This was recorded last year and is two readings of the famous poem -- one intellectual version and a musical one. Though, can a choral version of this poem be classified as non-intellectual?
Scotland is a little ahead of the US in celebrating their Christmas Eve - so join Jaggy Little Thistle as he reads their version of the famous poem. (Recording from a previous year so the intro will be old too!)
This is a replay of the Night Before Christmas as read by our friend Aussieroo!
Join The Tactical Redneck in a reading of The Night Before Christmas.
Today is the last live episode of 2020 and I wanted to look back at how we did with our word of the year, and share with you 2021’s word. Because change is coming – it always does.
Boost LFTN
Main topic of today’s Show – Grateful for 2020
My gas tank is empty. How can I give you a great final episode when my gas tank is empty?
From Last Year: Grow
The Hard Things
Hard Things Bring Bright Spots
The Word For 2021
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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Resources
Today, we are taking the last step in creating your life strategic plan in simple terms that everyone can understand -- especially everyone who is along for the journey. This process can be used for you the individual, you the family or community, or you the business and the key to success is to cut out all the unnecessary and extra crap and really focus down on just a few things that bring you to the place you have described that you want to be -- the life you WANT TO LIVE ON YOUR TERMS.
Last go-around, you chose three areas of focus -- with those in hand, the next step is to choose an accomplishment or two in each area that you will achieve in the next 12-18 months. We will walk through this today using the Holler Neighbors as an example.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Set Your Accomplishments
It has been a bit of work, this life plan thing. In past years, I would breeze through describing the process on a podcast and leave you to it. Many of you started then stalled. Hell, I have stalled this go around a few times myself as life got chaotic.
TO be ready for FINALLY defining the short term accomplishments you will need to have in order to build the life you want to live, you should have already defined your purpose, set up where the rubber meets the road by creating a vision, and chosen three long-term areas of focus after doing a swot.
If you are like me, you have a whiteboard or chalkboard with stuff written and rewritten as you refine it into what you want.
Vision: The Holler community supports healing and mutual prosperity by connecting resources and knowledge of agorists and homesteaders who wish to build a peaceful, voluntary alternative to society’s violent systems.
Purpose: The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where aspiring agorists and homesteaders can connect, rejuvenate, share best practices, and prosper together in freedom.
Areas of Focus
Community: Be a strong community based on shared principles, clear and direct communication, and facilitate each member to focus where our talents and interests are best suited.
Sustainability: Create enough ongoing, stable income and other resources so that the community can prosper.
Health and Happiness: Community members make time for personal priorities, physical and mental health, and develop the skills and knowledge for supporting others in their quest for finding the life they want to live on their terms.
Today’s example comes from me alone - and you can do this alone, but in the case of the holler, we have more work to do as a community to really hone in on where we want to go. It is slow going because not everyone here has done this before and they need time to think, discuss and decide.
Our last podcast of 2020 will be this coming friday. I want to go back to a late episode in 2019, review how things went this year, and share with you my word for 2021 -- should be a fun time.
Freedom is a choice, not a right. In fact, no right is a right unless you take it. Funny when you think about it -- I was just lamenting that I simply do not understand the mentality of people who want to control other, to cause them to suffer, to have them enslaved. And yet, many people have this desire. They are quick to condemn others based on little real fact. They are willing to attack them and their families for a difference of opinion. They are willing to crash our economy and set up “wilderness spaces” where humans may not go in the wake of their economic destruction -- destruction that has a real costs in terms of human lives. And despite that evil push in our world, freedom is still there. Ready for you when you decide to be free. But you can;t have it both ways can you? You cannot make other people submit to you and still live a free life.
Make it a great week!
Song: 911 by Sauce
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 with Emily Morse all about raising rabbits for meat -- not a bad place to put some effort if you ware looking to scale up onsite meat production quickly!
Announcements
Main content of the show
Emily Morse of 5 Acre Family Farm: 5 acre family farm in East Tennessee, we do a little bit of everything we have 50 chickens, meat rabbits huge gardens, dogs cats, and geese. I enjoy canning, gardening, handicrafts.
Instagram link https://www.instagram.com/morsemountainfarm/
Topic: Meat Rabbits
Why rabbits?
Breed stock
How to choose what way way to raise them
Processing on farm
Meat chicken vs rabbit taste and processing
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
Resources
Today I talk with Rae Bardon about the crafting life and it folds pretty nicely into our holiday craft gift registry.
Announcements
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Holiday Crafts and Gifts with Rae Bardon
How to connect with Rae
Website: 80smompodcast.com
MeWe: https://mewe.com/p/80smompodcast
Parler: https://parler.com/profile/80smompodcast/posts
Viking & Weaver: vikingandweaver.com
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
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Today, we talk with two clever folks who have figured out how to monetize their 3d printing and we cover things you will want to know about getting your own system set up - or if it is even a good fit for you.
