Who knew that anyone could write more than 100 pages about heating your home with wood? Well, that's exactly what Will Rolls did in the second edition of The Log Book: Getting the Best From Your Woodburning Stove. He is a forester who specializes in using wood as fuel. This book contains everything you ever wanted to know about combustion, the science of burning, buying a … [Read more...]
Review: The Resilient Farm and Homestead
Even though we live on a homestead and produce 100% of our own meat, dairy, eggs, maple syrup, honey, and a lot of our fruits and vegetables, I felt like a bright-eyed freshman as I read Ben Falk's The Resilient Farm and Homestead. He takes self-sufficiency to a whole new level, which he calls resiliency and regeneration. It is not about reducing your negative impact on the … [Read more...]
Review: Fields of Farmers
Joel Salatin's latest book, Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating, should be required reading for everyone who is interested in farming, even if they don't think they want to be a mentor or an intern. Many people have the mistaken idea that interns are merely free or cheap labor, which is a misconception that Joel repeatedly corrects throughout the … [Read more...]
Q&A with the author of Pure Poultry
Today we're chatting with Victoria Redhed Miller, the author of Pure Poultry: Living Well with Heritage Chickens, Turkeys and Ducks. And if you think that looks like a banty hen with turkey poults on the book's cover, you are correct. Living off-grid, Victoria sometimes has bantam hens hatch a variety of poultry, rather than using an electric incubator. Thrifty Homesteader: … [Read more...]
Rotational grazing
Unless you have a hundred acres for four or five goats, consider rotational grazing. It will make your pasture last longer and reduce the incidence of internal parasites in the goats. Rather than fencing in several acres for the goats and letting them spend the whole grazing season on that space, subdivide the pasture into smaller paddocks. The goats stay on one … [Read more...]