What do you make or want to learn how to make?

Soap, bread, clothing, tools, furniture, appliances...?
--What do you currently make for yourself or your family that helps you to be self-sufficient? Or what would you like to learn how to make?

Thought this could be a fun and inspirational thread.

 

I make candles, clothing, quilts, breads, jellies & jams... stuff like that.

I'd love to try my hand at soap someday, and while we've tried a bit of woodworking both my husband & I would love to improve our skills at that!
love,
mom

 

EVERYTHING! if i can't make it, grow it ,raise it ,hunt it ,trap it ,or find it, i don't really need,or want it! like this stupid computer! one day i'll sell it and turn the cash into some chickens, rabbits, goats, and a ginseng bed, lol.

 

I have a green thumb, but as far as making thing I don't know much, but I have always wanted to know how to make different types of baskets and such.

 

I would like to try furniture making and wood carving...I think it would be cool to make really nice ornate hardwearing furniture that I just cant afford to buy. Im sick of all this MDF and chipboard stuff, it just doesnt last and you cant even burn it to get rid of it as its poisonous.

 

I'd love to learn how to build a log cabin and good underground shelter suitable for living.

 

Im for sure taking a year of my life afterschool, with a few people and just going into the woods and starting from scratch and just living off the land. i think it would be very interesting.

 

Wish you the best man

 

I had the same idea when I was your age(well around 16). I ended up going to college after highschool, but I would still love to do this. If you go through with it send me a message haha.

 

I haven't done it for a full year but did it for sometimes, few times... and I would like you to consider that "I don't even know how could go from a free bird to a college student".

They are 2 very different worlds, even after few weeks in the mountains or in the woods you just start to live off the beat of the Earth, your only thing in my mind is having something to eat and don't have cold nights.

Ya know I'm a drop out, I don't know much about college, but I know it's too structural for me. Me don't like the structure hehe.

Just givin you few tips here, you are what, 15..! Start with somethin' smaller young fellow. You first need a strong mind... I didn't have that while I was teenager. If you are fucked up in a city, you'll be fucked up in the wood. When I was 16 I used to think that the grass is greener everywhere else than where I was. Took every fucking rides to find out the same sad stories. Maybe it's not your case, but just to let you know you are better off sad at your parents' place than somewhere up in the mountains because trust me when the shit don't stop - the shit don't stop. It can be fucking great too if you are a crazy man like me, I remember some of my best times being at the top of a mountain in a hammock with only a tarp over me head on a acid trip when a badass MOTHERFUCKING storm hits the floor! It was windy as fuck, rainy as fuck, lightning storm wouldn't stop, I had no blankets, nothing, just some clothes, 2 buddies of mine and some herbs that was my home. Believe it or not, that was the best moment of my life.

Than ya need knowledge, sure you'll find your way on the field but ya need some basics. Ya need some tools too. Just remember, the weapon of choice is de knowledge.

Ya need health too, and if you want to build something confortable and satisfayin' for that year... maybe some money for some tools would be a great idea. Cheaper shelter are great for few weeks or a mounth... So get your hands good at building and using tools.

There's many way to live your trip, choose the way you want to live it, but in the end, you'll get stronger than you were anyways!

Just be wise man!

 

we have built our own cabin, dug root cellars, built an earth oven and a couple outdoor kitchens . we have built an outhouse tapped springs etc. We grow most of our veggies herbs and meats. We grow some of our own chicken and critter vittles rather than purchasing them .WE have no well or city water, we use a cistern and collect rainwater for all but our drinking water. I make soaps n candles and some jewelry . We try and use homeopathic remedies rather than doctors.. My near future goals are to learn how to brain tan and breaking into the local market with fresh herbs n veggies for partial income..

 

How cool! More power to you! I wish I could live like that.. I'd be so awesome! ​

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I learned to weld so I could build custom bicycles, but nobody bought them. I learned to work with fiberglass and advanced composites so I could build custom car bodies, but that business went down the toilet in a divorce. I learned to "build" herb capsules when I bought a small herb business, but later sold the company (dumb move). I've learned to "build" books - not bookbinding, but design, composition, and cover art.

I'd like to learn more about photography and art, but I'm not sure that would help me become more self-sufficient. EVERYbody and their dog makes prints and cards, but scupture would be fun. I'd REALLY like to perfect a high-speed pedal boat.

 

Have you ever seen the movie Alone in the Wilderness? It is played all the time on PBS.

 

heres a taster:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay...187&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

No I haven't seen the movie Alone in the Wilderness. I am not Americain so I don't think I have PBS, plus I don't know much about television.

