About this title: Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills--and enjoy a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle--need look no further than this eminently useful guide that features hundreds of projects and old-fashioned fun. Full-color and b&w photographs throughout.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Brand New. Hardcover. Newly updated, the 100s of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, & illustrations will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, & make treats such as blueberry peach jam & cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead. 2, 000 Color & 200 B&W Photos; 11x8.5 inches, 464 pgs. read more
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Brand New! Support Radical Independent Pacific Northwest Booksellers! Sewn binding. Paper over boards. 456 p. Contains: Illustrations. Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills. Audience: General/trade. Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills the kind employed by our forefathers and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide. Countless readers have turned to Back to ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, New York
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781602392335ISBN:1602392331
Description: Very Good ++ Glossy durable hardcover, 456 pages, extensively illustrated with full colour and black-and-white photographs and drawings; book is new but is bumped at bottom hinge corner of back cover and spine. read more
"Hats off to the editors and publisher of this awesome collection of more traditional skills, some of which are fast fading into memory. The book begins with locating and fashioning the home itself, detailing how to dig footers and a well, raise a log home, build a fireplace and moves on to gardening and pruning.
The reader is also instructed in obtaining and maintaining food sources, such as geese, ducks and rabbits, as well as canning, pickling, salting and smoking foods for the coming winter ahead. The intricacies of braided rugs and patchwork quilts are explained, as well as the art of making moccasins, baskets, simple furniture, brooms, candles, soap and natural cosmetics. Learn how to spin your own wool and dye the fleece with dozens of natural dyes.
Although practice will certainly improve the reader's skills, there is enough information contained in this book to launch an individual in the wilderness or on a rustic farm with a good measure of success. This is a must read for those who embrace a more traditional lifestyle and is a real asset to one's permanent library."
"I loved this book. I wish I could convince my husband to move to the country so I can use more of it. But until then, I'll just dream of a big garden where I can grow all of our wheat and vegetables, some fruit trees...well, that's pretty much it. I can't really get on board with the cow thing because in order to keep a cow lactating it has to have a baby every year and guess what happens to that baby? Sold for veal. So sad. I can't do it. I would want to keep all the babies and then we'd be running a cattle ranch.
Aside from lofty amibtions like completely living off the land, this book has a TON of good information for home food production and preservation, gardening (even for us apartment dwellers), and simply good skills. I love it."
"This book is AMAZING. I can't believe how thorough it is, and how much information is packed into one book. It's incredible, and fantastic. The color illustrations and pictures really take this book higher than some other similar books, as well as the level of detail with which everything is treated (not too much, just enough). This is something Chris and I decided to buy because it will be endlessly helpful when we build our own house and do the homestead thing."
"Completely packed with information. Most of it concerning things I don't need to ever know (building your own log cabin) but eternally fascinating. I'm always amazed at the wide range of skills people used to have, but have been lost along the wayside as we move to a more specialized society."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
