We have come to believe that some of the most basic skills and knowledge that made America great are being lost. Worse yet in all but the few remaining tribal regions they are being lost all around the world. Some of this skills are ancient, some are modern.
To give you an example a few of the skill types we hope to preserve are…
- Traditional fire making
- Building simple structures
- Baking bread from whole wheat (starting with whole grain)
- Basic Mechanic Skills (as basic as changing oil)
- American rifle craft
- Food storage methods like dehydration, root cellaring and making biltong
- Plant identification skills
- Basic herbal first aid
- Gardening and permaculture techniques
- Sewing
- Running a generator
- And more
At one time the average American was in the words of founding father Benjamin Franklin, “a jack of all trades and a master of none” or more accurately most were a jack of all trades and a master of one, perhaps two. A man might be a carpenter by trade but he grew a garden at home, knew his way around a wrench and deal with a multitude of needs with out “calling a guy” to take care of it. The same can be said of America’s women. Yesterdays mom could sew, cook, garden, preserve food and more. Together a family unit existed that could handle anything life brought to bear on it and most importantly these skills were taught to children and therefore preserved.
In short when we say “traditional skills” we don’t limit that to primitive skills it encompasses all the life skills that are currently being lost in American and around the world. In our society it is now common for people to specialize to the exclusion of most other knowledge and rely on technology and professionals. Our belief is that it is time to begin preserving the skills and knowledge before they are lost to time. We do this for two reasons. First, because they have inherent worth and value and that alone makes them worth preserving. Second, because some day we may need them, disasters happen, technologies fail and our human condition is quite fragile.
We hope you will join us in our efforts by practicing, learning and above all teaching these skills so that they can be preserved for future generations.