Can we list useful skills for preppers to learn NOW

[NorthernRaider]

Just a thought ( yes its my second one this week) but would it be handy to perhaps create a least of basic skills that would be of benefit to us after TSHTF

Such as
Vehicle Maintenance
First Aid
Cooking
Welding
Basic joinery
Skill at arms
Archery
Abseiling / rock climbing
Mountain biking
Map reading
Radio operation
Horse riding
Motorcycle and quad riding
Off road driving skills
Leatherwork
Fishing
Tree felling
Coppicing
What other BASIC skills could we at least get intro courses to?

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Soap making
Jam Making
Making alcohol
Sewing
Arrow making
Bow string making
Knife sharpening
Rope making
Map reading
Shelter building
Tactical movement & patrolling

[Sichr20]

Personally I could do with spending a few days on each of these subjects. It's kind of ironic that I was given the chance to learn most of this growing up but wasn't interested.

[NorthernRaider]

(28 October 2012, 23:08)Sichr20 Wrote: Personally I could do with spending a few days on each of these subjects. It's kind of ironic that I was given the chance to learn most of this growing up but wasn't interested.

I admit I struggled to pass on many skills I learned over the years to my families kids cos they dont / wont listen to dad / uncle NR. I ended up getting into even more bloody debt sending the little sods to summer camps and venture holidays so they learned stuff like
Map reading
Pony Trekking
Canoeing
Shelter building
Archery
Fire lighting
Quad driving
etc

[preservefreak]

I would add:

seed saving
solar cooking
haybox/heat retention cooking
dehydrating
pickle making (salt based)
butchery

[Sichr20]

Yeah it's amazing that kids won't learn from they're parents but will trust most strangers to show them how to do something. I would also add to this list basic veggie growing. I'd have no idea when to plant the seeds, how to tell the soil was ok, when to harvest etc etc.

It would be cool if we had some kind of list of all of these subjects that we could all mark off what we are good at and what we need to brush up on. Maybe even what we feel we could instruct to other people. That way we could pm each other and set up meets to trade skills and things. Just a thought

[Metroyeti]

Sewing and knitting for clothes and fishing/ferret nets.

[BDG]

Although you have welding, I would say Black and White smithing, covering casting with copper, iron, aluminium, lead, brass and iron / steel and hot and cold forming all of those too.

Agricultural techniques without the use of major machines.

Livestock husbandry

Harnessing a horse and putting the horse to the thing you want it to pull. Horses do not like to walk backwards when they cannot see what is going on behind them. This is why gypsies are good at punching.

Knife and saw blade sharpening.

[Hrusai]

basic growing,
basic hunting,
basic trapping and snaring,
basic electronics,
a decent understanding of common science (i can explain most phenomena i encounter based off gcse's and half me A-levels),
high proficiency with basic maths,
proper use of a knife (sounds silly but some of the things ive seen people do )
general bushcraft skills (everything from shelter building to fire making and finding edible plants)


this will be quite a large list methinks....i think once we got a long list of items we should order them in how vital each skills is, even though it would probably depend largely on situation ....could even group items together by which of the 4 primary needs it fufills with a 5th comfort/miscellany to cover as many bases as possible

[NorthernRaider]

Just waiting for SD or one of the Cheshire / Wirral mob to put Pole Dancing on the list along with being able to nick the wheels off a motor in under 4 minutes

and before the Bristol mob chip in NO catching sheep is not a needed skill.

[Scythe13]

(29 October 2012, 10:38)NorthernRaider Wrote: and before the Bristol mob chip in NO catching sheep is not a needed skill.

It is if you're from Bristol!!!

I would add:
MMA, Self Defense, Krav Maga, or something like that.
Running, long distance running
Escape and Evasion
Lock picking
Emergency Driving
General Fitness (needs daily working on)
A personal favourite...Relation Building and Conflict Management. This is vital if you're going to be working in a team! Prolonged periods of time together, you're going to get at each other.