Gaye Levy
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Today I share the next author interview and giveaway in the Backdoor Survival Book Festival 7. Leigh Tate, the blogger at the popular homesteading site, 5 Acres and a Dream, has written a book about the challenges she and her husband have faced while pursuing their dream.
Her book, 5 Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient Homestead, is unlike any homesteading book I have ever read! In it, Leigh shares her dream of self-sufficiency and her homesteading aspirations along with the disappointments, successes, and failures that happened along the way. In all honesty, this fantastic volume just speaks to you.
Naturally, Leigh is here to answer the Book Festival questions and of course, to award one lucky reader with a copy of her book.
Enjoy the interview and be sure to check out the details of this week’s giveaway below.
An Interview with Leigh Tate, Author of 5 Acres & A Dream “The Book”
1. Tell me about your book, 5 Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient Homestead. What is it about?
It’s the story of my husband’s and my longtime dream to own our own land and to learn how to live from it. We got a late start, after our kids were grown and on their own, and we faced a lot of challenges.
5 Acres & A Dream The Book is the story of how we made our start. It’s about how we defined our dream and our goals, how we found our property, how we set priorities and developed a plan for self-sufficiency, and how we’ve been approaching those areas: food, water, and energy.
It’s about the obstacles and difficulties we’ve faced, and what we’ve learned from them.
2. What type of research did you have to do while writing your book?
Most of my research revolved around how to self-publish a book! For example, I included a lot of photographs and diagrams, but soon learned that preparing them for digital media, such as a computer screen, is vastly different from preparing them for print. I had to learn to use a Desktop Publisher and book design, both interior and cover. Even something small like a publishing logo, required learning to use a vector drawing program.
For the content itself, I wanted to tell a (hopefully) interesting story, as well as provide useful information. I spent time checking and referencing my details. I did the most research for the chapters on water and energy self-sufficiency. These are areas we are just exploring ourselves, as we try to determine feasibility. I couldn’t speak from much experience, but I could share what I was researching and learning.
3. How long did it take to write?
It took a couple of years, actually. The basis for the book was written as my blog, which pretty much has told the story from the beginning.
A blog, however, is a different style of writing. It’s like a journal, where I might write about chickens one day, gardening the next, and then get out my soapbox the day after that. There’s a lot of information there, but the order is random.
For a book, I wanted to arrange the information into logical categories. That meant pulling together much of what I wrote previously, rewriting so that the material flowed well, and then filling in with more details to round out the chapters.
4. Every book, fiction and non-fiction, includes a message. What message do you hope my readers will take with them after reading 5 Acres & A Dream The Book?
My motivation for writing was to encourage others who long for a similar lifestyle. We started late in life and didn’t have much money, but I’ve always believed that something is better than nothing, so we made our start.
We’ve run into a lot of problems, made quite a few mistakes, learned a lot by trial and error, and had our successes too. What I hope folks walk away with is – no, it isn’t easy, but yes, it can be done.
5. As an author in the survival, prepping and/or homesteading niche, what are you personally preparing for?
Our culture is based on an economy that is not sustainable and doomed to fail.
Survival will not simply be a matter of securing our wealth and making sure we have enough supplies to weather the storm. Survival will require changing our way of thinking.
Our society has been dependent on a profit based consumer system for so long, that we no longer know how to take care of ourselves. We don’t know where food comes from, nor how to produce it. We don’t know how to work; we rely on gizmos and gadgets to do everything for us. We don’t know how to think; we rely on the media and “experts” to tell us what’s what. We have become so dependent on industrialized technology that we have become invalids as a people.
The results of all this will ultimately be disastrous. I don’t know if it will be sudden or gradual, but Dan and I decided a long time ago that we wanted out.
6. Do you have plans for another book?
I’m actually working on a couple of projects. One will be another paperback, tentatively titled Critter Tales: What my homestead critters have taught me about themselves, their world, and how to be part of it. Our animals are both amusing and amazing. They’ve been wonderfully entertaining teachers and I want to share their stories and what I’ve learned from them.
The other is an eBook series of how-tos, sort of a complement to 5 Acres & A Dream The Book, which I described as neither a how-to nor a why-to. Hopefully, this series will be another source of encouragement to those interested in homesteading.
