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Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce

Homesteading, food, freedom and fun!
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Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce
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Now displaying: 2018
Aug 7, 2018

Today, I talk through the two types of canning and the 8 projects you can do to slowly build up your canning skills. 

Direct Download

Resources:

Make it a great week!

Song: Mr Clammy by Sauce

Jul 31, 2018

Today, we will do a Holler Homestead roundup review and look into fall. That’s right, it has been a few months since we took a look at my homestead here, how it is doing, and where we are going as we move into fall. Right now is when you should be readying your fall beds. Now is when you should be at least half wat finished canning your winter stores. Now is when you should be thinking – Christmas is coming, what will I make for gifts? And now is a great time for the quarterly assessment of your lifestyle goals.

Direct Download

Membership Sign Up: https://livingfreeintennessee.com/iump-subscription-plan/

What Mother Nature is Providing

This is where we talk about what is coming off the land around us to enrich our lives.

  • Passion flower: Goats have unearthed passionflower which will turn into passion fruit this fall
  • Elderberries are coming on fast and I will miss harvesting some due to my business trip this week. 
  • All the vegetables: squash, beans, corn, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, swiss chard
  • Sweet potato greens: Recipe and processing and the sifference from potatoes
  • A tale of the megadill plants at Cider Hollow Farm

What we are preserving this week

This is where we talk about what we preserve, when we preserve it, and how we process it.

  • Drying herbs
  • On the road
  • A word on recovering from Pneumonia and the relative level of activity a person can sustain (It’s like altitude sickness)

An aquaponics update

  • A word on pests
  • Balancing the system and what we did to fix it
  • Funky germination
  • Volume of food and what I will do differently next year
    • Trellising
    • Prune and layer things differently
    • More purposeful layering
    • More beds and not all the things in all the beds

Tales from the prepper pantry

  • Bee update: Wax moths and the related cleanup
  • It’s official, we are 1/3 ready for winter. 1 room is full of jars.
  • Still pushing slowly forward on the reset for fall storage

Operation Independence

  • Three new ducks and a chicken
  • Campground expansion in process
  • #my3things is growing
  • Headed to Houston for the week to earn money

 

Summer at the Holler Homestead.

Song: Every Way, by Sauce

Jul 24, 2018

Today, we have an exploration topic: Navigating tough communications and interpersonal relationships. What does that have to do with homesteading or independence? Well it turns out it has a lot to do with both those things.

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Squash bugs and vine borers have won yet again - the early heat wave.
  • Tomatoes, green beans, okra, corn
  • Elderberry, sumac berries, lemon balm
  • Mimosa flowers are still going strong
  • Still haven’t seen blueberries
  • Confession on garlic: You can’t dig when you have pneumonia

What we are preserving this week

  • Buch update
  • Drying sage, lemonbalm and peppermint
  • Canning corn and beans

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • From last week: It’s about time to re-organize all the canned goods and take an assessment
  • Operation prepper pantry fury as Brian would say
  • Defrosting the chest freezer will happen soon - as soon as I am well

Listener Feedback

  • Phone consultation question
  • Listening twice

Operation Independence

  • Refined focus has helped despite losing weeks to illness.
  • Increased the debt payoff allocation (emergency fund is back in place, had a good month with our Airbnb, paper sold the most ads ever this edition)
  • Taxes are getting closer

Topic: Navigating Tough Communication

Song: Cilly Song

Jul 19, 2018

Today, we have a chat with the Tactical Redneck about the MBTI personality types and how he has learned from this way of categorizing people to improve his interpersonal skills at work. It is a fast interview paired with an update from Samantha the Savings Ninja.

