"Back to Basics" Teaches Old-Fashioned Skills
How to Guide and Tips for Traditional Skills and Homesteading
Aug 13, 2008 Sallie Schaaf Borrink
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition by Abigail R. Gehring [Skyhorse Publishing, 2008] is for the person who wants to learn how to do it themselves in the homesteading kind of way.
Learning New Skills
Whether the motivation is loss of job, green living, peak oil, or the simple desire for a more self-sufficient lifestyle, more and more people are looking at the skills of old with increasing interest. While the current culture offers much in the way of technological advances, increasing numbers of people have found that technology doesn’t completely satisfy in the same way as the feeling of accomplishment in doing something by hand. The problem is that so many people who relied on these traditional skills are either long gone or have given them up. Therefore, most people don’t know anyone who can teach them the things they want to do.
For example, want to know how to build a smokehouse? Build a sauna? Erect a stone wall? Use solar or water energy? Handcraft a chair? Make a broom? Play simple old-time games? Make Sally Lunn? Sew a rag doll? Do windowsill farming? Create natural cosmetics in the kitchen? Make cottage cheese? If so, this is the book for you. Full of useful and step-by-step instructions, it covers many skills everyone took for granted only a couple of generations ago.
Homesteading Encyclopedia
Chock full of all kinds of old-fashioned skills, Back to Basics is a veritable treasure trove of helpful information for those who want to do things themselves or simply want to learn how things are done.
The book is divided into six parts:
- Land: Buying It—Building on It
- Energy From Wood, Water, Wind, and Sun
- Raising Your Own Vegetables, Fruit, and Livestock
- Enjoying Your Harvest the Year Round
- Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead
- Recreation at Home and in the Wild
Each part contains several subsections that go into more detail. Each page is lavishly illustrated with color and black and white photos as well as both color and black and white illustrations. The book is nicely designed and easy to read.
Research and Practice
Back to Basics is an excellent book for those starting to research simple living, self-sufficiency, off-grid living, or homesteading. While it does not cover every topic exhaustively, at 448 pages it is sure to contain information of interest to anyone and everyone looking to do more themselves and be less dependent on others. For further reading on this subject, see Saving Money with The Complete Tightwad Gazette and Book Review: The Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living.
Colorful Handmade Traditional Patchwork Quilt
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