Today is a recounting of a conversation between Tactical Redneck and me about long-term solutions on the homestead versus short-term fixes. When is it best to invest the time and $$ for a permanent solution? When not? What if you cannot come to consensus on this?
Show Sponsor: Paul Wheaton, Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton's Garden Master Course Kickstarter is still open for backers to get Helen Atthowe's super comprehensive teachings on how to produce high yields of quality crops using all your own inputs, and being kinda lazy and messy with it, all for a fraction of the cost of the live course! And because they've far exceeded their goal, they're dishing out new stretch goal goodies every few days, so get in on it now to watch the goods stack up!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=7yxzv3
Livestream Schedule
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report, 10/23/2022
We made our usual shopping trip on Saturday, visiting four stores. Traffic was light. I did not see or hear any signs of stress, like muttered remarks or arguments, in fact I saw the usual courtesy, such as one man motioning a woman ahead of him when another line opened, even though he was closer to it, and she had a cart with more stuff.
The first stop was Dollar Tree. The food coolers are essentially empty, and the drink coolers are also becoming sparse. The food aisles still look full. There was an employee setting out boxes to restock in some aisles, but I did not see what types of products were in them. Sonia found some craft items, and I grabbed a drink.
Next was Hobby Lobby. I didn't see anything unusual in there; shelves looked full as usual.
Home Depot was third. A 2x4x8 was $3.75; I think that's the same as last week, which was down from the week before's $3.98. I noticed the addition of their own batteries on an island, a brand called "HDX." They are alkaline, but made in China, so I'd expect them to leak. Other brands looked at the same levels as last week; not full, but much better than the week before.
Aldi was last. I noticed higher prices on many breads, milk, and eggs. We found what we wanted, except for the cantaloupe, which looked wrinkly and decrepit. I'm keeping an eye on tomato products due to what I've been hearing about shortages, but they still seem to have a normal amount of soups and sauces. They also had canned ham again, for the first time in months, so we got two. Their new cashier is still awaiting bite training, and may have been the only person I recall seeing muzzled.
Untainted gasoline remains at $4.199/gallon, and I believe I saw $3.399 for the corrupted stuff.
Frugality Tip
From Margo: Here's a simple little tip to extend the life of your metal outdoor chairs. Grab a bottle of nail polish and paint the little rust spots. You will get extra years out of your chairs. I have a pair of chairs I got off the curb 3 years ago and for $1.00 bottle of nail polish, we can still use them without leaning on sharp rusty spots. As long as the seat is still good, every 6 months or so I'll paint over the rust spots with nail polish.
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Short Term or Permanent Fix?
When do you do things long term vs short term?
It depends is the answer we use all the time for so many questions and it fits here too.
Joel Salatin on temporary fences. Buy once cry once and the meat slicer. But the aggravation and time used to reset my event space has to stop now - and a temporary fix buys us the winter to set up the long-term repair shop.
It’s up to you.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today is an interview with Jason Sparks all about starting a homestead from scratch, being a carpenter, building community and more.
Show Resources
Kentucky Sustainable Living: https://www.facebook.com/groups/267335831465407
Main content of the show
43 year old male born and lived in bowling green ky my whole life.
Own a general contracting company in bowling green ky.
Graduated from Western Kentucky University with construction management degree.
I have a small homestead right outside of Bowling Green KY. We raise a few cows,sheep,chickens and pigs. We process all our animals at the farm. I started off in prepping about 12 years ago and realized that no matter how much you store it will run out eventually. There is where I started going more in the direction of sustainable living and growing more for my family.
I and one other person started Kentucky sustainable living with the purpose of building state wide community. The community is like minded people that help each other now and in the future no matter how the world goes.
We have meetings and training events for members.
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: rat poison, sheep, getting ready for a big event, homestead realtors in the network, and more.
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5uZlo2h_Q
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Today we talk about cross training, banana care, the future of the Holler bees and more on today’s show.
