Today we talk about website questions you have in a semi-live, semi-social media Q & A Session.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with? See in Instagram @nicolesauce
Holler Neighbor Special Edition - New Neighbors: https://youtu.be/ZNV--iWgg74
Unloose the Goose, episode 3 : https://www.unloosethegoose.com/2020/07/29/the-futility-of-politics-the-utility-of-community/
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Website Q & A
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 want to share some thoughts on Community quality and why I think some really large communities are no goes for so many people.
Next Wednesday will be a website Q&A show and will record live on Youtube at 12pm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3OvqIp4J8
Then Thursday is a special Edition of the Holler Neighbor LIvestream at 7pm Central. We will be welcoming a new neighbor - any idea who it might be?
TOTW on Community Quality
Have you ever thought you found a great group of people that you could interact, a community say surrounding a hobby like kayaking or building birdhouses, only to discover that they SEEMED great from the outside but once you got to the inside, most folks just talked about doing these things rather than doing them.
Our community quality metrics are skewed. Facebook launched way back when and it quickly became a competition about how many friends you had. And this is similar to how we measure the success of community. When successful groups and communities are talked about, they are measured by how many people are in them. What matters is size.
But what if this measure is wrong?
The best communities are not successful because they are large, it is because they are effective. And to be effective, a community needs high quality members. Therefore, community success is more dependent on the quality of the community members rather than how many will join.
This can be a hard concept for people to embrace because we have been taught that more is better. Sometimes more is not better. More of what is the best question to ask. More members who take instead of do? More members who focus on discouraging action rather than encouraging action? More members who unload piles of problems on everyone around them?
Or more members who also enjoy making birdhouses and share places to get free materials that can be repurposed?
Yep, communities should be measured by the quality of their participants, not the quantity. But it goes a little further than that. The flip side is that the overall quality of your community will tend to be measured by your weakest member.
You heard me.
The weakest one.
You can have an all-star, super awesome lineup with groups of great participants, but if you also have a trainwreck or two and allow them to stay in the community, you will soon see things reduced to the lowest denominator.
And this is why is can be so hard to keep a community strong. Because we want to be nice. Because we want to lift people up. And these desires are not a bad thing.
But as you navigate finding a community to join, or starting one yourself, remember what quality means. And when you find yourself in the position of leader, remember what that means - it means that it becomes up to you and other leaders in the group to maintain a quality membership. THe less fun part of that is ejecting the trouble makers.
But when a group comes together, unified by common values and interests, you will find that cutting the drama and drag is not very hard. Often the community will handle it quietly.
Over the years at LFTn we have had a few energy vampires show up and move on. And we have seen community members face hard times and become a temporary drain. And over the years, the community has gotten stronger and stronger in part because every one is a doer and supports doers. They help each other get past the hard times. And the best thing? They do stuff so the vampires get fed up and leave. It is a self-regulating culture rather than a dictatorship.
So as we think about the communities we want to help, to join, to invest in -- remember the big picture. Quality, not quality, is how you and your community win the game.
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, we will discuss what you need to know if you want to build your business website -- or outsource it to someone else. It does not have to be a bear.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and why is she not home?
Holler Neighbor Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24fyyTuVxU
Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com
What’s Up in the Garden
Featured Forage: The Tulip Poplar, Liriodedron tulipifera, http://www.eattheweeds.com/tulip-tree/
Main topic of the show: Your Business Website
Live Q&A next week
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 about the tenacity of an earlier generation and what we can glean from them to navigate this shifting economy.
Holler Neighbors Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24fyyTuVxU
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Preservation Process
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Income in a Shifting Economy
Last week, I joined a gaggle of other podcasters in the creation of a new show, called Unloose the Goose. We are focusing on solutions for big problems, talking about freedom and liberty, and other random things. But the intention is to help people who want it to navigate this changing world.
One fellow, Vin Armani, brought up that he thinks we are at the end of an age and we discussed the transition a bit.
Yes. You got it. Change. We talked about change.
As the weeks have passed and Portland Oregon - my home town - has erupted into a hotbed of people taking sides, people acting out, people being violent, and people refusing to talk outside of an us vs them world, there is more indications of a change in our culture incoming. And if we as a society allow it to be a violent revolution, we all know what follows right?
What follows is the opposite of freedom.
So how then, can we navigate the coming weeks, months and years? How can we stop this madness? How can we get back to a peaceful, relatively prosperous life?
Many people hear me ask this and they don’t think they have had a prosperous life.
But think about it. Most of us have rarely felt real hunger - if we have at all. Few of us have been homeless.
16 years ago, I was dating a man who asked me “Do you think we are living in a golden age?” and I thought and thought and reflected and came to the conclusion that yes. We are living in a golden age. And it is shifting. And where we end up, no one knows.
