Skill Sets

Part of preparedness planning, in addition to ensuring enough food, water, heat, light, communications, etc. are in place for whatever level of disturbance you are preparing for is to identify your Skill Sets and how they could be of help to you.

In today's world, it is not very realistic to think that we can all be totally self-sufficient like the days of Little House On The Prairie. While there are some out there with this level of skill - most people today would not find that level of self-sufficiency appealing. Our society has become too accustomed to our "things" that get us through the day and make life easy. This is one reason why I believe it is so hard to even get some people to prepare for anything at all - they don't really want to face the facts about what it would take to survive if they couldn't get their Starbuck's on the corner every morning or walk into the halls of wa*mart or mc d's for their dinner every night.

When we look at our preparedness plans - what we are preparing for and why - we also look at what our Skill Sets are, how they could be used for us or bartered with others for things we might need.

An important part of preparedness planning requires you to sit down and be honest about what your abilities are and where you are lacking. In the areas where you are lacking - are these areas where you simply have no interest? Have you tried before and were unsuccessful? Could you take a class to improve your skills? Or is it an area where you'll just need to find someone who could help you make up for your lack of skill? Do you know others with skills that you don't have?

My husband and I practice preparedness on a daily basis. Some things we excel at, some things we are pretty good at, some things we could get by on and there are things where we'd be lacking. We try to keep tabs on where we are in our skill levels at all times.

Here are some examples of skill sets that we know we have in differing degrees of expertise:

Home Canning, Preserving, Dehydrating
Food Storage
Water Storage
Vegetable Gardening
Herb Gardening
Composting
Sewing
Embroidery
Quilting
Cooking, Baking
Making basic cleaning products
Making skin creams, lotions, lip balms
Homeopathics
First Aid
Homebirth
Breastfeeding
Homeschooling
Beekeeping
Raising Beef Cattle
Raising Poultry
Raising Rabbits
Raising Sheep
Raising Hogs
Reloading
Archery
Handguns
Rifles / Shotguns
Finance
Foreign Language

This is not an all-inclusive list - there are many day-to-day skills not mentioned here. I'm focusing on skill sets that not everyone might have that would be useful to know or have available.

Some areas where I know we are lacking:

Woodworking
Sawmill
Carpentry
Welding
Machine Work
Engine / Small Motor Repair
Blacksmithing

If we needed something done in one of these areas - we'd have to pay for it, trade for it or learn how to do it ourselves.

We're reading in the news every day about the rising numbers of unemployed. If you lost your job tomorrow, what skills do you have that you could use to trade for things you and your family might need that you might not otherwise be able to pay money for? I think this is a realistic question we could all ask ourselves.

Please feel free to comment and let us know what skills you might be looking for!

HOMEWORK: Take some time the rest of this week to think about what your skill sets are, how they can be used to your advantage, where you are lacking in skills and how you could make up for the areas where you are lacking.