Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard farming and home skills for self-sufficient living

LITTLE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS

BACKYARD FARMING AND HOME SKILLS FOR SELF-SUFFICIENT LIVING

DEANNA CASWELL AND DAISY SISKIN

CONTENTS

This little chapter is about the why and why not of simple living. Theres a whole host of reasons to give it a shot. Simple living is good for your familys health, for the body, the soul, and the planet. The best news is its low commitment (unlike that gym membership or your cell phone plan).

Learn how to make a simple raised bed in an afternoon and get years of great produce with very little effort. Find foolproof plants and help them thrive with fertilizing ingredients you can find around the house. Plus learn the basics of composting and pest control and overcome the special concerns suburban gardeners face.

Chickens are easy to care for and terribly useful. They eat all your scraps, bugs, and weeds and turn them into eggs! This quick chick primer shows you how to get them, how to keep them, and how to feed them. Plus learn how to research community code concerning backyard birds.

Mini-goats are awesome pets. No claws, no top teeth, and they mow for you! This chapter covers how to select, care for, and feed a good goat. Plus house them and make goats-milk products.

Well show you a super low maintenance way to keep bees without alarming the neighbors or endangering your children. Learn how to safely harvest honey, without upsetting or inconveniencing your bees, and find great ideas for using all that glorious beeswax youll collect!

After weve all shaken our heads at the mountains of fake food in our lives, well give you about twenty-five recipes weve used for homemade spices and flavoring, and then take you through some basic freezing, canning, and drying techniques.

Forget the facial scrubs, moisturizers, and hair treatments. This chapter covers the items you use every dayshower gel, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, and lotion. Youll also learn how to fearlessly face soapmaking. Lye isnt that big a deal.

There is no need for special factory-baked cleaners unless youre afraid of elbow grease. Basic home cleaning formulas cost pennies to make. Youll also find some ways to simplify your housework (like caring lessHA! Just kidding.)

A well-done handmade gift is giving your thought, time, and effort to make something really special that no one else would make. This chapter gives ten different gift-basket ideas with the accompanying projects to get you going.

This chapter is about rebuilding that interdependence through swaps and co-ops. Well tell you how to build them, maintain them, and keep them running smoothly. Get the help you need without feeling like youre imposing on anyone. And build relationships that will last forever.

Not everyone goes for our lifestyle. This chapter will help you make choices that dont disturb the family way of life. Also in this chapter, well help you deal with those not-so-friendly neighbors.

INTRODUCTION

SELF-SUFFICIENCY SUBURBAN STYLE

Most people think that to live a simple life, you have to quit your job, sell your house, and move to the boonies.

Thats a bunch of hooey.

When you reminisce about the simpler times, before the industrial revolution heralded in the age of convenience and consumerism, remember that not everyone lived on a farm. Consider the village blacksmith, the schoolteacher, and the general-store owner. Maybe some had a garden or some had chickens, but they lived in town and had jobs. The town cobbler wasnt saying, Boy, I need to get back to basics and quit making shoes. I need to move to the country and start farming so I can sustain myself. These people lived simple, self-reliant lives within city limits.

And so can you.

Plenty of books out there will tell you how to thrive in the boonies: building cabins, digging wells, slaughtering your own meat, and growing grain. This book is not one of those. This book is about those simple-living behaviors that fit easily into a typical suburban neighborhood.

Humans are makers. We always have been. We look at our environment and build, mix, or cobble what we need. But presently we dont need to make much, and when we do make something, its as a hobby not a necessity. Weve lost touch with that take-care-of-yourself-ness that people had before discount megamarts.

Make one batch of lotion or soap and see how good you feel. Its like having super-powers. That sense of confidence and accomplishment is what years of comfort have taken away from us.

Again, there are plenty of books out there about remaking your universe from little more than tree sap, birch bark, and a can-do attitude. That lifestyle will certainly give you back your sense of self-reliance, and make no mistake, we think those books are cool, but this just isnt one of them.

Remember the village schoolteacher we talked about? Theres plenty of empowerment to be had within the town limits. Were not advocating going whole hog, but we are advocating filling that little need we all have to stay in touch with our resourceful side. Its about finding what weve lost, having fun, and stopping when youve had enough.

Page through this book and learn how things are made. Then try your hand at a few. Dont worry about screwing it up. We sure have. And none of this stuff is carved in stone. Sure, we tested and re-tested the recipes for you, but we dont know everything, yet. So, jump in! If something doesnt work out, blame us and try something else.

You dont have to go as far as we have, raising plants and egg-laying hens, but try making a fruit roll-up or some mayo. Youll never get over the sense of accomplishment you get when you make something with your own two hands out of stuff around the house. Did you know that you can make a Pop-Tart? Deanna found a recipe online just the other day. Amazing!

Theres a good, wholesome sense of empowerment and grown-up-ness that comes with being able to create from scratch something you previously thought was hatched in a store.

We sincerely hope that this book does several things for you:

First, that you, like us, have that wonderful, you-can-really-make-that-stuff? experience. Theres a childlike joy in finding out that things arent born in boxes.

Second, that you find at least three things in here that can become part of your life and give you the satisfaction of having made something yourself.

And finally, most of all, we hope this book gives you a greater sense of power and control over your world.

Theres something comforting in knowing that weve equipped ourselves to look at our environment and, out of it, make something we want or need. That training reassures us that if we were in a crisis or dropped on a desert islandor that zombie apocalypse Deannas husband keeps practicing for on the Xbox ever happenswed be better prepared to function.

So why go self-sufficient suburban style?

Superpowers.

Fine. Family health and superpowers.