As already explained in my previous articles (please watch them for a thorough concept) the importance of homesteading for a single man or whole family’s prosperity and survival.
Actually externally homesteading seems very romantic in fact you get very close to nature, you set your routine according to the schedule of nature, and you become independent.
But when you’ll get indulged in it, you need very few but utmost important things, the most important of them are traits that homesteaders must have.
- Calm / Peaceful
- Cooperative
- Resourceful / Self-Sustainable
- Punctual/ Responsible
- Respectful
A person with the above-mentioned traits is capable to work as a homesteader after developing some skills, I hope I’ll be able to provide enough information and knowledge in my article that becomes a very trustworthy source of inspiration and encouragement for a homesteader (especially for new ones).
Please remember one thing, one can never learn or become a pro in developing all skills so don’t get panic, remain calm, seek guidance, and most importantly remain focused on your aim. More precisely, the skills a homesteader should develop can be categorized into,
- Basic skills
- Super skill
Basic skills
As by name the importance of these skills is obvious, you can’t survive even a single month without these. They are few in number,
1: Cooking
If a homesteader knows how to cook his/her life will be like a bird fly, moreover, there will be no need for any employee, (a very good step towards saving money).
Homesteader cooking is not difficult, taking smaller steps initially will ultimately guide and encourage you towards bigger things after some time with more proficiency.
There are few things essential that a homesteader should own in a kitchen for easy cooking,
- Cutting Board With Knives (Chef’s Knife)
- Weighing Scale
- Dutch Oven
- Frying Pan And Tongs
- Mixing Bowls /Stand Mixer
- Food Dehydrator
2: Gardening
Gardening is a very unique, noble, and basic broad term/ phenomenon that can be proved very financially stabilizing entity to a homesteader. Following are skills relevant to gardening,
Growth Of Trees From Seed
It is better to sow seeds in the soil as
- Seeds Are Easily Available
- Very Cheaper As Compared To The Growing Plant
- No Specific Training Or Skill Is Required For Seeds Planting
- Trees Grown From Seeds Are Stronger And Adaptive
- Seeds Grown Trees Take A Bit More Time To Give Output (Fruit)
- Multiple Varieties Are Available
Note: Please take some seeds for saving purposes from garden-produced fruits and vegetables as well some from seeds that you have bought from some shop for plantation. This will be very beneficial in the future as you’ll have experience with various types of seeds, their growth, and their output.
Plant Perpetual/ Perennial Trees
Although these plants take time to grow but don’t need replant yearly or seasonally, it means they become a continuous source of food and survival.
Make Worm Farm
A worm farm is a very good step towards making the environment clean and your food, animals, and all other types of waste recycled. For worm farming, there are no specific requirements except small, separated, not always enlightened pieces of land and should be covered to avoid children’s contact.
Build A Greenhouse
The greenhouse is very beneficial in bringing fruitful stage of vegetables earlier and extending this stage far more time. Various shapes of greenhouses are available dependent on the size and shape of the homestead.
Significance Of Pollination Species
Pollination is a basic unit to get food from trees or vegetables. Species of trees attracting pollinators (those with flowers) are essential to plant in gardens or fields. Always plant trees withholding more and long-lasting flowers.
Best Trees To Plant In Your Homestead (More Beneficial)
Tea and coffee plants: It gives a homesteader feel of sighing to have his/her own grown beverages full of natural fragrance and smell.
Grapes plant: These plants are very productive /fruitful and of multiple varieties with a natural decorative look
Olive plants: These are perennial plants, that grow year to year. They can withstand tough environmental conditions like drought. Olive can be preserved and later on oil can be made by pressing them.
Citrus plants: Multiple varieties are available of citrus plants. They are very good options for homesteaders as they are very fruitful, less care requiring, and fast-growing.
Moreover, their fruits can be domestically used as well as preserved for later on the use of purchasing purposes.
Poisonous plants: It is very important to know at least some common (respective to that specific area) varieties of invasive and poisonous plants/ herbs.
As they damage fruitful plants near to them along with disordering the health of the family. Some common examples are,
- Poison ivy
- Poison oak
- Castor oil plant
- Water hemlock/ cicuta
- Tobacco
- Castor bean
3: Livestock Raising Skills
Fence Making
It is very important to learn how to make, tie and repair fences. Just make boundaries with fences around the area where animals and livestock are tied in order to make them protected from predators.
