Foxfire

[Patchouli]

As I was growing up, my mom had these books written by these young adults from a college who thought that it was important to go into the Appalachias and find out how people survive there, learn the old ways of self-sufficiency. Most of you probably know of these books or maybe your great-grandparents were the ones featured in the books.

Some of the topics covered in the books: making fiddles; divining water; digging a well; food preservation; quilting; the greens of spring; raising hogs; midwifery; haints; building a house out of logs...

People today talk about being off-grid but back then it really meant off-grid.
I've been wondering what the boardies think about differences of homesteading today and living off the land then (from the 1940s to the 1960s) because it was just what they did. They never left the mountains, they never went to the city to live or to go to college, or maybe they came back quickly because they were so turned off by city life.
Were you raised like this or did your grandparents or great-grandparents live like that (out in the country)?
Just curious.
As for me, my parents were raised during the Depression. Mom in the city, dad in the country. It was a really big deal to go to the apple orchards and pick apples and be given one on the way back as you rode in the big truck with your father and brothers, uncle and cousins. I think once they lived through it, they never wanted to be reminded of those hardships again and went to the city as soon as they could.
Would you say people just do not know how to survive? Just the ramblings of my brain too late at night and I do have to work tomorrow...

 

[TMT Tactical]

It seems every decade the young get further away for the knowledge of how things actually work. Flip the switch and there will be lights but ask them where the electricity comes from and most will not be able to tell you. Flush the toilet and the waste magically disappears but they do not know how or where it goes. They don't know where or how their drinking water gets to them. They don't know where their food actually comes from, not he store but the ranchers. They can do amazing things with their telephones but know nothing that will help them survive or cope with shtf event.

I don't worry about the city mutants coming out to the country to forage, they don't know the food actually comes from the country. They think is comes from 7/11 or Wally World or some other store. By the time they figure out where the food actually does come from, there won't be enough of them to worry about.

 

[NannyPatty]

You 2 are cracking me up! Patchouli and TMT, y'all must've been raised in the same generation as me. I knew where my food came from esp. our meats and produce. My dad was an avid gardener. He (we) raised our own beef, pork, chicken, milked our cows, and preserved our own produce, mom brought very little from the grocery stores. I walked to school about a mile and preferred that to riding a school bus. I spent many happy hours on horse back or bike in the hot Texas Hill country with no thought of A/C and drank from a water hose or creek. We made "play houses by outing "rooms" under scrub oak trees. I used to could go back until a few years ago and still find some of them.

 

[gumpy]

They are great books. I'm trying to find some again to collect but not being successful so far!

 

[elkhound]

they are great books...people talk about a survival plan...these books are a laid out and time tested plan for the Appalachian region. i grew up with my depression era grandparents...in fact my granny is still alive at 97yrs. i saw the last of the lifestyle in these books growing up but theres a few 'pockets' where theres bits and bobs of it left. i use to see one of the people featured in these books from time to time so i got a 'connection' to them.

there was no electric here till the 50's and my family didnt get a drilled well till after 61 but before 66 when i was born.i grew up on farm with all these strange features that i thought everyone had. like a manhole on back porch going into cistern.gutters that collected and filtered water into it as well. our big barn had a cistern that was like an underground silo.it had a handpump and you could pump water into buckets but it also put water directly into the milkhouse where tanks of milk sat in a concrete bathtub looking thing to keep milk cool.

ramble ramble...lol

 

[backlash]

The entire set is available from Amazon for $235.

 

[UncleJoe]

You 2 are cracking me up! Patchouli and TMT, y'all must've been raised in the same generation as me. I knew where my food came from esp. our meats and produce. My dad was an avid gardener.

It was my grandfather that was the avid gardener. He had about a 1/4 acre where he grew just about everything they needed. The grandkids could help with the planting, weeding and harvesting if they were interested. Nana canned everything that wasn't used fresh.

We went right to the dairy farm to get our milk. It came in glass jugs. You paid a deposit for the jug. When it was emtpy you went back to the farm and traded it for a full one. We went right to the butcher shop for meat too. There was a slaughterhouse right behind the retail shop.

Yep. I've always know where our food came from

They are great books. I'm trying to find some again to collect but not being successful so far!

I bought 4-5 of them from someone at the old forum. Great stuff in there.

 

[The Innkeeper]

Great books.

In terms of people not knowin* how to do those things, there is no doubt that many of those skills are being largely lost or totally lost in the case of most cidiots. Less so but still problematic in rural areas. I certainly have less firsthand knowledge of man6 skills than my father or his before him but am building a library and working on practicing what I have read about.

One of my boys has some interest they other has none, but maybe some of what I learn/have learned and collected in the library will be passed down. We lived suburban most of their growing up years and I lost touch for a long time with my own roots and was pretty much a cidiot myself so I let them down that way.

Oh well ... too soon old ...too late smart, at least in some ways.

 

[angie_nrs]

They are great books. I'm trying to find some again to collect but not being successful so far!

