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

The myth of self-sufficiency

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Self-sufficiency is a dangerous myth. We need each other. Love your circle, cultivate it, and enlarge it. Share food you grow or make with your community, and encourage others in their food production activities. Community is never perfect and takes hard work, because people have such varied visions, ideas, and values. But do the hard work of finding common ground, and build community with the people around you.

While self-reliance, as I have said in writings many times before, is possible and desirable even (total) self-sufficiency is impossible and thus also a dangerous myth. Dangerous because some people believe that this can be achieved.

No man is an island.

The term self-sufficiency became used, I believe, as a substitute for self-reliance in the early days, such as in the early 1970s when Seymour and others wrote books on the subject of self-sufficiency. More or less it was an error in the choice of words. In due course, however, it was being adopted by other writers and advocates to mean not self-reliance but in actual fact self-sufficiency, of being able to do everything on one's own, not needing other people.

Even the Native Americans were not self-sufficient in that they, even as a band or tribe, would not do everything alone. They traded with others who had and made things that they did not make or have and the same goes for many other such indigenous peoples. For an individual or even a family total self-sufficiency, without trading with and getting help from other people is just not feasible, at least not in the long run.

Man was never entirely self-sufficient on his own. He always was in a group where some had skills that others did not have. No one can be a master of all trades, so to speak, and there are limits to what anyone, even as a nuclear family, can achieve.

Self-reliance is a different kettle of fish and that is achievable but it does not mean that you can do everything and live without the help and skills of others.

Why did I say that self-sufficiency is a dangerous myth and why call it dangerous?

It is a dangerous fallacy even to believe that anyone, on his or her own, or even in a small nuclear family, can be entirely self-sufficient. That, however, is a tale we are often being told by those who want to sell us this or that tool to make self-sufficiency easier for us. Hello! Let's try it again. Self-sufficiency cannot be achieved and all you do is throw your money at someone who is just out to make a buck to your detriment.

As said, we can be self-reliant and live with less, much less, but we cannot be ever entirely self-sufficient all on our own. You can have a self-sufficient – or almost self-sufficient – settlement or village but self-sufficiency for an individual or a family is something that is not attainable and the belief that it I can lead to fatal consequences. Hence me saying that it is a dangerous myth.

© 2015

Independence comes through making things

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Independence, true independence, comes about through making things, growing things and doing things for ourselves (and our community).

This is more than simple self-reliance and self-sufficiency. It is total self-empowerment and brings about independence.

The Mahatma said something along those self-same lines when he was leading his beloved India to home rule.

However, modern India has lost the course and is now making goods – as slaves almost – for the West rather than the way it should be, for its own people and is, once again, importing some consumer goods from elsewhere. But I digressed.

None of us are truly free and independent, as individuals and as people, if we do not have the chances and possibilities to make things, to grow things and to do things for ourselves (our community). We are but wage slaves and slaves to the system and to governments which lord it over us.

Often those that lord it over us are not even our own governments but unelected entities in foreign lands, as in the case of the European Union, the rising fascist European superstate, where unelected bureaucrats, who are accountable to no one, decide what we may or may not do, what crops we may or may not plant, etc.

Not that the USA and its people are any better off than those in Britain or elsewhere in the European Union when it comes to government meddling in what people are permitted to do for themselves.

The people can never be free and independent unless they can produce and grow what they want and to do things for themselves and able to, thus, participate in the market and run their own lives. Production must be local and primarily for the local community first and foremost and carried out by local people.

Even, or especially, in the majority the so-called free and democratic countries, and especially in Britain and the EU and in the USA, countries that claim to be the bulwark of freedom and democracy, people are not permitted to be free and independent as they need to be and should be.

While you may be able to make and produce a variety of things when it comes to selling craftspeople, etc., find restrictions and the need for government permits and licenses (and they cost money) and this even more so for smallholders and other growers. In addition to the the latter, now, since EU regulations put in place in late Spring 2013, can also no longer grow, and that even applies to home growers who only grow produce for home consumption, what they want and must use ONLY EU approved seeds and plant materials. Old varieties are are illegal to use and possess and the saving of seeds and the exchange between friends even also falls foul of those regulations. Tell me again how free we are!?!

this means that, to all intents and purposes, government controls what we may do, make and produce, grow and sell and even eat, and as regards to doing things for ourselves.

It is basically, in most EU countries at least, illegal to even consider using force to protect yourself, your family and your property and especially if you consider using any kind of weapon for this purpose. If you, for instance, are threatened by an assailant with a knife and you beat him with a stick (which you may have carried for defensive purposes) it will be you who ends up in court charged with a crime and not the punk you attacked you.

But, relying, as you are told to do, on the police to come to your aid – after he knifed you – is also not going to work as it is no longer officially, though the people were not told, the task of the police to protect (and serve) the public but to enforce the laws laid down (by the powers-that-be). Sorry, but would you ming mentioning again how free we are?

We need to change the system, not the government (in fact, the latter needs to be abolished) if we ever, as people, want to be free and independent and not slaves.

