What skills do you have?

No fair limiting the answers to non-work-related skills. When you own a small business, ALL skills are work related.

Well, almost all.... :D

But seriously, that's what makes owning your own business so appealing. To succeed literally requires that you use -- and improve -- every skill, from woodworking, to metal work, to electrical, plumbing, paving, carpentry, painting, flying, drywall, marketing, sales, tiling, self-defense, accounting, shooting -- you name it.

Well, okay, I guess strumming the guitar and riding motorcycles accident-free for 35 years isn't work-related. But I'm not sure they count as "skills", either. (Especially the guitar part!)
 
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Hmmm.... I can:

1. Tie my own Swiss seat for rappelling

2. Drive and operate all weapons systems on an M2 Bradley

3. Operate most wood and metal working shop machinery, including CNC lathes and mills

4. Perform basic break dance moves

5. Demonstrate martial proficiency with a Bo staff

6. Operate a variety of manual and electronic field cryptological equipment

7. Perform scratching operations using two turntables and a crossover mix board
 
I invented the internet... You're welcome!
 
Oh I forgot my other odd skills:

I am very good with horses, wild animals, and any / all pets - including behavior modification.

I have pretty good skating skills (useless I know). Not ice skating - skates with wheels. I am OK at ice skating but that's it.

I am handy around the house and can use most large power tools. I have done countless home improvement projects including electrical, plumbing, paint, window, floor, wallpaper, sanding, concrete, and landscaping. My least favorite thing is digging because it gives me callouses.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Hmmm.... I can:

1. Tie my own Swiss seat for rappelling

2. Drive and operate all weapons systems on an M2 Bradley

3. Operate most wood and metal working shop machinery, including CNC lathes and mills

4. Perform basic break dance moves

5. Demonstrate martial proficiency with a Bo staff

6. Operate a variety of manual and electronic field cryptological equipment

7. Perform scratching operations using two turntables and a crossover mix board
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Break Dancing?
 
I'm good at ignoring silly questions about skills on the Internet. :)

Aww, crap. Maybe I'm not that good at it after all.
 
Besides operating /driving just about anything that moves (including but not limited to nuclear powered submarine, helicopter, airplane,hang glider; any motor vehicle allowed on the highway, unicycle, pogo stick, dirt bike, bobcat& just about any other construction equipment, horses, mules).....
....I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
can make my own whiskey and grow my own smoke too
grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
can skin a buck & run a trot-line
Ain’t too many things this ole boy can’t do:)
 
gismo said:
Have you ever done a Duo-Art? I have one in a Steinway that I had completely restored about 20 years ago. The player mech is a work of art by itself. When I was searching for a shop to do the work many of the ones I found suggested I replace the mechanism with an electronic one (played cassette tapes in those days) but when I heard that I kept looking and finally found a guy in Wisconsin that had rebuilt several.
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Yep.

Servicing and rebuilding players was my father's business for, um, I don't quite know how many years. So I started helping when I quite young <mumble> years ago. My picking up tuning and the piano work was a good complement to Dad's business. Not many tuners have a good understanding of players, nevermind being to fix them.

We did Duo-arts, Ampico, grand pianos, uprights. We even did some nickelodeans and foot-pump reed organs.

I still have the tubing schematics. However, I don't think we ever did one that actually matched the drawings exactly. They were all hand-made.
 
Richard said:
Your occupation does not count. What skills do you have that you find valuable?


What prompted my Q was I was just reading an article about mending fishing nets. I then began to think of how I could do that and then I started to think of the many knots I have tied. Of course there are other skills but I'd rathe not say yet.
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I can take a steel chair to the face without much pain. I can also fall from up to 10 feet directly on my back with little to no injury.

More often used, I can code pretty well and I can fly airplanes :)

edit: I am also a mean beatboxer (as those at Gastons 2006 may have seen).
 
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Richard said:
Your occupation does not count. What skills do you have that you find valuable?
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I played trumpet and baritone all through school and I found that the ombature skills developed in band have crossover applications.

Ugggg... net repair, no thanks, what a pita. I redid a widows net under the sprit of a 127' Brigantine. That took 3 of us several days to do. We were working with old 1/2" 3 twist as well.
 
