Get Yourself Some !
What is the most important thing to get if you are preparing to homestead?
Anyone seriously considering homesteading, or already there, knows you have to have SKILLS or get some! It's sink or float, depending on your skill sets.
For instance; Hubs & I acquired several useful skills for homesteading, either by our upbringings or various experiences & training as adults.
BUT....
With all that, we still found things we would need/want to learn, to help on our future homestead.
Here's a few examples of things we've been picking up, to add to our skill sets, that might give you ideas of things you may need too (depending on the type of homestead you want):
I, personally wanted & needed to learn to can, so I sought out someplace local to learn. As it turned out it would be at an 1800's living history farm and I got to learn on a wood stove which will come in handy if we go off-grid.
I now can each year!
We both wanted to learn to hunt, as neither of us had been hunting before , so we asked a very experienced friend (50+yrs experience) to instruct us in hunting and processing of the meat. It was a week well spent for both of us.
We will hopefully be going hunting again within the next two months!
Neither of us had actually killed & butchered a chicken before, until we went to @mericanhomestead recently, where they were kind enough to share their knowledge with us all. (Thank you @hansjurgen for your knowledge and kindness). This was something that I knew took place on my own grandparent's homestead, growing up, but had never learned myself.
(pic courtesy of @themyrrhmaid )
My SIL has land and was kind enough to offer us space to raise some meat chickens if we want. Guess what...we are now getting chickens!
We'd been trained in equine care but we'd never learned sheep care or how to trim their hooves. Something we'd need to know if we ever wanted to have sheep on our future homestead. This was also a skill we picked up, at @mericanhomestead , thanks to @themyrrhmaid and @jal627 . (Thank you for taking the time to share with us!
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@mericanhomestead/taking-care-of-homestead-animals-hoof-care-for-sheep)
Getting sheep will most likely have to wait till we have our own land, and some more knowledge in their overall care/maintenance, but we've got at least one skill down for when we do! @themyrrhmaid I'm looking forward to learning more from you!
I wanted to learn another way to store food long-term w/out canning, so I learned to dehydrate and store my own food! I learned this by watching youtube vids! Seriously! This is one you can learn right at home. Dehydrate2Store is a great channel to watch imho.
(pic courtesy of preparednessadvice.com)
One of the best homestead channels that we've been watching and learning from though, for the last few years, is @mericanhomestead . We HIGHLY recommend their channel as well as getting in touch with other homesteading Steemians, to share ideas and experience.
If at all possible, go visit each other, help each other by learning from one another- it benefits you both...or at least it should! That's truly the best way to pass skills on and to gain the experience & skill sets you'll need to make it.
Do as much as you can before you get there. That's what we are doing! Hopefully, it will make for a smoother transition when we do. It won't be just our success either. It will be the success of everyone who helped us (and YOU) along the way.
Now...
You can come visit any time and learn more skills! We can always use another set of hands! :)
We definitely need to plan that then. I would absolutely love to come down and learn all I can, while helping you out. Especially during this season for you all. ;)
Well, today we did several loads of laundry & hung it on the line, canned a couple bushels of apples, ate 3 watermelons (got them for $1 each at the Amish auction), made pudding, got 70 new grown laying hens, milked the cow, etc. Like I sad, I can always use extra hands. LOL
Talk about a full day's work! phew! You go girl! Show'em how it's done! So, I get watermelon if I come down? :D ha ha
I only bought 26, so if we still have some you can! LOL
"only" heh? lol
I bought 63 more yesterday! LOL I got an entire pallet for $15. I figured we would eat some and feed some to the chickens!
:O WOW! Talk about a yummy deal!
All that looks great! So glad we could be a part of your new adventure. Never stop sharing what you learn! :)
We are too and we're sure to continue learning from you...and sharing. ;)
Wonderful post. Learning these skills before you actually take the plunge is really helpful and takes a lot of the stress out of it. You can enjoy learning by doing before it becomes sink or swim. Good stuff!
