Vol II — The House Blueprint

The House and the Homestead

The old-timers ran a whole homestead on almost no money and nothing that could break — and it was never lost, only gone quiet. Turn your roof white against the summer sun for the price of a sack of lime. Store a winter's food in the free, steady cold of the earth. Seal the drafts and catch the sun to hold heat against a hard winter. Make a year's soap from the ash bucket, your own light from the butchering fat, and warmth you can stitch by hand from the scrap bag. From the rafters down to the root cellar, this is how a self-reliant family kept its independence — and how you can too.