EXPENSIVE BOOK

            Last evening I did a webinar for Justin Rhodes, guru of homesteading.  His subscribers had sent in a list of questions and he pulled a handful to drive the webinar's conversation.

             The second question was "what are the 3 most important personal qualities for a person to have in order to be a successful farmer?"

             Here are Justin's 3:

             1.  Community.  Farming is lonely and you need to build friendships and networks around you for support and sharing.

             2.  Consistency.  You can't cheat on chores.  The weeds won't pull themselves and the chickens won't gather their own eggs.  It's every day.

            3.  Think long-term.  Cultivate the idea that you're doing this for your grandchildren; the longer the horizon, the more you can handle day-to-day mishaps and disappointments.

             Here are my 3:

             1.  Perseverance.  I've said for many years I'm not smarter or stronger than others; I'm just too stubborn to quit.  If you don't quit, you'll inherently become more skilled.  You can't Google experience.  If you don't quit, you'll outlast all the ones who do and then suddenly you'll become a guru and mentor.

             2.  Observation.  You've got to see the broken fence, the leaky water trough, the watery poop.  This includes being eclectic, visiting other farms, reading widely to make sure you benefit from other people's observations.

             3.  Vision.  This is similar to Justin's long-term point.  Money will not keep you going.  Even serving customers will not keep you going.  Media attention will not keep you going.  Sacred mission is what keeps you going.  Know what it is and articulate it to your family and team; everybody wants to be a part of noble, sacred missions. 

            So what was the first question?  It was this:  "If you lost all your books but one, which one would you keep?"  I didn't have to think long to respond:  The Complete Book of Composting by J.I. Rodale and staff, original edition, 1960.  It's 1,000 pages with NPK lists of different materials, C:N ratios of different materials and a host of other carbon and compost-related information. 

             It's out of print now; Rodale redid it in recent years but the new edition lacks much of the most important information in the first one.  A webinar attendee searched for it quickly on Amazon and found a used one:  $847.

             It's probably worth it.  In fact, I told the webinar folks last night that when I read that book at about 23 years old, that's when I became a leader in this whole movement.  It gave me data to validate my family's intuition and enough testimonials for 100 percent buy-in to the non-chemical, carbon-based soil building approach.

             If you farm or garden, what's your most valuable book reference?