On Hobbies and Survival Skills

With Spring on the horizon, I thought I'd share one more wintery post before all the snow melts, and we move on to warmer tasks and temperatures!

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I dreamed of going to the Olympics. Pretty much everyone I knew had an Olympic dream involving a winter sport - probably a direct result of growing up in Canada! For some it was hockey, others curling, some downhill skiing; but for me, it was cross country skiing.

My grandmother introduced me to skiing when I was very young. And I loved it. I would spend hours out there making trails, testing techniques, dreaming of Olympic glory, or just working out my thoughts.

It had been a few years since I had been able to get out there on my skis until this winter. It was a happy reunion with my *very* well loved skis when I was able to get out while my husband watched the kids for an hour on the weekend. (The last time had been before kids, while we still lived in the city. I went out and made a trail next to the sidewalk! Hardcore.)

My well loved, beat up skis.

This winter we also found a new use for my beloved hobby.

Since we burn wood for heat, there are a few times during the winter (sometimes more than we like) when we have to replenish our indoor stocks.

The first year we moved in in the dead of winter and didn't have any system setup. So my husband and I took turns trudging a trail and bringing in what wood we needed. The next winter I was pregnant, and the next year I was pumping and helping feed our baby, so I couldn't really help much those two years. Thankfully my husband found some old snowshoes, and used them during those winters to help with the trail making.

This year though, I was determined to help, and when my husband suggested I try skiing wood over, it seemed like a win-win-win situation.

It worked out great! I would ski over to the wood shelter, fill up our sled, put the rope around my waist, and ski back to the house.

The first round I did was right after we had a major dumping of 40 cm of snow. There is no way we would have been able to walk to the shelter, and even snowshoeing would have been pretty tough.

But skiing worked out perfectly.

This all got me thinking about how my beloved hobby and sport probably got its start as a survival skill. People needed to get around in the deep snow. They needed to get their wood in. So they invented a way to glide along the top of the snow and get what they needed done and get to where they needed to go.

Knitting, quilting, gardening, baking, and even skiing were all pretty vital to staying alive not too long ago. It makes me grateful for living in a time where we have so many conveniences, and basic living isn't a daily struggle. I'm also grateful, though, that I get to live in a place where we can be more in touch with those skills that helped the people who lived here before us make this land what it is.

So what about you? What kind of basic survival skills do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Until next time,

God bless,

Cheryl