The Old Books

[Altjaeger]

Remember back in the 1960s-1980s when every Waldens and B. Daltons had a "nature" section with at least one shelf dedicated to the "homesteading life style"?

Those days are gone but as I was look in my book shelves I was thinking that I bet you could still find many of those old books at Amazon used and value priced. Some of my favorites where "One Acre and Security" by Bradford Angier, the "Foxfire" series and "Raising Small Livestock" by Jerome Belanger. At that time "Mother Earth News" was a homesteaders publication complete with layouts for whole farmsteads and not the slick mag it is today. Then there were numerous books on how to build your own home using logs and alternative methods such using strawbales and cordword masonry. Also the production of power by wind and water to help you get off of or reduce your dependence on the grid was not an uncommon topic.

How many still have those old books and what were some of your favorites?

[ncboman]

When I got out of the Air Force I moved up into the Arkansas Ozarks (Yellville). There were a lot of Mother Earthers (hippys) up there tryin to do all sorts of things.

As I told one of em, you guys are trying to learn to do what I've been doin all my life already. :rolleyes:

I enjoyed the back to nature lifestyle but there sure weren't no money in it.

I might have a whole box of old Mother Earth News mags in the attic someplace along with the Foxfire books and others. I like the old ways.

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:)

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I have the foxfire series and subscribed to MEN for a lot of years. nc is right, there weren't no money in it, but then again I didn't owe anybody anything either. I weighed 190# and didn't like air conditioning. I never wore a watch and the sun told me when to start and stop work. When it was just me and #1 wife our needs were simple and our wants were few. Babies change all that. I had to start "Workin for the Man" because Pampers don't grow on trees or vines. We tried the cloth diaper thing and it worked great but it is a lesson in humility that I am glad is over. I did learn all the ways you can't get rid of Pampers though. They don't burn well and if the burning barrel doesn't get burned and it rains, they turn into "The Blob that wouldn't Die".

Windmills for water are great too......... until they stop pumping. Then it's all work. Party line telephones and electricity that goes off when it rains are sure easy to leave behind too. I won't even go into animals. The week after I sold the last cow I didn't know what to do with myself. I had all this time on my hands.

I've got lots of other books too that deal with lost arts and activities.

I did dig up a little patch of garden (by hand!) for #1 wife today. I'll do the rest as soon as I get the tiller running.

Alan

[Altjaeger]

Moving around in the military I never lived it. I enjoyed reading the lifestyle which is a lot more romantic than doing it.:)

As I look at my shelves I see over a dozen books on topics from animal husbandry, gardening, alternative construction and more. I also have various "living in the wilderness" and survival books.

It just reminded me that these books just are not in style anymore.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

It just reminded me that these books just are not in style anymore.


That's cause the lifestyle is not "in style" any more. Like nc said, many of us were doing all those things and our families had been doing them since when. the "Back to Nature" push come on and all of a sudden "hog killin" is in vogue! My generation got a slight reprieve from the "milkin" chores but as soon as I got out on my own I got back into it. (never was much of a milker though. Just didn't work out.) I was fortunate that my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother still lived at the ranch out in BFE and I guess they found it amusing that I actually wanted to come out there and do all the things they did because they "had to" but I was doing them because I "wanted to".

Now days I have a hard time giving deer meat away when I get more than I have freezer space for. No one knows how to cook it, much less what to do with a dead deer. I'm exaggerating of course but the numbers of people who can skin and cook a rabbit are dwindling fast. I'll bet there weren't 25 cottontails eaten in Goliad proper last year.(The actual number was probably much less than that but I was being generously optimistic) It's just too easy to get a Whataburger and not deal with all the muss and fuss of cleaning and cooking an animal.

Who really wants to scratch around in the dirt for a few tomatoes and peppers when they are so easily had IF you want to eat that sort of thing. All you gotta do is slide that "Texas Star Card" and you can get T-Bones. Why do without just for the sake of it.

Oh well, enough old codgering for one night. Might go dig out a few of those books.