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Sponsor of the day: Freesteading.com
Forage
Livestock
Harvest Meals
Winter on the homestead
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
Membership Plug
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Today we talk about starting your own business, content creation, attitude adjustments, dog poop and more with Toolman Tim Cook and John Willis.
Show Resources
Youtube replay video
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today, we will talk not about being forgiven, but about why it is so important to forgive those around you if you want to build the life you choose.
Show sponsor: Paul Wheaton
Sponsor Links
Paul Wheaton's new Kickstarter aims to create a video-based Garden Master Course featuring Helen Atthowe, and all the things she's not allowed to teach in a university-sanctioned Certified Master Gardener Course. You can support the project, and get gobs of permaculture goodies by pledging as little as $1 here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=6cxu6f
OTHER SPONSOR LINKS
Free heat: https://permies.com/w/free-heat?f=495
Wood heat 8-DVD set: https://permies.com/wiki/63837f495/Wood-Heat-DIY-Rocket-Mass
Livestream Schedule
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report 10/16/22
First was Dollar Tree. There were a few more items restocked in the Health aisle, but the food and drink coolers are now all very depleted. The food aisle still looks good though, and canned mackerel (although a different kind) has returned. I believe there were at least a couple of extra employees stocking shelves, but it appeared to be very random what they were putting out. I've seen more glassware available there lately.
Home Depot was next. A 2x4x8 has dropped again, to $3.75. It was hard to tell because some things have moved around, but I think they got in some more Duracell and/or Ray-o-vac batteries, as most of the battery shelves at checkout had some products on them.
Aldi was last. There was a lot more chicken there than in recent weeks, a good amount of lunchmeat, and most areas looked good. The only notable exception were the cantaloupes. They had a lot of them, but they all looked wrinkly, suggesting age and/or poor storage conditions. I didn't see any significant holes, and we found everything we wanted.
All three places were busier than I remember, even for a Saturday. It did not look like anyone was panic-buying; they just all decided to go shopping.
I didn't stop, but untainted gasoline remains at $4.199/gallon.
Frugality Tip from Margo
I am a cheap person, or frugal I guess is a better label lol. This week's frugality tip:
We like to go to estate sales, the tip part is going on the last day of the sale when everything is at least half off. We buy things to use around the house for projects. Things we have recently purchased:
A whole coffee can of screws for $1
Chanel locks for $1
Screwdriver for 50¢
A dustpan for 25¢
A $300 extension ladder for $50
Assorted pvc fittings and pipe I grab any time I see them and have over $500 worth of pvc fittings and pipe that I paid maybe a total of $10 for...aquaponics is going to happen soon over here...
Go to the website estatesales.net and put in your zip code and find local sales. Happy Hunting!!
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Forgive
I have been pondering some deep things lately, among them are punitive actions that we humans take against others who do things “illegal.” I basically started because one of my friends was mad at another friend for her “Unchristian” lifestyle.
I started thinking about the large numbers of Christians in my life who never ask anyone’s religious views, who love those around them unconditionally, and who also manage to do this without getting hurt.
Why?
One thing they share is a large capacity for forgiveness.
Then this tweet came out:
Tweet fro Cyprian (Vin Armani)
While on the cross, Christ interceded on behalf of those who crucified Him, seeking that they might be forgiven and, thereby, saved.
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
When you wish destruction on those whose degeneracy disgusts you, whom are you serving?
BUT WHY does forgiving lead to a better life?
>Story of my nonprofit years and losing my largest donor
>Story of the first fiance and interceding two decades of troubled relationships
>Website clients who never pay their balance and collections
>The $240 commercial meat slicer
>John Willis when you do something wrong
>Laprises and morning cuddles
Landing: Forgiving yourself. Forgiving those around you. Building your future.
Membership Plug
MeWe reminder
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Today we have an interview with Steven File all about strategic home defense.
