Our parents and grandparents did NOT do us a favor!

I was having a conversation with my husband this morning about all of the things our grandparents and parents took for granted, yet did not pass on to us (as a whole, not just he and I)!

Many of them grew up without electricity, automobiles and modern conveniences and were taught from birth up how to provide for themselves. With the advent of modern society's conveniences they quickly and happily abandoned all they knew and embraced the modern era. We grew up learning what they did teach and that was to rely on the systems of electricity, mass transit, personal vehicles, running water, indoor plumbing, precanned foods, grocery stores, ie. other people for all of our needs. They did not teach us how to grow, grind and store wheat, how to bake bread in a cook stove, how to make sourdough starter, how to garden and preserve without all of the modern tools of the trade, how to sew with an old fashioned needle and thread, etc. The list goes on and on.

A lot of us here are learning that stuff now because we recognize the need for that forgotten knowledge and we are teaching our children to be self sufficient as well.

I was lucky. When I was a child our considerably large family moved from the city to the country. Our house had no electricity in an era when everyone did. We had no running water, indoor plumbing, none of the conveniences we had just left behind. We were taught how to survive and every hand was necessary to that survival. Girls and boys both learned to do chores that are now considered gender associated. We thought it was great! We thought we'd died and gone to heaven. No, it wasn't easy but it was a good kind of hard!

I am grateful to my parents for not failing to teach me primitive living skills and I pass those down to my children and my grandchildren.

I'm hoping that most of you do the same.

I totally agree. For some reason I have the urge to tell my kids and grandkids how to start a fire from scratch, how to make little oil candles from an old lid and cotton thread, what's good to eat from the wild when there's no food and all that sort of stuff.

They think I'm a right nerd and laugh but I know it's sinking in - repetition is the mother of all learning.

I've also been thinking of collecting a whole bunch of useful survival information and printing it into tiny little books for them all. Just in case.

Hooray for bushcraft.

reply to post by SeenMyShare


Yes I guess previous generations and even now, have/had put forth too much trust in the new era of technology and industrialized food.

Unfortunately I have to learn how to be self-sufficient, but not all is bad. I have friends that want to do the same, and with their support I should be able to change my family's future track record.

Wigit, I'm glad you're teaching them. My philosophy is better to know now and not need, than to need now and not know!

Unlimitedpossiblilites, now is the time to learn and I'm glad you have a group of willing co-learners. My kids keep telling me how they'll never need this information and I keep insisting that they learn . I'd rather they were the ones with the information rather than be the ones needing the information if they were in a survival situation. It gives them a head start, and makes them useful to a group rather than be a burden to a group.

reply to post by SeenMyShare

Unlimitedpossiblilites, now is the time to learn and I'm glad you have a group of willing co-learners. My kids keep telling me how they'll never need this information and I keep insisting that they learn . I'd rather they were the ones with the information rather than be the ones needing the information if they were in a survival situation. It gives them a head start, and makes them useful to a group rather than be a burden to a group.

Yes it is indeed a group, albeit a small group, but nonetheless, a group.

I have not done the requisite research needed to fully understand how Permaculture works, but apparently its is extremely efficient and a step towards self-sufficiency. I honestly believe that if a majority of the U.S. population turned towards living off the land and self-sufficiency via Permaculture, we could really and I mean really change and shape the future of this world.

It seems you are knowledgeable in many vital areas. If I have any questions in the near future, perhaps I could pose them to you?

Anyway,



[edit on 24-7-2010 by Unlimitedpossibilities]

I moved my family to nothern Wisconsin late one September. My oldest was 14, and then my daughter was 13, and twins that were 10.

The ground was already frozen, so too late to put in a septic tank. We used a privy for that winter, that was fitted with a heat lamp we could turn on from the house before we had to go out, in several feet of snow at times, I might add!

We used a wood stove to heat the house, and dry our laundry. The kids had to help chop wood nearly everyday after school. The stove had to be stoked about every 3 hours during the coldest months, even at night.

We had a huge garden, and the kids actually enjoyed collecting wild berries of all sorts in the spring and summer. All the kids had hunting licenses in the fall, and helped dress whatever was taken. The kids also spent a lot of time fishing.

We did have the luxury of electricity, but my kids learned a lot that winter, about how not to take things for granted! They also learned to be somewhat self sufficient.

Everyone should experience not living with the conveniences that we all seem to rely on so heavily. It takes work, and dedication, but it most certainly won't kill ya!