Instructions for a variety of tasks from how to move a pig to making your own massage oil. Interesting material for browsing and good information for those adopting a back-to-the-basics lifestyle.

A wonderful collection! I had forgotten some things (braided rugs-my mother used to do this), and never knew so many others (how to move a pig). The illustrations and step-by-step instructions made me want to try everything...well, maybe not moving a pig, but almost everything else. This is a book that has something to interest almost anyone-crafts, cooking, gardening, home repair, animals, personal care, and so much more. I could see using this in a homeschool program or at a camp. Many of the projects would be great for a family to do together. Fabulous.

As someone who has been dehydrating and making all sorts of edible powders from scratch lately (somewhat of a pioneer woman ..Ha!), this book attracted me so much!

You could learn many, many skills from the dozens of experts that this book has gleaned from. How about putting these expertise under your belt: gardening, well-being (making various concoctions for health and/or beauty), nature (such as how to keep a nature journal and how to identify animal tracks), food and drink, crafts, animals (such as how to speak, catch and bathe a chicken!) , sustainable living (such as how to make a water filter from a 2-liter bottle or harvest rainwater), building (such as how to build a fire pit for outdoor roasting.)

Many of the skills are not obscure at all. In fact, many of them can be useful from day to day. There are some though that I highly doubt I will ever need or want to use such as capture a swamp of bees!

I like that there are many photographs and illustrated step-by-step instructions.

Give this gift to someone who feels that they are lacking in any useful know-how or hobbies perhaps? Definitely give to a young person to learn something that they can brag about to their friends. Who knows it might spark enough interest for them to pursue lifelong hobbies.

Thank you Netgalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I had a lot of fun reading this incredibly diverse bunch of tutorials for hundreds of skills I do know how to do (making kombucha, rooting houseplants, dyeing your hair with henna, making an herbal oil or tincture, foraging wild plants, growing a straw bale garden, clipping a cat's claws, mounting a horse, tapping a maple tree and making maple syrup...) and lots that I don't know how to do (french braid a horse's tail, tell your soil's deficiencies by the weeds growing in it, make 7 kinds of tents from tarps, make biodiesel, finger crochet, move a pig, bathe a chicken, dismount a horse in an emergency, rewire a table lamp, smoke meat on the stove...).

Yes, they're quick and easy instructions so they're not going to tell you everything you need to be an expert. But they're surprisingly well illustrated with color photos and illustrations and very simple, detailed instructions. They'll get you started and you might learn some cool skills.

Note that a lot of the skills have to do with raising, butchering and eating animals of all kinds (with some graphic images -- I really didn't need to ever see what you need to do to a deer's anus during field dressing), so vegetarians may find the book less useful.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

For anyone who wants to learn a new skill, this is the book for you. The practical skills in this book range from gardening to food like carving a turkey and eating a lobster. Would highly recommend.

I love the concept of this book! For me, it just didn’t hit the range of skills I was hoping for. It’s. Moderately accessible and could see something like this inspiring exploration time for transition planning or something..

thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

There were certainly some interesting and useful skills in this book. Things such as how to tie a knot, how to identify a bird call, or how to make a raised garden bed.

But overall the book felt a bit like a bunch of wikihow entries strung together and printed out. With drawings instead of pictures there was often not a lot of detail in some of the guides. They were also typically one page, even for more complicated things, so a lot of information was jammed together and steps were not always as clear as I would have hoped. Especially when you can learn something online I was hoping this book would have information to offer that was not readily available on the internet.

There is also a lot in here that is not particularly relevant to my life, although I like being able to learn some of these skills just in case. I enjoyed the variety of skills listed in this book as some are truly obscure. There's a lot around animal husbandry and home repair.

Overall it might be a better fit for those always looking for new skills!

This book reminded me of an adult version of Disney's Junior Woodchucks Guidebook, which I treasured as a child. If learning life skills is your jam, you will love this book!