100 SKILLS we ALL need to know...

Hey ATS'ers!

Male or Female - these are ALL 100 THINGS ANYONE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO!

As a female - I can honestly say I can pull off ALL 100 tasks without any assistance. If you cant - get a dad, brother, MOTHER, or someone to teach you how. ANYONE without physical or mental disabilities SHOULD be able to carry out these simple - everyday tasks without 'calling the guy'. One day 'the guy' wont be around. Or worse!
________________________________________________________

Automotive
1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump-start a car

Emergencies
10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home
14. Carve a turkey
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home-brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical
43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How
48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors
51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Survival
57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes
60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids
65. Cast a line
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike

Technology
76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Master These Key Workshop Tools
81. Drill driver
82. Grease gun
83. Coolant hydrometer
84. Socket wrench
85. Test light
86. Brick trowel
87. Framing hammer
88. Wood chisel
89. Spade bit
90. Circular saw
91. Sledge hammer
92. Hacksaw
93. Torque wrench
94. Air wrench
95. Infrared thermometer
96. Sand blaster
97. Crosscut saw
98. Hand plane
99. Multimeter
100. Feeler gauges
__________________________________
MSN as a source or not - this is a real wake-up call for some - Im sure. Lets be prepared and teach our children too as we learn.

SOURCE: lifestyle.msn.com...)

Thanks for looking at my thread. I hope it helps someone - if nothing else - to gauge how far off they are in being independent. Because without the BASIC SKILLS - one is far from independent and thats not a place we will ever want to find ourselves at a vulnerable time.

Some of these are actually useful things. Some are just ridiculous. The several "skills" under Military for example. Fly a stunt kite? Wtf? Adding in things like that makes a mockery of your own thread IMO.

he got this from popular mechanics. last months or the months before that issue had 100 things a man should know how to do. flying a kite was part of a "get your kids involved" section

The cool thing is I'm a female and I estimate I can do close to 75% of these. Some would require special training or reading books. Others are questionable - like, if the SHTF I don't think calibrating my HDTV will be in my top 100. But mostly a good list.

Still a pretty handy list. I think they forgot an important one though..

They have..

54. Shoot straight

and...

52. Hang food in the wild

If 54 is shooting at some type of animial for food, then there are quite a few steps after that before you get to #52 that are handy to know..

Originally posted by Resinveins
Some of these are actually useful things. Some are just ridiculous. The several "skills" under Military for example. Fly a stunt kite? Wtf? Adding in things like that makes a mockery of your own thread IMO.

If you think 'outside the box' I can see this as being useful with the addition of a wireless micro video-cam and a laptop...

Take the kite and attach video camera underneath...get kite airborne to a good height...hey presto, a jerry-rigged real-time aerial-recon tool!

nice list. I think it'll be useful. Flagging and bookmarking.

I'll be sure to practice my ability to escape a sinking car. Now.. I just need a car that I can sink multiple times for practice.

[edit on 14-11-2008 by bdswetty]

Tesla -

I am a SHE hun - not a HE. What MAN would go with the username 'Little One'!?

Also: I cited my source and NO it wasnt 'Popular Mechanics'. Did you not see me CITE my source? It wasnt the source you stated (Popular Mechanics). Ill cut you some slack though as your tone sounds rather young. You are a wealthy of knowledge lol - in fact - you seem to know it all - even where people get there info! lol

If you didnt get that Im female AND see my source - you didnt comprehend much and should give it a re-read (and thats sad because its your loss). You didnt read it well enough to understand it so moving on - as your response was of no value to this thread whatsoever. But no hard feelings!

To the others kind enough to post or read here - Thank You! I would like to point out that this thread has NOTHING to do with 'survival skills' as it is often spoke of here. No - Not about that at all. Its about taking care of yourself - YOURSELF - on a regular - everyday basis. This post has to do with LIFE SKILLS. Common everyday issues we all deal with before its all said and done is what this is all about.

Ask me? We need to learn to take care of ourselves NOW before talking about how youre going to do it later. Stop calling 'The Guy' and become independent of the need for others to help us with mediocre yet usually extremely expensive 'skills'.

I hope more of you enjoy the original thread and I would love to hear from others! Can YOU think of anymore common skills or tasks ANY AVERAGE person should be able to accomplish that I may have forgotten? Please add them!

Thanks to everyone who has read and a special thanks to those that responded!

I can imagine there are plenty of guys who could be called " little one" although not by thier choosing LOL
That being aside. I liked your list as it points out a very basic survival skill.
That being self sufficiency.
If you can not take care of yourself now in every day life, with no extreme situations to deal with, what makes you think you have the mindset to survive a sitx ?
Survival is at least as mcuh about psychology as it is preparedness.
well done

reply to post by Little One


i apologize for calling you a he. and i am quite young but i get popular mechanics every month and 2 months ago it was this article

www.popularmechanics.com...


and on your source at the very top it has a little popular mechanics picture. so your source got it from my source

no hard feelings i take it all in stride.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Robert A. Heinlein

I like this list better.




