Take a trip to a simpler era, when inventors crafted solutions that required neither chips nor circuit boards – just plain old American ingenuity. This collection features a variety of tools, presented with original photos and text. Can you identify these mystery items without looking at the descriptions?

All of the tools come from the pages of Farm Collector, a magazine for collectors of vintage farm equipment. In the monthly What Is It? feature, readers contribute photos of objects and others pitch in to identify the items (often sharing memories of personal experience with long-forgotten tools). The popular articles have been running for 12 years, and this collection draws from that rich archive to present some of the most inventive of inventions and most curious of curiosities.

In this guide you'll discover information on managing your forest, how to choose a woodstove, making money from your wooded acres, and much more. The Complete Guide to the Woodlot explores ways to get the most out of your woods, from the science of stacking firewood and choosing the best wood for burning to picking the best chainsaw and selling timber from your land.

Whether you want to heat your home with wood, grill with wood chunks, or pick the perfect log splitter, this guide covers it all. Learn how to build a kitchen island, make your own wooden shakes, or maintain your property with a chipper-shredder.

Other articles include:

• The Time-Honored Art of Splitting Wood: Once you’ve mastered the tools and techniques, splitting wood by hand can be a pleasure.
• The Art of Coppicing: This ancient technique lets forests produce timber without killing trees.
• How to Make a Homemade Fire Starter: A few ordinary household items can be combined to easily create a starter for your fireplace.
• When to Choose Wood Heat: For some households, heating with wood is a smart, sustainable option. Learn about the benefits and costs of using a woodstove to heat your home.
• Home Lumber Mill: Crafting Dimensional Sawed Timbers: Portable sawmills let you use your lumber from your land.
• Profit With a Portable Sawmill Business: Learn how to generate money for the homestead by processing wood, custom cutting lumber, and more.

Read about basic surviving skills, turkey hunting, whitetails, and more in the GRIT Country Skills Series Guide to Hunting. Whether you’re a beginner or have been out hunting hundreds of times, this guide has helpful tips for a successful hunting season.

Read about tracking techniques for ethical hunting. Stay safe with wilderness first aid basics and learn how to tan a deer hide.

More articles include:

• A Stick and String – A guide to bow hunting.
• Running the Trapline – A primer to trapping.
• Hunting Canada Honkers – Canada geese are a blast to hunt, they’re great-tasting game, and you might find easy access from farming neighbors tired of having pastures and fields fouled.
• Fishing Freshwater and Farm Ponds – Local angling holes provide a valuable food source as well as hours of fun and fulfillment.

Want the best-looking yard in your neighborhood? Or a sprawling green lawn that welcomes visitors as they make their way up your driveway? With the help of the Grit Guide to Field and Lawn Care you'll discover how to grow and maintain the sharpest lawn, as well as tips for safe mowing, advice for rejuvenating your lawn, and so much more.

Packed from cover to cover with expertise on field and lawn care, this helpful guide can assist you as you decide which mower will work best for your yard. And whether you need an economical pushmower or a time-saving zero turn machine, you'll find advice on routine maintenance that will keep your mower or garden tractor on track all summer long. Read 10 ways to sustainably manage the unwanted weeds that sprout up every year. Master the ins and outs of lawn maintenance and keep your yard looking its best all summer. Plus, learn how to lawn stripe your yard: Not only will it look professionally mowed, but fertilizing and overseeding will be that much easier!

Other articles include:

• Rules of Engagement: Before operating any mower, it's imperative to wrap your mind around basic mowing safety.
• (Electric) Wave of the Future: Mowers and bots that will cut your grass, without gas.
• Mowing the Old-Fashioned Way: Use a scythe to make hay and trim your lawn.
• Mowing and More with your ATV: Save money by turning your all-terrain vehicle into a top hand.
• All the Trimmings: From string trimmers and edgers to the old reliable ax, here are all the tools you'll need to keep your landscape neat and tidy.

Get all your hunting know-how with the Grit Guide to Guns, Knives, and More! This 96-page special edition guide contains the best knowledge and tips for hunting, fishing, and protecting your home. Learn about home gunsmithing, bow hunting, proper shot placement, arming your homestead, field dressing and skinning big game, and more. Make your own knives, hunt safely and humanely, and create amazing recipes from your bounty, all with the Grit Guide to Guns, Knives, and More.