Show Resources
Strategic Home Defense: https://www.strategichomedefense.com/
Instagram: @strategichomedefense
Main content of the show
Steven File is originally from Harrisburg, PA and relocated to Texas last year during the spring. Steven has been in the Army National Guard for over 11 years as an Infantryman and has worked in law enforcement for 7 years. He has worked operationally on a SWAT team and worked as a criminal intelligence detective. After seeing the aftermath of violence and traumatized victims Steven and his wife Kelsey devoted their lives to preventing victimhood and empowering people to secure their own future.
Interview
Membership and Coffee Pitch
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: sheep, dealing with depression, finding land, and more.
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today, we discuss sheep finances, livestock in the fall, growing food, a new segment and more.
Sponsor of the day: FreeSteading.com
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
Membership Plug
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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How does crowd funding work? What does Paul Wheaton, the DUKE of permaculture have in the pipeline as far as his next project? We cover this on today’s livestream.
Paul’s Kickstarter: Link to Paul's Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=6cxu6f
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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After a week to assess SRF, today is the Great Debrief of the event. The good, the bad, the ugly, the money.
Live streams this week
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report for Powell, TN 10/03/2022
We made two trips this weekend. The first, on Saturday, was to three usual places, Dollar Tree, Home Depot, and Aldi.
Dollar Tree looked about the same, except less frozen and refrigerated foods. The Health aisle has not been restocked. There are still a lot of cotton pads (good to soak in wax for firestarters), bandaids, and some OTC meds, but the selection is dwindling. One section of food coolers remains Out of Order, but the other sections are now almost empty as well. The drink coolers still have a lot of product, and canned goods are still pretty full, even though it's mostly tier-2 brands.
At Home Depot, a 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. For the first time, we both noticed less selection on the tool wall, although we did find another pair of pliers. A lot of the tools are made in China, so I'd expect stock to continue dwindling as central warehouses are drawn down.
I don't remember any remarkable changes at Aldi, and we found what we wanted, escaping at just under $100 for the two of us plus the kitties.
I don't recall seeing any face-diapers on Saturday.
Today, we also made three stops. The first was Dollar General Market. Sonia did not find a large one-piece spoon she wanted (the prior one had just broken at the welds), but she found a small cast-iron piece for the toaster oven, and we added some apples and a small bag of potatoes. Stock looked okay, although they've got Christmas stuff out already, which is indecent. In line we were behind a couple of muzzled sheeple, but I don't remember seeing more.
Second was the recycle center; nothing special noted. Traffic seemed light.
The final stop was a different Dollar General, where Sonia found the spoon, and also a muffin pan for the toaster oven. The latter turned out to be slightly too big, so we used our tools and turned it into a 4- and a 2-muffin set. Looking through the food aisles, there were lots of holes, but we found a couple of boxes of angel hair pasta for $1 each; hopefully it is edible.
Untainted regular gasoline remains at $4.199, although I've seen the corrupted stuff as low as $2.999 now.
Frugality Tip
Eggdrop Soup for breakfast
Operation Independence
Show Sponsor: Paul Wheaton - Launching a kickstarter tomorrow! Stay tuned.
Main topic of the Show: The Debrief
SRF is behind us and now it is time for the great event debrief.
Why SRF Exists
My personal involvement
The good
The bad
The Ugly
The money
A year ago, this was a small event with a handful of people and we are 4X the size and achieving great things: new businesses, relationships, virtual attendance, creative participation, and moving people off the fear!
Thankful for all the help, the sponsors, the participants and the progress.
Membership Plug
MeWe reminder
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Today is a Friday so we have an interview show with Nicholas Ferguson of Homegrown Liberty. We talk about when to have an orchard versus a food forest and take some live questions from the audience.
Sign up for the Oct 28 & 29 Food Forest Class.
Show Resources
Homegrown Liberty: http://www.homegrownliberty.com/
Main content of the show
Nicholas Ferguson is a permaculturist and founder of both HomeGrownLiberty.com and RarePlantStore.com. He regularly speaks at large events such as the Self Reliance Festival and is much sought after for his permaculture advising programs.
