Old-Time Kentucky Farmsteading Ways and Means

Descended from a long line of homesteaders in Shelby County, Kentucky, Herbert Lee Clark lived his entire life near Harrisonville. A stone mason by trade, he was a well-known fiddle player, handyman, and farmer who stuck to the ＂old ways＂ of self-sufficiency and hard work. Old-Time Kentucky Farmsteading Ways and Means is an instruction manual for old-fashioned farmsteading, taken from his journals recorded in the 1970s-80s. Included are tips for working the land and building construction, animal food and health, agriculture and natural medicines, and other solutions for every day tasks passed down for generations. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to work for themselves using the same tools and methods taught throughout rural communities for hundreds of years, assembled from a lifetime of knowledge and practice from Herbert Lee Clark.

＂About the Editor Editor Lou DeLuca is retired from a long and varied career in public service. He worked as a city planner in New Haven, CT, taught at the Yale School of Art and Architecture and the University of Kentucky College of Design, worked as a reporter and feature writer for The Anderson News, served as Director of Kentucky Citizens for the Arts, Director the Kentucky Arts Council, and Secretary of the Education, Arts and Humanities Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In retirement he continues public service as a volunteer, most recently as a board member for the Berea Urban Farm. In mid-life he bought an abandoned 140-acre farm with a 1850s log homestead in Avenstoke, KY, and built a geodesic dome. It was during that construction that he met Herbert Lee Clark, who built the dome’s large chimney using stones from the homestead’s collapsed chimneys. Talking with Herbert Lee, Lou learned of his remarkable journals and agreed to prepare them for publication. Lou now lives in Berea, Kentucky, with his wife Victoria Faoro.＂ Illustrator Joanne K. Guilfoil completed an art degree at the University of Kentucky and taught art there and at Eastern Kentucky University. She lived for many years in Rockcastle County, KY and drew this book’s illustrations from life at Herbert Lee Clark’s farmstead in Harrisonville, KY. Joanne now lives in the state of Delaware.