I started reading this book last night.

It’s a good one.

End of review.

NewYorkTimes….sign me up.

I’m kidding…that would be a really crummy review.

This book deserves better than a crummy review.

I have a library full of this kind of book….but I’m not any farther along in my understanding of how to homestead.

Maybe I’ve internalized it all…and, when the moment comes and I’m staring our new cow in the face, all that stored knowledge will come back up to the surface when I need it.

I kind of suspect that I just have a bunch of books on sagging bookshelves, though.

I don’t know what I know.

I like Ben Hewitt….clear writing….humor….and a lot of good information that I haven’t read anywhere else….or…anywhere else collected like it is here.

He talks about fermenting as a food preservation method. That was something that I hadn’t seen in a homesteading book.

(A short PS….Jenny said, “What? People have been fermenting for years….” . That must have been something I wrote before I had my coffee.)

He talks about the “economics” of running a homestead….how much money it takes and how much value you get out of this kind of lifestyle.

He talks about value….even when it’s not financial value….or, maybe, especially when it’s not financial value.

He talks about raising a family and educating his children….or allowing them to educate themselves.

He talks about caring for the land….and living on it in a way that supports his family without harming it.

He talks about being conscious of the need to plan ahead for when he and his wife are older and still have to care for the homestead.

This is good stuff.

I’ve read a bunch of “homesteading books”….and I have a feeling that this is going to be one of my favorites.

And…reading this and the big box of Mother Earth News and Countryside magazines I found on the free table the day I checked out this book…I realize how long I’ve been obsessed with homesteading and farming.

That’s been such a strong interest for a bunch of years.

This book would be a good introduction to the subject if you’d never read anything about raising a family on a small homestead.

Here’s an Amazon link if you want to buy a copy through them….

 

Check out his website/blog….it’s excellent, too….. http://benhewitt.net/ .