Fantastic book that can save you time and money

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	• Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them Rolfe Cobleigh The Lyons Press, 1996 - 290 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Where we're heading?

My interest in this book comes from a growing concern about Peak Oil. When energy is no longer cheap or plentiful, how will we adapt? One way to approach this question is to look ahead and see how technologies such as solar and wind energy can help. Turns out, however, that the feasibility of these technologies is also dependent to a large degree upon plentiful, cheap oil. So, in addition to looking ahead, it's probably a good idea to look to the past. How did people of a few generations back manage such simple tasks as refrigeration (for example), without relying upon constant availability of electricity and fossil fuel?

This book is a good resource for those who want to investigate this question. It offers many examples of very practical implements, most of which can be built with simple tools, some basic skills, and hard work. "Hard work" may be the most operant item in that list, and throughout the book are sprinkled brief aphorisms encouraging one to embrace the work ethic: "the manly part is to do with might and main what you can (Emerson)"; "keep your shop and your shop will keep you"; "Taste the joy that springs from labor (Longfellow)".

Good illustrations; spare, to-the-point writing st

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Fantastic book that can save you time and money

"Success comes to the man who so works that his efforts will bring the most and the best results-not to the man who simply works hard." Very elequently stated by the author from page three in the introduction of this gem of a little book.

Call me a survivalist, but I feel books such as these are going to become imperative in the future of america for both the suburbanite and country boy alike. Handy Farm Devices by Rolfe Cobleigh is a must own to anyone who owns or is even thinking about owning their own homestead. This book allows you to make just about anything you could possibly need around a private farm/homestead. Just to name a few things that are tucked away in the pages of this litte gem are How To: use a carpenters square, build stairs, temporary animal housing, a cellar, make your own dresser drawers, feeders for your animals, make a chicken coop from a barrel (and other chicken, pig, horse, and cattle housing designs as well), laying cement foundations, simple housing plans, how to build a concrete stone house for $400 dollars, build your own wheelbarrel, plus various orchard and planting ideas as well as other ideas that are so numerous I can't possibly mention them all.

The only thing this book will not do is give you a step by step guide on how to go about doing X,Y, and Z. It gives you pointers and a general push in the right direction, but it doesn't give you in depth direction. I only see this becoming problematic if you were to take on the task of building one of the houses described in this book. However, I don't see in depth directions being an issue for most of the devices mentioned. Even a modest amount of ingenuity should be sufficient in most cases. In the end this book delievers all that it reasonably can in less than 300 pages. A must have for those interested in homesteading, and those who believe that true self-sufficiency will become a necessary skill in the future of this country.

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Very handy indeed

If you like "old school" technology or "low tech", this is the book for you. You'll find things forgotten or that you never knew existed. Very handy for self sufficient folks.

Handy Guide For Handy Devices

This is great guide for people who want to build things, even if they aren't very good at it. There are some really clever ideas in this book, and loads of useful information. This is a reprinting from 1909, but just as useful as it was back then.

Entertaining Read

We purchased this book hoping for some old fashioned helpful hints, instead we were charmed by the nostalgia. I wouldn't consider this a "do it yourself guide" but, an industrious builder/ engineer could get a kick out of attempting these fun old ideas. Not overly useful but thought provoking.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Originally published in 1909, "Handy Farm Devices" is more than an engaging trip down memory lane. For any small farmer or homesteader, the techniques and devices described in detail are just as useful, durable, and fully functional today as they were 75 years ago. You will learn to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. The charming, turn-of-the-century language and useful and inspirational quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible, Bacon, Longfellow and many others make this book a delight to read. --Mark A. Hetts

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