# Looking for some book ideas/suggestions please.



## BigWolf (Jul 24, 2014)

I'm looking for some suggestions on what to read.

House building. 

I'm not very experienced when it comes to carpentry or basic house building. Basically building a simple home from scratch. I've never done it. I've built plenty of fences n decks but that's about as far as my building skills go.

Homesteading.

I've been looking at tons of info online and that's probably my best bet but still would be nice to have a book to share with my friend who is also planning on coming with whenever I can get this project started.


Gardening.

Yeah enough said I think I've only ever done small gardens and they weren't mind personally. Watermelons, squash. etc


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## unregistered358895 (Jul 15, 2013)

I got the Homesteader's Handbook. It has a lot of great information on many aspects of working the land.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

&#8220;Building for a Lifetime&#8221; from Taunton Press. It&#8217;s not about carpentry, it is about making your home handicap accessible from the word go. Wider doorways, closets that can be turned into elevators, how much room a wheelchair needs to turn around, etc.


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## DisasterCupcake (Jan 3, 2015)

The Resilient Farm and Homestead has some very good insights about how to start looking and planning your homestead, before you acquire or after. 

Any sort of gardening manual will do- gardening is more of an art than a science as each patch of soil is unique


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## keeperathome (Nov 2, 2015)

A fiction book series that my family enjoys and have learned a lot from is The Little House on the Prairie series. I know, not quite what you had in mind.


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

Amazon has lots of choices and you can read the reviews to see if they talk about what you're looking for.

Lots of used stuff there and very cheap sometimes used.

Some new books are interesting. But, a lot of our stuff is older and used and quite good, IMO.

Also, look on eBay and Etsy for old lots of magazines, especially if you're interested in something specific, tractors, poultry, etc. Sometimes you can get good deals on stuff that make interesting reading.

That's some of the ways we've built a bit of a home reference library. Good stuff.

Fwiw, don't forget to just start trying to do stuff to. I think homesteading is a bit like parenting ir being married, in that you can't learn about or get better at parenting or marriage if you don't have kids and take vows eventually!

Good luck, be well.


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## FrankD (Dec 25, 2016)

BigWolf said:


> I'm looking for some suggestions on what to read.
> 
> Gardening.
> 
> Yeah enough said I think I've only ever done small gardens and they weren't mind personally. Watermelons, squash. etc


It depends on what direction you choose, whether that is conventional, organic or biologic gardening / farming?

If you go over to *SARE's website* (organic type gardening) you can get all of their papers and most books shipped to you on a usb drive for under $10. It is a great site, lots of info and you can choose based on what area you are in. Don't forget to checkout their grants available to see if you qualify for anything.

Also "The Non Toxic Farming Handbook" is an excellent read, no matter what type farmer you are.

If you are more conventional or biologic there are other books, papers, and such you should read. Many are available as pdf books.


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