Announcements
Show Resources
https://www.facebook.com/twelvehounds
https://www.etsy.com/shop/12hounds
https://www.ebay.com/str/ferriertreasures
Main content of the show
We run a 3D design and printing business. We have been selling online since 2016. We also sell locally, as well as run multiple side hustles like reselling on eBay and other e-commerce platforms, transporting dogs, dog sitting, and small engine repair.
We have a small homestead called Half-Ass Acres where we are just starting out. We sold our house in Florida and moved to Tennessee. We bought our land outright and have been building and adding ever since.
Topic
3D Printing: Why do it? How can you make money with 3d printing, what technology do you need to learn, what kind of printer should you get, what is “difficult” about 3d prin ting, what about getting designs? AND MUCH MORE!
Make it a great week
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
Resources
Today we take the third step in developing your live strategic plan by choosing three areas of focus for you to take in order to reach your vision and purpose.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Choose Three Places of Focus
OLD Vision: The Holler community supports healing and mutual prosperity by tapping into and connecting the resources and knowledge of agorists and homesteaders who wish to build an alternative to the violent systems currently used to support our society.
UPDATED Vision: The Holler community supports healing and mutual prosperity by connecting resources and knowledge of agorists and homesteaders who wish to build a peaceful, voluntary alternative to society’s violent systems.
Purpose: The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where aspiring agorists and homesteaders can connect, rejuvenate, share best practices, and prosper together in freedom.
With that in mind, we need to assess what we have and where we are going and choose three places to put our focus for development or improvement. Three areas of focus where making big forward strides will steer this plan to the right place. The three things need to be the best choice for our community both from a “making progress” standpoint and from a “makes a difference” standpoint.
A great way to start seeking these three places to put your effort is through the good old traditional SWOT analysis.
What is a SWOT? https://www.liveplan.com/blog/what-is-a-swot-analysis-and-how-to-do-it-right-with-examples/
Questions to ask
Strengths:
Internally, what do we have that helps toward our vision?
Weaknesses:
Internally, what holds us back from the vision?
Opportunities:
Externally, what things outside our group can help us toward our vision?
Threats:
Externally, what external things could hurt us most?
Make a list/brainstorm
Example:
Strength: Building relationships and mutual exchange
Weakness: Tracking and clerical
Place to focus/endstate/perpetual
Make it a great week!
Song: Special by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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As promised, I will share with you the recipes we are using this year for Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoy these ideas.
Connect on the NEW social Media:
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Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Thanksgiving in the Holler
It doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving this year, does it? Certainly not around here. I made the choice to do a crowdfunding campaign and things got very busy around here. I have been in the roasting shak toasting beans as fast as possible to get all the crowdfunding orders sent out the door. About half have now shipped and I am taking a pause this afternoon to clean up for guests, prebake my dressing breads that are not breads, and basically get ready for a real holiday here.
Yes. We are doing thanksgiving, but unlike previous years, I did not spend last weekend getting ready.
But over the past year, we have grown from the Holler Homestead, Nicole Sauce cooks thanksgiving, to the Holler Community gathers for Thanksgiving.
Despite the busy coffee shipping schedule with Christmas orders and the crowdfunding orders, we are taking the whole day off tomorrow to enjoy a holiday. If I am lucky, the weather will permit a hike and my neighbor will shoot a deer. (One can always hope).
To keep myself from losing my mind, I decided to hold strong to the side dish approach to Thanksgiving this year: I make a turkey, dressing, and gravy. The rest of the meal arrives as side dishes made by everyone else.
Here is what is on the menu and the recipes:
Turkey: Brine = 1 cup salt to 1 gallon water with garlic powder
Dressing = Chestnuts, bacon grease, onion, garlic, keto friendly bread (https://www.ketocopy.com/cheesy-bread), brith, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper
Gravy = I mean if you can't make gravy - go listen to my gravy episode.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Turkey Day Brussel Sprouts
1 ½ lbs of brussel sprouts
Bacon
Bacon grease
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Cook bacon 6-8 strips extra crispy
Eat two pieces of bacon and chop the rest
Preheat oven to 400 F
Blanche fresh Brussel sprouts 3-5 minutes (3 for smaller and 5 for larger)
Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper
Drizzle bacon grease on parchment
Cut brussel sprouts in half and place cut side down on the baking sheet
Drizzle more bacon grease on top and bake for 40 minutes or until they are browned
Remove from oven, top with sea salt, cracked pepper and bacon
To put it over the top, sprinkle shredded parmesan cheese.
