I talk a great deal about prepper skills. They are the skills that will make it easier for us to survive as well as those that make us a valuable asset to a group of fellow survivors. Some people may believe that they have and know all they need to survive. Others may think that they don't have many or any skills of value. At some point, we all need to evaluate our skills to see where we stand and where we need to improve. In some cases, actually putting things down on paper may surprise us because we may just have more positive skills then we realize.
Since I don't know YOUR skills at this time I hope it may help if I share the skills of myself and my husband. Just talking about our skills and how we got them may make you realize that you yourself have a lifetime of skills that you can depend on for survival. At the very least it may help to see that learning skills are often just a part of living our daily lives.
My husband grew up on a farm. He's raised and worked with cows all his life. He learned to drive a tractor by himself when he was eight years old. He got his first gun when he was five and grew up hunting with his grandpa, dad and uncles. By the time he was ten or so he would go hunting in the woods for small game like squirrels and rabbits after school by himself. He also learned to fish when he was about four or five and when he wasn't hunting he was fishing.
His parents heated their house with a wood stove and every Saturday morning in the fall and winter his dad and him would head into the woods to cut firewood. He learned to cut trees and chop wood. He learned to use an axe, a splitter and a saw. He learned to care for and sharpen the tools. He also learned to repair chainsaws as he got older.
He has always been mechanically inclined. Whenever he had something that broke he would take it apart and repair it. He started with bicycles piecing them together and fixing them when they broke. As he got older he moved up to his and his friends motor cycles and dirt bikes. Then lawn mowers and other small engines until one day he was also repairing cars and the farm tractors.
He began working when he was 13 tearing down army barracks on the fort with his uncle. They would disassemble them and bring some of the good wood home and use it for building projects at his uncles and parents place. He learned demolition, salvaging and building skills. He can work with all carpentry tools both electric and manual. He can build almost anything. He also learned plumbing and wiring in the process since he worked alongside his uncle doing those things for two years.
When he was fifteen he went to work at the local oil company delivering oil to all the gas stations in the city. That's not the age that its done nowadays and probably wasn't then either but he did learn to drive the tanker truck back then as well as run the local gas station. When he left there a few years later he worked for a garage in town repairing diesel trucks and large tractors. All the while he was in high school and college where he majored in automotive technology. He now repairs cars for a living instead of the big diesels but he can repair anything that runs. Somewhere along the way he learned to weld as well so he can do metal work if needed.
Now I on the other hand didn't show up on the farm until I was eighteen. We met because I was working in the auto repair department of the local Kmart. I sold parts and did the invoices. He and I got married a year later and he taught me to fish and shoot. I learned to cut trees and chop wood because I headed into the woods with him and his dad to help. I have graduated to my very own chainsaw and I'm able to fell and chop trees as well as any man. I've spent many hours bent over the engine compartment of a car with him and I can do many of the minor repairs and maintenance. I know my way around a tool box and a garage. My name is the one he calls when he needs a helper. We've also done some extensive remodeling on our home and the homes of my mother and in laws. I've learned to to use carpentry tools and can build small projects on my own. I can do minor wiring and plumbing repairs. I've laid tile, refinished hardwood floors, laid carpet, hung sheet rock, shingled roofs, painted and sanded.
On my own I have poured, painted and fired ceramics. I have found and worked with natural clays for pottery. I sew by hand and on a machine. I do other needlework like knitting, cross stitch and embroidery. I can do bead work and elaborate braiding. I cut mine and my husbands hair. I tan hides. I go crabbing, catch crawdads and do some frog gigging. I can clean and filet a fish including catfish. I can cook and clean anything that comes out of the water. I've cleaned and cooked cooters and gators as well as possums, rabbits and coons.
I can scald or skin a hog. I can process every part of the hog. I can salt, smoke, pickle, lard, freeze and can the meat. I have butchered and processed goat, chicken, rabbit and cows as well. I can make sausage and jerky and preserve all the meat in various ways. I can cook durn near anything and make it taste good. I've cooked brains and fish roe (couldn't eat either one myself) I've made souse meat, scrapple and hogs head cheese.
I've raised goats, sheep, cows, hogs, rabbits ,chickens, ducks, turkeys, quail, fish, snail and frogs. I can hatch chickens and other poultry from eggs. I can help pull a calf or a lamb/kid. I have sewed up injuries , set bones, given shots and oral meds. I have studied animal meds and their various uses. I have milked cows, goats and one hog (not something to be done lightly). I have bottle fed rabbits, kids/lambs, cows and piglets. I've been crapped on, butted, bitten, scratched, barfed and bled on. I have held them when they died and soothed them when they were injured. I've seen the worst case turn around and go on to live when I thought they wouldn't make it. I've also transferred some of that knowledge into human ailments.
I've made vinegar, wine, cheese and other dairy products. I am able to can and dehydrate almost any meat, vegetable or fruit and have done so. I can forage for wild foods and many medicinal plants. I can grow a garden for food and medicine. I can save seeds and grow plants from seed and cuttings. I have coaxed the most pitiful plants to produce and thrive. I can make candles and soap as well as salves, tinctures and other medicinal products.
We like to go primitive camping and we can both build a fire and light it. We can put up a tent and prepare a camp site. I can cook on almost any cooking surface from a flat rock or fire grate to a wood stove to electric. I can lift 50# easily and 100 with alot of effort:) I wake up at a pin drop and sleep very little and it doesn't seem to impair me.
I can read a book and usually remember it years later. I have an extensive library of books on all manner of skills and hobbies and I have read every one. I have a good memory and I have memorized two entire books of the Bible and I'm working on a third. I don't do it to quote scripture but to protect the book from those who may someday try to destroy it. My husband is a deacon and a preachers kid. We have ministered to those who were in his charge both spiritually (as we are able) and physically. We can help with understanding the scriptures and with comfort IF someone needs it. I can read music and I can sing. I don't claim to be great but I'm not gong show bad either.
Separate we are both decently skilled. Together we make a good team. We both have our weaknesses which I won't list here. I am sharing these "skills" for one reason only and its not to show what WE can do but to show what YOU can do. Nothing I listed is beyond what people have been doing for centuries. None of them are spectacular or particularly difficult. People learned their skills as they went through life and passed them on as a means of survival to the next generation. It's been happening forever. I shared this list of skills so that you can look at your own life and experiences and see that you do have skills for survival. I'm sure I have forgotten some. List your skills and see where your strengths are then build on them. Learn new skills and add them to your list. YOU are your own best asset so make the best of it. Take inventory and work on your personal skill levels. Everybody can DO something and WTSHTF if you lose everything you own nobody can take the knowledge you have stored in your head.
Southern Wood Elf