I bought this book after homesteading for the past few years. It's a good thing I didn't buy this book in the beginning. The author misspells Johnne's disease along with many other spelling errors and does not give information on curing it. She puts Houdan chickens in the dual purpose category, which in my opinion, Houdan's aren't big enough to be dual-purpose. Thirdly, she does not put any information on rainwater harvesting and storage, which is a critical part of self-sufficiency. This book is very vague and does not give the information needed to do anything on your own.

It is a pretty good book for showing you the mechanics of how to build and maintain different areas of the farm. It gives good information on how to raise different livestock. It is not something you would want to just read right through and go start a farm. It is more like something you could look at whenever you need some tips. The best way to learn how to start a farm would be to see if you could work on somebody you know's farm. Either just to help out or for an actual job.

This is a very handy reference to have. You could not call it exhaustive, but it does provide a dandy introduction to a wide variety of subjects. I still refer to it, usually to determine if a particular area is worth pursuing in detail or to decide on how I am going to approach a project. Say what you want about Storey's - they are a name brand and have made a good effort in reaching the livestock/animal husbandry market. Some of their books are the best available, some are not. But I can always count on them to give me a good starting point. If you want a smattering on a wide variety of subjects, get this book. If you know someone that would value such a reference, this makes an excellent gift.

I am about to purchase my first farm and this book give a little bit of information on a whole lot of subjects. Everything from outbuildings to farm animals to country recipes. You don't need to start at the beginning and read from cover to cover - you can pick and choose what you would like to read about. This is something that I will keep handy as a great reference guide.

I am so impressed with this book I am considering it as Christmas gifts for my son and perhaps a brother. I checked it out of the library and enjoyed it so much I purchased it.

This book covers a huge range of country skills, including a companion planting guide. I wouldn't be without mine!

The book was definitely basic and it covered lots of information that would be useful on a farm. However, it was not helpful in how to develop the farm system, it was very piece meal and stand alone information, it also deferred its solutions too much to the chemical industry.

Who would have thought you could cram so much information into one book. This has been a wonderful tool for my husband and I who are in the process of establishing our little retirement ranch. Excellent resource for anyone moving from the burbs to the country.

So cool. Where else can you get a book that will tell you how to build a pond and raise livestock, wire an outbuilding, and cut wood? This book has a little bit of everything in it and I'm glad to have it as a resource when I move out to the country in a couple of weeks. It's not exhaustive, and there are probably things in it that I'll want to know more about, but the diagrams are very clear, the discussions neither patronizing nor over my head, and most of all it has a cheerful, you can do it feel that makes me excited about my future challenges.
This would also be a good (if big) book to share with someone who used to live in the country and run a farm, just for their interest and amusement. My dad, never a farmer, would have loved this book for the bits of interesting things in it to read and think about.
Don't know if I'll be self-reliant after using this book, but I think I'llb e keeping it out on the coffee table for quite a few months.

This book is filled with a great breadth of knowledge. It helps you know what you don't know about self-sufficient living and even gives you enough infomation in some areas that you could go forward without too much additional research. If you're considering buying a little land and using it to live from, I'd recommend this book.

I always wanted a book but was unable to find an affordable copy any where else. Arrived in perfect condition. love this book.

A good primer for anyone wanting to live a simpler, saner life and need information along the way.

I have to admit I was little disappointed after it arrived. I have been so impressed with other books from Storey, but I felt that this one was not up to par. It does contain needed information and touches on various skills required when living in the country. It has a lot of pictures and sketches which help, but the info seems, to me, a little skimmish when compared to other books within the same realm. I much more prefer Carla Emery's Old Fashioned Recipe Book and John Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Life. These books are loaded with everything you might need to know about country living and a little more.

book is a great overview of skills from canning to building coops. a must for anyone moving from city to country. or just to brush up on knowledge.

Fantastic book!!! Easy to read and understand. A must have for anyone, not just those living in rural areas.