© 2013

Grow your own – An act of defiance

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing your own, as well as making your own, are acts of true (non-violent) resistance and will really upset the applecart – even if you don't grow apples in your garden.

When you grow at least some of your own things and make many of the things that you want and need yourself you take away many of the measures of control from the government and the powers-that-be.

This is true even more so when you do things for yourself also on other levels and, maybe, even can get others to do the same, as individuals, families and groups.

This, however, tends to scare the proverbial excrement out of the powers-that-be and they will go to all manner of lengths to suppress such acts of defiance of the system, as they see it, is not even as terrorism.

Yes, as acts of terrorism for they even likened thriftiness not so long ago as “acts of domestic terrorism” as those that do not spend, spend, and spend even some more, in order for us to spend our way out of the recession, as just that... domestic terrorists, as they are not supporting the economy.

People who can, and are prepared to, provide for themselves, their families, and their communities, are but an anathema to the powers-that-be. They do not fit into the plan (of total control). Where would the world and the economy come to if everyone would be able to provide for themselves, their families and, maybe, even for their communities? The system would (as it should) collapse.

One of the greatest acts of defiance this is as in doing so we basically tell the government and the powers-that-be to “shove it”.

The most dangerous sentence one can ever hear is” “I am from the government and I am here to help you”. It does not mean what most people seem to think that it does but government interference as soon as the “help” is accepted.

Grow your own, make your own, and do things for yourself, including foraging and be as self-reliant as possible, as individuals, groups and communities. It reduces your reliance on the system and thus gets you away from the control mechanism of the powers-that-be.

Government is doing all that it can, though, to some degree disguised, to stop you from being self-reliant, especially in the food department. It is not in their interest, whatever they may claim, and in some places it is being made quite obvious with the banning of people gardening as regards to the growing of vegetables, of food, rainwater harvesting, and doing things for themselves up to and including homeschooling.

In Britain, and many other European countries, we can still count ourselves lucky, compared to the USA and Canada, in that respect, as far as the gardening is concerned (and also homeschooling in Britain), as we are actively being encouraged to grow our own food, harvest rainwater, and such. Albeit with restrictions as to what seeds we can use and therefore what food we can grow by the European Union. Thriftiness, on the other hand, and total self-reliance is an anathema to the governments here as well, it would seem.

When we grow our own stuff, make our own things, etc. we throw a seriously large spanner into the works of government control. Self-reliance is a powerful statement especially if we do as much as possible ourselves. Growing your own is but a part of it, though a significant part.

© 2013

Up until the 1920s, most Americans were almost self-sufficient

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Up until around the 1920s, most Americans were almost self-sufficient, and if not self-sufficient then at least self-reliant.

They made their own clothes, grew their own food and bought very little. They were producers and rather than consumers. And this is true also in other countries, such as Britain, Germany, Australia.

This, however, changed in the 1920s, when the growth of capitalism had created large corporations that could no longer prosper simply from World War I production, as the war was now over. They needed Americans, and all those others, to become consumers. And the rest, as they so often say, is history.

Advertising and marketing brainwashed the majority over time that they needed all those goods made by those corporations to be happy and contend and to live a real fulfilled life.

Before that there was also a totally different mindset, one of make do and mend and of making as much as possible for yourself.

It was also just after that time that big government began to enter the scene and people were brainwashed into demanding that government did this and that for them and, again, the corporations had their hands in the game here by lobbying and – more than likely – buying representative left right and center in the same way as they still do today.

People were thrifty back then and relied on themselves, and probably their neighbors, rather than on any government agency and life was still good back then, even though money was thin on the ground for many. In some places this life continued until about the advent of Second World War. After that nothing was the same again, not in the USA and neither in Europe.

And, talking about World War Two; that one started also, basically, because the corporations were looking for ever greater profit and knew that a war, especially a nice big global one, could guarantee them that for the stuff they could sell the people just did not generate enough profits for them.

And it was during and after the Second World War that the chemical industry went wild with all the fertilizers that were so good for us in that we could be producing so much more food and the mechanization of agriculture for the same reason.

No one, however, was looking at the fact that the use and the overuse of such chemicals destroys the soil structure and thus the fertility of the soil. While such fertilizers may be food for the plants they leach nutrients from the soil and more and more fertilizer is required to keep the results coming. More profits for the chemical corporations, obviously. And that is the very reason that they kept people in the dark and continued with the marketing ploys in the same way as genetically engineered foods are now being promoted. And that by the self-same companies, with Monsanto in the forefront.

They did the same with almost forcing us all to eat margarine, a chemical product, basically, that was originally, amongst other things, invented as (axle) grease for wagons and vehicles in World War One. The medical profession was convinced by the research that was, supposedly, backing up the claims of margarine (and its derivatives) being better for us than butter. Now we have come full circle back to the real stuff that is butter. And we now know how dangerous Saccharine and Aspartame are. But I digressed.

