THE HOMESTEAD SURVIVAL SKILLS BOOK

Learn the skills your great-grandparents knew, one clear step at a time.

The Homestead Survival Skills Book is a practical guide to 112 hands-on skills for growing food, keeping animals, storing water, putting up the harvest and getting through hard times. It works on a quarter acre in town or forty acres at the end of a gravel road.

Every skill starts on a new page and follows the same simple plan:

• A quick card: how hard it is, how long it takes and roughly what it costs


• A list of materials with real sizes and amounts


• Numbered steps, each with the reason behind it


• A safety note right where the danger is


• A "what to do if it goes wrong" section


• A labeled drawing you can follow while you work

Inside you will learn how to:

• Plan your land: read sun, slope, water and wind, and decide where the garden, coop and woodpile should go


• Build healthy soil: compost, worms, cover crops and no-dig beds


• Grow a kitchen garden: start seeds, save seeds and plant fruit trees


• Water off the grid: catch, store, filter and safely treat water


• Raise animals: chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, pigs and bees


• Preserve the harvest: can, ferment, dry, freeze, cure and store food the tested, safe way


• Cook from scratch: bread, butter, yogurt, broth and maple syrup


• Heat, light and power: cut firewood, run a wood stove safely and set up a small solar system


• Tools and repairs: sharpen tools, fix fences, mend clothes and repair leaks


• Healthier living: first aid, ticks, heat and safe lifting on the homestead


• Hard times: plan for storms and power outages, with a 72-hour kit and a first-month plan

Old ways are not always safe ways. Where science has caught up with tradition, this book gives you the tested method. The numbers come from the USDA, university extension services, the CDC and other public sources named in each skill.

Also included: 135 labeled drawings, a measurement conversion chart, a cooking temperature table and a season-by-season homestead calendar.

You do not need to learn all 112 skills. Start with the one that solves a real problem on your place this year.