Learn a new skill every week

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

OK, a little late as a New Year's resolution but...

For anyone wanting to become more self-reliant – notice that I rarely use the word self-sufficient, as true self-sufficiency just is not possible – skills are what count and not a huge amount of supplies, even not in the event of an Apocalypse and such. It is skills that will see you through when everything else fails and has failed. And, for goodness sake, don't believe the idiots trying to sell you silver and gold coins as something that will get you buy in such events. Then again it is not – just – for those events you should learn skills and perfect your skills.

If you would try to learn one new skill per week then that would make fifty-two per year and even if it is not one every week but one every fortnight or even if only one a month, but then thoroughly. Skills – and knowledge – are what is going to get you and yours through a crisis or simply making your life better where you are by being able to do things that otherwise you may have to pay for.

It is true that you can and will unlike become a master every skill that you may need but at least you can become a master in a couple and proficient in a fair number more.

One of the most important skills, and so many no longer seem to be capable of it, is cooking from scratch. I know to many reader that would be obvious but for some people simply boiling an egg seems rocket science nowadays let alone cooking anything else that isn't just ready to go into the microwave. Some cookery programs not so long ago actually stated with teaching people how to – no, not a joke – boil water, followed then by how to boil an egg. When people need to be taught how to boil a saucepan with water then the world definitely has lost the plot and relearning of skill definitely is called for.

Another important skill, if I may call it that way, is, in my opinion, making do and mending, and just simply making do with what one has, and making things one may need from scratch and scrap. Into that category should also fall reusing, repurposing and upcycling of waste materials, such as glass jars, tin cans, plastic bottles, etc. While some of it should come natural, with some imagination, it would appear that many today, however, need instructions for anything in that department, though.

Obviously, there are many skills that you may want to have and learn but starting easy is the best option and the skills themselves are legion so listing all of them would fill a book, without even going into detail.

Woodworking on a number of levels, from making simple items, over carving spoons and other treen, to making furniture if a valuable skill set to have but it is not learned over night.

Textile crafts: Now this encompasses anything really from mending clothes up to and including of making your own clothes and even your own cloth. It also includes crochet and knitting.

Metal working: This could be anything from sheet metal working – a great way of converting tin cans into something new – to full blacksmithing and anything and everything in between.

Leather working: This is another one of those skills that you may, more or less, definitely want to learn as the making of leather items are not only useful for you as useful things but those items can also become an income. In the main it is akin to sewing only with a difference but if you can sew running stitch then you can also work in leather. Theoretically the stitch is a different one but, personally, I just use the running stitch, then reversed, and the process repeated.

This list could go on ad infinitum (almost) as there are so many skills that would and could be worth learning and learning to do them is one thing, mastering them an entirely different story, though. So, let's go and try to learn as many skills as possible and then go onto trying to master them as far as possible.

© 2018

Older people teach young ones traditional skills at GrandFest

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Older people led masterclasses in skills such as dressmaking and bread-making at GrandFest, a one-day festival in east London.

Thousands of people came together for GrandFest on June 18, 2017 to celebrate the knowledge held by older people and to learn skills that organizers say are becoming less common.

Now in its third year, the event hosted more than twenty classes at restaurants, pubs and shops around Spitalfields Market. Each class was run by a festival GrandMaker – all of whom are over 70 – and skills included quilting, wood turning and cider making.

It is very important to pass on the older traditional skills that are disappearing and there are so many old and traditional skills that are going that way and which also may be needed more than ever in the future, in the post-carbon world.

Even cooking from scratch, let alone brad making, including and especially sour dough bread, are skills that are fast disappearing. Others have almost gone entirely and many are going if they are not being passed on. That is why festivals such as this one are so very important.

Often such events are held in rural locales and while they need to be held and taught there as well for even in the countryside the old countryside skills are being slowly lost they also must be held in towns and cities and that also more often.

It is extremely important to pass on the older skills to a younger generation, and especially the young generation, as most are rapidly disappearing (the skills, not the younger generation) and many are already lost or almost lost.

In a time not so long ago those skills would have been, automatically almost, passed on from father and grandfather to son and grandson, and from mother and grandmother to daughter and granddaughter. But this has all but disappeared. Not because the young people are not interested but because the older folks think that they are not interested, or that the skills are no longer of any (practical) use.

The festival was hosted by older people's charity the Royal Voluntary Service, which helps more than 100,000 people each month connect with others and keep active.

As I said already, however, we need more of those festivals, fairs or whatever we may wish to call them, and that everywhere, as much as in towns as in rural locales. Even in the countryside many of the old skills are diminishing and are becoming lost as the old practitioners die and have no one to pass the skills on to.

And, in addition to that, we need grandparents to pass skills on to their grandchildren. Young children are generally very receptive and willing to learn and it will be much better for them to learn such skills that may come in rather handy, especially in the post-carbon world into which we are headed, than to play around on their PC, tablet or smartphone, engaging in useless games and other activities.

Introduce them, for instance, to gardening and you will be surprised how eager they will be to do it and to learn. The same goes for cooking, for woodcarving, leather working, and many other old – and not so old, even – skills and crafts.

