Learn to homestead with SKIP (Skills to Inherit Property) by accomplishing new skills, and maybe even inheriting a property of your own.
I’d like you to meet a fictional young woman named Pepper. She’s 18 years old and reads Mother Earth News cover to cover. She wants to make the world a better, healthier place. She dreams of having a garden, five ducks, and a cozy cabin in the country, and to accomplish it all herself. She just has a few problems to overcome.
Homesteads cost money, and the price of land just keeps increasing. Pepper will have to work a long time to be able to afford her own place. She sees a couple of routes to earn money for her future property, but they aren’t great. She could get a job she’s passionate about, but positions in her areas of interest probably wouldn’t pay much. Or, she could get a higher-paying job, but she may be miserable the whole time. Both of those options might include a hefty college price tag. Regardless of the route, it’ll probably take 10 to 20 years before she can scratch up a down payment for a homestead — and 30 more years to pay it off. So, if everything goes well, Pepper will be about 60 years old when she finally has her little slice of heaven paid off and can think about retirement.
Pepper also faces the hurdle of becoming a capable homesteader. Running even a simple acreage requires a lot of skills. She didn’t grow up on a farm, and nobody taught her how to garden. She can read books and watch videos of people doing these activities, but that’s a far cry from getting her own hands dirty. If she magically had a place today, she’d have to build skills by “drinking from a fire hose.” It sure would be nice to have some experience with chickens before the chicks arrive.
I’d also like you to meet a fictional older man named Otis. Otis has a 200-acre property with two houses, an orchard, a big garden, a tractor, and all the homesteading gear you can imagine. He had to give up the animals a few years ago because he couldn’t keep up with them. His kids have moved away and have no interest in living there. He wishes a grandchild or another young relative would take an interest in his lifestyle, but he doesn’t know any young people who’d be a good fit. If he wills his land to his children, they’ll just sell it to the highest bidder. After his death, Otis foresees his lovingly tended garden, orchards, and the old house he grew up in being leveled. His new house might even be bulldozed to make room to subdivide the acreage. All his decades of work will be erased. These prospects sadden Otis, but what can he do?
Is there some way to help Otis and Pepper meet?
Funny you should ask. My friend Paul Wheaton devised Skills to Inherit Property (SKIP), a free merit-badge program comprised of homesteading skills in multiple categories. Young people learn the skills on their own, accomplish various tasks, post their results online, and have their results verified by others ahead of them in the program. The online accomplishments of young, aspiring homesteaders like Pepper are visible to people all over the world like Otis. By completing the tasks, Pepper will not only learn the skills needed to run Otis’ homestead, but she’ll also prove she has the gumption, self-discipline, and pluck to be worthy of it.
How SKIP (Skills to Inherit Property) Works
We’ve defined 1,477 skills that are organized into 22 merit badges, most of which have four levels of difficulty. The difficulty levels, from easiest to hardest, are named Sand, Straw, Wood, and Iron. The easiest level requires about five hours of experiential learning, while the hardest level will take around 1,200 hours to complete. Badge topics are numerous, including gardening, natural building, woodland care, natural medicine, textiles, tool care, metalworking, and much more.
For Pepper to earn the Sand-level Textiles badge, she’ll need to crochet or knit a hot pad, weave a basket, sew a patch, make 20 feet of twine, darn a sock, and make a pillow. By comparison, for the Iron-level Textiles badge, she’ll need to make an entire wardrobe — starting from seed! This involves planting the fiber or fodder crop, harvesting the fiber, spinning yarn, weaving cloth, and sewing the clothes. She’ll also have to make a yurt, shoes, and a few other things to complete that badge.
As another example, for Pepper to earn the Sand-level Natural Building badge, she must do three tasks from a list of six. She may choose to make natural paint, install a small wood-shingled roof, and make whitewash. If she wants to earn the Iron-level Natural Building badge, she’ll need to build an earth-sheltered log home and live in it through a winter.
The program states how tasks need to be done and how to document that you did them. However, it doesn’t teach how to do any of the skills and doesn’t cover legal issues, since they vary by location. Part of homesteading and impressing Otis is being a resourceful self-starter and learning on your own.
As Pepper earns badges, she’ll achieve bigger certifications called PEP1, PEP2, PEP3, and PEP4. For instance, to achieve PEP1, she’ll need to complete 16 Sand-level badges. For PEP2, she must complete 14 Sand-level badges, seven Straw-level badges, and one Wood-level badge. Pepper will choose which badges she wants to earn based on her interests and abilities. (It’s a happy coincidence that Pepper’s name is so similar to the PEP certification titles.)
The SKIP program was conceived by Paul Wheaton and created online by dozens of volunteers over thousands of hours. Paul lives in Montana and loves permaculture, so the badges are focused on homesteading skills he feels are appropriate to that area. If a participant is less interested in permaculture or lives in a warmer part of the world, the SKIP framework could be used to devise badge programs for other situations, such as organic market gardening, organic farming, ranching, urban homesteading, or desert permaculture.
Although SKIP is a fairly new program, 314 people have already earned at least one badge, and two people are PEP1-certified. At least 20 “Otises” have told me they’re looking for an heir. While they live predominantly in the United States, some hail from Canada, South America, and Europe. Otises don’t need to own a property; they could also gift money to homesteaders who’ve impressed them.
Some people scoff at the idea that there are older folks who’d want to give their land away. But every time I talk to a group about this program, at least one older person says they fit the bill as an Otis. The more pressing challenge is getting enough young people cranked through the skill-building process in time to impress the aging Otises. As of now, anyone who achieves PEP2 or higher has an excellent chance of inheriting a homestead.
The SKIP program allows folks like Otis to view the accomplishments of people like Pepper while keeping Otis’ identity private. Otis controls the situation. He chooses which aspiring homesteader he likes and then contacts them to work out details; this could include onboarding and living arrangements until the property changes hands. The SKIP program doesn’t give advice, such as estate planning, legal, financial, or matchmaking.
It’s hard to believe the SKIP program is free, but it is. While people may need to get some tools to perform the skills, participation is free, and folks can complete the tasks from anywhere. Participants can document completed tasks by posting pictures or videos online. Paul hosts and maintains the program at Permies; website staff helps with certifications; and people further ahead in the program help certify those who follow in their path. To learn more, visit Permies. Or, better yet, pick up a copy of the book Paul and I wrote, SKIP: Skills to Inherit Property, from MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
Learn to Homestead and Discover New Opportunities
Pepper now has a new path to consider. She can spend a year or two developing her skills and proving herself. She could do this during a gap year, in place of college, during college, or alongside a normal job. If she builds enough skills, her SKIP resume will likely attract the attention of someone looking for an heir. She might be able to “skip” the rat race and go straight to a paid-off homestead and use some of her new skills to earn money on the side.
Otis now has a better option too. His decades of accomplishments won’t be paved over. He can sleep well knowing that someone will love and protect his property as much as he does.
I believe connecting Otis and Pepper this way will significantly improve both of their lives. It’ll also keep productive land in the hands of people who will care for it and help make the world a better place.
Mike Haasl promotes permaculture homesteading and wants more young people to be able to own land. He teaches, writes, and builds community in northern Wisconsin with his wife and their flock of chickens.
Originally published as “SKIP: Skills to Inherit Property” in the April/May 2023 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS and regularly vetted for accuracy.
