7. Horseback Riding
This may not seem like much of a survival skill, but in the Old West, stealing a man’s horse was a hanging offense. That’s because being stranded without a horse was generally a death sentence. While horseback riding today is only done for sport, if the automobile becomes no longer usable, people will be looking for horses once again.
Riding a horse is actually more complicated than the movies make it appear. Breaking a horse is a skill that few know. Likewise, there are few today, outside of the drivers for the Budweiser Clydesdales, who know how to hitch and drive a team of horses. But in America’s past, our ancestors drove teams with as many as 40 horse or mules in them.
8. Basic Carpentry
Everyone should know how to make basic repairs to their home. Without the ability to repair damage from a natural disaster, it might not be possible to use the home as a survival shelter. Woodworking skills also allow one to make furniture and other items to help survive.
9. Repairing and mending
We are a society that consumes without thinking and this trend is aggressively promoted by the media. Your great-grandparents didn’t let anything go to waste, not even a beat-up pair of jeans and it was a common practice for every other article of clothing they owned. Mending clothes was part of a woman’s chores and they took pride when restoring the favorite clothes of their loved ones. It wasn’t only about clothes, it was about anything that can be fixed or patched up, and it was a sustainable way of living. These are skills that someday might come in handy and you should be able to know how to fix the things you need. When was the last time you fixed something? If you can’t remember it, you’re probably not the handyman type.
10. Milking a cow
This one might not seem like a big deal, but it’s amazing how many people today don’t know the right way to milk a cow. It takes more than just pulling on the nipples. You’ve actually got to first close off the nipple with the thumb and forefinger to keep the milk from flowing up into the udder, and then squeeze the nipple to force out the milk.
source: OffTheGridNews
10??
Sorry. 10 didn’t load the first time. BTW I can do all of those things. We raised and milked dairy goats for 10 years and had chickens, rabbit and ducks. I also patch the patches on my husbands overalls. All things that most people don’t do anymore. I also had to darn socks when I was young.
So thankful that I can honestly say we know all of these skills and can add a couple more to the list. It’s been a long learning curve but well worth the journey.
Know and do every one of these except black smithing…and my husband knows that.
You can add ‘sewing and mending’. People don’t know the basics of that any more.
So true.
I like that addition. One can add making sundries: soap, toothpaste, deodorant alternatives, shampoo, laundry and household soaps, medicinal alternatives, starchs, and there are many more. Then there are many alternative Pantry Items to be explored Examples are yeast, startch, soup bases, dehydration of “leftovers and foods/nuts/fruit. The list is vast. .
Friend still makes her own (goats milk) soap, lotions, bath bombs, laundry soap, lip balm, salves for everthing, cans and makes jellies – she’s amazing! Her husband is handy, built their house and he welds, too.
Any chance I could contact her for some recipes? Just started milking a goat.
Most of these I at least have a good handle on and the ones I don’t, I’ve got neighbors who do. And some of them I find it unimaginable that someone wouldn’t know.
Things I remember are:
*Making Soap
*Growing a vegetable garden
*Canning food
*Raising Chickens for eggs and meat
*Tending livestock
It’s on there. Number 9
We didn’t call the herbs made for medicinal purposes ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ we called them ‘Home Rememdies’. To me an Old Wives Tale is something that was ficticious. A fairy tale or a story handed down or maybe something that was used for medicinal purposes but didn’t work. Those we might have called an Old Wives Tale. But not herbs for healing. I think you are using it wrong. imho
People who use the herbs and such call them Home Remedies. The folks who don’t use them scoff at their use and say, “Oh that’s just an old wive’s tale.” People tend to ridicule anything that they don’t believe or use.
Got 8 out of 10. We don’t hunt or fish but know how to. Don’t do black smithing – no horses. Have all the test down pat.
Right now I’m living off grid.. I’ve completed the list except Black Smith, Breaking a Horse (at 50 I’m excused), and although I know I can I’ve yet milked a cow
I didn’t know there was a test.
There’s also knitting and crochet, trapping and making leather and fur clothing, gathering wild edibles, building with stone and logs, even cooking full meals has almost become a lost skill.
Was brought up learning all those skills plus quite a few more. I was shooting and snaring rabbits at age 10, and skinning them. Thanks to my Grandparents and parents I have all the skills required should I ever need them.
cooking at all, esp in urban populations, is becoming the thing that only chefs do, it’s truly bizarre to me. Rural not so much, I think it likely that most rural people have someone in the house who cooks at least part of the time. What else is astonishing is how many people both urban AND rural don’t have gardens.
Most young people don’t even know how to cook !
I’m thankful that I learned all those things from my parents and in schools.
Some 4-H Cornell Ext. Started teaching all the basics again !
There are many things left out like rendering lard, making soap and candles, churning cream into butter, foraging for wild growing edibles, using animal excrement for fuel.
Yes, there is a difference between home remedies and old wives tales. For instance, taking apple cider vinegar is a home remedy. “If you have a lot of hurt burn during pregnancy then your child will have lots of hair,” is an old wives tale
10? I only see 6.
I must consider myself blessed, my mom passed the knowledge to do almost all of it except blacksmithing. And a wooden high heeled shoe makes a decent hammer in a pinch
If I have to learn all that to survive – SOMEBODY SHOOT ME!!!
A couple of my grandparents did 2 of these things, I don’t think that urban poor working 16 hours a day in a factory had a lot of time to do these things if they weren’t there full time job.
Might want to add wielding an axe to that list…..
Awesome. I know 8 out of 10
Why are there only 3?