Bold the items that you know or have done. Add any that you can think of to the bottom of the list. Post it on your blog and link back here so that I can come visit
http://www.canadiandoomer.ca/2013/02/a-prodigious-list-of-homesteading-skills.html
Safely use an ax and hand saws.
Split firewood and kindling.
Stack and age firewood.
Grow a vegetable plant.
Plan, plant and grow a vegetable garden.
Sharpen any edge tool – knife, axe, hoe, chisel etc.
Basic firearm safety and gun proof your children and grandchildren.
Raise a chicken.
Shovel snow without putting out your back.
Read the weather.
Spin wool, cotton or flax into thread or yarn on a spinning wheel or with a drop spindle.
Use a garden shovel, spade or hoe without hurting your back.
Light a fire indoors or outdoors.
Go to a country auction and not get skinned.
Crochet.
Butcher small livestock like rabbits or chickens.
Hang clothes on a clothesline.
Basic tractor maintenance.
Know the difference between trees and the unique properties of various types of wood.
Cook 10 basic meals from scratch.
Pasteurize milk.
Divine/witch for water with a forked branch or a bent metal hanger.
Distinguish healthy plants and animals from unhealthy plants or animals.
Basic sewing skills.
Set an ear tag or tattoo for animal identification.
Determine an animal’s age by its teeth.
Cut and glaze glass.
Drive a standard transmission vehicle.
Thaw out frozen pipes without busting them.
Know how and when to use hybrid seeds.
Sew your own clothes with simple patterns.
Hand thresh and winnow wheat or oats and other small grains.
Train a working cattle or sheep dog.
Read the moon and stars.
Make soft or hard cheeses.
Live beneath your financial means.
Fillet and clean a fish.
Use a wash tub, hand-wringer and washboard.
Make soap from wood ashes and animal fat.
Lay basic brick or build a stone wall.
Basic home canning and food preservation.
Save open pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds.
De-horn livestock.
Use an awl and basic leather repair.
Make long-term plans for the future – plan an orchard, a livestock breeding program, or plan for stored energy sources. Jury rig anything with duct tape, baling twine and whatever is on hand.
Be comfortable with emergency/home birth.
Read an almanac.
Euthanize large livestock.
Use flat cloth diapers and wool soakers.
Cook on a cook stove.
Entertain yourself and live without electronic media.
Shear a sheep.
Manage human urine and feces without plumbing.
Swap, barter and network with like-minded people.
Generate electricity for home use.
Make a candle.
Dig and properly use a shallow well.
Refinish furniture.
Drive a draft animal.
Realistically deal with life, death and failure.
Use non-electric lighting.
Butcher a pig or goat.
Restrain large livestock.
Slaughter livestock.
Use a treadle sewing machine.
Give an injection.
Use a handsaw, hammer & nails, screw driver, wire cutters, and measuring tape.
Know when to ask for help.
Know how and when to prune grapes and fruit trees.
Hatch out chicken, duck or other poultry eggs.
Use a scythe.
Skin a furbearer and stretch the skin.
Tell the time of day by the sun.
Milk a goat, sheep or cow.
Use a smoke house.
Stomach tube a newborn animal.
Build basic homestead buildings (sheds, animal shelters, smoke house, ice house, etc.)
Break ground and plough.
Use a wood stove and bank a fire.
Make butter.
Knit.
Make and use a hot bed or cold frame.
Deliver a foal, calf, lamb or goat.
Know how to tell when winter is over.
Plant a tree.
Brood day-old chicks.
Dye yarn or cloth from plants.
Haggle like a horse trader.
Bake bread. U
se a pressure tank garden sprayer.
Halter break a horse or cow.
Graft baby animals onto a foster-mother.
Weave cloth.
Grow everyday kitchen herbs.
Make sausage.
Set and bait traps for unwanted vermin and predators.
Grind wheat into flour.
Make paper.
Make ink.
Know when it is more economical to buy something ready-made or when to make it yourself.
Castrate livestock.
Choose a location for a vegetable garden or orchard.
Catch and care for wild yeast for bread making.
Weave a basket.
Use electric netting or fencing.
Make fire starters from corn cobs or pinecones.
Use a pressure cooker.
Use a pressure canner to preserve meat and vegetables.
Correctly attach 3 point hitch implements to a tractor.
Trim the hooves of goats or sheep.
Sew your own underwear.
Make your own wine and beer.
Darn knitted or crocheted items.
Know basic plumbing and how to sweat copper pipes and joints.
Keep bees.
Change a spark plug.
Cook on an open fire
.Make vinegar.
Purify water.
Graft trees.
Make and use a bow and arrow.
Preserve meat by curing.
Erect a fence.
Hang a gate
.Make and use herbal tinctures, infusions and other herbal remedies.
Replace electrolytes in a battery.
Charge a battery.
Change a car tire.
Repair a tire.
Do an oil change in any vehicle.
Build an effective compost pile.
Correctly set spark plug spacings.
Change all light bulbs – household and vehicle.
Prime a well pump.
Fix water troughs around the paddocks.
Suture both animals and humans.
Just another Day on the Farm 