Learning Skills

     My daughter and I were going over some of the things we need to do to prepare and I have to say...its hard not to be overwhelmed. I just hope that the rest of the world will hold off on being idiots long enough to allow us time to learn the skills we need before they go and let their greed and consumerism destroy our society. 
     It appears that my role in our community of survivors will be to make sure that people have clothing to wear and that we can keep our living situation clean and healthy. I am doing research and compiling what herbs and home remedies we will need to have around. It seems like a daunting task right now. 
     On the clothing front, I do pretty good with sewing and knitting and we will be able to have most of the clothing items we'll need. My next skill to learn is going to be spinning yarn. Our plan is to attempt to grow enough cotton to make yarn for socks and tops (living in the desert will make coming up with clothing an easier chore). I'm looking at purchasing a spinning wheel that is made from pvc pipe. 

It's light weight and less expensive than most wooden versions that I've seen, and unfortunately, I'm on a tight budget. After that, I hope to learn to re-purpose stuff to make a loom to weave with.  I'm planning on stockpiling fabric as much as I can, however, so that I won't need the loom as soon. I already learned the talent of darning clothing and that will come in handy. 
     Another thing that I need to get started right away is a garden. Living in the desert puts an extra level of challenge in that project. I live in an apartment, but have a dining room that we don't use that I can devote to pots and planters for that purpose. I realize that we might not have space to make a garden large enough to serve all our needs, but it'll help. I'm especially interested in getting herbs for medicinal use going. 
     I feel that even if we don't have a major crises that will happen all at once, we are looking at a slow decline of our society. It never hurts to get more self sustaining and be prepared. I just feel like I'm getting a little old to learn all these new tricks!
     I guess what I just want to say right now is that I'm just an average, middle aged mom that did a little research and "woke up" to what is going on in our society. I always believed that hard work and careful planning would be enough to get the house with the yard and the nice car, but it wasn't enough. Not only that, but I was right there with everyone else, shopping at Walmart and picking up things that I saw on tv and thought I needed in my life. I ate the typical American diet that was high in meat and fat and low on vegetables and I thought that people who claimed that we were going to have a crash of our system were crackpots.  I'm not sure what made me change my mind, but it was a gradual thing. First I decided to change my activity level and then my diet. I started looking into a vegetarian diet and found that I was able to afford it after all. Then I looked at what it would take to become a vegan and realized that it wasn't all that much of a step.  After that I started looking into becoming more "green" and making my own cleaning and laundry supplies. I started finding ways around the house to reduce waste and to be frugal. That meant more cooking and less eating out, making my own cloths and selling my knitting for extra funds. 
     The more I looked for recipes for my cleaning stuff the more I was led to websites that talked about learning not to be a consumer and how to make my own things so that I can be self-sustaining. It wasn't much of a step from that to looking at activism and getting prepared for an emergency. 
     I look back and mentally compare the person I was three years ago and the person I am today and I shake my head in amazement.