January 3, 2023

Permies Homestead Bundle: Day 2 Resource Reviews

The Permies Homestead Bundle has quite a few excellent gardening resources. The first title that grabbed my attention, was this one.

High Performance Gardening by Lynn Gillespie. Who doesn't want a high performance garden??? Even though I've been gardening for a lot of years, I'm never quite satisfied with it's performance. In reading the first couple of chapters, I realize that I've always had low performance gardens, complete with all the labor, weeds, and disappointing results to prove it. 

On the one hand, I've been gardening long enough that somehow I think I should have it all figured out. One the other hand, I'm never too old to take someone else's advice and learn!

While I've put many of her ideas into practice already, the two that have really hit home are BRIX indicators and mineralizing. I always thought BRIX was just a scale of sweetness/flavor, but I'm now starting to understand that it's also strongly tied to increased production, insect and disease resistance, and weather resilience. Minerals are the key, and they don't automatically show up in the compost. So, I'm taking all of this to heart and planning to make some simple changes in next year's garden.

This is one of the 35 resources found in the Permies Homesteading Bundle.

Speaking of soil mineralizing, here's a homestead bundle resource that I'm particularly excited about. It's Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy video workshop, "Feeding and Balancing Your Soil." I did a book review on Hands-On Agronomy years ago, because it had such a profound affect on my understanding of soil health. The downside to the book is that is so packed with information, that it's difficult to pick out the key take-aways and remember it all. And that's what makes this video a gem; the most significant lessons from Neal's book are covered in this video. 

This is another of the 35 resources found in the Permies Homesteading Bundle.
Book available at Amazon.

And for you urban homesteaders out there, here's a fantastic resource: From Home to Small Town Homestead: Pursuing Self-Sufficiency and Sustainability On A Small City Property by Harold Thornbro. Chapters include, "What Is Modern Homesteading?," "Developing A Homesteader's Mindset," "Homesteading When You Don't Have Time to Homestead," "How To Homestead When Your Spouse Isn't On-Board," "Evaluating Your Property," "Finding Resources," and "5 Reasons You Might Fail As A Homesteader." Plus, it contains practical chapters on trees, berries, vegetable and herb gardening, getting started with compost, small livestock, harvest preservation, cooking from scratch, wild game, and foraging.

To see all the resources offered in the bundle, click here

Okay, last one, I promise. If the mention of cooking from scratch in Harold's book caught your attention, then I think you'll be interested in this one.

Cook with What You Have by Nicole Sauce. 

I'm guessing that almost all of us learn to cook using recipes. I know, I did. And there's nothing wrong with recipes, until one starts growing a nice portion of one's own food and can't find recipes to fit! While Nicole's cookbook does indeed feature recipes, she also teaches the principles of making substitutions, changing the amounts the recipe calls for, and adapting them to what's on hand. 

Sections are divided into main dishes, soups, salads, vegetables, breads, starters, and sweets.  You can find more information plus the other offerings in the bundle, here.

Not sure you can use these? The great thing about this particular bundle is that you can keep the codes for resources you want to own, or you can give them away as gifts to friends and family. You can check out the entire bundle by clicking or tapping here

© Jan 2023 by Leigh at  http://www.5acresandadream.com

January 2, 2023

Permies Homestead Bundle: Day 1 Resource Reviews

In my Permies Homestead Bundle: A Real Deal! post, I promised you reviews of some of the resources included in the bundle. I reckon I'll start off with my own bundle offering, a PDF chapter from 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel.

While 5 Acres & A Dream The Book has been my most popular selling book to date, I have to tell you something about it. It's seriously outdated. I think it still makes a good read for anyone simply interested in someone else's story, but for folks who actually want to get started in homesteading, who are looking for answers to some of their homesteading challenges, or who want to take steps to avoid homestead burn-out, I would definitely recommend 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel over The Book.

Why? Because homesteading is not a checklist. It's an ever-evolving lifestyle. The Sequel really demonstrates that. Our mindset when I wrote The Book has seriously changed, and The Sequel tells the reader what has changed and why. Plus, it's written in such a way that someone can jump right in without having read my first volume. 

For the Permies Homestead Bundle, I was asked if I'd be willing to include a chapter from The Sequel. The one I chose is chapter six, "Food Self-Sufficiency: Feeding Ourselves." It shares how we learned to adapt to our regional soil and climate, new gardening methods we've had success with, why we switched to no-till, new food preservation techniques, why I changed my food preservation goals, and how we're transitioning our diet to include more home grown and less conventional foods.

