2 comments about Living with Pigs: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Porkers.

1. This definitely is not a book about children and what their mothers told them about their rooms looking like a pig sty. This is a book about animal husbandry and the raising of your own porkers.
   
   Living with Pigs is wonderfully illustrated with photographic images by Geoff Hansen showing the many different breeds of pigs and their surroundings. We all relate to 'Babe' and the exploits of this cute piglet in the barnyard. Chuck Wooster tells tales about his pigs and getting them used to his barnyard for feeding. He snorts 'hello' to them and they 'snort and grunt' return affection.
   
   This book shows that growing up to a shoat and then to a hog is an extremely fast project. In the span of 5 months a 20 to 30 pound shoat becomes a 250 pound hog! With tongue in cheek humor, Chuck Wooster, tells in a remarkably subtle manner the foils and accomplishments he had in the raising of his pigs. One day, three of his pigs were walking across the field to the reception tent for his sister's wedding. These devils were so smart they picked the lock of their enclosure and escaped to join the party.
   
   How to construct enclosures, fences, and where to place a pig sty are only a few explicit instructions given. Hansen goes into extreme detail on the selection process of getting that first shoat. He writes about the gregarious nature of pigs and their need to socialize with other pigs. Pigs do not like to sleep alone or be by themselves at play. They need to be in a group of at least two or more to be content.
   
   A draw back in the past was the fear of getting trichinosis from improperly cooked pork. Raising top quality porcini, organically, partially eliminates this problem and the other tip is not to feed your animals' table scraps or garbage. The United States Department of Agriculture outlawed the feeding of garbage to pigs many years ago to stop the development of this disease. Using fresh vegetables from your garden or feed that is not medically treated are two of the tricks that Chuck employs in his organic system.
   
   The chapter describing slaughter, rendering, and final cut-up is quite graphic, which might be a turn-off for the squeamish among you. However, that section can be skipped and the alternative is to take your hog to the butcher for finalization in your pick-up truck.
   
   Cooking instructions, cuts of meat, and almost everything you want to know about raising your own porker are here in this book. It is one of the best books that I have read on the raising and care of animals.
   
   Clark Isaacs
   Reviewer



2. The only reason I even gave this one star is because Amazon, for some unfathomable reason, will not post star-less reviews.
   
   "People who love pigs"??
   
   Well people who love pigs do NOT slaughter them for food after living with them and earning their trust.
   
   The authors are awful, disgusting men. They might want to try "Living With Cannibals".

3 comments about Home Warming: Secrets to Making Your House a Welcoming Place (Barnes, Emilie).

1. I truly enjoy this book on an ongoing basis. It is a joy to own. I love the beauty and artwork of the book.



2. I wasn't that impressed with the book. I flipped through it in just a few minutes.



3. This book inspired me to make my house a more warm and welcoming place over the past 2 years. I was sad to see someone gave it a single star. Obviously no book is for everyone, but I have read and re-read Home Warming's pages and it is a book to be savored if you are a person who wants your home to be cozy and usable, but you struggle with the practicalities of how to do it.
   
   This is truly a china, lace, and wicker beauty. To be honest, I don't decorate with lace or with wicker. But there are tea sets in every painting(which I do love). And it is a bit nostalgic.
   
   My family and friends have noticed a difference in my home after reading and applying the suggestions hidden in this book. It is not a "how-to" book so much as a "this is what I have noticed seems to work" book.
   
   I am very much an HGTV fan, but this book takes decorating one step farther to being people-and-daily-comfort-focused.

No comments about Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life.

4 comments about The Messies Superguide.

1. I really liked this book. Very aptly describes the difference between a messie and a cleanie. As a textbook messie I no longer feel alone! Great ideas to help you overcome clutter.



2. If you're looking for cleaning tips and helpful hints, flip to the "Time Saver" and "Super Solutions" sections throughout the entire book. If you want to totally revolutionize your way of thinking, take the quiz on page 11 and read the book from cover to cover. I purchased this book as a sophomore in high school looking for tips on how to clean my room. Fourteen years later it remains on my dresser with my dictionary and the Bible. It's that important! like a daily reference guide to sanity. Sandra Felton's words ring true because she herself is a Messie and understands how we think.



