A few years ago a warm, comforting, peaceful feeling washed over me when I stopped, looked around and realized; if I lost it all, I have the skills, knowledge, experience and people around me to do it again.  There is no better feeling of peace than having the realization that I AM capable of taking care of our needs, I have the support and I'm healthy enough to do it again if necessary!  I managed to learn enough over the last 50 years to tackle almost any challenge we may face.   The good news is that it does not take 50 years to complete the basic training.  It took me 50 years because I got distracted and hoodwinked.

I was once told that there are only two things that we can truly invest in, knowledge and our health.  Everything else is a gamble, especially stocks, bonds, savings accounts or any other fictional construct created by man.  But when we invest in ourselves, our two saving graces is good health and the knowledge to work through any challenge we may come upon.  

When moving off grid, we usually don't have the resources to hire people to do all the different things that need to get done on a daily basis.  Part of the point of living off-grid is to do it ourselves, but at times we still need help.  That is where good relationships with neighbours and friends can really prove priceless.  After all, out here, 911 could be days away.  We rely on each other.  But having the basics is critical for this type of life style.

Modern society requires that people specialize.  The danger to that specialization is that no single individual has all the skills, knowledge or experience to put it all together.  Living off-grid gives people those skills!  So let's go through them.  Please don't feel overwhelmed by the list.  We don't need to be experts but at least have a working knowledge so that we can make it all fit together.  It requires will, ability and time.  If you don't have the ability, learn it.  If you struggle learning it, then befriend somebody who knows.  The other good news is that there are plenty of books, do it yourself (diy) websites and videos.  If you don't know how, look it up.  This journey takes a life time.  Be patient and it will all come.  This is not something that needs to be learned in one year.  Have fun with it all.

Top skill:  able to do research and look up information in books and on line.

DIY websites, Mother Earth News, Youtube and other sites like that are invaluable for looking up information when we run across challenges that stump us.  Don't be afraid to say 'I don't know' and look it up or call a friend.  Could save you a lot of time, frustration or even money!

Basic Carpentry

Easy skill to acquire, critical skill to have.  If you live off-grid, you need the ability to build buildings, make cabinets, bee boxes, solar food dehydrators, milk stands and all kinds of things around the yard.  It would also help if you had the tools to do this kind of work.  Table saw, circular saw, air compressor, air tools, hammer, squares, tape measures, knife, etc.  

Plumbing & electrical

Every house needs it and knowing how it works will help you not only install it yourself but also trouble shoot it should any problems unfold.  Yes, there are risks involved, but if you know how to be safe and recognize how it all works, you can work through it all yourself.  

Mechanical

Equipment breaks, so having the skill to fix things, whether it is the breaks on your vehicle, broken chainsaw, small engine that won't run or a pump that stopped working, all of these usually happens in the middle of a snow storm or on a weekend when the stores are all closed.  Wrenches, sockets and other tools come in handy in this regard as well.  Don't skimp out on the tools.  They are mandatory in a life style like this.  Being able to build mechanical devices is also helpful too!  Some engineering skills will help in this regard as well.

Animal Husbandry and green thumb

Knowing how to look after animals, hatch eggs, feed, water, cure illnesses, trim hooves, deliver stuck babies, grow or source feed, build shelters and build fence are handy skills to have as the plants and animals will literally sustain your life.  The good news is that these skills can be acquired while your looking after them all.  Learning how to listen to the plants and animals will also help as they will tell you what they need.  It is a tough skill to get, but once you do, it is magic.  

Forest Management

Nature is sacred as is all life.  So learning how to identify food, medicine or sick trees that can be harvested for fire wood or building materials is important to have.  Again, those skills can be learned on the job and does require tools like chain saws, quad, trailer or slay to be able to bring out the wood or harvest from the forest.  Remember to leave some tobacco so that we are not just taking but also providing an exchange to give thanks for the contributions the plants and animals are making to our own survival.  

Water management

This is a key one as we can only live for a few days without water.  Our animals and plants also need water too.  So having the roof to collect water, wells to draw upon or springs to tap into is critical.  Knowing how to safely treat the water so that it is potable without killing the water is important.  We use hydrogen peroxide to treat our drinking water as it breaks down into water and oxygen.  It keeps the water alive, kills algae and bacteria and tastes great.  This is one area that you want to research first before you take the plunge as mistakes here could have serious consequences to you and your project.  

