5 Indispensable Skills of Self Reliance

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

I carry a five gallon bucket filled with hand tools with me whenever I have a job to work on. The contents of the bucket rarely change and I have only added to or subtracted from that bucket three or four times over the course of the past five years. Experience has taught me that no matter what task I am engaged in, from hanging a door in the house to installing fence in the back pasture, I will need a certain set of tools over and over again. Some of the tools in the bucket are used only once in a great while, others almost daily, but every one of them has a utility that has been demonstrated through years of repeated use, and so those implements remain together as a set, oiled, sharp and ready for use at a moment’s notice.

The same thing can be said for a set of human skills that some of us possess, but which everyone who strives for some form of self reliance will undoubtedly come to use with regularity. It has taken me considerably longer to create the tool kit of skills than the bucket of tools, but the further I go in life the more important these skills have become to me and to those who practice the forms of self reliance. While this list is by no means definitive and omits other equally useful abilities, it could be argued that everyone would live a far more productive and independent life by mastering them to some degree.
1) Orienteering. The name of this particular skill is one I picked up while in the military. It referred to the ability to determine where you are and where you are headed in a physical sense. Your location at any given point and your destination over time. How to use a compass, how to read a map, how to identify terrain features and how best to travel from point A to point B. The specifics of orienteering include a sense of direction or the ability to discern through the use of visual cues the cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. It further aids in our ability to know up from down, range estimation, i.e. how far to that distant mountain, how many yards or miles you have traveled either on foot or by conveyance, how to find water or shelter, how to navigate in daylight or in pitch black.

There’s no need to explain the importance of this skill to someone who finds themselves lost, but it equally important in our daily lives no matter where we live or what we do. The knowledge of your environment is no less important to someone in midtown Manhattan than it is in the Australian outback. There are few people as vulnerable to their environment and the predators that inhabit it than someone who is lost. This applies to our temporal location as well as our physical one. Knowing that you are out of your element in a conversation, in a crowd, in the time that you live is crucial in determining whether it is safe to remain or better to excuse yourself and find a safer environment. This frame of reference is your orientation and it is far better to master it than to be the victim of it.


2) Carpentry. This one has served me for most of my adult life and has not only saved me thousands of dollars of hard earned money, it has been a constant source of income over the years. In the strictest sense carpentry encompasses the use of tools and materials in order to either construct or dismantle man made structures and objects. This spans the spectrum from a simple shelf to a skyscraper and everything in between. A good carpenter can work with wood and steel, concrete and plastic, run an excavator and operate a screw gun. Once these skills have been developed you will discover that virtually every opportunity to handle tools and materials is doable. A mechanic is a specialist in his field, a carpenter a general practitioner.

With a few basic tools and experience you can demo a house, or build a new one, form and pour concrete, lay block and brick, turn out fine furniture for the home or mill rough boards for any number of uses. If ever there were a single skill to help build confidence as well as functional creations, it’s carpentry. One of the side benefits is the ability to turn conceptual mathematics into practical applications. Geometry is no longer a system of identifying shapes and relationships in space, but of using them to build roofs that shed water, doors that hang plumb and floors that are level. A solid foundation upon which to build a successful life is rooted in the ability to handle any task with dexterity and precision. Carpentry is fundamental skill set and easily picked up by virtually anyone.
3) A sense of humor. This is one ability that is frequently said to be innate as opposed to learned but I disagree completely. I’m not talking about telling a joke properly, but rather how to deal with the unpleasantness and losses that are part of life in a way that allows us to soldier on. A sense of humor can defuse tensions, create bonds, lift spirits, lighten loads. At the lowest points of life when all seems lost nothing gives a greater sense of relief and possibility than a good laugh even if it is at your own expense. The Hobbes quote, “The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” may in many ways be true, but it can be made communal, rich, refined, uplifting and long if you’ve got a sense of humor. I cannot tell you how many injuries I have experienced or seen first hand that were made less painful by a properly placed word or phrase made in jest at the expense of the wounded. So too is our life if we find a way to see the humor in it.
4) Husbandry. The word specifically applies to the care and raising of living things, whether livestock or orchards, gardens or families, but in general it means a management and conservation of the resources of life itself. What we do with money we’ve earned, how we care for the children we’ve brought into the world, how we store up for the future and dispense daily for our survival. It requires long term thinking and short term decision making in a way that creates stability and surplus. To husband implies a conscious effort to treat life as something more than a random series of uncontrollable events and to put these plans into action. It demonstrates responsibility for the multitude of gifts and blessings that are beyond our control- the bounty of plant and animal life, the beauty of creation we do little more than take advantage of and the output of our daily efforts. To be called a good husband is one of life’s greatest compliments and to practice the wide variety of responsibilities as well as rewards associated with this skill is one of the most valuable assets one can hope to attain.
5) Marksmanship. Most people would assume that such a skill is necessary for hunters and soldiers and would serve little purpose to anyone else. In a limited perspective this is probably true, but marksmanship is not about firing a weapon accurately alone. It is a discipline that allows us to see something and make it happen again and again and again with precision. It forces you to think about intention married to outcome and measures with complete accuracy the results. A good marksman can bring food to the table or defend oneself and family. It requires focus, control, the ability to bring the various bodily systems into synchronicity in order to achieve a desired result. Expanded beyond weaponry marksmanship applies itself to a wide variety of endeavors; planting schedules, investment goals, parenting. To see something downrange and apply complete focus on seeing the vision become reality is one of the most important skills anyone can hope to develop.
This list is by no means complete of definitive, but it has served me well as a basic skill set. I haven’t mastered any of them by any means, but I work on all of them with regularity and dedication and the benefits that each has brought to my life far exceeds the efforts I have put into them.
Please feel free to add to this list.