SkyHog said:
I can take a steel chair to the face without much pain. I can also fall from up to 10 feet directly on my back with little to no injury.

More often used, I can code pretty well and I can fly airplanes :)

edit: I am also a mean beatboxer (as those at Gastons 2006 may have seen).
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OMG. You can beatbox while Sac Arrow break dances. Awesome.
 
I've been told I'm a walking encyclopedia. Of useless information.
 
Rndmtrvlr said:
I've been told I'm a walking encyclopedia. Of useless information.
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Same here. I have a tremendous amount of useless information that has stcuk in my head.

I also have a thing for numbers. I know my wife's SSN, my Colorado DL number (plus my Florida DL number from 16 years ago), the license plate numbers on our last 6 cars, and phone numbers from 20 years ago.
I know the serial number for my Cherokee, the full engine type number, the engine serial number, and the TCDS number for the PA28.

But yesterday I couldn't remember my secretary's name :mad2:
 
My most valuable skill is the fact that I've convinced myself I can fix/build anything I've ever desired. If someone else can do it - there is no reason I can't. I simply don't even consider the possibility that I can't do it. That's all it takes.

That ability alone has carried me through my life so far.
 
I can whittle. I thought about whittling gallstones and becoming rich and famous doing the cholecytectomies of the STARS!! :rolleyes:
 
Bob Noel said:
Yep.

Servicing and rebuilding players was my father's business for, um, I don't quite know how many years. So I started helping when I quite young <mumble> years ago. My picking up tuning and the piano work was a good complement to Dad's business. Not many tuners have a good understanding of players, nevermind being to fix them.

We did Duo-arts, Ampico, grand pianos, uprights. We even did some nickelodeans and foot-pump reed organs.

I still have the tubing schematics. However, I don't think we ever did one that actually matched the drawings exactly. They were all hand-made.
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I got the thing working to some extent on my own but the actuators all needed rebuilding and all the tubing needed replacing so I figured I'd better go with a pro. I do have the original service manual for the system. I was amazed to learn that this bit of 1930's technology had two four bit digital to analog converters (pneumatic of course) and an automatic skew mechanism for the roll. The roll is driven by a three phase reciprocating pneumatic motor which runs very smoothly.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Oh I forgot my other odd skills:

I am very good with horses, wild animals, and any / all pets - including behavior modification.
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How about wild horses? The was shot in Holland near the Delta Works project. We were visiting my Aussie exes Dutchie relatives and the were taking us out to see the DeltaWerks project which is pretty impressive. Anyway she had told he uncle that I used to have a ranch in TX and as we were driving by we saw the wild horses in the field, He say''s "Hey cowboy" how about you go run and catch some horses?" "Don't need to run, I can walk out there and they'll come up to me.."No", "yeah","Lets see." "Ok"... Kinda freaked him out...:rofl:

Horse Whispering 2.JPG
 
Henning said:
How about wild horses? The was shot in Holland near the Delta Works project. We were visiting my Aussie exes Dutchie relatives and the were taking us out to see the DeltaWerks project which is pretty impressive. Anyway she had told he uncle that I used to have a ranch in TX and as we were driving by we saw the wild horses in the field, He say''s "Hey cowboy" how about you go run and catch some horses?" "Don't need to run, I can walk out there and they'll come up to me.."No", "yeah","Lets see." "Ok"... Kinda freaked him out...:rofl:

View attachment 24074
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Just like they taught us in horse college. We had a large amount of land and many horses and we had to "catch" our horse from the pasture. They taught us it was much easier to get the horses to come up to us instead of chasing them around, cuz they are a bit faster than us.....
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Just like they taught us in horse college. We had a large amount of land and many horses and we had to "catch" our horse from the pasture. They taught us it was much easier to get the horses to come up to us instead of chasing them around, cuz they are a bit faster than us.....
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Just keep you're hand in you pockets and your head down...
 
jesse said:
My most valuable skill is the fact that I've convinced myself I can fix/build anything I've ever desired. If someone else can do it - there is no reason I can't. I simply don't even consider the possibility that I can't do it. That's all it takes.
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This, sir, is an attitude which will serve you well in life.