I read a quote today that stuck with me in USA Today. It was about a second stimulus check:
"I have terrible anxiety because of the unknown"...this is the crux of the national panic right now, isn’t it?
People didn’t realize that life has been as unpredictable our whole lives as it is this very moment. We just thought we were going a certain way, often did, and now this has shown us that the world can and will change on a dime. And we need to change with it or we get left behind.
So while we may be transitioning into a different kind of society, a different kind of economy, and a different kind of culture, we may even be heading into another dark age -- there is no way to really know. But we do know ONE THING. Change is constant. Each day has an unknown set of opportunities and challenges. So what do we do to navigate this changing thing?
Well, back in April, when we let the economy screech to a halt, people started getting scared. They had no income from their jobs. The unemployment offices were backed up and they could not get unemployment checks. The stores were bare of supplies and they could not buy what they needed.
Listen to this again
When you hear all this, what do you perceive?
Well a bunch of us feel like that lady in USA today who used her stimulus check to cover basic bills. Scared because of the unknown. Depressed because things have gotten hard. Tired of putting in work every day just to find basic supplies.
Navigating a world where things are not instantly available at all times, while new to some of us, is old news when you look at human history. It is actually kind of cool that we have been able to go so long without having to plan for this -- but if you want a model of how to navigate the coming change, you can look at what your grandparents or great grandparents did: take personal responsibility for your well being, tap into the changing opportunities that you find, don’t be afraid of hard work, never underestimate the power of relationships.
Take personal responsibility for your well being - and that of your family
Tap into the changing opportunities that you find
Never underestimate the power of relationships
Don’t be afraid of hard work
Income in a shifting economy is no different than income in a stable economy - it is there, it is up to you and me to find it. Even in Russia with the tightest of controls on housing, supplies and income, people managed to barter, to trade, to build, to do what they could in the reality in which they found themselves. You may need to make some changes inside you, in how you live, maybe even in where you live -- but change is part of life. And while sometimes change feels scary and it even can look bad. Usually, change leaves windows that you can pass through to find something better - even though it is different.
I know that many of you are looking at this world and worrying. You feel anxious. You feel tired. You feel scared. And your feelings are valid. Give yourself a moment. Embrace your feeling then do me a favor? Find one thing. One good thing. One positive step. One thing you can make happen. Do that thing. It can be really big. It can be one small step. Like going for a walk to start taking control of your health. Or signing up to deliver groceries through Shipt. Or building and selling a birdhouse. Or reaching out to the people in your community who want to band together and coming up with a gsd plan. Or writing that first blog post. Or learning how to string a weed whacker. Or changing your own oil. Doing your taxes. Learning to cook lasagna. Taking that cheesemaking webinar.
Do one thing.
Then shoot me an email and tell me what it is.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Advisory Board
Resources
Last week, I posted in our online communities a question - who has canning questions. So today, I will cover the first set of a TON of questions that arrived. This really makes me wonder when we can schedule that canning webinar this month?
#HollerHatWednesday: What is she up to today?
Canning webinar tomorrow - sign up here: https://calendly.com/sparkcomm/canning1?month=2020-07
New Podcast! Unloose the Goose: Unloosethegoose.com
What’s Up in the Garden
Featured Forage: Jewel Weed, Impatiens aurea (MUHL.), Impatiens biflora (WALT.)
https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/j/jewelw08.html
Main topic of the Show: Canning Q & A, Part 1
Buddy
What about stuff like pumpkin or sweet potatoes?
Jessica
Which vegetables are better to can, and which are better frozen, if “prepping” is not the priority?
Just curious. Prepping is always the priority. 😬
Victoria
DeEllen
For experienced canners, what are some different things that we may not have thought to can? (butternut squash, soups and stews, tunafish, broth, lard, pie fillings, IDK it is hard to know what you can now)
Dawn
How to can salsa if you don’t want to “cook” it.
Krystal
Stock/bone broth...
Christie
Ok, here is another. I’m not new to canning by any stretch of the meaning, but when I make broth, I usually don’t have enough for a full canner. Can I freeze and thaw when I have enough for a full canner of quarts?
Jenni
Any info on canning meat. It's the one thing I have anxiety about canning.
Lisa
Lisa Davis Jenni Hill This winter I canned meat for the first time, too! Startled with ham and bean soup (3 hams on sale, lol). It got to the point I just canned the rest of the ham!! I’ve only used the Carey Canner for meat—not my All American. I didn’t have enough to justify. Plus I got to stay in the upstairs kitchen (glasstop stove upstairs, electric burners on downstairs stove).
Samantha
Samantha Comfort Tattlers? What your take?
