The Value of Skills

 

Are skills more valuable for making money or saving money?

I’ve been considering this in light of many of the homesteading and homemaking skills I’ve picked up over the years. We’re often told to find a way to market our skills (to earn cash)–but I’ve been wondering if there is actually more value in saving money.

Because it’s Christmas time right now gifts are on my mind.  We will be buying a few things (some of them second-hand) but we will be making quite a few gifts as well.

I’ve been making homemade soap this fall.  I love using the soap–but it’s also a great gift to give away.  (Everyone uses soap.)  I’ll be sewing a little for my boys.  I’ve got a stained glass project I’m working on for my sister. In the past I’ve made dishtowels, sewn felt play-food and baby soft books, crocheted blankets, and made sugar scrubs.  These are all skills I’ve learned that help offset our family’s need for cash to purchase things for ourselves, but also the cost of small birthday gifts, or “thank you’s”, or service provided for friends, that can all use up a lot of cash–if I let them.

The alternative is choosing to use personal resources (my skills)  instead of cash.  Jeremy makes wonderful homemade breads.  Our family loves them; our friends love them.  We’re excited this year to be able to gift small jars of our backyard honey with the breads.  I’ve got kale growing out in my hoop house so I can take a bowl of zuppa Toscana to my friend whose baby is due in a week.  There is an initial investment, for ingredients and supplies, to give home produced gifts, but it’s often much lower than the cost of equivalent items when you consider market value of handmade, artisan, local or organic.

Another factor I can’t ignore is  how much I enjoy the experience of using my skills to create and give a unique appropriate gift to a friend.  I like my Etsy shop for earning a bit of cash–though mostly I enjoy the creative process of following new ideas that come to me.   (I’m not much of a mass-producer.)

But which is more valuable?  The ability to do one thing well and earn good money for doing it?  Or the ability to do a number of things–maybe none of them well enough to ever “make money” off of–but just well enough to not require paying someone else to do it for you?

Maybe one day my hand-making and self-reliance skill-set will make unnecessary the need for any extra cash.  Until then I’ll try and make a little money and use it wisely to buy quality supplies for producing many beautiful and useful things for my family and friends, along with learning new skills every year, and appreciating and supporting the skills of others who can provide the rest.

This Week

This Week We:

Tried a new batch of cold process soap–Beeswax Oatmeal

Enjoyed lots of homemade soup–Is it soup season or what?

Tried to make a dent in the bushel and a half of apples I bought on a whim.

Are still reveling in awe at the backyard honey now sitting on our shelf, and counter top, and dinner table.

Are having a good time being reacquainted with grandparents (“I can tell I’m supposed to like you–I’m just not sure why.”)

. : Happy Weekending : .

 

Lavender Soap

Jeremy’s mother has a lavender field. It’s her “hobby farm”.  I knew after trying out basic cold process soap making that my first scented variety would be lavender.

Jeremy’s mom sent me a large bag of lavender buds and I used some this week as I gave it a try.  I used lavender essential oil as well.  I went back and forth with the idea but decided in the end that I didn’t want to add any colorants to the soap.

There are natural plant-based options I could try.  I’ve read that alkanet root, and red sandalwood both can give you a color anywhere from bright red to dark blue.  But I like the natural color just as well.

I’m lucky to have a hard-working mother in law so willing to share of her harvest.

Homemade Soap

It is impossible to control what’s in the products we use when they are all made outside our home.  I need basic gentle unscented products, for all the bath products we use in the home–otherwise the boys end up with skin irritation.  Any artificial scent or coloring could aggravate this.   But manufacturing companies are always adding random things in their products for one reason or another–usually to decrease manufacturing costs or increase “perceived value” (Sounds a lot like the food industry as well)

With determination to completely control the ingredients in our family’s soap I started studying practical home chemistry and the useful chemical reaction of saponification. I checked out some books from the library, bought some supplies and made some homemade soap.

I made these bars with three types of fat:  olive oil which makes a very moisturizing bar, coconut oil which make nice big soap bubbles, and lard which makes a nice firm white bar.  After a one month cure period the chemical reaction is complete, which means that though the soap is made with lye–it no longer contains lye.  It contains a little extra oil from “superfatting” the recipe, a lot of soap (obviously right?) and glycerol (glycerin).  I was interested to learn that commercial soap-makers remove the glycerol to sell it or use it in other products.  My glycerol is still in my soap to moisturize freely.

I’m excited to have a product for my family to use that is exactly what I want–with nothing that I don’t want.