Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group
It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.
Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.
In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.
Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:
Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)
Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)
How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)
Gardening
Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)
Country/Rural Living:
Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)
"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)
Sewing/Mending:
Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)
Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)
Sustainability/Land Stewardship
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)
Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)
Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"
Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.
"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)
Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)
These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!
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39 Best Websites to Find Free Textbooks, Research Papers, Study Guides, and Books
Whether you’ve just received a long list of textbooks you need for a specific uni class or are looking for a particular book/research paper for a high school project, books (and journal subscriptions) can be expensive.
The good news is that there are plenty of resources online where you can find free PDF versions of most written materials, starting with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology and ending with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Note that although some of the websites below provide access to copyright-free texts only, or texts that publishers/authors have agreed to share freely, others have been accused of internet privacy.
However, many people see open access practices as morally acceptable, especially considering the unsustainable prices of academic textbooks and papers.
To quote a recent paper on the topic:
"Since shadow libraries are a product of the cooperation between scholars, who contribute texts and other resources (such as donations, volunteer work, etc.), shadow libraries represent a ‘bottom-up’, radical approach to open access: a physical approximation of the Platonic ideal of knowledge sharing that would exist if there were no legal, economic, or institutional barriers to the circulation of scholarly knowledge."
Free Textbooks
Library Genesis
Library Genesis, or Libgen for short, is a shadow online library website where college students can find academic books (including those that are hard to find/very expensive) and scholarly journal articles.
The site also hosts general-interest books, audiobooks, comics, magazines, and images.
Z-Library
Z-Library is another shadow library website that hosts college textbooks, scholarly journal articles, and general-interest books. It calls itself “the world’s largest e-book library.” It mirrors Library Genesis.
The front page also features some of the most popular books at the time. When we viewed it, these included “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Harry Potter the Complete Collection by J. K. Rowling.
You can also use the right-hand navigation menu to see the books that have been added most recently, as well as sort through books based on category.
Use the Book Request option if you can’t find a book you’re looking for. There’s no guarantee your book will be added, but community members look at requests to see what books to upload (you can also upload books).
PDF Drive
PDF Drive is an online library with a ton of free ebooks and PDF textbooks in various categories, including academic & education (but also lifestyle, personal growth, art, linguistics, etc.)
ForCoder.su
Forcoder.su has lots of online textbooks on programming. It also provides free access to online courses, like Apache Kafka for beginners and object-oriented programming with Python. Currently, there are hundreds of free courses available.
Online Mathematics Textbooks
Online Mathematics Textbooks is your source for free digital textbooks on all things math. It’s just one page featuring 77 textbooks.
Tech Books for Free Download
Tech Books for Free Download is where you’ll find free science and engineering books on topics ranging from data mining to general relativity.
There’s no way to search for books easily. However, the site is divided into books on Linux, Java, Microsoft, C and C++, Perl/Python, Science, Networking, Database, Security, and Assembly.
Free Tech Books
Free Tech Books is an open textbook library. It provides access to free computer science books and textbooks, plus lecture notes. All the books and lecture notes listed on this site are freely available on authors’ and/or publishers’ sites.
You can browse books by category (computer science, mathematics, supporting fields, operating system, programming/scripting, miscellaneous), author, publisher, or license.
Directory of Open Access Books
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a website that indexes and provides access to academic, peer-reviewed open-access books. All disciplines are covered, but there’s a particular emphasis on humanities, social sciences, and law.
Ubiquity Press
Ubiquity Press has been an open-access publisher of academic, peer-reviewed books and journals since 2012. It was founded by University of College London (UCL) researchers.
Research Papers
Sci-Hub
Sci-hub has the most expansive collection of research papers. Its mission is to “remove all barriers in the way of science.”
Directory of Open Access Journals
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is an online directory of open-access, peer-reviewed research journals covering humanities, social sciences, technology, science, medicine, and art.