Keto Cheesecake w chocolate ganache (Recipes in show notes)
Crust-
2 cups of almond flour
5 tbsp of melted butter
3 tbsp of monk fruit
Filling-
24 oz of cream cheese (room temp)
½ cup of sour cream
3 eggs
¾ cup of monk fruit
1 tbsp of vanilla
1 tbsp of lemon zest
1 tbsp of lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 F
Grease an 8 inch springform pan and line with parchment
Cover the outside bottom of the pan in tinfoil (you don’t want water coming in the pan)
In a bowl, mix the almond flour, butter and monk fruit until it looks like breadcrumbs
Press the mix into the bottom of the pan and put in the fridge to firm
Make the filling
Beat the cream cheese and sour cream in a bowl until smooth and fluffy
Add the monk fruit and beat until smooth
Add eggs one at a time making sure the mixture is smooth
Add vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice and blend
Pour filling into the springform on top of the chilled base
Place springform into a larger pan and fill with water up to about 2/3rds of the side of the pan (this is why the tinfoil)
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until the cheesecake is firm to the touch
Cool for a minimum of 4 hours (overnight is best)
Feel free to add a topping or enjoy as is I like using 88% cacao to make a ganache
BONUS- Dark chocolate ganache
1:1 ratio
8 oz of chocolate
8 oz of heavy whipping cream
Finely chop 8 ounces of dark chocolate (70% or more)
Place in a heatproof glass or metal bowl
Using the double broiler method, add a little cream at a time while whisking the chocolate.
When it’s well blended and creamy smooth it’s time to use it. Ganache will thicken as it cools.
Cranberry Relish: 8 oz cranberry, 2 oranges, 1 cup spicy pickled relish, garlic, onions, bourbon
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Watercress salad
Even in busy times, you can find a way to enjoy your folks, get a bit of a break, and share good times.
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 have a hybrid show both live on Youtube and recorded for the audio podcast. The last few Mondays, we have discussed the process of developing your life’s vision and purpose. Some folks have had questions as they dive in, so I will take these questions today.
Direct Download
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Unloose the Goose Wed at 4pm
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Episode 367 - Life Plan Q & A
Krystal -- I'm not sure if you saw my post on the group page, but I'm struggling with the deep, deep indoctrination by my parents/schools that there is one "right" way to do life... the go to college, get a good job working for someone else, start living when you retire mentality is so beaten into my brain that even though I see people living happy and successful lives on their terms, there is still a strong built-in fear that tells me it won't work. Not sure if you have insight you'd like to offer in that vein. I KNOW the standard "American dream" we were taught isn't the only way and that our world is changing so much it's becoming harder for people to achieve. Just trying to get over this mental hurdle.
JEFF: I have a question.. If you moved into your parents home (or any home) that was NOT what you wanted as a "forever" home, where would you concentrate your efforts? I have chosen to concentrate on building a library, both paper and E-books, and I garden and keep chickens. I am concentrating on knowledge and skills instead of investing in infrastructure here. Mom's cancer has a 40% survival rate @ the five year mark and we are at the end of year 5 this month. Three months ago, they found a 10 mm spot on her "good" lung. She may have 1 year or 20 years. Either way< I will be here with her.
Lettie: when are going to turn it into a book?
Make it a great week!
Song: Wolf Outtro
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
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Today, I am joined by Dennis Alan to share his journey from rags to riches to off-grid living. He shares what it took for him to decide to take ownership of his life journey and build a life grounded in happiness.
Sign up for this Saturday’s Webinar: Canning Green Beans: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/11/16/canning-green-beans-with-nicole-sauce/
Schedule Next Week
Show Resources - How to find Dennis and Dennis-related projects
www.youtube.com/c/DennisAlanCityBoyHomesteader
@dennisalanhomestead
Main content of the show
Dennis Alan grew up in poverty on the wrong side of the tracks and got into trouble along the way. He realized at a young age that he would need to take control of his life to prosper and chose a good job in sales and rocking the corporate world over a life of crime. After going from rags to riches he realized that none of this ever made him happy. After getting into gardening, he started looking for a better life. He found permaculture and after asking himself what happiness is, he started designing his own life. He quit his corporate job, sold both properties in the city and bought 30 acres of raw land to build a home and a new lifestyle in central PA. Now he lives in an off grid 1975 Airstream on a big hill with a great view and is truly happy.
Interview
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
Resources
BTC is above 17k today. Great time to buy, right? Well maybe not, but it is a great time to get to know how to use cryptocurrency at a very basic level. So many people are confused about it that I thought I would do the 101 --- scratch that 00 level of using it.
A word on social networks.
Sign up for this Saturday’s Webinar: Canning Green Beans: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/11/16/canning-green-beans-with-nicole-sauce/
Holler Neighbor Livestream 7pm Thursday: https://youtu.be/Lya-xtvbQns
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Transferring Seedlings Into Your Garden
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
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Today we are going to focus on making the rubber meet the road in our life strategic plan by developing a vision statement.
Story from last week: Dr Ken Berry - https://www.youtube.com/user/KenDBerry
>>What I realized
Main topic of the Show: Develop Personal Vision
Set: The difference between vision and purpose is both simple and complex: Your purpose is your why. Your vision is your so what. And both of them have some “how” built in. This is why we so often see overlap in these statements.
But your vision defines your true north. It is the one flag you can set. I am going here so that these things will happen. And your purpose comes along to add “because this is why I exist.” Today we are going to focus on making the rubber meet the road in our life strategic plan.
