So Im talking to my buddies at work.
I say words to the effect" I'll teach my boys how to use a map and compass". They look at me like I have two heads... Makes me think of a time when my buddy and I were hunting. We were Leapfrogging every 75-100 yds . Working our way through the bush., We RV and take a water break. We go to move again, he looks at his GPS unit, its pointing "north" when we are actually facing south. ( I gather this technology requires the user to move so as to recalculate position directions etc...)
Is there a skill that you will pass on to your kin? Something that people think is obsolete?
Mine: map and compass work.
Yours?
Thanks The Beav.
I think that reading maps and compass work are fabulous skills to pass on to your kids. I plan to do the same and they have had some instruction already. My skill to pass on are any that I can manage to teach them in the time I have with them that do NOT rely on technology. I don't want to teach them one skill, but many, such as:
producing their own food
foraging and edible plant identification
fishing (for food)
archery
slingshot
knitting
candle-making
making lean-tos and shelters
I guess if i had to pick the most important ones on the list, they would be the skills of finding water and food and producing shelter, so that if their BOL was compromised and all of their stuff taken, they could still survive.
I agree with the list started thus far.
But I'm surprised no one mentioned alternative Fire-starting techniques, e.g. reflector, lens, bow, etc, or tool making, e.g. making an improvised knife, spear or bow and arrow.
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Is what you say worth at least a Canadian nickel now?
Cause two cents ain't worth squat anymore !
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Self-sufficient is good. Co-efficient is better.
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All those skills I'd like to learn
Want to see the future, past or the unknown? Learn to be psychic. Ask me how!
A good time to invest in spf3000 if you live on the NK penninsula.
Oh November 17, how I fear thee...
My kids will be learning how to snare rabbits and squirrels soon as well as using some back very old looking leg hold traps. I loved doing it as a kid and it was well worth knowing how to do well; it is also very cheap to get into. Also the typical shooting of a .22lr rifle at both targets and ruffed grouse and spruce grouse. My reasoning is, if you can hit the head of a chick at 25 to 40 yards, you will not have much problem with rabbits, squirrels and the many other easy to get critters in the bush and in the open.
The miss and I both garden and can, and this is awesome that my daughter loves to help out. Can't wait till my son gets a little older. We also will be picking more fiddleheads and morel mushrooms as they are always pretty abundant in this area as well as the famous pine needle tea and perhaps how to make a tasty maple sap drink or what I still need to learn in spruce sap drinks.
In point form my list is
- Snaring rabbits and squirrels
- Shooting rifles, bows, slingshots
-gardening and canning
- picking wild foods, fiddle heads, morels, wild berries, other
- fishing with no rods, with rods, and with gill nets, all both summer and winter
- collecting rain water
- how to build stuff with hands, wood, metal ect.
- how to find good stuff for free
My main goal is to in still a sense that knowledge is power and there are always things that are worth learning, even the old, even the new. To always question things around them and not to always accept how things appear to be or how people say they are or should be. How olders live in other far away lands, living with much much less and what is most important to them day by day.
Never underestimate the power of free! If someone has deemed something valueless, yet U see value in it; Then you've already made a profit and savings!
Nothing particularly strange to this skill but my kids do not take a strong interest in horses but have learned the basics of handling horses and their care , growing up on our farm . I am going to push to teach them a bit more riding skills while we have the opportunity. Just in case.
mine would be how to 'use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.'
my eldest has, since he was seven, darned his own knitted(by him) socks, sweaters, hats & mitts.
he's since learned to spin yarn, after seeing me do it. and he's keen on finding out how to ret fiber plants for spinning.
every chance i get, i point out plants, what they're good for, how to cook it, even some medicinals.
he's surprised me with what he's learned on his own.
he's good at fishing, gutting/cleaning his catch.
I think he'll do well.
but the lessons aren't over!