Whether you’re interested in growing them for your own kitchen or to sell at a local market, you’ll soon be harvesting a delicious and abundant crop of mushrooms.

    This idiosyncratically written book chronicles the endless pleasures and myriad of pitfall of chicken keeping.

    She is beautiful and a talented free-spirit who is happiest when lost in the world of her art, painting. There are several local men who would love to marry her, as there is a serious shortage of women in Bozeman, MT in the 1890's. Elizabeth has seen her own brothers send for mail-order brides. Emma was the first young woman to move East from Boston to marry Ethan. Several of Emma's friends followed, Julia, Colleen, Brianna, Maeve and Fiona. But Elizabeth is in no hurry to marry either of the local men. No one has captured her heart in the same way that her childhood neighbor Julian did. Theirs was an innocent, but strong love and their future seemed all but certain to Elizabeth, until something terrible happened. No one has ever said exactly what he supposedly did, but Julian was sent away, when Elizabeth was just thirteen. Her family said it was for the best, given what happened and it was made clear to her that should he ever return, Elizabeth would be strictly forbidden from having anything to do with him. Elizabeth thought she'd put Julian out of her mind, considered him gone and part of her past. But when he suddenly returns, all the familiar feelings surface and what she is finally told that he has done, doesn't reconcile with the person standing before her. Elizabeth is determined to uncover the truth, to prove that Julian is the man she believes him to be.

    All magic is evil, the High Paladin taught... But Alastar starts to understand that he might have been misled.  If his sister uses magic, and she isn't evil...what does that mean for his beliefs?  Brother and sister soon find themselves aligned with magic users and thrown in with the clans in a war against sorcerers and paladins alike, with only one hope of uniting the land--the legendary Sword of Light.  It was lost years ago, and quest after quest by the holy paladins could not retrieve it. When you know the truth about magic... anything is possible.  This boxed set includes: Shades of LightShades of DarkShades of GloryShades of Justice Set on the foundation laid by the Kurtherian Gambit Series, Shades of Light tells an entirely new story in the Age of Magic--and of the heroes and villains who battle for control of its destiny.

    Written by Arizona t.v. gardening guru, the "Garden Guy," David Owens covers topics including watering, design, tools, schedules, fertilizing, companion planting, and soils.

    Assuming no previous knowledge, the book explains how solar panels work, how they can be used and explains the steps you need to take to successfully design and install a solar photovoltaic system from scratch. Accompanying this book is a solar resource website containing lots of useful information, lists of suppliers and on-line solar energy calculators that will simplify the cost analysis and design processes.

    Three years later, now the owner of a Welsh smallholding, Kate hears that a nearby farm is to be broken up and sold off. Another farm lost; another opportunity for a young farmless farmer gone. Desperate to stop the sale, Kate contacts the council with an alternative plan - to keep the farm working and to run a rural skills and animal husbandry school alongside it. Against all odds, she succeeds. Here, in Humble By Nature, Kate shares with us a highly personal account of her journey from London town house to Welsh farm. Along the way we meet Bertie and Lawrence the donkeys, Myfanwy and Blackberry the pigs and goats Biscuit and Honey, not forgetting a dog called Badger and his unladylike sidekick Bella. And we are introduced to the tenant farmers Tim and Sarah, the locals who helped and some who didn't, and a whole host of newborn lambs. Full of the warmth and passion for the natural world that makes Kate such a sought after presenter, Humble By Nature is the story of two people prepared to follow their hearts and save a small part of Britain's farming heritage, whatever the consequences.

    Along the way, he has become a widely influential journalist and social critic, documenting in hundreds of essays for national and regional magazines the crisis in conventional agri-business and the boundless potential for new forms of farming that reconcile tradition with ecology.Logsdon reminds us that healthy and economical agriculture must work - at nature's pace - instead of trying to impose an industrial order on the natural world. Foreseeing a future with -more farmers, not fewer, - he looks for workable models among the Amish, among his lifelong neighbors in Ohio, and among resourceful urban gardeners and a new generation of defiantly unorthodox organic growers creating an innovative farmers-market economy in every region of the country.Nature knows how to grow plants and raise animals; it is human beings who are in danger of losing this age-old expertise, substituting chemical additives and artificial technologies for the traditional virtues of fertility, artistry, and knowledge of natural processes. This new edition of Logsdon's important collection of essays and articles (first published by Pantheon in 1993) contains six new chapters taking stock of American farm life at this turn of the century.

    Steve Bender, senior garden writer at Southern Living magazine, offers customized advice for all five southern climate zones, making it simple to understand what plant in each zone. The plant encyclopedia features information on more than 5,000 plants.

    Kathy addresses everything needed to keep chickens simply, including coops, chick care, breed selection, chicken health, and beyond! Internationally known as The Chicken Chick, Kathy Shea Mormino brings an informative style and fresh perspective on raising backyard chickens to millions of fans around the world. An attorney by profession, Kathy is the founder and one-woman creative force behind her wildly popular and award-winning Facebook page and blog, The-Chicken-Chick.com. Now her practical, down-to-earth approach to chicken-keeping is available in book form. Sharing her years of hard-earned experience and collaborations with poultry veterinarians, nutritionists, and professors, she provides simple steps to care for these uncommon pets with confidence. Kathy’s personality permeates the book as she guides newbie, veteran, and would-be backyard chickeneers alike through all aspects of small-flock care—from getting into the hobby to housing, feeding, egg production, health, and much more. The result is accurate information presented in the fun and abundantly illustrated format that Mormino has delivered on her blog for years.

