Our family lives a very self-sufficient lifestyle so I was excited to read this book. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed, unfortunately. There are no photos and few illustrations, other than in the very extensive animal slaughtering section (we eat vegetarian so this was not helpful for me). Not enough information was given on anything other than slaughtering and cutting up animals, strangely. For instance, the author has a section on making rag rugs but he uses two paragraphs to say that you basically use a not too pointy tool to push strips of cloth up and down, or that there's another way. There are no real instructions, no drawings, nothing to actually teach you how to make a rag rug. Knitting is given even less instruction in its section -- Dawson basically says that knitting is vogue again and that it will save you money and get you great clothes. It is in vogue again, but he doesn't provide any information on how to get affordable yarn and it's honestly not going to save you money over getting a nice sweater at a thrift store if you're buying new yarn to make your own. I have a friend who spins wool from her sheep, rabbits, alpaca and other livestock and of course that's the ultimate in self sufficiency, but Dawson doesn't even mention this is an option.

The book goes into little bits of advice about what to plant and how to do things well, but it's sort of scattered all over the place and is not at all a "bible." It reminds me a bit of 1970's books I'd read from the library when I was young, but those were actually much more detailed. It's an interesting book, but I'm not sure how practical it is as a primer for folks who want to take homesteading seriously.

I admire the author for embarking on a self sufficient lifestyle with his wife, but I think this could have used some more finessing.

I did not get the chance to read this book so I am unable to provide an honest review.