Writing Rural With Alley

Story Smithing: 10 Generationally Passed Skills (Part 1)

• Alley

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Where did your characters learn their skill sets? Do you want to learn natural ways for your characters to interact with your other characters? Do you need inspiration to show the tight bonds of a family? What do axes and seeds have to do with this? Find out on this episode. 

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Where did your characters learn their skillsets? Do you want to learn natural ways for your characters to interact with other characters? Do you need inspiration to show the tight bonds of a family? What do axes and seeds have to do with this? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley, the Fiction Writers Weekly Inspirations Station for Rural Life and Lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 71, 10 Generationally Only Passed Skills, Part One. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Rural life has many skills that are passed down from one generation to the next. Some are passed down to everyone, and others are passed down to individuals who want to learn them. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even older siblings can teach these skills. Today, we will cover 10 of them. Number one, gardening. Okay, maybe you saw this one coming. Historically, gardening was the way that many people saved food for the winter, making this a vital part of life. Today, most people in rural areas still garden, but fewer and fewer rely solely on gardening as their main food source. The first thing people passed down was when to plant. Growing up, St. Patrick's Day was always the day that we planted potatoes. May seventh was the last potential frost day, and corn was always planted when the oak trees leaves were the size of a squirrel's ear. Yes, I definitely have Native American heritage. Things that were taught included, but were not limited too, how to prep the garden, how to plant, how to spot the weeds, sneak in among the new sprouts, how to tend the garden, looking for diseases, and how to cure them when they are found, what to add to the soil to best give each plant the nutrients that it needs, how to make a trellis, and what plants to grow with it, what plants can be planted together, what plants could not be planted together, when to harvest, how to harvest, how to preserve food, and, very important, how much food that they will need for not only the entire winter, but through the spring until the first spring food becomes ripe. In modern times, farmers do these things on an industrial scale to sell to market. This comes with many skills also. The timing of the planting, harvesting, using and maintaining the machinery, upkeep of buildings, and storages such as silos and sheds for the tractor and other equipment. If you would like to learn more about gardening, I have a full episode about it. I also have several on food preservation methods. Number two, whittling. Next on the list is whittling. Whittling, in this case, is taking a pocket knife and carving a stick, gourd, or other natural material to make a specific shape. This is most often a toy, but can be figurines. My great grandfather even whittled a bride and groom made of soap for the top of my grandmother's wedding cake. Yes, it's true that this skill can be learned through trial and error, but it's very often taught from grandparents or other skilled family members to kids. Yes, kids. All of my kids had their own pocket knife by the age of seven, but Amish kids kid them far younger than mine did. Many of the things people enjoy making are trains, balls, balls inside cages, toy animals, toy soldiers, toy people, toy wagons, and so much more. Many people have certain ways that they enjoy carving things, and they have their own specialties. Some people feather the wood, and others carve out pieces. For larger creations, a person might even get out a chisel to work on details that knife would have a hard time carving out. The earliest known wooden toys date back to ancient Egypt, where they found wooden dolls, animals, and small chariots. Number three, sewing. Sewing is important for many things. Everything from clothing to curtains to furniture can be sewn and mended. This is often taught to young girls. They love sewing clothes for their dolls. At least I did, and I didn't even like dolls all that much. But don't be fooled. Boys learn this skill, too. They just don't normally use it as often.

There are two types of sewing:

