What's Your Vintage Skill Set?

[WH1]

Fur and feathers

Here's mine, I can...

Ride a horse
Shoot and hunt (both fur and feathers)
Build a cottage (with help )
Sail a yacht
Fly fish
Cook (apparently it's becoming a dying art!)
Drive double declutch (for really old no synchro manuals)
Change the oil, fluids, filters and sparks on a car
Start a fire with no matches or lighters
Paint a house and put up wallpaper
Dance a waltz
Dance swing
Say grace in latin

What do you hunt in New Zealand? Here in the states I grew up hunting elk, deer (blacktail, whitetail, and muley), duck, pheasant, quail, chukkar and the occaisional canadian goose.

 

[Smithy]

What do you hunt in New Zealand? Here in the states I grew up hunting elk, deer (blacktail, whitetail, and muley), duck, pheasant, quail, chukkar and the occaisional canadian goose.

Hi WH1,

Red Deer's the biggest game we have here (although apparently they're now fairly certain there's still some introduced Canadian Moose in Fiordland down south) and I've only stalked twice. Pig hunting's the other big thing hunting-wise but entirely different and requiring pig dogs. I used to be charged with culling the wild goats, rabbits and possums on one of my uncle's farms as well.

Most of the hunting I've done here is gamebirds - duck and pheasant which I enjoy. In Norway I hunt grouse (rype) but have yet to hunt elk, although I am keen to.

 

[carebear]

I find that reducing anything to it's smallest atom, who cares if it's vintage. lol

Well, doing that goes back to the '40s anyway.

 

[Grnidwitch]

Well, doing that goes back to the '40s anyway.

I didn't think of that. Good point.

 

[WH1]

Hi WH1,

Red Deer's the biggest game we have here (although apparently they're now fairly certain there's still some introduced Canadian Moose in Fiordland down south) and I've only stalked twice. Pig hunting's the other big thing hunting-wise but entirely different and requiring pig dogs. I used to be charged with culling the wild goats, rabbits and possums on one of my uncle's farms as well.

Most of the hunting I've done here is gamebirds - duck and pheasant which I enjoy. In Norway I hunt grouse (rype) but have yet to hunt elk, although I am keen to.

I am somewhat familiar with pig dogs and pig hunting in NZ, I played rugby in college with a Kiwi who filled me in on it.
Elk are an amazing creature. One of the most amazing things in the world is early morning and a bull bugling across a fog shrouded mountain valley. Never fails to give me chills.

 

[carebear]

I am somewhat familiar with pig dogs and pig hunting in NZ, I played rugby in college with a Kiwi who filled me in on it.
Elk are an amazing creature. One of the most amazing things in the world is early morning and a bull bugling across a fog shrouded mountain valley. Never fails to give me chills.

Now, in Scandanavia isn't an "elg" what we would call a moose? I seem to recall we did some misnaming early on in the colonization.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Now, in Scandanavia isn't an "elg" what we would call a moose?

There's a Monty Python sketch in this somewhere. lol

.

 

[Fletch]

Miss Neecerie's avatar shouts, "Looooooook into myyyyy eyyyyyyyyyes! Myyyyy eyyyyyyyyyes are aaaaaaliennnnnnnn!"

To me it says, "I am about seven kinds of crazy and nine kinds of fun. I can rock your world."

I find it strangely fascinating. Maybe it's the bandanna?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

To me it says, "I am about seven kinds of crazy and nine kinds of fun. I can rock your world."

Yeah, she's going to rock your world by pulling that electric chair switch.

.

 

[Caledonia]

Not exactly vintage skills but I can:

Chop and stack wood
Use said wood to create fire
Clean resultant fire and unblock chimney
Call fire brigade on dial phone when all goes horribly wrong
Cook on, maintain, and generally employ a wood burning stove
Survive an electricity blackout for a week while hosting guests stranded by fallen trees.
Cut up said fallen trees
Claim compensation for blackout - ok so the compensation culture is more a modern darkness!
Wash clothes in freezing water without recourse to modern appliances (we're talking foot stomping here)
Raise chickens
Cook from scratch
Use old weight scales
Live without television
Stand up a sheep on its back
Knit - really badly. Sew really badly come to that.
Sweep a floor
Clear gutters
Compost stuff
Go do my business outside when the plumbing packs up
Survive minor illnesses without recourse the modern medicine
Tend minor to moderate wounds without swooning
Erect stock proof fencing - badly and over a very long time
Gasp when faced with a metropolis and cringe and the thought of all those people
Plaster my own walls - although generally I tend to prefer being plastered

 

[Smithy]

Now, in Scandanavia isn't an "elg" what we would call a moose? I seem to recall we did some misnaming early on in the colonization.

I believe that in Europe it's an elk (or the local equivalent), in North America, it's a moose. By the way good job knowing the Scandinavian word for them, have you spent time in Scandinavia and if so where abouts?

They are majestic creatures. Around where we were living in Bod?? there were tons of the things and we used to see them a lot driving out to my fianc?©e's mother's cottage. They are as thick as a brick though - not the sharpest tool in the box if you know what I mean

 

[koopkooper]

* slip cue a record, splice a reel to reel tape and I guess radio fullstop is a vintage skill set

* type on a typewriter

* not run when confronted with a potential fight, whilst I am not a good fighter I am quite capable of fighting dirty and utilizing any prop nearby to cause as much damage as possible, which in itself would be quite amusing.

