Review: Small Barn Plans for Owner-Builders

Practical advice and instruction for building a barn, including plans and schematics for a dozen different designs, are offered in this reference for owner-builders with little or no construction experience.

Organized in step-by-step sequence, the guide begins with pre-construction planning and decision-making, including cost estmates, scheduling contractors and understanding building codes. Complete construction plans for 12 small barns are laid out in the book -- six gable-roofed bar

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Small Barn Plans for Owner-Builders
by Craig Wallin
Homestead Design, 2002.

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Review: Cape Cod Wampanoag Cookbook

Earl Mills, or Chief Flying Eagle, is a gourmet chef at his popular Cape Cod restaurant, The Flume, where he prepares native Wampanoag recipes from local foodstuffs like hard-shell clams, Atlantic salmon, cranberries, corn and, of course, eels.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Indians, Mills' ancestors, were the native peoples who celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Plymouth colonists in 1621.

With a similar sense of sharing and openness, he offers this collection of ancestral dishes paired with personal recollections, stories and photographs of a people closely attuned to the land.

Cape Cod Wampanoag Cookbook:
Wampanoag Indian Recipes, Images & Lore
by Earl Mills Sr. and Betty Breen
Clear Light Publishers, 2001

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Review: Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers

Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers
Using Ed's Amazing Pots System
by Edward C. Smith
Storey Publishing, 2005

Vegetable gardener Ed Smith explains how to persuade vegetables to grow as well or better in containers as they do in an open bed.

Based on his own experimentation with self-watering containers, this book includes advice on choosing a container, how to provide nutrients, and what plants can be paired together.

He picks the following vegetables as best for container growing and explains which varieties work best and how to grow them: artichokes, arugula, carrots, celery, chinese cabbage, cress, cucumber, endive, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard, pak choi, peppers, radicchio, summer squash, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips.

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Review: The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden

The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden
Creative Gardening For The Adventurous Cook
by David P. Hirsch
Ten Speed Press, 2005

Organic grower David Hirsch is a senior member of the famous Moosewood Resaurant Collective in Ithaca, New York, which he joined in the 1970s after bartering his garden-fresh basil for meals.

In this revised and updated guide to Moosewood-style gardening, Hirsch profiles 75 vegetables, herbs and edible flowers and explains how to plan and maintain a kitchen garden.

The profiles include growing requirements for each plant, harvest information, and some culinary tips. Seventy recipes complete the spread.

"Superior quality and flavor results from harvesting foods as close to ripeness and the kitchen as possible," Hirsch proclaims. "Home growing can expand your cooking repertoire to include interesting veggies and herbs."

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Review: Sweater Renewal

Sweater Renewal
Felting Knits into New Sweaters and Accessories
by Sharon Franco Rothschild
Potter Craft, 2008

Sweaters that are old, damaged or simply out of style can be recycled into new fashions using the felting, appliqué, sewing, knitting and embroidery techniques described in this book.

"You can recapture old memories and help save the planet by using old blankers, men's sweaters, women's sweaters, children's sweaters, and even hand-knitted sweater pieces," says author Sharon Franco Rothschild. "The only requirement is that they be made out of wool."

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Good Old Books: Landscaping Your Vacation Place

Landscaping Your Vacation Place
by Jack Kramer
Scribners, 1975

"In Landscaping Your Vacation Place I tell you just what plants will grow where, whether you are at the seaside, in the forest, in the desert or in a temperate all year climate.

"For each locale there are specific plans and plantings to make your
vacation home appealing and to save you needless garden work.

"I include extensive lists of plants for each location and also lists of special time-saving plants, such as ground covers, vines, and bulbs and
plants for container gardening -- over 550 plants in all.

"So whether you want to garden on weekends only, or just a day a week (and relax the rest of the time) you will find your guide to better vacation gardening in this book." -- Jack Kramer

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Good Old Books: The Great Chain Of Life

The Great Chain Of Life
by Joseph Wood Crutch
Pyramid Books, 1966

How did it begin? What has gone before? Where will it lead?

These are questions which have fascinated man for thousands of years. Even after Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution men have continued to question their origins.

Joseph Wood Krutch, America's renowned naturalist, looks at evolution with a fresh eye.

Applying the eloquence of a poet to the dispassionate eye of a scientist, he reveals many surprises and wonders in the natural world around us.

The Great Chain Of Life is an important, delightful addition to man's understanding of ecology -- the interrelation of living things -- and the biological world in which we live. It is a book that also restores joy to the contemplation of nature.

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