Homesteading Skills Above and Beyond the Basics.

[Guest]

What skills are you trying to develop and improve upon aside from the basic skills needed to "survive"?? Just surviving is living... but not by much. What skills are you learning to make you post SHTF life more "comfortable"??

Personally as a current hobby I raise and cure my own tobacco. I am also a pretty proficient brewer of ales and lagers. I make my own honey wine (mead). I am also a pretty well versed in distilling and own my own reflux distiller (for making fuel only wink wink). I also make my own cheese, butter, cream & yogurt. I have experience making lye soap from rendered tallow and wood ash. I am currently working on my charcuterie skills (making dry sausages, salami, preserving meats ect...).

I would like to start learning about making pottery from scratch. Beekeeping will be a handy skill. Along with a descent understanding of metallurgy, smelting and blacksmithing.

In the end what i am working towards in my quest for emergency preparedness and long term independent living (whether needed or not) is being a community asset. IMO if SHTF in a major way we are going to have to depend on ourselves to ride out the initial madness. But once the dust settles, the mass migrations are over and the looters/marauders have starved or been killed off to the point that they aren't daily threat. We are going to band together in communities. What skills can I bring to that situation that will make me a beneficial part of a thriving community. I know the skills I mentioned seem "luxurious" and not necessary for survival. But post SHTF, those who make it out of the darkest times will have the basic skills covered. When things stabilize people will want comforts. I am thinking being a person who can provide you some comfort items might not be a shabby situation.

[eeyore]

you could add medical skills, baking skills in wood fired oven, spinning quilting clothing making, woodworking skills, cobbler skills, alternative energy generation skills

[becky3086]

I think spinning and weaving fabric would be a good skill to learn but I have no way to go about that just yet. Other weaving would be nice to know as well, as in baskets, weaving straw. I have a few of the straw weaving books but haven't tried a lot yet for lack of materials. I have learned how to make pine needle baskets but I am not sure how useful that would be.
There are things that my father learned growing up that we never learned, such as, how to build anything out of stone, chimneys, outside grills, walls etc. He could build any kind of fence, make maple syrup, hoot a bear down off the mountain, hunt, fish, trap, run a sawmill (that he put together on our own property), fix any car, build anything etc. That is just the way he grew up, I think if I could just know half of what he did, I might be alright.

[WiseOwl]

What skills are you trying to develop and improve upon aside from the basic skills needed to "survive"?? Just surviving is living... but not by much. What skills are you learning to make you post SHTF life more "comfortable"??

Personally as a current hobby I raise and cure my own tobacco. I am also a pretty proficient brewer of ales and lagers. I make my own honey wine (mead). I am also a pretty well versed in distilling and own my own reflux distiller (for making fuel only wink wink). I also make my own cheese, butter, cream & yogurt. I have experience making lye soap from rendered tallow and wood ash. I am currently working on my charcuterie skills (making dry sausages, salami, preserving meats ect...).

n.

How does one get into growing tobacco? I think your skills here are awesome sir.

[tabwyo]

I love cigars.

[tabwyo]

My pappy told me on his cattle drives the cookie was the most important guy. After that it was the guy how had a bottle or the fullest pouch of tobacco. Everybody who survives a SHTF will undoubtedly know how to cook. Everybody enjoys luxury. And post SHTF luxury will become a commodity. The simplest pleasure are worth there weight in gold.

[Bearman202]

It just hit me that having the ability to produce the luxury items wouldn't just come in handy, they might keep you from getting killed. If your community was overwhelmed, it could be that the people doing the overwhelming might like to keep someone around who had the ability to make their life better. Whether you want to do that or not, well, that's a decision you might have to make, but at least you might be able to make such a decision. i.e. if it come down to, "Why shouldn't we shoot you along with the rest?" being able to say, "I know how to grow and cure tobacco" might just keep you alive. Something to think about?

[dilli]

How does one get into growing tobacco?

mostly just plant it :)
If you would like some seed WO holler and I can send ya some..Its what we have grown here in north GA for the last three years so it has acclimated to our conditions here.
On a more serious note, tobacco is time consuming if you are a smoker or have two in the house. It takes a fair bit of land and is a lengthy process until you can get the lil suckers to start growing on their own accord. Most difficult thing is getting babies started good to transplant size and having the room to cure it once harvested. ... i have done several small write ups on it on my blog if you are interested. They are not in any particular order, http://frugalhomesteads.blogspot.com.../label/tobacco.. Of course, the door is always open to come n check it out if ya would like..This weekend we will be cutting and hanging our last of it for the year if ya wanna help :)

[tabwyo]

I start out with 20 plants from seed and by transplant time I am usually down to 15 or so. From transplant to harvest I'll usually lose another 5. 10 plants keeps my pipe full for a year though. With plenty left over. Tobacco plants can be a serious PITA to grow.