Jul 16, 2018

Today, I want to talk about how focusing on a few things can help you get many things done. That’s right. We have touched on this concept in other episodes, but today, I thought we could dive a little deeper. And what sparked this idea? Well, it is the new Facebook group, Living Free in Tennessee Coffee Break. This is where lots of listeners are starting to post up to 3 do or die items that they will get done that day to move themselves forward toward their long-term goals. Some of the things are small, like taking a walk every morning. Some are big: like put up 6 bushels of corn — or some crazy amount — that took that person three days, but she got it done. And people are posting pictures of their progress and sharing ideas. But why three? Why now? We will talk about that after our segments.

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Lots of tomatoes, cukes, squashes, onions, cabbage, greenbeans
  • Mullein flowers have arrive and it is time to harvest
  • Mimosa flowers are here – tincture
  • Someone put a goat roast in my freezer and we are having a curry from that
  • Potatoes are here but I hope to put off getting any until October because my storage area is not well enough insulated to keep those puppies cool
  • Peaches arrived this week but I have not seen any blueberries. I fear the frost killed those

What we are preserving this week

  • Dried our runner beans so we can hull them (what happened last year)
  • Should be canning corn, but I am sick and taking another week off – maybe 2. It’s totally freaking me out
  • Drying mullein flowers
  • Bee balm would be coming on had I not killed it
  • Making komboucha Karley / continuous style (see member portal for her fermentation video)
  • Should be making pickles but again – sick

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • It’s about time to re-organize all the canned goods and take an assessment
  • Operation prepper pantry fury as Brian would say
  • Defrosting the chest freezer will happen soon – as soon as I am well

Operation Independence

  • Updating the duplex: New deadline – end of August, and a trade
  • Airbnb has been jammin

Build Personal Productivity with #My3Thing

Song: Special, By Sauce

Resources

Jul 2, 2018

Today we talk about five uses for an abundance of cucumbers. Everyone else around me who got their gardens started on time are drowning in cucumbers! I even got a text from a long time friend asking me how to make pickles this week. And SHE doesn’t do canning ---- yet. So if I am drowning in cucumbers without even having mine even begin to develop yet, then other people who were more responsible about planting this year must be covered up in these tasty veggies.

NEW Membership Portal Discount! MT Knives.

Resources
MT Knives: MtKnives.net
The MTK Talon
Membership Sign Up
Cucumbers as beauty supplies
Canning in 8 Projects Episode: Pickles
Tomato Cucumber Soup

What Mother Nature is providing
Lots of tomatoes
Overwhelming numbers of cucumbers
Sweet potato greens
Early onions
Cabbage - sauerkraut
Watercress and salad are done

Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Hashbrowns on pizza - buy sharpies
Dealing with smelly/mildew clothes in the south at this time of year
Dishwasher soap experiment

Listener feedback
New Facebook Group: Living Free in Tennessee Coffee Break
Mewe Group

Ideas from the Booze Whisperer
Cucumber Cocktail

Operation Independence
Updating the duplex:
$800 for roughing in three fixtures in a duplex remodel with a friend. (Numbers derived from national average installation pricing)
Managed to keep my commitment to myself and keep the dishes and laundry caught up in the past week of busy

And now for the main topic of our show: 5 uses for an abundance of cucumbers.

If you are new to this show, or new to homesteading, etc., do feel free to reach out and suggest topics for me to cover. Just shoot an email to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com.

Make it a great week.

Song: Tripped Out by Sauce

Jun 25, 2018

I have a special one for you today. Remember the lady who bought the acreage in the Ozarks with multiple dilapidated cabins and a cave with a restaurant built into it? That’s right, I had a chance to catch up with Dori a few weeks ago and find out how her winter went, where she has made progress and what her past 9 months or so have been like. Yes, today you get to hear about her walk toward independence, one year later. 

Resources

What Mother Nature is providing

  • The first tomato! (and New tomato transplants in the aquaponics system)
  • Everything - we are getting just about everything right now minus Okra.
  • Summer salads
    • Creamy cucumber with dill
    • German style potato salad (shhhh Lynn)
    • Coleslaw
    • Tart Pasta Salad

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • CANNING SEASON

Advice from the Cocktail Whisperer
(See more from David over at Biltong for Breakfast)

  • Icy Smooth Bourbon Beverage 

Operation Independence

  • $500 for grey water repair which is FINALLY done
  • $1 a load for not drying the laundry with propane

Homestead Design One Year Later - An interview with Dori

Make it a great week.

