Today, I wanted to go back to a concept we talked about around this time last year. The word of the year. One word that you use to change your life for the better and you concentrate on it all year. Jenni Hill has been a rising start with this approach in the LFTN network and I linked to an interview we had with her about it.
I figured this month would be a good time to start sharing the progress of my word of the year: Grow.
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Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Grow as a Word of the Year
>>What is word of the year
>>How do you find one?
Grow: How are we doing?
The hardest part about your success and mine is that we are each in the driver seat -- drive your best trip.
Make it a great week!
Song: Learning What Leaving Is
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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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!
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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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Last week, I was away for five days doing some very important family time. Next week, I will be gone again. So there have been other people handling the homestead -- people well prepared to do everything here. Yet, no matter how well I prepare things always seem to get jiggy when I leave town. Today we will talk about the homestead madness that greeted me at 11:30PM Saturday when I returned from a trip to California.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Kickstart Holler Roast update: preparing for the building and the sign from SUE
Cybersecurity Webinar October 15 at 7pm CT: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/10/07/webinar-cybersecurity-with-andy-higginbotham/
Stump the Sauce
Main topic of the Show: Homestead Madness
It always seems like things go nuts when one person is gone and that may be true -- or it may be that you unknowingly do things a little each day that avoids calamity on the homestead and when that eye is gone things save up until they bust.
Either way, even with the best homestead sitters and farm sitters in the world, best to schedule a catch up day or two when you have been on the road both for yourself and for the health of your plants and animals!
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 will talk about how people are pushing back in big and small ways against the cultural mind controls that are being instilled on us and if this pushing back works?
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Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Where we talk about storing what you eat and eating what you store.
Featured Forage: chamomile
Operation Independence
Main topic: Does Pushing Back Work?
I’m not Givin away my SHOT!
In many ways, they are glorifying the violence that it took to make the American Revolution happen. A country born of violence. Furthered by violence in the civil war under the auspices of ending slavery – an institution that was dying even as the civil war started.
More violence. Pushback.
And today, we are seeing violence. Violence and the call for the opposite of freedom under the auspices of being against that fascist orange guy and FOR FREEDOM. Because apparently no leader who has come before him was furthering fascism. Just the orange man.
And the right screams socialism. And the left fascism. Never caring that both are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.
14 years I dedicated to working in the Liberty movement. FOURTEEN wasted years in many cases desperately trying to get people to just PLEASE TRY to communicate about liberty in a way that grounds the morality of protecting the individual in the why not the what, in the emotional reasons not the data.
In a way that explains why protecting individual rights over collective opinions is the basis for lifting more people out of poverty, finding the means for caring for our sick, and growing both intellectually and spiritually. And the sharpest resistance to this idea, this approach were the most intelligent among the liberty thinkers. Voices were raised. Efforts were undermined. Some really smart people rose like stars in the movement, loved by others who already agree with them.
But the whole time, the targets were wrong.
Convincing people who already agree with you is not how to create enduring liberty. Creating a society that values people and their individual rights doesn’t just happen without an ongoing barrage from those who either want power over others, who are scared to be in control of their destiny, or who simply don’t want to think, they just want to live.
And most people fall into the last category. They just want to live.
Hell - I fall into that category -- I want to live the way I want and for people who disapprove to leave me alone. I am not hurting anyone am I?
Yet for fourteen years, I did not give up. I pushed. I fought. I scrapped. I politicked. And at the end, I was so tired. SO beat.
I had found some great allies. I had found some folks who were better at furthering my marketing mission than I was. And I saw a coming tidal wave. One I wrote about in the 90s. I missed the deadline. Did not stop the swell and now the wave is peaking.
In Hamilton, people run around the stage excited that they are making history. So much change! A world where an orphan immigrant can become part of the leadership. And he’s not giving away his SHOT!
But do you really want to be a part of history? The American Revolution spurred lots of suffering.
And now our country has people fighting on the streets. Assassinations. An industrial media complex that falls in line with whatever narrative is needed to keep the masses divided.
A rising generation cultivated to put the opinions of the masses above the rights of the individual.
Did you see the shift? It started with code complaint calls to the city inspectors. As if someone else’s tall grass is an attack on the whole neighborhood. The tattle culture.
