Whole Earth Catalog
 

Didn't want to hi-jak the other thread.,, BUTT.


In the same vain, Another gem is the 1968 Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth Field Guide. Long out of print, but worth hunting up a copy.

Besides the "4 sale" items, it was a tremendous source of rural survivalist, minimalist, and archaic agricultural articles.

Like how to use cow shiite to generate poop-gas for lighting, heating, and cooking.

Here are two short PDF files. The originals were 15inch x 20inch, and around 300 pages??, printed in b/w, in a style not unlike the early 1900 Sears catalogs.

https://monoskop.org/images/0/09/Bra..._Fall_1968.pdf

https://designmobs.files.wordpress.c...ctlg_19691.pdf

I was given a copy of WEC way back,, but my daughters used it as a coloring book.. :D

If you read it, you will get an idea of what the early hippy communes were like. They were survivalist & preppers,, with a doobie in each hand..

A second version was the Whole Earth Field Guide.

Discounting the doobies & love beads, these are handy guides for those that want to live off the grid or just want a knowledge base for their library..

Excellent note, sir. Thanks!

I also recommend "Five Acres and Independence". Although also dated it is still in print (Amazon).

These resources are IMHO especially valuable toward planning self-sufficiency and an independent mindset.

Backwoods home
 

Also a good source is Backwoods Home Magazine, it has been around for 30 years.

I believe they have stopped printing hard copies this month.

Sir: I lack the skill set (and probably a host of other sets) to move my "Self-Sufficiency" thread to this one, but if I could I would.

Thank you for your contribution to the topic.

I recommend the WEC, Mother Earth, and the Foxfire series in hardcopy as references.

You do have to take the hippie and communist influences with a ton or two of salt, but the data is worth it, IMHO.

"The Way Things Work" is another great series.

TR

We've got about 7-8 years worth of Mother Earth News that are pretty good value.

All articles/content are available for free online:

https://www.motherearthnews.com

It's surprisingly lighter than I thought on the lefty/hippy/commie stuff.

Had to look twice at the title JJ. That was " Far Out" seeing the Earth from the surface of the Moon! I got a hold of one of the later copies and thought it was really something as a teenager... it was a bit of a stretch ordering from it at the time but a great reference. Out of the counter culture at the time self reliance became fashionable again.

Backwoods was a nice publication a little more focused.

Survival /Self Reliance magazine was a good one.

Foxfire is about the neighbors in my old neighborhood. You can still go to the Foxfire center in Mountain City, Ga although it's location moved about ten years ago. There were still a few of the folks around and the locals in general took great pride in the traditional ways...the back story of the teacher who started it is seedy and tragic, he may still be in jail, but others took the reins and moved the project forward. They started growing cane in the area again although it was for energy some still makes it to the old rock syrup apparatuses.

Horace Kephart's " Camping and Woodcraft" is a veritable encyclopedia, cook book and reference for independent living in the wilds.

I was just looking through the catalog and came across the Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Domes. When I lived in Beachwood Canyon above Hollywood in the late '70s and early '80s, on the road leading up to the Hollywood sign was a geodesic dome house which had a great view of the sign, the Griffith Observatory, and the canyon. They've since removed it because the heat and condensation caused it to rain inside. :D Oh, those hippies.

Pat

You baited me, back in NC now so found the picture I had told Pat about-Tucson , Az. 1985 just East of 3 Points in Avra Valley... Made in Oregon with two shells. Interior was a sun with zipper top and a pot belly stove inside, 3 layer bed.

Edit: I lived in this dome for several years while going to the University of Arizona. apologize for the sideways image my phone is challenged posting.

If you still have a ako account you can click my library and you can get copies of mother earth and other good magazines for free also has back issues

I didn't find the Foxfire series all that helpful. While they described and illustrated a lot of skills, they lacked the details to properly execute many of them.

Damn hippie! :D

^I sure missed a good chance to be, however seeing all the hippies and liberals left a big impression, I've always wanted to work and build my future...just a humble Architecture student that loved the desert :D


^^i think books like the foxfire series and Horace Kephart's "Our Southern Highlanders" give a perspective on people living a subsistence lifestyle, they didn't realize the depression was even going on. Things like the brothers making charcoal. Charcoal was the quick fuel for cooking if you could trade for it, making baskets, sweet syrup, toys for the children, corn liquor, etc...take on greater importance in that life style.