The directory indexes journals from different countries and languages. DOAJ is supported financially by publishers, libraries, and other organizations.
Wiley Open Access
Wiley Open Access provides peer-reviewed open-access journals across topics like biochemistry, economics, sociology, mathematics, and law.
SpringerOpen
SpringerOpen publishes open-access journals across a wide range of areas, mainly STEM.
Elsevier
Elsevier publishes open-access, peer-reviewed journals. You can search for journals by title, keyword, or subject (dentistry, nursing, decision sciences, etc.)
Springer Link
Springer Link provides access to ebooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and other resources (mostly scientific).
BASE
BASE is a search engine for academic texts, including journals, digital collections, institutional repositories, etc. You can access about 60% of the indexed texts for free.
Study Guides
Bibliomania
Bibliomania has study guides to the most-read books, like “A Hero of Our Time,” “Animal Farm,” and even Irish politics. It also has over 2,000 classic texts, book summaries, author biographies, and more.
Books
Open Library
Open Library is an open library catalog of more than 3 million new and old books. The project was created by the nonprofit organization Internet Archive. It has also received partial funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation and the California State Library.
You can read old books without an account. However, for new books, you’ll need to set one up (it takes just a few minutes).
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a digital library of ebooks. It also has free movies, music, and software.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a famous site where you can find lots of free books. There are more than 60,000 books in its collection.
Standard Ebooks
Standard Ebooks take public domain texts and make them as nice as new books. They fix typographical errors and typos, create cool cover art, and format the text for e-readers like Kindle and iPad.
Planet eBook
Planet eBook is where you can download free PDF copies of classics like Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
What really makes Planet eBook stand out is its UX. It’s one of those rare sites that are super easy to navigate and actually look good (aesthetically speaking).
The Ultimate Book Search Engine
The Ultimate Book Search Engine is an ebook search engine that includes 350 open directory sites that relate to ebooks. It was created by the Reddit user u/NotoriousYEG.
Classic Bookshelf
The Classic Bookshelf is a site where you’ll find lots of classic novels, everything from Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy.
Literature.org
Literature.org features classic works of English literature, both fiction and non-fiction.
Bartleby
Bartleby is a site that features both fiction and nonfiction books.
Fiction.us
Fiction.us has a ton of books, including fiction, short stories, children's picture books, poetry, books on writing, and plays.
Classic Literature Library
As the name suggests, Classic Literature Library is where you’ll find classic literature works.
Ideology.us
Ideology.us is a site that has ebooks on philosophy, psychology, sociology, politics, and education.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is where you’ll find all of Shakespeare’s work. The site is run by The Tech, the largest and oldest newspaper by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Read Books Online
Read Books Online has around 6,000 ebooks, including novels, short stories, poems, essays, plays, and non-fiction.
Public Bookshelf
Public Bookshelf is a site dedicated to romance novels.
Categories of ebooks here include contemporary romance, romantic suspense, historical romance, regency romance, inspirational romance, vampire romance, western romance, general romance, and fantasy and paranormal romance.
The Perseus Project
The Perseus Project is a digital library created by Tufts University with books from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in original languages and English.
Chest of Books
Chest of Books has books on a ton of different subjects, including animals, finance, real estate, science, and travel.
The Literature Network
The Literature Network has books by authors like Anne Bronte, Lewis Carroll, and Lord George Gordon Byron. It also features forums, literature summaries, and quizzes.
The Online Books Page
The Online Books Page is a site by the University of Pennsylvania that houses books in categories like philosophy, history, medicine, science, agriculture, music, anthropology, and more. The site also links to the following:
Banned Books Online: A directory of books that were once banned and links to places where you can read them in full.
A Celebration of Women Writers: A directory that lists online editions of literary works by women as well as resources about women writers.
Prize Winners Online: A directory of prize-winning books.
Many Books
Many Books is “your friendly neighborhood library.” It houses over 50,000 books in genres like romance, mystery, young adult, horror, and non-fiction. You can read books online or download them to your device.
