written with a bent towards showing how you can create an income for yourself once you have that farm in the country.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Country Living near the Cities; Building Your Own Home in the Country; The ABC's of Organic Gardening; Making Money With the Ancient Art of Herb Culture; Getting Healthy and Wealthy from Honey; Raising and Selling Rabbits and Earthworms; Running a Poultry Farm Without a Hitch; Setting Up as a Sheep Farmer; Secrets of Sucessful Pig Farming - and Tips on Guinea Pigs Too; Sucessful Dairy Farming With Cows and Goats; Fish, Frogs, and Turtles for Profit, Food and Fun; Groceries and Fine Wine from Grapes and Other Fruit; Hitting the Trail From Your Acre; Eating From Nature's Free Banquet Table; Where the Hunting and Fishing are Better.
The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It by Daniel Carter Beard
This book was originally written in 1882 by Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of the American Boy Scouts. This book contains all of the skills that a boy of that age could need, and presents them as projects to be created. Think a manual for Tom Sawyer's and Huck Finn's boyhood escapades. The emphasis is firmly on building things yourself from basic materials. The projects outlined in this book are far from out of date, and have many applications in today's world. Of course, in that era, society was not as litigous and overzealous on safety as they are today, so some of the topics might be considered dangerous by today's standards. Yet this book can serve to keep any adventurous young boy or girl busy for years. In reading through this, I noticed that the projects range from the quick and simple to the complex and time consuming, yet all are worthwhile and illustrations abound.
I can not begin to list everything in the book, so here is a snippet of the topics covered: Kite Time; Novel Modes of Fishing; Home-Made Fishing Tackle; How to Stock, Make, and Keep a Freshwater Aquarium; How to keep Aquatic Plants in the House or Flower-Garden; How to Stock and Keep a Marine Aquarium; Knots, Bends, and Hitches; The Water-Telescope; Dredge, Tangle, and Trawl Fishing; Home-Made Boats; How to Rig and Sail Small Boats; Fourth of July Balloons, with New and Novel Attachments; How to Camp out without a Tent; Bird Singers, Etc.; Bird Nesting; How to Rear Wild Birds; Home-Made Hunting Apparatus; How to Make Blow-Guns, Elder Guns; Traps and Trapping; Dogs; Practical Taxidermy for Boys; Every Boy a Decorative Artist; Snowball Warfare; Snow-Houses and Statuary; Sleds, Chair-Sleighs, and Snow-Shoes; How to Make the Tom Thumb Ice-Boat and Larger Craft; The Winged Skaters, and How to Make the Wings; Winter Fishing; In-Door Amusements; The Boy's Own Phunnygraph; How to Make Puppets and a Puppet-Show; Puss-in-Boots, Dramatized and Adapted For a Puppet-Show; How to Make a Magic Lantern - A Kaleidoscope - A Fortune Teller's Box; How to Make the Dancing Fairies, the Bathers, and the Orator; How to Make Various and Divers Whirlgigs; The Universe in a Card-Box; Life Instilled into Paper Puppets, and the Matches Made of Human Fingers; Home-Made Masquerade and Theatrical Costumes; Kites; Fishing; Home-Made Boats; Soap-Bubbles; Paper Fireworks; Home-Made Hunting Apparatus; Decoys; Taxidermy; 'Uncle Enos" Banjo; Snow-Shoes.
Shelters, Shacks & Shanties: And How to Build Them by Daniel Carter Beard
This book was originally published in 1914 by Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of the American Boy Scouts. Unlike The American Boy's Handy Book above, this one deals with one topic in depth, that of shelters to be constructed by a boy or young man. It gives step-by-step instructions on building shelters, starting with simple structures and progressing to full blown log cabins in 49 chapters, and all in an easy to read tone that makes you wonder why we all don't just up and do this. Like his other book, the projects in here are for industrious people, as he expects the reader to be willing to put in a hard day's work. It is illustrated throughout, and is truly a joy to read through.
Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh
This book was originally published in 1909. It is a volume that covers how to make better use of your time and energy as you work a farm or homestead. Most of the skills and implements discussed are just as valid today as they were then, and this book deserves a spot on the shelf above the workshop table of any self-suficient person. Written in a straightforward manner with relevant quotes from literature sprinkled throughout, it gives advice on what you need to maximize the energy you spend and the tools necessary to do so in a fashion that make it a joy to read. It shows you how to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. These are the types of skills and knowledge that were common in our grand (and great-grand)parent's age.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Workshop and Tools; The Steel Square; In and Around the House; Barns and Stock; Poultry and Bees; Garden and Orchard; Field and Wood; Gates and Doors; When We Build; Worth Knowing.
The last entry is actually a series of books which I will treat as one entry.
The Foxfire Book (Volume 1) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 2) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 3) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 4) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 6) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire books are complilations of materials published in the Foxfire magazine published by Eliot Wigginton and his students in the late 1960's. This material was an attempt to record the history, lore and knowledge of traditional folk culture in rural Appalachia. Although there are 10 volumes on Amazon, It is the five I have listed that most of my friends and I have deemed to have relevant information on skills and crafts useful in self-sufficient living.
