Southern Skills for The Modern Homestead

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Discover the southern way of modern homesteading life.

Southern Homestead

VIntage Road and Cope Lane

Williston South Carolina

Southern Skills for The Modern Homestead. Who we are.

a close up of a tree with moss growing on it

Update 11 September 2024

We have some changes coming around. I'll copy a FB post and then expand it..This is a cross post from another page I manage. One called The Medic Shack.

It's been a long time since I posted here. Christine and I have knocked around the idea of just putting TMS (The Medic Shack) to bed. Then things change. The economy, well she's a changing. Sure right now gas prices are going down, but that happens every election year. Groceries are going up. At our local Walmart in Barnwell SC, an 18 count of eggs is 5.77 for the large and 6.22 for the 18 count of WM brand eggs. And healthcare costs are up. But the biggest change is our electrophysiology program where I work is being discontinued for an extended time. That's all I can say right now without getting into trouble with corporate.

So we've decided that we're going to just say Eff it and do our own thing. We have another page that we've been working on for a while. Southern Skills for the Modern Homestead. And we've taught an revamped Medic Shack Class. But it doesn't fit in that page. Sure it was a hit, but it just doesn't fit. So we're going to revive The Medic Shack and do medical classes on it. Just like we did before. And SSMH will be more homesteading and crafting. This way we can focus on each one and make each the best they can be. And mirror posts between the two that fit in. So updates will be coming to TMS and SSMH. Classes, Crafts how to's and homestead geared items. For the Medic Shack updated classes, blogs that pertain to the changing medical landscape of the 2020's. Changes in wound care due to new technology. And herbs since the FDA made it illegal to buy "vet meds" (NOTE We do not condone the use of vet meds on humans)

In the coming days and weeks y'all will see new and revamped pages and hopefully some new classes and crafts and good old fashioned southern tips and tricks!

Chuck and Christine Hudson

The Medic Shack is a business that Christine and I built back in 2011 and went online with it in 2015. At The Medic Shack We taught "alternative medicine." So what's alternative medicine? It's a hybrid of traditional herbal medicine, combined with modern western medicine and the medicine I learned as a combat medic in the Army, and as an EMT-P in civilian life. We taught classes from basic first aid, herbal first aid, wilderness first aid. Wound care and up to a 4 day Battlefield medic class that covered all the above classes AND major trauma. We taught IV starting closing wounds cleaning wounds etc.

We're going to bring both TMS and SSMH pages together, (BUT seperate) On TMS, we'll cover the medical aspect of homesteading and more advanced classes. On SSMH we'll stick to homesteading crafts and classes that pertain more to the homesteading side. We all decided that it would make things easier. Some first aid stuff does belong on a homesteading page. But detailed posts on debridement of a bullet wound belongs more on a medical page. Each page will have links to each others posts so all our readers can keep up to date on what THEY want and pass on things that they really don't want to deal with. We look forward to our new organization and hope to be of service to folks in the CSRA part of South Carolina and NE Georgia.

Christine and Chuck Hudson

Katie Riley

Who we are.

So who are we? We are a couple of families, that follow a bunch of homesteading, prepping and other type pages. And while most are good, None really talk about trying to live off the land here in the Deep South. Sure we all have our unique things that make it a little different. The vast majority of the US is fairly temperate. Warm summers. Cool to cold winters. The west well it's different. We lived in the desert SW and learned how grow food with our much water. Here? Well we're running short on rain this year. We've only had about 17" (As of June 2024. I tell that to my friends out in the desert and they laugh. And laugh and well laugh some more. In a GOOD year they may get 12 inches!

What can you expect from us? We'll have a bunch of different classes out at one of our places near Williston SC. Native plants and their uses. First aid. Herbal classes. How to get the most out of a small piece of land here in the south. Alternative power. Alternative medicine. Water. Yeah we live in a very wet state. But we should always have the means to make clean water. We have different crafts to teach and to sell. Hot packs, soaps, candles things of that sort. Primitive metal working (Blacksmithing) My grandfather used to tell us kids Everyone needs to know how to move metal. To making a plant hanger to welding two pieces of metal together without a welder. More stuff to come as we get going!

One thing we have in abundance here is wildlife. Oh we had wildlife in NM where were from originally, Some pretty exoctic animals. Oryx Ibex, Jaguar, Coatimundi, mountain lion elk moose, deer bear etc. And 10 species of venomous snakes and one venomous lizard! Here we only have 6 venomous snakes, But we have dinosaurs that live in the water! We have learned how to defend our garden from the huge herds of deer, rabbits, armadillos and other critters. We're still learning how to come to a truce with the bugs that want to eat our garden!

There is no place like the South. When we moved here 5 years ago, I was thinking of when I was stationed at Ft. Stewart and Ft. Jackson. But we fell in love with the area. The people and mostly the land. No my wife and I are not native Southerners. Our partner Katie is. But if you go by latitude, where we're from in NM is further south than here! Seriously Las Cruces NM is 32.3199° N, 106.7637° W Aiken SC is 33.5604° N, 81.7196° W