Living the Good Life - Linda Cockburn new softcover book Self-Sufficiency

LIVING THE GOOD LIFE

How one family changed their world from their own backyard

by LINDA COCKBURN

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New softcover book, 276 pages. Published 2008.

Simple strategies for sustainable living

Imagine not needing money. Not for bills - there are none. Not for food - you grow or make it all yourself. Not for transport - you have a bike. Fed up with consumerism and determined to make a difference, Linda, Trevor and son Caleb set themselves the challenge of becoming completely self-sufficient. They endured six months without spending a dollar not on bills, transport or groceries. Through drought, plagues of fruit flies, and the relentless demands of a goat called Possum, they became fitter, healthier and happier, and delighted in the simple pleasures of being reconnected with nature.

Living The Good Life is the day-to-day account of an inspirational family experiment - to see whether it is possible to live by the principles of domestic sustainability to their utmost degree. Already passionate about ways of minimising humanity's impact on the environment, author Linda Cockburn and her family decided to take a huge plunge. For a six-month period they grew, made or bartered for all their own food, generated all their power needs from the sun, collected their own rainwater, and aimed not to spend a single dollar.They put the car keys away and resorted to bikes, stopped eating all takeaway, and became utterly in tune with the seasons. Living on just an average-sized house block in Queensland, the Cockburns have put true power in the saying that change begins in your own backyard. Along the way there were failings and successes, and together they learnt a tremendous amount about themselves. Linda's diary entries take you with her on the journey. Alongside are fascinating facts and anecdotes on the environment, recipes, tips for people interested in changing their own way of life, and information that you won't find anywhere else.

Living the good Life is a blueprint for achievable and affordable sustainable living, with practical advice for beginners and committed greenies alike. It shows you how to best create an organic garden, install solar panels, set up a greywater system and make laundry gel and loofah sponges. There are also tips for creating a more energy-efficient home, and simple recipes - for peanut butter, ginger beer and ricotta - using produce directly from the garden.

About the author

Linda Cockburn was born in New Zealand in 1968, Of her five siblings she was judged the least likely to garden due to a horror of accumulating dirt under her fingernails, but now she's managed to accrue at least a few kilograms of exactly that. She recently made the mistake of pondering the ability to live in a domestically sustainable way on 2180 square metres, and spent the last five years working towards that goal, dragging her partner Trev and their son Caleb with her.

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Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn