These days, I have been buying items to live in this countryside. Yesterday, I finally bought vessels for fermentation because I had to dispose of all my fermented condiments and probiotic drinks before my move. I brought only the bacteria I extracted for fermentation. I am remaking my daily life to suit this new environment, including fermented food.
Today, I will introduce the skills of living in the countryside that we can learn beforehand.
How to prepare for a life in the countryside
Sometimes, we want to live in the countryside peacefully. We might want to say, “I am tired of caring about other people’s circumstances!”
However, we sometimes cannot make it happen soon.
One reason would be we are not ready for it. We may not even know what skills we will need.
Although we don’t know exactly what skills are required until we migrate to the new place, we want to prepare as well as possible. That gives us confidence.
Today, I will introduce the three skills that helped me when I got started in countryside life. This knowledge might help you know what to learn.
The three skills to live in the countryside
To live in the countryside, doing things ourselves as much as possible would make our lives comfortable because there are fewer service shops. Even if we can buy material things online, few people serve us. That is why we need to acquire various skills to live comfortably.
In my case, the following skills helped me a lot:
- Ability to repair and maintain my bicycle (Ability to maintain means of transportation)
- Ability to ferment food (Ability to live healthily even with limited ingredients)
- Ability to manage groceries (Ability to live with less shopping frequency)
We can master those skills from now on. This might help you.
Let me explain each.
1) Ability to repair and maintain my bicycle
Ensuring the safety of our personal transportation brings us great peace of mind. There is always a possibility of an emergency, and public transport is limited in time. To live in such a situation, maintaining our personal transportation, such as a car, a motorcycle, or a bicycle, would be important.
Of course, it also makes our movement easier.
In my case, I use a sports-type bicycle. The ability to repair and maintain it brought me peace of mind. I can fix a flat tire myself and replace tires. I can also disassemble and reassemble the bicycle. No matter where it breaks, I am confident in repairing it as long as I can buy the new parts online.
That confidence gave me relief in case of an emergency.
Sports-type bicycles are easier to maintain because they have a simple structure. They don’t have unimportant components, such as a basket, mudguards, or automatic light. In addition, we can easily take off any parts.
For example, we can take a wheel off for only 5 seconds if it has a quick-release skewer. This simplicity gives us easy maintenance.
2) Ability to ferment food
Securing food is also fundamental to living in the countryside. Even if we can go to grocery stores less frequently, we want to make sure we have enough healthy food.
In my case, the fermenting skill gave me great comfort in securing food and gut health. I can preserve foods for a longer time. In addition, I can create our own source. They are more delicious than store-bought condiments. On top of that, they are healthy for our guts, even if we eat fewer vegetables.
For example, after my move, I was suddenly constipated. I know this was caused by stopping eating fermented foods, so I created my yogurt maker in 1 hour yesterday. All I had to do was put a little yogurt in a container of warmed milk, wrap it in an electric blanket, and put it in a cardboard box for 8 hours.
Usually, we have to wait 1 or 2 weeks to make fermented foods. However, we can make yogurt in half a day. That is why I chose yogurt.
Last year, I once built my yogurt maker. If we experience it once, we can make it again easily. Our various experiences could work for the future.
3) Ability to manage groceries
If we live in the countryside, we have to live with less shopping frequency. To prepare for such a life, we can reduce the frequency of going grocery shopping.
In my case, I started to use canned fish a lot last year. The canned fish was great. It is affordable, fresh, nutritious, easy to cook, and can be stored at room temperature.
I also began to buy big chunks of meat and store them in the freezer. It was cheaper and freed me from frequent shopping.
We can practice those skills from now on
We can practice those skills even before we move to the countryside.
Once we can master it, we can remember it quickly, even if we don’t use it for a while.
Those prior experiences helped me a lot this time.
Conclusion
They are the three skills that helped me when I got started in countryside life.
Although what you need will change depending on where you move, my experience might help you.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