Song: Wolf by Sauce (At Dori's request)

Photos from 40 Acres and a Cave

Jun 18, 2018

I had an inspiration, a breakthrough. It was really just a simple thought, but that doesn't sound as cool as a breakthrough. And it came to me at the oddest time. It came at a time when all was quiet, I wasn’t thinking about grey water, or canning, or growing Holler Roast Coffee, or the paper or anything else. It came to me in a moment of silence, when I was kicking back observing the world around me, just walking along the road with my dogs. And it got me to thinking. What do we need to have in place to have breakthroughs? What can we do to help ourselves grow and change? We will talk about that later in the show.

Two Year anniversary: Membership sale for one week!

Resources

Membership Sign Up
Five Elements of Homemade Salad Dressing

What Mother Nature is providing
Elderflowers are still going strong
Wineberries
Basil
Cabbage
Raspberries for about another week
Green Garlic: Cream of garlic soup
Green tomatoes
First Jalapeno pepper from the Aquaponics system

Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Drying last year’s garlic - yes is stored that long with no problems
Honey Harvest: 8 mediums (!!!) Borrowing a centrifuge from our friend Ricky

Learning Aquaponics
Trellising in 15 minutes - a story
Rooting things in the ebb and flow bed

Operation Independence
Hit the paper hard and it yielded two big clients! 

Breakthroughs Come when you least expect them.....some thoughts.

Make it a great week!

Song: The Flood by Sauce

Jun 11, 2018

Today we will talk to Vin Armani about declaring independence. What struck me about his talk at Liberty Forum was that it was not a tired lecture on the the historical relevance of our Declaration of Independence here, it was an evaluation of what sparks people to choose to be free, and what character elements one needs to have to do it. We also have a crypto tip from our friend Kurt.

Show Resources

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Poke Weed, Tiger lillies - Lilium lancifolium, Basil
  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Yellow squash begins
  • Raspberries are ripe
  • Garlic is coming out of the ground this week
  • And we’ve still got elderberry blooms to fritter up, as well as red clover flowers to harvest and dry for tea

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • We got our first round of beets to pickle

Harvest Bounty

  • Letting Tomato Suckers get about 6-8 inches long them putting them in the ebb and flow bed to root for future transplant
  • Starting to plan which plants will leave the system and go to Kurt’s where the Middle TN GSD crew is planning to do an aquaponics installation this weekend

Questions from Listeners

From Amy on FB: "I've been enjoying your podcasts for quite a while. I enjoy them bc I'm homesteading not far in N. Alabama and our climates are very similar. I'm wondering if you or your TN audience would like to share what counties in TN you think are great for finding good homesteading land for a good price. I'm planning to look for some land on the other side of the state line. Also any reasons TN is so awesome in general to homestead in?"

Operation Independence

  • Something has been added to the Independence fund - we just don’t know what
  • Community and self reliance
  • Thanks Knighthawk
  • Kurt’s segment on Purse.io

Declaring Independence with Vin Armani

  • A conversation about Satyagraha, crypto, declaring independence for yourself, what is none of your business, self ownership and more.

Make it a great week! Song:

Jun 4, 2018

Today we talk about animals on the homestead, and more particularly training animals on the homestead. This is not the all-successful animal trainer’s view of getting your animals in line telling you how to achieve impossible results with just one week of practice when they have spent a lifetime learning. This will be a discussion of the benefits of training your livestock and some ideas on how to do that, as well as stories and examples of things I have done well here at the Holler Homestead === and not so well.

