Cultivate Simple 31: Five Things
Today we discuss the 5 things that would we like to learn next. We are always learning about new skills or topics that interest us. Our attitude is, “If they can do it, so can we!”
Brian’s Five Things
- Welding
- Small Engine Repair
- Cider/Beer Brewing
- Horse Back Riding
- Sailing
Susy’s Five Things
- Making Silage
- Traditional European Butchery
- Keeping a Dairy Cow
- Mushroom Foraging
- Laying Hedgerows
Brian’s Geeky Corner
Use Skitch to capture and annotate screen shots. These can be automatically uploaded to Evernote. This is handy when you want to save a receipt or a snippet of a website, like a recipe.
Google Sketchup of Chicken Nesting Boxes
Books of the Week
Brain Pickings Blog, one of my favorites.
What are your Five Things?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:19 — 59.3MB)
Filed under Cultivate Simple Podcast | Comments (16)
I can’t get your link for chicken boxes to open on my Mac. What am I doing wrong?
to Amy S's comment
Hi Amy,
The file is a zip (archive) file which you have to ‘un-zip’ or un-compress before using. To do this on a mac you should just have to double click on it.
to Mr. Chiots's comment
when I double click it, it says it cannot open as there is no available application can open it. I’m so computer illiterate.
to amy's comment
You have to download Google Sketchup (which is free) in order to view the file.
to Susy's comment
I did smile at your 5’s list. In this household we make cider & lots of cordials. I keep a horse and have kept a herd of Dexters & crossbreds using one as a dairy cow. We have never made silage but always made 1200 or so small hay bales. My other half is agricultural engineer no idea how to use the washing machine but can take it apart & fix it! Lol.
Out of interest are you allowed to despatch your own animals at home for meat?
We can do rabbits and poultry for our own use but that’s all, pigs, sheep, cattle have to be taken to a licensed abattoir.
My list of 5:
Make kombucha.
Learn to knit.
Hedge laying (happening winter 2013/14)
Hmm this is hard…
to Mich's comment
Yes, here in the U.S. you can slaughter your own animals, but you can’t sell them if you do.
to Susy's comment
Great pod-cast today. The topic really got me thinking, which is always good! So, my list would be
1) Learn to Knit
2) Advance my knowledge of native plants/tree
3)Advance my knowledge of native birds
4)Learn to make pasta from scratch
5)take a watercolor class
P.S. It was great to hear from another person who loves to mow! It is such a satisfying task.
to Lexa's comment
Mushroom foraging
Learn to make and build with mud bricks
Milking
Meditation
to Crinia's comment
Wow. Great post. Ok, my 5 things…
Learn to graft fruit trees (going to a demo in 2 months)
Learn to make soap (going to a workshop on Saturday)
Learn to butcher a chicken (I have seen it done when hubby did the deed but I want to be able to do it myself.)
Learn to make cheese
Learn to crochet (I can crochet a chain and I knit competently but I can’t crochet despite being shown when I was 12 by my super crochet grandmother)
to Jessie – Rabid Little Hippy's comment
Though I always enjoy the guest speakers, I love these “everything” podcasts where we learn what’s going on ‘around the run’ and what’s planned for the future.
You really got me thinking (ow!) about my own list of 5 things to learn next. 6 months ago I would have said “learn to grow my own food” but you’ve got me doing that now (first harvest this weekend – a little lettuce and a handful of green and yellow bush beans, hooray!) so it’s scratched off the list (well, I know I’ll never stop learning about growing food but it won’t be a brand new thing anymore).
My list today:
1) Learn to make cheese and yogurt (I dabbled in the yogurt making years ago but want to make it a regular thing, and don’t remember how it goes)
2) Learn to competently bake our “daily bread” (right now it’s a special occasion treat, because I don’t do it very well)
3) Learn to sew (I weave and spin and knit, but don’t know how to use a sewing machine)
4) Learn rug weaving
5) Learn how to use my camera beyond ‘point and click’
4)
to DebbieB's comment
Debbie~this is an excellent blog and I use both her yogurt method and her chai method and they are delicious and easy…..I thought maybe you might like checking it out:)
http://lusaorganics.typepad.com/clean/2011/06/nourishment-homemade-yogurt-recipe.html
to amy's comment
Thanks, Amy – that looks like a good one!
to DebbieB's comment
…I have to ask, what is Traditional European Butchery? After reading your list via email I Googled it but really didn’t come up with anything. It did pique my interest however. :o)
…Oh, my list wouldn’t stop at five so I won’t elaborate. As I get older I just fly by the seat of my pants as to what I want to do/learn next.
…Enjoy your day!
…Peace & blessings. :o)
to tj's comment
It’s also known as seam butchery, or sometimes referred to at nose to tail butchery. Essentially, it’s learning to butcher to waste less of the animal.
to Susy's comment
1) Making a cobb oven
2) A living roof for my green house or garden shed this year
3)Making elderberry wine this year
4)Learn to weld and then use it in my sculptures
5)Learn to identify mushrooms
Wonderful podcast! Thank you:) Blessings.
to amy's comment
I’m not sure why this took awhile for me to think up, but I feel like I’m learning new things all the time!
1. Trad climbing (a method of rock climbing)
2. Learn more about permaculture (you guys sparked this one!)
3. Photography, learning to use the camera and take a decent shot
4. Making and using herbal remedies from the garden, sometimes I get to the point where I’m growing it and then I don’t know where to go from there.
5. Making sour beer. My husband is an accomplished home brewer but he doesn’t like sour beers and I do, so I’ve got to learn to make them myself.
to Amanda H's comment