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The essential primer for first-time farmers, each chapter spotlights a single animal. You'll learn what type of housing and how much land your animals need, what to feed them, how to breed them and how to handle routine healthcare.

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Make your own bent willow furniture by following these step-by-step instructions. You can master this technique, traditionally passed down from generation to generation with this illustrated book. Start your own DIY bent willow projects today.

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Chicken coops come in all sizes and styles to meet the needs of every chicken family. Start a great DIY project, build a chicken coop with these how-to drawings and conceptual plans for 45 different designs — from strictly practical to flights of fancy — guaranteed to meet the needs of every chicken owner. A 16-page color section shows detailed photos of many of the featured coops.

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When photographer Paul Mobley set out to capture the soul of America's farming communities, he discovered a culture defined by tradition, integrity, and hard work, and comprised of the most authentic and generous individuals he's ever encountered. Traveling across the country from Tennessee to Montana, Mobley and his camera were welcomed into the homes of over one hundred farming families, who graciously shared their personal histories along with the fruits of their labor. To spend time with them was to turn back the clock — to an era when there were no locks on doors, no urban sprawl, and no virtue more prized than common decency. Children still move across the street and not across the state when they grow up, and parents move back in with their children whern they grow old. Story after story, visit after visit, Mobley slowly came to know the independent farmer's spirit both from behind the lens and over the dinner table.

The result is a stunning series of portraits and direct quotes that collectively chronicle the life of the American farmer. Each image offers an unvarnished and intimate look inside the hardships and joys of a quickly disappearing lifestyle —one that once defined our national identity and now struggles just to keep a foothold. And even as encroaching cities threaten their livelihoods, these men and women continue to find sustenance in the same basic human values they were raised with. American Farmer is an inspirational reminder of what it means to live with simplicity and contentment, in a world that is driven by excess. This vivid portfolio is accompanied by anecdotes and memories in the farmer's own words that are both a testament to their enduring hospitatlity and a moving glimpse into their daily routines and family histories. But what you will read first, and foremost, are their faces. From Bruce Crump, a citrus farmer in Florida; to Patsy Fribley, a stockyard dealer from Montana; to Thurston Wilber, a Maine lobsterman, Mobley's intense and beautiful portraits capture the furrows of fields lining their brows, the crevices of drought creasing the corners of their mouths, and the grains of truth in their squinted eyes.

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With just a quarter acre of land, you can feed a family of four with fresh, organic food year-round. This comprehensive guide to self-sufficiency gives you all the information you need to grow and preserve a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, and grains; raise chickens for eggs and meat; raise cows, sheep, and goats for meat or milk; raise pigs and rabbits; and keep honey bees. Simple instructions make it easy to enjoy canned, frozen, dried, and pickled produce all winter; use your own grains to make bread, pasta, and beer; turn fresh milk into delicious homemade yogurt, butter, and cheese; make your own wine, cordials, and herbal teas; and much, much more. It truly is possible to eat entirely from your backyard.

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You too can raise meat goats. Small and artisanal farmers looking for a profitable specialty will find that compact, friendly, and efficient meat goats don't require large amounts of browsing land, and they can thrive on plants that other livestock find inedible, such as nettles and thistles.

Demand for chevon has increased in the last years, and imports from overseas have doubled in the past decade. The market is expected to grow by 10 to 15 percent annually in the future. Goat meat is the fastest growing meat bussiness in North America. Chevon is a low calorie meat and low fat meat.

In this book, Sayer will guide you through the basics of breed selection, buying, housing, feeding and breeding goats for meat.

Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats is a great resource for experienced and begginer farmers.

Abour the Author:

Maggie Sayer has written numerous articles on animal raising and husbandry and is actively involved in canine and equine rescue. Her Boer goats share the farm with dozens of rescued animals. Sayer and her husband live in Mammoth Springs, in the Ozark region of Arkansas, where goat production has taken sustainable agriculture by storm.

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According to Chuck Wooster, pigs are adorable, clean, friendly animals. So, it’s no wonder that you’ve thought about raising them as companions. But if you also happen to love bacon, and don't like the reports of pollution and cruelty in the pig pork industry, you might consider raising your own pigs as meat animals as well. Keeping pigs happy in either situation means understanding their needs and temperaments. Living with Pigs teaches readers what pigs need, how to raise them, and which breeds make the best bacon. Wooster’s friendly advice and appealing anecdotes will help you:

• choose what breed of pig or pigs is best for you
• provide the best shelter and food for your pigs
• train your pig
• treat your pig’s injuries and illnesses
• butcher your pig and make your own bacon
• and much more

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Earthworks are one of the easiest, least expensive, and most effective ways of passively harvesting and conserving multiple sources of water in the soil. Associated vegetation then pumps the harvested water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, and passive heating and cooling strategies, while controlling erosion, increasing soil fertility, reducing downstream flooding, and improving water and air quality.

Building on the information presented in Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 1, this book shows you how to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen water-harvesting earthworks. It presents detailed how-to information and variations of a diverse array of earthworks, including chapters on mulch, vegetation, and greywater recycling so you can customize the techniques to the unique requirements of your site.

Real life stories and examples permeate the book, including:

• How curb cuts redirect street runoff to passively irrigate flourishing shade trees planted along the street
• How check dams have helped create springs and perennial flows in once-dry creeks
• How infiltration basins are creating thriving rain-fed gardens
• How backyard greywater laundromats are turning "wastewater" into a resource growing food, beauty, and shade that builds community, and more
• How to create simple tools to read slope and water flow
• More than 225 illustrations and photographs