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Posted: 7/12/2017 2:35:48 PM EDT
[#1]
Plenty of books like that.
I'd start with Reader's Digests "Back to Basics" Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of country living is a must have. Realistically these are overview type books, they will get you started on individual subjects but you will also need multiple books on each specific subject- i.e, rabbit raising, heating your home with wood, etc. |
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Posted: 7/12/2017 2:54:50 PM EDT
[#2]
I think you're talking about the Foxfire books.
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Posted: 7/12/2017 3:29:09 PM EDT
[#3]
Books are all fine and dandy, but those skills develop over time and are passed down.
Trying to re-lean them AFTER a SHTF TEOTWAWKI scenario won't go so well.. |
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Posted: 7/12/2017 4:23:07 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I think you're talking about the Foxfire books. As mentioned by someone else... The Encyclopedia To Country Living is a must have reference book. I also recommend... John Seymour's The Self Sufficient Life & How To Live It Storey Publishing's Country Wisdom & Know How |
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Posted: 7/12/2017 4:24:18 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Books are all fine and dandy but trying to learn skills AFTER a SHTF TEOTWAWKI scenario won't go so well.. After spending three years turning 11 acres of rural land into an organic homestead / farm ... I can say you need to get your hands dirty, but you don't need to have skills "passed down" from anyone. You just need to source information, and put it into practice. ETA: My family relied on a variety of informational sources. Neither my wife nor I had ever lived on a farm or homestead. We were not raised as farmers, ranchers, etc. To prepare for our move, my wife spent two years reading every book she could beg, borrow, buy about animal husbandry, horticulture, organic food practices, etc. She also tried a bunch of different garden types at our suburban home prior to the move (square foot, raised bed, sisters, etc). I read more about grass and clover types than I care to admit. I spent an exorbitant amount of time building things I thought we'd need when we moved. We both studied (books, seminars, dvds, youtube, etc) soil conservation, soil building / amending, crop rotation, natural pest and disease control, composting, animal varieties (types of rabbits, sheep, goats, chickens, and cattle), woodstove heating / cooking, canning, heirloom seed saving, rain water collection, etc. When we finally found a place (51 minute drive to my work - one way) it was 11 acres exactly 0.7 miles off the nearest rural paved road. We spent three years building the soil, building fences, building chicken coops, building wood sheds, felling trees and building our winter wood supply, fending off the nightly coyotes who wrecked havoc on our flock of chickens (we usually kept 30 laying hens and a few cocks), planting an orchard, planting a vineyard, planting a brambles patch, finding ways to keep deer out of our vegetable garden, finding ways to keep mice out of everything, etc. Be care what you wish for. Simple living is hard living. |
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Posted: 7/12/2017 4:40:08 PM EDT
[#6]
If you're interested in "back to the basics" topics...google "homesteading books".
Joel Salatin is also a good source of information. |
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Posted: 7/12/2017 4:59:40 PM EDT
[#7]
Just thought of this...
If you want an enjoyable and entertaining way of watching someone try to homestead watch "River Cottage" on youtube. You can google Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to find it. Be warned - you'll need to figure out the "TV series" order (TV seasons in America), because the Brits have an odd naming convention for the series. You do not want to watch them out of order - start at the beginning. Honestly, this guy had life figured out until he decided to turn his homesteading experiment into a large scale business. This will help... River Cottage Series Order - CLICK HERE FOR INFO The first TV series was Escape to River Cottage and was shown on Channel 4. In this show Hugh left London to pursue an ambition of self-sufficiency - growing his own vegetables and raising his own animals at a gamekeeper's cottage in Dorset. The series had six episodes and first aired in March and April 1999.[1] It was followed by Return to River Cottage in 2000.[2] and River Cottage Forever in 2002, in which viewers followed Hugh's further adventures as a downsized smallholder.[3] In 2004 the River Cottage brand left the original holiday home to follow Hugh's progress as he set up a new business from old dairy buildings near Broadoak, Bridport, Dorset in the series Beyond River Cottage.[4] An additional series, The View from River Cottage, was a combination clip show and retrospective of the previous series.[5] The 2005 series, River Cottage Road Trip, follows Hugh as he explores Dumfriesshire and Cumbria for regional recipes that he can bring back home.[6] In 2006, moved to the Park Farm location near to Uplyme in Devon. Here at the new River Cottage H.Q., the team would film the 2006 series The River Cottage Treatment where Hugh would attempt to convert junk food lovers' eating habits.[7] The 2007 series, River Cottage: Gone Fishing,  saw Hugh travel to fishing locations throughout the British Isles in order to promote the culinary benefits of sustainable fishing cultures.
