![\"Week-By-Week](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/week-by-week.jpg\")
<\/a>We live in the Tropics of Montana.\u00a0 Going backwards from our last frost date (a date I found on page 187 of this great book), I’m approximately 20 weeks out from planting.<\/p>\n
That means that between the next two weeks I should be:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Taking inventory of all my seed-starting supplies<\/li>\n
- Taking inventory of my garden tools<\/li>\n
- Removing spoiled individuals from my stored crops (food storage like potatoes, onions, etc)<\/li>\n
- Re-evaluating what I should grow more-or-less of than I did last year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
But I’m not worried.\u00a0 A book like this one serves as a garden journal as well as my step-by-step guide so that I don’t miss a detail.\u00a0 There isn’t much time investment on a weekly basis in your gardening with this approach.<\/p>\n
Buy It Now:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n#2: There are 30 recognizable phrases your chickens use to communicate with each other.<\/h3>\n
On page 90, they’re transliterated so that you know what they mean & can learn to talk to your girls.<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/kidsguidetokeepingchickens-resized.jpg\")
<\/a>A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n There is even a hyperlink in the book to a site where you can hear each call to learn what they mean and just maybe learn to copy them!\u00a0 Okay, this book is SO not just for kids.\u00a0 I absolutely love it.\u00a0 You and your children will learn everything from choosing the right breed, to setting the proper temperature in the hatchery week-by-week, to dealing with bullies, and on it goes.\u00a0 The photography is bright, colorful, and actually helpful. There is even a section on growing a chicken-friendly garden with photos of plants for identification!<\/p>\n
Buy It Now:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
#3: Restoring an Old Axe is Better Than Buying a New One.<\/h3>\n
![\"Woodland](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/woodland-homestead.jpg\")
<\/a>Woodland Homestead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n According to this book, more than 10 million felling axes were produced between 1850-1950, and were made by more than 100 different axe manufacturers.\u00a0 With such high competition and American-made quality, no modern axe compares to a restored one–so pick up any you find at old Barn Sales or auctions, and get this book to know just how to restore it.<\/p>\n
I must honestly say that we have very few books with so much information shoved between its pages.\u00a0 You’ll find solid science about horticulture, animal husbandry, food production, and far more.\u00a0 You’ll get great detail on anything pertaining to your trees or how to get the most out of that land.<\/p>\n
Buy It Now:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n<\/h3>\n
#4: Rotate Your Crops Based On the Edible Part.<\/h3>\n
Each type of crop requires different nutrients.<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Year](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/the-year-round-vegetable-gardener.jpg\")
<\/a>Year Round Vegetable Gardener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
Leafy plants need more nitrogen. It makes sense plant them where you had soil-boosters last year, such as peas and beans.\u00a0 Root veggies, on the other hand, need more phosphorous and don’t do well where there is a high concentration of nitrogen.\u00a0 You can generally group the plants by the part you eat, but to get a great rotation schedule–especially if you want to extend your growing season–then this is the book you need.<\/p>\n
This book has more full-color photographs than any other in our selection.\u00a0 This author is absolutely amazing at what she pulls out of the ground with 2 feet of snow on the ground.\u00a0 Seriously impressive stuff.<\/p>\n
Buy It Now:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n#5: Only 1\/2 of 1% of Foodborne Illnesses were from Raw Dairy Products.<\/h3>\n
That’s with approximately 3% of the population consuming them.<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Raw-Milk-Answer-Book.jpg\")
<\/a>The Raw Milk Answer Book by David Gumpert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In 2008, the CDC reported 23,000 foodborne illnesses but only 132 came from raw milk or cheese.\u00a0 Some argue that the number is low because it is illegal to purchase in most states.\u00a0 Whether legal or not, consumption is growing.\u00a0 If you raise your own goats or cows or have a neighbor that does, I think that this book is a must-read.\u00a0 If you want to consume raw milk yourself, or if you already do but don’t know the current science and politic of the matter, I highly recommend you take a short refresher course.<\/p>\n
This book is a quick read with it’s Q&A approach, and it’s written by the best known expert on the subject, David Gumpert.\u00a0 He quickly removes all of the fairy tales and misinformation so that you can decide for yourself if this is the route you want to go with your own family’s health and well-being.<\/p>\n
Buy It Now:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\nThanks for sticking around–and for your love of learning!\u00a0 I’ve got an insatiable appetite for learning more about my own homestead.\u00a0 If you’ve got that desire to learn as much about what you’re doing as you can (and just maybe do it more efficiently), then check out all of the great books in our “How-To’s & Why-To’s”<\/a>!<\/p>\n
[jigoshop_category slug=”how-tos-and-why-tos” per_page=”6″ columns=”3″ pagination=”yes”]\n
![\"5](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/5-Things-You-Didnt-Know.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This blog is a shameless plug for my favorite winter pastime–snuggling up in fuzz gear with my favorite tea and a good read.\u00a0 Now, I’m not much of a fiction reader, although I do enjoy a good classic now and again.\u00a0 The truth is that my time is shredded in 10 different directions on any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[20,230,297],"tags":[511,224],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/5-Things-You-Didnt-Know.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fvks-16h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}