The five volumes include topics such as: (vol 1)Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining; (Vol 2) Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living; (vol 3) animal care, banjos and dulcimers, wild plant foods, butter churns, ginseng and more; (vol 4) Fiddle making, spring houses, horse trading, sassafras tea, berry buckets, gardening, and other affairs of plain living; (vol 6) shoemaking, 100 toys and games, gourd banjos and song bows, wooden locks, a water-powered sawmill, and other topics.
These books are just a start on a collection of knowledge on self-suffiecency, and should provide what you need to begin a simpler life for yourself. I hope the list helps!
(x-posted topeakoil_prep)
peakoil_prep, I have a decent sized library of books containing skills that could be useful as the ramifications of peak oil make themselves known. Some of them are books on modern skills, and others are books on "lost" skills, often modern reprints of older books. When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival by Matthew Stein
This book is a decent, modern start. It caters to the survivalist mentality, yet it contains a lot of information pertinent to a post-peak society. The author covers topics on how to survive in a world without ready electricty or water in a low-tech and earth friendly way. It contains many references to other sources which provide more in depth information on a topic. My only quibble with the book is its section on healing, where it goes decidedly new-agey and dabbles in pseudo-science and fringe treatments of ailments.
It breaks things down into the follwoing topics: An Introduction to Self-reliance; Present Trends, Possible Futures; Supplies and Preparation; Emergency Measures for Survival; Water; Food: Growing, Foraging, Hunting, and Storing; Shelter and Buildings; First Aid; Low Tech Medicine and Healing; Clothing and Textiles; Energy, Heat and Power; Metalworking; Utensils and Storage; Better Living Through Low-Tech Chemistry; Engineering, Machines and Materials.
Reader's Digest - Back to Basics
This book is also a modern volume. It is excellently written for a person who has decided to give up the rat race in the city and buy a place in the country where they can go self suficient by homesteading. It is very well written, and illustrated throughout. If you buy no other book, buy this one. Just know that this book scratches the surface on a lot of topics, and although it has sound advice and instructions, it is by necessity shallow in depth.
It breaks things down into the follwoing topics: Land Buying it - Building on It; Energy From Wood, Water, Wind, and Sun; Raising Your Own Vegetables, Fruit and Livestock; Enjoying Your Harvest The Year Round; Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead; Recreation at Home and in the Wild.
Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Complete Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival by Jack Spigarelli
This book is also a modern volume. It is an excellently written, no nonesense source book for preparing yourself for an emergency. It is designed to help you prepare your place for times of emergency. It will help you decide what food to store and how much, how to keep your electricity running, how to keep a working water supply, and includes a very brief section on guns. It is very strong on the topic of food preparation, needs and preservation but a little light in other areas. Some topics, such as surviving an NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) attack are especially weak, as it just gives a brief overview that seems cut and pasted, then tells you to buy the author's other book on those topics.However, it makes up for that shortcoming by it's means of informing you on how to decide what to buy to prepare, rather than just giving a checklist of "Here's what I bought, you buy it too." It also has extensive source material, including web addresses, stores and books for further study. The author does not preach at you, he merely states the facts.
Storey's Basic Country Skills : A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance by John Storey
This book is considered by many to be a "bible" for the farm. It is a well written and researched tome, providing the "how to live on a farm if you were not born on one" type information. It is an encyclopedic type book, covering a wide variety of topics with a shallow depth, yet the topics are well written. It covers all aspects of farm life, from sun up to sun down, in all seasons and is invaluable as a general reference for most aspects around the farm and homestead.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Your Place in the Country; Your Garden, Yard, and Orchard; Country Cooking & Stocking Up; Your Barn Stable and Fields.
One Acre and Security: How to Live Off the Earth Without Ruining It by Bradford Angier
This book is considered to be a classic in the Back-to-Earth movement. First published in 1972, it has recently been revied by the publisher. It covers a wide variety of topics, but it has not been updated since the 1970's, therefore some of the information will be a little out of date. The editors of this edition decided that the best route to take was to leave the original text as is, and add a few updates and clarifications to it in italics. It is also written with a bent towards showing how you can create an income for yourself once you have that farm in the country.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Country Living near the Cities; Building Your Own Home in the Country; The ABC's of Organic Gardening; Making Money With the Ancient Art of Herb Culture; Getting Healthy and Wealthy from Honey; Raising and Selling Rabbits and Earthworms; Running a Poultry Farm Without a Hitch; Setting Up as a Sheep Farmer; Secrets of Sucessful Pig Farming - and Tips on Guinea Pigs Too; Sucessful Dairy Farming With Cows and Goats; Fish, Frogs, and Turtles for Profit, Food and Fun; Groceries and Fine Wine from Grapes and Other Fruit; Hitting the Trail From Your Acre; Eating From Nature's Free Banquet Table; Where the Hunting and Fishing are Better.