Authorama
Authorama turns public domain books on sites like Google Books and Project Gutenberg into HTML format, making it easier to read them.
Audiobooks
Librivox
Librivox has free audiobooks that you can listen to from any device.
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Kitchen post today~
With prices being what they are I like a good deal on groceries when I can find it. Sometimes that leads me to buying large quantities of things.
This week the local scratch n dent market had 5 pound bags of golden potatos on sale, 2 for $4. We like potatos so I snagged a few bags. Since i had 2 from last week's groceries I decided to pick through them all.
I tossed a few rotten ones and sorted out the good from the ones getting on the going side. The good ones I put up in a storage tote (a cooking pot for now) for later cooking.
These ones are the contenders for the weekly meal/freezer prep. They had some funny or funky spots, things that can be cut off and thrown away or in the compost. I clean them after washing them well.
As a heads up, it's not suggested to feed chickens raw potatoes. So leave anything with raw potato bits in the trash or the compost bin.
The bad bits.
If you feel need to you can wash them up again. I move to peeling after words.
I save the peels for breakfast potatoes, or to make soup.
A few peeled spuds.
Afterwords, depending on how many potatoes needed to be processed will decide what im making. This time I had enough potatoes to do cubed potatoes and hashbrown potatoes.
Cube potatoes, then blanch them till all Dante in a pot. (Not quite to mash potatoes softness, but not crunchy.)
Drain, cool quickly. (If your into water conservation, save the water for your plants once cooled) I cool till just under warm and lay them out to drain/dry a bit.
Then take a pan and lay out a clean kitchen towel on it. Pour dry potatoes on and place in freezer till frozen.
Store in container and use like regular frozen potatoes.
Moving to hashed potatoes
Similar to the cubed potatoes except I grated them.
I like to destarch my potatoes a little so I do a soak for about an hour, drain and then blanch.
I did about 5 minutes to blanch the hash, every couple minutes fish out a peice and test it to see if it's crunchy or just firm. Drain, cool asap.
Lay out to drain and dry a bit.
Lay towel on baking sheet. Place drained hashed potatoes on top. Place in freezer and freeze a few hours.
When frozen package up. Date and use as necessary :)
Other potato freezing/preserving resources
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-to-freeze-potatoes
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/dehydrate-potatoes-for-various-uses-zbcz1507/
🥔🌱Happy Homesteading!🌱🥔
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Homemade Flour Tortillas!
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup lard, butter, shortening, or oil, room temp
1 cup warm water, approx. 110F
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Using a pastry cutter, fork, or your fingers, break the butter up into the flour mixture until it resembles wet sand, well incorporated.
Add the hot water to the bowl, and gently fold the mixture until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix or overknead, as this will cause the tortillas to be tough.
Once a soft dough ball forms, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes. Do not skip the resting! It is important to let the flour hydrate and gluten relax for a soft tortilla.
Once rested, cut the dough into 8 equally sized pieces. If the dough is too sticky to handle, work on a floured surface. Gently form small dough balls with your hands, and flatten them slightly to make disks. Lightly coat with oil, and cover with a kitchen towel or loose plastic wrap and let rest for another 15 minutes.
Preheat a skillet or dry pan on medium heat. Working with one dough ball at a time, flatten the dough with your hands, a rolling pin, or a heavy book and parchment paper until the tortilla is as close to 8 inches in diameter as you can get, pretty thin.
Cook the tortilla for about 30-45 seconds on each side, or until yellow gold spots start to form. If you're using the tortillas right away and won't be reheating them on the stove later, cook until golden brown spots form.
Place the tortillas in a folded kitchen towel to cool, allowing them to reach room temperature slowly and retain moisture. Store the tortillas in a sealed container, ziplock, or tightly wrapped plastic wrap for about 5 days, if they even last that long!
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