This phase will take some work as you go through it. I have found that it is much faster to come to a conclusion on vision if I have a coach poking holes in what I say. A coach asking the same questions we will ask in this podcast. And a coach willing to tell me “That is bullshit” or “I dont understand what you are trying to say.” So as you embark on this, think about who you can use as a sounding board.
Two weeks ago, we agreed to build our own success no matter what our environment. We talked about it the day before the election. A day before people started calling for lists of Trump Supporters so that they could be tracked down and punished for their support. A day before the nation, once again saw an election that was so close that it was impossible to know who won. We are divided despite the fact that most of us want mostly the same things in life. We just think we are different. We think that our differing opinions are vast chasms rather than slight leanings. And once we are so divided, it is easy to control us by eliciting emotional reactions.
And that is ScaryAF because you and I know that most will not wake up until it is too late for them.
But you and I are different. We are willing to do the work now to set ourselves up for stability and success.
We are willing to ask ourselves hard questions.
We are willing to set a goal post, and to walk toward it no matter what the environment.
We will take the steps we need to take to make our lives as good as they can be and own that we sometimes will make mistakes and have to deal with them.
And we will stop blaming things in the environment when we stumble. Because that is a waste of energy. A waste of energy that you can use to get up faster and keep moving.
Two weeks ago, we ran through developing a life purpose. Did you do it? Or was it just another podcast porn episode where you wish you would someday maybe think about getting started on something for you. I know you might be tired. Hell -- I am super tired. But even though you are tired. Take an extra few minutes to go back and work on that purpose if you have not.
Because purpose is your why.
Why? Why are you here? Why is your family here? This was the question you answered in our last show about developing your family or personal strategic plan. Or more straightforwardly: You answered your aspirational why.
Holler Homestead’s Why:
OLD: The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where hollerites can rejuvenate, learn, grow, and prosper as well as connect with people who are truly free. (It will be clunky, that is ok)
NEW: The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where aspiring agorists and homesteaders can connect, rejuvenate, share best practices, and prosper together in freedom.
Today is the day to embark on discovering your “So What” or vision and the process is much easier after you have a life purpose articulated. Basically you now know what you “do.” But what does it mean that you are doing this? We broached this topic last go around by asking what has changed in the world because of your family or yourself.
The best way to find your vision is to keep asking but what has changed because of our work? Do people have better access to truly healthy vegetables because our farm is a local alternative to big ag? And because of this, what is better? Are people healthier? Is my local community more stable? And as a result of that, are other families providing value to the community because they are in a better place?
You see how this goes? It becomes iterative.
In fact, if like me you are the journaling kind, this is a great thing to write on. Always asking your self -- but so what? How are things better? What other things are better. Do this over a period of time until you have a collection of things you have positively impacted. It can be that your kids are a benefit to society rather than a weight. It can be that people in your community can count on getting support through the loss of a loved one. It can be that there are no longer stray dogs in your area. The key here is go back to your purpose and hammer on each element and bring in the SO WHAT factor.
Here is how this goes for the Holler Family:
Purpose: The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where aspiring agorists and homesteaders can connect, rejuvenate, share best practices, and prosper together in freedom.
Elements:
Inviting Place
Supporting Environment
Connection for aspiring agorists
Connection for aspiring homesteaders
Rejuvenation and Healing
Best Practices
Mutual Aid
True Freedom
The So What 1.0:
The holler is an alternative option to ruling a society through violence, mob rule, and enforcement. (True Freedom, Mutual Aid)
What is missing? (LOTS OF STUFF and the SO WHAT)
Next Try:
The Holler community supports prosperity so you need not rely on violent systems put in place to control us, and so that we prosper together.
It’s getting there.
Here is what we covered
Supporting Environment
Connection for aspiring agorists
Best Practices
Mutual Aid
True Freedom
Here is what is missing:
Inviting Place
Connection for aspiring homesteaders
Rejuvenation and Healing
For some reason, I am riffing on the freedom for this and not the rejuvenation. But if we are not healing and growing together, will we ever get where we need to be.
This is something to think on, go for a walk with that in your mind. Journal about it in the evenings as you take some time to work through your vision. Talk about it over dinner. Challenge those around you to make this vision statement better.
Then give it another go…
Next Try:
The Holler community supports healing and mutual prosperity by tapping into and connecting the resources and knowledge of agorists and homesteaders who wish to build an alternative to the violent systems currently used to support our society.
What is missing on this one?
True Freedom could be better articulated but it is in there. The sentence is too damn long though.
From here, I go back and bold or underline the words that need improvement. For example, our “So What” is a negative statement rather than a description of the alternative. I would prefer to adjust that toward a positive description.
On the other hand, we are witnessing a move, worldwide, toward a society that inflicts controls on we the people in order to serve a twisted vision that is disguised as the “greater good.” And it is kind of scary because at this point, they are saying what they want to do and people are not al all alarmed. Sort of like -- so we want to kill you and your friends slowly to reduce population so we save the earth.
And that is scary. The pretty words hide what they really want to do and folks are just too lazy to figure out what things really mean. One day we may do a show on that.
