Oscar H. Will - Plowing with Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions

Praise for

Plowing with Pigs

From hogging stumps to outwitting weasels, Oscar and Karen Will know all the fun, sweat and tears needed to live off the land. Here, they generously share their hard-learned lessons. Newcomers to the world of homesteading have much to gain from reading this book.

SHANNON HAYES, author of Radical Homemakers
and Long Way on a Little

This book contains a wonderful collection of ideas and advice that will be invaluable to anyone whose goal is to build a more satisfying, sustainable life on the land. Hank and Karen Will are highly skilled farmers/gardeners/cooks/innovators who will teach you how to blend the best of modern tools with old-time country skills. Their you can do it attitude provides abundant inspiration and their clever ideas will save any homesteader a great deal of money.

CHERYL LONG, Editor-in-Chief, Mother Earth News

This book is a resource of limitless value. The Wills describe a life in which personal effort and ingenuity create beauty, health and sustenance. Their practical advice and first-person anecdotes provide an ideal guide for anyone interested in self-reliance and a naturally wholesome lifestyle. You wont find a better model for a life lived well.

BRYAN WELCH, Publisher & Editorial Director,
Mother Earth News, GRIT, Mother Earth Living

Leave it to Karen and Hank Will to write a great introductory book for the aspiring back-to-the-lander. In Plowing with Pigs the Wills cover everything from raising farm animals to growing crops, and from building farmstead improvements to cooking with farm-fresh produce. The Wills not only describe the how-tos of a small-scale farm or homestead in a way that is easy to follow, but also share many real-life lessons from their own experiences.

CAROL EKARIUS, author of Storeys Guide to Poultry Breeds

Whatever motivates your reach for greater self-sufficiencyan aspiration toward a more fulfilling life or the looming fractures in our economic systems you will find abundant practical guidance in Plowing with Pigs. Out of a deep well of hard-won and hands-on experience, Hank and Karen Will offer an impressive array of strategies, grounded in a few principles both profound and simple: using cost-free assets available on the farm or homestead, using domesticated animals as partnersand using our heads.

HARVEY USSERY, author of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

Whether youre an established homesteader or just thinking of a homesteading lifestyle, grab a cup of tea or coffee and curl up with this book. Hank and Karen are the friendly neighbors with sage advice that homesteaders relied upon a century ago. In creating their own sustainable farm, theyve discovered hundreds of practices that can make everyones homestead run more smoothly. (I cant wait to create my own chicken moat!) Plowing With Pigs should be on the shelf of everyone who wants to live a more self-reliant lifestyle.

DEBORAH NIEMANN, author of Homegrown and Handmade and Ecothrifty

PLOWING
with PIGS

PLOWING
with PIGS

AND OTHER CREATIVE, LOW-BUDGET HOMESTEADING SOLUTIONS

Oscar H. Will III & Karen K. Will

Copyright 2013 by Oscar H. Will III and Karen K. Will.
All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Boots image istock (akpakp); Pig image iStock (Tana26)

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-717-6
eISBN: 978-1-55092-523-4

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Plowing with Pigs should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.
To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
(250) 247-9737

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. The interior pages of our bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-registered acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-registered stock. New Society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Will, Oscar H., 1956-

Plowing with pigs : and other creative, low-budget homesteading solutions / Oscar H. Will and Karen K. Will.

Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-86571-717-6

1. Agriculture--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Farm life--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Self-reliant living. I. Will, Karen K. II. Title.

S501.2.W53 2013640C2012-907889-1

T oday, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending select books from New Society Publishers. For more than 30 years, Mother Earth News has been North Americas Original Guide to Living Wisely, creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature. Across the countryside and in our cities, New Society Publishers and Mother Earth News are leading the way to a wiser, more sustainable world. For more information, please visit MotherEarthNews.com.

I t would be impossible to name a ll of the people who have inspired us along the road to this project some of you know who you are, while others carried out their work through their writings. We would like to thank all of you for providing encouragement, mentoring, honest critique, and even constructive, yet gentle, criticism of our thought processes and approaches.

Wed especially like to thank friend, mentor, and Ogden Publications (GRIT, Mother Earth News, Mother Earth Living, etc.) founder and leader, Bryan Welch, for creating an environment that made it possible for us to thrive and hone our writing skills, and for offering us his complete support even to the extent of providing expert sheep-handling advice on many occasions. Bryan provided the opportunity for us to speak about the topics covered in the book at the Mother Earth News Fair events, which led to a fortuitous encounter with Heather Nicholas at New Society Publishers.

Heather graciously sat through one of our presentations, waited until all of the lingering questions were answered, then introduced herself and asked whether wed ever considered organizing our ideas into book form. Thank you, Heather, for encouraging us and leading us successfully through the book proposal process. Thanks also to the entire NSP crew. Weve not worked with a more gracious bunch of book publishing folks.