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Anonymous
Anonymous

So . . . . um . . . .what do you keep in the bucket?

ragman
ragman

Superb writing! RE #1:I like to refer to your “orienteering” along with keeping yer head outta yer rearend as “Situational Awareness”, or simply SA. Probably the most important survival skill we can possess. A couple of additions: Slow down! Take the time to enjoy family, friends, nature, &TC. Most people are going Mach5 in a frenzy and totally miss out on life. Pick your battles carefully. Many times we have to be tolerant and put up with stuff we don’t like, but are not the end of the world. Occasionally we draw the line, we find ourselves in a situation where compromise is not an option. This leads into #5, marksmanship. Without weapons there is no marksmanship. I will never, ever register any of my lawfully owned weapons. Registration will eventually facilitate confiscation which eliminates marksmanship, along with self-defense and the ability to resist tyranny. No thanks, I ain’t budging on that one!

jimski
jimski

This am I used a number 10 grinder to render potatoes into the most lacy of pancakes. No disrespect intended but I know where I am and would replace oreintering with cooking. The ability to feed ones self is number 1 on the list of feed, clothe, shelter.

starfcker
starfcker

I like ragman’s rephrasing to situational awareness. But I agree, HSF, that is the survival skill. Carpentry is good, too. I know many grown men who never constructed anything, and the littlest problem renders them helpless.

Chato's Land
Chato's Land

“Carpentry is fundamental skill set and easily picked up by virtually anyone.”

I beg to differ. Been in the trade for forty years. Some people have an inborn ability to manipulate physical objects and understand applied physics, but it’s been my experience that most do not. Even in its most simple form, carpentry is not easy to pick up. The home improvement shows that feature little girls seeming to create beautiful houses (with a crew of fifty men behind them) are real only on television. In my business, rebuilding historic stone farmhouse built between 1850 and 1920, re-purposing homes that were not designed for electricity, plumbing or ductwork can be, shall we say, challenging. By the time you’ve burned up tools sawing through yellow pine that’s over 100 years old and as hard as iron, bleeding and occasionally cussing, you realize that the reason no one else is doing the work is because they can’t.

“A mechanic is a specialist in his field, a carpenter a general practitioner.” Living and working on a farm I have, unwillingly and out of the strictest necessity, become a passable general mechanic. Can’t afford to take the problems to town. Unless it’s an engine rebuild, it’s done here. Mechanics is not viewed as a specialist’s field, rather as a self-defense mechanism that must be learned if you work out in the country.

I suspect that in your circle you have many very capable people who have outstanding carpentry skills, and mechanical skills in their turn. Rural folk have the ability to adapt their skill sets to the situation at hand. Don’t assume the general population has those same skill sets. They don’t.

That said, thank you for this and all of your posts. They are always an excellent read and a great learning tool, even if one has lived on the farm for thirty years. You have my respect and admiration for raising your family like real humans. All the best to you and all TBP readers.

Dutchman
Dutchman

Carpentry / Mechanics / Plumbing / Simple Electrical. I see them as all similar skills. If people would just take the time, I believe they could acquire the skill.

Cooking is another to add to the list.

Welshman
Welshman

Rentalman bucket,

White bucket with a tool girdle. Box knife, various screw drivers, wire cutters, two needle nose, two channel pliers, battery power drill, teflon tape, small spackle container, flashlite, rags or small towel, electrical reader and plug tester, two putty knives, two cresant wrenches, two small saws, hammer, chisel, various size drywall screws, light source that you wear on your head, duct tape, electrical tape, gloves, tape measure, WD 40, snipper pliers, two paint brushes, tool for opening paint cans, allen wrenches, garbage disposal allen wrench, small silicon tubes and a container of patience. This will get you in the door.