Moralizing of small indiscretions making the disciplinary action for it way out of sale of the perceived transgression. Where pointing your finger like it is a gun can get you expelled. Where CEOs get fired from companies they founded for unpopular opinions. Where people allow themselves to be locked inside their homes well beyond the duration of the perceived threat because authority has said so. Where science only matters if it fits the narrative.
The only reason this shift is happening is because we allow it. So how do we push back now? The reality ahead is a really messy election and more violence. Possibly a fundamental shift in governmental structure. Seems like we live in a time when history is being made, doesn’t it?
Far from being invigorating, I wish it were not so. But that wish is wasted, I suppose.
So then, does pushing back on this reality do anything? That is the real question. Right now, there is not a clear enemy other than an idea – the idea that the collective matters more than the person in it. And when the collective matters more than the person in it, it becomes pretty easy to use the person in it as a slave, or to imprison them, or to kill them – does it not?
Collectivism is spun as a way to care for all, yet it disregards the needs of the individual to do this. Somewhere in there is a flaw. Somewhere in there you end up with a collective that fails most as it grows.
But back to the question – does pushing back work?
In many ways no.
It is no different than how we interact one on one is it? The first reaction when someone tells you no or argues with you is to dig in, stand your ground and refuse to hear beyond your established opinion. It is hard to reprogram yourself to consider the other side - and I mean really consider it. It takes work. Most people don’t like to work.
Yet pushing for something rather than against something is what we need to ride this tide. You CAN push back. You can stand up if you BUILD something rather than against it.
And it may or may not work.
Think of the famous Tank Man of Tiananmen square and the people massacred by their own government. And the subsequent failure liberalization in China until a few years later -- and the current back-stepping of the progress enacted in the late 90 and early aughts.
Tank man pushed back, pushed for something. And perhaps the international reaction helped put pressure as the soviet union and Berlin wall fell.
Pushing for something -- or building it -- rather than just against it seems to be the best way to see change for the better. And individuals working around bad systems to replace them, as ueber did for example, seem to get that spark going.
And individuals working together to help each other can create quite the pushback. Think of the underground railroad or the many who helped Jews escape death camps. They pushed back - but they did so in a way that pushed for something.
Punching a nazi or a commie doesnt get you anywhere in this game So why do it?
Arguing with people who drink the kool aid changes nothing but the amount of time you have left to do something productive.
But pushing for something just might -- so think about that next time you are looking at how things are changing. Creating pathways around the dysfunction -- to build your own way and help those around you do the same is the only pathway I can see.
So are you going to give away your shot to make some momentary noise, or spend it on something that can endure?
Make it a great week!
Song: Strange Child 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 I come to you from California where I have had five great days with my family, learning new things while also pushing the ball forward on LFTN and Holler Roast Coffee. I have made a ton of tradeoffs this week, including two episodes. We will talk about the what and why of tradeoffs and why they are important to your long term success and happiness.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Episode 351 - Tradeoffs are Good
You know that pang? That little feeling of guilt and remorse? That moment when you are doing one thing and not another, or many other?
That little pang is good. It is an indication that you are doing the right thing. That you have come to a point along your journey toward your true purpose where it is time to work through a series of tradeoffs.
It is not a sock in the gut -- oh shit I am doing the wrong thing sort if feeling. Merely a brief moment of remorse when you realize that you need to focus one place and the expanse of another to move things forward.
Not everyone has that feeling, but everyone who is successful does have one thing in common: the need to choose the most important place to focus for long term progress. And often this means letting the less important thing wait. Or letting it go completely.
Yes. tradeoffs are good. They mean you are growing. They mean that you are willing to do what it takes to succeed. And when you have the big picture in mind, they are not easy to figure out.
If you tap into our Mewe Group you will see folks at different places in their walk to freedom, often paralyzed with too many options, not sure where to go. They what if themselves to death when they could have been moving forward. And some what iffing is good -- I mean I have four or five ways to get home from California right now if my flight does not happen in the morning. Those ways came from a healthy amount of what iffing.
But when you spend all your time what iffing, you forget to spend your time actually doing.
And when you spend your time trying to be everything for everyone, to do everything for everyone, you lose yourself in the shuffle and build a lifestyle that is no different than being a slave wager, stuck in dept, working for someone else rather than building your life how you want it.
Tradeoffs are hard sometimes. And it can hurt when you realize that you really should not do what you used to do. But if you really embrace tradeoffs and relentlessly focus on trading off the things that get in the way of your progress, you will find that you end up in a much happier place.
Yes. Happier. Not necessarily richer. Happier.