I remember someone referring to these books on another forum several years ago and so I went and bought the set from an online bookstore on ebay. I think I paid around $175 if I remember correctly. They're still in the box they were shipped in. I kinda forgot about them.

My name is angie.......and I have a book problem.

 

[The Innkeeper]

I have hard copies but it seems to me that I found them free as PDFs at https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nagual/the-foxfire-series-of-survival-books-t1770.html I don’t know if the link is still good, but you should be able to find them elsewhere as well.

 

[Weedygarden]

I have hard copies but it seems to me that I found them free as PDFs at https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nagual/the-foxfire-series-of-survival-books-t1770.html I don’t know if the link is still good, but you should be able to find them elsewhere as well.

I was going to say that they are available for free as PDFs and you not only beat me to it, but you had the link.

You can find the books on Amazon. I just looked. A complete Anniversary set currently goes for $235. That could change in a minute.

 

[Meerkat]

Well I don't need a book I have all yall to keep me informed.

 

[SheepDog]

Meerkat, you remind me of my son. When I talk to him about hunting he tells me he hunts at Safeway. When I ask what he will do when Safeway can't supply food he says he will come to my house.

 

[Tsrwivey]

I bought a few of them & they're a very interesting read, but I wouldn't recommend them as a survival manual of any sorts. While an interesting read, they're often too vague on exactly how a thing is done & you will see conflicting information if you read them long enough. Also, those folks have assumed knowledge, gut bacteria, & lack of concerns people not raised in that environment don't have so duplicating the results would be challenging at best & the attempt could be deadly at worst.

The kids lack of survival knowledge is not a failure on their part but a failure of the adults in their lives to impart that knowledge. I, as did my husband, learned gardening, canning, handcrafts, etc under foot alongside my grandparents who were the WW2 generation. Our grandparents cared about us & made sure to impart in us what was important in life. I wish kids today had grandparents like that but unfortunately far too many boomers have other priorities & can't much be bothered with spending time teaching the next generation. It's not the kids fault.

 

[Meerkat]

Meerkat, you remind me of my son. When I talk to him about hunting he tells me he hunts at Safeway. When I ask what he will do when Safeway can't supply food he says he will come to my house.

Well most of yall have all the info I need so why bother reading when I'm so busy doing all things yall teach me? I haven't had time to read much lately, but I do read here where subjects are all in order and quick to reference. I am up and down and have to log back in at times but it works good for me. I have books still unwrapped for years I want to read. I'm weaning myself from most politics though,sometimes I fall off the wagon but not as often as time goes on.

 

[Weedygarden]

I don't have them, and they may not be completely necessary for survival purposes, but there is a lot of very useful information in them. I am trying to rid myself of BOOKS because I have car loads of books that I am trying to get rid of. It is the one thing I give to Goodwill.

 

[The Innkeeper]

I don't have them, and they may not be completely necessary for survival purposes, but there is a lot of very useful information in them. I am trying to rid myself of BOOKS because I have car loads of books that I am trying to get rid of. It is the one thing I give to Goodwill.

Get rid of books, my dear friend that is close to blasphemy. I have done so to a significant extent twice in my life. Once after our vehicle accidents in 1991 where we ran out of cash and credit and I sold my pm’s, my collectables, my library to make mortgage payments. The second was when I left pastoral ministry and gave away 40 bookcases full of pastoral and theological books - mostly to other pastors.

The first still grieves me, there were volumes 400 years old which could never be replaced. The second time less so because I have most of the good resources available electronically, but it isn’t the same as a book.

Someone, somewhere should be collecting multiple print copies of all the valuable resource books from the past couple hundred years and storing them in temperature and humidity controlled bunkers. That repository of knowledge may one day be what rekindles civilization as we know it.

Books may not be necessary for survival but they are to civilization.

 

[Weedygarden]

Someone, somewhere should be collecting multiple print copies of all the valuable resource books from the past couple hundred years and storing them in temperature and humidity controlled bunkers. That repository of knowledge may one day be what rekindles civilization as we know it.

Books may not be necessary for survival but they are to civilization.

I so agree with this! In my dream SHTF community, there will be a large library that is in a fireproof building, with some multiple copies of some books. There will also be sets of encyclopedias from several decades. So many times I have heard that "the information is outdated." Says who? Someone who wants to sell you a new set of encyclopedias? We had a set of 1910 encyclopedias in our library when I was a kid in the 60's. There was such fascinating information in those books, such as, how to build a cabin.

The books I am talking about getting rid of are books that are books that I acquired for free in searching for books to sell online. I like some fiction, but there is so much of that, that I will never read. I like non-fiction and some fiction. There is a whole lot of not good stuff that would make a good fire.

