Being prepared and becoming self-sufficient is not only about buying emergency supplies. Learning survival skills if a big aspect of the preparedness mindset. Since we started our plan to prepare for emergencies, I’ve acquired some new skills:
- Plant a garden – We have a small balcony garden. I first planted seedlings bought from Lowe’s, then moved on to growing plants from seed. NEXT STEP: acquire heritage seeds and grow a larger variety of plants.
- Use a gun – My husband has owned a gun for a while; we recently bought a gun for me then went to the shooting range so I can learn to load and fire the new gun. NEXT STEP: obtain a concealed carry permit
- Bake cakes and muffins from scratch – I previously used baking mixes, but now bake muffins and cakes from flour, butter, sugar etc. instead of relying on pre-made mixes. NEXT STEP: Bake bread from scratch
- Basic sewing – I previously took clothes to the tailor for sewing needs, now I can sew buttons, shorten or lengthen hems, repair a tear, etc. NEXT STEP: Create an article of clothing.
- Change a tire – Watched my husband change a tire and practiced doing it after. NEXT STEP: Change the oil
- Cut up a raw chicken into serving sizes – I used to be intimidated by those whole chickens and only bought pre-cut pieces. Now I buy the whole chicken and cut it up myself. NEXT STEP: Kill and skin a chicken. I watched my Dad do it, but need hands on practice.
- Read a map – I previously relied on the GPS, but have since learned to read a map. NEXT STEP: Learn how to use a compass
This is a very small list since we just started our journey. There are a lot more survival skills we still need to acquire such as building a fire without matches, hunting, fishing, building a shelter, just to name a few. Learning about survival has shown me how much we take for granted and rely on others to do basic living activities. It is not easy to give up old habits, but I did find that you save a lot of money by doing things yourself. Another benefit is I found out that it is fun!
The Apartment Prepper's Blog 
This is a great post. You’ve inspired me. I was doing a lot of what you describe before my youngest was born, then with her and the older one it was just easier to go back to convenient ways of doing things. I need to get back to the older ways. I find a lot of that really enjoyable. Here are two really great bread recipes you might want to try:
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/familybread.htm
http://aproverbswife.com/2009/06/perfect-rolls.html
Thanks also for you test comment. 🙂
PS…on the Hillbilly recipe, you can sub in whatever kind of milk you want. I use whole milk since the kids are still little but you could use skim or 2% too.
That’s awesome stuff and will come in handy even if nothing goes bad.
I’ve found that baking bread is one of those things that is easy to learn, but tough to master.
Every journey starts with the first step, and it looks like you’re up and hiking! You can use/post my bannock bread recipe, if you’d like. It is as simple a recipe as you can get!
http://survivalcommonsense.com/2010/06/22/healthy-bannockfeed-a-multi-grain-survival-food/
And here’s a story on simple flour survival recipes you can also use/post: http://survivalcommonsense.com/2010/06/15/flour-recipesfeed/
Your site improves all the time!
Leon
You inspired me with this basic list to learn how to bake bread. I made my first batch of ciabatta bread last night – the recipe says I must let the dough rise for 18 hours; it’s a no-knead recipe.
I’ll let you know how it turns out.
As for learning how to start a fire without matches, this site has a great section on it. I’m a huge fan of this website; it’s not about survival, but rather, about traditional “manly” skills (which women can easily learn as well).
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/04/29/9-ways-to-start-a-fire-without-matches/
I’ve never been a handy guy but I’m learning on my own; better late than never.
I look forward to finding out how the bread turns out. Followed the link to the art of manliness site. Found some great tips-thanks!
Apartment Prepper, I’m pleased to report my bread came out great! My only error was not to create a thin layer of cornmeal onto my half baking sheet. I used olive oil instead and this smoked up my kitchen and gave the bread a slight “burned” favor (the bottom crust anyway).
But otherwise, it was a success… I ate it fresh off the oven for breakfast this morning with butter and cold cuts. I’m going to make a second batch and have already included the bannock recipe that was linked here earlier to my pipeline of “next recipes to master.”
Armed and Prepping, I am glad the bread turned out great; the slightly burned bottom is a common issue for first attempts, something we can learn from. Thanks for the update!!