As preppers and survivalists there are many skills we all should know. The challenge is trying to learn them. First we need the time to learn them, and then we need to have the materials to learn them. This may be anything from a book or youtube video. However it may require more effort such as finding classes at local community centers or wilderness survival schools or folk schools in your area.
Here are some of the skills that we think would be particularly useful post collapse:
1. Swim
2. Firebuilding
3. Gardening
4. Herbal Remedies
5. Home Brewing
6. Tanning
7. Curing/Smoking Meat
8. Soap making
9. Snaring and Trapping
10. Making activated Charcoal
11. Camping/Backpacking Skills
12. Basic Repairs (home, auto, equipment, ect)
13. HAM Radio
14. Self Defense
15. Firearms
16. Welding
17. Weaving/Basketry
18. Archery
19. Dehydrate Food
20. Cheese Making
21. Celestial Navigation
22. Compass Navigation
23. Tree/Firewood Cutting
24. Basic Masonry
25. Sewing
26. Knitting/Crocheting
27. Water Procurment/Purification
28. Escape and Evade Tactics
29. Camoflage
30. Canning
31. Basic Carpentry
32. Tracking
33. Use of Non Lethal Weapons (pepper spray, ect)
34. Basic Blacksmithing
35. Flintknapping
36. Basic First Aid/CPR
37. Bow and Arrow Construction
38. Basic Proficency with Primitive Weapons (spears, atlatl, slingshot, ect)
39. Hunting
40. Candle Making
41. Cooking without a Stove
42. Beekeeping
43. Rainwater Collection
44. Animal Husbandry
45. Make Charcloth
46. Basic Butchering
47. Fishing
48. Use Hand Tools
49. Knots
50. How to Make Cordage
There are the skills. We've started working on them. How about you? Have some other skills to add to the list? Put them in the comments. Its always great to have more things to learn!
~Sara
You posted canning and blacksmithing twice. I'm not sure if that was an accident or if you are trying to emphasize them. If you don't mind sharing what type of canning kit do you use? I'm trying to learn how to can and I'm looking for a good one that will last a long time. I have quite a few of this skills that will hopefully make me useful if/when the situation should arise. I'm always improving them though and trying to learn more. Thank you for the list.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, we did miss that. The problems of trying to compile multiple people's lists into one list. Whoops! :) We went through and figured out what was supposed to be there instead. It was cheese making and basketry, and I've corrected the list.
DeleteIf you're looking to start canning, I would suggest starting with water bath canning, because in general that is usually the easier type of canning to start with. For this you'll need canning jars (Ball's are usually the most common), and you'll need basic canning tools.
This will be a large pot, a canning rack at the very least, and I would recommend a canning jar lifter as well. All these things can be found separately, but you can also find canning kits which will include all three of these items, and depending on which one you get can include more canning utensils and even the canning jars.
My kit includes these three basic items, and the equipment was handed down to me through my mother, but I believe it comes from a Ball canning kit.
When your looking for items in canning, from jars to kits, Ball is generally a safe bet for the items you'll be looking for because if any company is synonymous with canning it would be them.
You can usually find the basic materials for canning in the kitchen area of stores like Walmart, Target, or Meijer. There will be a wider variety of products during autumn when people are preserving harvests from gardens.
Glad you liked the list and have fun trying out canning. If you have an questions feel free to ask. By no means am I an expert but if I can help I will.
~Sara