The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It by Daniel Carter Beard
This book was originally written in 1882 by Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of the American Boy Scouts. This book contains all of the skills that a boy of that age could need, and presents them as projects to be created. Think a manual for Tom Sawyer's and Huck Finn's boyhood escapades. The emphasis is firmly on building things yourself from basic materials. The projects outlined in this book are far from out of date, and have many applications in today's world. Of course, in that era, society was not as litigous and overzealous on safety as they are today, so some of the topics might be considered dangerous by today's standards. Yet this book can serve to keep any adventurous young boy or girl busy for years. In reading through this, I noticed that the projects range from the quick and simple to the complex and time consuming, yet all are worthwhile and illustrations abound.
I can not begin to list everything in the book, so here is a snippet of the topics covered: Kite Time; Novel Modes of Fishing; Home-Made Fishing Tackle; How to Stock, Make, and Keep a Freshwater Aquarium; How to keep Aquatic Plants in the House or Flower-Garden; How to Stock and Keep a Marine Aquarium; Knots, Bends, and Hitches; The Water-Telescope; Dredge, Tangle, and Trawl Fishing; Home-Made Boats; How to Rig and Sail Small Boats; Fourth of July Balloons, with New and Novel Attachments; How to Camp out without a Tent; Bird Singers, Etc.; Bird Nesting; How to Rear Wild Birds; Home-Made Hunting Apparatus; How to Make Blow-Guns, Elder Guns; Traps and Trapping; Dogs; Practical Taxidermy for Boys; Every Boy a Decorative Artist; Snowball Warfare; Snow-Houses and Statuary; Sleds, Chair-Sleighs, and Snow-Shoes; How to Make the Tom Thumb Ice-Boat and Larger Craft; The Winged Skaters, and How to Make the Wings; Winter Fishing; In-Door Amusements; The Boy's Own Phunnygraph; How to Make Puppets and a Puppet-Show; Puss-in-Boots, Dramatized and Adapted For a Puppet-Show; How to Make a Magic Lantern - A Kaleidoscope - A Fortune Teller's Box; How to Make the Dancing Fairies, the Bathers, and the Orator; How to Make Various and Divers Whirlgigs; The Universe in a Card-Box; Life Instilled into Paper Puppets, and the Matches Made of Human Fingers; Home-Made Masquerade and Theatrical Costumes; Kites; Fishing; Home-Made Boats; Soap-Bubbles; Paper Fireworks; Home-Made Hunting Apparatus; Decoys; Taxidermy; 'Uncle Enos" Banjo; Snow-Shoes.
Shelters, Shacks & Shanties: And How to Build Them by Daniel Carter Beard
This book was originally published in 1914 by Daniel Carter Beard, one of the founders of the American Boy Scouts. Unlike The American Boy's Handy Book above, this one deals with one topic in depth, that of shelters to be constructed by a boy or young man. It gives step-by-step instructions on building shelters, starting with simple structures and progressing to full blown log cabins in 49 chapters, and all in an easy to read tone that makes you wonder why we all don't just up and do this. Like his other book, the projects in here are for industrious people, as he expects the reader to be willing to put in a hard day's work. It is illustrated throughout, and is truly a joy to read through.
Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh
This book was originally published in 1909. It is a volume that covers how to make better use of your time and energy as you work a farm or homestead. Most of the skills and implements discussed are just as valid today as they were then, and this book deserves a spot on the shelf above the workshop table of any self-suficient person. Written in a straightforward manner with relevant quotes from literature sprinkled throughout, it gives advice on what you need to maximize the energy you spend and the tools necessary to do so in a fashion that make it a joy to read. It shows you how to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. These are the types of skills and knowledge that were common in our grand (and great-grand)parent's age.
It breaks things down into the following topics: Workshop and Tools; The Steel Square; In and Around the House; Barns and Stock; Poultry and Bees; Garden and Orchard; Field and Wood; Gates and Doors; When We Build; Worth Knowing.
The last entry is actually a series of books which I will treat as one entry.
The Foxfire Book (Volume 1) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 2) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 3) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 4) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire Book (Volume 6) by Eliot Wigginton; Editor
The Foxfire books are complilations of materials published in the Foxfire magazine published by Eliot Wigginton and his students in the late 1960's. This material was an attempt to record the history, lore and knowledge of traditional folk culture in rural Appalachia. Although there are 10 volumes on Amazon, It is the five I have listed that most of my friends and I have deemed to have relevant information on skills and crafts useful in self-sufficient living.
The five volumes include topics such as: (vol 1)Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining; (Vol 2) Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living; (vol 3) animal care, banjos and dulcimers, wild plant foods, butter churns, ginseng and more; (vol 4) Fiddle making, spring houses, horse trading, sassafras tea, berry buckets, gardening, and other affairs of plain living; (vol 6) shoemaking, 100 toys and games, gourd banjos and song bows, wooden locks, a water-powered sawmill, and other topics.
These books are just a start on a collection of knowledge on self-suffiecency, and should provide what you need to begin a simpler life for yourself. I hope the list helps!
(x-posted to
peakoil_prep)