I bought this book because of the high review rating, and for the first time was very let down by a highly rated book. I already have a whole bookshelf of books dedicated to small farming/homesteading/sustainable living and thought this would be a comprehensive addition. Unfortunately, this would be an excellent book for someone who has grown up in the city, never been to a working ranch/homestead, and has absolutely no knowledge of the subject. If you already have such knowledge and/or experience you will find this book woefully deviod of useful information. It has a WIDE range of topics (most of which I was not interested in, such as how to install hardwood floor and how to build a treehouse) and each topic is only touched on in the most superficial way. For example, the chapter on treehouses only shows you how to build one kind, assuming that's the only kind you would want to build, and the whole chapter is 4 pages. I suppose the best use for this book would be for a novice to purchase in order to BEGIN a library on the subject, and then use this book to decide what topics to invest in more books on so as to get better information and more detail. If you are looking for real information on specifics such as how to keep a healthy and productive meat flock of chickens, or detailed food preservation techniques, find a specific book on the subject.

Book is full of great information and advice for the farmer, rancher, homesteader, backyard adventurer and camper. The only thing I did not like about it was that it is a paperback and is so big. While I will continue to refer to it, I will have to be careful. The book is not hardy for the homesteading home, farm or ranch. I would gladly pay more for this book if it was hard bound and had more durable pages. It should be broken up into several books. Other than that, it is a fabulous book and has everything you need to know.

I bought this book after reading Gregg Perry's review of the book (read review below mine). I have to say he was right on the money. This book has way more in it than I thought it would. How to raise goats, chickens/chicken problems, ducks, geese, how to buy the right land, home maintanence, septic systems, composting, how to store grains, and how to farm to to cover the tip of the ice berg. I own a lot of other Storey books, and this book takes a lot of the information from those books and just gets down to the nuts and bolts. My review simply can't help but fall short of just was useful, and how much information is in this book. This is one of the best book purchases I have ever made, and this is coming from a guy who owns multiple books on these subjects. Had I found this book first I could have saved myself a lot of time and money. Do yourself a favor buy this book you won't regret it.

I bought this book in conjunction with Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. I highly recommend both of them. What one doesn't cover, the other one does. Storey's probably goes into more detail than the average homesteader needs. Also, I was raised on a farm in NC by my grandparents, and some of the ways they suggest doing things seems more complicated and unnecessary (such as the procedure for killing a chicken for meat), but if you've never been exposed to some of this stuff, the advice is invaluable. Also, the info in the back of the book is great. It lists websites and magazines that cater to country living.
This book was well worth the money spent and I would recommend it to everyone!

Item as described and received in a timely manner... an excellent buying experience!

John Storey has created an excellent reference guide for people considering living on the land - if nothing else it gives a vast range of pros and cons - and considerations, which need to be made to live rurally. As it is a massive reference work not everything can be dealt with in huge depth, but it has proved to be enormously useful as a first stop off point on what to do. If we have needed to go further we have then consulted other books, however often that is not necessary.

There are some things such as slaughtering cattle which just aren't really what we want to do anyway! What I really liked is that it has the issues you need to think about, with newbies to rural living like ourselves we had no idea of what we needed to even think about - it has saved us making a lot of huge mistakes! I have felt overwhelmed at times by the amount of information you need to have to live successfully off the land, in the past this would have been passed down from generation to generation - so it is learning a whole lifetime of information in one book. Luckily this book is well set out and well written and illustrated which makes using it a whole lot easier.

I picked this book up based on an exhaustive search for a guide that met a few simple items of criteria:
1. Straightforward presentation that was easy to understand.
2. Filled with a great depth of knowledge.
3. Something I could use immediately, and continue to learn from.

Storey's Basic Country Skills nailed each item on my list. When I received the book and flipped through it casually I was able to spot a number of answers and projects for needs I have right now. Beyond that I also found many that gave answers to future needs that I knew I have, but didn't have time to research. I am certain that this book will be well worn within my household as we continue to develop the land around our home.

This book had many topics but only provided very basic information on the topics.

Good book to put the subject on the map for the beginner.

If you are looking for one book to serve as a comprehensive guide to nearly every aspect of living in the country and fending for yourself, then you atleast owe it to yourself to browse through this book atleast once; at a minimum, you should borrow it from the library for a peek. This book takes you from start to finish; dawn to dusk; season to season. It may not be as detailed in some areas as you may prefer but you can always find a book dedicated to areas in which you require more information. As a general resource, this book won't be perched on your bookshelf long enough to collect dust since you'll be picking it up on a regular basis.

