Recently, I published a blog post about some self-sufficiency skills I think everyone should know. These skills include:
Growing your own food
Knowing how to preserve and store bulk food
Knowing how to navigate the land and identify plants
Today, we're going to be talking about some more fun skills to add to your toolkit. Water catchment, storage, and filtration is vital. So are emergency protocols and proper fire safety. So let's jump in and talk about these life-saving skills more of us should know.
4. Water Catchment, Storage and Filtration
Nowadays, many of us don't think about how our water gets filtered. There's a lot of people buying filters out there, but not really knowing what a water filter does. And it can be really easy to fall for marketing gimmicks. "Hey, try more more alkaline water!"
It's really important to know water safety. And the more poisons that we put in our water, especially in this modern world, the more we have to worry what's entering our bodies through the water we drink.
We keep our own rainwater on the ranch that I live on and it's great that we can catch some of our water from the sky. It's not a ton, but it's something. But when it sits for a long period of time, you have to make sure that it gets covered completely and that there's no sunlight to prevent algae and pests from getting in the water. You also have to test it occasionally and make sure that nothing nasty is growing in it.
These skills are really essential because if the water ever turns off in the tap, what are you going to do? You know, we only get water maybe once twice a year. Right at the moment falling from the sky and then what. So it's really important that you to know these basic skills.
5. Emergency Protocols
It's integral that more of us know about herbal first aid, CPR, wilderness medicine and emergency procedures. And especially how to integrate these different skills. At Artemisia Academy, we have courses on Herbal First Aid that we teach periodically to help you level up your healing skills.
If you're there when a crisis or a natural disaster hits, it is so important to have skills that make you actually be of service, rather than in the way.
6. Fire Safety
The last self-sufficiency skill that I think everyone should know, especially in California, is fire safety and fire control. We know that so many wildfires are man-made. More of us need to be learning and teaching the basics:
If you're going to have a campfire, it doesn't mean that it's out when it stops having flames. It's out when you've drowned it in about 6 to 20 gallons of water. When it is completely cold to touch, that is when the fire is out.
That's how much water to actually takes. And while you're dumping the water on the fire, you have to stir it continually as you're putting water. When it is completely cold to touch, that is when the fire is out.
The fire needs to be completely cold and completely out because the wind in California can pick up a little ember and turn it into a wildfire.
If you don't know about fire safety, please start researching more about it. Don't trust everything that you see on YouTube, please. But basic fire prevention skills do make a huge difference.
If you're going to have a fire, bring a fire extinguisher with you at least - bare minimum.
It should be a golden rule in California that if you don't know fire safety, don't start fires.
So those are the six self-sufficiency skills that I think everyone should learn:
Growing food
Preserving, storing and harvesting your food
Land navigation and plant identification
Water catchment, storage, and filtration
Emergency procedures
Fire safety
Holistic Gardener Course
If you are interested in self-sufficiency, Artemisia Academy has a Holistic Gardener Course coming up.
The way that I finally got good at gardening was because I finally decided to hire someone to teach me. And by doing that, I also hired someone to teach you all how to grow a vibrant and healthy garden that's right for your area and your personal situation.
In this class you get to actually plan out, design and research in order to create your dream garden or homestead without wasting all of your time, energy, effort, and money.
So if you're interested in learning a bunch of really great self-sufficiency skills, sign up for our Holistic Gardener Course today.
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