Because really what we are building with our side hustles, with our enterprises, on our homestead or city steads -- what we are building is the life we want to live and that means happiness.
Someone in our network recently told me that he does what he does to finance all his interests -- all the fun stuff he gets to do because his business is successful. To which I though --RIGHT ON. This is a person who had built his business they way he wants it, built his lifestyle the way he wants it, and it allows him to do things he wants to do.
And that took tradeoffs. I see him up before me doing homestead chores. I see him working out much later than I do. I see him helping lots of people around him achieve what they want to achieve. I see him not giving up -- never giving up.
Nut you know he has tradeoffs, right? Sometimes he trades sleep. Sometimes he trades a night of partying. Sometimes he trades -- well heck -- sometimes he trades things we will never know about. Because he is doing it the right way and not bitching about his tradeoffs.
But tradeoffs are there -- they are always there.
Take this week. Here I am in California, two podcasts in the hole, putting together a guerrilla show for y'all because I traded off recording in order to recover and to have quality time with my family. That may not seem like the best business choice but it is. And here is what the tradeoffs look like:
And the end result? My niece had a great birthday with her family. I have learned to paint by numbers and make slime. I have had a chance to catch up with my sister on some important things. My energy is back. And there is a lifestyle clarity coming.
I love working hard. I love having plants and learning new things. I love getting sleep and exercise. I do not have time to do this if my income-generating projects take 12-14 hour days, seven days a week.
So there were tradeoffs this week. And some things need to be permanently traded off if I want a life I enjoy living. With time for new things, for being with family and friends.
It may sound like a cop out, but it isnt. It is a shift that has been coming all year as we grow. Growing means MORE. But more of the right things, not more of everything right? And to do it well, to make sure that you are able to have the kind of life you want financially, in your relationships, and at home -- tradeoffs are part of the growing game. This for that, not always this AND that.
Thought when asked if she wanted ice cream and whipped cream on her apple crumble, my niece did say both -- and she was not wrong.
But look around at how you are building your world? Farmers market taking a ton of time and not bringing in what you could if you had that time to really focus on doing what you need? But it means a temporary drop in revenue that you are not entirely sure you can replace. Ask yourself, what is the best choice for the long term? What transitional steps do I need to take. Because if you cannot do both and end up with a lifestyle you want, then why do it at all.
And no I do not mean just let things got -- I mean let the RIGHT things go. When you dont do the right things, you will often find you get a sock in the gut ,not a pang of regret. That pang is there to let you know you traded… make sure you trade up.
And. Embrace the pang!
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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We are getting a cold snap about four weeks early next week and so I thought today would be the perfect time to invite Knighthawk on to talk about heating with fire.
A word on next week’s schedule and why I cancelled the livestream.
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Main content of the show
Knighthawk has a background in fire alarm maintenance and HVAC automation for commercial buildings. He is also one of the main handyman resources in the Tennessee LFTN Network. In February, he launched his handyman business, Sir Handy. He joins is today to talk about one of his favorite topics: Fire!
Interview
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 the third in a four part series on using garbage on the homestead. We will talk about all the stuff that things ship in that end up on your land and taking up space.
Holler Neighbor Livestream, Thursday 7pm: https://youtu.be/3QABxlpgIDw
#HollerHatWednesday: Why does she have her thinking cap on?
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Shipping Garbage on the Homestead
Set: Living on a homestead is so much easier with Amazon and other mail order arrangements - but it comes with a waste stream challenge.
A word on choices (for shipping and packaging)
Landing: Dealing with waste takes clarity of purpose before you set a plan and one of our long term goals is to reduce waste. This is why I use a sodastream for carbonated beverages rather that drink perrier or la Crioux.
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 a Friday so we have an interview show today and I managed to track down Sal the Agorist, one of the cohosts over at Unloose the Goose to talk me through some basics that I need to know about 3d printing.
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Main content of the show
I met Sal through Unloose the Goose and discovered a smart guy who has thought of some great ways to work around the system. His Podcast - the Agora takes a look at ways to voluntarily exchange outside of “THE SYSTEM and he understands the importance of self reliance as part of your strategy toward choosing freedom.
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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Food waste is a major issue in many households and just because you live on a homestead does not mean you magically end up in a place where food waste is no longer a problem. So today in my second in the series of handling waste on the homestead, we will discuss food waste strategies.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
No podcast Monday due to the processing workshop.