Like with your purpose, setting your vision takes iteration and sharing. When you get that clunky phrase as I have above, the next step is to let it percolate. Look at it every day. Run it by each other. Run it by other people.
Ask yourself these questions about it:
Once you have spent a week with your vision, you will find that it is a little different than it was before, but a much stronger (and hopefully shorter) sentence.
And yes. ONE sentence. One for your vision, one for your purpose.
There is extra credit at this point if it help you - the mission marrys in one sentence your purpose and vision. You do not have to have one, but some people find it nice to put in the extra work to get both their vision and purpose into one sentence.
Next Monday, we will attack strategies, then move into 2021 goals.
Make it a great week!
Song: Wolf by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Happy Wednesday! Today we replay episode 173 from May of 2019. This was before “all this mess” came to land. On this episode, I talk to you about what to do when your time isn’t yours. You now what I am talking about right? When you are in a job, relationship, volunteer organization or other situation where you have agreed to do a thing and it was a trap where people now depend upon you and you can’t get away.
This happens to all of us from time to time and navigating gracefully back to a freedom mindset is the solution to this problem.
Today is a TOTW day where was have a shorter episode about just one random thought I have had. And Nashville is threatening to (and probably will) retroactively enforce a 33% property tax increase on its people. I am one of those people and it made me think of taxes, thuggery and the company store.
KickstartHollerRoast.com New perk: JUST A MUG for $30!
Let’s talk about how we want to evolve as a society shall we? How we think things could be?
I imagine a world where the “human nature” approach of bonking someone over the head with a club to steal food, their spouse or children, gold, or clothing from them is not acceptable. Where we are free trade, to give, to help, to feel, to be.
What do you envision?
Because right now, we still find it ok to steal food, children, money and life from people in the interest of serving the greater good. What does the greater good even mean? This definition gets so twisted. As if clubbing someone over the head is ever in service of the greater good anyway… How can it be good if the only way to get there is via pillage and thuggery?
It makes me think of the Company Store approach in mining towns. Workers had to buy their housing, food, supplies and health care from the corporation they worked for. Full stop. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty. Plenty went wrong. By establishing this dependency on one source for basic needs and extending store credit from time to time, these mining operations established a legal form of slavery. The overpriced goods, underpaid employees and if you pushed back, they sent their thugs to beat you.
And slavery is bad is it not?
Why then is it any different to demand payment from people at the cost of their property, their personal freedom, their lives if the do not pay? Why is it ok for anyone to keep part of my labor and work? Why can they take my children if I do not pay and put them in a system with a long history of sexual and physical abuse? Why do we allow this to happen?
Some people think I am crazy for thinking of taxes this way, but that is what they are. People are extorted for money in order that it can be used to pay for things like an education system that is failing our children, social services rife with abuse, medical services that can fail the individual with a one size fits none approach, and yes. The roads. They extort money for the roads. No opt out. Fines, loss of property, jail time and loss of your children if you do not pay.
How is it not thuggery to get money in this way? How is it not slavery that you do not keep what you earn to spend as you will? How is it not thuggery to take my money and force me to finance your foreign wars? Your ripping apart of families through the drug war?
People will answer that I signed a social contract to live in the US — I have to pay to live her. I signed no contract.
People will answer that it has to be because if we did not force everyone to pay for some things, people will use drugs, die on the street, never fix the roads and children will stop learning.
To which I ask – really? Is that really what will happen if we move away from a forced-taxation system? Are you sure?
What if instead of fighting with me about defining taxation as thuggery, you put your creative energies toward something a bit more creative? Like ask yourself this: How can we care for people in our society without a taxation structure? How can we build and maintain roads without enslaving people? How can we do this a different way?
Just because we do not do it this way right now does not mean it cannot be done and really the core issue that seems to get in the way of truly solving this question is envy and greed. Not what you may think of in this regard though. It is the greed of some who have less than they wish they had wanting to force those who have more to use it toward this end. Meaning those who wish they had more want to force those who do to spend their money in a way the person who has it may not wish to spend it.
They have more so they should spend more. Really? Is that any of your damn business? You have no right to tell other people what to do with their labor, their capitol.
You have no right to send armed men to their homes to arrest them just because they earn more than you and you think they need to give more than the do, do you? Well, some people think that they do have this right> the right to force people to pay, to steal from them, to harm them if they do not comply. And the tricky thing is that they frame it in humanitarian terms. But stealing from Michelle to help Amanda isn’t a moral act. Helping Amanda is a moral act. And we seem to have forgotten the difference.
We’ve talked a bunch about prioritizing the will of the masses over the rights of the individual — a practice that ends in abuse of the many individuals that make up the collective in the best of cases. Taxation is just a fancy word for piracy and thuggery. A way to make you feel good when your labor is stolen to support things you may or may not agree with.
Let’s work to do better than this — to envision a world where we answer this question: How can we care for people in our community without pillaging everyone? How can we care for people without greedily judging your neighbors and coveting what they have accomplished? How can we care for people in our communities with compassion rather than through enslavement?
That is the world i want to see and that I know we can build.
