Lost or rusty skills

[Woodsman]

I've been thinking about this the last few weeks. A recent thread made me think about the subject more.

A lot of information seems to have been forgotten when we get caught up in the daily rushes of our lives. Canned this, packaged that, and it comes in a box for convenience. How much has actually been forgotten that has to be relearned?

In several generations a lot of this information has been neglected and grown rusty through non-use. The downside is: It's a lot easier to practice and retain the knowledge than to re-discover it by trial and error (Darwin award candidates maybe?)

I fall into the rusty category, but I'm sure there are a lot of things forgotten also. I think the same issue also applies to the womenfolk for what might be called traditional tasks they perform. Not meaning to touch off a gender war here, but at one time each gender had some things they did very well for survival.

I do know there are times I wish I still had my grandparents to bounce things off of.

In this line of thinking, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread on some of those tasks and discuss the shortcomings or helpful hints.