Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance

If you are looking for one book to serve as a comprehensive guide to nearly every aspect of living in the country and fending for yourself, then you atleast owe it to yourself to browse through this book atleast once; at a minimum, you should borrow it from the library for a peek. This book takes you from start to finish; dawn to dusk; season to season. It may not be as detailed in some areas as you may prefer but you can always find a book dedicated to areas in which you require more information. As a general resource, this book won't be perched on your bookshelf long enough to collect dust since you'll be picking it up on a regular basis.

This has been such a great help. It gave me lots of ideas for things I want to do, and gives me encouragement for what I am currently trying. I like the simple illustrations. All I would like more in this book is ... more. It's a great book to get started trying different things, although I do find other books with more detail after I get started. For example, making soap - great practical first-timer information in this book. Once I tried it, I went to the library and found more detailed books on soapmaking. But the Storey book is my best starter.

We bought this tome just a few weeks before moving from the city where we'd lived our entire lives to a 20-acre rural country place miles and miles from any city limits. For the first year especially, we kept this book out. You would be astonished at its contents. It describes the pros and cons of water wells, reusing dirt, planning land for gardens and barns, chicken problems, keeping goats, arranging around weather, tanning leather, insect control, tree problems to watch out for and their solutions, energy in places where the lines don't run, getting water from point A to B, storing grains and other foods, and... you NAME IT! This made our lives so much better. We didn't even use all the advice we read simply because one family can only do so much the first year they move into the country for the first time but this book was our comfort book in knowing that if we had problems, we'd find the solutions here.