The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide

This is a wonderful book that teaches you everything you want to know about living the self-sufficient life (hence, the name of the book). I am a retired Navy guy and settled down for some country living with my wife and two boys and this book just opened up my eyes to how much I truly don't know about living on a farm. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to get back to basics. Word of warning when thinking about buying more of John Seymour's books, two of his titles are exactly the same on the inside, only the covers are different. Why he did that, I do not know. The books are "The NEW complete book of SELF-SUFFICIENCY" (The classic guide for realists and dreamers) and the other is "Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" (The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide) These are the exact same books, don't waste your money on both like I did! Happy Reading!

No book can be all things to all people, but this one is pretty darn close. I've been a homesteader off and on for 25 years, and I've bought a lot of books, but this one is the best I've found. Lavishly illustrated in full color, this DK book includes plenty of information for the beginner as well as the more experienced back-to-the-lander. My husband and I especially love the 1-Acre Plan and 5-Acre Plan, well illustrated with how the land should be divided up for maximum fertility and efficiency. We really like the instructions for sheep shearing which are half the work of what the Storey Guide tells you to attempt! We also enjoy the author's sense of humor and sense of what's important (and rejection of what's overemphasized in modern society). There is so much information in here that there's no way to absorb it in one sitting -- it's an extremely interesting and well-illustrated encyclopedia of self-sufficient living and an essential addition to your homestead library. The only negatives are that it's written from a British perspective (some of the circumstances and animals are different here in the US) and that it isn't truly a 100% complete guide for all homesteaders wanting all information about everything related to rural living. But as I said before, what book can be? This one comes very, very close, and before long you'll find that it's becoming dog-eared and marked, smudged with garden soil, splashed with recipe ingredients, and worn in very nicely like a comfortable pair of practical shoes.

I am sure it is not the quentisential guide to all details pretaining to self sufficiency but in my humble city born and raised opinion, this is the perfect intro to all things self sufficient! This will get you started on everything, and from there read up on each subject individually by their own specialists. I think this is wize anyway since not one person can literally posses the knowledge on everything..or at least in a way that will go in to depth on problems! The book starts out with diagrams of several possible farm solutions, the city farm, the comunity farm, the 1 acre farm and the 5 acre farm. We just purchased a house with 6 acres and this is just what we needed to make the daunting task of turning a blank peice of land into our dreams! I hope you all will get as much from this book as I have in the 2 hours I just spent browsing it! I know that when I really dig into this book I will find it a valuable resource! Yeah for self sufficency!!

This is an excellent purchase if your intention is to liveon a farm and survive off the land. The author defines self-sufficiency and then goes about presenting hundreds of examplesof how to perform every kind of survival task. There is asection on how to tie knots. The work describes brewing,power generation from H2 O , as well as the wind. An entiresection describes soil types; such as, heavy clay, loam,sand, peat and sowing seeds in late spring. This work is perfectfor the city person who knows nothing about basic survivalin the country or the wilderness. The author teaches virtuallyevery basic skill applicable to living outdoors. The bookis a worthy addition to any personal library.

Buy this book --- it's the real deal --- It's the 25 year-old-version updated beautifully. (I had the old one, but lost it along the way) All the fine line drawing are here, plus many colored faux wood-block illustrations.Contents are as follows --- Foreword. Introduction.Chapter 1 -The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency. Chapter 2 - Food from the Garden. Chapter 3 - Food From Animals. Chapter 4- Food From The Fields. Chapter 5 - Food From the Wild. Chapter 6 - In The Dairy. Chapter 7 - In The Kitchen. Chapter 8 - Brewing & Wine-Making. Chapter 9 - Energy & Waste. Chapter 10 - Crafts & Skills. Chapter 11- Things You Need To Know. Contacts & References. (many of these) Glossary. Index.John Seymour also passes along much new wisdom, such as finding and working with other like-minded persons and urban gardening information. It's an absolutely excellent book, all 312 pages of it. It's a positive and uplifting expression of self-sufficiency that the world sorely needs.