Direct Download

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Poke Weed
  • Tiger lilies - Lilium lancifolium
  • Lettuce
  • Garlic flowers
  • Chard
  • Dill
  • Basil

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Using up non-pickled beets
  • Drying last year’s garlic to make garlic powder

Harvest Bounty

  • The 5 foot tomato was really 4 feet. NOW it is 5 feet and the blight begins
  • Trellising
  • Sweet potato greens are ready

Questions from Listeners:

  • What exactly do 'you' do with dandelions. Do you roast the root, dry the leaves for tea, etc. How do you best use the 'weed'?
  • What do 'you' do with mullein. Do you simply dry the leaves and then use it for hot tea?
  • How do you make your comfrey salve? Do you get the bees wax from your bees or do you buy it?
  • Compostable toilets--can it really be as easy as a 5 gallon bucket and sawdust? Operation

Independence

  • $50 in the independence fund - rental property faucet and why basic skills are important
    The hack saw that saved the day

Topic of the day: Training Animals on the Homestead

  1. Learn the animal’s perspective. Observe - every day.
  2. Find out what motivates them
  3. Figure out what you need to train them to do, or not to do
  4. Schedule your time to train them

Membership Portal

And with that, go out and Make it a great week!

Song: Mr. Clammy by Sauce

May 29, 2018

Today, we walk through all the endeavors here at the Holler Homestead and assess if we are in track, where to focus and how to move forward. Assessing your progress along the year is important to developing the lifestyle you want, building independence and stability and staying focused.

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Poke Weed
  • Elderflower Fritters
  • Watercress is done until it cools down
  • Seeing unripe wild raspberries on the vines

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Corn is used up! Celebrating
  • Strawberry Geranium Jam

Harvest Bounty

  • Lettuce and chard
  • The 5 foot tall tomato
  • Vining plants are ready for trellising

Operation Independence

  • $50 in on the replaced plug

Make it a great week!

Song: Mr. Clammy

Resources

May 22, 2018

Today, I want to circle back on community, self-reliance, and side hustles. You see, we had a great Spring Workshop here in late April, and some pretty cool relationships came from that. And not just the - oh hey I met you at a workshop kind, but some real relationships. My next door neighbor has worked two days at another participant’s farm, there is another gathering coming up this weekend that has coordinated itself, and so much more. 

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Hemlock is flowering
  • The usuals for salad: hairy vetch, watercress, dandelion
  • Garlic scapes!!
  • Salad
  • Sprouts are back up and running since I am home

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Farmers market update: All salads all the time - things are waaay behind this season
  • Staying the course on using things up

Harvest Bounty

  • We lost about 5 of the 20 fish 

Operation Independence

  • Update on the new schedule: Today has been the first day I was able to really follow it.
  • The AirbnB is open for the season and we are getting lots of rent

Song: Wolf by Sauce

May 16, 2018

Today, we explore why adding creative pursuits into your life helps you succeed in other areas, even if you are not the best in show in whatever creative thing you choose to learn. You may be wondering what this has to do with designing a successful and happy life, homesteading, freedom, or side hustles. Here’s the thing. It’s hard to justify it in a pithy soundbite. But creative pursuits result in physical, mental and emotional benefits. So hang with me on this and I hope you will find ways to reprogram yourself through creative pursuits as you design the life you love.

This episode is dedicated to Puff --- our kitty that was with us for too short a time.

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Asparagus
  • Goldenseal, a plant rife with medicinal uses
  • Salve season is here with the comfrey and jewelweed right at perfect harvest size for this purpose.
  • Aquaponics update: Another salad has resulted from the system, which is crankin out some growth. We added 20 goldfish last night and have lost one so far. And I did plant all the seeds in advance of what was supposed to be a rainy day. It’s sunny. And blazing hot.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Still getting set up to dry teas for the winter
  • Hoping to see beets at the farmers market soon.

