betterthansurvival

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A Blackberry Pie (2020)

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How to build a huge garden with a few hand tools.

1. Use an edger to slice the sod into squares.

2. Use a pickaxe to pull up the squares.

3. Flip the sod over and fit together like Tetris. While the first year you may battle grass trying to take root, most will decompose as you add mulch and compost. It will help create a fertile soil base when fertilizer is scarce/expensive.

4. Water it all down.

5. Measure 30 inch beds with about 6 inches in between and mark these paths. I used some river rock we had around.

6. Now add at least a couple inches of good soil or compost, making beds as level as possible.

7. Add mulch to paths. We used bark but straw, leaves, newspaper and cardboard work too.

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5 essential items you need for your prepper food storage that make you more food.

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- Robert Heinlein

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This awesome lady is awesomely building clay stoves. 

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What’s this? A healthy polyculture garden, which encourages plants to thrive and deters pests. Wonderful, yes?

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This book was scheduled for release in 2018 but I did not complete it because I recognize that the situation around climate change was so dire that a book like this may invite complacency. This draft has 66 pages of food and water information as well as factual climate change basics, but the truth is the next chapter was about disasters like weather, fire and pandemics, all of which we are seeing now. These chapters are available in its draft form for free download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZPehLiWUiSN5YH3ZHOk27HqvqlGEHt4W/view?usp=sharing

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Read the rest: How To Turn Your Home Into A School Without Losing Your Sanity

Comic by: LA Johnson / NPR This comic was adapted from an episode of Life Kit.

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A woefully outdated homeschool resource directory from 2011. Working to possibly update this in the future.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_vaZeTZtlrJLt_4sx8j4VQcCqzKXD3oM/view?usp=sharing

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A beautiful, comprehensive guide to going green and living sustainably.

Permaculture is an important but often misunderstood method of growing food and building homes in a manner that works with nature, rather than against it, to create beautiful, healthy, and useful gardens. Blending ecology, organic agriculture, green home design, appropriate technology, and biology can be confusing and overwhelming, but The Ultimate Guide to Natural Farming and Sustainable Living simplifies this vast field for practical application. This is a hands-on guide, taking the beginner through each step of the design process, so that anyone can apply permaculture principles to his or her life. While the principles are simple, the in-depth topics cover every aspect of permaculture, including:

Building green homes and passive solar design

Growing edible plant communities and forest gardens

Using no-till and natural farming methods

Creating microclimates for extended growing seasons

Raising livestock with ecological foraging techniques

This is a common-sense approach to sustainable living that creates a self-sufficient and low-effort home for the people that live there, whether in the city or the country.

“There is a lot of powerful information here for anyone on a homesteading quest, whether they are working with 1/4-acre or 140 acres.” —No Ordinary Homestead

Download for free:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nWDc_jGtbvLtqEhBhYGoUmygxKATfKcg/view?usp=sharing

[betterthansurvival]

The Ultimate Guide to Urban Farming

How to maximize your food production in an urban environment.

The idea of bringing agriculture into the city has been promoted by many on both sides of the political fence: proponents of sustainability and prevention of climate change as well as those who worry about government and social instability. To address the urgent need for a shift in the way our food is produced, The Ultimate Guide to Urban Farming offers a practical education in everything there is to know about city agriculture: how to grow a lot of food in any kind of urban living situation, from apartment to full-scale commercial venture.

Subjects covered include:

• Small scale vs. large scale agriculture • The economic, social, health, and environmental impacts of urban farming • Making the most of the space available • The latest technologies and developments in agriculture, including: hydroponics, vertical gardening, and aquaponics • Case studies and design concerns for community-based farming • The best plant species for cities and seasons • Beekeeping and small animals • Commercial agriculture and the business side of farming in a city environment

This comprehensive guide will introduce readers to the rewarding possibilities of growing their own food, as well as dispel the falsehood that says we need faraway factory farms to produce everything we eat.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/166tCQFc2UYlCw34i7Gd_LYYLzwPi9sCX/view?usp=sharing

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Can you make your own bread? Homeschool your kids? Grow a garden all winter? What can you use instead of toilet paper? What if the power was out for a month? What if the grocery store closed? Can you make a solar oven? A food storage? Raise a water buffalo? Make fine linen from stinging nettle? Is it possible to be totally self-sufficient? This book answers all these questions. All of the information included had to meet this criteria: It is something that ANYONE can do, without special training. It can be done with relatively few supplies, or with stuff you can make yourself. It came from a proven source of information (the military, real homesteaders, 19th c. books, doctors, etc.) This book is not a storybook or a cookbook. It is a practical guide with nitty gritty details on everything a homesteader can do, step-by-step with hundreds of illustrations. And you can do it! This book can help. 

As the author of this book I am releasing it for free download during this time when people need to know how to grow their own food:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QDZPut9pi4JYF8bpJYOQbbDFSu066HqF/view?usp=sharing