3. This book is as good as all of Sandra Felton's in describing Messies and how to rise up out of it.

   But this book has an added bonus in its chapters on decorating. Messies have a hard time pulling beauty out of the mess, even once the mess itself is cleared away. This book describes HOW to gather colors, textures, lines you really like. And then it describes HOW to turn those ideas into reality, as well as HOW to consider easy maintenance and cleaning alternatives to achieve the look.




4. The reason that it's the best is that all of the other books on organization that are out there are great for giving you hints of what to do and how, but they rarely deal with the "Why?" This book has space dedicated to your thinking about your life and why you have a desperate need to hoard and save everything. The steps to freedom from clutter are slow and easy, with a definite lean toward taking a break now and then! There is nothing overwhelming about this book and its approach. Most of us feel overwhelmed enough, thanks!

3 comments about The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, & Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place.

1. As a parent, I try my best to create a home environment which is happy, healthy and safe for my family. The ideas I came across in this book have helped me in my efforts to do just that. From tips on eco-friendly cleaning, to food storage, from saving energy to nutrtitional tips... it has a little bit of everything! It is well written, easy to read - and a great book to keep on hand to refer to later on. It is the type of book which gets you thinking... and has you looking at your kitchen, and even the rest of your home... in a whole new light!



2. I've had this book for four years. I leave it on my kitchen table for guests to browse. Most everyone will end up reading at least 2-3 excerpts to whomever may be within ear-shot. They love it! It's definately a conversation starter. I plan on purchasing it for friends and family this Christmas.



3. Many useful tips in this book. Being 'green' is the new buzzword/catchphrase/trend these days, but it's been a way of life for many people for a long time.
   
   This book will give you many ideas and tips to really improve your health and that of your family, as well as help the environment, and save some sheckles to boot.

No comments about Storage and Shelving Solutions: Ideas and Projects that Fit Your Budget, Space, and Lifestyle.

4 comments about Cleaning up the Clutter: Easy Ways to Keep Your Family Organized.

1. My sister gave me this book as a gift and I have really enjoyed reading it and putting into practice the clutter-cutting ideas. This has especially helped me to organize my chores into daily chunks so that the whole is not so overwhelming. Also, it has helped me create a system for mail sorting that is very helpful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to create a peaceful and organized home. There are ideas for menu planning, storage organization, and general home chore scheduling. As a stay-at-home wife and mom, it has been extremely helpful and encouraging for me.



2. Emilie Barnes' book Cleaning up the Clutter, is a conglomeration of ideas you may find in some of her other books but they are organized into a cohesive system that is easy to get your arms around. I recommend this book to anyone who needs a system of organization for their home.



3. This is a great book. If you feel overwhelmed by your clutter and don't know where to start and how to go about cleaning it up, Emilie has some great ideas. For example, for starters, work 1 room at a time and separate things by what to keep, what to get rid of, etc....



4. I was rather disappointed by this book. For a start, although it is only a thin book, almost half of it (from page 95 onwards) is devoted to recipes. Quite frankly, if I had wanted a recipe book, I would have bought one. Also, how do recipes help me to de-clutter?
   There are some useful tips, such as start one room at a time, but there the usefulness pretty much ends. If you are confronted with a truly cluttered room, it's all well and good to know that you only have to spend 15 minutes in there each day, but where do you start? I have been in a house where 15 minutes of work would barely have let you find a chair to sit in and rest. What goes first - toys, clothes, papers? Are these all gathered up and put where they belong in that 15 minutes or are they all just collected for later sorting (given that the collection could well take more than 15 minutes if you are stepping over and digging under piles of rubble)? There is little or no help for those people who are truly disorganised and have no idea of how to begin to order themselves.
   It's a great idea to put things in sorted and labelled boxes - but then, where do you put the boxes? Will these boxes not just create another pile of clutter (albeit, internally organised clutter)?
   A lot of time is spent dealing with paper clutter but what about all those little odds and ends that you have lying around the place that just never seem to have a designated spot?
   The wardrobe and kitchen are the primary rooms Emilie Barnes looks at de-cluttering, but what about the bedroom itself, or the bathroom, or at a lower level, the medicine cabinet? It's fine to talk about bags in the laundry for the different coloured items, but what about the laundry room, about the innumerable cleaners that people have, the cloths and brushes, etc?
   Overall, I don't think I'll get any use out of this book - except perhaps to put it on my "Gift shelf" (ah, to have the spare room!).

