Foxfire

[skittles]

they are great books...people talk about a survival plan...these books are a laid out and time tested plan for the Appalachian region. i grew up with my depression era grandparents...in fact my granny is still alive at 97yrs. i saw the last of the lifestyle in these books growing up but theres a few 'pockets' where theres bits and bobs of it left. i use to see one of the people featured in these books from time to time so i got a 'connection' to them.

there was no electric here till the 50's and my family didnt get a drilled well till after 61 but before 66 when i was born.i grew up on farm with all these strange features that i thought everyone had. like a manhole on back porch going into cistern.gutters that collected and filtered water into it as well. our big barn had a cistern that was like an underground silo.it had a handpump and you could pump water into buckets but it also put water directly into the milkhouse where tanks of milk sat in a concrete bathtub looking thing to keep milk cool.

ramble ramble...lol

I've known people with houses with a outdoor cistern, saw one country home with the gutters setup for it. I encouraged them to fix the cistern and the gutters and take advantage of the free water. They said no... we'll put in this $3,000 "rainpure" water system they already had instead of using free soft water off the roof.

I wish I had a cistern myself. I have the perfect spot for it as it drains over 3/4 of my roof to that spot but I don't know about dealing with all the issues- i.e. digging the hole so it doesn't cave in and the $$ involved plus the liability. Maybe once I get out in the country I'll be able to do more interesting things.

 

[Flight]

Well I was interested in getting to books until I saw free pdf's lol. Now I have some reading to do.

 

[Tommy D.]

https://www.lifewire.com/download-free-books-3482754

 

[DrPrepper]

Not sure how many of you have this link so I will post it.
It's called Drum_runner and they have a wealth of information.
You could never read or download it all.
I got a CD from them several years ago but I don't think it's available now.
http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

What an awesome site! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Tommy D.]

If'n I read all the info on that site, I wouldn't have time to visit my friends at this forum!

 

[*Andi]

Knowledge Is Key ...

 

[*Andi]

Just saying ...

 

[joel]

I want to get "The forgotten skills of self-sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneer" also.

 

[The Innkeeper]

I want to get "The forgotten skills of self-sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneer" also.

I don’t know that one. I’ll have to watch for it

 

[TBob]

I want to get "The forgotten skills of self-sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneer" also.

There is also a followup by the same author,
More Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency both are on Amazon, both in print and as ebooks

 

[joel]

For anyone who would like to learn more than just eating & a dry roof, which are the most importing.
Check out:
Once the food plan is set forth we will have time & food production is easier to put into action now.
Knowing what you need to support & make the machine / plant will go a long way in getting started.
A forge, a casting or have the machine shop.
David J. Gingery has seven books on how to build a manufacturing plant for building machine with.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dav....69i57j0l2.42049j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Also Alexanders books: https://www.google.com/search?q=Ale...ahUKEwiR9b2XgNHYAhXC6IMKHS3zCzgQsxgIOQ&biw=10

 

[The Innkeeper]

For anyone who would like to learn more than just eating & a dry roof, which are the most importing.
Check out:
Once the food plan is set forth we will have time & food production is easier to put into action now.
Knowing what you need to support & make the machine / plant will go a long way in getting started.
A forge, a casting or have the machine shop.
David J. Gingery has seven books on how to build a manufacturing plant for building machine with.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dav....69i57j0l2.42049j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Also Alexanders books: https://www.google.com/search?q=Ale...ahUKEwiR9b2XgNHYAhXC6IMKHS3zCzgQsxgIOQ&biw=10

A few more for my wish list. Thanks

 

[SheepDog]

Project Gutenberg is a good source for free books and they have many on metal and wood working tools and steam engines.
Everything from classic books to gardening and homesteading. you have to search because it is a vast and ever growing source of free books.

 

[Weedygarden]

I came across one of the Foxfire books recently, I thought I had gotten rid of them. I know that my family knows how to do a few things but I'm sure it's not enough. The Foxfire folks have a website and offer classes ($$$) on some pretty mountain location near Mountain City, GA.
Reading up on how-to's gives the mind ideas. I'm really grateful my NH knows how to fix just about everything and at one time could install just about everything that needed replacing.
A library where we used to live was remodeled, they got rid of 75% of the books and replaced the shelves and reading areas with computers.

Who remembers spring houses? A little structure, made out of stone, over top of a small stream or in some cases, over top of where a natural spring came forth. They would keep food chilled down in one and pull the water from there. It was almost like air conditioning to step down in to the spring house. I remember a farmhouse in southern Pennsylvania that was built right over top of a stream.

The removing of books from libraries and being replaced by computers is becoming a big thing. There was a new library built fairly close to me. I went there for something specific, and I saw NO books. The first floor was mostly technology, and lots of it. The books were kept upstairs. With the riddance of books also goes the ability to read. Ever have a grown person tell you they don't read, but you know they are a h.s. graduate? I have.

