Upskill Yourself For Self Reliance On The Homestead

As someone who is intent on becoming as self reliant as I possibly can, I like to learn new things and new skills! Undertaking the journey to upskill yourself for self reliance on the homestead can be both fun and rewarding.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but our capacity to learn means that we can constantly improve ourselves to reduce our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Advantages When You Upskill Yourself For Self Reliance

Many people don’t take the time to learn how to do new things. If a problem presents itself, or a task needs doing, they would rather pay someone to get it done than learn how to do it themselves. I find this a particularly typical mindset of people who live in the city, where the services of skilled people are readily available.

On the homestead, however, you may be some distance out of town and not have ready access to such services or skilled people. What is your alternative? If you want to get the job done, you have to learn how to do it yourself!

There are a number of advantages to upskill yourself for self reliance.

• Naturally, the first is that you become more self reliant!
• Save money. It is usually cheaper if you do it yourself!
• You can get the task done in your own time as opposed to someone else’s schedule
• Your new skill can develop into an income stream for your homestead if you are the only one in your area with those skills or get particularly good at something!

What To Do To Upskill Yourself

Those of you who run your own homesteads know how many tasks there are that need doing and where you pay others to do something because of your lack of knowledge and skill. Next time you have a project to do on the homestead which requires a skill you don’t have, step outside the box and consider learning that skill yourself. It will be another notch on your self reliant belt!

6 Ideas To Get You started!

Here are some ideas that may get you thinking of what to learn to upskill yourself for self reliance.

• Go on a woodworking course so you can make your own furniture or repair wood structures. This skill could also become an income stream if you can sell some of your products.
• Attend a blacksmithing course. This is a very useful skill to have! You can fix a whole host of things around the homestead, make your own tools and even make items to sell to generate an income.
• Learn fencing skills! I am not talking about donning a white suit and taking up a sword, but rather erecting fences to keep your livestock contained! This skill can be learned by simply working with a neighbor or someone else in your community who has the knowledge. Offer your services to help with a fencing job. That way you can learn a new skill and it only costs you some time!
• Leatherwork. This is a skill I would love to learn. If you process your own livestock and have leather available, you can make items that you would otherwise have to pay for. This could be as simple as clothing, or as complex as making tack for your horses. Other ideas could include making belts, knife sheaths, sharpening strops, or even shoes!
• Learn to make kombucha! This fermented health drink is not only good for you and your family but can also be turned into an income stream.
• Go on a beekeeping course! Beekeeping is a great skill to learn on the homestead. It has the benefit of increasing pollinators on your property to increase crop yields, and your get honey for your own use or to sell!

Another 5 Ideas For Good Measure!

Just to show you how easy it is to think of ways to upskill yourself for self reliance, here are another 5 ideas!

• Produce your own kefir and kefir products! Kefir is another fermented product which has a health benefit, but can easily be turned into a profitable undertaking. Healthy eating is becoming a hot topic and people are looking for heathier alternatives. Learn to make kefir as a drink, or kefir related products such as kefir cream cheese or kefir yoghurt!
• Acquire welding skills. This is another extremely useful skill to have on the homestead. Wear and tear on metal tools and farming implements can be repaired or maintained with this skill. If you get to an above average level with this skill, you will be surprised at what you can achieve!
• Meat processing . Friends of ours raise cattle on their farm. They are investigating attending a blockmans course to learn how to process their own cattle. Not having to outsource this process will double the profits on their beef! Whatever livestock you raise, learn how to process the meat yourself and save the cost of paying someone else to do it for you!
• Learn Fermenting skills. Learning how to ferment your vegetables has a twofold benefit. It allows you to preserve your excess harvest for future use, or to generate an income by selling your fermented goods!
• Go on a DIY Solar Installation Course! Those of us who use alternative energy on the homestead can learn how to install and maintain these systems ourselves. This will save on installation and maintenance costs. You will know your system inside out when it comes to troubleshooting!

These are just a few ideas where you can upskill yourself for self reliance on the homestead! I am sure you can easily add to the list!

[content-egg module=Amazon template=custom/list]

How To Acquire The Skills

Homesteaders are normally a pretty resourceful bunch, finding out where to learn a new skill should not present too much of a challenge! Here are some ideas for resources to kickstart your imagination though!  As mentioned previously, you can learn from a friend or neighbour who has the relevant knowledge or skill. Go on a formal course if one is offered in your area. Many plant nurseries offer short courses on skills such as composting, mulching or starting a worm farm!

The internet is a huge benefit in our day and age! You can learn to do almost anything online using social media sites such as Instagram or Youtube. There are also formal online courses available that take you through the learning process step by step. The advantage of this is that you can learn at your own pace!

With the availability of information today, we are literally living in the information age, we have no excuse to find a way to learn new skills! So what are you waiting for get busy and get skilled!