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Episode 347 - Handling Food Waste on the Homestead
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.
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A few people have reached out to ask for help on crowdfunding projects and so I thought today would be a great time to talk about why Kickstart Holler Roast has not so well, so quickly. Some of the things that came into place for this project look intention and were not and I think we can all learn from this about not only crowdfunding things, but marketing ourselves and our businesses.
Reach out if you want one of the 2 open chicken seats.
Green Chili Weekend Registration
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forage: Rosemary - https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/rosema17.html
Herbal Uses:
Tonic, astringent, diaphoretic, stimulant. Oil of Rosemary has the carminative properties of other volatile oils and is an excellent stomachic and nervine, curing many cases of headache.
Historical uses
It is antibacterial
Culinary: Tastes good in almost anything, really. Rosemary cheesecake? Yes please. Rosemary, garlic and lamb? Yum, Mixed with sage in a chestnut dressing, absolutely. Its strong flavor will replace the more subtle ones so if you have rosemary, lemon cod, you are tasting more the spices than the fish.
Rosemary ice cream is very tasty. Garlic rosemary bread.
Growing it: recommended to grow it along a wall in a sheltered spot -- and I have killed about 1900 of these plants since living in TN
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Episode 346 - Why My Crowdfunding Project Is Working
Some folks have reached out not only to congratulate me on the successful crowdfunding campaign, but to ask which plugin we used, and how they could set a foundation for similar success.
Lessons Learned
In the end, if you have a great idea and the right message and a solid offering for a crowdfunding project, you have a good foundation. But as with all our small business efforts, if you have not developed your strategy for marketing and communicating about the project, it is a much tougher, uphill row to hoe.
So I guess it boil down to network, communication, and value in the end.
Make it a great week!
Song: Burned by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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It was supposed to be a thought of the walk episode, but I am too stunned to thing straight. So today, we talk through why!
KickstartHollerRoast.com is now live if you are interested in supporting the crowdfunding campaign.
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, begins a series of talks about how to handle waste on the homestead, starting with the easiest waste to work with: Livestock waste.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Holler Neighbor Livestream, 7pm Tomorrow: https://youtu.be/KYbcFJ_ypsw
Unloose the Goose: 7:30pm today: https://unloosethegoose.com/livestream
Stump the Sauce
Tales from the Booze Whisperette
What’s Up in the Garden
Handling Waste on the Homestead
Homesteading gives you the opportunity to greatly reduce the waste impact off your property for a number of reason:
Concept 1: Animal Waste
Waste is a part of living and something that becomes politically charged when it need not be. Most sane people would prefer to live in a word that functions with natural cycles and how we handle our waste is part of that. Packaging can easily be used in a way that reduces environmental impact, so we need not go on a big packaging crusade, but rather can look around at what we and our families do for waste and be our best stewards. That is how you get lasting change. Person by person and voluntarily.
As I think through this series, I get excited. There are so many examples of people turning what was once garbage into both a new resource AND a wealthy lifestyle. I look forward to sharing these with 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 we have an interview show with a very sassy homesteader who also knows a thing or two about homesteading with both her boys taking college courses this year. None other than Amy Dingmann. We will talk about homeschool from a getting started perspective today.
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Main content of the show
Who is Amy Dingmann?
You might know Amy Dingmann from her Farmish Kind of Life podcast (and website of the same name) but she’s also a mom of two sons that she homeschooled until college. She runs the website The Hmmmschooling Mom, and has recently started a homeschool life coaching business where she helps potential, new, and experienced homeschool parents through the ups and downs of the homeschooling journey.
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 usually a how-to day, but I got up to lots of reactions to censorship this morning and wanted to have a fireside chat with yall about censorship. Personality after personality is being deplatformed and we need to talk about that.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and what is she getting ready for??
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Censorship - it is enough to get your eyre up when someone censors you isn’t it? We have been debating for years if it is OK for the behemoth social platforms like Facebook and Youtube have the right to set standard of what is and is not ok to talk about. And we’ve seen some people deplatformed - usually someone with an extreme position. And we have mostly looked the other way, because it did not impact us.
But with the advent of covid, and the rioting and a scary political agenda rising up behind those crisis, censorship has moved past the so-called crazies and into a propaganda moving machine. Anyone who challenges the expected narrative is shut down and shut down fast. Ok. Not anyone, but a surprising number of people.
