There is a new site at 13Skills.com that I’m trying out. The concept is you set and track goals over the course of a year. It is starting out as 13 skills for 2013, but suspect it will be kept at a bakers dozen even as we move into 2014. Building skills in yourself is something of value that we should all be working at and should be something you have to work at, not something you already know how to do.
I have registered and selected 13 skills and started filling out my goals (see my profile here). The one that is the most along is under bushcrafting and involves axe skills. While I have a chainsaw I want to become proficient with an axe, or more to the point two axes. My journey will be documented on this blog under the tag axe.
13Skills.com also has places in each skill to link to a blog so that others can follow your progress. In my case when you look at my public profile you will see that the bushcrafting and beekeeping skills have links back to this blog including the tag so you can go right to the posts about beekeeping or about my journey with the axe.
There are no prizes or rewards that you get from the 13Skills.com site, this is all about helping you set and track goals you set for yourself. Of course you do get a reward in that you learn new skills or expand the ones you already have. When I go back to my high school and find out they not only do not offer shop class anymore, all the tools and equipment have been disposed of making it unlikely it will ever come back due to the expense of replacing everything. I wonder how kids are going to learn real world skills. There are many people I know that have never cut a board, worked on an engine, done basic metal fabrication, planted a garden or sewn cloth. 13Skills.com may be a way to help with this problem. Lets get back to learning skills that can benefit you for a lifetime.