Waste management

Most people forget about this point, but knowing how to compost manure, humanure, table scraps and other bio material is a great way to turn waste into gold.  The ultimate goal is to live a life style where there is no more waste.  I'll share how we deal with plastic by building an incinerator that is way more efficient than burning barrels.  Those things are horrible and should not ever be used.  Gray water systems are also a part of this and can be utilized to grow plant material for live stock, clean the water and use it for watering plants as well.  Zero waste is the goal.

Health Care

I don't trust the allopathic medical system.  Granted they have skills when it comes to helping people with trauma.  But when it comes to healing people and restoring health, they are a bunch of greedy people bent on wealth at all costs.  My wife has studied alternative health modalities and we also found huge health benefits by eating our own food, free of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc.  Food is medicine.  What we buy in the stores is not food.  Make no mistake about that!  But exercise, joy, hard work and play can also have huge impacts on our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.  Taking 100% responsibility for our health has given us benefits far beyond our expectations.  We heal ourselves!

Education

We home schooled our boys.  Their education was learning how to build a home, look after live stock, gardens, greenhouses and all the other skills needed for survival.  We also taught them how to think, do research and explore their own interests rather than being confined to a chair in a box being force fed state doctrine.  This as then allowed us to un-school our boys and ourselves so that we can explore the world and expand our own consciousness and our relationship with it.  The experiences over the last 15 years have been integral to that goal.  It takes time, but it will come!

Baker, cook, butcher, canner and all around food guru.  

The best way to get healthy, be free and self sufficient is to return to the kitchen.  Notice that I did not say who!  My wife and I both spend a lot of time in the kitchen each day, but especially in the fall as we work hard to store as much food as we can for the winter.  Freezing food in the deep freeze, fridge, canning food for the shelf, drying food with the solar dehydrator, smoking meat and other methods are important skills to have.  There are tools needed to accomplish these tasks too.  Suffice to say, our best tool ever is the wood cook stove.  I would never go back to anything else.  We do have a propane stove too for the summer time, but I do love the wood cook stove!  Root cellar is also a great tool to have for this type of life style.  Again, these skills can be acquired on the go.  You don't need to know it all when you start.  That will be accomplished when you finish.  hahaha

Welder

I put welder on the list because welders or blacksmiths can do some really cool stuff with metal.  I don't have either skill and I managed just fine over the last 10 years.  I do know though that if I had either or both of these skills I could make much better stoves and fix equipment when they break.  These are two skills that I do want to learn over the next few years.  I share this to demonstrate that we always have things to learn and I include myself in that list.  This is on my to-do list as I look forward learning how to work with metal.  

Sewing, knitting, tanning, crochet and other fabric skills

I have no talent here, but this is where my wife and mother-in-law shine.  They have been able to make sweaters, bed spreads, towels, face cloths, disk cloths and all sorts of other tools that are needed around the home and around our bodies.  These skills are fading fast as the industrial system can do it way faster and cheaper.  But this life style is not about cheep, it is about self-sufficiency and being independent.  As such, there is a LOT of time to work on projects like this as we are no longer tied to the grind of the slave J.O.B.  So now we make a lot of our own fabric items and continue to learn skills so that we can remove these dependencies as well.

Chemist, physicist, weatherman and author

Surprisingly, chemistry and physics do come into play, especially when we are making our own lye for soap, figuring out how to build a new stove, working with levers, pulleys and other tools.  We work directly with the physical world and we are confronted on a daily bases on figuring out how that world works.  It is up to us to explore, rather than depending on others to do it for us.  Again, it is the journey that is rewarding.  This is not a destination.  Always lots to learn and having the capacity to share with others is an integral part of that journey. 

Lawyer 

Let's face it.  The state does not want us doing this, so it is in our best interests to know what their authority is so that we can hold them accountable as the vast majority of the time they step outside their jurisdiction.  But we can also use this knowledge to withdraw from that system, to UNGRIP and govern ourselves as well.  This is, in my opinion, a foundation for our freedom!  It is helpful to know how legislation works, know who we are and how to stand on our own power and authority granted to us by Creator. 

I could go on, but the point is clear.  This life style is about work, skill, knowledge and the capacity to learn, be flexible, creative and intuitive.  When we are used to living in our cubical being told how to do our job, we lose those skills.  So it will take time to re-acquire them.  But we are all capable of accomplishing all of these and so much more.  If we can acquire these skills before we make the leap, that would increase our chances of success significantly.  We have experts in our lives to ask questions.  But until we live a life where it all gets put together, we will miss out on the wonders of life.  This is a life style, choice, journey of exploration and discovery.  I'm ten years into it and very much looking forward to all the learning that is yet to come.  The more I learn, the less I know.