Dare to suggest that we go to a free speech platform and people get mad about it.
Dare to question the settled science of covid (how can it even be settled when the disease has only been known for maybe a year), and you get the squeltch. Tha dfamous facebook warning that your statement that vitamin d is a supplement you should add to improve your chances of fighting off covid gets marked as fake news.
Yes. this happened to me.
Then 2 months later a new research paper came out confirming that d deficiencies may be a big factor in how sever you get covid.
MAY BE
You see it is science and there has not been enough time to confirm the hypothesis, but people are working on it.That post did not get shut down btw.
But back to censorship.
Why do we continue to give our dollars to the corporations that want to silence all but a very narrow narrative?
And if you think I mean a left one you are wrong. Sure, more righties are being banned right not, but that will change and blowback on moderate left opinions as soon as they know they can get away with it.
Sound paranoid?
Maybe I am a little - maybe that is my confirmation bias.
But when JB Spears does a spoof comedy video on covid and gets a video booted from youtube for making a covid joke, then when he works with his rep to address it is told that it is what it is, and the next one may see his entire channel pulled down, you know that all common sense has left the building on this issue.
And we are talking about private companies.
Some really misguided people are calling for government intervention on this matter.
Why? How will that improve the situation?
These large corporations are entrenched in the government - there is not much of a separation between them. They are both furthering agendas. This is how government works -- it is subject to special interest pressure. We sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that a grassroots uprising on an issue will force the government to change things - but until it is linked with lobbying, it is really hard to get any change at all.
And this is the crux of calling on the very machine that is part of the problem to fix the problem. Why would they bother?
I am sorry that I am going to hark back to Nazi Germany for my next thought. We are not currently exterminating people in concentration camps and that is not my point with this. But much of my understanding of how controlling a population through propaganda works is from looking to that time, so bear with me here. Not calling the Zuck Hitler here...He is an engineer and this is probably at the core of the problem in his choice to push censorship.
Back to nazi Germany. The price you would pay for providing a counter narrative during this time was much higher than the price we are paying now. You could be imprisoned, or executed.
But that was not the nest way for them to further the narrative they wanted was it? No. Using propaganda to show most of the population the story they wanted them to see was how they controlled the population. Establishing a foundation of tattling and enforcement and bullying was how they controlled the population. And these methods of control were much less expensive to implement that cracking down violently on the the people. Not that violence did not happen. It did. And it happened in some cases neighbor to neighbor ir child to parent. Think about that.
When people online virtually pile on someone for having a dissenting opinion, when they publish their home address, pictures of their kids, when they call their boss and demand they be fired, is this any different than a child reporting her parents for speaking against the Nazi regime and opening them up to consequesces? Yes, They had a different opinion of what is right, but should your opinion be the foundation for imprisonment?
Our founders did not seem to think so and neither I even if your opinion is that I am a poopy headed jerk, even if your opinion is that race does equal the merit of a person, even if your opinion is that communism is a viable economic system, even if your opinion is that hydrochloroquin paired with zink does work to reduce the severity of covid.
You should be able to talk about your perspective without being bullied, imprisoned, beaten up or deplatformed. Bit these companies do own their platform and can do what they want right?
Sure they can.
So why not put your effort, your advertising dollars, and your time into something better? Something that values free speech and open discussion, something that may jjust help us get to the core of what is really going on here?
Because continuing to let the propaganda narrative move forward as is, and to react to it is merely making you a pawn in the game rather than the creator of a better one.
Just a thought.
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
This weekend, I had some pretty cool bartering opportunities and with everything changing so quickly, it occurred to me that we have not talked much about barter around here and how you can build it into your lifestyle, as well as why you should consider doing so…
LFTN Highlights this week
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forrage: Wild Sumac
The waving red berry tops reminded me of this wonderful wild forage - wild sumac. This is definitely a plant you want to cultivate in your food forest.
Edible uses:
Nutritional
Medicinals
>>A word on poison sumac<<
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Barter Builds Community
How can we set ourselves up for stability no matter what the powers that be decide? How can we be ready for the coming economic downturn or depression that is certainly coming our way? How can we help those in our community make it through tough times?
These questions have been rattling around in my head as well as my email inbox from all of you for weeks.
Right now you cannot buy ball jar lids anywhere for a reasonable price. But last spring, we did an LFTN bulk buy and some of us have lids, so we have been offering a few dozen to people who need them at a reasonable price or for trade.
