So why would an online blog writer suggest you shouldn’t rely on the internet? Because I’m being honest and I don’t rely on it either. I do read online articles and blogs, listen to podcasts and watch YouTube shows on self-sufficiency. I can also remember a time when presentations were done with slides and projectors. In the early 90s, a few of my psychology classes were presented on VHS tapes from the library, and I mailed my assignments to my professor in Denver. Today, archivists the world over are tasked with digitizing their archives by using the many forms of technology used to create them. Imagine having the audio of an historic event… on an eight track tape. You’ll need a working eight track player to start the digitizing process. That technology is essentially obsolete. Now imagine that chicken issue that caused you to run straight from the coop to your phone or computer. Chicken losing feathers. Okay, she’s probably molting, no worries. Having a book about chickens on the bookshelf ensures you’ll have a resource if you need one, if the internet isn’t an option.
After thirty years of picking books up at thrift shops, yard sales, bookstores, and conferences as well as a few that were inherited, we have enough to supply a small library. Physical books can be truly invaluable.
Our self-sufficiency/nature section takes up quite a bit of literary real estate. There is one book however that has been our go-to for decades:
The Ten Cent Book-
This is one of those books that by the looks of it wouldn’t even get accepted by a thrift shop or put out on an estate sale table. We found it at a yard sale shortly after we moved to Missouri over 25 years ago. The oversized 1981 Reader’s Digest publication, Back to Basics, How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills was a 10¢ find of a lifetime. Hence, it’s a moniker, at least in our household. “How do you build a root cellar?” “Go grab the ten-cent book. “We should make a cold frame” “Get the ten-cent book” and so on. The book covers everything from food preservation to basket weaving. When I pulled it off the shelf to write this blog I even found some old garden designs I forgot I had drawn. While it’s true that not every book ever written is a great resource, there are hundreds out there that are. Keep them.
Print and Make a Reference Binder-
One more thing about the internet- it’s free which means you are the product. There’s a reason why you have to scroll past a dozen ads and often pages filled with results offering to sell you a solution to your problem (or sell you something that is oddly unrelated). If the security of our data ever actually becomes protected, the internet might not be free anymore. As it continues to become more saturated it will become harder to find what you’re looking for. As online security changes, some pages don’t upgrade causing your favorite website to be blocked from view or gone with an unpaid hosting fee. The internet is truly ephemeral. That’s the mellow version of why we should print things. There are much more frightening scenarios that result in the end of the web and although I don’t spend much time thinking about them, they are one more reason to keep physical references in my home.
My son started making a reference binder about a year ago. Anytime someone goes to a search engine to answer a self-sufficiency question he prints off the answer. For instance, there are several fantastic wild edible books out there, but they often use drawn pictures of plants instead of photographs. Having an actual photograph and description makes that potentially poisonous mushroom more likely to be properly identified.
Finally, put your own notes in your binder. If you take a class or go to a conference, take notes. We have a few binders just from bee classes and conferences. Also, I can’t tell you how many times someone has bestowed some incredible information on how to grow something, build something or preserve something in random conversation. Then only a few days later my mind forgot the details. Write it down and save it.
For now, we have a somewhat functioning internet, so please keep reading this blog. If you find something really useful, print it for your own binder. You never know when it might come in handy.
Audrey L Elder
Fourteen Acre Wood
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