 

[backlash]

Not sure how many of you have this link so I will post it.
It's called Drum_runner and they have a wealth of information.
You could never read or download it all.
I got a CD from them several years ago but I don't think it's available now.
http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

 

[elkhound]

a large library and knowledge was a huge difference between lower class and upper class in europe for a long time.having access to books both old knowledge and 'new knowledge' means being more efficient and self reliant which the results equals more wealth through better choices,more efficiency etc. etc. etc.

not being mean towards my family..but they bucked every time i brought in a new plant,idea,breed etc.they were successful in what they knew and did. but i took all i learned under them and expanded it.we as a family benefited from trying new things as a whole but being honest i was the catalyst for it.some plants i bought in were actually very old varieties but do to their lack of knowledge/schooling and getting out more than 3 miles from home they didnt know about other things.

often i heard...that wont work,that wont grow here,whos ever heard of such nonsense and on and on...lol....our cow/calf operation took a leap forward when a friend of mine showed up one day with stock trailer and backed to gate and opened door.out stepped his high dollar bull .he was very long and was easy birth weights.this resulted in our cows being larger via keeping the heifers for replacement cows.sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do but always breeding 'handy' to 'ready' is not advancement in animal husbandry skills or the bottom line of weaning more calves with higher weight resulting in more money.

i tell my granny what i am working on and she says how did you learn to do that..i say a book or went to a weekend class or someone showed me how....often she goes you and them books...lol

i miss all of my family being under a single roof and the joys and hardships and trials and tribulations shared and weathered by us as a large family...we survived and thrived together.i pretty much lived what was shown on tv show the waltons.

sorry yall..rambled on and on probably sayin more than i should....

 

[Weedygarden]

Not sure how many of you have this link so I will post it.
It's called Drum_runner and they have a wealth of information.
You could never read or download it all.
I got a CD from them several years ago but I don't think it's available now.
http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

I like this! But unless we download, print, and then bind it, we might not be able to use it when we need it.

 

[dademoss]

My wife swears that the house will collapse because of my books Still safe, I put a lot of them in the basement

Come to think of it, the library end looks a little lower than the rest

 

[UncleJoe]

I got a CD from them several years ago but I don't think it's available now.
http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

I remember drumrunner! That guy was something. When he could no longer afford to keep his site up, he made a bunch of CD's available for next to nothing.

 

[backlash]

I remember drumrunner! That guy was something. When he could no longer afford to keep his site up, he made a bunch of CD's available for next to nothing.

I have one of his CDs.
I just checked and there is over 1.2 gb of files.
Not sure how many different files but it is a bunch.
It is way too much to upload so I'm not sure how I could share it.

 

[Dani]

I love my set of Foxfire books! My sweet hunny got me the whole set off EBay for Christmas a few years ago. They can be very vague in explaning some things but these books were written by highschool kids. For them to have been that involved with the older generation is inspiring. I read them and if I need more indeth instructions, I'll look in another book. It is interesting how they used to do things back in the day. Book 2 is probably my favorite I grew up in a small town. Hunny in the city. Everything we have learned has been pretty much self taught and trial and error.

 

[gumpy]

I remember someone referring to these books on another forum several years ago and so I went and bought the set from an online bookstore on ebay. I think I paid around $175 if I remember correctly. They're still in the box they were shipped in. I kinda forgot about them.

My name is angie.......and I have a book problem.

I'm a recovering readaholic myself. If I'm not busy I'm reading. I don't watch but very little television.

 

[*Andi]

I love my Foxfire books !

 

[Meerkat]

Get rid of books, my dear friend that is close to blasphemy. I have done so to a significant extent twice in my life. Once after our vehicle accidents in 1991 where we ran out of cash and credit and I sold my pm’s, my collectables, my library to make mortgage payments. The second was when I left pastoral ministry and gave away 40 bookcases full of pastoral and theological books - mostly to other pastors.

The first still grieves me, there were volumes 400 years old which could never be replaced. The second time less so because I have most of the good resources available electronically, but it isn’t the same as a book.

Someone, somewhere should be collecting multiple print copies of all the valuable resource books from the past couple hundred years and storing them in temperature and humidity controlled bunkers. That repository of knowledge may one day be what rekindles civilization as we know it.

Books may not be necessary for survival but they are to civilization.

Good story BOB, sorry you lost the books though.

 

[Meerkat]

I'm a recovering readaholic myself. If I'm not busy I'm reading. I don't watch but very little television.

Now and then Netflix, but no TV for almost 21 years now. We do have videos for great grandkids but when grandkids visit they ask where is the remote, I said why, no tv. So we rented movies for them.

 

[Patchouli]

I came across one of the Foxfire books recently, I thought I had gotten rid of them. I know that my family knows how to do a few things but I'm sure it's not enough. The Foxfire folks have a website and offer classes ($$$) on some pretty mountain location near Mountain City, GA.
Reading up on how-to's gives the mind ideas. I'm really grateful my NH knows how to fix just about everything and at one time could install just about everything that needed replacing.
A library where we used to live was remodeled, they got rid of 75% of the books and replaced the shelves and reading areas with computers.

Who remembers spring houses? A little structure, made out of stone, over top of a small stream or in some cases, over top of where a natural spring came forth. They would keep food chilled down in one and pull the water from there. It was almost like air conditioning to step down in to the spring house. I remember a farmhouse in southern Pennsylvania that was built right over top of a stream.