There have been som significant crop failures this year and with the oligarchy shutting down trade to a trickle in some parts of our trade system, this will mean price increases in the future -- unless you do not need to buy those crops, or unless you find another way to weather the spare time.
Our money is limping along, trying not to inflate too rapidly or deflate suddenly through lots of strings being pulled by those in power. And it looks more and more like they really do want to crash our economy.
Scary isn’t it.
Yet here we are, with a powerful community of doers, all communicating, getting things done despite what is happening, doing our best to build the life we want to live on our terms.
So back to the question - how can we increase stability in our network. Well, why not barter more. The monetary system can go screw if you don't need money to get what you need or want.
Buying $5 in squash gives me about 5 squash. Buying $5 chicken eggs gives me about a dozen eggs. Trading 5 squash for 12 eggs, then is a wash, no matter what inflation or deflation does to their value. If a year from now the $5 amount becomes $20,000, a direct barter is still a squash for eggs trade, no matter what we decide to call the value.
But barter is much more than a more stable way to exchange value for value, it is also a great tool for building community.
So many times people ask me how to build community. They see what we do here and want to have that in their life. A strong community takes effort, trust and strong relationships. When I can really trust you, it is easier for me to want to invest my most valuable resource, my time, into interacting and transacting with you.
If you think about it, the same goes for bartering. If I do not trust you, how do I know you will live up to your end of a barter agreement? Especially if we are trading non-tangible things like video production for web development work.
Now sure, the crypto world has some create tools to address the trust problem. But here we are at LFTN. A solid community that over the years has developed strong relationships. A strong community where one or another member has stepped up to posit new ideas then run with it.
Just last week over on the mewe group, I say Amy and Ken get all organized about creating a listing of all the LFTN businesses so that we can do business with one another. I mean, if you are going to buy spices, why not get them from Melissa, right? So now there is a growing spreadsheet with folks listing their businesses and side hustles.
So why not add to that momentum through barter? Why not add a columns that says “takes barter?” in the spreadsheet so that folks know if that is a conversation they can have with that person?
How Barter Furthers Independence
How Barter Furthers Community
Why this matters to you:
We have a good thing going here with our community and we can see what is happening in the world around us. And Barter is a tool we really have not much explored to help all of us stay stable through life’s ups and downs.
I mean sure, if what you are bartering is electrical work and you need to use money to buy parts, perhaps your agreement is that the person buys the parts and barters the time. But that is the glory of barter: You can do with it what you want. You can set it up how you want. And as you do this, you are building trust with another person. A person who may become part of your inter circle network. A person who just may drive out to your homestead to make sure you are ok when that tornado hits and you lose all comms in the region.
And it also lets you take full advantage of your creativity and labor. Because no one is there to take a piece from you in most cases. It is aaaaaal yours. And this make barter even more beautiful.
Think about it next time you decide to do something - ask yourself - is this the time I want to barter. And if it is, see if the other person is interested.
Make it a great week!
Song: Every Way by Sauce
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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Today, I am joined by a visitor to the Holler Homestead to do a thought of the walk on the concept of filling your cup. You can't pour from an empty cup, so the saying goes and lately I have been burning the candle at both ends - to use way too many cliche sayings in one sentence. So as I navigate a busy fall, I wanted to talk about ways to fill the cup and find balance.
Fair warning: If you visit the Holler on podcast day, sometimes you end up on the podcast, right Ken Eash?
Direct Download
Chicken Processing Workshop is Sold Out
Main topic of the Show: TOTW on Filling Your Cup with Ken Eash
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
Pressure canning really freaks some people out. We have all heard stories of the famous exploding pressure canner. But to safely process green beans, aside from making dilly beans, you need to use a pressure canner or freeze them. Today, I will walk you through the pressure canning process, using green beans as the example.
#HollerHatWednesday: What is she up to now?
Unloose the Goose tonight at 7:30pm
Stump the Sauce
Tales from Another Booze Whisperer
What’s Up in the Garden
Episode 339: Canning Green Beans
When to pressure can
Equipment needed
Annual Safety Check
Gage vs weighted canners
Canning Resources: National Center for Home Food Preservation
The Process
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 is a variety show where I take questions and share thoughts about: Podcasting, wholesale pricing in your business, the coin shortage, what is up with our food supply outages, strawberries and getting ready for what may happen.