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 have a thought of the walk on land ownership.
No shows next week (replays coming all focused around developing your life strategic plan)
Episode 363: TOTW on Land Ownership
Forget your guns, the bigger threat is that they want to take you land. Yeah. You heard me. There has been a systematic erosion of your rights to use your land to better your future for a very, very long time.
Don’t believe me? What happens if you do not pay your property tyth to the state? Do you get to keep your land? This morning, a visiting LFTNer told me about several properties he got for $50. Because people did not pay their taxes on it, the county was unable to auction them off, so several years later, they sell them for $50.
But what about the person who lost these lands?
If they foreclosed due to nonpayment of a loan, it is one thing. But if it is due to nonpayment of property taxes? Quite another. They didn’t pay the masters -- game over.
Or what about people who grew up on their family farm? And Dad dies? And they have to sell part of it to pay the inheritance tax? And then that land becomes a housing development? And then their taxes go up until they have to sell to a developer?
And don’t get me started on zoning. Zoning is the sneakiest and worst way that our land is taken from us. You THOUGHT you could do what you wanted to create value for yourself -- say by building a village of tiny homes and renting them out? Nope -- not zoned for that.
Or perhaps by installing a few cabins so people can come stay and interact with your livestock and learn how a homestead operates? Not if you are zoned agricultural.
Or let’s say your city home burns down and you want to rebuild? Sorry. You are R2 and required to put a duplex there.
Wait. What?
Some people defend this because they claim it saves farmlands, keeps property values from being diminished by the choices of your neighbors, or is better for the environment.
But is any of that true? Or are they are not seeing the forest for the trees?
We have so many misguided people who use their feelings of guilt about being wealthy enough to have time to worry about those less fortunate to save things through voting in bullying rather than giving those they can a hand up.
One of the greatest freedoms that our country gave to the most impoverished has been an opportunity to become landed. Why does becoming landed get you ahead? Because it gives you something that you can use, time and again, to generate stability and wealth that “they” cant take from you. It broke free from the systems of feudal control that would keep you from being able to move beyond serving your masters and to become the master. With your own land, you no longer require THEM to feed you if you do it right. But we’ve made it feudal again. We are letting our control of our lands go.
And if you think about it this small chance to prosper is a really big deal. There was a time when you could not own your acre, grow your ducks and sell your eggs. It was someone else's acre, their ducks and their eggs and you mings got 1 egg from the deal -- or you might be told you can’t eat them but you must care for them.
And in setting this up, you would let yourself be controlled just to survive.
This is why the forces that wish to control populations do their best to gain control of the lands, be it your city home, quiet quarter acre in the country, prosperous farm, or simply a mailbox and a shack.
They know that a people who can take care of themselves, who have hope to build a better future for their children, who have assets to leverage are harder to control.
Better is to lock us down supporting land we will never own, barely making ends meet from month to month, so that we must do what they want or face the loss of what little we have.
Better to foster insecurity, debt, fear, and then turn it into hate not for those that set up the scam, but against another population with the same problems so that we will trade the potential for prosperity for a perceived security of property values, a monthly paycheck, and better environment.
But it is all a fiction.
The densest cities with the most draconian land use plans oriented toward smart growth that is supposed to keep us from polluting the planet are giant pollution bombs into the air, water and lands that cannot possibly absorb or process that level of destruction. The trash alone is shipped out of the area to another location, or dumped in the ocean, or who knows what. The poop is problematic. The drain off causes die offs.
How is that better than allowing us to live with more space so that each reduces their impact? This could be a thought of the walk on its own really.
At the end of the day, empowering personal land ownership may not be the best solution ever, but there is this: If you support land ownership for anyone who can achieve it, you support letting anyone set the foundation for a prosperous future. This is so much better than the alternative of no hope to break out.
Taking this one small thing from us through zoning, declaring land unownable, taxation or any of the other tricky ways they seek to lock us out sets a foundation for an elite few to control most of us.
The last 100 years have been a gastly attack on land owner’s rights and we are seeing it accelerate. And that is cause for more alarm than which talking head is president or how they got elected -- it is this bottom-up attack on fundamental foundations that remove barriers to people who have nothing to grow into people who prosper. And it is done under the guise of helping those who have nothing
Very clever isn’t it?
The thing that has been running through my head as I walk alone or drive is this clever, bottom up erosion. It is ironic that the forces that want a top down control on the economy, on our day to day, to take over control of the lands and our lives are finding success from the bottom up. While those who believe in “free markets” are trying to protect them through a top-down political effort and ignoring the power of the very people they want to see freed. The ones who if they vote with their feet will win.
Time to shift focus, I think. Go back to protecting your rights, one person and one right at a time, from township to township, zone to zone, county to county --- and see where that lands us in 50 years.
And don’t support the taking of our lands.
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!
Advisory Board
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Today is a show where you get to ask me questions and I will answer them. Find out my take on libertarian politics, how to integrate a new goat on the homestead, rabbits, cheap website options, and more.