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: Geothermal cooling, sheep and dogfood, kratky hydroponics, growing sweet potatoes in the Aquaponics system, repairing a foundation, and more.\
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today’s homestead update covers two weeks since we were at the Self Reliance Festival last weekend and not around to livestream on Friday. Fall is really taking hold here, we have stayed unusually dry so do not have much grass, will be processing sheep next week, and more.
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
Membership Plug
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Today we talk about the Self Reliance Festival, poverty mindset, creating success, Ukraine, natural disasters and more with Jack Spirko and John Willis.
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
First Tuesday Coffee Chat with Nicole, John & Jack
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today we have an interview show with Robert Ralston - a man who has approached prepping with a family member with special needs. It changes the equation.
Show Resources
https://www.prepper-presentations.com/
Main content of the show
My Wife and I are in our mid 50's and have been prepping for about six years. We have a 20 year old non verbal autistic child. I work for the family plumbing business in the warehouse where I build prepper items to sell and inspire others in the wood shop.
Make it a great week
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Today we take a bit of a dive into finding like-minded people should mean, if it is a good idea, and how to make community work.
Livestream Schedule:
Hogget
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report from Joe
We made this week's trip on Sunday, with three stops. Traffic seemed a little heavy, but it must have been church traffic, because the store parking lots seemed relatively empty.
The first stop was Dollar Tree. Ginny on Homestead Corner said her Dollar Tree (somewhere in Maine) was running out of things, and holes were being masked by plastic items spread out on shelves, but I did not see that in ours. The Health aisle has still not been restocked, but everything else looks pretty full.
Next was Home Depot. A 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. The battery carrels at checkout are only 1/3 full, but I noticed some additional islands with batteries. They may be switching things around, as the carrels are mostly Duracell and Ray-o-Vac, but the islands are Ever-ready (Energizer). The store is otherwise well-stocked. While getting some 3-in-1 oil, I found a 26" RainX wiper blade there for only $11, so snatched that up. If you need wiper blades, they don't have a lot of them, but if your Home Depot has your size, that's an excellent price.
Aldi was last. I don't recall any notable price changes, but there seemed a lot less variety in the chips and snacks area. Produce looked good, the meat area had decent stock, and we found a couple of frozen turkey breasts which we had not seen there for a while. At $11 each, I'm glad we'll get at least a few meals from each one.
At my last fill, untainted regular was still $4.199/gallon.
Frugality Tip
The new freezer probes for $70
https://shop.yosmart.com/products/speakerhub-two-temperature-humidity-sensors
Operation Independence
SRF Might make a profit this time! 125% focused on the event. (Also tickets go up Wed after 12pm)
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton wants to show you how to build a shed quickly, out of materials right off your own land. The coolest part? Nobody will even know it's there... Check out The Berm Shed Movie at https://permies.com/w/berm-shed?f=495
Main topic of the Show: On Like-Mindedness
Back to the Land and Like-Minded People
What do we mean when we say like minded?
What should we mean when we say like minded?
Thoughts about critical thinking skills
Trust the Science and asking questions
Creating communities of like-minded people
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Assessing if something is a CRITICAL difference or a small difference
None of my business
Landing: Like mindedness is very important if we break things down to core values, but our human tendency is to equate strong opinions on a variety of things with core values. However, when we reach further, we often find that the BIG differences of opinion that we have are other people’s talking points, or things grounded in the HOW not the WHY or the WHAT.
We can do better and focus on real goals that make a real difference when we learn to look beyond the spin and work together on core outcomes.
Membership Plug
MeWe reminder
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Song:
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Today is a Sunday so we have an interview show and today’s guest is someone I have wanted to chat with for a long time: Survival Punk! His is a story of setting personal priorities early on in life and sticking to them - something I did NOT do!
Show Resources
Main content of the show
James takes a rational, creative approach to self-reliance, applying a punk DIY ethic to survivalism without any of the fear mongering or “tinfoil hattery” found in some other areas of the survivalist movement.
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.