Beekeeping
Bee along with providing honey is also very helpful in nature spreading by transferring pollination factors from one patch to another part of the land.
Dairy Livestock/ Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry is the study of animals where dairy live stocks (including cows, buffaloes, goats, chickens, etc) are raised, fed/ bred, and slaughtered to get many food products.
Skills of raising dairy livestock are in actual backbone after gardening for homesteading as they provide milk, meat, eggs, fur/ leather, organic fertilizer components, etc.
On basis of food products the dairy animals provide, they can be divided into different categories, milch animals and marine animals.
Homesteaders must be very careful in order to feed, and water, and essentially provide them protection from predators and stealing.
Breeding
Homesteaders must know about the basics of animal breeding as this skill is a money generating in nature, also it saves money from buying breed.
Hatching Skill
Hatching and intubation on time can give more eggs and more baby chickens ultimately more financial stability.
Livestock Health Care
Veterinary medical care cannot be provided all time, as homesteader survival is based on animals greatly. Hence learn some basic and commonly use health care techniques to save animals from diseases.
Butchering
Butchering is a key skill to learn as it provides homesteaders with to practice furthermore techniques as well it provides products that make homesteaders self-sustainable.
A homesteader should be a good butcher otherwise a lot of meat will be thrown and considered as waste mistakenly.
Tanning
Tanning is the chemical treatment of animals’ fur to convert it into some useful products like leather. This is an old-fashioned skill but very productive, you can use leather by yourself as well can earn money by selling. However, please do tanning in the vicinity free of children, animals, or water.
Fish pooling/ Fishing
If a homesteader can make a pool on his land for fishing, this will give 60% earnings to his/her whole family. But usually, this is discouraged as it needs a lot of hardworking, highly informative knowledge about different breeds of fish, their food, etc.
However, fishing is encouraged keenly, learn some techniques to do fishing as manual as well automatic machines are available for this propose.
4: Food Preservation
This is a very basic skill that actually prevents food from getting spoiled by microorganisms. In old eras methods used for food, preservation includes fermentation, drying, and refrigeration.
These methods are still in use in developing countries but modern methods are being preferred vigorously that are freezing, canning, pasteurization, irradiation, and chemical mixing.
The importance of learning this skill is, “Preserving food actually is a barrier between homesteader’s input and output. More precisely if a homesteader crosses this barrier by learning it he can earn money and fame by his/ her own products”.
5: First Aid
As homesteading usually is done outdoors especially in urban areas, medical care centers and hospitals remain far away. So, it becomes somehow difficult and expensive for a homesteader to go to hospitals for minute issues as well if some medical emergency happens, there is not much time to reach for medical help.
That’s why a homesteader should learn at least how to give first aid and CPR. Homesteaders should buy a first aid kit and must know the use and technique of how to use all the stuff present inside it.
6: Sewing
Although this skill is old-fashioned but aids in making homesteaders more confident and self-sufficient. Anyone knowing this skill can sew anything like curtains, clothes, quilts, pillow covers, aprons, etc.
A homesteader knowing sewing can go for another very useful and beneficial skill (Mending), this technique will make a person able to patch ripped/ torn clothes, curtains, socks, quilts, etc.
7: How To Take Care Of Trees
Human nature involves multiple phenomena but protecting the place, stuff, and even animated things that are a source of earning and survival is a very unique one.
Hence by nature homesteaders must be very precautionary towards all trees planted on/ her land. So, he/ she must learn some skills to protect them that include, watering and fertilizing on time, cutting the extra/ less useful branches from trees, plowing soil under plants, etc.
8: Winter/ Blizzard Preparation
A homesteader must know how to work and survive in winter by mending his/ her skills
Super Skills
Although these skills are not much required for the survival of a homesteader however are highly recommended if you want to become famous, more stabilized, rich, and want to spend the rest life with your family in a good prosperous state. In my perspective, all homesteaders must learn the following skills,
9: Hunting Wildlife
As we all know our ancestors were completely dependent on hunting wild. For a homesteader, wildlife can be proved a very good natural source of multiple benefits described in a following
- Food (meat) availability
- The fur of hunted animals can be used for cloth and other protective purposes.
- Wild animals (predators) near homesteading places are dangerous and can harm the homesteader, their family, and domestic animals too, hence hunting them will become a source of security reliability.
- Some animals harm only crops and vegetables they must be killed.
- This is a very good recreational skill as well as a hobby.