We will be livestreaming the recording of this so if I see a good question or two there, I will integrate it.
Main topic of the Show: Ask Nicole
Integrating new animals to the homestead…
From Rocko: Your take on the overly PC world we live in and how it effects your brand building.
Boutique Greens: Want the domain name, it’s not taken, llc , instagram, etc of that name not taken, not much money, what to do...cheapest way to secure that name and website?
From Youtube: Hi! Loving the conversation. I have a homesteading question, have you or anyone you know raised pasturesd rabbits? It seems like it could work and be cost effective since the wild ones only eat grass
From Josh: If you could give one piece of advice to the Libertarian Party what would it be?
From Marie: Healthshare + Direct Primary Care
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!
Advisory Board
Resources
Stop wasting time on an election and join me today on a journey. A weekly journey to create the life you want to live. Where the environment in which you find yourself is just that -- an environment, not your master -- you the slave. This will be a four part series, each Monday until we are done.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Move Forward Into 2021
It is with great dismay that I watch you be manipulated. Most frustrating when I see you fall prey to it. You are being played and it doesn’t really matter who is doing the playing.
As I drove home from a meeting on Sunday, I started thinking about the election. Tomorrow is the election. And all I know is that following the election, there is going to be a shit storm. And this causes me to worry.
But you know what? I can’t impact of the election. None of us can. Unless you are a voter in a state, in a district that is deciding for the whole state, and your single vote is the one that makes the difference, you’ve got nothing at this point. The guy that is going to be elected will be elected. He will not be the one that they want in office, furthering the long term agenda of slavery that has been in a growth phase in our lifetimes. Full Stop.
But we are lucky -- lucky that we live in a world where the facade still exists. The facade that we choose how we live, that we are free. Because you know what? It is much easier to control populations through narrative than through physical force.
And in this, we find the world between the walls, the grey spaces, and true freedom. Many people think of freedom as this thing that happened as a result of the revolutionary war. But it isn’t that. It comes from one person. It comes from you. You who decide to live in freedom, to exist as you wish to exist, build your life how you want it to be, rather than how it is supposed to be according to someone else.
Freedom is a spiritual choice, not the result of a war of liberation.
The revolution is inside each one of us. And that is the enlightenment that has some so scared these days.
And that is underlying this play we are seeing happen -- but aIA think that topic is one that will be covered on Unloose the Goose.
What happened yesterday as I was driving is this: I realized that a bunch of people are going to waste their time fretting about who wins tomorrow, and we probably will not know, but if we do, will then start fretting about the fact that that person won. They will invest time into arguing in person, on social media, and by focusing on that will forget to focus on what really matters: building the life you want to live. Finding that space between the walls. Carving out your niche. Setting yourself up to prosper no matter what happens.
So do me a favor, instead of focusing on the noise that is being created to distract you, shift focus to your highest purpose. Look at what you can do to make a positive change for yourself. Build your life’s strategic plan.
We’ve talked about this before you know. But I think it has been more as podast porn that you listen to and get inspired by -- not something that helps you take action. So today, I am asking you, begging you really, to take one step forward by doing an assessment. Include your family if you have one. And next week, we will take the second step. The desired end state is this: A shared vision for you and your family if you have one, a definition of your purpose, 3 strategies that will get you there, and tangible things to do in 2021 (even before 2021) so that you can make progress toward your vision each and every day.
Guys, the #my3things stuff we do? This is what that is about. You choose up to 3 things a day that move you forward. Sometimes there is 1 3 thing. And sometimes that one thing is to do really well at your job because you need to earn stable income to get to your first goal. And sometimes doing that really well is the best place to pour your focus.
We live in a world filled with distractions and this is being exacerbated as technology finds new ways to pull our attention away from things. It is so easy to find yourself in a conversation that lasts for hours while you ignore the people right in front of your face. And that conversation feels so important -- and it usually isnt.
Several times this year, friends have reminded me of that.
Example: the pep talk
Why do a strategic plan: funnel, ruler
Why now: If you can do it now while things are ramped up to a frenzy, it will stick
Is it hard? Yes and no
How do I start: Questions to define your purpose: (Talk about the stomps)
Draft a purpose statement that describes, in perpetuity your lifestyle
The holler provides an inviting, supportive place where hollerites can rejuvenate, learn, grow, and prosper as well as connect with people who are truly free. (It will be clunky, that is ok)
Shop it around for a week and see how it changes -- challenge yourself to remove anything you can. It will develop into something you all like and can say and can embrace.
Once you have it settled, you will be ready for the next step, which we will cover either next week or the week after, depending on how much time it takes for me to be at Jack Spirko’s fall workshop.
Make it a great week!
Song: Feed My Huunger, By Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
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Today is a show where you get to ask me questions and I will answer them. Find out where I get the closing songs for Monday’s show, why you should boil your pressure-canned foods before you eat them, how to integrate a new goat on the homestead and more.
We will be livestreaming the recording of this so if I see a good question or two there, I will integrate it.
