Book Review (and GIVEAWAY): The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading

I don't often dedicate an entire post to just one book (in fact, have I ever?), but The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading deserves it.  It was one of the many books that I read and/or flipped through (have I ever mentioned that I have the attention span of a fruit fly on crack?) during my semi-involuntary partial exile from the internet (I still had my phone....) while my computer was being repaired during most of last month.  Usually, a non-fiction book without colorful pictures for me to pine about not having a "pin it" button won't appeal to me (fruit fly thing), but this one WOWed me.  In fact, I had to put it down several times to harass the author to tell her how great it was.  Fortunately for her, it was the middle of the night and she was sleeping, so she just woke up to my gushing on her Facebook page.

Have I mentioned how much I love this book?


The text is only 297 pages (with an additional 26 pages of ultra-awesome appendixes) but the information jam packed in there is un-freaking-believable!  Granted, it doesn't go into a great deal of depth about any subject (although Appendix C contains the most thorough and best garden planning chart I've ever seen in my life, so that there would justify the purchase!), but it is a fantastic introduction to a wide variety of topics, including (but not limited to): info about zoning regulations; keeping animals even if you don't have any land including chickens, goats, rabbits, and bees; making homesteading work for you; growing food without a yard; basically Gardening 101, aquaponics; food preservation; soap making; cheese making; composting (a really, really good section on composting, I might say!); energy conservation/alternative energy; and foraging!  Obviously, there isn't enough room in 297 to teach you everything you need to know about so many subjects, but there is enough information in each area to help you at least figure out if it would be feasible for your lifestyle to do it or not and Appendix B is a resources section with books and websites pertaining to each subject so you can learn as much as you want to by checking those out.

As a super busy person (with the attention span of a fruit fly on crack, as I mentioned), I also liked how the book was broken down into short segments.  It actually occurred to me that if one spouse in a household was wanting to start doing some of this stuff, but the other was nay-saying it, this would be the perfect book for the enthusiastic spouse to leave in the bathroom (with all other reading material removed and cell-phone ban in the bathroom, so they can't escape).  No, that is not the situation in my house (besides, a cell-phone ban would never stick here), but I've had a number of people comment before that they wish their spouse would get on board with their homesteading dreams.

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I love this book so much, I wish I could keep a stack of them with me at all times to give to anyone that showed even the slightest interest in becoming an urban homesteader, but since I'm poor, that's obviously not an option.  What I will do however, is give away one copy to a lucky reader of this blog!  Yay!  Cue confetti!  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post saying what urban homesteading activities you would like to pursue, but haven't, and what is stopping you from trying.  On Friday, April 27, late in the evening (maybe I'll do a whole party thing on Facebook or something), I will randomly select one winner and post their name as shown on the comments (so don't post anonymously or I can't give it to you.  Sorry) on Facebook and Twitter.  That person has 24 hours to email me at adventuresofathriftymama at hotmail dot com (translated into an actual email address), or I will move on to select someone else.  Then that person would have 24 hours to contact me, etc, etc (because I'm doing this with the paycheck Amazon is kind enough to give me almost every month and it tends to burn a hole in my pocket if I wait too long to spend it).  Good luck and may the fermentation (or something) be with you! (Fine print: there is no way I can spring for international shipping, so I'm going to have to limit this contest to US mailing addresses only.  Sorry!)   Sorry, contest is now closed!  Congratulations, Elizabeth Walker!

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Thanks to everyone that came over from Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #22!