This could be you!
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This is not a TV family undertaking a lifestyle change for the benefit of the cameras. This is real people, taking positive steps towards a green lifestyle. I loved the series and whilst we cannot all find a property with a waterwheel and spring, we can adpt many of the principles and projects that the Strawbridge family have done.
Everything we do has an impact on the environment and being aware of this, taking time and effort to green up our lifestyle, is a very rewarding experience. As a result of reading this book we have made changes, saved money, saved energy, and eaten some delicious home-grown vegetables. So I feel quite smug and jolly pleased that I bought this book.
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Not What I Expected
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I expected a book with loads of practical hints and tips to get me started on a similar path, but it isn't that at all. It's really a more permanent record of the Strawbridge family's own experience and as such is accurate and evokes the feeling of the programme. There are web addresses, etc. and I've bought stuff from some of them; I also found some inspiration to become more 'green' through reading it, but I do think it should have been made clear, when the book was touted at the end of the programmes, that it wasn't meant to be a practical manual. Nevertheless it is an enjoyable and inspiring read, even though most of us could never do things on the same scale...
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It isn't easy being green
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I think some of the reviewers have missed the point, don't think this book is supposed to be a technical manual there's plenty of those elsewhere. It's more a thought provoking set of ideas to get you going. Combined with the show it's certainly changed a lot of my thoughts and made me actually get up and install a rainwater harvesting system, start to grow some of my own veg in pots and growbags on a deck together with recyling nearly all my rubbish! so it worked for me!
It's a great read and written by a real family, highly recommended!
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Moustached wonder
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A brilliant book with a lot more information than the TV programme. It's a nice change to have a book about a family wanting to live an environmentally aware life, rather than a eco-warriors telling us to go live in a teepee. Although many of the things they have done with their house are not possible for many of us, it gives good links and advice on how to alter your life without losing the comforts of 21st century. Strawbridge covers many issues around questioning how we live our lives when it comes to energy and food without jumping to traditional hippie view points.
Not only does it give good advice, he and his family came across as a decent bunch and this comes through as it's very easy to read and use for reference. I even managed to understand the engineering side of things.
The only fault with the book is that it could have been proof read a little better as there are a few typos, but that doesn't matter when you get to see photos of that amazing moustache.
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Could do better
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Like other reviewers I was disappointed in this book. OK, the TV series was lightweight entertainment, including Dick Strawbridge's continual mugging to the camera, but I expected the book to have more substance. Even the references at the end are highly selective and one or two seem to damn with faint praise. The photography, while quite artistic, didn't add any real value either. This was a major opportunity to open up pointers to an ecologically better lifestyle and it sadly failed. I think the family have the passion to have delivered much more - their website and discussion forum show willing - but it all comes across as a project with one eye very much on the money they might make. Perhaps a second TV series might produce a better book. I hope so.
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