Roastery Update
Main topic of the Show: Ask Nicole
From Amanda:
Would you feel comfortable sharing a little background for those of us that are new followers? Such as what is your property / homestead like?
How long have you lived there?
How did you find your property and what led you there?
I’ve heard you say “we” many times before and talk about shared pantry and cooking. Do you live with others? Or, do you have some type of community living happening?
How does that work?
Just wanted to get to know you and your homestead a bit more. Thanks and looking forward to listening!
David
Where do you get your music that you end your podcasts with?
Joy -
Question about pressure canning - if when pressure canning the temperature gets up to 240 degrees and is high enough to kill botulism then why must you boil the contents for x amount of minutes after opening? Shouldn’t the bad bacteria be dead already? Thanks, only one season into canning but I have 50+ quarts of pressure canned meats in the pantry and want to be safe when eating.
John
What makes decaf decaf?
David O
Over 200k people have been killed by coronavirus. How many people must die before we eradicate this deadly virus?
Ali
Is being offered stock in a company you work for worthwhile? Context-the bar/restaurant I’m managing at is going to give managers shares in the company in January, I think it’s a good passive income stream but is it really?
Alan
Health insurance options, particularly medi share type options or what are other self employed doing for health insurance.
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!
Advisory Board
Resources
We have talked about pantry management a ton this year, but I got a question asking for me to go over how I manage my pantry during the youtube livestream of the Winter is Coming show for 2020 so I thought I would share with yall what I do here, with the space and other boundaries I have at the Holler Homestead.
Announcements:
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forage: Chicken of the Woods - Laetiporus sulphureus
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Pantry and Root Cellar Management
Pantry Management Philosophy
Only you can set your pantry up the best way for your household -- there is no one way.
Make it a great week!
Song: 911 by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
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It is interview show day and I am excited to tell you about today’s topic: a better way with Xavier Hawk where we talk in minute detail about his alternative platform for living, transacting and building communities, Phireon. This may not feel like homesteading or entrepreneurial as we start but as the episode progresses, you will see why I think this is such a great topic for our community.
Kickstart Holler Roast Update: Will start shipping next week -- look for an email with your preferences over the weekend.
Show Resources
Phireon Partners: https://phireonglobalpartners.com/
Phireon: https://phireon.com/
Main content of the show
Xavier Hawk co-founded a home health agency with his family in 2001, and then went off grid with his wife and four daughters to their mountain homestead. Here he went on to invest in real estate, commodities, and crypto currencies where he found his Niche. He architected the world's first asset backed blockchain system, negotiated the world's first blockchain solution for a nation, and architected the intentional neighborhood design growing in popularity with real estate developers around the globe. He currently sells emerging tech in the sectors of off grid energy, border security, last mile infrastructure, connectivity, and border security to enterprise level clients through his company Phireon Global Partners.
Interview
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
Resources
Winter is coming is our theme for this week and along with winter comes the holiday gift-giving season. We have an annual tradition of sharing handmade gift ideas at LFTN and today, we will review four things you can do to share that you care in a more personal, homemade way.
Links to past episodes on handmade gifts
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Holler Neighbor Livestream, Thursday at 7pm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feyXBL1ibC4
Stump the Sauce
Tales from the Booze Wisperette -- need questions
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: 4 Homemade Gift Ideas
Family Recipe Boo
Bourbon Kahlua
Walking Stick
Advent calendar
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Advisory Board
Resources
Today we have a reminder about winter. Winter is nigh. Soon the plants will go to sleep, bare root trees will beg to be planted, and the cold times will be upon us. With the cold comes a need to keep our water from freezing, our animals from taking sick, and ourselves ready to get snowed in. This looks a bit different on a homestead than in the city and we will talk through what we do at the Holler Homestead to prepare.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: 2020 Winter is Coming
Usually, we start our winter preparations in August and I do this episode on the hottest day ever. Not this year. Cold temperatures have hit us a bit sooner than normal an caught me without things in order for winter.
Goal of winter preparations:
This year, we are taking a catch up approach
Heat: Firewood and fire organization, chimney sweep and stove repairs, kerosene and propane heaters checked on, finishing the rocket mass heater
Livestock: Increase feed on hand, first aid audit, bedding needs, water antifreeze systems, shelter update
Humans: Audit first aid, add winter preps to the pantry (like milk), winter clothing & comfort audit
Food storage: move roots to the root cellar, reset kitchen to use up rather than put up
Systems: prepare the gas things for overwintering, remove window AC units, take in summer water things, secure the pump house against cold, drains
Gardens: reset the hydro system, drain the AP wicking beds, row cover, prepare the ground gardens for spring, plant the garlic, fall bulbs, row cover
Winter Festivities: Handmake gifts, start special foods, decide what will be “held” for holiday meals.
There is so much to do when winter is coming -- this is why I usually start in August. But not this year. This year, it is not to be. But despite all that, it will get done. It always does. And the time will come so fast when I am tucked in by the fire, brandy in hand, planning the spring gardens...
Make it a great week!
Song: Grandpa's Song by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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