For folks who want something hands on and project oriented, then Anna Hess's bundle addition of The Weekend Homesteader: Winter volume is perfect. It's filled with a wonderful variety of projects that every homesteader can start working on now. It includes winter activities for the garden, orchard, and kitchen, plus timely projects such as storing drinking water, diversifying your income, staying warm without electricity, and media consciousness. 

These are just two of the 35 resources included in the Permies Homestead Bundle. Just click that link (the one that says the Permies Homestead Bundle), where you can find more information about the rest of the resources. 

You already have these, you say? The cool thing about this particular bundle is that you can use the codes for resources you want to own, or you can give them away as gifts to friends and family. You can check out the entire bundle here

January 1, 2023

Permies Homestead Bundle: A Real Deal!

Years ago, I used to participate in a popular homestead bundle deal with a group that eventually faded away. When I was approached by Permies.com to participate in their homestead bundle, I was happy to join in. 

For those of you unfamiliar with bundle deals, they are a really great way to add resources to your homestead library for a fraction of the cost of buying them individually. What I especially like about this Permies deal, is that the individual links are transferable! You can use the codes yourself, or gift them to anyone you wish. So, if you already own some of these, or they aren't of interest to you, here's an opportunity to share them with others.

The Permies Homestead Bundle contains 35 resources, which are specially priced at $35 from Jan. 1 through Jan. 5, 2023. Individually, these would be valued at $285, so this is truly a real deal.

Click to biggify

You can click on the above graphic to get a closer look at the titles, which I've also listed below. The bundle includes eBooks, plans, videos, and microdocs.
  • 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel, chapter 6: "Food Self-Sufficiency: Feeding Ourselves" from Leigh Tate
  • Hotbed Plans eBook + Self Heating Winter Greenhouse Plans eBook from Dirt Patch Heaven
  • Understanding Roots ebook by Robert Kourik
  • From Home to Small Town Homestead by Harold Thornbro
  • 3 issues of Tiny House Magazine (Issue 115, Issue 118, Issue 119)
  • The Hugelkultur chapter of Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist from Michael Judd
  • Clean With Cleaners You Can Eat from Raven Ranson
  • Joel Salatin's Successional Success - Fields of Farmers from Diego Footer's Permaculture Voices video series
  • Planting for Bees video from Jacqueline Freeman
  • High Performance Gardening eBook from Lynn Gillespie of The Living Farm
  • Companion Planting Guide from World Permaculture Association
  • The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging ebook from Jim Juczak
  • Cook with What You Have eBook from Nicole Sauce
  • Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy Video Workshop from Acres USA
  • A Guide to Buy it Once Cookware ebook by Kate Downham
  • Together Resilient from Ma'ikwe Ludwig
  • Harvesting Rainwater for your Homestead in 9 Days or Less from Renee Dang
  • Uncle Mud's EZ Cob Rocket Stove for backyard fun and canning
  • The Weekend Homesteader: Winter by Anna Hess
  • Building a Better World in your Backyard - Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys by Paul Wheaton & Shawn Klassen-Koop
  • 6 Ways to Keep Chickens from Paul Wheaton
  • 19 Skiddable Structures microdoc from Paul Wheaton
  • Permaculture Playing Cards e-book from Paul Wheaton and Alexander Ojeda
  • Tour of Wheaton Labs, the Movie
  • Paul Wheaton's Permaculture Thorns Presentation from Exit & Build 2022
  • Round Wood Timber Framing: the Berm Shed Movie from Wheaton Labs & the Permaculture Bootcamp
  • Care and Feeding of Rocket Mass Heaters microdoc from Wheaton Labs
  • Hugelkultur microdoc from Wheaton Labs
  • Introduction to Welding in 47 Minutes movie  from Wheaton Labs
  • Welding a Grate to go on Top of a Portable j-tube microdoc from Wheaton Labs
  • 21 podcast review of Sepp Holzer's Permaculture from Paul Wheaton
  • 3D Plans - Pebble Style Rocket Mass Heater by Paul Wheaton & Bernal Bros. Studios
  • Permaculture Thorns – A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community (draft eBook) from Paul Wheaton
Here's the link for more information or to get the bundle CLICK or TAP HERE!

Over the next couple of days, I'll review some of these for you, to give you a better idea of what's being offered. 

© Jan 2023 by Leigh at  http://www.5acresandadream.com