Cold Climate Homesteading

Heating a barn makes things worse, and the reason is air rather than warmth. Cold Climate Homesteading takes the rest of this series and asks what changes at twenty below, where winter lasts for months, the ground freezes hard, and every system on the place has less margin for error.

Readers learn how to keep water moving in lines, tanks, hydrants, and barns; ventilate animal housing correctly and avoid the moisture trap; run the winter feed calculation before the hay is bought; handle winter birthing, frozen ground, and the October deadline that frozen ground creates; and plan for snow load, ice dams, cold-start equipment problems, and the power failure that arrives with them.

It also covers what five months indoors does to a household, which few books on the subject mention. Book 52 of the Homestead Starter Series. Each volume is a short, plain-spoken field guide to one subject, written to be read once and then kept on the shelf for the day you need it.

Hudson Briggs writes practical guides for people learning to do things themselves: gardening, livestock, food preservation, and the ordinary skills that keep a small place running.