The Art Of Skilling

If you decide to take the off grid route you will be doing a lot more for yourselves and this requires skills and most people dont have these skills and have to learn them, in most cases it means learning through experience and anyone looking to move off grid will need the capability to learn these skills, and a large number of skills dependent upon how far you choose to move off grid.

Most practical skills are good for the people moving off grid and learning on the job can be overwhelming so wherever possible it is better to learn the basics of a wide range of skills which will be beneficial to your specific needs, you may need woodworking skills to construct structures for cover, learn to use a chainsaw if you have accessible timber for construction or firewood, gardening to grow your own food, along with food preservation skills to allow foods to be saved through the year. What many people dont realise is that many of these skills require additional skills and if we take the chainsaw as an example you need to be able to service and repair the engines, undertake routine maintenance such as cleaning air filters and sharpening and tensioning the chains which require additional skills and knowledge to allow you to cut with your chainsaw.

Many additional skills can be learned cheaply and easily, metal fabrication is one such skill and like many skills these are skills for life, for little more than £100 you can get a basic arc welder which would be a transformer based model and for around £15 (with prudent buying) you can get a box of welding rods, add in an angle grinder and you can grind, cut, wire brush, and even add a diamond disc for cutting concrete and stone. You can then construct a portal framed building, undertake repairs on cheaply obtained equipment and get bargains, and you can even recycle scrap metals to undertake your own projects, build and repair everything from trolleys to trailers.

Skills are commodities which can be traded and if you want some brickwork doing and your brickie wants his concrete mixer welding you trade skills instead of cash and everyones a winner, similarly if you make logs or cut your own logs and your plumbing has a problem then you can barter with logs for the repairs, but everything is a skill even labouring.