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Friday, November 8, 2013

Franklin Sanders from At Home in Dogwood Mudhole TOS Review

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http://dogwoodmudhole.com/


I received the physical book: 
for review.

Price:
$22.95 paperback
$16.95 Kindle / ePub / pdf

This is the first volume of three.

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As you can see in the picture above it is worn - good sign that it's a good book.


What Is This? -

This is a paperback consisting of 379 pages.  There are some black and white photos inside.  This is a true story of a Sanders family who began building a self reliant homestead in fear of the terrible economical collapse of Y2K that was approaching.  The story is written, not really like a story, but several personal monthly letters that were written and published into Franklin Sanders'  'Moneychanger' newsletter.   

Franklin and Susan Sanders have seven children, five boys and two girls.  They are a hard working family who is determined to become more self sufficient in this high technical world.

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They tell their story of how they moved several times to finally get to Dogwood Mudhole in Tennessee.  Franklin tells about how they have too much 'stuff' when they would move and he is wondering why they 'needed' all this stuff.  (Trust me when I say, he is not the only one - I can relate.)  He also tells about all the animals they raise successfully and some unsuccessfully.  From chickens, cows, horses, pigs, and of course man's best friend.....the K9.  He tells about the many dogs that this family has gone through.  When he told about the $30 dog that turned into the $1000 dog with socks, that was pretty good.


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Franklin Sanders (shown above with one of his dogs) has written personal monthly letters to his 'Moneychanger' newsletter readers.  He has been devoting seventeen years to these also devoted newsletter readers. 

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This book really is for anyone who is interested in becoming self sufficient.  It gives you ideas on how to do things for yourself.  Raising animals for meat can seem like an semi-easy task, but the books tells some valuable tips that can make your animal raising less havoc.  Franklin seems to have learned how to run a self sufficient home with providing meat, and other foods for his family.  Yes, the Y2K is over with, but we never know what could be around the next corner in life, especially with the economy collapse and debt in this country.  There is nothing wrong with being prepared to provide for your own family in case of a disaster of any kind.  Even if disasters do not come in your lifetime, it is still good to help preserve this planet, eat better, etc.  There is something gratifying about providing for you and your family.  


What I Thought -


This book did hit home with me with some parts of it really interesting.  My husband and I have been trying to 'go green' for about 5 years now.  We plant a huge garden every year, hunt for our meat, use a wood burning stove as our only heat source, collect our rain water for laundry and showers, etc.  This hasn't been easy, but very gratifying for us.  
  
This book also had me rolling and literally laughing out loud a few times.  The way he describes his relationship with his animals and the daily challenges of dealing with them really cracked me up.  I am an animal lover but I too realize the some animals are raised for food and you cannot get attached to them.

One of my many favorite parts is the chicken stories. My husband and I raise chickens and we have been through our trials with them.  From stray dogs killing them (as well as our own) to fighting roosters and baby chicks hatching, we have had our stories as well.  I could really relate to his hardships and laughter with raising them.

There are a few things that I didn't like.  One was that it was hard to follow due to it wasn't written as a 'book / story' style so I felt it wasn't really in chronological order.  But if all fairness, the book contains the monthly letters written in the Moneychanger newsletter so I don't think it was meant to be told or written as a story.

The other thing I was a bit confused about was the whole IRS deal.  He told of how he spent time in jail for a problem with the IRS.  He claims that he did nothing wrong and will continue to do whatever it is he did.  That is the part that I am unclear about.  I am not very 'IRS smart' per say, so I didn't understand what it was that was going on here.  He did mention that the IRS was wrong and he shouldn't have been charged with anything.  I am however impressed a bit that he stood up for what he believed in.  It sounds like he was legally guilty, but on a moral issue, he was innocent.  Not sure if that makes sense or not.  Hmmmm.  Anyway, I just wanted to mention that.


I truly believe that being self sufficient is what God intended for us from the start of creation.  Honestly, the Lord has given us everything we need to survive right here naturally.  He has given us water (rain), heat (sun), coolness (shade), food (plants and animals), shelter (ability to build things), etc.  This may be getting a bit 'political' but it needs to be said that this country seems to think that it's the governments responsibility to take care of the people in this country and that is not true.  We need to be as self sufficient as possible in my opinion.   

As far as the rating of this book, I would give it a 3 star rating.  






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2 comments:

  1. On behalf of the Sanders family, thank you for taking the time to read the book and post your review. We would like to let your readers know they can get free shipping (for up to 2 books, to US addresses only) by using the discount code TOSFREE at checkout.

    If you're interested, here's a more thorough explanation of the IRS portion of the story: http://the-moneychanger.com/answers/the_most_dangerous_man_in_the_mid_south

    Thanks again, and God bless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for the opportunity to review your book!

    ReplyDelete