Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter: Scaling Back in the 21st Century

There's a grassroots movement in tiny homes these days. The real estate collapse, the economic downturn, burning out on 12-hour workdays -- many people are rethinking their ideas about shelter -- seeking an alternative to high rents, or a lifelong mortgage debt to a bank on an overpriced home.

In this book are some 150 builders who have taken things into their own hands, creating tiny homes (under 500 sq. ft.). Homes on land, homes on wheels, homes on the road, homes on water, even homes in the trees. There are also studios, saunas, garden sheds, and greenhouses.

There are 1,300 photos, showing a rich variety of small homemade shelters, and there are stories (and thoughts and inspirations) of the owner-builders who are on the forefront of this new trend in downsizing and self-sufficiency.
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Maximizing Your Mini Farm: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre

Mini farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family 's food on just a quarter acre and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. Now expanding exponentially on his bestselling Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on Acre, Brett Markham gives you tips, tricks, and planning advice on how to make the most of your mini farm.
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Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers' Movement

Booklist (04/01/2012):
Essays on the spirituality and physicality of farming; the skill-building and life lessons accompanying the increased connection to the earth; and improved self-sufficiency define the Greenhorn movement. Fleming, founder and director of this group promoting young farmers, joins other Greenhorns and biodynamic farm enthusiasts in gathering writings on farming as an expression of patriotism and hope, addressing local food surety and self-reliance advocates, and farmers new and established, all connected in a reconstitution of a local, resilient, and delicious food system. Financing, tools, and community are major categories. Draft-powered farmer Alyssa Jumars writes that she's never felt so alive as behind the great ass of a draft horse, and Jon Piana praises community effort turning a weeks-long harvest into an hour's labor. Charming line drawings reinforce the anthology's texts, supplemented by a far-ranging list of resources. Readers will also be interested in the documentary film The Greenhorns.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
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