Operation Independence
13 hours in the car with Mama Sauce has helped me restructure time in a way that I think will leave more room for creative pursuits - guys - if you can’t afford a consultant to help you deconstruct your choices as you build your life the way you want it, find some close friends and ask for coaching from them. The outside view is instrumental in helping you get more effective and this long talk with mama sauce really helped me adjust some priorities that were more oriented toward urgent rather than important.

Five benefits of building creative pursuits into your life.

Song: Feed My Hunger by Sauce

Make it a great week!

May 7, 2018

Today, I want to share with you a beginner’s perspective on Aquaponics. At the LFTN Spring Workshop, two awesome guys installed an Aquaponics system here, so I got to witness first hand how to install something right the first time, AND we have been using it for a week now. One of the things that has kept me from doing aquaponics here has been how hard it sounds to set something up, so having this in place is a big deal. So for those of you out there thinking about aquaponics, or even those who are not sure it is a good idea, I want to let you know what it is like as a beginner to launch and learn about Aquaponics.

Direct Download

Membership Portal

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Watercress is winding up
  • Hairy vetch, chickweed and deadnettle
  • Stinging nettle is blooming here and will die back until fall, unless we get rainy/cooling in the next month or so
  • Asparagus
  • Goldenseal, a plant rife with medicinal uses
  • Tea time: lemon balm, blackberry and raspberry leaves. There should be bee balm, but I must have managed to kill my patch of it. 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Putting up dried herbs and tea makings - both for flavor and medicinal. Creek mint is ready to harvest. 
  • Beeswax
  • Story: the swarming bees - when 2 hives become 4, plus 2 off site

Harvest Bounty

  • Aquaponics are in and we are setting strategies for where/how we will run vines.
  • Garlic should scape out in the next few weeks.

Stretching meals

  • Workshop leftovers

Operation Independence

  • Mama Sauce came and helped do another round of get rid of the clutter - which frees us to focus on the important rather than the urgent
  • Spring Workshop ROCKED and is a foundation in our walk toward independence. 
  • Taxes are back on the todo list right after carnegie hall.

Speaking of Carnegie: May 12th, 2pm meet up in New York at a pub near Carnegie Hall. The Irish Pub:  837 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019. DO check on our Facebook page and website though because if it is full, we will adjust our plans. Just look for the chick with the cowboy hat.

Why Aquaponics: Things grow too well in Tennessee - by which I mean the wrong things grow too well and with the coffee business, I wanted to have time to devote to coffee.

Project goal: Aquaponics that looks great in front of the house so Mark does not make me remove it, pays for itself or even earns money, runs itself when I am away in case Mark is out working on the paper.

Lesson 1: Aquaponic is much easier than it seems when you start learning about it.

Lesson 2: Installation can be cheap and hard work, or more expensive and quick and easy

Lesson 3: It is frightening how fast things grow

Lesson 4: You can plant things closer together - and kill things fast.

Lesson 5: It’s not about the fish

Make it a great week!

Song: Special by Sauce

May 2, 2018

Today, we review the good, the bad, the ugly from the Living Free in Tennessee Spring Workshop with The Tactical Redneck, one of our participants. All in all, things went well, folks got to learn from each other about homesteading things, a surprise session on how to capture bee swarms happened, and we even got to be intimately involved with a real aquaponics installation. It was a good time, and we hope that the relationships forged at this event will serve all those who were here well for years to come.

Make it a great week!

Song; Cilly Song, by Sauce

Apr 16, 2018

Today we talk through 7 steps to take to deescalate tense situations, talk about bees and bee swarms, and share stores of what has gone on at the Holler Homestead over the past week or so. This spring has run away and we had snowflakes this morning, as well as some fun goaty antics.

Apr 9, 2018

Today we talk about 10 tips for coordinating a workshop on your own property. Want to know why? Well, selfishly, this is in part because ALL I am thinking about right now is workshop details. And also because I know lots of you are on your own side hustle or entrepreneurial adventure. It is so cool when you send me emails about what you are up to. And you guys have neat skills that not everyone has. When you are in this situation, it becomes tempting to host a workshop and share the knowledge. So today, we will go over some early lessons I have learned getting the LFTN18 Spring Workshop up and running.

