10 Lost Skills Worth Finding & Learning

You can listen to this in podcast form here: 10 Lost Skills Worth Finding & Learning


There's nothing new under the sun, so this notion of "prepping" or being self-sufficient isn't new either. Chances are, if you could talk to your great-great grandparents and tell them that you were a prepper, then explain what that meant, they'd look at you like you were crazy! 

What we call prepping or being self- sufficient is what they called living. Getting ready for the winter, storing up food for the hard times, investing in new better equipment to get the job done a little more efficiently...all of this was just day to day stuff. Somewhere along the line, and with each new invention, we lost skills that used to be vital for day to day life. 

Could you hunt down, kill, butcher and cook an animal? I'm not talking a huge cow or even a goat, but what about a rabbit, squirell or deer? Chances are one of your grandparents could. If you come from pioneering stock, chances are your grandmother knew, by memory, how to cook that wild game numerous ways depending on what she had in the larder and root cellar to go along with it. Because she was prepared! Because she put food by! Because they knew if they didn't put somehting aside during the fat times, no one would come along and save them when things ran short in the lean times. 
The worst part of being the society that we are now, is that skills that we would have learned at our mother's or father's knees we're having to search out and learn on our own. We aren't learning what we should be and skills that could be vital to our well being we don't have. 

Here's a list of skills I think are not only important to learn, but also fun as well.

1) Learn to bake bread. Sure, you can teach yourself to bake bread, but learning from someone who makes bread that you like is so much easier. There are little pieces of breadbaking skills that you can't get from a book, it's more about texture and feel and just knowing when something is right. Find someone who knows how to bake and help them, have them teach you and most importantly watch them and ask questions. Then, go home and practice, again and again if necessary, until you get it right. Practice making bread with yeast and then learn to make a sourdough starter, and learn to bake bread with that. 

2) Learn to cook over various forms of heat. Let's face it- the electricity may not always be on for a variety of reasons and knowing you aren't dependent on it to cook a meal is going to feel really good when you need it. Learn to cook over wood, charcoal, propane, in a solar oven, etc. Our pioneering ancestors cooked their way across the prairie and we should know how to make a meal, too!

3) Learn to process small animals and fish. Could you catch, gut and cook a trout? A rabbit? Would you know how to make one into a palatable meal? Our grandmothers could process small game and they knew, by memory, several recipes to use the animal in depending on what they had available in the larder and root cellar. 

4) Learn to make soap. We need to stay clean and making soap can be an important part of that. Learn to make soap NOW and then you can play around with learning to make lye from wood ash and water and how to cook it over an open fire. Plus, soapmaking is VERY fun!

5) Learn to wash and dry clothes outdoors and indoors with out using electricity. It's harder than you think and might be essential in your future. Take the time to become proficient at it- you'll probably never need to know how.....but if you do, you'll be ready! 

6) Basic and advanced first aid, using plants and natural resources whenever possible. It's a great idea to know how to find what you need to take care of illness, scrapes and other first aid issues. Our ancestors could do it and we should know how to as well. It's just smart! 

7) Learn to garden. 'Cause food doesn't just appear in the fridge, it has to be grown. If grocery stores just up and disappeared, where would you get your food? Learn to garden now, when you have a plethora of resources and people to help you.

8) Learn as many ways of preserving food as possible. SMoking, salting, canning, dehydrating, pickling, fermenting- don't just count on knowing one way. Try them all! You may find new (old) ways of doing something that you like better than how you're preserving them now!

9) Learn basic sewing skills. Can you sew on a button? Do you know how to fix a rip or tear? You should! Basic sewing is just handy knowledge now, but in an emergency situation, it could mean the difference between wearing mended clothes and rags.   

10) Building a fire.  Everyone should be able to start a fire. Whether for cooking or warmth, we should all know how to build a fire in the all 4 seasons. Learn the difference between tinder, kindling and firewood. Learn how much wood it actually takes to boil water, or how much it takes to keep a fire burning through a chilly night. It's an essential skill.

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