Harvesting Heritage: 150 Years of the American Farm, a special collector's edition featuring more than 35 great essays from Sam Moore, author of Let's Talk Rusty Iron as featured in Farm Collector!

As a student of the past, Moore learned his lessons well. Paying careful attention to instructions from his elders, he not only learned the old ways but gained a full appreciation for them. Today, he can tell you not only how farms were once operated, but why farmers did things the way they did.

In his regular columns, Moore brings long-forgotten characters to life: neighbors, harvest crews, local mechanics and farm wives of decades past make encore appearances, sharing their wisdom and a laugh or two. Early farm practices and the routines of everyday life of half a century ago are recounted in a fresh new way, flavored both with nostalgia and a healthy dose of reality. Sometimes the old ways were the best ways; other times, not so much.

Deeply researched and beautifully written, Moore's essays recapture a time now irretrievably lost - but easily glimpsed through the pages of this exciting new edition.

Mother Earth News has compiled the best articles to help you enjoy winter on your homestead. With the projects and recipes found within these pages (more than 35 in all!), you’ll be able to cook delicious turkey beyond Thanksgiving, build a simple solar heater, find affordable ways to keep your flock warm, produce the best crops in your winter garden, and more.

Discover the benefits and cost of using a woodstove to heat your home in the winter. Learn how to make your own hard cider by following a set of simple instructions. Read how to make your own nontoxic laundry soap (you’ll never again have to guess about the mysterious chemicals in your wash). Understand car survival tips for a blizzard: what you should do if you are stuck on the road during a killer snowstorm.

More articles include:

• Build a Solar Stock Tank – This reliable livestock waterer will save electricity, and you won’t have to chop ice this winter!
• Buy a Christmas Tree You Can Replant – By replanting Christmas trees, you can establish a living tradition that will endure for generations.
• Make Your Own Herbal Medicine – To find ingredients for many basic herbal remedies, you often need to look no further than your own backyard.
• How to Build a Small Garden Greenhouse – Treat your plants to a safe transition and extend the growing season.

This special premium issue contains 29 articles to help you achieve your self-reliance dreams, and 30+ building plans and how-to tips for your property. The 112-page guidebook features articles about building chicken feeders, restoring old wooden furniture, constructing a cozy built-in bed, making shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and laundry soap, and more. Full of detailed charts and beautiful photographs, this guidebook will have you fixing up your homestead in no time. Our goal at Mother Earth News is to provide information and inspiration to help you live more simply, more securely, and more sustainably.

Mother Earth News Winter Comfort Foods is packed full of comfort food recipes that are wholesome and hearty. Sharing a meal with loved ones is not only a simple pleasure, but also one of the most meaningful. This issue will definitely bring the family closer together.

In addition to warm and hearty meals to beat the cold, with this book you can make seasonal soups and stews, bake the best homemade pies, and much more!

This first Best of Grit edition covers a wide range of topics, including the best articles on gardening, comfort food recipes, livestock, tools and equipment, do-it-yourself projects, wildlife and country life.

Nearly 30 articles make up this 113-page guide. Read how to earn a living on a farm by growing vegetables and raising animals for market. Discover an easy, no-knead artisan bread recipe guaranteed to make everyone a baker. Learn how to hatch a flock with insider tips on incubating eggs and more. Enjoy your best hunting season yet by following our guide to hunting deer, turkeys, dove, pheasant and more.

Other articles include:

• How Much Does a Garden Really Grow? – How one gardener cut nearly $50 off her grocery bill with suburban vegetable gardening.
• Pizza Perfection – Forget takeout and turn your kitchen into a pizzeria.
• Farming the Wind – Landowners all over the United States have discovered a new crop that’s a breeze to cash in on.
• Nature’s Hidden Language – Watching for sign of wildlife leads to amazing finds in the animal kingdom.
• Field Guide to Farmers and Ranchers – Listen to this lingo and look in their trucker to be sure.