What Mother Nature is providing

  • Dryad’s Saddle
  • Watercress is getting long in the tooth, deadnettle and wild mustard flower
  • Raspberry leaves for tea
  • Mint is starting to come on

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Play a little help from our friends
  • The snakes were tamed by a very special set of visitors who reminded me to have fun no matter what - and fun we did have.
  • The sweet potato slips
  • Using up the canned goods: Weekend stew
  • Making pickled quail eggs for the spring workshop.

Getting the gardens ready

  • Seedling update - Houston we had a problem
  • Getting materials for the Aquaponics system - and also getting excited

Operation Independence

  • Metal scrap pays for gas tomorrow
  • Outdoor composting toilet is ready to go
  • Last week’s trip to Houston will knock out one of my debts

The 10 tips for hosting a workshop on your homestead

Organize your schedule around a foundational speaker.

  1. Organize your schedule around a foundational speaker.
  2. Give yourself at least 6 months or a year to get this right: Marketing, mechanics of web sign up, overview emails, getting your grounds read, all take a ton of time.
  3. Events a bloody expensive.
  4. Infrastructure need to have vs nice to have list - then cut the need to have list in half and set realistic participant expectations.
  5. When someone offers to help, find a way to let them help. Your community helping you go toward the same mission is what will make or break you.
  6. Hire help. You may be really good at catering these things. You dont actually have time to do that. Know the roles, write them down, have some backups ready to go.
  7. Empower the participants to make things better. (Slack)
  8. Organize early and often. Remember the little things are the most important.
  9. Inform your neighbors
  10. Do a run of show two weeks in advance

 

And remember this tip from one of our friends: You will always wish you had 2 more weeks to get ready (from David at Cider Hollow)

And with that, go out, and make it a great week!

Song: Thanks Dave, Sauce

Apr 2, 2018

It’s been awhile since we explored a freedom topic, and as most of you know, the ability to live life as freely as possible is one reason that Mark and I have chosen to go on this homesteading journey. So today, I thought that it might be fun to examine something about freedom that most people don’t talk much about: building the ability to know what is none of your business. You’ve all heard the term “Nimby” right? Well today we will walk through that, along with our usual segments and a few tales from the Holler.

Direct Download

What Mother Nature is providing
• Dryad’s Saddle
• Watercress, deadnettle and wild mustard flowers
• Poke and hairy vetch should be coming out soon

Tales from the Prepper Pantry
• The blue bins and resulting can of snakes
• Pickled beets in deviled eggs
• Three final squashes to be buried in the garden
• Onions still hanging in there
• 8 jars of turkey stock put up

Getting the gardens ready
• Seedlings are in place
• Need to trim the raspberries and thin out the wood chips
• Hoping to see asparagus soon

Stretching meals
• Turkey: Cooked on Sunday and lasted the whole week, yielding 8 jars of stock put up, 2 cans of stock in the fridge, 1 large stew, turkey tacos, and turkey scramble. Even the pigs got in on the scramble because I made too much. The turkey cost $11, carrots and other ingredients cost about $8 and we hardly had anything but turkey related items all week.

>>Surprise savings ninja segment

Operation Independence
• The pump replacement store
• Workshop preparations
o Composting toilet
o House of cards cleanup project
o Outdoor shower redo

Questions to ask yourself as you explore the question: What is None of your Business?

Song: Feed My Hunger by Sauce

Mar 27, 2018

A friend asked me, while looking at a carcass to cut up on his butchering table, how I would butcher a lamb if I had one here for Mark and me. So today, we will talk about how to process your spring lamb - or goat - for two. 