Main content of the show
Replay of Friday’s Homestead Happenings from YT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6dKzDqT_o
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Today we talk about disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
Membership Plug
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Join us as we talk to a revolving set of folks who will be coming to Self Reliance Festival in a week and a half! Ask us anything. Billy Bond, Ken Eash, Stephen Boone, Brian Norton.
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXi3b79U5eo
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today, we talk about working against nature and ask an important question: why?
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton over at Wheaton Labs just released 16 hours of footage from his Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree innovators event. Using very little fuel, and producing next to no smoke, the folks down at the lab created a rocket sauna, cooktop, dehydrator, kiln, and a bunch of heater options for smaller spaces, and full-size homes.
Check it out here:
https://permies.com/wiki/188928f495/Earth-Friendly-Heat-Full-Event
This Week’s Livestream Schedule
Headed to Back to the Land Festival this weekend: Backtothelandfestival.com
Tales From The Prepper Pantry
Frugality Tip From Margo
First tip when traveling, is bring your snacks and road food, sandwiches or whatever you eat. This will save a lot of money on the road. I use re-usable ziploc bags to pack food up and I bring a half of a sponge and a small bottle of dish soap on the road to make sure I will be able to wash them no matter where we stay.
We keep a cooler in the car, I pre-freeze filtered water in 1 liter club soda bottles and use them in the cooler. All of the places we stayed have a refrigerator with freezer and the water bottles get re-frozen to use in the cooler, and we had filtered water as a back up if we needed to drink it.
For two nights I had rented an air bnb way outside of any town (even further out than the holler) lol. Once we got there the first night, we were not driving back 30 min to a store and then trying to find this place in the dark. I had packed some shelf stable foods that I did not need any tools to open, just in case. And I was able to make us dinner, saving time and money that night.
Shopping Report for 9/18/2022
We made five stops on our typical Saturday shopping trip. Traffic was light, and I only saw a few face-diapers.
First stop was Dollar Tree. The store has a lot of inventory, but is beginning to look a little unkempt. The food aisles have a lot of viable stuff, but the health aisle has a lot of unusual things in place of some more typical items, that have not been restocked in some time. The drink coolers seem to have a better selection.
Next was a Mexican store for a few specialty items like a vanilla flavoring and a few plantains. I've never seen their shelves not full. I've not done any real price comparison, but they have quite the variety. I've also never seen any kind of unpleasantness in there like arguing or rudeness.
Hobby Lobby was next. Stock levels seemed good, with a lot of Fall junk in there now, but I did see a couple of empty islands; probably just re-organizing.
Home Depot was #4. The price of a 2x4x8 has dropped again, to $3.98. We grabbed some Miracle Gro for next year; they had plenty of it. They also had a lot more sunflower seeds for birds than the last time we were there. They're more expensive, but there were at least three sizes, in big boxes. The quantities of common battery sizes like AA and AAA continue to drop. I'm glad I've switched to mostly rechargeable, but I'm going to order a few more. They have a LOT of solar lights in stock, much nicer than the cheap dollar store versions that are dim and barely make it through a season. They might be $6.xx, and I'm pretty sure they were at least twice if not three times that price earlier in the year. These make good guide lights; leave them outside during the day to charge, and bring them in at night.
Aldi was last. I don't recall any notable changes from last week, in fact if anything, they were a little better stocked than they have been (this Aldi has never been bad). I even saw some frozen turkey breast, which has long been absent. They had plenty of flour, sugar, TP, and other staple items.
At my last fill on Friday, untainted regular gasoline was still $4.199/gallon.
Operation Independence
Main topic of today’s show: Why Fight Nature?
This morning while driving at 3:30am, I got to thinking about circadian rhythms. You see, with a very early flight ahead of me, I had to get up at 3 to be to the airport in time to depart. It is always an interesting thing to rise much earlier than usual - not the end of the world, but for me it leads to several days of recovery.
Naturally, the next thought was Daylight Savings time as we are about to go back to normal time in a little while. Did you know that during the transition into and out of DST, there is a measurable increase in heart attacks and car crashes? This is because we are ripping our bodies out of their established circadian rhythm - going against nature if you will.
