Skills and/or Knowledge

[Caplock50]

Folks, let's face it...right down face-to-face. If the SHTF and TEOTWAWKI happens, your stored goods are going to run out sooner or later. Heck, you might be caught by events while away from your stash. Or you just might be forced to abandon them. Then what? Folks, it is the knowledge and skills you have in your head that will sustain you. Remember this, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you have fed him for ever."? See what I mean? Can you take a piece of scrap metal and a piece of broken sidewalk, and make a usuable knife out of it? Can you make a fire by rubbing two sticks together(an 'oldie, but still a goodie')? How about constructing some kind of shelter? Suppose all you have on you is a hunting knife and a canteen...do you know how to get drinkable water from a poisoned waterhole? And how about forcasting the weather? Can you tell how the weather will be tomorrow by just looking at the sky? And how about identifying plants that you can eat.

Folks these things are *not* hard to learn...and best of all is that they *will* sustain you...and maybe even get you to prosper.

So, tell us of your skills.

Here's a bit of the weatherforcasting thingy for you.

If the day starts out with a bright, clear sky, and then becomes cloudy with high clouds...you can expect that on the morrow it will turn warm. You see, as a warm front moves in; it rides up and over the cold air. As the two air masses mix; clouds form where they meet...high up in the sky. The high clouds will come first, then progress downwards. Each new cloud appearing will be closer to the ground. A cold front moving in will act exactly opposite...low clouds first, building to the really high clouds.

So...what you got?

[Bear]

If it smells like fish, its a natural dish.
If it smells like cologne, leave it alone.

:P

Works for me!

[Caplock50]

Er, Bear, should I not ask what you are talking about eating? This *is* a family-oriented site, isn't it? :oops: :lol:

[BigFootsCousin]

I'm pretty darn good at 'reading' people. I can tell if they're lying, dangerous, evasive, or looking to con you. (doesn't apply to women)

I'm fairly proficient in the woods. I get lost....er have an adventure often!

I can usually hit what I'm aiming at given sufficient ammo.

I can start a fire in the rain and keep it going. (for 10 seconds)

I'm also pretty good at first aid. Anybody know what "Second Aid" is?

How's that for a start Cappy?

BFC

[janetn]

Im old so throughout this life I picked up a few things. I can grow raise and shoot my own food. Dress a rabbit chicken deer or what have you. I can start a fire with a couple of sticks and some dry tinder [learned how to do that at a state park in WV the ranger taught me :D] I can make soap from tallow and ash. tan a hide, and find food in the woods . I can spin yarn and milk a goat. can make cheese and butter too. Now I dont find much of a use in todays world for most of these skills. but its nice to know that if push comes to shove I can do these things. We live in the sticks on a few acres so if things go to crap we can make do.

I wonder how many MBAs who get their Lattes a SB's would be able to feed cloth and keep warm their families if their fancy way of life comes to an end?

[Chuck]

I live on a remote homestead in Alaska and try to live a subsistence lifestyle. Our power is a small hybrid system. We raise a large garden and put up as much food as possible we also gather a lot of wild greens. My wife is an RN who got fed up with modern medicine and started learning a lot of the old ways. She makes most of our meds now the way thing were done before big pharm took over the medical schools. If any one needs help in this area we will be glad to get you started.

[firebird]

I can hunt, fish and garden. Good with mechanical things. Wanting to learn more though.

[Thunder]

Grew up on a farm, Can do basic machining, weld arc, mig, tig, gas, nail wood together, was an EMT, have shot competition, hunted, have enough equipment to farm.

[solookup]

a little first aid i remember from coast guard boot.

morse code , (washed out of radioman school cuz i couldnt
type 40 wpm. )

i can shoot pretty good. (double E , pistol , rifle,
also from C.G. boot.(we got four WHOLE hours training on both ) though i have never been taught to hunt or skin /-(, i
can at least shoot straight.


when things get bad,,, music to soothe the soul .

i read somewhere once that hookers and musicians
allways had work ( even if they got paid only in food )
in the depressions.


i can play bass,, a little guitar,, a little ukelele.

im thinking the uke is my best bet,,, its impossible to
play it without cracking a grin,,, and it puts a grin on
most faces to hear one played.

unrelenting faith in my Lord.

but thats about it.

[BigFootsCousin]

a little first aid i remember from coast guard boot.

morse code , (washed out of radioman school cuz i couldnt
type 40 wpm. )

i can shoot pretty good. (double E , pistol , rifle,
also from C.G. boot.(we got four WHOLE hours training on both ) though i have never been taught to hunt or skin /-(, i
can at least shoot straight.


when things get bad,,, music to soothe the soul .

i read somewhere once that hookers and musicians
allways had work ( even if they got paid only in food )
in the depressions.


i can play bass,, a little guitar,, a little ukelele.

im thinking the uke is my best bet,,, its impossible to
play it without cracking a grin,,, and it puts a grin on
most faces to hear one played.

unrelenting faith in my Lord.

but thats about it.