What mother nature is providing

  • Watercress season is here
  • Wild mustard flowers - as usual in time for Easter
  • Dead nettle and chickweed
  • Dandelion greens and flowers

Tales from the prepper pantry

  • The tools are organized!
  • The last onions have landed in my kitchen - I kept finding more
  • Avocado quinoa salad.
  • Butternut squash bisque this week

Stretching Meals

  • Turkey cycle again this time, but with new recipes - we will share some next week.

Operation Independence

  • The trout conundrum as they relate to operation independence. Help please.
  • What is the Independence Fund anyway?

  Great resource for cutting up a lamb from the Guardian of all places: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2008/nov/19/foodanddrink  

Make it a great week!

Song: Cilly Song, by Sauce

Mar 19, 2018

Today, we are going to talk about some fun projects we did over the last week here at the Holler Homestead. There were some changes that needed to be done because of the pig, some fun wild plants popping up, goat hijinks and more. And yes, as usual, nothing went as planned but a bunch of stuff got done. This really makes me think the most important skill you can develop if you plan to integrate homesteading practices into your life is troubleshooting and keeping things flexible.

Rainbowcrawlers.com

What mother nature is providing
More rain
Stinging nettle
Dead nettle (for salad)
Watercress
Egg recipe of the week: Tuna egg salad

Getting the Gardens Ready
Story: Farmers market meeting

Tales from the prepper pantry
Cleared out everything but the last 7 onions and 2 butternut squashes in the root cellar. Reorganizing it for the summer months
Using up green beans and beets at a fast clip now that the new crops are about to be upon us
BBQ story

Stretching Meals
The Boston Butt Project

Operation Independence
Pig shelter story

Make it a great week!

Song: Dr Feeley, Dr. Skinner by Sauce

Mar 13, 2018

How are you doing moving toward your goals? These past few weeks have had me thinking pretty hard about how simple it is to set a set of priorities in your life and family, then use them as a filter through which to make choices. It is so simple, in fact, that it is hard. Then I got to reading a book I was helping someone right and one of their chapter titles was “Organized people who are wrong beat disorganized people who are right every time.”  

What mother nature is providing

  • Watercress
  • Shagbark
  • Stinging Nettle
  • Mullein
  • Wild Garlic

Getting the Gardens Ready

  • Wood chipping in the garden space
  • Trimmed up the peach tree and elderberries

Tales from the prepper pantry

  • The Sweet potatoes have rotted
  • Still have butternut squash - the powerhouse of the pantry

Operation Independence

  • Another load of pallets arrives this week
  • New Well Pump Installation
  • Slogging through the taxes one day at a time

Make it a great week! Song: Belly Dancing Vamp Tune, Sauce

Mar 5, 2018

We are going to talk about life and more importantly life today, not yesterday, and not tomorrow. You hear people say all the time to live in the now but that seems kind of weird, right? I mean, if I just do what I want every day to be in the now, then when tomorrow comes, I will have used up all my cash and will end up out on the street. Well, maybe living in the now but being aware of the future is important. We will cover more of that in the main topic of the show.

What mother nature is providing

  • I don’t really know, but Houston has chick weed
  • Watercress and Mint
  • It froze again so some of the early starts and the daffodils will be beaten back when I get home
  • Crappie

Getting the Gardens Ready

  • All it does is rain...so nothing

Tales from the prepper pantry

  • There will be a pig in the freezer when I get back so we will be makin bacon
  • Centering meals around the meat in the freezer that needs to go. Goal is to keep as healthy as possible.
  • Really focused on using up the canned goods
  • Sugar snap peas, radishes and tangerines

Stretching Meals

  • In a hotel:
    • Tamales
    • Sushi
    • Rotisserie chicken and salad
    • Uber eats

Operation Independence

  • We are not going to have to buy pork for awhile...
  • Focusing on operation yearly income through facilitation projects at least once a month

Song: Special by Sauce

Feb 27, 2018

Today  we have a great interview with Chef Brett Corrieri, the instructor from Cider Hollow Farm's pork processing class. Brett walks us through the process to dry cure a ham, and describes why you would want to eat it a little too well. Also today, we have a roundup of sweet potato recipes from you, the listener. 

