Useless Skills vs Useful skills

[kaykay]

I loved those books....haven't seen one in about 25 years.  Wow...where'd you get them?

[Chip Haynes]

I'd had a couple of them for years, but found the whole set at last year's Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's held in the Coliseum for three days in March every year, and my wife and I are there, looking and buying, all three days. If you have an interest in old books, you might want to plan on a Florida vacation next March just to check it out.

(I found a first edition of a little booklet I did in there some years ago- not sure what that says about me.)

(And yes, I bought it.)

[OldHorseman]

I butchered the goat and iced it.

   I'd be a little wary of eating any critter whose cause of death was not absolutely known... Could be that she was poisoned somehow, then opened up by a passing scavenger after death.

[oliver.rochford]

Or killed by a parasite.

Many will die if they are consumed by the wrong host.

Others just grow and grow and grow and consume.....never receiving the trigger to go to the next stage of its lifecycle.

Ollie

[CreoleGenius]

I know the goat was healthy, but not if she was happy with her new herd.
The body was in good shape except for where the predators had chewed
out the womb.  This led me to assume coyotes.  They are known to do that
with cattle.  I don't know if it is pleasant to say this, but one post peak skill
which we may need is the ability to consume things which are not certified
by being shrink wrapped in plastic on your grocer's shelves.  By the trend in
e coli cases lately, I project that more and more people will learn to live off
the land (dumpster diving, for instance) and less from the mega society's
packaged, devivified, radiated, pre-chewed and processed Frankenfood.

Remember A Boy and His Dog?  The movie in which Don Johnson
and his 'talking dog' eat any canned food they can find (years after Apocalypse)
and finally get some good meat on the hoof?  I forget that girl's name.

[oliver.rochford]

That was an amazing flick

Her name was Quilla!!

Ollie

[OldHorseman]

I don't know if it is pleasant to say this, but one post peak skill
which we may need is the ability to consume things which are not certified by being shrink wrapped in plastic on your grocer's shelves.

   I didn't mean that you shouldn't eat un-shrinkwraped USDA meats...  If you'd seen the coyotes take her down, I would've had no concerns. But you didn't say she had any neck wounds, so I'm wondering how they took her down, and why they didn't drag her into the brush to eat more later.

[Log hauler]

         Usefull Skills
               
       harness makeing and repair
       teamsters ( as in horses)
       farriers
       Large animal vets
       welding and metal working   (things will need to be repaired)
       Good, fix anything mechanics
       Butchers, and meat cutters  (local markets will become the norm)
       Saw sharpeners and filers   (as we just won't be able to buy new)
       Print shop opperators w/ manual presses  (i haven't seen one in yrs)
   
       Years ago I came upon an old man in the southern tier, on an old back road. He had an old cirrcular saw mill, an old fashioned print shop (which at one time he made labels for the local feed mill), a wood working shop ,all on line shafts. He had a complete metal working shop (w/a 12 foot bed lathe) all on line shafts. Up in the back lot he had a sugar house, a huge garden, (he was in his 70's then) And a Iron foundry,(or cupalo) for smelting his own castings. He raised his own grains, raised his own meat, raised his own produce.He had a complete butcher shop with coolers. He was as close to being self sufficeint as any one I have ever met before or since.
       
       Useless Skills
   
       Truck Drivers ( I'm hopen it aint far off, after 29 yrs of it)
       Telemarkaters  (what a relief)
       Lawn care people
       State Highway workers 
       Traval Agents
       Nail salon's
       weight loss clinics
     
      One more usefull skill, opperation and repair of steam boilers and engines, It is a major lost art today. I have a good friend (he is 86) who has a yard full of traction engines, Treshing machines, a steam opperated saw mill,and a shingle mill. I have learned some from him , but not near enough!! He does allmost all of his farming with horses, and is a Wealth of Information!! 

[podunkinak]

   I have been thinking about farming. If you can get it going now as an organic farm that would be ok. I think it would be a bad idea to depend on as a source of income after the fact though.  Being able to grow your own food could be of huge importance, but i don't think it would be wise to neglect learning something else that could be used to barter for other services.

   Some time ago there was a link posted here for a manual well drilling how to writen by some missionaries in Africa. It was exelent. I know absolutly nothing about drilling a well but if the article was acurate, I am confident I could do this with some help. I am even considering trying it in the spring. haveing the tools and the experience to drill wells could be a valuble skill.

   Leather work and tanning was mentioned, I agree 100%. Just one more thing i plan on investigating.

  As a carpenter I have also considered cart building. I know how to shape wood but have never attempted to make a cart or wagon. My experience tells me that it shouldn't be to difficult but the first couple will probably not be very usefull.

  I suspect there are a lot of skilled trades that will be needed that we haven't thought of yet....coopers? smiths?  LOL just think of some last names.

[Nicole]

Former thread on future careers:
http://www.peakoilstore.com/forum/index.php/topic,124.0.html

Lots of ideas in that thread.

[nomadcat]

learning how to scavenge useful materials and put them together to make what you need/want. without high tech or energy using tools.
learning how to actually work.
learning how to sit still and be quiet when that is needed.
learning how to entertain oneself.
learning how to live with others in community
learning how to start a fire when the local match factory closes down.
learning how to make do when you can't just go out and buy new shoes or clothes.
learning how not to need new shoes and clothes all the time.
learning how to actually be happy with what one has
learning how not to need an expert to do everything for us
learning how to make our own decisions
learning the most common plants in ones area that one can eat or use medicinally

[Calles]

Yo Yo! I got mad skeelz! yo dont know nuthin bout my skeelz! i ball gooder than ya'll, so respect!