*drive a column manual vehicle

 

[Teekay44]

Let me see.... Hummmmm..

Make hot coca on the stove
Fix a slant six Dodge
Drive a stick shift and double cluch
Operate a 1940 ford fire pumper
Hit what I AIM at when shooting
Field strip and repair WWII MG
Use a trendle sewing machine
Mix my own stains from scrach for restoring furiture.
Spit shine shoes
Use a compass to find something.
Develop and print film
Repair a typewriter
Hand letter a sign

 

[pretty faythe]

I believe that in Europe it's an elk (or the local equivalent), in North America, it's a moose. By the way good job knowing the Scandinavian word for them, have you spent time in Scandinavia and if so where abouts?

We have elk here too, second largest deer in the world, after the moose. (Scandinavian elk and american elk are the same species).
Wikipedia.org at work. lolo I knew we had elk, didn't know how big they were.

 

[carebear]

I believe that in Europe it's an elk (or the local equivalent), in North America, it's a moose. By the way good job knowing the Scandinavian word for them, have you spent time in Scandinavia and if so where abouts?

They are majestic creatures. Around where we were living in Bod?? there were tons of the things and we used to see them a lot driving out to my fianc?©e's mother's cottage. They are as thick as a brick though - not the sharpest tool in the box if you know what I mean

I've been to Elvesgarmon (sp) near Tromso for a Battle Griffin in '96.

My info on the idea that our English Puritan ancestors saw a big deer (the American wapiti) and mistakingly called it by a name they had heard from Scandanavia for "big deer" (elg) and then, when they saw an actual "moose" had to call it by an incorrect name, came from the late Jeff Cooper's "To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth" where he discusses a permit hunt in Sweden he went on years ago.

The Puritans should have called it something similar to the British Red Deer, a similarly statured large deer to our American wapiti.

But the Puritan's were, in the main, farmers and city folk, not outdoorsmen. Which helps explain all the starving and dying.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Growing up, my Dad said to if i was going to live under his roof, I needed to learn how to care for the house. Thanks to him, I can now do basic home repair when I want to...which isn't very often (Electrical, plumbing, roof shingling, sanding, plastering, wallpapering, maintaining a well with a pump, painting, flooring/tiling, resurfacing a shower, refinishing wood, gutters, trimming gardens, pruning, the list goes on...)

Vintage Betty

 

[Stewart Field]

My vintage skills are quite limited. Besides being fairly handy with a hammer and screwdriver I can hone and strop a straight razor. My shoes get a regular polish as well, a skill that I believe has been replaced by "I'll buy another pair from DSW"

 

[Shangas]

Use and maintain a typewriter.

Use and maintain a sewing machine.

Use and maintain a straight-razor shaving setup.

Use and maintain a fountain pen.

 

[jskeen]

oh goodie, obscure and relatively useless skills and talents. Lets see

I can, and HAVE;

operate a manual metal lathe without a computer
repour a babbit bearing
identify scrap metal, classify it as to best new function, and then reshape it into a new tool.
forge, heat treat and temper high carbon steel into knives, plane irons, chisels, ect.
melt, cast and finish brass, bronze or aluminum into solid forms
hand forge and case harden mild steel for hardware

repair refit and functional test most weapons up through SAW and M2
reload ammo for the above
Hit what I'm aiming at most of the time
Know what I can't hit with a given weapon and not try (almost as important as hitting what you do aim at)

Cut trees with axe and buck saw
split rails, shingles and staves
saw planks and notch logs
stack, cure and finish lumber
turn finished lumber into just about anything without electricity. (although not as fast as I used to)

Raise most livestock, slaughter, butcher, prep and preserve the results (with or without electricity)
dry skins for rawhide, tan it for leather, and dress it for buckskin
Hunt and harvest most critters for the same uses if I don't have time to raise them.

Plant, tend, raise, harvest and store corn, peas, vegetables and fruits. Can, dry, preserve or pickle to store without electricity
Note; hunting critters is often an intrinsic part of raising food. You can't eat it if they get it first.
Cut hay, sheave and shock it by hand, or bale and barn it by tractor. (not sure which is less unpleasant, but a tractor sure as heck gives you more hay at the end of the day)

Triage, field stabilize and transport compound fractures and major lacerations from car wrecks (done that)
same for GSW and other battlefield injuries (haven't actually done that, but trained to)
Deliver a baby if no major complications occur (again, haven't actually done it, but got the certificate)

Skills I never acquired and am not sure I ever will;
Figure out why a woman is mad at me.
Do anything effective to fix it.
Avoid it for the same reason next time.

Pass up a child or elderly person having trouble without at least seeing if I can help.
Feel sorry for able bodied persons sitting around doing nothing but complaining about how tough things are.

 

[jskeen]

Shoot, I almost forgot. Once the corn is harvested, I can and have

Sprout corn for malt
Mash ground corn and malt to make sour mash
Distill mash into grain alcohol
cut. age, and bottle into decent corn whisky

Small batch only, I generally made a 20 gallon run in 5- 5 gallon buckets, with a 10 gallon pot still. In 3 runs I could get about 2 gallons of 100 proof raw whisky, which would age out to about one and a half gallons of 2 year old sipping whisky, in theory. (I don't know for sure, I never could leave it alone that long)