The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Winter reading list

After we finish dicussing Folks, This Ain't Normal next week, I'm going to take a break from the book club and work through my winter reading list instead.  Although I won't break these books apart by week, I'll definitely be posting about each one after I finish it, so you're welcome to read along.  Here are the books that piled up all through the growing season:

It's a pretty ambitious reading list for what's left of the winter, especially since I always find more books that really, absolutely must be read right now to sneak into the pile.  Hopefully I'll have time to read most of these books before the spring gardening bug hits, though.

What's on your winter reading list?

Thank you all for your kind reviews of Trailersteading!  I'll admit I was a bit afraid to push the publish button because I wasn't feeling strong enough to deal with a lot of redneck bashing, so I've been very pleasantly surprised by responses to my newest ebook.  Your reviews inspire me to keep writing!


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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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I will be reading: Gias Garden again along with Bee Keeping For Idiots. For pleasure I want to read the autobiography of Mark Twain.

I ask need to finish 1quilt this winter and another 1 before next Christmas.

Comment by mona Mon Dec 31 09:30:47 2012
I was so excited to get my copy of Trailersteading and devoured it in about 36 hour's time. :-) You did a great job, and I feel very inspired after reading your work. Within a year of buying our place I started wishing we'd bought more land and less house. We live in a nice farmhouse on 2.36 acres of what amounts to prairie. Dairy goats are my biggest homesteading passion, and this land is not ideal for them. Your book has kindled a new excitement to pursue finding a place that fits our needs better.
Comment by Michelle Mon Dec 31 10:04:30 2012
I read Hit By A Farm and Sheepish and really enjoyed both. I just bought more books than I could possibly read, a problem of mine, and yours is one of them. Can't wait to start reading it.
Comment by Patti Mon Dec 31 11:03:06 2012

Sat down and read "Trailersteading" in basically one go Saturday. I just got notified that my review was approved by Amazon. When we first began considering using a trailer as an affordable way to move to our homestead, well, I was one of the people looking pretty far down my nose! I considered it a "last resort". You have opened my eyes! (And that was even before I read the book!).

It wasn't prejudice against folks who live in a trailer per se - I genuinely believed that trailers were "substandard" housing. You've changed my mind.

Comment by Neca Mon Dec 31 12:03:10 2012

I have just finished reading Trailersteading. I loved the information you provided and wish I had something similar 20 years ago when we out our first trailer for $1500 and moved onto our 3 acre property.

I finished the1 Acre Homestead this weekend as well. Although I was a bit disappointed in general it did help to reinforce some unclear concepts of permaculture. The home economics section would be excellent for most couples starting out but old news for us since we have already live through that phase of life.

Grow More Food was a good read although I am looking forward to following along with you. There is a wealth of information in the chart that make the book worthwhile. I will use the double dug method to breakup the clay/hardpan under the 2 inch of topsoil have before moving on to no till premie methods.

Last month's book was Holistic Orchard. A lot of good ideas in this one. I have started preparation for 20 fruit trees for next year's planting. A year of manure/leaves aided by deep rooted cover crop should help this effort along. Long range plans for a densely planted forest garden in this area.

I just started Eliot Coleman's New Organic Grower. Although it is more geared for market growing it does have quite a bit of useful information on rotation, cover crops and useful homemade gadgets. There is enough useful information to take way no mater which technique you choose to follow although I am positive a hybrid is more in line for me.

I will be reading Gaia's Garden with you. Hopefully this will help fIll out the forest garden plans. This area will cost more than any other so I don't want to make too many mistakes. My biggest concern right now is the nagging thought... "is 20 tree forest orchard garden really considered starting small?"

Comment by Tom Tue Jan 1 06:46:02 2013

I am currently reading Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. I have a few others in the queue as well- including Folks, This Ain't Normal.

Have you ever considered raising ducks or quail? Seems like quail especially would be an easy way to keep some meat around.

Comment by J Thu Jan 10 18:42:43 2013
J, We've vaguely considered both (along with pigeons and rabbits), but branching out into new species is a big commitment. Of course, they'd probably all be easier than the pigs we may try this year, but pigs have the benefit of slaughtering one big animal and getting it done with. We already do a lot of chicken slaughtering --- I'm not sure I'd want to add on another small animal unless we decreased our chickens.
Comment by anna Fri Jan 11 11:51:31 2013





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