1 comments about Dad's Own Housekeeping Book: 137 Bright Ideas.

1. The Orlando Sentinel tipped me off to this guide. They described it as, "a funny but practical guide for men on vacuuming, cooking, cleaning, spot-removal, decluttering and more."
   This would make a great gift for the single guys you know or any stay-at-home dads. It ranks jobs by how important they are and how frequently they should be tackled. It aims to streamline housekeeping so it fits with the male style of management.
   The author points out that women learn housekeeping gradually as they grow up, but men might need a crash course (like this book). He gives many chores in five minute or ten minute clean ups, so it fits with the minimalist approach that suits most men. They want a system.

5 comments about The Virgin Homeowner: The Essential Guide to Owning, Maintaining, and Surviving Your Home.

1. This book contains very few pictures. Basically it's for novel-lovers, not for handy-man. I noticed most good ratings for this book are from women ...



2. I recently bought an older condo and having been raised in a traditional family (Often told to "go help my mother") I wasn't prepared for the hows and whys of how houses and their appliances work. I needed a basic education.
   
   This book will give you the background on how various parts of your home work - the electrical system, the water/drain/vent system, your plumbing, appliances - everything! I'm loving finally knowing what some of these things do.
   
   As other reviewers have mentioned, it's NOT a how-to book. I don't think this was designed to help the homeowner diagnose and FIX a problem. It's more to help us understand how they work so we can at least rule things out and communicate to a repairman without being intimidated.
   
   It is probably more appealing to women since it's written by a city girl who moved to the suburbs and realized she knew nothing about this stuff. I feel I can relate to her, maybe that's why I enjoy it even more!



3. I found no value in this book. Reading it felt like a chore instead of a learning experience. The way it was written, it felt like the author was talking to her girlfriends at a Sunday morning get together.
   
   A lot of reviewers seem to enjoy the book, unfortunately, I'm not one of them.



4. I *adore* this book. I first bought the 1997 version (I hear there is a new one?), right around the time we closed on our very first home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The house was a 1963 ranch style home.
   
   Someone mixed this up with a novel-style book. In fact, it is a narrative-style. I am a "reader," so I appreciated the narrative spiced with good humor admist all the technical bits. Like the author, I was moving from a city I loved to a town I liked but did not love. It covered a lot of ground and helped me feel less alone in the emotional experience of first time home ownership (particularly involving a relocation). The narrative style made it a very quick read for me, despite how inadept I am mechanically.
   
   What the book gave me primarily was an understanding of how the systems of homes work, and what that meant for me as "the average inexperienced homeowner." You can't get that in a how-to and fix-it book. Generally, those books look very narrowly at systems and their failures. This book gives you a basic foundation to actually *understand* the how-to and fix-it books.
   
   There may have been pieces of information missing, which the author might want to consider adding to a future addition, such as what a previous reader mentioned about the question of whether to wash air conditioners annually. But I found the author provided a good basic guide to maintaining a home. Advice included everything from what type of firewood not to burn in a fireplace to how to how to pest-proof a home. The author also advises her readers on how to find quality home care professionals, how to establish good relationships with these professionals, and what type of regular contact is necessary with these folks. In the case of "when things go wrong," she gives a basic guide as to what to look for, what to do for immediate steps, and when to call a professional. This includes everything from a sink clogging to a furnace not giving off heat. She gives good "starter" advice on purchasing replacement equipment when it comes to the major components of a system: toilets, water heaters, air conditioners, and so forth.
   
