Category Archives: Basic Skills

A Foundational area incorporating the basic skills to do most regular maintenance and repairs around the house and other areas.

Is it worth it?

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Ken Jorgustin at Modern Survival Blog takes up the question of whether it’s worth it to invest in self-reliance. He looks at various types of home production, such as raising your own chickens, growing your own garden, or even switching to solar energy all cost money, and often those same products can be obtained commercially for less.

During the process of building their palace, I’ve thought about the money it took to get this done. As well as the ongoing costs of maintaining the small flock, and feeding them. Let me put it this way. You might get depressed to realize the ultimate cost per dozen eggs output compared to the money input!

Ken Jorgustin

I’ve noticed that with gardening. In both places we’ve lived our irrigation and gardening water comes from the same water as our culinary and hygienic water, and the cost can more than double during the summer months. Whatever money we save by growing our own vegetables is more than eaten up in the water, seeds, tools, and fertilizer needed to grow them. We ultimately decided it simply wasn’t worthwhile to try to grow our own potatoes in Idaho.

We also looked at solar power ourselves a few years ago and realized that in spite of what the salesman told us, the system would never pay for itself, even if the power company paid for any excess electricity we generated–which they stopped doing within a few years. While we would like to have been able to do more to reduce pollution and our own energy dependence we just couldn’t justify the expense.

It can all be enough to make you step back and wonder if it’s really worthwhile to take a different path. But, as Jorgustin explains, the answer will be different for everyone. For some people cost is the only consideration, and they’ll likely not bother with many self-reliance measures. For my wife and I, we find home-grown food is usually healthier and better tasting. What’s more, there may be rough times ahead–times when the stores won’t be able to get the stock they usually get. We may very well need to supplement our food supply from our own yard. In the middle of the crisis is not the time to be learning what grows and what doesn’t, or how to lay out your garden, your watering, etc. And as we’ve seen, the price of things can increase quickly when it’s in short supply.

A considerable part of self-reliance, and especially emergency preparedness, is not just having the things you need when things go wrong, but knowing what to do with them. Maybe not everything we can do we should do, but it is worthwhile to consider what things you want to be able to do. And sometimes it just feels good to do it.

It’s the little things that count

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I always get a little excited when I see the concept of self-reliance brought up in unexpected places or referring to aspects outside the usual “prepper” mindset. After all, my philosophy of self-reliance is much broader, and should be more applicable to everyday life by everyday people. So it caught my attention when I found “7 Tips for Increasing Self-Reliance” on The Law of Attraction.com.

Some of their seven points are somewhat familiar, such as “Accept Responsibility” and “Make Your Own Decisions,” but others are are a little less obvious–or at least less practiced these days.

Take Point #3: Learn More Practical Skills:

The more practical skills you have in your toolkit, the fewer chances there will be for you to feel helpless or need other people to come to your rescue. While you should feel free to call out experts to help you with complicated household problems and mechanical difficulties, it’s great if you can at least do the basics for yourself. Get some books or join some classes.

Try to get a better grasp of everything from plumbing to IT, electronics and cooking.

A few (dozen) years ago I spent two years in Australia as a missionary for my church. Before we travel to our assigned locations we spend anywhere from three to eight weeks learning teaching skills and, where necessary, a new language. From the beginning we are paired up with another missionary, who we will be with 24/7.

My companion was a really pleasant fellow from solid farm stock (Central Utah turkey farmers), but I was soon quite surprised to find he had no idea how to do his own laundry! Nor did he know what to do when he spilled dinner on his tie. Now, I won’t claim to have been anything but a burden on my mother up until that point in time, but she had at least taught me how to do laundry, how to cook, how to sew on buttons and mend pants. I gladly dispensed my wisdom to my companion, and I have definitive proof he was able to survive the entire two years.

A few years later while I was in college I went to an activity with a bunch of other college students. We decided to go get some ice cream or something afterward at a place several blocks away. While I was driving through campus I realized my tire had gone flat. I pulled over into a parking lot and started pulling out my equipment to change it for my spare.

Before long about a handful of young women from our group had pulled over to see if everything was okay. When I explained what the problem was and that I’d be okay, they all insisted on staying to watch. No one had taught them how to change a tire! I was only too happy to demonstrate for them, of course.

Whether it’s hanging a picture, or strengthening a wobbly chair, or reattaching things that come loose, there are a lot of simple tasks in life we can easily take for granted and forget to either learn or pass on. There’s no reason we should be helpless when it comes to using basic tools to perform simple maintenance tasks. Fixing a leaky faucet–or outright replacing one–isn’t difficult, but if you have no idea how to go about it you might be tempted to spend a decent chunk of money on something that shouldn’t take very long.

Learning some basic skills will pay off in spades sooner or later. And it might just help you get the girls! (Okay, not really. They were all impressed, but that’s about as far as it went.)

Practical Christmas gifts

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When I moved out on my own my parents gave me a going-away present; a basic tool kit, with a small hammer, tape measure, pliers, box knife, and a adjustable screwdriver. Those simple tools saw a lot of use. Though in the years since then my tool collection has grown considerably and I’ve gone through several larger toolboxes (and still don’t have one big enough), I still have some of those original tools. They were a godsend on many occasions.

I also picked up for myself a basic car safety kit. It’s contents have long since been scattered to the four winds, but I believe it included jumper cables, a tire pressure gauge, a small first aid kit, and some reflective hazard markers. I know the jumper cables at least came in handy–until I loaned them to someone and never saw them again.

I believe parents should consider giving one or both of these simple kits to their grown or near-grown kids. More importantly, they should make sure they know how to use each item in them.

I remember a time in college (stop me if I’ve told this story before) when our church group was heading from one activity to another. Along the way I noticed my tire had gone flat, so I pulled off into a nearby parking lot to change it. Pretty soon a fair number of girls from the group had stopped–initially to see if I was okay, and before long to watch me work. None of them had ever seen someone change a tire before and wanted to see how it was done.

As ego-boosting as that was for me, I can’t help but think that some fathers had been negligent in their duty. Possibly even more important than teaching their sons to change a tire would be teaching their daughters. The last thing I’ve ever want for my daughter, at any age, is for her to be stuck on the side of the road somewhere, all alone, unable to change a flat tire. As soon as she’s old enough to drive I intend to teach her that and a few other basic car repair/maintenance tasks.

And yes, I’ll teach my sons, too. If they’re anything like their dad, the automotive tinkering gene is recessive, and such things won’t just come naturally. They’ll need to know how to check the oil, jump the battery, check air pressure, etc. And they’ll need to know where the tool and emergency kits are in each vehicle. And when they do leave home, it’ll be with tool kits of their own.

The case for DIY

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And speaking of Self Reliance Exchange, there’s another excellent article there about gaining the knowledge to do many things yourself. The writer (DDFD) uses the example of his car, and how you can learn a lot about your car and how it works just doing some of the basic maintenance. He still leaves some of the more specialized tasks to professionals for safety reasons, but there are many maintenance tasks that can be done yourself.

This article hit home a bit for me, as this is one area I’ve given myself a pass on. While I know I could learn car maintenance, I’ve avoided it by promising that I’ll just learn some skills that mechanics need so I can barter. But DDFD’s argument that you can learn a lot about your car by working on it makes sense. I really should do more of that.

It’s not easy. I like my mechanic. I want to make sure he’s still around when I need him. But would it kill me (or him) if I did a few of things things myself at least a time or two? Probably not.