Training myself; course thoughts

Part of the the excitement and thrill of this whole adventure is the range of tasks which I am going to take on which I have never tried before. Setting myself challenges like this is something I have done my whole life so far; I am a self taught guitarist and music producer (and have a profitable recording studio to show for this), a self taught software developer (earnings from which funded the studio, and are allowing me to expedite my retirement as described in this blog) and I have started the process of learning about growing things.

Learning is Fun

Being self taught does not mean, however, that you ignore all advice or even that you isolate yourself. It can be very useful indeed to get a helping hand when you are getting started and I would never say that I had no mentors for my music or my software.

A fair number of my regular readers have commented that I should look into some courses before I leave to get this grounding in subjects which I have zero experience in. I thought I would put a brief blog post together summarising these suggestions and my thoughts on this.

One course which I am pretty sure I am going to have to do is the trailer towing course. As I passed my driving test after 1997 I do not have the correct codes on my license to allow me to tow a trailer. Not many people know about this change in the law but it is sadly true. I have found some suppliers local to me who do a weekend of training and then provide the test. It is about £500 with the training course and test cost. I'd rather spend this and get the additional codes than risk losing the trailer on the journey.

The first course which I considered was for plastering; the walls in the school are expansive to say the least; it would be good if, during the non-building seasons (summer and winter), I could get ahead and do plastering of rooms I'm living in. There are courses available in the north west and this one looks like the best. I am very tempted to book onto one over this winter. I think having some confidence with plastering will be one of the most important building skills I can have.

Me learning Brick Laying with Phil

Another course someone suggested to me is Bricklaying. I am not so sure about this as I have some experience with brick laying, having had a friend teach me and my business partner when we first started work on the studio. This was a long time ago and I didn't do that much, but the principals are in my head and I'm sure I will be able to do it at a pinch. I don't think using one of my now becoming limited weekends for a bricklaying course is a good use of time.

Finally, for the construction style courses, it has been suggested I look into a welding course. There is a fair amount of merit for this suggestion as I have not a clue about anything to do with welding however I also am not sure what I would need to know it for over there? My thoughts on this are that if I find I need to know welding I can find a course over in Bulgaria and learn while I am there.

I am quite confident with animals, as my parents will tell you I have always been able to deal with animals, however there are two courses which could be useful.

First of all a bee keeping course is an option. I am really keen on keeping bees, they are amazing creatures, are at risk at the moment from the monumental evil which is Monsanto and other GM companies, and they work really hard for a homesteader by pollinating flowers and helping plants to fruit. If you keep honey bees then you get the added benefit of, well, honey. And what would be nicer than to be able to source your own honey in your back garden. I am exceptionally tempted to try and find a bee keeping course.

Bee keeping - fetching outfits huh

I have also been recommended to look for a Pig Husbandry course. I am feeling quite close to decided that I will be keeping pigs early in my stay and I have been told by people with experience that they are not as simple as some other animals. I think I need to spend some time this upcoming visit exploring the village and seeing if I can talk to any locals who may already keep pigs; if there is some expertise in my village then that would make taking this course less important.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of courses which could prove useful (for example if I wasn't planning on going next March I may well have booked myself onto this: http://www.panyaproject.org/permaculture-in-practice-course-october-20-november-2-2013/) and if you think I have missed something then please comment below.