hand sewing and machine sewing. The first sewing machine that I can find was actually a leather sewing machine. It was invented by Thomas Saints in 1790. In 1814 and 1816, prototypes of the sewing machine were invented. However, the first widely used sewing machine was patented in France in the 1830 by the French Taylor. Please forgive me, I'm going to mispronounce this. Barthelemy Thimonnier. This was the first lock stitch sewing machine. Lock stitch is a fancy way of saying that there are two lines of thread, one on each side of the cloth, and they are sewn in a way that interlaces the two threads to hold the cloth together. These were, of course, all foot pedal-powered. Your foot moved the pedal that was attached to the belt that caused the machine to move. Nowadays, we have electric sewing machines. While they still have a pedal, it's pressed down much like a gas pedal of a car. How hard you press determines how fast the machine goes. Be careful with this one. I have known a lot of people who have gone so fast that they sewed their finger right along with the cloth. I hear that hurts. That said, I know preteens that are better than me at sewing machines. A child's ability to be careful will determine if they are ready to learn this. Hand sewing, on the other hand, can be learned much younger. I let my daughter use a large, and less pokey, imbordery needle and thread to practice how to make stitches in a straight line when she was only three. Surprisingly, she was very careful and did an excellent job. I would have never let some of the other kids touch them that young because they would have not been careful. Most children in history learned early. In fact, choking to death on buttons was very sadly common in children under three and sometimes older. Hand stitching takes practice and time to learn. There will be mess-ups, and they will at some point need to take a seam ripper to remove them. A seam ripper is a small metal thread cutter that is placed between the cloth and the thread to cut the thread and not the cloth. People who have done this for a long time or are very skilled can make a shirt or pants in a few hours. The rest of us might take all day or a few days. Number four, animal husbandry, A.K.A. Raising livestock. Livestock are an essential part of rural life. Learning to care for them properly is not something learned overnight. There are feed needs all year round. Most people let their animals eat the grass in the summer. However, this isn't always an option in winter. Historical stories and post-apocalptic stories will need to save feed during the summer months for winter. In more modern stories, feed can be bought at the local feed mill. You think of it like PetSmart, but for livestock, and you buy things in bulk. The feed store also carries fencing cages, things to make cages, medicine, and things of that nature. Your characters will need to take care of sick animals and set up their own fences. Keep in mind that fences can and also are designed to keep them out of things that could hurt them. You don't want your cows falling down the well, and your characters will want to keep the garden safe from the livestock. Number five, washing laundry by hand. This is one that is passed down to everyone. Historically, it did tend to fall to the women, but men also learned how. In fact, my father is the one who taught me how to do it. However, some cultures have men taking the main laundry role. In ancient Rome, they believe the laundry was too physical for women, and men did it. I have a whole episode on washing laundry by hand if you'd like to learn more about the process. Number 6, trapping. Trapping has been a big part of life for almost every people group in the whole world until the Industrial Revolution. But many people still do it today. In fact, many people around the world still do this as a way of life. Trapping is usually done to catch small game, but can be used for larger game. Trapping helps to provide the needed meat for the winter. It is also a source of leather. Leather can be used to make clothing, gloves, shoes, teepees, saddles, pouches, belts, and so much more. Number seven, candle making. Candles are a great alternative light source. These can be used at night and in the winter when the days get shorter. They can be made of many different ingredients. What ingredients they use will likely depend on the era and region they live. Modern candles are usually made of paraffin wax, while historical candles were made with beeswax. However, they were also made with other things such as whale blubber. The wicks today are commonly cotton. Historically, they could be made of wood, cotton tail fluff, and more. Number eight, well drilling or digging. Wells have been and are still an important part of obtaining clean, safe drinking water. Most small towns that are not near a river or other large body of water will also use wells. In modern times, these are drilled with special drilling machines, but before wells were drilled, they were hand dug. This is a learned skill. Where to dig, how deep, where not to dig a well, and maybe most importantly, how to stay safe while digging a well were all important skills. Now I hear you. But, Alley, what could possibly be dangerous about digging a hole? A few things. There is a chance that the well could collapse on the person digging it if it's not properly reinforced. There were sometimes gasses found underground. Ground that killed people. These could include carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulfate, and other volatile organic compounds. Many times people worked to dig a well, and it could take days, weeks, or months, depending on how deep it was, how many people were helping, and many other factors. The further down a well was dug, the higher up the dirt and rocks would have to be hauled. This led to the dangerous and sometimes deadly chance of the rope breaking and the dirt and rocks falling back onto the person in the well. Painful at a few feet, but large rocks falling on a person at even 10 feet could be deadly. I have two episodes on wells if you would like to learn more about the different types of wells. Number nine, wood chopping. Wood chopping is also called splitting wood or even chopping firewood. This is the act of taking a tree trunk or even a large branch and splitting it to several pieces with an ax. This is a skill to learn because if your character does it wrong, they will be expelling more energy than they need to. They also need to learn the safest way to chop the wood. They don't want to swing the ax into their foot or their leg. There are also physical aspects to this one. It is much like an exercise, engaging almost the full body. Your character will only be able to do this for a time until they build up to being able to do for longer periods of time. After years, they will be able to do it quickly and make it look easy. That one still isn't me. Number 10. Saving seeds. Saving seeds is last on today's list. Saving seeds from the garden to plant in next year's garden is important. If there are no seeds, any annual plants will not grow back. Annual means that it grows for one season and then dies. Now, if you're wondering why this made the list, it's simple. Most people do not know how to save seeds. Some need to be frozen and others need time to rot to remove the outer film. Do you know which ones? Beans will be dehydrated for next year. Chives, garlic, elderberries, ginseng, hothorn, hops, mulberry, thyme, wild yams, and witch hazel are only a few of the seeds that germinate best after being frozen for a period of time. Tomato seeds will need the outer layer broken off. The best old fashioned way that I is to let them rot in the tomato. And once it is extremely mushy and smells bad, to remove the seeds and rinse off the outer layer. Most importantly, don't smell your hands for a few days.

Fun fact:

in 2021, the EPA estimated that 23 million American households still relied on private wells for drinking water. I was definitely included in that one. Now for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Before we get into the best part, if you enjoyed today's podcast, I hope you'll take a minute to follow every interview on your favorite podcasting platform. And if you're listening on YouTube, subscribe and hit that like button. Drop me a comment. I love to hear from you and answer questions. Don't forget to share with a friend. As always, you can find this episode's show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website, alleyhart. Com. And now for everyone's favorite

part. Likely to go wrong:

your character catches a squirrel by a tail in a trap. When they come to check their trap, they find the has chewed their own tail off to escape.

Also likely to get wrong:

your character makes a treillis for the cucumber to grow on. However, they make it out of flimsy materials. As the cucumber grow, the weight pulls on the treillis until it breaks.

Also likely to go wrong:

your character is whittling and the knife slips, cutting their finger.

Possible to go wrong:

your character is digging a well and sends up some dirt and rocks in a bucket to get out of the well. The bucket is so heavy that the rope pulling it breaks 10 feet above their head. If it lands on their body, they will have broken bones. If it lands on their head, this could be deadly. your character plants their garden too early. As the new sproutlings are popping up, cold snap comes and freezes the plants. This kills the plants.

Also possible to go wrong:

your character is sewing on a sewing machine and accidentally sews their finger, too. your character spends a long time a toy for their child. However, the very day they give it to the child, the child steps on it and breaks it.

Unlikely to go wrong:

your character is chopping wood. They miss and chop off their big toe.

Also unlikely to go wrong:

your character catches the squirrel by their foot in the trap. When they come to collect it, the squirrel attacks them. Improbable, but still technically

in the realm of possibilities:

your character helps a cow struggling in labor by pulling the calf out by the feet. As soon as the baby comes out, the cow turns on your character and gores them with a horn. This could be deadly. Also improbable, but still technically your character tries to save seeds from a rotting tomato. They do not wash their hands well before eating, and the cross-contamination gives them food poisoning. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Happy wordsmithing.