I picked up this book from Barnes & Noble yesterday entitled Country Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land. It looks very promising. It’s a compilation of hundreds of booklets that were published during the hippie movement and oil crisis, when people were more cognizant of the need to return to their roots.

The rather large book contains 8,167 useful skills and step by step instructions, including:

attracting hummingbirds, baking basic bread, breeding livestock, building homebrew equipment, caning chairs, concocting elixirs and remedies, constructing a chicken coop, fabricating natural milk soap, farming blackberries, landscaping bulbs, mastering wide row planting, sharpening hand tools, weaving country baskets, pest-proofing your garden, managing a woodlot, etc.

The list goes on. You can purchase Country Wisdom online or you can check for it at your local Barnes & Noble. My wife and I are beginning to build a little do-it-yourself library. Whether we end up living stateside or abroad, it will be useful information both now and especially in the next few years.