This has been such a great help. It gave me lots of ideas for things I want to do, and gives me encouragement for what I am currently trying. I like the simple illustrations. All I would like more in this book is ... more. It's a great book to get started trying different things, although I do find other books with more detail after I get started. For example, making soap - great practical first-timer information in this book. Once I tried it, I went to the library and found more detailed books on soapmaking. But the Storey book is my best starter.

Since I live in a rural area, I was eager to see what Storey's encyclopediac book of useful country skills would have to say about gardening. It turns out that this fascinating book has quite a lot of helpful information about many different rural activities, including gardening.

This book has twelve chapters packed with information to help the country gardener, as well as a very useful chapter on preserving the fruits and vegetables your garden produces. The gardening section of this amazingly complete book begins with chapter nine. This chapter discusses everything you need to know about planning, planting and harvesting a vegetable garden. Some of the most valuable sections of this chapter are the garden planning chart and the information on extending the season.

Next, the book discusses herb gardens. From theme gardens to uses for herbs, this chapter is again packed with information. I really enjoyed the recipes, but the crafting ideas were also useful.

Storey knows that even country dwellers need extra beauty, so the book includes a chapter on flower gardening. Sections on flower arranging and drying flowers are included.

Water gardens and rock gardens can be fun and add a lot of interest to the landscape. Besides clear instructions for creating both garden types, Storey gives some useful lists of plants to put in these gardens.

The next two sections on improving soil and garden pests and diseases are terrific resources for the beginning gardener. Additional sections of the book cover feeding birds, lawn care, building outdoor structures, and growing fruit.

This book is well written, crammed with ideas, and fun to read. It is a terrific resource for someone interested in the country life.

I was very disappointed in this book. It does not give practical information on any country skills. It appears to be a compilation of the many great Storey books out there so if your interested in something specific like chickens or goats, just buy Storey's guide to chickens or goats. I learned nothing new from this book. Since it was published in 1999 it would appear they were jumping on the bandwagon for the Y2K hysteria.

We bought this tome just a few weeks before moving from the city where we'd lived our entire lives to a 20-acre rural country place miles and miles from any city limits.

For the first year especially, we kept this book out. You would be astonished at its contents. It describes the pros and cons of water wells, reusing dirt, planning land for gardens and barns, chicken problems, keeping goats, arranging around weather, tanning leather, insect control, tree problems to watch out for and their solutions, energy in places where the lines don't run, getting water from point A to B, storing grains and other foods, and... you NAME IT!

This made our lives so much better. We didn't even use all the advice we read simply because one family can only do so much the first year they move into the country for the first time but this book was our comfort book in knowing that if we had problems, we'd find the solutions here.

This is a good book if you want a starting point. I found it was a lot of advertising for the rest of their line of books.
It didn't go into a lot of detail on any one subject. On the flip side they more than likly took the best of all their books to put into this.

Not only is there a bounty of excellent and easily accessible information in this book but it is enjoyable to read. This book is a good place to start if you're thinking of rural living.

Storey, for me, is quickly becoming my reference book of choice, as far as "how to live on a farm if you weren't born on one" goes. This book was my jumping off point. It contains sections on how to buy land, how to build your home, how to raise chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, and cows. I should note, however, that this book is more like a "compilation" of works by other authors. The Basic Country Skills (BCS) extracts information from many other books, and puts them in one reference text. There are a few parts where I think the editors forgot to re-lable diagrams (specifically in the "how to butcher a cow" section) but if you're planning on slaughtering your own animals, you should probably buy a reference manual specific to butchering to compliment this one. BCS is a great book for people like me who are planning to buy a little patch of earth somewhere far away from the hubub of city life, but who can only dream about it for the present. BCS is a great primer for those who want to get closer to where our food comes from than waxed supermarket produce, or shrinkwrapped beef. I'm not a vegetarian, but it doesn't seem fair for meat eaters to eat something that they didn't have to feed and care for, and finally, to come to terms with the fact that this animal you've had for 9 months is going to be the beef for your family for the next year. Taking its life, so that you can continue yours.. that should be each of our (meat-eaters anyway) responsibility. To treat our food with dignity, and kindness, and thank it for nourishing and providing for us.

I bought this book for my husband who owns and operates a saw mill. He also raises bees. This book has sections on his interests and mine as well. There is information on gardening, canning, animal care, herbs and so much more. There are wonderful recipies and literally hundreds of tips and ideas. This is a book will we read and read again. It has very clear illustrations and clear, useful directions. A real find.