| Departments: |
| Country conversation | 8 |
| |
| Life on the sunny side: |
| A Colorado family's 18-year off-grid odyssey | 30 |
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| Life off the grid: |
| The heart of a homesteader | 34 |
| |
| Hands-on homesteading: |
| Welding for anyone | 36 |
| |
| The machine shed: |
| Preventative maintenance can extend the life of an air compressor | 38 |
| |
| Homestead firearms: |
| The junker Mauser Scout rifle | 40 |
| |
| Homestead water: |
| 15 hints for dowsing | 42 |
| |
| Build a homestead root cellar and smoker | 43 |
| |
| Notes from the northwoods: |
| Gardening in the greenhouse | 46 |
| |
| The homestead kitchen: |
| Save money and food with a vacuum sealer | 51 |
| Ginger: Spice of the ages | 53 |
| Make fois gras at home humanely and inexpensively | 58 |
| Wolfberry update | 59 |
| |
| The barnyard: |
| Black snakes and other predators | 62 |
| |
| The henhouse: |
| Just say "no" to the $60 chicken waterer | 66 |
| |
| The cow barn: |
| Hardware in cattle | 68 |
| |
| The goat barn: |
| Unraveling dairy goat terminology | 71 |
| What goats eat | 72 |
| |
| The horse barn: |
| Checking a horse's body condition | 73 |
| |
| Homestead crafts: |
| "Creating" goat milk soap at Hidden Meadows Farm | 79 |
| |
| Roadside treasures | 81 |
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| Country neighbors: |
| Our journey toward sustainability | 82 |
| Empowering future generations by handing down skills | 85 |
| The gift of thanks | 92 |
| The big red farmhouse | 94 |
| An Alaskan woman's adventures in the bush | 98 |
| |
| Book review: |
| Confessions of the world's worst parent | 90 |
| |
| The hapless homesteader: |
| Reflections on Christmas Day: Remembering the Maestro | 100 |
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| Poor Will's Almanack for Early Winter 2009 | 103 |
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| After Chores: |
| Why trappers are loners | 114 |
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