Maintenance

This is an excellent book for building water gardens, ponds, pools and streams. The subject is covered thoroughly with detailed descriptions about installing fountains, lighting, islands, and landscaping. There are lots of lovely photos that will let your imagination grow as to the kinds of ponds you can design and build. You are only limited by the size of your yard. There is a large section about adding different types of water plants to specific areas of the pond. Plus, there is good coverage about adding fish, attracting wildlife, and performing seasonal maintenance. Construction techniques vary from simple to more complex designs, including waterfalls and ripple effects. Another book, Nash's The Complete Pond Builder, seems to have slightly better construction detail and also more examples of smaller ponds. However, Swindells' book is much more comprehensive and it contains a lot more information about maintenance, fish, and plants.

This Book has GREAT content. Not only does it have clear, and easy to understand diagrams of plants, but it supplied me with information to build my own pond. Now, my pond is filled with koi that rest underneath some waterlilies . The water hyacinths, (which I did not know about until reading this book) , smell soooo wonderful. My pond would never be complete without this book. I say you buy it, because it is worth it's price!

Far too many accounts of life in New Mexico are written by people with an agenda, often Anglos who came here to "find themselves" or "get back to the land" and were outraged when they discovered that reality wouldn't cooperate with their fantasies. By contrast, Stanley Crawford arrived with an open mind and integrated his family so successfully into a small, predominantly Hispanic village that he became the "mayordomo" in charge of administering the community's irrigation system. This book recounts his experiences and describes the workings of the community, in which the water system performs an important symbolic function as well as a practical one. It's well written, sometimes almost poetic, and often very funny. I think this and Crawford's "A Garlic Testament" are far and away the best books on life in rural New Mexico, and I recommend both of them unreservedly.

In "Mayodomo" Stanley Crawford describes his experience as manager of an "acequia" or irrigation ditch system in arid northern New Mexico. The use of acequia-irrigation originated in Spain and was introduced to the desert Southwest by Franciscan monks over 300 years ago. Acequias feed from rivers or larger acequias, and from these larger tributaries water is run through farm land and orchards then back to the main source. Each year a manager (mayordomo) and three commissioners (comisiados) are democratically elected to oversee water rates and insure fair distribution of water to each "parciante" or landowner who farms along the ditch. Acequia association members are historically of Hispanic or Latino descent, so Crawford's anglo heritage creates an interesting viewpoint of an age old tradition. As mayordomo Crawford supervises the annual spring clearing of his association's acequia, determines the amount of water that each parciante will receive, and is partially responcible for record keeping and payrolls. A parciante's share of water is determined by the nature of his plantings and for a larger part, the weather. As manager of his ditch Crawford must also contend with family feuding, annual dues or "delincuencias" and parciantes who "cheat" by diverting water to their lands. Crawford's observations take more into account than the physical labor and political hierarchy associated with the maintenance of an acequia. His words create a meaningful perspective of life among the residents of an old northern New Mexican farming community and his story reveals a group of people that have been chronicled by few writers and generally ignored or forgotten by everyone else. It is a book with literary, anthropological, political, and historical significance. Spanish water laws, established long before state government regulations, support solidarity and insure the parciante's place in the community. Recent land and water legal disputes threaten to undermine an important aspect of life in northern New Mexico, one that keeps these communities together and has done so for hundreds of years.

This is the most comprehensive repair manual availible for 1990-2000 Merc/Mariner outboard engines. A must have for your boat's glove box and your tool box. Very, very detailed and concise. Easy to read. Perfect for the casual owner and the certified mechanic. Contains everything from general boating and maintenance information to precise tuneup, wiring, electronic, power head and lower unit specs and rebuild instructions. You're nuts if you own a 1990-2000 Mercury/Mariner outboard engine and you don't have this handy.

From the basic do it yourselfer to the skilled mechanic, I think this book is a valuable tool for everyone. Over the lifetime of your engine, one can save thousands of dollars in basic maintenance costs and repairs. Seloc actually uses engines that have hundreds of hours of operation versus the factory manuals. They provide meaningful step by step photography and easy to understand procedures. The most important thing they do is tell you how to put the parts back together.

I began reading this book as a reference for a class and have found it to be very interesting. The class is; "Women and their Art" at the University of Oregon. This book tied directly with my own personal interest of Landscape design and the struggle that Marian Crueger Coffin had to endure. Thank you for putting this all together.

