{"id":1941,"date":"2008-07-20T15:31:26","date_gmt":"2008-07-20T22:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2023-11-05T11:16:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T18:16:55","slug":"back-to-basics-a-guide-to-traditional-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/back-to-basics-a-guide-to-traditional-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to basics: A complete guide to traditional skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on reader suggestions, Kris and I made a trip to Costco on Friday to buy bulk yeast and a fifty-pound bag of bread flour. (We’re serious about this whole home-made bread<\/a> thing.) While I waited for Kris to pick up some other groceries, I leafed through Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills<\/b><\/i><\/a> edited by Abigail R. Gehring. “Wow,” I thought. “I<\/i> am the target audience for this book.” I bought it.<\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Back to Basics<\/b> is a book about the simple life. It is about old-fashioned ways of doing things, and old-fashioned craftsmanship, and old-fashioned food, and old-fashioned fun. It is also about independence \u2014 the kind of down-home self-reliance that our grandparents and great grandparents took for granted, but that we moderns often think has vanished forever…<\/p>\n

At its heart Back to Basics<\/b> is a how-to book packed with hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, charts, tables, diagrams, and illustrations to help you and your family reestablish control over your day-to-day lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back to Basics<\/i> is not for everyone. If you have no desire to grow and prepare your own food, or to build your own furniture, or to practice voluntary simplicity, then there’s probably little of value here. But if, for whatever reason, you are drawn toward voluntary simplicity, this book offers a treasure trove of information.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Some of the topics in Back to Basics<\/i> will be too big for the average reader. Part one, for example, deals with buying land and building on it. But how many people will want to know how to convert trees into lumber or how to build with adobe?<\/p>\n

Other sections have broader appeal. Part two explains how to derive energy from wood, water, wind, and sun. It begins with an excellent discussion of how to make your home energy efficient, and then explores alternative energy sources. (My family heated our home with a wood-burning stove when I was a boy, so this brought back memories.)<\/p>\n

Nearly 150 pages of Back to Basics<\/i> are devoted to growing and preserving food. There’s a fine section on growing herbs, fruits, and vegetables, but the book also offers tips on beekeeping, fish farming (in a swimming pool!), and raising poultry and livestock.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

My favorite section is part four, “Enjoying Your Harvest the Year Round”, which offers tips on:<\/p>\n