© 2017

The Ultimate Guide to Old-Fashioned Country Skills – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The Ultimate Guide to Old-Fashioned Country Skills
Edited by Abigail R. Gehring
Published by: Skyhorse Publishing (5 Aug. 2014)
Just under 800 pages, Paperback, 5.7 x 21.6 x 27.9 cm
ISBN 978-1629142166
List Price: US$ 24.95

Here is how the publishers introduce the book:

Whether you’re a suburbanite looking to live more simply or a die-hard homesteader interested in taking your garden to the next level, this guide is packed with step-by-step instructions, useful tips, vintage photographs and illustrations, and time-honored wisdom – creating one of the most comprehensive books on country skills available. This book is compiled of tested and practical experience passed down from generations of farmers and homesteaders.

Here readers can learn about:

• Creating a vegetable garden
• Canning and preserving
• Keeping poultry
• Soap making
• Natural medicine
• Bridge building
• Farm mechanics
• Crop rotation
• Cattle and dairying
• The basics of beekeeping
• Foraging for wild food
• Fertilizing, soils, drainage, and irrigation
• Building a barn

And much, much more!

Success comes to the person who works the most efficiently – not simply the person who works the hardest. Learn invaluable advice and tips for how to create a sustainable lifestyle and live off the land.

And now let's come to my take on this publication:

I must say that I was not prepared for the size of this book. When it arrived I thought that the book had been over-packaged as Amazon tends to do as I had expected it to be a much smaller book. That, however, I am afraid, is about the only positive thing one can say about this book really.

What we have here is an almost 800 page letter format book filled with pages culled from old books such as “Good Housekeeping Family Cook Book” from 1909, “Carpentry” from 1916, “Fences, Gates and Bridges”, edited by George A Martin (no date), “Shelters, Shacks and Shanties” (1920), “The Amateur Carpenter” (1915), etc., and while it is quite useful, maybe, to have important extracts from such old books in one volume the cover did suggest a book of much greater interest, something more modern, and not something rather edited together from books, some of which are out of copyright. Please note that I say that some of those books are out of copyright here deliberately as some of those books of which extracts have been used, such as “Shelters, Shacks and Shanties” have not so long ago been republished and thus are, once again, under copyright protection.

At a price of almost US$ 25 for information and instructions, alas the pictures are so small in most instances that they are of no use at all, that can today be gathered together on the Internet I, as a reviewer and writer, can but despair at the audacity.

Never judge a book by its cover the old adage goes and in this instance it is more than true. The cover also never indicated that it was a book that was edited together out of stuff culled from other books but list the editor, as does Amazon, as the author, as it simply says “by Abigail R. Gehring” and not “edited by Abigail R. Gehring”, as it should in this case. Thus the cover and the publicity coverage about this book is misleading as, as said already, the cover promised a book of a much different nature and one that one hoped was actually written by someone with knowledge on the subjects and not culled from books by other authors, even though the books and authors are mentioned.

All I can say in summing up this book and my take on it, though it will neither make me very popular with the, well I cannot call her the author, nor the publishers, that it is a shame that so much paper has been wasted on this book. But, even though I will not be very popular after this in certain quarters it is not my business to ingratiate myself with publishers or authors, editors, writers, but to present to my audience the truth.

Had I bought this book and not received it as a review copy I would certainly not be very happy at all and would have been felt misled by the cover and the write up concerning the book.

Let's just leave it at that, I think...

© 2015

The sickle

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A good old-fashion sickle, sharp and perfectly weighted, is a tool just made for the job of clearing vegetation from around the trees. It given the user total control and thus does not damage the bark of the tree as often does the use of a powered grass trimmer (strimmer) and requires no guards to be placed around the trees either.

Using a good hand tool is all about letting the tool do the work. Despite the obvious strain on the back, using a sickle is very therapeutic and far more eco-friendly (and quieter) than a machine. In fact, many organizations are starting to realize the advantages of working this way.

The scythe, too, is making a comeback in countryside management, and so it should. The billhook is another one of those tools that just cannot be beat when working in the management of woodlands and the countryside.

Even when it comes to felling in small woodland management operations the crosscut saw, one man or two man, will still, with the exception of the sneding of the branches, often beat the chainsaw and especially as far as noise and other pollution is concerned.

The design of the sickle, basically, has changed little since the Middle Ages and even before, though many different kinds for different purposes, much like with the billhook and the scythe, can be had. The principle, however is and remains the same. The differences are things such as sweep and curve of the blade or serrations on them, such as some of the Indian and Japanese ones have.

The good thing about a sickle is that it does not require much tuition to use it, more intuition, unlike the scythe, which does need a little skill that needs acquiring so as not to injure oneself (or others). Even the billhook requires more acquired skill than dos the sickle. Keeping it sharp, in the same was as with regards to the billhook and the scythe, is a different kettle of fish and that does take some learning.

The sickle can be used for many cutting tasks from cutting away vegetation from around trees and here especially saplings without the risk, unless one is not careful, of cutting them off or damaging them, as is often the case with the use of a strimmer, to harvesting standing crops. And, before the advent of the scythe that was what the sickle in many a form was used for also.

I, for one, love using these tools, a real link to the history of countryside workers, as they are effective and also efficient and require little to no real maintenance, other from sharpening and keeping them clean.

© 2013