Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century, Revised & Updated

Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century, Revised & Updated | Dick Strawbridge

This is the 2020 update to the original 2010 book by the same title. This father/son duo own and operate their own homestead in the UK, and this book is full of concepts and ideas for becoming (as the title implies) more self-sufficient. While there were a lot of things about this book that I really liked, the organization and direction felt muddled to me. For instance, the entire first section of the book just jumps directly into getting off the⬇

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) grid - generating your own electricity, dealing with your own waste water, running plumbing that works from collecting rain water, building a water wheel, building a windmill, etc. It felt strange to start the book with these huge, expensive, complicated, advanced projects. There also isn't really any kind of progression - nothing like “the top five goals you should set“ or anything along those lines. It's just page after page of ⬇ 2y

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) somewhat haphazard projects and ideas. It's definitely not a book I would recommend to a beginner, but if you have already been gardening and that sort of thing for a few years and are looking to “level up“, this book may be good for inspiration and ideas. It's not detailed enough to be an actual handbook, but for instance while if you wanted to build a windmill you'd need to do some more research, there is enough info here to help you ⬇ 2y

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) decide if a windmill would even work for you at all. I did feel like this book's emphasis on self-sufficiency sometimes meant that they skipped middle steps. Instead of going from “buying all your food at the big-box grocery store“ to “using a small electric food dryer to try preserving some of your own“ they dismiss a small dryer like the one I have (~$40) as “too expensive“ and give you a two-page spread on building a solar dryer, the ⬇ 2y

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TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) materials for which had to be at least $40 in and of themselves. There were a lot of things like that, where middle steps that can help you decide if this is even something you want to do (for instance, do you even LIKE smoked meat? That would be good to know before investing in building an entire smokehouse) were basically dismissed as not self-sufficient ENOUGH - straight to the big guns.

So anyway, an interesting book to look ⬇ 2y

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) through, but one I was glad I decided to #borrownotbuy 2y

jessjess Hmm, I'll have to check this one out, although I'm not 100% sure why books on sustainability seem to prefer pushing readers towards epic projects and changes like annentire smokehouse vs sustainable, smaller changes - like starting a container garden - not everyone has a backyard and/or there are often zoning issues/laws to follow. 2y

TheAromaofBooks @jessjess - I understand that this book is kind of geared for people looking for “more“ but I still think a more natural progression of projects would have been really helpful (i.e. maybe start with gardening and work your way from there). In a way, this was a book that left me feeling overwhelmed and a little discouraged instead of inspired to tackle some new ideas. 2y

jessjess @TheAromaofBooks yes that makes total sense to me - start with a beginner project and then get progressively more complicated as you go on. That's how it would work "in real life" too, you wouldn't start a multi-acre farming project right from the get go. You work your way into those things. I can definitely see a reader getting discouraged by complicated projects right off the bat. 2y

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