In 2008, Channel 4 began broadcasting River Cottage Spring,[9] later followed up by River Cottage Autumn,[10] which shows Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall using home-grown produce in recipes. The series also tracks a group of families in Bristol who attempt to convert a large bramble patch into a small-holding, now known as Bramble Farm,[11] growing vegetables, and rearing meat.[12] A four episode series River Cottage: Summer's Here began airing in June 2009.[13] November 2009 saw the broadcasting of a new series titled River Cottage: Winter's on the Way, following Hugh as he grows, forages and cooks winter treats.[14] In 2010 a new series titled River Cottage Every Day was released, each episode concerning the specific topics of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, breakfast, lunch, bread and treats.[15] During the year 2011 Hugh released the series River Cottage Veg, documenting his experiences of giving up meat whilst learning about different vegetarian cooking styles.[16] In July 2012, a new three-part series began on Channel 4, titled River Cottage: Three Go Mad.[17] Hugh was joined at Park Farm by three celebrities who wished to increase their knowledge on where their food comes from and how it gets from farm/sea to plate. |
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Posted: 7/14/2017 9:44:47 AM EDT
[#8]
Good books listed already. Get the Horace Kephart and Nessmuk books, for good measure.
The problem with your premise is that the learning curve for all of those skills far outstrips the time in which you'd have to learn them. IOW, if you're not doing them now, you won't have a chance to learn them when you need them. Just something as simple and mundane as growing, preserving, sustaining a garden based food supply takes more than a few years to get good enough to hope to depend on it and even then stuff happens. And that's just one aspect of 19th century living. |
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Posted: 7/14/2017 4:11:33 PM EDT
[#9]
You aren't going to be going back to a straight-up 18th century lifestyle. You'll theoretically have plenty of surviving tech to allow you to limp along while you relearn old skills and get order re-established.
I'd start you out with Beyond Collapse, by T. Joseph Miller. It's readily available in PDF so you can read it for free before you commit to buying a hard copy https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6e3oH1LuRvzeGZlTHRkeHZQSkk/view No one book is going to have it all. My suggestion would be to start documenting those skills you want to practice or accumulate reference texts on and start hitting library books sales or look through Amazon for reasonably priced used copies |
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Posted: 7/14/2017 4:47:34 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Books are all fine and dandy, but those skills develop over time and are passed down. Trying to re-lean them AFTER a SHTF TEOTWAWKI scenario won't go so well.. To the OP, some I reference often: Where there is no dentist Nurses pocket drug reference book (for get the PDR, its next to worthless compared to the nurses version) |
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Posted: 7/15/2017 1:52:08 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I highly doubt there are many people living like the Amish on this forum. Learning even from books isn't a bad thing. Most of us haven't had skills "passed down" to us. We learned them on our own. To the OP, some I reference often: Where there is no dentist Nurses pocket drug reference book (for get the PDR, its next to worthless compared to the nurses version) Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Books are all fine and dandy, but those skills develop over time and are passed down. Trying to re-lean them AFTER a SHTF TEOTWAWKI scenario won't go so well.. To the OP, some I reference often: Where there is no dentist Nurses pocket drug reference book (for get the PDR, its next to worthless compared to the nurses version) I can tell you for sure and for certain, there's a great big difference. Books can get you started. Books can give you just enough info to get in trouble, depending on the topic. The same can be said of people who teach who've learned from books. I went to trade school for machine trades, two years. I learned more in the first two months in an actual shop than I learned in those two years of school. It's no secret I spent a lot of time with the scouts.  I spent a lifetime roaming and piddling in the woods, putting to practice the stuff I'd learned from books, videos, etc.