I'd like to thank you about the info man, and ripple for the link, thank you both of you guys, you really made my day. I hope I'll find some more videos on the web soon cause here it's night. I really enjoied looking at the video, and the way that old man is talking. I sure will have some sweet dreams tonight.

Thank you of thinking I would appreciate this video man, really happy about it.

 

Glad I could be of help. I saw Alone in the Wilderness on tv a few years back, and it inspired me very much.

Here is the link to website dedicated to Dick Proenneke, the man who made the videos. A DVD of the whole movie is available there, as well as his books and other videos.
http://www.dickproenneke.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

a map of where he built his cabin:
http://www.discovermachine.com/maps/99

 

And in response to the original post...

A few years back I set aside a portion of my backyard and grew my own corn. Didn't have an incredibly large plot, so I made paper envelopes over the tassels and hand pollinated the silks. I also grow several varieties of peppers (green bell, jalapeno, hungarian hot, anaheim, habanero, sweet banana), carrots, lots of potatoes, tomatos, onions, etc. In the past I had a hydroponic setup for jalepenos. I dont make my own clothes, though I have a few favorite shirts that I did not want to go to waste so they have multiple patches in them. I don't use self-sealing envelopes anymore. I write a letter on some cardstock with a quill, do some fancy folding to make the letter into its own envelope, and seal it with wax. I also make my own bread pretty often. Even though great deals can be had on Wonder Bread at Meijer, the flavor doesnt even compare with fresh bread. As for in the future, I want to fashion my own log cabin furniture, especially a new bedframe, the metal one I have now is older than I am. The subdivision I am in now does not allow any livestock, but at some point when I live somewhere else I want to build a chicken coup. I have always wanted to make my own soap as well.

And also to save money I buy filter tubes, tobacco, and roll my own cigarettes, but a lot of people do that.

 

well I've been focussing on shelter the past few years of my life and at this point am just waiting for a piece of land so I can build my own little sustainable homestead. Though for the short term I may just end up trying to find some like minded folks willing to put me up and let me use 2 or 3 acres to experiment with self sufficent sustainable/nomadic architecture (see my post in the yurt thread for one such idea) in echange for work (help on the farm, utilitarian crafts I can produce). This would give me the ability to pick up and move if needed for work/apprenticing and not have to worry about paying for shelter again. If this is what I end up doing this spring and summer (I know I need to decide soon) I'd also like to combine it with an experiment growing the three sisters (if you don't know what this is and you live in north/eastern US/Canadan google it now!) in quantities sufficent to form the staples of my diet for the following winter/spring (allong with what I can hunt for in the fall hunting season after the harvest).

Strawbale and general carpentry are my strong suits at the moment but I'm really focussed on timber frame right now. I'd also be pretty comforatable tackling a log cabin, round scribed logs or hewn logs with dovetails, but I don't think it's the way I want to go. I also have a bit of experience with earth plasters, earthen floors, earth bag construction and cob but would like to learn more.

Once I do have some form of shelter established I'd like to focuss on some form of woodcraft. That's the great thing about the canadian growing season, if you do choose to get by with sustanaince farming you pretty much have the winters to do what you please and generate income. Utilitarian/craftsman/rustic inspired furnitire, batten doors, coopering, snowshoes, paddles and cedar rib canoes are some items in particular I would love to master and produce for income. But for some of those items I'm going to have to apprentice under someone first probably, we'll see. At some point I'm sure I'll end up dabbling in blacksmithing aswell, mostly so I could do things like decorative hinges for doors, horseshoes, etc.

Eventually I'm hoping I can get a piece of land with some young and mature maple on it so I can run a sugerbush in the early spring aswell.

Hmmm, ya, canning and presevering, making cheese, smoking meat, all on the to do list which I need to start taking a little more seriously.

Pretty much any pioneer craft really but I really do see myself focussing mostly on woodcraft. Hopefully down the road I can apprentice others and eventually expand the shop to allow for an open source system with facilites for woodworking, smithing, pottery, and (probably pushing it) glassblowing for craftspeople to expand and share thier trade.

It's hard sometimes when your stuck living by the clock and not the seasons in society(for me it's college right now)to not view all of this as a big pipedream, though I'll get there slowly but surely.

And sorry if this turned into a big jumbled ramble, so much swirling around in the head these days, and an overwhelming sense of urgency to boot

 

I always like to make stuff right now I don’t have a lot of tools for any experiments so I am kind of limited.
But I have been thinking about making soap, I have made soap before with animal fat but I want to make some good stuff this time not the ghetto rendered lard hillbilly stuff.

Does anyone have any good recipes?

I am also going to make some nest boxes for some birds probably try for some barn swallows this year. Maybe chickadees of nuthatches also.