For the whole year of 2021, I am challenging myself. I am going to learn 52 new self reliant skills throughout the year. Yes, that’s one new skill every week!
I am going to be posting a new post here every week with the Self Reliant Skill of the Week, and a video of the results on my YouTube channel. It will be announced on Friday mornings at 10:00 am MT on my Facebook page. Follow me there to get the reminders!
My email subscribers will also be getting a reminder on Friday. Sign up below to get those emails!
I hope you’ll follow along on my journey. I’ve been homesteading for 3 years, but there is always something new to learn!
I am especially excited about learning all of the old-fashioned, vintage skills. The ones that helped our grandparents get through hard times, like The Great Depression.
Self reliance is learning to do things on your own, to be independent. My goal is to lessen my dependence on the grocery stores, to grow and make a lot of what we consume here on the farm. To make our own income from our land. To be prepared for whatever life throws at us.
I have always been drawn to living simply. In fact, I sometimes joke that I was born a generation or two too late. My mother was born during The Great Depression, so she passed on a lot of her frugality to me. She always had a food storage, reused things that she could, and saved as much money as she could.
I believe that these vintage skills are too valuable to let slip away. So I’m embracing them! This is going to be a fun experience for me, and I think it will be fun for you too. I sincerely hope you’ll consider joining me in learning these “new” self reliant skills. Let’s do this together!
We had company from the city last weekend, and we had an interesting conversation. I told them that I was going to render tallow from a sheep that we had butchered ourselves. I tell you what, I’ve never seen so many blank stares and scrunched up noses, asking me “What’s tallow?”. So for this episode …
In the last episode of the Self Reliant Skill of the Week, I made flour tortillas. They were a lot harder to make than I though they would be! So for this week, I am making homemade corn tortillas. These corn tortillas are versatile, easy, and only take 3 ingredients. In the spring of 2020, …
My family eats tortillas all.the.time. In fact, we almost use tortillas more often than we use bread! We sometimes use tortillas to make a sandwich wrap. A favorite “dessert” here is fried tortillas with cinnamon and sugar. And don’t judge, but some members of my family (definitely NOT me) will even eat leftover spaghetti wrapped …
If you haven’t noticed, I’m on a bit of a fermenting kick right now, which is a really new thing for me. It all started with my super easy Homemade Yogurt in the Crockpot. I still had some whey left over from making this, and I had a big bag of carrots that needed to …
Lacto Fermented Carrots in a Ginger-Citrus Brine Read More »
I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a soda addict. So when I found out you can make healthy lacto-fermented soda with whey, I just had to try it myself! This episode of Self Reliant Skill of the Week covers exactly that. Remember last week when I made homemade yogurt in the crockpot? I decided …
I enjoy a good bowl of yogurt. But those little cups you buy at the store, for $1 each? That’s way too much of a markup for me. So we usually buy the bigger tubs. But unless you’re buying organic yogurt, those tubs can be filled with artificial flavors, colors, and other undesirable stuff. And …
For this week’s Self Reliant Skill of the Week, I learned how to crochet. I have fond memories of my mother-in-law crocheting for hours, making all kinds of blankets and afghans for all of the kids and grandkids. But for some reason, I just never learned it for myself. Until now! Crochet is a great …
For my first Self Reliant Skill of the Week, I’ve learned how to make ghee. To be honest, until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t even heard of the stuff. But it seems to be popping up more and more, so it has piqued my interest. So, instead of leaving you in suspense, let’s …
