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

I bought this book after homesteading for the past few years. It's a good thing I didn't buy this book in the beginning. The author misspells Johnne's disease along with many other spelling errors and does not give information on curing it. She puts Houdan chickens in the dual purpose category, which in my opinion, Houdan's aren't big enough to be dual-purpose. Thirdly, she does not put any information on rainwater harvesting and storage, which is a critical part of self-sufficiency. This book is very vague and does not give the information needed to do anything on your own.

It is a pretty good book for showing you the mechanics of how to build and maintain different areas of the farm. It gives good information on how to raise different livestock. It is not something you would want to just read right through and go start a farm. It is more like something you could look at whenever you need some tips. The best way to learn how to start a farm would be to see if you could work on somebody you know's farm. Either just to help out or for an actual job.

This is a very handy reference to have. You could not call it exhaustive, but it does provide a dandy introduction to a wide variety of subjects. I still refer to it, usually to determine if a particular area is worth pursuing in detail or to decide on how I am going to approach a project. Say what you want about Storey's - they are a name brand and have made a good effort in reaching the livestock/animal husbandry market. Some of their books are the best available, some are not. But I can always count on them to give me a good starting point. If you want a smattering on a wide variety of subjects, get this book. If you know someone that would value such a reference, this makes an excellent gift.

I am about to purchase my first farm and this book give a little bit of information on a whole lot of subjects. Everything from outbuildings to farm animals to country recipes. You don't need to start at the beginning and read from cover to cover - you can pick and choose what you would like to read about. This is something that I will keep handy as a great reference guide.

I am so impressed with this book I am considering it as Christmas gifts for my son and perhaps a brother. I checked it out of the library and enjoyed it so much I purchased it.