Goat Video

Sweet Potato Recipes

Oven baked sweet potato fries (or cubes) Peel and cut 2-3 lbs sweet potatoes Coat with olive oil, toss with 1 tsp paprika (sweet Hungarian paprika if you've got it) 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp salt. Bake 425F for about 30 minutes, stirring and turning after 15. Should be slightly crisp on the edges, soft in the middle. Yum!

Josh's Roundup Sweet potato chili  Sweet potato flatbread NC Sweet Potato Tortillas Squash Sweet Potato Chili Interesting recipe Sweet potato fritters Ginger Sweet Potato Cheesecake SP Garlic Mac N Cheese SP Hummus Soul SP

From Tamlyn TWICE-BAKED SWEET POTATOES Bake sweet potatoes like usual, cool, halve, and scoop out flesh (be gentle, the shells tear easily). Mix with minced garlic or shallot, beaten egg(s), salt, pepper (be generous), Brie (rind removed and diced small), fresh thyme and a little rosemary. Bake @400 on greased, foil-lined pan for ~25 minutes. Remove when tops are beginning to brown and allow to cool before serving. (Adapted from Barefoot Contessa’s https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/twice-baked-sweet-potatoes)

Make it a great week everyone! Song: Strange Child by Sauce

Feb 19, 2018

Today, we’ve got a good one with an exploration of how well goats work for weed control, as well as some tactics we have learned about over the past “almost year” of having these playful little devils -- and they are devils -- on our land.

What mother nature is providing

  • Shagbark Hickory Update
  • Deadnettle is starting to spring up
  • Bees legs are full of pollen
  • Watercress may be big enough this week to harvest a round
  • Bad mushroom year - all my best logs are gone
  • Sprouts 
  • Eggapalooza -

Getting the Gardens Ready

  • Seedling trays - maybe - big trip to houston coming up and not sure if things will be in place
  • Special replay this week: Growing your Own Seedlings.
  • Mud farming - facial idea

Tales from the prepper pantry

  • Marty the pig will graduate in a few weeks - a confession
  • Laying plans to eat more green beans - for some reason this year we’ve been finding lots of collard greens and not hitting the canned stores
  • Still swimming in sweet potatoes - anyone got some fun recipes?
  • Onions from last fall will be done in about two weeks, just as the wild garlic is coming on 

Operation Independence

  • Duplex taxes are done - so much more to do on taxes
  • Arranged for Marty to be processed

Make it a great week!

Feb 12, 2018

Today, we are going to talk about something that several of you have brought up recently: How to navigate a big move. I have moved across the country several times, as well as overseas for a year and learned a thing or two along the way. As it turns out, some of you see your path toward standing on your own in another place from where you are. Places with lower property taxes, or no income tax, or less zoning restriction. Places where you are more free to just get a business started without filling out a million forms. And moving can be so costly! I will share with you some lessons learned in the trenches on this one.

5 NEW SPOTS OPEN: Spring Workshop

Direct Download

What mother nature is providing

  • Trying out some shag bark tea this week (Hickory)
  • Sprouts
  • Wild garlic
  • Sunchokes

Getting the Gardens Ready

  • Have seeds in hand and about ready to start the peppers
  • Aquaponics changes everything

Tales from the prepper pantry

Stretching Meals

  • Sweet potato chili: $8, 14 meals - less than $1 a meal.

Operation Independence

  • Invested time at Liberty Forum in expanding the podcast reach - we will see how that goes. I developed a new speech that I can give anywhere now.
  • Kept up on the weekly finance
  • Really need to just do my taxes.

7 thinks to think about before making a big move.

Make it a great week!

Song: Learning What Leaving Is, by Sauce

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