What's your most useful homesteading skill?

Stann · #41 07/26/11, 11:39 PM

How do I put this. Oh well... practice interrogation of people.

Hone the ability to obtain pertinent information from many, many people.

Who, what, when, where, how.

Even getting information from several people on the same topic has proven to be my most valuable homesteading skill.

Vickie44 · #42 07/27/11, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boiledfrog

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!

This is awesome ! and exactly how it works for me . I would say key is to not be afraid to try something

**highlands** · #43 07/27/11, 07:55 PM

Being able to learn any skill.

farmgirl6 · #44 07/28/11, 08:06 AM

making honey mead and fig wine

I do well with pulling sick milk calves and bringing them to adulthood, so far

Cheribelle · #45 07/28/11, 04:59 PM

My best "skill" is my attitude that if someone else can do it, I can too.
I can visualise and build, use power tools, use leftovers and "junk" for new purposes, and of course, supervise DH.

acde · #46 07/28/11, 08:52 PM

kindness-always be kind to people, you never know what they might be going through privately
teaching others to cook from scratch

blynn · #47 07/29/11, 01:23 AM

Shrek, thanks for the link on the worm house instructions. And thanks all for reminding me through your posts that I don't need to wait for my hubby to do something, I can just do it for myself. I am inspired by what you all can do.

Best skill I posess so far is cooking on a budget with a variety of styles. We have indian style, mexican, italian and many other style dishes in our house with regularity, depending on what is on sale or what's ready in the garden. Amazing what you can do with basics and a well stocked spice cupboard.

Mutti · #48 07/29/11, 12:17 PM

Most homesteads revolve around gardening and some type of livestock. So learning to grow things and build animal housing are really important skills. Then comes the rest...learning to can your harvest, butcher chickens, milk a goat or cow,use your dairy output, spinning/knitting. You need to sit down and decide which way you want to take your homestead....do you want to be tied to animals? Do you just want to garden and feed yourself healthier? You don't have to keep sheep to knit socks...patronize other homesteaders for their wool. We don't butcher chickens anymore...we have good neighbors who raise organic pastured poultry and we can't buy/produce them cheaper doing it ourselves. So we don't.

After 45 years of living the homestead life we've tried everything twice and now in our retirement years we've scaled back but the knowledge is something you can't loose or have taken from you. Harder times could have us ramping up again in all areas. DEE

watcher · #49 07/29/11, 03:35 PM

Being willing and able to admit my ignorance about something and learning what I need to no longer be ignorant. Plus being brave enough to put what I have learned (or tried to) into practice.

If you have that skill you can do just about anything.

Jolly · #50 07/29/11, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JenClen

My 2nd of 3 kids starts kindergarten this fall and I had been kicking around the idea of trying to learn something new. We're just getting started with our homestead and I was trying to come up with things that would be useful to know and nice not to have to pay someone else to do.

What do you use most on your homestead? Or what is something you wish you knew earlier?

Thanks for helping a newbie.

Money management and hard business sense.

SageLady · #51 07/29/11, 10:10 PM

My ability to budget, economize, repurpose, and make do.

Baking, cooking, canning, gardening, and all around good care of my animals.

Lucy · #52 07/29/11, 10:26 PM

Sewing, quilting, food preservation, cooking, shopping wisely. Thrift store bargains are fun.
I love making things myself.

Ken Scharabok · #53 07/29/11, 11:14 PM

An aside:

The Homesteaders' Lament:

Why is it I spend all my time doing a job I dislike to earn money to pay someone to do jobs I'd rather be doing for myself in the first place?