It truly has been a joyful experience gaining these new skills and meeting new folks along the way. The big move is looking a little less scary with each skill we gain.
I continue to hone my skills and learn new ones almost daily. You sure picked some great folks to mentor you. I absolutely love the Dehydrate2Store channel and just got their newest book. Who knew you could dehydrate cucumbers to pickle with later. I'm trying that one shortly. I ran out of jars earlier this year.
I agree! I try to learn from those who have done it a while and if not, I still learn by those working through their own learning of skills (mistakes and successes). I have yet to try cucumbers. You're gonna have to let me know how that one goes. Sounds great though!
One of the first things that you learn when you go off the grid is that anything that heats up when you plug it in takes A LOT of electricity! The longer the heating appliance has to stay on, the less likely you are to be able to use it. We had to give up the crock pot, waffle iron, toaster oven, iron, hair dryer, heating pad, and the dehydrator until we did some major upgrades to our power generator! The microwave takes a lot of power but only for a couple minutes at a time however, the big draw it (and the start of the washing machine spin cycle) creates makes a HUGE fluxuation in the system. We had quite some trouble with fluctuations in our power until after the upgrades which meant that any electronics (phone, laptop, nightlight/flashlights) that were plugged in or charged had to have a big surge suppressor (a UPS) so they wouldn't burn out. Some of the newer light bulbs are also susceptible.
It was all so much more complicated than it looked! You are so right that you are better getting your skills before you start because you will have less to learn after you realize how much you still don't know!Thankfully, we have been off grid before. It was short term (only about 6 months) but it gave us a real education, real quick-like. We lived in the rain forest of Maui, running a horse ranch, and the only 'power' there was phones. We lived on solar and our system wasn't ity bity but it wasn't big either. During the rainy season (a few months) we got well acquainted with our gas, backup generator too. You're right...just about anything that heats up will pull the most. We had a washer but no dryer . We hung them up to dry but it would literally take days bc of the nightly rains, until we found a place under our porch overhang to hang them. We lived w/ no tv ,no appliances in the kitchen, other than a rice cooker, gas fridge & stove. I never dared use a blow dryer- it'd just get damp going back outside anyhow. ha ha As it turned out, our computer pulled the most energy from the system. We could only use it for short periods of time and that is only if we had a lot stored up. It was amazing to discover what exactly we could live w/out- pretty much everything we pampered ourselves with, and took for granted, prior. ha ha There's tons and tons more to learn. Yah has blessed us with amazing people who have been in our lives or come into it recently, that can contribute to our education. Just hoping I can do the same for all of them in some form.
Bless the people who pay it forward then try to do the same for someone else. It's one of the best parts of being human.
When we first moved in the power was pretty iffy and I didn't want to risk my computer. I had serious internet withdrawals. I was so used to going right to the internet whenever I needed to know how to do things or to look up what a bird or plant was. It took forever for me to stop looking for my laptop everytime something popped into my head!
Bless the people who pay it forward then try to do the same for someone else. It's one of the best parts of being human.
Being in a damp area without a dryer is pretty icky. I don't want to imagine having to put on damp clothes just because they're the clean ones! Maui would be gorgeous though! When we first moved into Snowslide the power was pretty iffy and I didn't want to risk my computer. I had serious internet withdrawals. I was so used to going right to the internet whenever I needed to know how to do things or to look up what a bird or plant was. It took forever for me to stop looking for my laptop everytime something popped into my head!
there are so many "forgotten skills' out there.
Sewing, gardening and preserving, etc the list is never-ending and so many people are "spoiled" with the flick of a light switch or turning on of an app.
Great post!
You are right. There are so many forgotten skills out there, soon to be lost to many, bc they haven't been handed down. Thankfully, places like that working farm and others are trying to preserve them for those willing to learn. Sewing , knitting and the like are also skills that are trying to be revived. Hopefully, we can all learn a little to pass on to future generations.
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That's awesome! TY for letting me know. :)