 

[Outlier]

.
Knowing what you need to support & make the machine / plant will go a long way in getting started.
A forge, a casting or have the machine shop.
David J. Gingery has seven books on how to build a manufacturing plant for building machine with.

I have the "machine shop" series of books, which included casting in aluminum and bronze, building a metal-turning lathe that essentially "build's itself", and so on.

Never have done anything with them, however.

Heck, I have an old South Bend lathe and also (in pieces) an Atlas lathe and never did learn how to use them. Too busy with other things.

David Gingery lived in Springfield, MO until he passed away about a dozen years ago.

 

[Outlier]

I bought a Foxfire book when I was a kid in the early 70's. Still have it, somewhere in my piles of crap . Don't remember which one it is other than it was the one which detailed the
building of a wagon frame. Have one other one I bought in a used book store maybe a couple decade ago.

There was also "The Salt Book" and also "Salt 2" which were like the foxfire books but focused more on coastal New England.



EDITED TO ADD: Another good read, as I posted in another thread, is "Payne Hollow: Life on the Fringe of Society". Living off the land along the Ohio river in the 1950's

 

[Outlier]

The Missouri Ozarks had its own "Foxfire" type project. It was called "Bittersweet" and you can read a lot of it online here:

https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/index.html





EDITED TO ADD: example article from one of the issues: https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/fa75k.htm

 

[The Innkeeper]

Ever have a grown person tell you they don't read, but you know they are a h.s. graduate? I have.

back in the early 80s I did a lot of hiring if management trainees which included a battery of math and English tests at about a grade 6 level. Even then most people did very poorly and many failed totally. These were high school grads through to having completed bachelor degrees. That is nearly 40 years ago and things have only gotten worse

 

[backlash]

Ever have a grown person tell you they don't read, but you know they are a h.s. graduate? I have.

I have known 2 adults that were functionally illiterate.
One read on a 3rd grade level and the other read on about a 5th grade level.
Neither one could spell even the simplest words.
They were both HS grads from the early 1960s to 1970s.
Both had dyslexia and both were just passed on to the next grade because it was what was done at the time where they were.
They never had the help they needed to learn to read.
They both were good with their hands and able to work and hold down jobs but it was mechanic type work.

 

[buildit]

Seems Amazon has them.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MRH3RYU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Patchouli]

I think I will choose a chapter to read then perhaps discuss it here.

 

[Patchouli]

Project Gutenberg is a good source for free books and they have many on metal and wood working tools and steam engines.
Everything from classic books to gardening and homesteading. you have to search because it is a vast and ever growing source of free books.

Totally agree with you about Project Gutenberg. I had purchased a CD for homeschooling my kids only to find out that nearly everything on the CD had come from the Project!
I think items, books, publications, etc. have to be a certain age for the Project to acquire them, right? It has to do with copyright laws.

 

[SheepDog]

Yes, Most of the Gutenberg library is books that have outlived the copyright but some are donated from modern authors. When I write articles and papers I always copyright them and then release them on the GNU-GPL open source project just as I do for the software I write. That way they become living literature in that people can, under the conditions of the license, add to or subtract from the original work as long as credit is given to the original work and credit is taken for the revisions. They become more complex as they grow with input from others.

 

[LincTex]

It's called Drum_runner and they have a wealth of information.
I got a CD from them several years ago but I don't think it's available now.
http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

I have the CD from 10 years ago.

I think I know which box it is stored in. I think it was $10 at that time.

 

[OldCootHillbilly]

If ya do a bit a diggin ya can download em fer free. Grandma lived in Missouri in a log cabin with a dirt floor an raised chickens fer eggs an meat. Grandpa farmed, raised hogs, cows an moonshine. They was bout as pour as ya could get. Grandma canned anythin an everthin. Grandpa smoked an salted meats. Stove was a wood stove an kerosene lanterns er oil lamps. Don't know fer sure, but I thin they got electricity in the mid 50's. There was always a garden and huntin season. Grandma would trade with the other ladies say homemade soap fer this er that. Canned goods fer cloth an so fourth.

Youngins taday don't know an don't care. Time might come when they will wish they did know.

 

[Flight]

Old coot. The new generation doesn't even know were the food comes from originaly which is sad.

 

[UncleJoe]

Old coot. The new generation doesn't even know were the food comes from originaly which is sad.

Yes they do!!

The grocery store.

 

[Caribou]

One of my brothers has raised three that care for the animals, harvest the eggs, apples, berries, and such that are on their place as well as preparing of the food for storage. The other six nieces and nephews? Not so much.

 

[musketjim]

My grandparents were the farmers while I was growing up and I was always able to help in the huge garden they had as well as get eggs etc. They were born and raised in the hills of Northern Pa. I have quite a few of the Foxfire books and love them. They are just part of my prepping library.