Books with author Mike Phillips

Many people want to grow fruit on a small scale but lack the insight to be successful orchardists. Growing tree fruits and berries is something virtually anyone with space and passionate desire can do - given wise guidance and a personal commitment to observe the teachings of the trees. A holistic grower knows that producing fruit is not about manipulating nature but more importantly, fostering nature. Orcharding then becomes a fascinating adventure sure to provide your family with all sorts of mouth-watering fruit. The Holistic Orchard demystifies the basic skills everybody should know about the inner-workings of the orchard ecosystem, as well as orchard design, soil biology, and organic health management. Detailed insights on grafting, planting, pruning, and choosing the right varieties for your climate are also included, along with a step-by-step instructional calendar to guide growers through the entire orchard year. The extensive profiles of pome fruits (apples, pears, asian pears, quinces), stone fruits (cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums), and berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, currants, and elderberries) will quickly have you savoring the prospects. Phillips completely changed the conversation about healthy orcharding with his first bestselling book, The Apple Grower, and now he takes that dialogue even further, drawing connections between home orcharding and permaculture; the importance of native pollinators; the world of understory plantings with shade-tolerant berry bushes and other insectary plants; detailed information on cover crops and biodiversity; and the newest research on safe, homegrown solutions to pest and disease challenges. All along the way, Phillips' expertise and enthusiasm for healthy growing shines through, as does his ability to put the usual horticultural facts into an integrated ecology perspective. This book will inspire beginners as well as provide deeper answers for experienced fruit growers looking for scientific organic approaches. Exciting times lie ahead for those who now have every reason in the world to confidently plant that very first fruit tree!

Not a children's book. This is the story of a mechanical man in the pre-Victorian area. To the local Native Americans of Wyoming , he's known as, 'The Star Rider'. But to Tommy, Tilly's best friend, he's just the amazing Tilly! Tilly has few memories of his first day of creation until a shock of thought changes everything, even his armor. Steam powered creatures abound in the unusual rich town of Perpetulum. And Roy Graves and his gang want it all. A Northwest ending from a Northwest writer.

Michael Phillips Continues His Sweeping Shetland Islands SagaWhen Loni Ford is informed that she has inherited property in the Shetland Islands, she laughs. She wants nothing more than to sell it and be done with it. But when she arrives in the North Sea enclave, she is stunned to find that "the Cottage" is not at all what she expected, nor is David Tulloch, the man most of the islanders believe to be the rightful heir.The locals could hardly be more surprised that the heir is a woman--and an American. Loni, in turn, finds the islanders quaint and a bit behind the times. Expecting David to be as provincial as the rest of his clan, she discovers that there is far more to the man than meets the eye. And there is something about the peaceful atmosphere of the place--and the character of its most prominent citizen--that soon gets under her skin. Beneath the peaceful surface, however, change is threatening the island of Whales Reef. David's cousin Hardy Tulloch, whose claim to the inheritance now in Loni's hands was backed by oil investors, has not been deterred in his aim to control the island. But his co-conspirators have plans of their own, plans that put Loni's very life in danger.

A dramatic escape from the Iron Curtain tests the convictions of a father and daughter on the run in the Secret of the Rose series. Aided by her one-time love, the American Matthew McCallum, Sabina von Dortmann has succeeded in rescuing her father from a Russian prison where he was held by the Nazis for many years. But now Matthew and the von Dortmanns must begin the far more challenging task of escaping the Iron Curtain and eluding the Communist authorities. Once important members of an underground network dedicated to helping Jews escape the Nazi death camps, the von Dortmanns themselves must now rely on strangers in a hostile country—as well as their unwavering faith in God—to find their freedom.

If your vocabulary needs building but you don’t like to read, this book is for you. That’s because people remember the meanings of unfamiliar words only if they learn them in context—by reading. And the fastest and most painless way of putting that idea into practice is by reading just one book that happens to include all the vocabulary words you need to know—for standardized tests such as the SAT or GRE, or for everyday intelligent-sounding conversation. Just as people might use “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” to easily and conveniently test out the keys of a typewriter or computer (because it contains all 26 letters of the alphabet in a single, short sentence), you can use The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder (a specially rewritten version of L. Frank Baum’s classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) to easily and conveniently build your vocabulary (because it contains all the words you need to know, 1850 of them, in context, in a single book). Clear definitions and interesting illustrative sentences appear at the bottom of each page.

Daniel always knew he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become an astronaut in the Earth Space Alliance. The trouble was, Daniel was not very patient. He had six more years of school...plus five at university and then, of course, astronaut training. That would take another year or more. More than eleven years of waiting! Daniel wanted to go to space now. So when he finds out that his youngest brother has already been to space, his patience wears out.Matt Phillips brings his unique background as a retired naval officer and former ship captain to science-fiction storytelling with a realistic and exciting flair. With an enthusiastic perspective on driverless school buses, automated kitchens, and space exploration, his stories are perfect for kids who dream about space travel or for anyone who wonders what the world will be like when our children have grandkids of their own.

Hieroglyphics: hard to spell and even harder to decode! When a strange message is found hidden on the casket of Pharaoh Raneb, the Museum Mystery Squad must crack a code nobody's seen since ancient Egyptian times. But this mummy’s keeping mum. The Squad are not the only ones working on the mystery: they meet Egyptian expert Professor Peter Gyptex, and the very odd Vera Damclot, a fan of mummified cats. Can the Squad reveal the mummy's secret before it unravels?

Daniel always knew he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become an astronaut captain in the Earth Space Alliance. The trouble was, Daniel was not very patient. He had six more years of school...plus five at whichever university he attended. Then of course, there was astronaut training. That would take at least another year. That came out to more than eleven years of waiting! Daniel wanted to go to space now. And when he finds out that his baby brother has already been to space, his patience wears out.

Pursued as a Union spy inside Confederate territory, Corrie's desperate attempt to escape on horseback is cut short by the sound of gunfire and the excruciating pain in her back from a bullet. Mercifully, the fear and pain are quickly overtaken by darkness as the reins slip through her fingers. When Corrie slowly awakens from weeks of unconsciousness, the first face she sees belongs to Christopher Braxton, the young man who found her nearly dead on the roadside and carried her to safety. As she is nursed back to health, Corrie finds that the physical damage to her body is not nearly as difficult to treat as her lingering amnesia. Beginning with the single letter in her pocket, Corrie and Christopher struggle to piece together the limited clues to Corrie's past.