Sadly, largely lost among the populace as a whole.
 
Henning said:
How about wild horses? The was shot in Holland near the Delta Works project. We were visiting my Aussie exes Dutchie relatives and the were taking us out to see the DeltaWerks project which is pretty impressive. Anyway she had told he uncle that I used to have a ranch in TX and as we were driving by we saw the wild horses in the field, He say''s "Hey cowboy" how about you go run and catch some horses?" "Don't need to run, I can walk out there and they'll come up to me.."No", "yeah","Lets see." "Ok"... Kinda freaked him out...:rofl:

View attachment 24074
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Wild horses? I haven't seen too many "wild" draft horses with docked tails. There isn't enough open land to have actual wild horses in The Netherlands. But there are wild horses in the Camargue area in France.

Did you go to the Ijseelmeer too? Dutch engineering skills are impressive. They also built the Thames Barrier.
 
I have a skill that hasn't been mentioned but expect several other POAers have it also: handloading. I'm also a bit of a gunsmith but that is based more on mechanical talent & book learning rather than supervised training.

I have rebuilt engines using outside machining services.

I can fix broken oil wells.

I can unclasp a bra single handed while otherwise occupied. ;)
 
Clark1961 said:
I have a skill that hasn't been mentioned but expect several other POAers have it also: handloading. I'm also a bit of a gunsmith but that is based more on mechanical talent & book learning rather than supervised training.
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Where were you 2 weeks ago when I was fighting with a new stock on my Winchester model 70? Snugging the screws down and my 3.5# trigger went to 20# (estimated, as my trigger scale only goes to 10#). I finally found the interference, but took me way too long. :D
 
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gkainz said:
Where were you 2 weeks ago when I was fighting with a new stock on my Winchester model 70? Snugging the screws down and my 3.5# trigger went to 20# (estimated, as my trigger scale only goes to 10#). I finally found the interference, but took me way too long. :D
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Where I've been for 7 of the past 10 weeks: WWW

For stock fitting visit an old world carpenter...I'm mostly mechanical, triggers and such.:D
 
Clark1961 said:
Where I've been for 7 of the past 10 weeks: WWW

For stock fitting visit an old world carpenter ...I'm mostly mechanical, triggers and such.:D
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I am an old world carpenter (wishful thinking, but I did absorb some of what I watched my grand dad do)... :D this is a new synthetic stock ... :D

I was supposed to be north of Hanna, WY this weekend - delayed until next weekend. How windy is it up there? WY light and variable? (20G40)
 
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PilotAlan said:
Same here. I have a tremendous amount of useless information that has stcuk in my head.

I also have a thing for numbers. I know my wife's SSN, my Colorado DL number (plus my Florida DL number from 16 years ago), the license plate numbers on our last 6 cars, and phone numbers from 20 years ago.
I know the serial number for my Cherokee, the full engine type number, the engine serial number, and the TCDS number for the PA28.

But yesterday I couldn't remember my secretary's name :mad2:
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You do not want to remember your secretary's name. You might call it out at an inopportune time. ;)
 
Mad.
I have mad skillz.
 
dmccormack said:
Bowhunting skills, nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills...


Napoleon_Dynamite-150x150.jpg
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THIS.
 
gkainz said:
supposed to be north of Hanna, WY this weekend - delayed until next weekend. How windy is it up there? WY light and variable? (20G40)
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Naw, it was starting to pick-up a bit yesterday, G50.
 
Clark1961 said:
I have a skill that hasn't been mentioned but expect several other POAers have it also: handloading. I'm also a bit of a gunsmith but that is based more on mechanical talent & book learning rather than supervised training.
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Any good sources for .303 Savage brass?
 
I am guessing the vital skills I have retained from my productive youth such as Kazooing and 'cool sounds I can make with my hand in my armpit' need not apply to this thread?
 
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The one skill that has served me well many times over the years is the ability to speak Spanish fluently.
 
Geico266 said:
You do not want to remember your secretary's name. You might call it out at an inopportune time. ;)
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You haven't seen my secretary. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
 
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