Marian Coffin was trained as landscape architect at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 1904. Since no office would hire her because she was a woman, she hung up her own shingle in New York City and designed landscapes for half a century. The most well known Coffin-designed gardens open to the public are Winterthur, the Henry Francis du Pont Museum and Gardens, Mt. Cuba, also in Wilmington, Delaware, and The King's Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, New York. There are photographs on just about every page in addition to endnotes, bibliography, list of clients, and a detailed index. I'm the author and would love to hear from readers interested in landscape design during the Country Place Era.

This is a wonderfully detailed Automotive book! In fact it is our school Auto Tech text book. It has illustrations, explanations, and awesome details. I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in Automotive Technology!

I have a young son who is 13 and he shows an interest in auto repair. I was in the market for a comprehensive book that would give him a good understanding of automotive principals and theory. Well I certainly found it in this book.

In his book, Daminai captures the essence of Facility Management by providing helpful information on topics such as construction management, contracting, outsourcing and FM Branch organization. A 30-year professional in FM recommeded the book to me. After reading it myself, I cannot recommend it ENOUGH! We are using the book as a supplemental text in our Basic Facility Management course, our continuting education courses and as a supplemental text in our graduate degree class in Facility Management. The book is in-tune with trends in Facility Management, and is versatile enough to use as reference material for all related FM tasks. The book is definitely a keeper! Mark A. Trudzinski, Facilities Manager Education Coordinator, U.S. Army Medical Command

In his book, Daminai captures the essence of Facility Management by providing helpful information on topics such as construction management, contracting, outsourcing and FM Banch organization. A 30-year professional in FM recommeded the book to me. After reading it myself, I cannot recommend it ENOUGH! We are using the book as a supplemental text in our Basic Facility Management course, our continuting education courses and as a supplemental text in our graduate degree class in Facility Management. The book is in-tune with trends in Facility Management, and is versatile enough to use as reference material for all related FM tasks. The book is definitely a keeter! Mark A. Trudzinski, Facilities Manager Education Coordinator, U.S. Army Medical Command

This book is full of details and has several tests with different modifications done. You can see the one that suits better with your ideas and with the much you can afford.
You will find simple modifications that yourself can do during the weekend and more complexing ones using nitrous and super chargers.

Although I ended up buying a Z-28 Camaro, this book is great. It has the dyno numbers and timeslips before and after the mods. This is very important because you can predict how much faster you'll be with the money you're about to spend. Most books don't provide timeslips which [stink]..the use of power is to make your car go faster. What use is knowing how much power you've got when you don't know if you can dust you're competition or not. Most of all, it covers the 96 to 98 style mustangs (which I was looking for) with the 4.6. Not many books are out there that cover these GT's.

Not so great for its literary value but the fact that it is a true story. The author was so influential in the development of the RR/Bristol Pegasus, RB 211 and even the RR Merlin aero engines. This is how real engineering should be. Inspirational.

An excellent book on the history of the jet engine. Told from a different perspective by an individual who was there from the beginning.

Most Americans have the luxury of service stations at the trailhead and cell phones to call for help if we become stuck off road. For those who live in the west, where a cell phone signal is two hours away and a breakdown may be more than inconvenient, Jack Jackson's The Off-Road 4-Wheel Drive Book has good experience and insight to offer. The British point of view makes the book a bit quirky and centered on Rovers, but a refreshing perspective. You won't find the fat tire, bigger is better mentality here. Good information on self-reliant get there and back 4 wheeling is what this book is about. The preponderance of desert travel observations were particularly useful for the locale I explore. Get it and read it with Brad DeLongs 4-Wheel Freedom. You will not want for more information.

An excellent book, covering the off-roading scene in England, the rest of Europe, the Sahara Desert, and the Middle East. Jack Jackson gives the reader much useful advice on how to travel through very difficult country, and summarizes the 4x4 vehicles available in Europe. My own book "4-Wheel Freedom: The Art of Off-Road Driving" covers off-road recreation and all-weather driving in the USA. The serious off-road recreationist will want to add both these books to his or her library. Brad DeLong

The perfect restorers guide. It's hard to find something about originality which isn't noted in this book. A ,must, for the purist ! With this book and a part catalogue, you are able to finish the perfect restoration.

You should always start with the workshop manual, as a practical guide to all the technical stuff. But this is the next book if you are starting from a pile of bits. It will show you what the final result should look like. It contains many good tips, and its attention to detail is terrific. This book and the workshop manual, and a good parts catalogue (with the exploded drawings) are all you will ever need.