I also have a plumbers bucket with basic plumbing need for toilets, sinks, and chalking gun. Have your rentals close to your home and a 12/7 hardware store close at hand.. If a tenant mentions leaking water, you should be there within 10 minutes with cotton rugs, towels, plastic buckets, and a wet/dry vaccum. First thing to do is turn off the fucking water, many tenants do not understand this simple rule.

Have a good week!!

Montefrio

HSF once again contributes very valuable advice. Nevertheless, with this I beg to differ: “A mechanic is a specialist in his field, a carpenter a general practitioner.” Skilled carpentry is a specialty that few of us (starting with yours truly) have mastered. As for “sense of humor,” oh yes, absolutely spot on; without it, life is certainly brutish.

Welshman adds some very valuable info. Thanks!

All this, however, first requires a certain mind-set; without it, no matter how skilled one may be, said skills won’t amount to more than wheel-spinning in an environment hostile to the essence of anyone who has chosen to perceive oneself as nothing more than a lump of animated meat.

Secular materialism is the single greatest obstacle to “survival” in a world being relentlessly driven toward a Social Darwinism that makes even the most self-sufficient life meaningless and eventually futile. Want “brutish”? Focus on the material.

Nfl

We have tried to utilize, nevertheless it won’t performs at all.

coyote
coyote

as a semi-skilled practitioner of many trades, using them as barter in a rural area, i find myself in agreement here- in general- with HSF. i take his message to imply that most of the self-sufficiency types would find- in general- that carpentry is about the easiest of the many trades to pick up- if you are already “handy”- right? rough carpentry gives you lots of fix it and make it abilities that you are otherwise stuck with paying for. and there are some cool old books around that can help a rough wood butcher even play with some finish work. nice essay, HSF: that “skill” of ‘orienteering’ you talk about is a really tough one for some to learn- i feel it is mostly an innate thing. and there are many who need to discover what their talents are- they may be useful in areas besides these…

ASIG
ASIG

Grew up in the country, helped my father build a barn right about when I was 12. Rebuilt a chevy 6 when I was in High School. Took welding so I can weld and yea I own a Lincoln Mig + oxy acetylene. Carpentry rough and finish work I like doing both. I build custom high end cabinets. Electrical yea considering my profession was Electronics Engineer, wiring a house is like child’s play. I do all my own granite fab work. Plumbing yes. Tile yes. Hardwood floor instillation sanding and finishing yes. In short if it has to do with house building I do it from the ground up I do it all. And yes I have all the tools and equipment. From a Backhoe to dig the foundation and put in a septic tank and leach lines to roofing nail guns. Tools, I guess I fall into the category of Tool Nut.

A country boy can survive.

llpoh
llpoh

Lots of stuff I can do, and have done. Hell, sometime long ago I was even a licensed welder, but have not done that in probably 20 years.

But many things I will not do any longer, as the quality of my work (and the speed of it) is not up to the standard I demand, and physically some of the things are just too much for me or too dangerous (crawling around inside a roof or up on a roof, for instance, is a young man’s game. The risk vs reward is far too small for me to screw with those kind of things anymore.). Specialists are simply far better at their trades than I can ever hope to be. The trouble is finding them. I have a pretty good group to call upon these days.

I currently limit myself to the outside areas, by and large – fencing, trenching, draining, plumbing, retaining walls, landscaping and lawn and garden installation, irrigation,etc. Those I can do to a reasonable standard, and I enjoy the work. But even some outdoor stuff I have abandoned, as pros can do them better – concreting, paving, etc.

The single best things I ever bought that improved the quality of my work was a lazer level and a digital level. Those things are incredible – everything comes together great when everything is exactly level/perpendicular to within a gnat’s eyelash. I never was able to use a bubble level to a high degree of accuracy. Some folks can, but not me, try as I might.

ASIG
ASIG

Laser level, yea another great tool that will pay for itself in no time.

But of course before Laser levels were invented what to do, what to do?? As in setting forms for a foundation I did what the Egyptians did to build the Pyramids, use a water level. Although I don’t believe the Egyptians had garden hoses back in the day. I used a garden hose with a clear plastic tube at both ends to where you can see the water level, works great.

Zarathustra

llpoh, I suck as a welder. Every time I tried using a TIG, I just ended up shocking myself, much to the amusement of our fabricators.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Z – TIGs are very difficult to use. I never even gave it a try, as I knew I would never take the time to learn.

Asig – have used water levels, too. They are ok, but a lazer level is the way to go if you can.

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