Self-reliance is the word that comes to my mind first whenever I speak of homesteading.
That’s because I grow my own food, preserve them and do every single machinery work required.
And if you want to start your new homestead, you’ll also need to know certain skills.
Well, homesteading is an umbrella term that includes a lot of tasks such as growing food, preservation, raising livestock, processing meat, planning water resources, and building fences and coops- just to name a few.
Now, you must be wondering what skills you may need to learn from scratch.
No worries as now, I’m going to explain each skill for your better understanding.
Here are the 27 essential skills you MUST master to become a self-reliant homesteader!
Mastering These Skills Will Put You In The Top 10% Of Preppers & Give You the Confidence To Take Care Of Your Family No Matter What
Pick one of these valuable skills and start learning today!
1. Get Your Green Thumb And MASTER Gardening, How To Grow Food, & Saving Seeds For Your Seed Bank
Gardening is the primary task in homesteading that you need to master.
You need to know how to grow your own food by planting a variety of crops.
Also, you need to create your seed bank by saving seeds from ripened fruits.
2. Level Up And MASTER Food Preservation Canning To Endure Hard Times
If production is huge, you need to learn how to preserve the crops for the whole season.
Canning is a technique that can save you from throwing the extra crops away.
Also, it’ll help you to store your food for hard times.
3. Get In The Kitchen And MASTER Cooking from “Scratch” (and possibly having to cook without electricity)
With your fresh and organic crops, cooking healthy food is something that you need to learn.
You can take the help of a cookbook that includes real recipes using fresh ingredients.
Cast iron cookware and a wood-burning stove will be the perfect addition when there’s no electricity.
4. Hone Your Skills & Become A MASTER at Creating Your Own Homemade Cleaning, & Natural Hygiene Products
The best part of a homestead lifestyle is that it can make you self-reliant in many ways.
Just imagine you’ll have your own homemade canning and natural hygiene products.
But, for that, you need to learn these skills first.
5. Learn To MASTER Saving & Budgeting To Win At Homesteading
Homesteading will gradually lead you toward a minimalist lifestyle.
But, you may need to invest first and the process could be expensive.
So, learning how to save and make a budget is really important if you want to start planning.
6. Become a MASTER at Carpentry, General Handywork, and Fence Building (for livestock and chicken coops and more)
To raise your own livestock, you need to provide proper shelter to them outdoors or indoors.
For that, you need to learn basic carpentry and maybe some general handiwork.
This way, you’ll be able to build fences and coops on your own.
7. Operate Heavy Machinery & MASTER Huge Projects Efficiently – This will help you leverage your time and experience!
Homesteading will require you to put on those heavy-duty gloves and do a lot of machinery.
So, learning how to fix water filtration systems, solar ovens and grain mills is essential.
8. Become a MASTER at Basic First Aid & Dealing With A Medical Emergency
A medical emergency may occur at any time and you need to be prepared for same.
You need to include a basic first aid kit so that you can do it yourself.
9. Go Out Into The Wild And MASTER Foraging & Identifying Wild Plants
A homesteader should know how to forage and identify wild plants for various reasons.
This way, you’ll be able to grow medicinal plants and herbs in the garden and use them whenever required.
10. Become A Backyard Chicken Whisperer (MASTER eggs, incubating, hatching, raising, processing)
To raise chickens in your garden, you need to master all the necessary raising skills like hatching, incubating, and more.
It’s really important that you enhance more knowledge of raising a flock.
11. Raise Livestock & MASTER Taking Care of Animals On The Homestead (other than just chickens)
Taking care of your livestock is a responsibility and for that, you need to be a caring parent.
Apart from poultry, pigs, goat, and cattle are some great options for your livestock.
12. Learn To MASTER Butchering and Processing Livestock
Butchering is not easy but you need to know the right technique.
That’s because it’s really important to humanely process your livestock in a tidy way so that you get the best meat.
13. Become A MASTER at Hunting So You Always Can Provide And Put Food On The Table
Self-sufficient living includes hunting games but you need to learn the rules and regulations first.
Hunting will really help you to ensure protein for the family members while eliminating your livestock’s predators.
14. MASTER Making & Growing Food For Your Livestock
Food is essential for your livestock and it’s always beneficial to learn to make the fodder at home.
You won’t have to rely on the supermarket anymore if you learn this skill.
15. Grab Your Pole & Become a MASTER at Fishing
Fishing skills will get your family healthy protein and surely you can’t miss out on that.
And since some fish breeds are seasonal, you need to know the art of catching different breeds as well.
16. Composting & Wasting Less Food To MASTER Making The Most Of All You Have
You must make the most of all your garden crops without wasting them.
And it’s possible when you know how to compost and plant only those veggies and fruits you eat.
17. MASTER Needlework & Sewing (for pleasure and efficiency)
There will be a time when you’ll need to relax a bit and get creative.
Needlework and sewing are fantastic hobby ideas that you can learn for the same.
You’ll become more efficient by learning these skills besides killing boredom.
18. Become a MASTER of Plumbing at your Homestead
The water drainage system in your homestead may get damaged at times.
It’ll be beneficial if you learn to plumb so that you can fix anything instantly.
19. Making Butter & Cheese & Baking Bread Like a MASTER
If you raise cattle in the homestead, you’ll be rewarded with milk, which you can process further to make butter, cheese, and a lot of scrumptious products.
Also, you can learn baking bread at home from your homegrown wheat.
20. Learn to Become a MASTER Beekeeper
Beekeeping is a great way to process natural honey in your homestead.
And so, you need to become a master beekeeper by learning the skill from a reliable source.
21. Ensure You MASTER Water Options On Your Homestead (such as water purification, wells, and ensuring you have adequate water supply)
Your garden needs an adequate water supply throughout all seasons.
Some great options are wells, water purification, and others that you need to ensure.
22. Talk To Your Neighbors & Local Community & MASTER Relationships
Talking to your homesteading neighbors will not only motivate you but will also make you learn things easily.
And good communication always means more security and protection.
23. Harness & MASTER Heating & Cooling, Power Supplies & Alternative Energy Sources
To go completely organic, you need to find out alternative energy sources and different types of power supplies.
Also, mastering the cooling and heating techniques will ensure more comfort.
24. Stay Warm (and in shape) By Becoming a MASTER at Harvesting, Splitting, Stacking, & Using Firewood
All the above skills are a must when you’re planning to start homesteading.
Recognizing good firewood that’s easily available in your locality is also essential in the cold season.
25. You’re Not In The Navy, But You Still Need To MASTER Tying Knots on your Homestead
Tying knots may seem the simplest skill to learn but it’ll be your savior when it comes to everyday chores. Tying knots isn’t limited to sailing and camping.
Here are 2 Bonus SKILLS that will not only help you on your homestead but in life.
Make sure you work on making these part of your mindset!
26. Resilience
Like I always say, choosing a homestead lifestyle may put you in difficult, tough situations anytime. But there are ways to overcome and recover.
For that, all you need is resilience.
27. Resourcefulness
Presence of mind is important when you’re starting off with homesteading.
There will be situations when you might need to make quick decisions and for that, mindfulness is required.
Conclusion
So, these are the 27 essential skills you MUST master to become a self-reliant homesteader.
And let me remind you again that these are absolutely non-negotiable if you really aspire to become self-sufficient.
You’ll find a lot of sources to learn all these skills but choosing a reliable one is important.
Below is a Pinterest friendly photo…. so you can pin it to your Homestead Lifestyle Board!!