Alan

[ncboman]

Some of them hippies didn't even know you have to gut and skin a goat before you can roast it. :D

... and then there were the smart ones that had read about it and had the book with em. :rolleyes:

if that weren't a green crowd, grown people too. ... :D

I took a couple them guys on snipe hunts while I drank homemade brandy with their wimmins ... one of em snipe hunted several times, never did get one. :confused:

It was a lot of fun showin em stuff but they were mostly rich kids tryin to learn poor livin for fun and accomplishment. I never had it like that, so I finally left and went to Texas to make some money. :rolleyes:

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

My parents saw college education as a way out of skinning skunks and possums for a nickel/hide and they did very well. I guess a lot of the affliction must be genetic because they couldn't keep me out of the woods or off the water. As well as my dad did, he was and still is, a do-it-yourselfer for nearly everything. In the last 10 years he has kinda slowed down though and calls in people to take care of roofing and water wells and such. We always had a garden and I was always intimately involved in all the work that went on around the house. There was no shortage of animals to skin or fish to clean but it certainly wasn't because we had to have them to live.

I went off to college and it took me 2 1/2 years to convince the Admissions Dept. at Louisiana Tech that Guitar Playing and Squirrel Hunting were not Major courses of study. I moved to South Texas and began ranching and "homesteading" while working on a drilling rig. I alternated ranch work and oilfield jobs and self-employment for too many years all the while tying my little kingdom together with bailing wire all the while burdening myself with pigs/goats/chickens/guineas/ducks/cows/horses/dogs/cats. We did have a fairly large garden that I believe actually produced more than the work put into it. I hunted when I wanted and made a lot of sausage because I got to determine my sausage making days by taking off when it was "hog killin" weather.

Like I said before, babies changed all that and actually we didn't move from the ranch until the oldest was in 1st grade. School is important and sometimes it's important enough to change your lifestyle. Sometimes the lifestyle change involves a person who thought that advancement should be based on merit and accomplishment and hard work changing their attitude and getting a Master of Education degree. Stranger things have happened. Oh well.

I sure long for the day when I can go back to waking up in the morning and living that way again. I often tell people that I retired when I was 20 until I was 35, and now I have to work for the rest of my life. The humor in that statement is fleeting, especially since I have to go get ready for work right now, but it made for some great memories.

Alan

[Sidekick]

I'm a little younger than you guys but I'll bet my childhood wasn't much different. We raised all our own food, did our own butchering and my Mother made most of our clothes. I've never had a storebought blanket except for when I was in the service. I'm always constantly amazed and dismayed at all the things people don't seem to understand anymore. Self sufficiency at a practical level is something that I take great pride in but it is becoming a lost art.

[Hi Ball]

Alt......I know what your saying and we do have a few of those books downstairs in the basement. I don't think our kids ever read any of them but they sure did get to learn a few things in that 1/2 acre garden we kept in the backyard as they grew up.

Also a lot of the old home remedies seem to be "gone with the wind" you might say! My wife has been to 2 dozen doctors about her cough and nobody has really put a handle on the problem. She has taken dozens of tests too! However, she now takes "Apple Cider Vinegar" 3 times a day and it cuts her coughing problem down by at least 50% and that figures out to about 15-cents a day for medication.;):)

[Altjaeger]

I remember cider and Fox Fire talked a lot about kerosene for many things. My Grandmother was one of those believers. before I was born she was bit by a copperhead picking blackberries. She soaked it in kerosene several days until the swelling went down.

I don't think my kids ever read any of my books either. ;-)

[Hi Ball]

Oh No! please enough of those darn "copperheads" :eek::(

They been dealing me a fit this summer and I have had 5 different dogs bitten by those snakes. It seems as one particular female (ready to give birth I suspect) took over a chipmunk hole near our garage walk-in door. There are flowers planted their too. I got the 44 mag pistol and eliminated that one, when I saw it's head come out of that hole.

We have killed a total of 3 so far but there is one big one around and I just can't seem to find the critter. I suspect he is behind the kennel near the wooded area (lots of leaves for camo etc) our house is 60 yards from the dog kennel. No deaths have ever been reported from a copperhead bit but man do you swell up big!:)

[LampLighter]

I'm exaggerating of course but the numbers of people who can skin and cook a rabbit are dwindling fast. I'll bet there weren't 25 cottontails eaten in Goliad proper last year.(The actual number was probably much less than that but I was being generously optimistic) It's just too easy to get a Whataburger and not deal with all the muss and fuss of cleaning and cooking an animal.



:(:(:( don't eat my fi fi


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