Farm DIY: 20 Useful and Fun Projects for Your Farm or Homestead

by Samantha Johnson and Daniel Johnson

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Build a Better Farm! Loaded with complete plans and easy-to-follow construction tips, this book offers a creative mix of both practical and decorative projects for working and hobby farms. Veteran family farmers and 4-H alumni Samantha and Daniel Johnson present 20 essential projects for aspiring homesteaders. From log jacks, rabbit hutches, and milking stands to a weather vane and a barn quilt, clear step-by-step color photographs guide the reader through each hands-on project. An introduction to the DIY mindset explains the positive benefits and satisfaction of building things yourself, and provides an overview of the basic tools and skills needed to complete each task. Farm DIY also includes a background discussion of farming today, and instructions for building an effective farmer's market display stand for selling your products. Inside Farm DIY - 20 step-by-step, do-it-yourself projects for creating the farm of your dreams. - Build practical items like fences, gates, bee houses, log jacks, rabbit hutches and milking stools. - Make fun items like a weather vane, a barn quilt and a goat see-saw. - Create an attractive display stand for selling your products at farmer's markets. - Easy-to-complete projects all feature inexpensive materials and basic techniques.

• ISBN13: 9781620083321
• Publish Date: 20 July 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Companion House
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Farm DIY is a tutorial and inspiration guide for 20 DIY projects aimed at the homestead or farm. Due out 9th July 2019 from Fox Chapel, it's 192 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

Part of being a homesteader is self reliance. A big part of self reliance is being able to fix equipment and streamline production. There's a real sense of satisfaction in being able to identify a problem and find a workable solution. This book provides tutorials for 20 different useful projects with the additional bonus of being fun to make.

The introductory sections include how to use the book, a short sidebar with metric conversions, tools and safety consideration. The tutorials cover a range of projects, 4 for apiarists (bee-people), a couple for goats, 11 general around-the-farm projects, a couple for rabbits or other small animals, and a basic cheesemaking tutorial.

Each of the tutorials includes a materials and tools list. The step by step instructions are well supported by lots of good construction photographs and the instructions are clear and understandable. There are a range of projects from very simple (making cottage cheese and a rabbit nest box) to quite complex (building a frame built beehouse/shed). The projects have the complexity levels listed along with time requirements which seem to be realistic.

The beekeeping and goat related projects appealed to me especially, but there's something here for pretty much everyone, including suburban folks who would like to increase their self reliance.

Four stars. Useful and fun.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.