Welcome!

Welcome to the new blog home of FoxfireSkilz.  Some folks may recognize me from my tweets on the #PrepperTalk and #Bushcraft lists.  I guess I should give you a little information about myself.

My name is Brandon and I'm originally from Lawrence County, Alabama.  I've been happily married to my beautiful wife for almost 15 years.  We have three wonderful children: DS1 (12), DD (8), & DS2 (7).  My wife is a high school biology/zoology teacher.  I am a software engineer for a global software and integration company.



I grew up on a farm in the Appalachian foothills on the northern border of Bankhead National Forest.  Unlike most folks in their late 30s, I've actually had to hand-milk cows, slop hogs, feed chickens in the yard, go all around the farm to different nest boxes to pick up eggs, etc.  Shoot, my first hoe was on an old broom handle because a regular hoe handle was too long for me.  My papaw put a hoe on the broom handle and I was out hoeing corn. 

Summers were filled with working in the garden, the corn field, etc., and then helping to prep and can all of the fruit and vegetables that we had in abundance (thank the Lord).  The winters were filled with cutting and hauling wood for heat.  Every afternoon was splitting wood (yes, with an axe or hammer and wedge if I couldn't get an axe through it), chopping old cedar stumps and fence posts into kindling, and making sure there was plenty of wood in the house for us and for my grandparents across the yard from us.

Growing up as I did, as I tell folks we were poor as Job's turkey, there wasn't a lot of extra comforts to be had.  Honestly, it didn't bother me.  I had all I needed and lots of love from family.  I loved the quiet of home, being able to go out the door and 30 yards later be in the trees going up the mountain to roam.  I was also fortunate (read blessed) enough to learn many of the skills that few of my generation ever encountered.  When you have little money, there not a lot to spend on replacing things.  That means you learn to see things a little differently and see a part you need within something completely different.  It also means you tend to become a packrat (much to the consternation of my dear wife), but those things that seem trash today tend to come in really handy down the road.

If you've read any of the Foxfire books, you've had a glimpse into some of what life was like for me.  I actually knew people who spoke as those you read there, and saw many of those skills put into use.  Those are skills I'm trying to retain and pass along to my own children.

Most importantly, though, I want to pass along my values to my children.  I was truly blessed in that I grew up in a home where God came first and my love of and relationship with Jesus was fostered from my earliest memories.  We were always active in our church.  The church I grew up in was founded in 1824, and my grandfathers had been elders in the church since the 1840s.  It was a typical small country church, and was truly a family.  Thanks to such a rich blessing, I have been proud to call myself a Christian for most of my life.  There are many things important to me, but nothing more important than our Lord.

Hopefully, I will be able to pass along some of my knowledge that I've gained over the years as well as what I still hope to learn here.  I also hope that everything you may read here will be uplifting and a good example of who I strive to be.