[Loki]

I thought about this thread on my walk to and from work today (about two hours total). It's a subject that has occupied my mind for some time. This is what I've concluded thus far.

I think it's highly unlikely that we're going to suddenly find ourselves living in nineteenth-century conditions. I think some of this thinking may stem from a back-to-the-past romanticism (I'm guilty of it, too). Much more likely in my opinion is a serious depression, something along the lines of the 1930s global depression and the situation in Argentina and former USSR in the 1990s. Massive unemployment, a huge increase in crime (both organized and street level), and a decline in services that we all currently take for granted (electricity, garbage, medical, dental, hot water, central heating, etc.). But we'll still have electricity for the foreseeable future (even if it's "brown" and only on a few hours a day), we'll still have cars (even if we can't afford to drive them much) and roads (even if they're a bit rougher than we'd like), we'll still have computers (even if, as in Cuba, they're 20 years out of date), i.e., we'll still have most of our modern technology, even if it's at a lower level and slowly deteriorating. We won't have a new iPod model every six months, we won't have new video game systems to fight over, and much more importantly, most of us won't have steady work.

So that said, what I see as being the most important are the following:

• Being able to grow your own food--this is one constant that I've seen in connection with the 1930s depression and the collapse of both Russia and Argentina--those who could grow their own food were much better off, even if they were cash poor
• Having some skills that you can trade for cash or goods, whether it's welding, tutoring, carpentry, herbalism, auto mechanics, or whatever---the more skills the better, but don't get too caught up in assuming that we'll be shoeing horses and making wagonwheels---I also wouldn't put all my eggs in the IT basket, but people will still have computers and will need to get them fixed (but don't be surprised if your payment is in watermelons )
• Having mercantile skills (bartering, entreprenerial drive)---FerFAL, a guy from Argentina who has described the situation there in depth, mentioned that it's better to be the guy who owns the recyling facility than it is to be the guys who wander the streets and scrounge for stuff to recycle--an obvious point, but one worth pondering
• Have as large a circle of familiy and friends as possible

I write this knowing that I am sorely lacking in all of the above. The following are the skills I've decided to work on. I've dabbled in most of these areas, but certainly haven't reached the skill level I'd like to.

MEDICAL:

• Herbalism
• Wilderness first responder (or preferably EMT-W)
• EMT-B?

HORTICULTURE / GARDENING / FORAGING:

• Get as much training and experience as possible in gardening, permaculture, arboriculture, beekeeping?
• Get more experience with wild plant foraging
• Get better at preserving foods (drying, canning, pickling, etc.)

MANUAL:

• Get basic training in pottery, basketry
• Other possibilities include welding, woodworking, basic home improvement/maintenance skills

MARTIAL:

• Get back into arnis
• Get more formal training in pistol and rifle shooting, and practice both more often

OTHER:

• Get Spanish skills back up to speed
• Get less shitty at playing the guitar
• Last but certainly not least: Get healthier and stay that way!

This isn't a final or comprehensive list, but it's my working list so far.

[CreoleGenius]

Yesterday's skill set.

I woke up and fed the human kids again, and delivered them to school buses.
I collected brush from the side of the road for goats to eat; fed them and chickens.
I had copies made of house plans for mortgage agency, then interfaced with my
boss by phone about a report I must compose partially before we even go out in
the field (environmental surveys).  I went grocery shopping at Wednesday farmers'
market and met young woman with whom I am trading services (I'm making
business cards for her; she is blowing custom glass fan pulls for my new house).
I then shopped at the regular store for meat, milk, etc., before dropping over at
the well contractors for info on a new well drilled for a friend's son's new place.

At home, worked on the report.  Human kids and wife came home.  I stewed
cabbage and carrots with bacon for the vegetable and baked a frozen family
entree while wife took male human kid to karate class.  I read a book while
wife fought with kids over homework and grades.  Fell asleep over book after
watching the news.

[CreoleGenius]

Yesterday's (Thursday) skill set.

Got the human kids fed, dressed and bused, yada, yada, fed the goats brush, etc.
Same thing every day.  Posted to LATOC forum the yesterday's skills set.  Worked
on the base map for the report of the survey that hasn't even been done yet.  The
weather is too poor for us to go out into Chandeleur Sound.  These constant cold
fronts are whipping up 4 and 5 foot seas and my boss doesn't like to work in the
cold.  Played soccer/ballet dad after the people came home.  Fed them again. 
Went shopping for a couple of Christmas items that had been put off.

I am reading a book about how land, water and construction surveying were
accomplished before GPS, LORAN, theodolites, levels and sextants were invented.
The ancients were very resourceful.  They had created timepieces and distance
measuring equipment that we should try to understand before entering into the
post-electric void.

I am thinking about my proposed herb garden right now and wondering if I could
erect an obelisk which would serve as a gnomon in the middle  of the garden.
I would calibrate it over days for daily (sundial) time and over the year for sidereal time
by plotting the solstices and equinoxes.  Do you know those cylinders filled by
concrete contractors that are tested for strength and then laid out for people to take
from the testing service's parking lot?  Well, I have lots of them and I was going to
dig with the post-hole tool and bury them at the important shadow points in the garden
(hours of the day creating an arc, Solsticial and Equinoctial noonday points, the four
directions (maybe paint them with native american color symbology for N, W , S, and E).
After I finished this timepiece I would mulch and plant the culinary and medicinal herbs
that do well in this part of the country.  I could then jump between concrete cylinders
of time to harvest and wed the garden.