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11/19/2010

Books of 2010: Possum Living

I finished "Possum Living," by Dolly Freed just recently, after buying it at the beginning of the semester for kicks and giggles.  In case you didn't know, I have some quiet survivalist tendencies, which mostly manifest themselves in growing and storing food (which is hard to do while I'm at school) and stockpiling stuff like ammo (which is also hard to do on my current jobless budget).  So when I saw that the subtitle was "How to live well without a job and with (almost) no money," I was intrigued, as I was at the "suburban self-sufficiency" vibe.  Plus it was first published in 1978, so I figured it would be good for a laugh at outdated advice if it turned out to be horrible.

And, yes, it did have a bit of outdated advice (such as "Don't buy health insurance," which is now supposedly mandatory...), but it also had quite a bit of good practical stuff, albeit without too much detail.  A few of the things gone over that I want to do someday are gardening, growing rabbits for food, and, of course, moonshining (that one's actually rather high up the list, but don't tell anyone).  The book avoids detail (as I said) and really focuses more on the attitude. 

So, I give it a 7.5/10, for being a mildly informative, slightly anachronistic, somewhat entertaining, very libertarian "don't take no crap from nobody"-type book.  Now, excuse me while I go look for an old pressure cooker and some copper tubing...

2 comments:

doubletrouble said...

Heh.
I read the online excerpts a couple years ago- kinda funny stuff.

I like how they made moonshine from just sugary water...

bluesun said...

That's all you need. Sugar water and yeast, and you've got some rudimentary alcohol.

I recall hearing about the old prospectors, who would drink the top layer off their sourdough. Don't think I'm that desperate, though.