Disappearing Skills



I don't know beans about beans!  I learned much more than that the first year we put in a garden here.  In all honestly, most folks don't know about them, especially people my age.  I remember Becky and I both laughing when we realized we never knew what a potato plant looked like before that first garden.  We had never seen the top half of a potato plant before.  It's sad to say, but we really didn't know anything about how to grow them what the plant looked like or anything.  Most people in this country don't know about them either I'd venture to say. 

I'm trying to learn more and more skills all of the time, but The more I read, and the more self-sufficient I try to be, the more skills I realize I lack.  What skills am I speaking of?  I'm talking about what should be basic life skills.  I'm talking about things like planting a garden, preserving the harvest, catching a fish, gutting a deer, pruning fruit trees, making apple cider, making sauerkraut, making pickles, baking bread and many, many, many more skills that were once common knowledge in this country.  There are still people out there who possess these skills, but most of them aren't under the age of sixty I'd bet.  I know that my grandparents still can things, mostly tomato juice, I think, but they possess the skills to do so if they please.  This was the first year that Becky or I had ever canned anything.  We bought and studied the Ball Home Preserving book and then just jumped right in.  We made and canned homemade jam, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, green beans, salsa, strawberries in syrup, and chicken stock.  Not a lot, but it was a start and I'm happy with how our first attempts went.  

Some things I've learned by reading and researching, but other things I've learned by watching my dad and grandpa work.  My dad has taught me about doing business with people.  He's taught me countless other things that, as I write this at almost one in the morning, don't even come to mind at the moment.  My grandpa recently taught me some fishing tricks that really made a difference in catching pan fish (I've already passed this knowledge onto our boys).  I'll continue to keep watching and learning from those two.  I remember my dad saying about his dad that "The older I get the smarter my dad gets."  I'm finding that to be pretty darn true.

I don't know about you, but as I step back and look at the economic climate of this country and the world around us, it does not make me feel real confident about a whole lot.  With our government taking control of more and more parts of our economy, I for one am determined to take control of more and control of my own life.  I'm not trying to sound like a Henny Penny and declare that the "sky is falling", but the government is taking control of more and more parts of our lives.  They just took over health care, they've taken over banks, they've bought huge portions of American industry (General Motors and Chrysler), they just signed a House bill that gives the FDA a lot more power over our food system (I'll post more about the bill that gives the FDA control over our food later on).  I don't trust 'em.  We all sit around and complain about how broken the government is and how corrupt our politicians are, but yet for some reason we have allowed them to have a ton of power regulating food and health care.  I don't trust 'em.  I'll grow my own food thank you very much.  More and more we just assume that our food we'll be in the grocery.  We assume that our water will be coming out of the faucet when we turn it on.  We assume that the propane man will show up to fill our tanks.  But what happens if they don't? What happens if the food isn't in the store? What happens if they water isn't coming out of the faucet?  I'm not calling for or predicting the collapse of our infrastructures, but what if?  It seems very foolish to me to take all of this for granted.  It seems foolish and sad to me that most people my age don't have the first clue how to grow a garden and preserve it for winter time use.  Herrick Kimball, a man who's blog I follow, once wrote that he doesn't want to be a "helpless man".  He says that he tries to teach his kids life skills because when they grow up they won't want to be "helpless men".  I don't want to be a "helpless man" either.  I want to be an old timer in young man's clothing. 

I'm sorry if all of that was just rambling and perhaps scattered.  My thoughts are a little unorganized at this second because there is more in my head than I can get onto the screen, but I think you get the point.  As for me and my house we will serve the Lord and we'll try to take care of ourselves and not rely on the system.