Yer more than covered Bro, more than covered.

BFC

[lillybear]

So...what you got?

Greybear

[SheWoff]

So much to learn and so little time...well I'm a nurse so I have the medical covered (worked ER and ICU) to an extent. I can sew, cook about anything, can over an open fire, I garden, cook on the woodstove, I cannot make bread for life or limb though...just cornbread. I can fish and hunt and clean my kills and put that up. Oh! On my quest to learn new things, one of our friends duck hunts and came over yesterday with some and taught me how to clean and breast them out (not sure if that will help when/if bird flu comes around). I can do most of it thanks to my dear father, who was a woodsman. And I'm married to one of those too. Now I am trying to learn herbal medicine. Not gotten too far with it yet, but I'm getting there. It's all not much I know, but at least I'm trying.

She

[Summerthyme]

I've come to the conclusion that all those years we were dead broke and raising four kids were a huge blessing. We've already BTDT, in terms of stretching everything... money, food, supplies. It's been wonderful to live without being completely on the edge the last few years, but we also learned that basic happiness doesn't have much to do with income or "stuff".

One basic "first aid" tip... if someone takes a fall, first of all- DO NOT MOVE THEM. Barring a situation where they are in dire danger if they stay where they are (active flames, possibly an enraged large farm animal, or extreme danger of something heavy falling)... just leave them where they are, in the position they landed, for a minute.

Take a deep breath, and talk to them. Ask if anything hurts. Ask if they can feel their hands and feet... if they can, can they wiggle fingers and toes?

If they are cut somewhere and bleeding, try to apply direct pressure onto the place the blood is coming from, again without moving them if possible.

A hard fall can be disorienting... and it usually takes a few minutes for the initial shock to wear off and either for pain to set in (if there is an actual severe injury of some time) or for the initial pain to moderate.

I was thinking about this watching an NFL game on Sunday... one player went down screaming after he rolled an ankle. But within 5 minutes, he was hobbling off the field, and he ended up taping it up and going back to play.

It was familiar... I've sprained my ankle badly several times, and the truth is- when you do it, for a few minutes, you have NO idea how bad of damage you've incurred. Some of the milder sprains I've had (and remember- a "sprain" is stretched and torn ligaments... a bad one can take longer to heal and be more painful than a fracture) almost made me black out with the shock and pain at first... but within half an hour, I was limping around and within 2-3 days, even the bruising was pretty well gone.

OTOH, the worst one I ever did (3rd degree bilateral sprain- basically tore every supporting ligament in the ankle) was numb for the first hour... and that was when I learned the hard way to wait a bit and see how bad an injury is/was before trying to go about normal life. That one took 7 weeks in a soft cast to heal.

IF the injured person reports any neck or back pain AT ALL, call an ambulance (if that's possible). In the meantime, treat them for shock where they are, but don't raise their legs or do anything to manipulate their spine. Don't let them move their head or twist their back. Even so, it's likely to be fairly minor bruises... but better safe than sorry.

I cringe when I see someone scoop up a child who has just fallen several feet off a monkey bars or other playground equipment. While kids are pretty resiliant, the diet too many of them follow now means many more are fracturing bones, when they used to bounce.

It only takes a couple minutes to reassure yourself (and the injured party) that nothing serious happened and let them go back to playing, if that's how it shakes out. But if they have sustained a serious injury, some caution by the first person to "help" may prevent a LOT of permanent damage.

Summerthyme

[Sassafras]

I've come to the conclusion that all those years we were dead broke and raising four kids were a huge blessing. We've already BTDT, in terms of stretching everything... money, food, supplies. It's been wonderful to live without being completely on the edge the last few years, but we also learned that basic happiness doesn't have much to do with income or "stuff".



I totally agree. It's amazing how much you learn when you live on a shoestring, BTDT.

As far as skills, I can garden, preserve our harvest by canning, freezing, and drying, forage, raise small livestock, sew and make my own patterns, make soft soap, make candles, have a beginning knowledge in herbal medicine, and recently learned to crochet. I'd like to learn to spin fibers, knit, make bar soap, and make cheese. The medical side of things is covered by my daughter who is an EMT and going on to be a paramedic. My boy is the hunter/fisherman and all around fix-it man.

There are gaps in our skills, but we're actively working on them.

