What's your most useful homesteading skill?

Posting questions on HT

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Teach only Love...for that is what You are

LOL, i've always known that as "redneck ingenuity"

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I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
The Cloud
Percy Bysshe Shelley

As for personal trait, I would say my ability to keep my head when all about me lose theirs.

For practical skills I would say butchering, processing, and curing meat. I figure in an extended SHTF or TEOTWAWKI it would be a very marketable skill, (in this area anyway) and the source of the pay would be built into the job.

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

if you have animals or want to have animals- learn everthing you can about them as well as behvior, and herd dynamics.

one skill that i wish i would have learned from my dad (since he was a mechanic) was basics of fixing stuff..... I would read all day about animals but would NOT touch a wrench thingy.... i would just call him!!

But now he is gone, and i have had to change my own tires, and figure out the basics on my Disel truck, all on my own....

i have also learned to improve my upper body streangth! i could do so much more on my own if i was just a tad bit stronger in the shoulders! but then i have to sit and think "out of the box" more often and i guess thats not all bad!

Animal husbandry
cooking
gardening
thinking ahead/problem solving/keeping a cool head

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Ares Electronic Cigarettes - 15% off your first order with coupon code HOMESTEADING at checkout
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Knights and Dreams Farm

Maximizing harvest while minimizing work by raised bed and large sunken container gardening, pressure canning, raising chickens ( for eggs and to selectively breed and
sell - Heritage Breed Barred Plymouth Rocks ), Making and selling my totally natural skin
and body care products, making and selling 'value added' products from what we raise and grow on the farm at local farmer's mkts and on-line, woodworking, salvaging and repurposing as well as recycling ( everything from building materials to clothes and household goods, etc. - never buy retail anything that we can find 'used' and haven't now for over two decades, learning about and using wood heat - purchased a soapstone wood heater two winters ago and use felled trees from our land - have saved
so much in electric and propane because of our wonderful and efficient wood stove.

Sleep on it..............

Craigslist has a pony/goat/turkey/lamb.....

You need to have a plan, and not be swayed from your plan. Cute, cheap, free, if it's not in the PLAN!!, skip it.

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I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.

knowing how to rip a chickens head off clean

I wanted a half way decent loaf of french bread. The stuff local is just a unsliced hunk of "wonder" bread. So I started baking. Long learning curve. Today my wheat bread and my sour dough are pretty good. Of course If I make bread I need to grind my own grain. So I might as well grow my own grain. If I grow grain I should try grains for my chickens. I still don't have a wheat crop, but the sorghum, dent corn and japanese barley are doing great. Ya well if I grow grain I'm going to need a sythe. Learning to sharpen and swing a sythe is an art in itself. Might as well try cutting some hay the $200.00 a ton make cutting hay a very lucrative exercise. Well down where I was cutting hay is the perfect spot for a few fruit trees. My folks got me peaches and nectarines and the local feed place had a half off sale, so I picked up an apple, a cherry, and a plum. Got them home only to find they each need a pollinator. So three more trees get added and suddenly I have an orchard. Well probably need some bees to help with the pollination. Need to learn to can all this stuff. So I have jam for my toast. Had to pay for all this so I started raising baby calves. Then I heard that goats milk is wonderful for sick calves. Bought my goats today, cute little Nubian's, Guess I need to build a milking barn, and learn to make cheese, and butter. Ya and down getting the goats they had rabbits and that got my mind buzzing. I really don't believe raising rabbit can be any harder than baking a simple loaf of bread!

Knowing that I can do anything I set my mind to. Even figuring how to do it on the cheap. I like quiet so I like real horsepower and hand tools, not power tools. I raise, grow, glean, barter, build and make almost everything I need. I learned young from Grandparents, parents and school. I have farmed cash crops, built houses, production welded and raised livestock. I hunt, fish, garden and glean from the fields and woods around me. I have always lived cheaply. Been doing this for 43 years. Most of all I am happy and content when I have had it all or just what I need. At this point in my life I don't need or want much....James

Gardening and Stubbornness.

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My How To blog - Happy Homesteading!

very well said!!! Would only add..... I thank God that He has gave me the good health all these years to be able to work and learn as I have. For me, my skill list would be:

Vet skills
butchering ablitilies (everything from rabbits to hogs)
food preservation (canning, dehydrating, smoking)
making soap and laundry products

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Stephanie

Wife, Mom to 4 ( 2 in Tn, 2 in Gloryland), caretaker of chickens, rabbits, kittys, 2 dogs, 2 milk goats, 2 jersey cows, and 1 messy house

What is TEOTWAWKI?

The end of the world as we know it.

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

I wouldn't put it at the top of the list, but being able to cut the kids hair (well enough that the other kids don't make fun of them!) is a pretty useful skill.

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

1. How to budget money, and stick with a budget.

Canning
Making home made bread, from wheatberries.
Drying herbs and storing them

Meal planning
How to collect rain water
Raised bed gardening

Raising chickens / goats
How to make soap

If I had it to do all over again with my kids?

They would have been in 4-H, every year, doing SOMETHING.
Less TV (and we didn't watch a lot of it)
Zero video games (They didn't get a system till they were 13ish)
They would have spent more time with their father learning how to fix mechanical things. (Cars, mowers, etc)

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

Being able to grill/bbq with charcoal and wood sure makes for some tasty meat!

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

The Kitchen. The number one thing most homesteaders are proud of saying is that they grow their own food. Which leads us to the kitchen, whether it's livestock, garden, dairy, etc it all ends up in the kitchen. Kitchen skills are an absolute must. But the kitchen never starts out in the kitchen it starts in the barn, garden and pastures. What you do with those animals, vegetables and such is determined by what you know how to do in the kitchen.

My favorite place on the whole farm is the kitchen, but only because I know that all that food I'm making came from the farm itself.

Your food can be as boring or as fancy as you like it if you know what to mix to make what and so on.

By being extremely knowledgeable of the internet. We have saved thousands during our ongoing remodel by using the internet for knowledge. I've logged many hours reading or watching videos or chatting with experts to getting recommendations for local trades people.

It has also been invaluable for fixing, building, farming, gardening, etc. information. I've used it to contact manufacturers when I've needed drawings for old tractors, mowers, etc. All have come through with top notch customer service. A G.E. engineer in Louisville explained to me on the phone about how to fix a wiring issue with our 1950's stove while I relayed the info to my husband as he worked on it. It had originally started out as an emailing session.

I send pictures of defective mechanical parts, boots, anything that has wore out before it should and have never had a problem getting anything replaced by the manufacturer. I have found many items via Craigslist, Ebay and the likes that we needed. We have used the same venues to sell stuff with great success.

I have found auctions, stockyards, private animal sales online. I could go on and on about how much it has helped us.

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frugaltable.com
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Living a rich life frugally....

Fixing things myself, except engines. From concrete to roofing and everything in between. You can save a bundle of money, if done properly.