General Skills

As the hearth is the heart of the home, I will begin there. I can cook on an open hearth, on a spit, on a hook, in a Dutch Oven, Cauldron, Kettle or Spider. I can make a Tripod of wood and cook on the ground, and bake in a wood fired oven. As a scratch cook, I can peel it, pare it, dry, preserve, and serve. I can sharpen a knife; butcher a chicken, a deer, and pig. I can make hominy from wood ash and field corn, grind corn with mortar and pestle, and then grind to flour with rocks. I can then make corn bread and churn the butter for it. I can chop meat for mince; make a cherry or whatever pie, with the most tender lard crust ever. I can render lard to make it pure, creamy, and white. I can also render tallow for food or candles, the very candles that I have dipped using hand spun wicks of the cotton I have picked, seeded and spun. Basically if it involves food preparation I can do it.

Moving on to other skills of a frontier woman, I can leach lye from wood ash and water, make the soap to wash the clothes that I have made of my own design, using a hand crank or treadle sewing machine. In washtubs filled with water that I have pumped from the well or dipped from the creek, carried by yoke and bucket to scrub on a washboard and dried in the sun. I can weave the cloth from yarn I have spun, of wool, linen, or cotton. I have grown flax and processed it with break, scutch and heckle then dress a distaff. I can spin by grate or Saxony wheel, or spindle or rock and naturally dye the yarns I have spun. If this has given a headache, I can also fix a willow bark tea for ease, or a soothing salve to balm. There are so many skills for life on the frontier and tools to use and master. I can whittle with a pocket knife, drill with a brace, a pump, a crank or a bow. I can load and shoot a flintlock (left handed) and shoot with a bow and arrow (though not so well) I can flint knap my own point or knife and start a fire with flint and steel. I can make a debris shelter, make whistles from acorn caps, maple spinners and grass, and play a Lap Dulcimer. I can fly fish, sail a boat, knit, catch worms, and paddle a kayak, though none of these things at the same time. Oh yes, and I can use a lever can opener and a P38 in an emergency.

Special thanks to

American Troubadour, Bill Schustik