Practical Skills
“Practical skills never disappoint. Who’s disappointed that they know how to do something? We’re only disappointed at the things we don’t know how to do.” Joel Salatin, Homestead Tsunami, 2023
How true is that? I recently read Joel’s latest book, Homestead Tsunami, and this comment hit home. I’ve finally learned how to use the cordless drill and driver, and I can’t tell you how many times those skills have come in handy. I’ve learned to sister wood, good to know when your chicken-raising depends on light-weight wooden portable structures.
Admittedly, the table saw and the chain saw are still beyond me, and perhaps they’ll stay that way. At least, the look on my husband’s face when I mention it tells me perhaps I ought to leave those in HIS court! That’s fine. I like my arms, legs, and fingers right where they are, thank you very much.
So when AM I disappointed? I’ll tell you when. It’s when I DON’T know something that I SHOULD know. When I tried to put the greenhouse kit together myself and just couldn’t figure out how to check the ground for level and the frame for square, that’s when. ARRGGHHH!
But - AND THIS IS KEY - whatever the skill, it’s best, easiest, and most enjoyable to develop it BEFORE you need it. The time to develop a relationship with a local farmer, or to learn to raise your own food isn’t “when the wheels fall off” and supply chains are breaking all around you. If you have a primal instinct to learn to harvest your own medicine from plants in your yard, don’t wait until you’re sick, for crying out loud. Start today!
It always makes me uncomfortable when people say things like, “Well, if times get hard, I’ll learn to forage food from the wild….raise some chickens…preserve food.” It’s a nice idea…the problem is just that there is SUCH a learning curve to those things! And they take TIME. You would starve in the time it would take to raise your first animal, wait for your first egg, or grow your first carrot. Of course there IS lots of food in the wild...IF you know what’s safe to eat…but it can take a while to find enough for lunch.
Times are pretty good right now. We’ve got our struggles, to be sure. But the lockdowns and shortages of Covid are fading in the rearview mirror, and we’ve all gotten pretty comfy once again with well-stocked grocery store shelves.
Yet allow yourself to think back for a sec. I remember calling the hatchery to order my chicks…only to be told that I’d have to wait for months, because “people are buying chicks like they’re buying toilet paper.” Huh? I remember placing my annual seed order…and waiting…and waiting…only to find out my seed guy was shutting down his operation because he couldn’t handle the orders and had sold out of everything. My grain guy closed his online ordering because he couldn’t keep up with even the local demand.
It’s the history of man…hard time comes, and folks high-tail it for the hills…or at least become city farmers!
Well, good! Crunch time is a great time to put something into practice. Not such a good time to explore it for the FIRST time, though.
So you can guess what my challenge to you today will be.
I would suggest that NOW is the time to develop your skills. Solomon said rightly, “Money answereth all things.” Amen. But you can’t eat money, and you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, anyway. A healthy retirement portfolio is important, but so is knowing how to DO things. To provide in a physical way for the physical needs of yourself and those who depend on you.
Me, I know how to save seeds. Do I regularly do it? Not really. I have a terrific local seed supplier now, and saving seeds can be a pain in the rump, especially when you plant as much as I do. But the point is that if I HAD to do it, I HAVE done it enough that I’m totally comfortable with it. I piddle around with it a little bit every year, so the skill stays fresh.
When Covid hit, do you know which grocery store shelves emptied the fastest? (beside the TP aisle, of course! Which is funny. Anyway.) The baking aisle. Suddenly, everyone was exploring from-scratch baking.
Sourdough.
Food preservation.
Chickens.
Gardening.
Herbalism.
These are the basics we come back to when things look shaky. When Wall Street teeters. When foreign wars stop shipments of oil.
When the world teeters “on the brink” and you have these life skills, you maintain a sense of calm. It’s God who provides our daily bread, to be sure. I’m not in any way trying to lessen the acknowledgement of our dependence on Him. But he gave us eyes to see, brains to plan, and hands to do. “A prudent man forseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.”
Dave Ramsey says that an Emergency Fund is Murphy-proof. What he means is this. Murphy’s Law says that something always seems to happen at the worst possible time. But when you have your emergency fund in place (he recommends 3-6 months of expenses), amazingly enough, the emergencies seem to stop. Of course, they don’t really. It’s just that you’ve now developed financial skills and are better prepared for life. OF COURSE the car will get a flat tire. OF COURSE the washing machine will break down. These things are LIFE, not emergencies.
Well, it’s the same thing with these skills. When you have them, bad things still happen in the world. Covid still hits, and we’re still locked down. But if you've already got your emergency fund, food on the shelves (food you LIKE, preferably, not ghastly freeze-dried abominations!), medicinal tinctures in your cupboard and sourdough on the counter because it’s what you DO, well, suddenly this “emergency” is more interesting than stressful. Because it’s just life.
And that’s why I’m inviting you NOW to come “join me in my homestead kitchen.” Things are calm, they’re quiet, and it’s a great time to learn. To explore new techniques. I like to call myself a homesteader, and I got at it whole-hog..as much as I’m able, anyway. (No cow, as yet!) Right now as I raise my eyes from this computer screen, I see 2 1/2 gallons of grape wine fermenting on the shelves in front of me…a pint of cream culturing into sour cream…a gallon of sliced jalapenos fermenting…a crockpot of chicken stock simmering…a pint of homemade mustard fermenting…two pints of herbal oils “steeping” for use in cooking and in lotions.
But those skills? I learned them a little at a time. It’s a gradual process, really enjoyable, really satisfying, and suddenly you think in surprise, “When’s the last time I bought THAT at the grocery store?” Why would I BUY wine when my own is so easy, delicious, and inexpensive?
So choose a skill. Pick a place to start, because you can’t do everything. What interests you? Think back to Covid: where was your weak link? What do you WISH you would have known or WISH you had had on your shelves? What made you nervous? Start dabbling. Take a class, check out a book, find a farmer, ask a friend.
Personally, I don’t consider myself a “beans, bullets, and band-aids prepper,” and yet my whole lifestyle IS admittedly rather “preppy.” (Ha!) I LIKE having extra toothbrushes tucked away; I LIKE buying food in bulk. I don’t want to depend on packages of flavorless freeze-dried food if times get tough, but I don’t want to grow our favorite pinto beans, either, so I’ve found myself a farmer who does. Kevin and I have developed all sorts of relationships in the farming community, so if we don’t grow something ourselves, we’re friends with the folks who do. “I’ll trade you my chickens for your wheat…or your plumbing skills!” This is so important, because no one can do it all, and you’ll go crazy if you try.
And THIS is why I keep saying, “I can’t wait to see YOU in my homestead kitchen.” Let’s sharpen our practical skills, one skill at a time…together!