The woodland homestead : how to make your land more productive and live more self-sufficiently in the woods PDF
Preview The woodland homestead : how to make your land more productive and live more self-sufficiently in the woods
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While The Woodland Homestead is about my 25-acre freehold in the Adirondacks of northern New York, it is also something more: it’s a collection of ideas, techniques, and experiments in self- sufficiency that have come from others trying to carve out a better, more rooted life in this admittedly inhospitable region. Among those to whom I’m most indebted are my closest neighbors: Ralph, Mike, Elaine, Tom, Rose, Dan, Sara, and Joe. I’m also grateful to the local Amish community in Burke, New York, which has enthusiastically shared its traditional way of life and routinely makes a point of demonstrating the virtues of horsepower over machine power. I’d also like to thank my students and colleagues at Paul Smith’s College for excusing me when I arrived late to class on horseback and for continuing to act excited when I bring them armloads of stump-grown squash from my forest garden. Two former students, Billy and Marin, deserve special thanks for their feedback on this book; they will no doubt both be fabulous woodland homesteaders someday. I’d also like to thank Alesia, Joy, and Tatiana for encouraging me to pursue this book in parallel with my dissertation work at Antioch University New England. Throughout the book you’ll also find a number of profiles of innovative homesteaders; thanks to all of them for sharing their expertise. Writing a book is an exercise in both faith and endurance. I’d like to thank writer, homesteader, and friend Jenna Woginrich for telling me, “Of course you need to write a book.” That’s faith. I’d also like to thank my editor, Carleen Madigan, for her solid vision, good wit, and sage advice. Finally, I’d like to thank all my family and friends who tolerated me while I worked on this book. You are all saints. To my parents, Bill and Patty, who gave me my first axe at age five, and my first chainsaw at eleven. Who would have known? Contents Foreword Preface 1. Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: How to Unlock Your Woodlot’s Potential Taking Stock Evaluating Your Options Your Woodland Eye 2. Tools and Techniques: Essentials for the Homestead Woodlot The Axe From Rusty to Trusty: Restoring an Old Axe Felling and Chopping The Peavey The Bow Saw The Chainsaw Splitting Firewood Skidding Logs The Portable Sawmill 3. Animals in the Forest: From Stumps to Greener Pastures Silvopasture The Closed-Loop Silvopasture Sequence Pork Power for Stumps and Soil Taking Stock of Livestock Multispecies Grazing 4. The Coppice Forest: Fauna, Fodder, Fuel, and Furniture A Brief History of Coppice Forestry Establishing a Coppice Woodlot Creative Woodlot Tending Coppice with Standards Fauna in Your Forest Coppicing for Fodder Coppicing for Charcoal Forest Furniture 5. Woodland Structures: From Living Fence to Living Barn Fencing Psychology A Short History of Living Fences Living Fences for the Homestead Inosculation Hedges The Living Fencepost Formerly Living Fenceposts Building with Stumps Shelterbelts The Living Barn 6. Giving Trees: Fruit, Honey, and Syrup The Homestead Orchard Deciding What to Grow The Multipurpose Forest Micro-Orchard The Art of Planting Resurrecting the Woodland Orchard Bees in the Woodland Homestead Cellar and Cider: Enjoying the Harvest The Homestead Sugarbush 7. Farming the Forest Floor: Nuts, Berries, Mushrooms, and More Hügelkultur: A Whole-Tree Composting System Cultivating Forest Edibles Edibles, Medicinals, and Miscellany Baskets, Burls, and Birch Bark A Typical Woodland Homestead Calendar Resources Index Other Storey Books You Will Enjoy Copyright Share Your Experience
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