7.18.2008
Some reading
I finished re-reading Gene Logsdon's The Contrary Farmer, which was great inspiration in so many ways. One of the things that was interesting was noting how some of Gene's ideas have changed in the twenty years since his writing of Homesteading. One issue is the size of the ideal homestead. In his first book he sort of makes the case for a small homestead, somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 10 acres. In the Contrary Farmer he says that you should get as much land as possible, because land isn't getting any cheaper. I think Gene is farming on 32 acres now.
We picked up Storey's Basic Country Skills with all kinds of information in it. They make the case for a small homestead, 5 or acres or less. I think I am inclined towards about 15 acres at this point.
I mostly read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. In truth I skimmed the last 60 pages or so because I lost interest. What I liked most about the book was that the author
lived in the region where we would like to relocate. When I read most of the other homesteading type books they are written by authors living in the northeast or midwest. But this book had specific gardening information for southwest Virginia, which was great. The book has alot of great points about gardening, cooking and food in general.
We also finally bought The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing. I started reading it and am enjoying it so far. I love stone buildings and hope to at least build a small building that way with my boys some day.
I finished re-reading Gene Logsdon's The Contrary Farmer, which was great inspiration in so many ways. One of the things that was interesting was noting how some of Gene's ideas have changed in the twenty years since his writing of Homesteading. One issue is the size of the ideal homestead. In his first book he sort of makes the case for a small homestead, somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 10 acres. In the Contrary Farmer he says that you should get as much land as possible, because land isn't getting any cheaper. I think Gene is farming on 32 acres now.
We picked up Storey's Basic Country Skills with all kinds of information in it. They make the case for a small homestead, 5 or acres or less. I think I am inclined towards about 15 acres at this point.
I mostly read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. In truth I skimmed the last 60 pages or so because I lost interest. What I liked most about the book was that the author
lived in the region where we would like to relocate. When I read most of the other homesteading type books they are written by authors living in the northeast or midwest. But this book had specific gardening information for southwest Virginia, which was great. The book has alot of great points about gardening, cooking and food in general.We also finally bought The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing. I started reading it and am enjoying it so far. I love stone buildings and hope to at least build a small building that way with my boys some day.
