My name is Melody and I live in the Minnesota Big Woods. I am a mother of five, a wife, a baker, archer, homesteader, and more. My goal is to help people learn the old ways of working, making, and doing.

From survival skills and woodsmanship to baking and homeschooling, I love the old ways. While technology and machines have made some things easier, they have also taken away skills that our ancestors relied on. With each new trick, tool, or gadget that make our lives easier, a skill passed down for generations dies away.

An example of this is sourdough bread. What used to be the only way to bake has become a novelty, and though it is rising in popularity again, the skill every housewife and baker used to have has been mostly lost. Noticing the fact of lost skills among people has driven me to learn as much as I can about the old ways. What we now call survival skills used to be called every day life, and I believe that people were better for the knowledge they had then. Understanding what wood is best for a fire, or even how to start a fire from scratch, is not common knowledge anymore. Which plants to eat, which animals live where, how to tell the direction by the stars, all of these have an aspect of nostalgia within our modern culture of gps, google, and smartphones. Why do we need to know any of that outdated information?

Because technology is not as good as your brain! A phone will help you in the wilderness for a day or two before it becomes a useless brick. Without a charger and electricity, its worthless! Age old skills are not this way. Not only are they interesting and fun to learn, they have practical application whether you live in the city or in the wilderness. Understanding of the natural world is never a waste!