Great thread!
Maybe it was listed but I'd say learn the dangers in your area and
a) be prepared to defend yourself and your own (not just from two-legged predators, but also from poisonous snakes, fire ants, wasps, scorpions, spiders, bears, etc...) Be prepared before there is an emergency.
b) Know more than how to use a bandaid. Can you set a broken bone, stop bleeding, treat a burn, identify a stroke or heat exhaustion? Do you know what to do for bites, stings, nettles, cuts? Could you protect the flock from coyotes? Save the chicks from snakes? Protect your own from human predators?
Accidents happen. Animals bite, kick, scratch, step on you, pin you to the side of a fence. Hammers attack thumbs. Ladders slip. Tree branches fall. Machinery breaks. Mud is slippery! BUT you're out there a part of it all, and the struggle is what makes the reward a reward. There's no WOW factor to opening a can of store bought veggies and dumping them in a pan, but there is when you open your own jar in February and know you planted it, weeded it, watered it, protected it from insects and disease, harvested it and canned it.
I'd also say that two more things set the people here apart from most of our neighbors. One is the willingness to learn. Looking up answers, asking questions, being willing to admit we don't know it all but being willing to learn. The second is being willing to WORK. In a society addicted to ease and comfort and convenience, it takes a different kind of person to get out of the house to weed a garden, shovel sh@#, fix a broken fence, build a rooster house/pigpen/outhouse, get out in the rain (or hurricane) to fix a roof or to check on animals, plant a garden, take care of it, harvest it and save it to feed your family through a winter. It takes time and money and effort to dig up weeds, clear land, and make it productive and pretty.
Hats off to everyone here for being different!
