The Half-Acre Homestead: 46 Years of Building & Gardening

by Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn and his wife Lesley's story of building their own home, establishing a garden, and practicing crafts on a small piece of land on the Northern California Coast over a 46-year period, with over 500 photos. Lloyd, the former shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog , has published seven books on owner building, showcasing hundreds of builders, and this is his first book on his own work. Starting with a vacant half-acre piece of land, they built their own home, created a garden with vegetables and fruit, and describe raising chickens, bees, and goats. The book also covers cooking, foraging, fishing, crafts, birds, butterflies, and tools. Their main theme is that this was all done by hand. They have never paid rent nor have they ever had a mortgage. There are over 500 photos illustrating all the above facets of their lives and clear explanations of building skylights, maintaining a septic system, building greenhouses and raised vegetable beds. There is a section on unique kitchen tools, as well as advice on useful tools used in construction.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2020

Reviews

[Richard]

This was the perfect book for a city dweller, stuck indoors due to Covid-19, who dreams of crafting a home and garden.

I devoured it in one night, and I've since revisited it quite a few times, just for the pleasure of looking at the pictures and thinking, oh, yeah, that'd be cool.

It might be even better for someone that has a home and yard but isn't quite sure what they want to do with it. Buy a copy and find out.

[Sherri]

Compilation of Lloyd and Leslie's inside and out of their home. Almost a diary insight look into their home. The style may not be for all but interesting to put your whole detailed home in photos for other to see.

[Elvira Selischi]

I was in a bookstore and enable to leave this book out of my hands ... it is a useful book for people needing some ideas about the interior and exterior of a rural house and also some advices ... That’s true (regarding other comments with 2 stars :/ ... ) , the book can be seen as “personal” or as “a journal” ... but this is also a part of the beauty and the charm of this book ... Seeing what’s possible, and not having only “instructions and informations” inside ... After me, a useful book, for the people having a house and looking about ideas about “how can improve the house?” or for the ones who are dreaming about having one ...
What can make this book even better: ... after me, some thumbnail drownings with architectural details referring to some of the pictures inside the book can help as well ... :)
ps: English is not my mother tongue and that's why I may have made some mistakes ... I apologize for that :)

[Keshia]

I'd love more books like this as I've always been curious about how people live their lives in a day to day way that may not be obvious or large, but solve small problems in a clever way. Like how to deal with gophers digging up your garden without calling an exterminator all the time. And suggestions on how to build stuff that in the 2020s feels like an impossible diy - roller drapes, kitchen tables, greenhouse, septic tank. (This book didn't go into detail on how to build it, but the pictures are pretty good.)

There was a picture of a raised hill of flowers; I'm not sure if that was their garden and how one would move through it to harvest stuff. One year I grew my rows too close together and didn't weed and prune well enough which resulted in that I couldn't get to even half of it at harvest time. pg 78-9

I would've liked a little more explanation on what he would have done differently instead of just what I'm not legally allowed to do now, that he was allowed to do then. Maybe a visual master lot plan, if he could do it over again.

I'm also curious about how long he expects these builds to last, as they seem to have exposed-to-the-weather wood everywhere. And how he acquired so much free wood that was useable. Where I live, most people have given up on trying to reclaim even pallets cuz they're in such bad shape.

They are located in coastal California. Took me a while to figure out where they were; he didn't mention it till about halfway through the book. Some things don't really apply to my situation because of it. I'm also unsure if he did all this stuff while raising more than 1 kid. It also was unclear to me how much his first wife contributed into the homestead verses his second wife.

The pond was pretty and attracted a lot of birds, but was it a hazard for kids? did it serve any other purposes?

They talked about organic gardening... did composting "fix" most of your weed problems? I would rather not spray. He did mention scotch broom and pampas grass, and eucalyptus trees as continual pests... I am growing a thriving yard of bindweed and fighting off my neighbor's buttercup bur that wants to travel.

I love the many many pictures of their property, wildlife and home and not particularly staging it for cameras, but keeping it real.

[Jingjing]

A really nice read. The book covers a LOT of topics. I think maybe too many topics even. I wish the author can spend more time on details of the first appendix "advice to someone building a home." It is definitely a book to read & re-read. I wish there are more details on how to do them instead of just pictures of flowers...:)

[Diana Rajchel]

The overview of homesteading acknowledges that times change, and gives ample resources for deeper research. I appreciate the honesty of the author - not everything they did worked, but what did work worked great!

[Ashley]

Some good ideas and lots of great photos. A major complaint, as with so many homestead/gardening books I read — it’s not so relevant to our harsh climate.

[Angie]

What a wild ride. I loved every bit of information, and you can tell this guy would be so much fun to talk with for hours.

[Sarah]

My favorite book of 2021. Lovely photographs and simple dialogue showing how Lloyd Kahn and his wife Lesley have put together a simple and beautiful life.

[Ev Rennich]

Interesting but not entirely helpful or relevant to Colorado gardening/living.

[Colleen]

A few nuggets here and there but nothing I haven't heard or read before. The most endearing quality is how long they've been at it and continue to learn and grow.

[Ti Su]

Library read only.

[Annie]

Lots of great pictures, but not the information that I'm looking for.