The Campfire Trail: November 19

November 19, 2022

Day 414 of the Adventure

I ran into some "push-back" on DIY projects today and really felt like addressing the subject once again. We had published a video a while back on something we were doing at our place and got worked over a little on social media about "leaving the complicated stuff to the professionals". (By the way, it was not related to the DIY roof framing in the pic to the right) Nevertheless, I'm not sure if the comments were coming for a place of knowledge or lack of knowledge. Either one can be frustrating. From a position of knowledge, it's easy to look at what someone may do as a DIY project and think, "They have no idea what they're doing and they're going to hurt themselves or someone else. They need to leave it to us professionals." That can be valid but not always so. The opposite would be speaking from a lack of knowledge position. For example, "That's way too complicated or dangerous. They need to leave it to a professional". That can also be valid but not always so. Over the years, I've attempted many new things for the first time as DIY projects. Not all have turned out exactly the way I expected. Mostly though, the first attempt at something gave me all kinds of hands-on experience to know what to do or questions to ask the next time around. My serious DIY endeavors began in my early teens. It also coincided with my need to begin buying tools at an early age. You can't do things yourself without procuring the tools needed to do things yourself. Another important lesson in the arena of DYI is the fact that in all the world, very few things are actually "Rocket Science". Rocket Science is the only thing, as a matter of fact. So, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to do things that are not rocket science. Obviously, there are plenty of things out there that perhaps you shouldn't do yourself, but around your homestead or off-grid journey, there is really not many skills that would fit that category. I'm not advocating jumping into complex or dangerous projects completely blind. If you have the inclination to give it a try, make sure to do enough research to at least give yourself a basic working knowledge of what you're about to attempt. Building treehouses was that way for us. Where do you go to learn complex treehouse design, engineering and construction. The answer is - Almost Nowhere! Maybe entirely nowhere. Still, where there's a will, there's a way and after some trial and error on the first one, the next dozen or so were not nearly as intimidating. Same is true with building a chicken coop, plumbing a bathroom, learning to operate a backhoe or any number of things around the DIY Homestead!