Surviving Extremes
61. Tornadoes

we have few tornadoes in Calif but earthquakes are a bigger problem.

The rest of the list i have down pat.
i spent 35 years WORKING for a living





[edit on 16-11-2008 by ANNED]

For survival in a collapse situation...all of that can be compressed down to two things.


1. Know how to know how.

2. Learn if you dont know how.


Cheers!!!!

11. Reverse hypothermia

One day 'the guy' wont be around. Or worse!

5. Wax a car

I love how waxing a car is on the top 100 survival skills Funny on many levels.

*edited to add: Little One, you have me beat, and I am a dude

[edit on 17-11-2008 by Lucid Lunacy]

Love it, good thread.
2nd Line, I know I know

I didn't see cooking on that list. Pretty important skill; male or female. Since I don't usually carry a 5# bag of charcoal briquets with me on my outings, knowing how to prepare meals without any fire at all is a useful skill, imho.

For the record, I'm female and have about 90% of that list down. Some of it I hope I never have to use. Lucid Lunacy...I LOVE your cure for hypothermia. Hilarious!

I'm pretty self-sufficient but there's several things I just don't like to do and will happily pay someone else to fix. Leaking sewage pipe comes to mind. Other than changing light bulbs, I don't deal with anything electrical. If other people are willing to risk their lives playing with magic then they're welcome to it.

I can't envision a scenario where my ability (or lack thereof) to fly a stunt kite will ever result in a survival situation. I just don't see it as a matter of life or death. Perhaps I lack vision but I don't think my life will ever depend on being able to wax a car. If it does, I'm good for another day of life but it's hardly a survival skill.

Frogs is right: there are several steps to being able to procure game in the wilderness. Shooting straight is just one of them. Need to know how to gut that kill quickly, field dress it, etc.

Which brings to mind....weapons maintenance. Knowing how to keep your weapon in tip-top shape in a true survival situation is paramount to surviving the situation. Doesn't do any good to be able to shoot straight if your barrel is loaded with mud, sticks, gravel and bugs.

Forgive my ignorance but what is a french knife? Why is it important to know how to use it as opposed to any other knife?

Fold a flag? Shine shoes? Do a perfect pushup? Maybe the title to this thread should have been "100 possibly useful things to know". If my survival ever depends on being able to fold a flag or shine shoes then I've entered the Twilight Zone where up is down and I will finally be able to do that perfect pushup.

Man Y'all DO NOT read well - at all lol (actually probably not true youre just so use to the whole PLAN FOR THE END mess.)

One More Time Sloooowly...

This
is
NOT
about
survival
skills
at all.

Its about being able to take care of yourself - by yourself. Now - lets try again. Carry on...

ORIGINAL POST:

"Hey ATS'ers!

Male or Female - these are ALL 100 THINGS ANYONE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO!

As a female - I can honestly say I can pull off ALL 100 tasks without any assistance. If you cant - get a dad, brother, MOTHER, or someone to teach you how. ANYONE without physical or mental disabilities SHOULD be able to carry out these simple - everyday tasks without 'calling the guy'. One day 'the guy' wont be around. Or worse!"

No where in there is SURVIVAL mentioned or even entertained. This has nothing to do with: REPEAT! THE END IS NEAR! lol

Yet being able to fend for oneself is. So lets get on topic!



[edit on 17-11-2008 by Little One]

reply to post by Little One


Fair enough!

Except for the fact that it is posted in the Survival Forum

Takings survival out of the context I still don't see why a bunch of them are important. Many are though, and I am impressed you can do so many.

reply to post by Little One


Oh, I read just fine, thank you. I read that this thread was in the SURVIVAL forum. And yet you tell us it has nothing to do with survival.

There are any number of things that are useful to know how to do and not be dependent on someone else.
Tying your shoes, being able to tell time, knowing your right from left hand and so on.

I agree with the basic premise of being self-sufficient. You can save oogobs of money by fixing things yourself. And since you didn't answer my question about the french knife we can add another skill everyone should have: googling info on the internet.

As I said anything that promotes a self sufficient independent mind set is applicable to survival.
At first glance, I too thought some of those items on the list might be a little silly, then I thought deeper.
Waxing a car for instance might easily translate to maitaining equipment in inclement weather.
Building and flying a kite, might translate into improvising and understanding the basics of aerodynamics as well as weather conditions.9 Not to mention a fly kite makes an excellent distress signal )
In all of these things I also see an excersize in thinking past the obvious.
( filed under for what it's worth )
PS. Still trying to work out a practicle survival use for necktie tieing

reply to post by Little One


G'day to you, LITTLE one. Under (HOME 23. Solder wire) Sorry to comment, but I didn't see solder with the use of the solder wire. (As I read the list, "solder wire" is just the wire that you use for soldering. If you do know about soldering, you would able to find the correct (solder wire) with the correct (solder iron). And...If you do know about that stuff, you would also know most-all things about electronic parts. Sorry, I am not sure. I had to ask.