    Using all-natural techniques, this new guide from YouTube gardening sensation Luke Marion, founder of MIgardener, will teach you to break down traditional thinking and implement organic systems that will save time, hassle, weeding, water, and space wherever you live.LEARN TO• Properly fuel your garden with an understanding of soil composition, organic fertilizer, and healthy balances of bacteria and fungi• Keep your plants hydrated and conserve water with a core gardening system trench• Extend the growing season with smart use of a poly material tunnel• Avoid tedious manual weeding by using all-natural preemptive weed suppression—without resorting to harmful chemical pesticides• Utilize high intensity planting to grow more food in less space, reduce weeding, watering, and protect soil qualityWith this simple-to-understand gardening method, create an organic garden that allows you to enjoy the rest of the season on autopilot.

    Kristen Green highlights plants that help a garden quickly grow by self-sowing and spreading and teaches you how to expand the garden and extend the life of a plant by overwintering. The book features plant profiles for 50 self-sowers (including columbine, milkweed, and foxglove), 50 spreaders (such as clematis, snow poppy, and spearmint), and 50 plants that overwinter (including lemon verbena, begonia, and Chinese hibiscus). Additional gardening tips, design ideas, and inspirational photos will motivate and inspire gardeners of all levels.

    They have most of the usual modern conveniences: fridge, freezer, washer, computer, cell phone, hot tub, vacuum, hair dryer, flat screen TV with surround sound...and they do it all without plugging into the power grid. Their house is wood-heated, their fuel is non-petrol; they grow their own food, put up their harvest, make their own wine, and drop fresh canned peaches into the solar-powered blender for the morning smoothies... It's a simple life that works: zero waste, total recycling, and no “unnecessary necessities.” Others have done this, but the Carns' are doing it in such a dramatic, inventive way that people flock to their astonishing Stone Camp home to learn Ted's secrets. More than a dozen universities and colleges in the Tri-State/Mid-Atlantic area bring professors and students to Stone Camp every year to observe first-hand the remarkable lifestyle of Ted and Kathy Carns. Off...On Our Own is Ted's manual for living off-grid, told with Mark Twainesque humor and irreverence: how he created the various systems that power the Stone Camp (includes a how-to chapter)...and what he thinks about oil, self-reliance, waste, nature and reducing one's carbon footprint to walk more gently on the earth. The book is illustrated throughout with more than 60 black and white photos.

    L. Langstroth, "the father of modern beekeeping," revolutionized the practice of beekeeping. Originally published in 1853, his work constitutes the first descriptive treatise of modern bee management — its innovations allowed people to engage in actual beekeeping, rather than simply handling bee domiciles and extracting the honey. This book explains and illustrates techniques still employed 150 years later — including the author's patented invention, a movable frame hive that quickly spread into common use around the world.In his reader-friendly, nontechnical style, Langstroth addresses every aspect of beekeeping: bee physiology; diseases and enemies of bees; the life-cycles of the queen, drone, and worker; bee-hives; and the handling of bees. An infectious sense of wonder and enthusiasm suffuses Langstroth's accounts of natural and artificial swarming, the production of honey and wax, and the best methods of feeding bees and maintaining an apiary. The manual abounds in practical and intriguing insights attained through the years of observation and experience, including "the kindness of bees to one another," "their infatuation for liquid sweets," and "the warning given by bees before stinging."This version of Langstroth's ever-popular manual is the fourth and final edition; it incorporates the author's own revisions and remains an unsurpassed resource for beekeepers.

    The son of Neptune and a mortal woman, he’s spent millennia as an outcast of both worlds. As king of the ocean, all Julian wants to do is protect the denizens deep and drown the humans for their crimes against sea creatures. He doesn’t care about the Consortium of Chaos’s new jobs as “heroes.” He still hates everyone, which is kinda unfortunate since he’s just become the one person responsible for keeping the world safe. He’d probably just ignore the human’s plight and go for a swim, except the beautiful woman he’s been searching for for years has shown up to help fix his “image problems.” Which means Julian might have to actually pretend to be a hero, after all. Bridget: Bridget is a public relations specialist. Kind of. She’s not exactly at the top of her field, but she’s giving it her best shot. The curvy, average, dateless human is going to help Julian and his bizarre group of semi-insane, super-powered friends reach their full potential as heroes. And not JUST because he’s the handsomest man she’s ever seen. Years ago, Julian saved her life. In an age where good guys and bad guys seem way too much alike, Julian is the only person she’s ever seen act heroically. He can do anything. He just needs to believe that. …And stop telling all the humans that he’s going to conquer the planet. …And maybe not worry so much about seafood restaurants murdering his underwater subjects. …And actually pay attention to all the people trying to take over the city. New enemies are rising and nearly everyone else in the Consortium is MIA. Now, it’s up to Julian and the Consortium members who are too old, weird, evil, or headless to be invited on the REAL missions to save the city. Except they suck at it. Humans are whining about the death-toll, the Consortiums screw-ups are all over the news, and their evil garage sale isn’t helping to pay the bills. Bridget’s going to fix all that. She’s determined to make the world see them for the heroes they are. Julian’s certainly willing to go along with her ideas, no matter how many public appearances he has to make at elementary schools and shopping malls. He knows he’s a villain and he couldn’t care less about what the rest of humanity thinks, but he sure loves the idea of being a hero to Bridget.