Holler Neighbor Livestream: https://youtu.be/69ISRhuVluw
Poultry Processing Workshop: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/08/17/chicken-processing-workshop-september-21-2020/
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forrage: Paw Paw
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: A Variety Show
Podcasting questions
Wholesale pricing in your business
The coin shortage
Debi on shortages
The chicken story
FROM MARK:
We are trying to get 2 strawberry wicking beds constructed per month. At the moment we have 3 different varieties of plants to spread out the harvest window.
Does it make sense for each bed to be dedicated to a single type of berry or should we plant 2-3 varieties in each bed?
Getting ready for what may happen: Talk with my sister
Make it a great week!
Song: Feed My Hunger by Sauce
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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Today is a Thought of the Walk (TOTW) episode. Every so often, I go on a walk. Sometimes I have a thought to share. Opportunity is the Friday thought - and how to make room for it in your life -- or how to choose which one is best when all of them come at once.
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
Today, as promised, I have a very special interview with none other than Gregg Yows about his creative side hustle, prepping, transition and with a special launch of something new.
Chicken Processing Workshop: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/08/17/chicken-processing-workshop-september-21-2020/
Show Resources
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gyows
https://www.facebook.com/yowsmusic/
Main content of the show
Gregg Yows is a creative guy who ties flies, loves the outdoors and has a mysterious hobby that is slowly growing into a business. Hear all about it on today's show. Ok fine. He's a AWESOME musician. He just released a song today that I think y'all will like.
Download Five Gallon Bucket
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 is a Friday so we have an interview show today. And today I talk with Ken Eash about building to your life’s purpose and more.
Show Resources
Connect With Ken Eash
https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengegrowthmastery
https://www.facebook.com/empoweringforwardmomentum
https://www.facebook.com/constructionandhandymanservices/
Topic
Do work that inspires you.
Kenneth and Carmel Eash packed up and moved from south Georgia to rural Kentucky in 2016 to live a homesteading lifestyle, chasing the time and freedom for the things in life that truly matter. Kenneth currently runs a small construction/handyman business as well as part time teen life/career coaching. Carmel spends her time gardening, taking care of animals, and managing her house cleaning biz.
Together their mission in life is to inspire others to live healthier, happier, and do everything possible to escape the rat-race.
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
Today, we will talk through the basics of starting a podcast because so many of you have asked of late. Since this is live on Youtube, I will take live q & A from there if any shows up.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Unloose the Goose tonight at 7:30pm: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChLkn_5InomdoHWmgMiECfQ
Holler Neighbor Livestream - shared pantry discussion: https://youtu.be/qST--X-xCiI
Stump the Sauce
From Chris: Recently a friend gave me a large bucket of fresh figs. I made some jam but still have a lot left. Do you have some ideas for fig recipes? Thank you Nicole.
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: How to Start a Podcast
Episode 20: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2017/01/23/episode-20-8-lessons-learned-from-starting-a-podcast/
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 was going to talk with you about how to start a podcast because multiple people have asked me this question. But then a homestead day happened. Got up, had quiet coffee, started roasting, missed a call. We are doing a round of meat chickens. I plan to also do a processing class. They are going to arrive Thursday this week.
And in true homesteading colors, the things that happen on the days they are supposed to happen don’t. So I picked up chicks this morning a day early -- and this is a good thing, but my benchmark for coffee volume is now going to be a push. A push that will happen no matter what because it has to.
As I showed Tactical how to get the chicks going, I realized that lots of folks are starting birds for the first time, so today I will share how I raise baby chickens.
Stump the Sauce
From Dori: Freezer questions
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Getting and Raising Baby Chicks. For meat.
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 hear from listeners about jumping in - getting going and addressing the thing that holds you back.
No Show Friday or Monday
Unloose the Goose is a hit! (Hosting update)
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: jump
Synchronicity - you know how it seems like when you think about something and then start talking about it that you find other people are also thinking about it? Last week I got pretty sick. It started the Friday before last, ebbed a bit over the weekend, then hit like a ton of bricks on Monday morning.
It completely derailed the day - I had been all excited to go into the week kicking ass and taking names. Instead I spent much of the day in bed. SO I thought I would see what would happen if I asked the community to do their own podcast segments on the topic of Jump. I am not sure how many “comment” submissions I got, -- too hard to keep track from bed -- but we got two audio clips that I thought I would play to kick us off.
So Jump. The topic from last week that is not this week. All year, I have shared with you ways to increase independence, shared my struggles and successes with my word of the year, grow.