When at different scout functions, I would see (well meaning and dedicated) leaders trying to show boys this or that. But you could tell they'd learned it from books and not actually used the stuff under real conditions. It's why I said in my first post that all the skills needed to homestead have to be in use prior to actually needing them. Otherwise you're kind of beaten before you start. |
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Posted: 7/15/2017 11:37:49 PM EDT
[#12]
OP, I think this book is what you are looking for:
Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind |
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Posted: 7/21/2017 7:31:29 PM EDT
[#13]
I'll second the Foxfire series for cultural immersion, "Back to Basics" and "Country Wisdom & Know-How" for encyclopedic knowledge, and Storey's Guides for animal specifics (in order, Chickens, Rabbits, and Goats. Maybe Ducks and Sheep)
Also check out "Permaculture" for the growing things before you get your heart set on your homestead plan. ( https://permies.com/forums ) |
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Posted: 7/22/2017 7:44:10 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
OP, I think this book is what you are looking for: Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind |
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Posted: 7/22/2017 9:21:42 PM EDT
[#15]
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Posted: 7/23/2017 9:23:30 AM EDT
[#16]
As far as the psychology of this sort of thing here are some things to consider-
*Immediate gratification will be for the most part GONE. Those spoiled children (young and old) among us who forever "want it now!" are going to fall apart, maybe get shot in the face by someone who they are trying to "trade" with that isn't interested in dealing with a child's temper tantrum. (Understand I mean ADULT children, i.e, age related adults that never grew up) *We will be solely responsible for everything we have and do. This is where the "I can't be bothered to try to figure that out" crowd is going to be effed big time. Going to the internet to watch a youtube video on installing something, on fixing something, etc. will be gone. Best will be finding someone who you can help you and you RECIPROCATE with. Second best will be trial and error via trying to take care of it yourself hopefully with a reference book to guide you. Screaming at someone on the phone because you can't be bothered to read directions or try to figure it out on your own will be gone. If your well fails, it will be up to you to fix it. Or no water. If your gun breaks, it will be up to you to replace the part. Or no gun. If your roof gets torn up in a storm, it will be up to you to fix it. Or no dry house. If your energy system isn't performing, it will be up to you to fix it. Or no power. If you want to EAT, it will be up to you to PLAN far enough ahead of time, put in the WORK necessary, etc. Or you won't eat. That level of responsibility is great to TALK ABOUT, but few ever experience it. Yes of course I'm not saying that WHILE THINGS ARE NORMAL you shouldn't seek help, you should. But YOU have to own the problem and even if you have to bring in an "expert" to: fix the well, rebuild the energy system, help with the garden, etc. You better damn well be paying attention and LEARNING FROM IT. A lot of people that frequent survival websites who seemingly only have 2 weeks of food, no experience living off the grid, little or no defensive training, who lives two miles from major cities teeming with hundreds of thousands of starving pilgrims when the time comes, love to say BS like "I'm not just going to survive, I'm going to THRIVE." And every time that comes up, people that have been living like this for years chuckle to themselves... Our society has been taught not to take RESPONSIBILITY for it's actions. "It ain't my fault!" is the swan song of Amerika these days. Yet when the SAFETY NET of society is gone, their will be NO ONE TO BLAME if you cannot take care of yourself. Oh yes, this goes a lot further than simply beotching about "welfare rats and FSA types." Finally- WORK. Yesterday we didn't have any work planned around the homestead. My son had some work with his business and left to do that. I did some business in the morning and my wife worked out. While we had no major work planned, we spent from about 11 to 6pm cutting down 4 trees that were dying or dead, cutting them to length, cleaning up debris, cleaning up a garden area that is out of rotation right now, etc. It said it was 113 degrees for here online. It sucked outside. We ended the day about 8pm as we started the day in the morning, checking on and taking care of cows, rabbits, dogs. It was a "light" day for us. We ALL worked. My son was raised to help out from the time he could walk. No Xbox, no whining teenage BS, just be a part of the family and help out. Living this way is WORK and we have more than a few conveniences now. If you took out having an alternate energy system that would mean washing clothes by hand, carrying water from a ground water source or from the hand pumped well in buckets, not having light to work into the night, power tools, etc. I will do whatever it takes to keep my energy system going as long as I can including EMP backups, because I realize how much more life would suck without some amount of power. Meanwhile, some dude with 3 cans of beans and a rifle who never leaves the AC says he's going to "thrive", get the fudge out of town!!! lol |
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Posted: 7/25/2017 12:51:19 PM EDT
[#17]
BTW, while in Friendship, IN, I met an Amish fellow who told me he plans to open a heritage school to teach 19th century skills. Live in the dark (power outage/black out) but bathe in the light (of knowledge and enligthenment).
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Posted: 7/29/2017 9:44:56 AM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
BTW, while in Friendship, IN, I met an Amish fellow who told me he plans to open a heritage school to teach 19th century skills. Live in the dark (power outage/black out) but bathe in the light (of knowledge and enligthenment). |
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