### Creating a Home on the Prairie Your Guide to Sustainable and Fulfilling Prairie Living Discover the dream of prairie homesteading with "Creating a Home on the Prairie," an essential eBook for modern pioneers ready to embrace a self-sufficient lifestyle amidst the untamed beauty of South Dakota’s prairie lands. Whether you're a seasoned homesteader or just beginning your journey, this comprehensive guide offers invaluable insights and practical advice for every step of the way. Begin with an exploration of the allure and heritage of prairie homesteading, understanding the profound connection to this unique landscape that has captivated adventurers for centuries. Delve into the meticulous process of selecting the perfect location for your homestead, considering critical factors such as land characteristics, water management, and proximity to community amenities. Embrace sustainable building practices by learning to use eco-friendly materials and designing energy-efficient homes that withstand the prairie’s harsh winters. Master the techniques of efficient water management, from harvesting rainwater to recycling greywater, ensuring your homestead thrives even in challenging conditions. Cultivate a bountiful garden with soil improvement techniques and discover the best crop varieties suited for prairie conditions. Explore the benefits of raised beds, weather-resilient gardening, and sustainable livestock practices to create a diversified and productive homestead. "Creating a Home on the Prairie" goes beyond just agriculture. It delves into renewable energy solutions, offering guidance on solar power systems, wind turbines, and off-grid living essentials. Learn to manage the delicate prairie ecosystem, fostering biodiversity and protecting native species, and gain vital self-sufficiency skills such as food preservation, soap making, and basic carpentry. This eBook also covers crucial aspects of financial planning, homestead security, and legal considerations, ensuring you are well-armed with the knowledge to navigate every aspect of prairie living. Engage with local communities, build supportive networks, and explore ethical hunting practices with respect for the land. Celebrate the milestones and seasonal changes unique to prairie life, and leave a lasting legacy for future generations with comprehensive guidance on expanding your homesteading activities and documenting your journey. In "Creating a Home on the Prairie," find your roadmap to a sustainable, resilient, and enriching prairie homestead. Make your dreams of self-sufficiency a reality with this indispensable guide.

Creating the Artful Home: the Aesthetic Movement and Its Influence on Home Decor covers the history of a movement that emphasized "art for art's sake"-and the influence it had on home decor. The Aesthetic Movement in America lasted just a few decades (1870-1900), and served mainly as a bridge between the high Victorian sensibility and the radical shift to the Arts & Crafts style. The movement germinated among artists who used opulent color, decorative patterning, and lavish materials simply for the aesthetic effects they could evoke. It was commonly held that a home that expressed an artful, harmonious soul would instill high aesthetic and moral merit in its inhabitants. The Aesthetic Movement in America helped to popularize the idea that everyone should be able to enjoy beautiful, well-made homes and furnishings-not just the very wealthy. Artful homes could be composed from brilliant antique store finds, discriminating department store purchases, and gems hand-made by the ladies of the house. It was the moment when people embraced the idea that only a beautiful home could be a happy home. Karen Zukowski delves into the movement's establishment, evolution, and main characters, and shows how today's homes can incorporate Aesthetic principles: Through suggestion rather than statement, sensuality, massive use of symbols, and synaesthetic effects-that is, correspondence between words, colors and music. How influential designers such as Clarence Cook and Charles Eastlake popularized the idea that beautiful homes with tasteful furnishings could be available to practically everyone How today's designers, manufacturers, and retailers deploy the very same stylistic markers of the Aesthetic Movement: rich color, layered pattern and texture, mixtures of historical motifs

For tens of thousands of Union veterans, Patrick Kelly argues, the Civil War never ended. Many Federal soldiers returned to civilian life battling the lifelong effects of combat wounds or wartime disease. Looking to the federal government for shelter and medical assistance, war-disabled Union veterans found help at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Established by Congress only weeks prior to the Confederate surrender, this network of federal institutions had assisted nearly 100,000 Union veterans by 1900. The National Home is the direct forebear of the Veterans Administration hospital system, today the largest provider of health care in the United States. Kelly places the origins of the National Home within the political culture of U.S. state formation. Creating a National Home examines Congress's decision to build a federal network of soldiers' homes. Kelly explores the efforts of the Home's managers to glean support for this institution by drawing upon the reassuring language of domesticity and "home." He also describes the manner in which the creators of the National Homes used building design, landscaping, and tourism to integrate each branch into the cultural and economic life of surrounding communities, and to promote a positive image of the U.S. state. Drawing upon several fields of American history--political, cultural, welfare, gender--Creating a National Home illustrates the lasting impact of war on U.S. state and society. The building of the National Home marks the permanent expansion of social benefits offered to citizen-veterans. The creation of the National Home at once defined an entitled group and prepared the way for the later expansion of both the welfare and the warfare states.

Devoted to the Arts and Crafts Movement past and present, this new magazine celebrates the revival of quality and craftsmanship. Each issue is a portfolio of the best work in new construction, restoration, and interpretive design, presented through intelligent writing and beautiful photographs. Offering hundreds of contemporary resources, it showcases the work not only of past masters, but also of those whose livelihoods are made in creating well-crafted homes and furnishings today. The emphasis is on today’s revival in architecture, furniture, and artisanry, informed by international Arts & Crafts and the early-20th-century movement in America: William Morris through the Bungalow era. Includes historic houses, essays and news, design details, how-to articles, gardens and landscape, kitchens and baths. Lots of expert advice and perspective for those building, renovating, or furnishing a home in the Arts & Crafts spirit. From the publisher of Old-House Interiors magazine and the Design Center Sourcebook. artsandcraftshomes.com