- Green areas containing gardens, crops, and vegetables with naturally designed homes, should be free of wild animals and provide opportunities for tourism.
Note: please don’t do hunting vigorously as well be aware of government policies.
10: Foraging
Foraging is also a benefit for wildlife. Foraging means gathering plants, fruits, small animals, birds, and insects, (more precisely) stealing hunted animals from other predators, and finally hunting itself. Foraging can p
11: Wood Fire Cooking
A homesteader always learns how to be more self-sufficient and how to observe nature more closely. Hence for this purpose he/ she should know wood fire cooking, very easy however require some precautions to avoid spreading of fire as
- Don’t use excessive and extra wood
- Splash water on wood after finishing cooking
- If kerosene oil is being used for initiating ignition, use in very less quantity and be very precautionary as it aids in spreading fire within no time.
- In the beginning, go for the easy and simple recipes as complicated and larger food cooking will not be efficiently managed by homesteaders resulting in hazards.
- Logically only a Cast iron pot is required to rest wood and firing material.
12: Water Purification
In homesteading lands (away from cities and other crowded areas) earth water is usually more naturally purified but if it does not happen so for some satisfying reasons, the homesteader must learn some commonly used and easily available techniques to make water purification enlisted here,
- Bleach Purification
- Boiling/high temperature/solar purification
- Filter Purification
- Tablet Purification
13: Making Food Products
A homesteader must learn skills to make different varieties of food products commonly used in dining proposes, they are;
Bread Baking
A more natural, fresh handmade loaf of bread is always economical, soul touching along with adorable taste. Although it seems very different and difficult baking is quite easy just remember beginning any new business or task should be from simple units.
Learn to bake initially simple bread with easy recipes and then go for versatile baking like dinner rolls, paratha rolls, different burgers, and different recipes of bread especially sourdough recipes made up of wild yeast.
Butter Making
Very simple to make butter only you need
- milk
- butter making machine
- a bit of cream
Cheese
Only think about simple and soft cheese because it does not require extra and many ingredients, much time and work.
Pancake
The very favorite breakfast item of most nature-loving people can be prepared by a homesteader easily.
Yogurt
Always preferable over industrial ones, more nutritious, and does not require any specific intubation, mixing, and care.
Salad
Different varieties of salad can be made and sold as they are available in every restaurant (some of them are used as starters and some as side orders) other than selling propose, homesteading families prefer to eat fondly.
Mushroom
Homesteaders must have enough sense and skill to identify useful mushrooms in the wild as they can be used as food products as well as medical stuff.
But be very precautionary will identifying mushrooms as poisonous ones also look like commonly eatable varieties but can result in health deterioration.
14: Making Other Useful Products
Toilet Paper
Some leaves can efficiently replace toilet paper as they are smoother and (some are reusable). Cotton strips and Dombeya leaf (also known as toilet paper plant) both are reliable sources of toilet paper.
Decor Stuff
A good step toward becoming more self-sufficient. Homesteaders should use scrap woods from the forest, garden, or somewhere outside (instead of buying with money) to make frames, signs, boards, etc. Painting of this stuff should be learned.
Herbal Remedies
Homesteader must learn how to make herbal remedies from different herbs as treating yourself with your own made/ found medical product (instead of modern medicine) make you more self-sufficient.
But please get instructions about some harmful herbs as consumption of them results in a fatality.
Making Soap Product
Yes, this skill seems to be quite difficult and precautions requiring but very productive and emotional boosting towards self-sufficiency in nature.
Making Cleaning Products
Going to market for buying cleaning products is expensive both in respect to money and time, so learning skills to make these products at home is a good option as homemade ones are cheap, less time consuming, good disinfectants and surface shiners, and only require a few things (naturally and easily available) to initiate making process like vinegar, lemon, soda (club, bake), vodka, etc.
Broom Making
A broom is a basic necessity of every home, and there are not very special skills to learn for broom making as almost everyone knows. However, the modern world brought some advancements too but especially essential ones.
Beauty Products
If a homesteader learns how to make beauty products he or she can become self-sufficient, successful, and rich in no time. Uncountable beauty and skincare products can be made at home manually with natural products and ways.
Coconut and honey mixture in different quantities results in different hair masks, and facial scrubs. Many other products like moisturizers, face washes, toners, balms, etc.
Quilting/ Knitting/ Weaving
Sewing, quilting, and knitting are basic skills to learn as self-sufficiency is the actual demand for a homesteader.