[momof23goats]

well, I live on a homestead. I grow what we eat, and eat what I grow. I say I, because dh is an OTR trucker.
I can hunt, dress that deer out, build a smoker, and smoke the meat. I can can it up on top of a wood stove. I haven't bought any soap in years, i use my own.
dh , brought me 2 tiny baby piglets the last week of April, I have raised them , they are both over 340 pounds now. I can butcher them out if i had to, and the right way too. and brine, then cure then smoke the hams and bacon, and can up the rest.
I milk goats, do all the castrating,and the birthing, of cows, horses, and goats. and have helped a sow out, but that is a whole other post.
I heat with wood, and cook with it too.
I know how to filter water, and how to distill it. I can sew, quilt, knit, and crochet.
yes, I can build a shelter. i can snare a deer or a rabbit, or shoot it, I can fish.
we won't starve, or go cold.
I cut wood, in fact I have to cut wood tomorrow.
We have 2 teams, i can hitch them up, and I can plow disk, and plant, I use only heirloom seeds, and save them.
hubby and 2 son's can do this also. I can grow and salvage what needs to be got. i went through nurses training years ago, and worked as a nurse for years, got 2 more in the neighborhood, so that is covered.
I also raise chickens, and turkeys, but there are plenty of wild ones around here, so I can shoot them, and dress them out, and can them up . nice as you please.
I can make candles, but don't like too.
I can make lye water for my soap , if need be.
I can render down my lard, or tallow, for use's such as soap, or just to use in cooking. that is all i can do.

[Johnboy]

Me? I ain't worth a damn! Just ask my wife!

Johnboy

[Cascade Failure]

I specialize in generalizing. I can do a little of a lot of things but I am no expert in any of them.

[Freeholder]

I specialize in generalizing. I can do a little of a lot of things but I am no expert in any of them.

That's pretty much me, too. I've had goats for a lot of years, and chickens, and have been gardening just about my whole life. And I learned to sew when I was little on a treadle sewing machine, and have my grandmothers old one. Can make cheese and candles and soap... tan hides...know quite a bit about keeping bees and rabbits, though I don't have any right now. Can do a little spinning and weaving and can crochet; need to re-learn knitting. I know how to can and dry food for the winter, and how to catch fish and clean them. I do my own butchering when we have surplus goats or poultry. I can build things, but I'm no great shakes at finish carpentry. I know quite a few wild plants that can be used for food, and sometimes we do use them.

But I'm pretty much a generalist, with no expert skills at anything.

Kathleen

[Bad Hand]

My wife and I lived in a tipi at over 8,000 ft. in the Coloradoe Rockies for two years Basically living off the land Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Gathering if I didn't kill we didn't eat. After that we spent the next 10 years living in and caretaking a hunting lodge in the same area. The lodge had no electricty, phone, or running water unless you considered the stream running water. My wife and I were not paid for living there all we got was a place to live. Durning hunting season I guided deer and elk hunts for the owners and my wife cooked for them we did get paid for that.

We were snowed in from Nov 15 until the last week of May. winter transportation was a dog team in the winter. I ran my trap lines with horses in the fall and a dog team in the winter.

If it all falls apart I am set already been there done that. Now I teach pirmitive skills, brain tanning, winter survival, trapping at Rabbit Stick and Winter Count.

[north runner]

I like the outdoors. We try to winter camp every year for at least a week. go deer and turkey hunting when we don't have company. X-C ski snowshoe hike snowmobile. Wife was an RN a long time ago but quit. She's the green thumb and does fine woodworking. I like mechanics, figuring out how stuff works, building, repairing. We have wood heat, a small garden, ducks and a little land. If it weren't for our kid in school We'd be gone traveling in camper, downhill skiing, bumming around the u.s. living in a yurt somewhere :)

[Shuswap]

Cap Good post, enjoy all replys. You all are my kind. Living on a ranch in B. C. has help my wife (elder berry) and I learn a lot of life skills. We have a large extended family close bye and know they will be important in the times ahead. I feel you must hear that small voice that speaks to us all. Call it intuition, the holy spirit, your special angel or what ever. This will be most important, and we must practice hearing. Right now I am hearing, get a solar power system in operation, and get your dollars into hard goods. Remember the RED LETTERS in the scripture. I am not a bible thumper I truely want those words proclaimed by my actions.

Shuswap What do we call you if one of the goats die?

[BigFootsCousin]

My wife and I lived in a tipi at over 8,000 ft. in the Coloradoe Rockies for two years Basically living off the land Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Gathering if I didn't kill we didn't eat. After that we spent the next 10 years living in and caretaking a hunting lodge in the same area. The lodge had no electricty, phone, or running water unless you considered the stream running water. My wife and I were not paid for living there all we got was a place to live. Durning hunting season I guided deer and elk hunts for the owners and my wife cooked for them we did get paid for that.

We were snowed in from Nov 15 until the last week of May. winter transportation was a dog team in the winter. I ran my trap lines with horses in the fall and a dog team in the winter.

If it all falls apart I am set already been there done that. Now I teach pirmitive skills, brain tanning, winter survival, trapping at Rabbit Stick and Winter Count.

Oooooo!

I wanna come play in your neighborhood! Off grid 24/7/365? That I've never done. My hats off to you.

BFC