The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading-Book Review

Homesteading, it’s a buzzword that means different things to different people, back in the day, it meant getting land for free as long as you lived on it and improved it for x number of years. It was a way to get people to move west (in the USA), back when travel was slow and painful, even dangerous.


Today it usually refers to someone who is living more like our ancestors did, in a more self sufficient manner, on a plot of land, often raising livestock, growing their own food, living more independently. Most of us are more than one generation removed from those who lived on a farm or homestead, so we don’t benefit from the knowledge of our family members who lived in a more self sufficient manner. I know in my family, it was my great grand parents who had lived on a farm, my grandparents and parents lived in suburban neighborhoods with small yards and animals no bigger than a dog.

Because of this, those of us who want to live closer to the land have to resort to alternative methods of obtaining  knowledge. I continually scour the internet for books about living off grid, gardening and such, I found this book The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living (The Ultimate Guides), actually I didn’t find it, I was offered an opportunity to review it and I jumped at the chance, it was a book I had been looking at previously and was more than happy to review it.

I keep getting distracted from writing because I keep finding more and more interesting things in this book to read, I just read about growing cotton, then picking it, cleaning it, and spinning it. Since I crochet, this is especially appealing to me, and something I think I can do with little trouble. For now, I’m not set up to raise wool bearing animals, but I can grow cotton and process it.

This book has a lot to offer, it doesn’t go into extreme detail on any one subject, but gives you enough information so that you can decide if that particular thing is something you really want to try.  Nicole Faires (don’t you just love her name?) the author, has certainly lived the life, she is not just spouting theory, she grew up on a hobby farm raising chickens and growing her own food among other things.
While not an exhaustive list of homesteading subjects, I believe it covers the majority of them quite nicely, such as:

• land-buying, communities…
• water-getting it, purifying it and such
• food-finding it, growing it, preserving it…
• animals-livestock, domestic…
• shelter-various home styles, barns, fences…
• financial-making money from your skills…
• health-medicines, herbal medicines,
• and lots more

There is a great  dictionary in the back so you will at least sound like you know what you are talking about when chatting with the old timers at the feed store, LOL, seriously, I have had a good time reading the terminology and their meanings. Such as “butt-up”, before reading this book, I would have said that is how one lands when tripping over a rock and doing a face plant, now I know that is a type of roof ridge made in thatching which forces the straw together from both sides of the roof to form a peak. “Flying change”, I would think it’s what happens when you lose control of your change purse, but it really has to do with horses.

Near the back of the book, just before the index, the author’s bio and several blank pages (perfect for adding your own notes), there is a great bibliography with tons of resources, mostly in the form of internet links. These will send you to more detailed resources for the subjects found in this book. This alone is worth the price of the book.

The book is easy to read, well made, with lots of color photographs and diagrams, nice thick glossy pages ensure this book will last for a long time, that’s a good thing because once you have this book, you will be referring to it over and over again throughout the years.

PB (my hubby) has been trying to steal this book from me ever since I received it, his comment on it was that it is a good all over resource, not detailed on each thing, but a good book and he’s glad we have it, he has also been going on and on about how well this book is physically put together, the binding, the paper quality and the pictures. Now that I’m finished with this review, I can safely give the book to him, I’ll not see it again for a while. :)


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http://wretha.blogspot.com/search/label/book review


Honesty disclaimer:
I did receive this book free from the publisher for the expressed intent of giving a review, that in no way influenced my review, all of my reviews are honest and from the heart.



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Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Things are starting to slow down a bit for me, sort of... now I am working on a book review, and it's well overdue, this book looks like it's going to be a good one. It's called The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living (The Ultimate Guides), at first glance I can you that it contains a plethora of great information, thumbing through it there are chapters on basics, shelter, animals, comforts, health, gardening, and more. It's a substantial book with lots of info.



Right now I have to get ready to go to church, did I mention that I am now on the board of my church? Newly voted in. I'm also the secretary of the board, all that means is I take the minutes during the meeting and read them at the next. This is also first Sunday, we have a wonderful dinner after church, next week is second Sunday, we share in the dinner at the other church in our neighborhood (they come to ours too).


All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Bonus, sort of...

Have you ever heard the phrase "The Lord provides."? Well, I can tell you that He does, I had an extra paycheck show up this week, normally I have direct deposits, and I was paid on the 29th of July as normal, then a few days later I received a check in the mail from the company I work for, it was dated Aug 1, and the hours were slightly different from the one from last pay period, I was pretty weirded out about it, I have received random bonuses before, but never an entire pay period worth of pay. I initially thought they might have duplicated my paycheck, but since the hours were slightly different, I knew that wasn't the case. No matter how I tried to add things up, I couldn't figure out how or why they were giving me this check.

I went into town yesterday, I took the paycheck to the office where my supervisor works, I wanted to find out what it was all about before I deposited it, the company I work for has messed things up before (not in my favor though, and not my supervisor, she is an angel, so is the current office manager) and I didn't want to be accused of accepting a paycheck that I didn't have coming. When I walked through the door, the office manager smiled at me and asked if I had received a surprise... turns out that earlier in the year, I had turned in a bunch of time sheets at the same time, yeah I'm terrible at keeping up with those sorts of things, somehow one of them had gotten mishandled and I never got paid for it and I didn't catch it. They were doing an audit and found the time sheet that I hadn't gotten paid for and sent it in.

I really needed that extra check this time, I am so glad they caught the mistake and took care of it, I'm also glad that I checked it before depositing it, that makes me look good to them, honest, and being a caretaker I need to be seen as honest, too many caretakers steal from the people they take care of, I just found out about another lady I know whose family member received the same service from the same company, she discovered a bunch of money missing from her bedroom, she can't prove it was her caretaker or exactly when it happened, but that is the only other person who comes to her house. I am an honest person, to a fault, so anytime I can prove it to the company without a doubt is a good thing. And besides, if I hadn't talked to them and just sent the check in, I would have worried about it, worried that it might have been a mistake and eventually they might have caught it and thought badly of me for taking it. Now I have a clear conscience and a bigger bank account. :) I also keep up with my time sheets better, and turn them in on time.



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!