<thoughts on this>
As I Look around, we are not very successful when we go against nature.
7 layers of a forest in Permaculture
Training dogs
Raising children
Why then, do we think it is a good idea to :darken” the earth to fight climate change? How does trying to force the atmosphere into submission have a hope of being successful? Have we learned nothing?
This fight against nature is something that technology-minded leaders come back to over and over. When we do it on a large scale, there are very real, negative impacts.
Mao and the sparrows
So WHY go against nature in the environment, or in interactions with people around you. Would it not be better to seek to understand the realities of nature and go with those to impact better outcomes?
Which brings me to politics: A big problem in how governments and policy works is that it often goes against human nature.
>Humans rebel against being told what to do
>Humans will act selfishly (and that is not a bad thing)
>Humans are herd animals and flourish in communities (Like real ones)
>And, yes, humans are violent - we are - our nature is not al poetry and roses
How then would it look if we worked with nature in governing ourselves?
>Rather than issue black and white edicts for great area “problems”, we would find ways to incentivize positive outcomes (Tapping into selfish, tapping into the herd mentality)
>>Point out that herd instincts make many of us get a selfish rush from helping our communities.
>Set up our culture and educational effort to empower people to find their purpose so that there are more people pouring energy into that and fewer people focused on being dicks
>Accept that there are a percentage of humans who are psychopaths and create system where they are disincentivized to harm.
Accept that there is no perfect.
With this mindset, working with nature, what else can we solve?
What about environmental concerns?
>Leaving the forest alone vs stewarding the forest (We are part of nature, therefore we are part of forests. We evolved together)
>Discovering parts of nature that can help us: Ivermectin as an anti parasitic.
Some kid turned algae into some sort of plastic…?
Which makes me want to start asking more what if questions.
Let’s talk about Chlorophyl. And batteries. What if we figured out how to tap into the energy created in turning the sun into green stuff? What is all the plant around us ARE batteries? I mean in some ways, burning firewood for heat is in fact tapping into an energy store in plants. But what if there is a low-impact, chemical way to harness the forest around us? What would that do to our dependence on fossil fuels? And how would the world change with such a discovery?
Think about it: our dollar is based on petroleum. In some ways, tapping into that energy store is tapping into nature - but is there a better way?
Guys, I know this idea sounds crazy and sci fi. But if you think about it - there must be many discoveries of this scale to be made. But we miss them if we focus on how to control nature rather than to work with it.
Which brings us full circle: working with nature is the whole foundation of permaculture as a design science. So much effort is put into mono cropping in the form of heavy equipment, and fighting pest pressure, and fungi, and so much more. The earth is poisoned in the interest of fighting the natural way things grow — in plant communities - almost as if diversity is part of nature’s plans. And we accept the notion that we can only feed the world if we abuse the soil and interfere with nature.
Yet is that really true? How come no one is challenging that notion? What would happen if we worked with nature to steward diversity of plants and animals, based on what is suited to different regions. And how should we measure success on such an undertaking? By pure number of calories produced, or by the quality of food outputs paired with building healthier soil?
We have been programmed to see things that are grey in black and white terms. While this simplification of the world can make it easier to get things organized and rally people around projects and causes, it comes at a cost. And a very damaging one at that: We have developed some pretty big blinders.
Why not find a way to see beyond them? Why not work with nature in our homestead designs, business set up, political efforts, environmental projects, cutting edge research, and, yes, in commercial food production?
Why fight nature?
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: rat poison, sheep, Self Reliance Festival, the new Holler Neighbors, and more.
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
Episode 620 - Homestead Happenings for Sept 16, 2022
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Advisory Board
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Fall is taking hold in the Holler. We still could use more rain, but it is much cooler. The second wave of plants is upon us and we are preparing for winter.
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Advisory Board
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Today we talk about building market share and defense dogs with Joel Ryals and John Willis.
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Advisory Board
Resources