Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Recommended country life reading

I know I’m not the only one of us who enjoys reading the venerable Countryside and Small Stock Journal, the Magazine of Modern Homesteading. Come on people…admit it!

You don’t have to live in the country to practice many of the sustainable living/homesteading ideas presented by readers in this magazine. A sampling of topics in recent issues that caught my eye:

• Chicken feed and pig slop options
• Tightwad Grandma happy to embrace self-sufficiency
• Raising your own backyard pig
• What can be done about “attack” roosters?
• Make a homemade boot scraper
• Grow Shiitakes on a Log
(or on toilet paper under your bathroom sink)

and something I simply must try:
• Build a $10 chicken plucker

(the photography often leaves something to be desired, but if this was a better photo of the chicken plucker, it might be too graphic for a family-oriented blog like this).
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Ever been tempted to try and build a house for under $5000? This magazine will explain all the details, plus it often includes plans and instructions that would make the project a breeze—as long as aesthetics or modern building standards are not high priorities for you.

A word of caution: practicing some of the techniques described in articles may violate local and federal laws, like brewing your own moonshine, or damming a local creek for your power supply.

It is always fun when readers animatedly debate controversial subjects such as whether the internet is the work of the devil.

But occasionally there are suggestions for ideas to save a few dollars that make one wonder if it might be better to just spend the money after all. For example, the following item, excerpted from an article sent in by a reader in the July/Aug 06 issue, entitled “Uses for old tee-shirts”:
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"Cut tee shirt from armpit to armpit, put elastic in the 'waist' and use a hemmed sleeve for the crotch, and you have underwear."
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I know—this post started out as a recommendation of the magazine, but to be perfectly clear, this does not mean I stand behind every single idea people contribute. In fact, it might be time this person consider finding a normal job that could fund a more flattering pair of underwear.
But to each his own.

3 comments:

  1. No way! I remember seeing that magazine around your house. I should have read it then since all those ideas sound great! I think if I can find the Jul/Aug issue, I'll cut out the underwear article and post it on the helpful household hint bulletin board in the coffee room at work.

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  2. Anonymous9:03 PM

    As a member of your family in Los Angeles, we have come to the conclusion that you must be kidnapped and reprogrammed immediately.

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  3. I can't imagine why you would say that!

    That's it, for Hannukah, it's homemade underwear for you all!

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