Learning Skills: How/Where/From Whom?

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#1

How does someone without feral skills start on the feral path? What are the different ways to learn?

I grew up in a city, and wanted to learn how to live in the wild since I was seven, but I had no opportunities to do so— or even to run around in the woods— until recently. I figure many of us here at feralculture do not have all the necessary skills for the lifestyle.

I imagine that the perfect learning situation would be to join a (willing) community of people who already live as we would like to. But I, for one, do not know how to find such a group. Probably through word of mouth.

Of the options I have found, the best seems to be paying for a year-long training program-- one where I really practice the skills I learn in day to day life. Not quite ideal, but it seems worth it to get a good start.

What different approaches have you taken to learning wild/feral skills? (Or feel free to share ideas, plans, difficulties, questions, etc)

#2

What side or general area of the planet are you on?

I’ve been getting the gear to go to Alaska where they’re already doing it. I missed a time window and am going somewhere else where other people are already doing some things for now. Needless to say I know people but I’m as of yet skill-less. It’s been some luck that had to be thrown together for me to have these opportunities so idk how to recreate that for you. For one I have no idea what your connections are like, since like with anything going anywhere in life it’s all about (putting oneself in the position where one can be at) the right place at the right time to meet the cool people, and that’s not in one’s house (unless one pulls it off online).

I would avoid paying for the instructions and look at alternatives first. Find the people who want to do this simply because they want to do it, and pay for the gear instead. The people are out there. Because it’s an inherently enjoyable thing to do, not something you need monetary incentive to do.

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#3

Hi, I wrote some suggestions on another thread for your location. I think The Wilderness Living Project and Firemaker Gathering are great options.

The ways I’ve learned is going to gatherings (for free and for some $$$), meeting people, and then learning from them. Through word of mouth, for example, I went to a basket workshop recently to learn wicker basketry. It was run by basketry master and ethnoecologist Margaret Mathewson who doesn’t update her website, but I knew when to go because I had friends I had met at gatherings or just happened to end up on a same path as me. And it happens she lives close by me.

I don’t like paying for skills. I find that maddening. Yet I’ve done it and continue to until I can find better ways. If some how you’re in the Corvallis OR (US) area I’d be happy to teach you stuff about Cascadian native food plants/medicine and hide tanning (buckskin, furs, bark tan, etc.) for free. I think @lincoln_finch is probably coming down to meet up with @jbowser and might come over to my place, for example.

Ultimately I have learned the most by going out and doing it with other folks. We just figure it out as we go along. Through research, practice, and frustration we taught ourselves how to bark tan which is a rare skill, but rapidly spreading through primitivist circles. Now some of those people teach bark tanning for $$$, but I’m willing to teach anyone for free as long as they contribute to a feralculture project and/or don’t charge people for skills.

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#4

I want to add that I’m playing with the idea of people coming down after Echoes in Time and continuing to work on skills. I live at a homestead that has a lot of area to tent out for a bit. And I find that even if I completed a project at a gathering I want to keep going and solidify what I learned. Here we can work on hides, willow projects, go on plant walks, eat all my garden, and do whatever.

If any folks going to Echoes are interested in this, let me know.

What’s Echoes in Time? Check this out. http://echoes-in-time.com/

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#5

Thanks for the suggestions. Good point about going to gatherings-- for some reason I forgot about those as a way to meet people!

#6

There’s also a fair amount you can teach yourself, at least to a basic degree. Basketry, very rudimentary flintknapping, cordage and rope-making, simple pit fired and unfired clay vessels, firemaking - all these things can generally be taught to a very unrefined degree without any kind of tutelage. Furthermore, just being out and about in the woods, in the prairie, anywhere so long as it is wild is always a moment of learning. Use the time to refine your navigation, your physique, your ability to differentiate between plants (even if you don’t know if they are useable by humans), and so on.