Before the 1920s and even the very early 1930s when most people in America and in other countries still were almost, if not entirely, self-sufficient the run on the resources did not exist and it would have never come to the state that we are in today had common sense prevailed and we continued to live in moderation, and that despite the fact that the world's population has risen.

People made their own clothes, as said, and other things and reused and repurposed everything until it not longer could be used and reused. No glass jar was thrown away and they were used for many different purposes and every scrap of paper was used. Food waste was almost unheard off and even that which was not fir for human consumption went to feed the animals and or the plants, later, when rotted down, by way of compost.

Everything was repairable and was fixed, often at home by means of DIY, because it could be done. In general things were only thrown into the trash when they no longer could be fixed or when there was absolutely no reuse possible for them. Today things get tossed after a very short time simply because a new version or whatever is about and the money is there also to buy new. And, if you are thrifty and don't throw away and mend and make do with what you have and reuse and upcycle, and don't spend money all the time you are, by the governments especially considered a domestic terrorist even as you are not helping the economy to grow.

Economic growth is not possible on a Planet whose non-renewable resources are finite and almost exhausted and we need to look at a new form of economy, one not based on constant growth.

The most important thing, for us and the Planet, is that we all learn (again) to live within our means and the means of Mother Earth and that means to go back to the ways of the old ones, before 1920, and live a life that is more self-reliant than today, by making things ourselves, growing our own food, and by living and working in a different way.

The good thing is that it can be done and that we all can be part of this and we can do things for ourselves. Each and everyone can do his or her little bit and the changes would be tremendous, regardless of whether we live in the city or the countryside.

First of all get rid of the brainwashing device called a television. Don't just unplug it and use it less; get rid off it. Turn on the good old radio, or wireless, as they call it in Britain, read a book, a real book.

If you really must keep up to date with TV then on the Internet you can watch television on demand and chose the channels and programs that you want to watch for their quality, as long as you have a fast enough connection. You also get less in the way of commercials that way and thus less brainwashing.

As nowadays in most cases there is no longer any analog television but only satellite and cable, which costs a good deal too, you will also save a great deal of money if you cut this umbilical cord. And you can use that saved money to either get a better Internet connection or use it for other things.

Use and reuse, upcycle, make things yourself as much as possible, live more locally, and that includes buying things from local sources.

Every little step helps to make our world better and will help us to preserve the Planet and also make our lives better by way of quality. Grown your own food and eat this and food from (other) local growers and let us slowly get back to the good life.

© 2013

Beat inflation with cultivation

Grow food, save money, plant a garden today

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Planting a vegetable garden and growing your own food is, first of all, very satisfying and in addition to that it also gives you homegrown great tasting food and saves you money.

A garden can be grown in even the smallest spaces and although you may not feed an entire family from what you can grow in a few containers it, nevertheless, can help.

While every vegetable garden should be planned and designed if you have but little space this becomes more important still. The choice of what to grow also then is very important indeed.

When there is but little space do not bother about the crops that you can buy cheaply but concentrate on what you like to eat that sets you back more that, say, potatoes.

If you have half-an-acre or more to play with then, obviously, you can grow almost everything that you may like to grow and which you and your family like to eat.

While this what I am going to suggest here now might sound to some people rather strange but remember that there are many so-called weeds out there that are edible and the growing of which does not require many resources as they tend to look after themselves and do multiply nicely by themselves.

If you like rocket for your salads then I suggest that you consider, deliberately, the growing of dandelion. Not only are the (young) leaves great in salad and are better than rocket the older leaves also can be used like spinach and are a great addition to pasta.

Another such great “weed” is wood sorrel or common sorrel and this plant is basically a cut and come again spinach. As it contains oxalic acid, however, not too large quantities of those leaves should be consumed raw. Cooking, like spinach, or for use with pasta, neutralizes the acid and renders it harmless.

I have begun to plant edible wild plants, weeds to the ordinary gardener, deliberately simple for the reason that they do not need much care and, in most cases, are also shade tolerant, drought tolerant, etc., and thus crop failures are very rare. Also, I don't have to pay for seeds or plants for those. I just relocate them.

The local park, which is my place of work, in 2012 when they were going to seed, saw almost all seed stalks of the sorrel plants walk out aided and abetted by people who, obviously, decided that they were going to grow them in their gardens as vegetable. The great majority of the people that took bunches of the seed heads were of the Asian or Eastern European communities, and the know a thing or two about such wild edibles for sure.

There are many ways to grow a garden and I have no intention to repeat what others have already written. There are enough good books about on that subject and the latest that covers about everything possible is “Backyard Farming on an acre (more or less)” by Angela England.

However, very few ever suggest the growing of wild edibles and that is why I have done so here.

In addition to the two types that I have listed so far there are “Fat Hen”, aka “Lambs Quarter”. Then there is chickweed, purslane and many others. All of which are edible in many ways and have greater nutritional value than many a cultivated plant. Not to be forgotten shall be the humble stinging nettle which, too, can be cooked as a green vegetable, in the style of spinach, but which also makes for a great tea.

Now, dig that soil...

© 2013