   When I sold my first home, there were even a few tidbits in the book that helped me with that process too.
   
   Now I am finding myself in the middle of purchasing my second home, this time in New England (yep...I moved cross-country and am in a whole new world of home styles and needs). Though this book is geared to the "virgin" homeowner, I am still finding it to be a very helpful guide. So far it has been useful in figuring the right types of questions to ask as we've been hunting for our new home.
   
   This last week, we put an offer down on a house (a 1920s colonial), and in the coming week, we'll be doing the inspections. I am pouring over this book right now, soaking up so much stuff I once knew but have forgotten. And I feel waaaaaaay more prepared this time, having this book before my home inspection, whereas last time I didn't get it until closer to our closing. It has already helped me hire an inspector with whom I feel I can place total confidence, and I feel like I have been asking the right questions and seeking the right kind of information this time around to really know what I am getting into.
   
   The section on home inspections has some great little tips that will really be useful for me in making the most of it, and now I am re-reading all of the "home systems" sections. I already have a list of great questions to ask about my home's systems during its inspection, and I know exactly the types of things I will be looking for in the report...and how anxious I should get about each possible problem.
   
   Not only that, in both the case of purchasing my first and second homes, the book has helped me avoid major anxiety attacks during critical moments in the process. Even the author's occassional affirmation that you will be in a financial panic any time you buy a home is helpful.
   
   I only wish I bought this book much earlier the first time around. For such a small book (the perfect size for a book of its type), it contains an amazing amount of information, as well as helpful and supportive narrative.
   
   For what it is worth, though I am gushing about this book, I can see a few limitations. For instance, in the child-proofing section of the book, I think the author's advice is overly limited in scope and she also recommends some products in that section that I have used and found to be unhelpful or "cheap" in make.
   
   Nonetheless, the book overall is a complete and total gem!



5. A great book for first time homeowner. Lets them know about the various problems and how to solve them.

5 comments about A Queen for All Seasons: A Year of Tips, Tricks, and Picks for a Cleaner House and a More Organized Life!.

1. First to the "snooty" I'll give mine away.. A reader from USA,
   Since you received this for a shower gift, I can see why you were blinded with bliss. Has the real world set in yet? Well when it does, BUY the book, you'll need all the help it provides.
   As for the millions of people who live in the real world this book is helpful, practical, and most importantly fun to read. Keep it as a reference when you are finished. QoC provides enjoyable reading and useful information for everyone, in each of her books. GREAT WORK!!



2. than read about cleaning! Wake up! This is reality. Most women work. Most men work. Not all of us working people have kids to stay at home with. Some of us work for a living, which leaves little free time. Reality is that I happily pay a cleaning service to clean my home, do my laundry, etc...once a week. This enables us to enjoy what little free time we have with each other rather than spend it on the drudgery which is housework. You've no room to call the other reader a snob.



3. For those of you who hire a cleaning service - this is obviously not the book for you. If I hired a company to paint my house, I wouldn't buy a book on how to paint. Common sense, don't you think?
   
   I for one, don't care for fly fishing. But the last thing I would do is look up a book on fly fishing - and write a review telling everyone how boring it is to fish!
   
   As a mother of 2 young children who is looking to better organize my daily activities and my household - I loved the book. I can't wait to read more of her work.



4. I think this book was very helpful to me in planning the different cleaning chores for all seasons. In stead of feeling like everything has to be done in the Spring of the year she shows you how to spread it out over the 12 months to accomplish the same results a clean house. I have tried may of her recipes for mixing up natural cleaning products and all I've tried have worked. I feel that Linda is really doing our planet some good by encouraging everyone to go back to using natural products and save our children, pets, planet.



5. Don't think spring is the only time you have to do your cleaning. This book will show you how to divide up the work by season.