It started with a post-college-graduation crisis... I mean, 'realization': my survival skills are nil.
Great. And with a supposed 2012 doomsday looming, 'real world' financial realities about to set in, and a sudden wealth of free time, my nerves got a little antsy. I had been a student for 19 years of my life, and pretty well cocooned inside the ivory tower for the last 5. Without a senior thesis to distract me, the precarious reality of my/our/the world's situation began to set in.
Namely - I'm a highly trained dancer with little economic power and even less practical know-how. My skill set, though a beautiful art, will not feed me. I do make a little money through dance, but socioeconomic discussion of starving artists aside, I mean this very literally:
I didn't have the basic survival skills needed to provide myself with food, shelter, or health.
That's pretty scary to realize, at over two decades of life, that you really have no tangible skills.
Enter the book that started it all, passed on by my awesome love: Back to Basics, a Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
Contents include such amazing topics as:
So it began.
Great. And with a supposed 2012 doomsday looming, 'real world' financial realities about to set in, and a sudden wealth of free time, my nerves got a little antsy. I had been a student for 19 years of my life, and pretty well cocooned inside the ivory tower for the last 5. Without a senior thesis to distract me, the precarious reality of my/our/the world's situation began to set in.
Namely - I'm a highly trained dancer with little economic power and even less practical know-how. My skill set, though a beautiful art, will not feed me. I do make a little money through dance, but socioeconomic discussion of starving artists aside, I mean this very literally:
I didn't have the basic survival skills needed to provide myself with food, shelter, or health.
That's pretty scary to realize, at over two decades of life, that you really have no tangible skills.
Enter the book that started it all, passed on by my awesome love: Back to Basics, a Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
Contents include such amazing topics as:
- Building a log cabin
- Developing a water supply
- Solar energy
- Gardening in limited space
- Preserving produce
- Baking bread
- Woodworking
So it began.