Basic Life Skills No-One Has Anymore

[tkioz]

For the OP, can you split logs? Do you know when they're seasoned enough to burn? Can you get a fire going from scratch? Hunt, kill, skin game? If you can, great. But I wouldn't get high-and-mighty about it - these are skills that, barring apocalypse, are optional in the century we live in.

From the start to finish.
Yes I can split a log.
Yes I know what wood will burn and what wont.
Yes I can start a fire without man made tools (i.e lighter/etc), though it's a massive pain to do so)
Yes I can hunt, with firearms, I learned how to make a rudimentary bow as well when I was a teenager and on a bowhunting kick, I can also make basic snares and traps with supplies found in the bush.
I can kill animals effectively without much pain on their part with my hands (snapping the neck of a rabbit for example)
I can butcher and skin (pluck where applicable) a great many animals, to date I've done rabbit, fox, kangaroo, emu, wild pig, sheep, cow, alpaca (don't ask), chickens, ducks, and likely a few others I can't think of.

I don't consider any of the above skills to be anything other then a product of how I grew up and my interests at various times of my life, with the exception of splitting a log none of the above is what I'd consider "basic", they are things that are useful to know if you live outside a major city as I do, but they aren't things everyone who runs a house should know!

As I've said before knife sharpness is a safety issue, a blunt knife is more dangerous to you then a sharp one.

 

[Funkysandwich]

87 Octane! That'd just about kill my engine!

I put 91 octane in it once and it ran like a lawnmower.

You must have a pretty nice sports car if you need to put 93 in it to get it to run right. Hell where I live 91 is the highest grade you can get. 87 - 89 - 91, if it can't run on those three you're pretty much SOL.

The minimum octane rating sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland is 95 RON - sold in just about every service station in the country. Our octane rating is different to yours - you use AKI instead of RON, but our 95 RON is your 91 AKI. He still probably wouldn't be able to run his engine on 87 AKI fuel. I know that European and Japanese cars disagree with it, at the least. More modern Australian machines probably do as well.[/quote]

I have a '79 Datsun 200B, as displayed in my profile pic. It's no sports car, but I have modified the engine so that it has a higher compression ratio. That basically means there is less place for the fuel to combust in, meaning that a lower octane fuel will damage the engine. I always use 98 RON petrol as that gets the most power and the best mileage.

And yes, I did the work myself. Does that count as a basic life skill?

 

[dariuskyne]

to correct people who keep saying that farming isn't hard...

-snip-.

I'm not sure if the person meant commercial farming, they could mean having their own little garden in their yard. Growing a few cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce does not require much skill, but some people still can't do it.

I kinda figured that was the case, and why i posted the minor rant so that there was a little distinction between farming, and gardening

 

[TraderJimmy]

What's happened to the world? People have grown up in the current generation, a generation I'm part of, without learning basic skills, what happened? Was it tech? Was it parents simply not passing them down? Or something else?

I'm talking about the ability to fix hole in a pair of socks for the love of god or fry an egg!

For example I was invited over to dinner at a friends house a while back, long story short I showed up early and offered to help him cook, he asked me to cut up some meat, the problem was all his knives were as dull as a politician, I asked where his steel was and he had no clue what I meant, I finally got across I was after a sharpening stone, which he didn't have, nor did he have a clue how to use it... nor did any of the other guests at the dinner all mid 20s...

I mean what the heck? I learnt how to sharpen a knife when I was 10, around the same time I learn how to mend clothes, cook basic food (before moving onto more advanced stuff), etc.

Was it because I was raised by my grandparents, people from a generation who valued those skills?

How many people here lack those skills and why do you think they are vanishing?

There's a sense of shame we get from the shallower parts of pop culture for a make-do-and-mend, hobbyist mentality. I mean, that's pretty much the identifier for the 'nerd' in Hollywood films - they've repaired their clothes/glasses/shoes/car/whatever themselves, and they have a hobby which requires a certain amount of work. The idea that we are fed by everything from most chart music to most popular films to most adverts to most chick lit, subliminally, is that poor people are dirty and strange, and of course if you have to repair something you are unnecessarily serious, probably boring, and definitely poor, dirty and strange.

Punk was meant to blow those stereotypes and damaging associations away, but then punk as a movement became too tribal and middle-class actually pretty damn quickly, and we're living with the materialistic, capitalist, greedy hangover from the '80s and '90s. Worse than that, we're still drinking the same swill.

Declaration of Interest: I brew my own beer and make some of my own furniture (badly).

EDIT: In response to the "Use of resources" argument for feeling bad for using your computer - visit www.freerice.com once after every computer session and play it until you feel better. If I ever manage to get financially set for life, that site will become my life's main focus (sad, yeah, but it's an easy way to help and I know lots of words/latin roots of words).

 

[Cobbs]

The skill I'm lacking is the ability to not feel guilty. I feel guilty really easily. Although this is also kind of good, as it means I rarely let people do things for me. I don't know why this is though, maybe it's because I was pretty much raised by a babysitter that was incredibly kind but also very poor.

EDIT: Yes! 1600th post, which is important because as everyone knows 1600 is one of the best numbers.

i feel your pain dango. dmaned empathy genes

 

[HerrBobo]

Snip

My Mum died when I was 12. My Dad, while a great guy, was not one of cooking your dinner or washing your clothes. So, from about then on I have been doing it all myself.

In first year of college I lived with a guy that did not know how to use the grill.

 

[Guest_Star]

Fuckit!
This thread just reminded me I have to pick up a new whetstone after work. The ole "good" one lies under the sink of the appartment I just moved from and some of the kitchen knives are in dire need of sharpening.

OT: I blame the parents. If you don't know things liek this yerself, at least force the kids to watch Ray Mears and suchlike (not much sewing on them shows, but can't have it all).

 

[Kurokami]

What's happened to the world? People have grown up in the current generation, a generation I'm part of, without learning basic skills, what happened? Was it tech? Was it parents simply not passing them down? Or something else?

I'm talking about the ability to fix hole in a pair of socks for the love of god or fry an egg!

For example I was invited over to dinner at a friends house a while back, long story short I showed up early and offered to help him cook, he asked me to cut up some meat, the problem was all his knives were as dull as a politician, I asked where his steel was and he had no clue what I meant, I finally got across I was after a sharpening stone, which he didn't have, nor did he have a clue how to use it... nor did any of the other guests at the dinner all mid 20s...

I mean what the heck? I learnt how to sharpen a knife when I was 10, around the same time I learn how to mend clothes, cook basic food (before moving onto more advanced stuff), etc.

Was it because I was raised by my grandparents, people from a generation who valued those skills?

How many people here lack those skills and why do you think they are vanishing?

I can cook damn well, can't say we have a sharpening stone though, nor do we need any. They're disappearing because there's not much need for them though, I guess. (the skills, not rocks)

 

[Kukakkau]

Problem I find with the kitchen aspects is that my mum doesn't like people in the kitchen when she's cooking so you can't really observe what to do or help out. Still manage to teach myself a little when they're gone though.

Still for most basic skills I'd say I'm alright but room for improvement (god that sounded like a report card...)