And things have been really weird this year with coronavirus, rioting and an increasingly divided atmosphere.
Sometimes it really feels daunting to be out on my own in an an environment where the following is not only possible, but looking more and more likely:
Humans are still animals under our sophistication and sometimes animals lash out. But there is a bigger issue in society and that is the oligarchy that uses the ruse of division, the ruse of peaceful freedom, the ruse of progress and diversity to push an agenda that is the opposite. As we see more people willing to open fire on someone who is or is not wearing a mask, or to throw a child in juvie for not doing homework, we start to see the true colors of those in control.
And when you first see it, you just want to tear it down. But using their system to change their system is like heading to the casino and expecting to win against the house. You may have times where you get ahead for a bit, but house rules = house wins. The only way to get ahead for the long term is not to play the house.
You’ve heard me say freedom aint hard, but it takes work. That is because freedom is very very simple. It means that you have no business in other people’s business and they have no business in yours, so long as no one is getting hurt. And this thing is very very hard to do consistently in part because we have to let assholes be assholes so long as they are not causing harm.
But enough about that - as we navigate this coming instability in the economy and in society, how do we best set ourselves apart from the harm? Because as you dig deep into your fear of all that is going on, while there may be a fear of getting sick and dying under it all, the bigger fear is all these coming crashes that may happen might also cause you to struggle or fail.
Listen to that one again.
There is no certainty in anything in that sentence is there? Lots of maybes and mights. As we become more aware of patterns and impacts of the decisions that the oligarchy is forcing on the people, we can see where things will likely go and it is scary.
And this fear is holding you back. This fear is how you are controlled from the outside. This fear keeps you in your bad relationship, your go nowhere job, your habit of debt slavery.
And while the fear may be justified, fear is an emotion. One that should stop you from putting your head in a lions mouth, but not one that should stop you from handling that mud wasp nest on the wall outside your laundry room. (BTW I have a mud wasp nest to deal with outside my laundry door).
There is a difference between acting rashly consequences be damned and conquering your fear to take action on your own behalf.
So when I started thinking about this year, about my own choices, about the fear of failure, about the fear of a societal meltdown -- all I can see is a bunch of stuff out of my control. And the choice is clear: spend hours online fretting over what might happen, what probably will happen actually, -- or spend hours growing food, building Holler Roast Coffee.
But it is hard to jump. This jump is not a baby step toward more financial independence. What we are looking at now is a big ol’ jump into the great unknown. Is it good to jump or bad?
Alas, the answer is “It depends”. It is a gift to see the potential direction that all the societal division in the world is leading us to. Why a gift? Because that same skill that we have all been developing gives us the same sight into what is likely to happen when we take a jump.
So while you may be trying to decide if you should launch your new business,
While you are trying to make these decisions, I think you will find you already have. You have the ability to make things work. You have the ability to push through adversity. You have the ability to analyze what is likely to happen, to find someone who is more versed in a topic than you are and get their perspective, to weigh it then make your own decision.
So today, as you are looking at that next jump. Look hard - if the jump ahead of you is not right, then shift focus and take a different jump.
But dont dont dont let the current environment of division keep you from jumping. Don’t let them steal another moment of your time focusing on their theatrics. Don’t waste precious time on those who wish to enslave you, instead spend that time improving something, jumping toward something that makes your life better, more stable, closer to the life you want to live. Only you can build the things you want into your life and wasting time asking permission to do this is part of the problem.
As we look to the fast approaching end of the year, take a moment, look ahead and take that jump. Because you are the only person who can.
Thank you
Make it a great week!
Song:
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
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It has been a pretty long time since Dori Mulder was on the show. And today, we are fixing this! Dori has had a ton of things change in her life over the past year or so and today she joining us to talk about those changes and what that has meant for her homesteading adventures.
Main content of the show
Dori Mulder first came on the LFTN scene in 2017 when she was purchasing a piece a unique property with a large cave and multiple cabins. She has been on the show 4 times (I think). She lives in Jefferson City MO, works part time for the Army National Guard, and works full time as a Loan Officer for Veterans United Home Loans. She is an hobby homesteader who loves gardening, making kombucha, fermenting sauerkraut, making herbal salves, and learning how to forage from the weeds in the area. She learned all this homesteady stuff from Nicole who has been her catalyst for inspired inquiry into self sufficiency.
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