Nicole Faires - The ultimate guide to homesteading: an encyclopedia for independent living

Introduction

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When
you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Lao Tzu

This book is a guide for those who are seeking useful knowledge on how to live a life that is real, with the freedom to focus on what is truly important. There is no skill more important than self-reliance and being prepared for any situation.

The information contained in this book is meant as a starting guide. Some of the activities described may be dangerous, or even possibly illegal where you live (for example: producing ethanol or growing hemp). I cant accept any responsibility for what might happen when you try some of them. The information provided is as accurate as possible and I hope that it will do some good.

My goal for this book was this: If you had nothing, and suddenly had to survive in the world by doing everything yourself, what would you need to know? What if you lived in an apartment and suddenly the grocery store was empty? Or you had no gasoline and couldnt drive to work and had to survive without any money? What if you lived in a rural area and wanted to get off the grid? Or you wanted to live with as little impact on the earth as possible? Preparedness is not just about having enough food to eat for a year; its about living as well as you can in less-than-wonderful circumstances.

I have included simple instructions from a variety of resources, including pioneer techniques and nineteenth-century expertise, as well as military survival, and organic agricultural methods. The most efficient, long-term, and cheapest method of survival is a vegetarian lifestyle that uses animals to work the ground. A homestead, as I define it, is any location in which all the necessities of life are being produced on site. Your suburban house, your apartment, or your houseboat could be a homestead if you utilize your space. If you grow most of your food, create the things you need to live, and use the resourcefulness of the early homesteaders that built North America, then youre a homesteader too.

I dont guarantee that anything in here will help you during Armageddon, but it might make the quality of your life a bit better. The simple skills that I describe here are also organic and earth-friendly, so even if you arent in bad circumstances, this book might help make you and your world a bit healthier. Human breast milk has been found to contain over 350 man-made chemicals that are ingested by a mom and then passed on to her baby. An apple you buy at the grocery store may have been treated up to forty times with any of 100 chemicals in use by industrial farms today. And thats just your food; it doesnt count the air you breathe, the chemicals you clean with, or the synthetic materials in your clothes.

The purpose of this book is to provide the knowledge you need to live well with absolutely nothing.although having a pocketknife to get started might help. When following the instructions, it is important to remember that unlike most homesteading guides, this one is meant to be an instruction manual. Please read the instructions through carefully, then do each step one at a time. Sometimes you may have to figure some stuff out for yourself, and I guarantee that everything in here takes practice. Gardening, pottery, weaving, woodcarving.these are all art forms that some people take a lifetime to learn. Be patient with yourself and take the time to do things right. Dont forget to use the handy dictionary in the back of the book if you run into a word you dont know. I would also suggest investing in some good plant guides (both wild and garden varieties), because this is a book about taking action, and not about plant identification. So get going! Good luck, my friend, and may you find peace on your journey.

N. F., 2011

Success is relative. It is what we can make of the
mess we have made of things.

T. S. Eliot