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This book is 130 years old and is chock full of essentially forgotten knowledge and skills from a forgotten lifestyle that we no longer live. Full of amazing pencil illustrations by the author and broken up into the 4 seasons, it's full of survival, domestic, sport, and leisure activities that kids were meant to involve themselves with in the 1800s. Hunting, fishing, bushcraft, building structures, battle kites, how to organize and make rules for a proper snowball fight, rearing animals and training falcons, sewing and leatherwork, tinwork, horseback riding, training dogs, preparing and cooking food and game, proper grooming, etc.
It's an absolute treasure and even if you don't find it directly useful it's interesting and quite inspiring.
Also have to recommend Dan Beard's "Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties" manual for practical insight on building everything from lean-tos to firewatch towers to legit log cabins with stone fireplaces. Dan Beard built his cabin himself, complete with fireplaces, and includes illustrations to show all the carpentry and joistwork involved. Fucking brilliant.
