It's a good resource showing how anyone can grow their own food and live on a homestead in the middle of the city! ( )

This is my new favorite urban self-sufficiency book. It's practical, honest, hands-on, and very very funny. My husband got to it before I did, and here's what he had to say: “This is a goddamned good book. It's got a lot of knowledge, a lot of overviews, but it still has a lot of how-to. They keep a sense of humor. They know what they're talking about because they've done it. For anybody anywhere, country or city (unless maybe you're in a basement apartment with no windows), it's recommended.”

Without preaching or dumbing-down, the authors tell you, in a straightforward manner, how to garden, forage, raise livestock, preserve food, fiddle with your utilities, and be your own transportation, no matter how teensy your living quarters.

Their sense of humor is evident throughout the book, shown in their slightly irreverent voice, and in the subheading titles, such as: The Chicken is the New Pug, Dehydration: Why Save it for Hangovers?, Arranging a Twosome or Threesome – Using Diverters, The Composting Toilet: How to Poop in a Bucket, and Inspecting their Asses. (That last one was the title of a paragraph about using the fluffiness of a chicken's butt as a barometer for her overall health.) To keep the mood light they refuse to refer to “the inevitable economic collapse” or “peak oil” or any of the other socio/political/ecological disasters that some other self-sufficiency writers use as their boogeymen, but rather speak of Armageddon in terms of zombies. ( )

This book was awesome and inspiring in so many ways, and it's very instructional about things that I really needed instruction on. Now I really want chickens...

They are a bit more invested in the whole concept than I am, but it's not written in a way that requires you to commit whole-hog to their system; you can take what you want or need and leave the rest as filler. It was all really interesting, and fun to read.

Doesn't stand out from the rest of the genre except that it's straightforward and no frills. Good starter section for milk processing - yogurt, cheese, butter. Best idea was using stacked tires to grow potatoes. THAT is genius. ( )

A lovely book. There's nothing much new for the die-hard old hippie, but it's ALL in here. This is a book a person would like to have on her shelf come the revolution. Or the end of the world as we know it.

Organized in an easy to use fashion, written in a breezy but serious style and full of very high-quality information. Lots of additional suggested reading, lots of small but useful tips.

This one's on my wish list for the permanent collection. I'll shelve it right next to my [b:Mother Earth News Almanac|166214|Mother Earth News Almanac|Mother Earth News|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|160500]. ( )