7. Is there anything else you would like to share with my readers?
One of the hardest things for Dan and me is to not get overwhelmed with how much there is to do. Too often we focus only on what isn’t done, or what isn’t working. At times like that we get discouraged. We have to remind ourselves that homesteading is not merely a checklist of tasks to be accomplished, it is a lifestyle.
There will always, always, always be something that needs to be fixed, something that needs tending to, something that goes wrong. This is the way life is.
At times like that I ask myself what I’d rather be doing. Would I rather be back in that rental apartment? Would I rather be buying my food at a grocery store? The answer, of course, is always NO. I’ve learned to focus on the task at hand, simply doing what’s next. There are so many things to be thankful for, and that’s what’s important.
The Book Giveaway
A copy of 5 Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient Homestead has been reserved for one lucky reader. To enter the giveaway, you need to utilize the Rafflecopter form below.
If for some reason the Rafflecopter widget is not working, you may also enter here.
The deadline is 6:00 PM Pacific next Tuesday with the winner notified by email and announced on the Rafflecopter in the article. Please note that the winner must claim their book within 48 hours or an alternate will be selected.
The Final Word
Whereas homesteading on an acre or more of land may not be for everyone, the dream of self-sufficiency is one that most of us share. Whether you are young and just getting started, or older and more mature like I am, having a dream than pursuing that dream is the motivation that gets us up in the morning.
I truly believe that this book will get your one step closer to realizing your dream. Good luck, everyone!
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye
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Spotlight: 5 Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sufficient Homestead
What does it take to become a successful homesteader?
Based on her popular homesteading blog, 5 Acres & A Dream, Leigh Tate shares how she and her husband Dan are facing the challenges of trying to establish a self-sufficient homestead; from defining their dream, finding property, and setting priorities, to obstacles and difficult times, to learning how to work smarter, not harder.
She shares what they’ve learned about energy self-sufficiency, water self-sufficiency, and food self-sufficiency for themselves and their goats and chickens too. Included are copies of their homestead master plan plus revisions, homegrown vitamins and minerals for goats, and several of Leigh’s favorite homestead recipes.
For your convenience, here is a list of all of the books in the current Backdoor Survival Book Festival.
Plus: The Preppers Guide to Food Storage
No list of books would be complete without my own book, The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage.
Help support Backdoor Survival. Purchases earn a small commission and for that I thank you!
69 Responses to “BDS Book Festival 7: 5 Acres & A Dream – The Book”
To be self reliant
My dream is to be self reliant. To have enough food and water to survive and trade for what I can’t grow or make. To have knowledge in diverse subjects that can help myself and others in times of need.
My goal is to work with what I have, which is a house and yard, and to work within my disabilities, which are back and energy problems. That said I intend to grow a grain, a bean, and potatoes this year, in addition to vegetables. The beans and grains must be dried and the potatoes stored in a makeshift root cellar. And the veggies must be canned.
In addition my major goal is to build the things needed in a TEOTWAWKI situation.
A composting toilet and composting bins. A water filter made from 2 buckets and a filter, a clothes washer made from 2 buckets and a plunger, a space heater made from flower pots and a good cooler made from flower pots.
That was supposed to read FOOD COOLER made from flower pots.
My husband and I are dreaming of starting our own homestead in the near future. We would love to read this book to get more tips on what to try and what not to try.
My dream is for all the county inspectors that tell me what I can and what I cant do with my land, have their name on the voting ballots so I can vote them out of office. All the nitwits that give me a hard time are all appointed.
working to downsize our foot print. buy some land. start living the dream
My dream is to be able to grow my own food & herbs, make my own medicines and be able to take care of myself and my family without depending on the government or anyone else
We have been working on our dream. We recently purchased a home on two acres out in the country. So now have our large garden and have been learning more and more about gardening and preserving food. The next thing on out horizon will be raising chickens and doing more hunting for our meats. Our hope is to be able to retire or partially retire and supply at least half of our food needs. It’s all a learning process of baby steps, reading, research, trial and error. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
Finally building a log home for myself on about 5 acres so I can be relatively self sustaining. Then blacksmithing and doing handyman work to fill in the cash end.
I got my start with trying to cut back and live simply from a book called The “Have-More” Plan. When I read the title ” 5 acres and a dream ‘ It brought back a lotf fond memories.
I am fairly certain that the “Have-More Plan” is now in the public domain and that I shared it way back when on BDS. Today I will see if I can find it and put it out there for everyone to download. Thanks for the reminder, Karen.