Loved the poem and your blog resonates so truly. i agree with you, a lot of city slickers are experts in things that have no importance in the grander scheme of things. if it can't be zapped in a microwave or be delivered, they would probably starve....After a month or so because most are morbidly obese....
i suppose i'm coming from the opposite end of the scale i was lucky being brought up so close to nature - my education in the basics of hunter gathering started when i was four years old - not for the fun of it, if we didn't come back with items such as rabbits and other edibles to eat, we went hungry - that's just how it was.
A lot of the knowledge i have can only be found now in books, and i would class myself as a novice, i'm no "Ray Mears", not by a long way.
Very few people have that basic knowledge or basic survival skills and nobody now days is interested in learning or acquiring those basic survival skills - they want it wrapped in plastic, zapped in a microwave while watching TV.
The ability to survive is so different to homesteading, which i'm now picking up slowly. i will happily admit that i'm no expert in anything as i have poor craft / homesteading skills, i can hardly cook, (unless its a dead thing on a stick over a camp fire) i know very little about growing food or the skills required for homesteading, that's all @minismallholding :)
Most modern homesteaders are coming from the civilised city life, turning their back on the corrupt system and microwave dinners, seeking their peace by returning back to the land. These "experts" are now looking to people like you for guidance - Books are fast disappearing with this new computer age - at this time, the steem platform gives us the ability to learn through other peoples experience and failures without censorship or government miss information. When the collapse happens...... people like you will become the new experts and the new leaders with the knowledge to survive, not some city slicker expert - people like you will be the inspiration for others to survive... Chances are the web will be down and with no books for reference, your knowledge and skills will be priceless. Keep up the good work :)
I love hearing your account of a different upbringing. I was raised part of my childhood in the city and part in the country. However, I yearned for those heritage skills. Even when I was a child and teenager. I wanted to know how to survive. I do very much agree with you, homesteading and survival skills are very different and both are very important. I am only just beginning my survival skill journey. I do know what I can eat in my wild landscape and that's a start. I can make medicine and I can find water. I can build a very rudimentary shelter in a pinch...but I am excited to go deeper this year. I agree, if and when there is no access to internet (for me perhaps even by choice in the next 5 years) having written and living knowledge will be so important. I have started to write down everything. Although in an emergency I would have to rely on memory, I have that store of knowledge available to bury and come back for if needed. I find the perspective of seeing people who want security no matter the contingency as being extremists so peculiar. I don't live my life in fear. Quite the opposite...I love my life and exercising these skills so much and do so from a place of respect for tradition and culture. The fact that I am prepared is a beautiful bonus, which I value so very much.