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Ooooo....
When are you doing the baby back ribs again???
That skill would definitely get you an honored place in my camp!!
I grill those up, off and on, all summer long. Mostly when the family is up here. I have a proprietary rub, and the meat just falls off the bone. But I raise the pork, so it's always tender and juicy, even if I flub up!
I'd be honored to have you as a guest. What you'd really enjoy is our annual clam boil every July 4th, which is my birthday. We usually have 20-25 people. I go down to Rhode Island and buy fresh clams in a mesh sack, still alive. I use a couple of 30 gallon stock pots. In go the potatoes, seaweed, sweet potatoes, Portuguese sausages (chourico), hotdogs for the kids, sweetcorn, and on top, more seaweed and the clams. We just steam them right in the shells, which open. When cooked, we serve up steaming platters with many pints of melted butter. Everybody helps themselves. Dessert is always cold watermelon, as we're too full for anything else! . It's a real pigfest, without pork!
I have many skills but nothing "choose me" exceptional.
Making an oven sounds like a possibility, ovens are useful in many ways and I'm a decent baker/cook.
One of my great-great's was a mason so maybe innate skills lurk.
Thanks for that idea.
Obviously medical skills will be prized as they are now (I have none) but my mind wandered and wondered what skills I have now or could learn as a 60-something female that would be valuable to a group that was deciding whether to let me be a member.
A SHTF book "One Second After" kept their eastern state enclave(NC I think) closed off except to those who had valuable skills.
I'm good with power tools, can construct basic things but if there is no reliable power that's not a great skill. Power saws even small ones would not be what we grab if we hit the road. Screwdriver, ax, hammer, handsaw would be useful.
I'm a good cook but every female will say that.
Sadly age would be a negative factor for females and males alike without rare skills to offer.
What skills do you have that would make you a valuable member?
I am an RN with experience in many different types of nursing from pediatrics to surgical/trauma. I am slowly building my own medical care go-bag using veterinary supplies from places like BigR. The bandages there are much cheaper (although you still need sterile supplies from a drug store).
I have antibiotics for livestock that are compatible for humans when you administer dose per pound of body weight. Needles, syringes, Antiseptics, anesthetics (human), suture kits & even IV supplies for hydration.
What I wish I had better expertise of, is medicinal herbs & plants.
It all depends on the definition of "SHTF", some skills will be more valuable than others, depending on the nature and severity of the "Collapse".
Most people think of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" as something that happened overnight, but didn't it actually occur over a period of a hundred or so years? So if your definition of SHTF is the decline and fall of the U.S.A., I think that all you have to do is look around you to see that we are into about year 40 or 50 of that very thing.
Now, if you're talking about Yellowstone blowing its top, that is a completely different situation, and the first year goal would be to NOT be one of the 90% or so of the human population that will perish in that time frame, many of which will die at the hands of their own neighbors, I can see things getting nasty when it comes to that last can of Bumblebee Tuna on the grocer's shelf. If any of us are still alive after year 3 (probably, in that case, you would be in the Australian outback living underground), then the skills already listed would make you valuable. I'd say that being a fertile, good-looking female would earn you some extra points in whatever civilization emerges, not much different than today, LOL. Youth and strength will be up against experience and knowledge, who knows how that one will play out.
In the million other scenarios bracketed by the ones I described, lie the hierarchy of skills that will allow you to survive, and hopefully flourish. Animal Husbandry would be something I'd think would be in demand in all but the worst scenarios, along with being able to make music, and be a good leader and trader. I'd put my money on those who can create "successful" booby traps in the first few months of The Big One, and also those that can "Eat things that would make a Billy Goat puke", to borrow a line from First Blood.
Last edited by Curly Q. Bobalink; 08-12-2019 at 03:42 AM..
I grill those up, off and on, all summer long. Mostly when the family is up here. I have a proprietary rub, and the meat just falls off the bone. But I raise the pork, so it's always tender and juicy, even if I flub up!
I'd be honored to have you as a guest. What you'd really enjoy is our annual clam boil every July 4th, which is my birthday. We usually have 20-25 people. I go down to Rhode Island and buy fresh clams in a mesh sack, still alive. I use a couple of 30 gallon stock pots. In go the potatoes, seaweed, sweet potatoes, Portuguese sausages (chourico), hotdogs for the kids, sweetcorn, and on top, more seaweed and the clams. We just steam them right in the shells, which open. When cooked, we serve up steaming platters with many pints of melted butter. Everybody helps themselves. Dessert is always cold watermelon, as we're too full for anything else! . It's a real pigfest, without pork!
I may have to drive to Maine!!!
That sounds fantastic, and yes, I just about went into a food coma just reading about it. You really know how to live Nor'Eastah!
IMHO Farm/rural folks will have many skills needed....Especially the older ones who didn't have to rely on modern farm tech to grow and preserve stuff. On the other hand I'm not to sure those folk will be wandering around....
What I don't see listed is Military skills, especially people/groups with combat experience.
I have tried Googling "hand fishing" and all I come up with are Asians catching fish out of very muddy waters or noodling in Oklahoma. But I was trained to fish for trout and other fish when I was very young; back in the 1950's and 1960's. I did not find out that it was illegal to 'hand fish' in my State until much later. Perhaps my State found out how many fish I used to catch hand fishing?
During the warmer months of the year I would walk up or down our small streams and feel under the rocks. Of course you would not want to do this in areas that had poisonous water snakes like down South. The idea is that fish feel safe under the rocks. So if you don's poke them with your fingers; you can stroke their bellies lightly and they will not move. Once you have thumb and forefinger lined up with their gills; then you clamp down quick. It takes some practice; but you can become very proficient. Proficient enough to feed yourself and others if you have good, clean, freshwater trout streams available. Of course if everybody did the same thing; the supplies of fish could dwindle.
One word of caution (actually two words): No rocks large enough for snapping turtles to hide and one also has to be aware that you can make a mistake and pull out a water snake from time to time. Our northern water snakes are not venomous; but they do have a nasty disposition and don't like to be held. On several occasion I had pulled a large snake out thinking I had a nice trout. It general bit me as hard as I grasped the snake and scared the heck out of me when I finally realized what I had in my hands!
I have watched many survival programs and YouTube videos; but have never seen anybody fish like I used to fish when younger. However, if I was hungry and had no tools or poles, I would again think of my very productive days hand fishing when I was young.
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. It's a real pigfest, without pork!