Andy
Andy Eddings More of a jarring question instead of canning, what is the proper pH of lacto fermented hot sauce? I have the kombucha test strips.
Chris
We can our old laying hens bone in and raw. We think it creates a better tastier product. Is there any evidence this is true?
Karla
Is it better to can separate ingredients? For example, should I can plain puréed tomatoes vs. tomato sauce (with seasonings) vs. spaghetti sauce with or without meat. Thanks!
Bravo Uniform
The best way to store lactoferminted foods. I have a cellar but what I'm reading says 32 - 50 degrees and the cellar is warmer than that until about October. Right now I'm vacuum sealing Mason jars because the heat of water bath / pressure canning kills the probiotics.
R.
Canning jelly/jam.
Safe recipes.
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 walk through a day in a country kitchen that is filled with preserving, cooking, harvesting and other “from scratch” undertakings. Summer time is the high point for so many projects that it can get a little overwhelming -- and sometimes just knowing that everyone else who lives this way faces the same problems can go a long way in how your approach summer inn a farm, homestead or urbanstead kitchen.
This week’s webinar: https://calendly.com/sparkcomm/canning1?month=2020-07
Introduction to canning - Thursday, July 16, 12pm Central
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Feature Forage - (defer)
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Kitchen Logistics for Summer Processing
What motivated this show
From Christie and Victoria: How can a person make the process simpler instead of having a bunch of things going on all over the kitchen. How can it be made more like a factory assembly line?
Here is my issue. My usual canning day Wake up early to beat the heat picking the garden. Wash up whatever I picked - say green beans but it could be anything cucumbers, whatever. Snap a 5 gallon bucket. Get out all the canning stuff. Can the green beans. Let’s say 2 canners full. Now it’s 5:00 or later and this old lady is exhausted! Hard, hard work, but! Well worth it in January. Any tips or tricks are welcome.
My weekend: tomatoes, pig kidney, beans, eggs, beets, chard, cucumbers, pecans, dill, coriander - actual food for the humans. Planting the fall garden.
Tip 1: Choose your timing carefully
Tip 2: Plan your meals carefully
Tip 3: The canning/processing pantry or kitchen
Tip 4: Ask for help
Tip 5: Finish
What really happened
Day 1
Day 2
The result - nothing was really an assembly line - if you want to do this, you end up putting other stuff on hold for the day which I do when I have a big amount of salsa to make, or a bushel of beans. Therefore, I try to only do 1 day of assembly line stuff.
Kitchen was basically clean for the first time Sunday night -- it was never dirty - dirty but there was a constant flow of dirty and cleaned and drying dishes and lots of rotating vegetables on the bar and counters so it looked a sight!
I guess what I am trying to say is this: Martha Stewart has a staff, Julia Childs had a staff. Most of your big personalities with “perfect” kitchens have a staff. They were/are also very good organizers and teachers and there is nothing wrong with that. But the real deal on a homestead is that, during processing season, you end up either blocking time to do things in between cooking meals, you pre cook, you get friends together to knock a bunch of stuff out, or you end up with multiple preservation projects rolling one to the next. And sometimes this equals an untidy looking kitchen. If it is morphing into a place where things are left long enough to rot and smell, best to admit that you have taken on too much. But if you are simply rolling from dried herbs, to canning, to meal preparation, to freezing and packing -- find a way to accept some of the chaos -- and to ensure that you are able to really clean your kitchen all the way at least daily or every other day.
If you have a better approach than I do on your homestead or urbanstead, drop me a line...
Make it a great week!
Song: Calling my name - by Sauce
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Advisory Board
Resources
Yesterday I posted in our online communities a question - who has canning questions. So today, I will cover the first set of a TON of questions that arrived.
#HollerHatWednesday: What in tarnation is that?
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Canning Q & A, Part 1
Christina
For the person who has never canned before.
Lettie
What's the best thing for a first time cancer to can?
Kira
What kind of pressure canner do you recommend? Easiest first time pressure canning recipes?
Brett
What is better water bath versus pressure canned? Rather, why not pressure can everything?
Lisa
Differences in canners and using the right tool for the job. I’ve got a water bath canner for jams and such. My All American 930 is the bomb for large batches (and no gasket), but have discovered the Carey Smart Canner for small batches of soups, broths, leftover chili, etc. It’s great to have more than one option.
Crystal
If you don’t have enough for another quart of say green beans, can you put a pint with the quarts and pressure can for time required for the quarts? Or would you recommend to just cook them for a meal?
Cindy
If you only have 5 quarts to can and your canner when full fits 7 quarts is it necessary to add sealed quarts if water to fill the space or is it ok to just can 5 quarts? The water can be used as an emergency water source later on.
Stephanie
Why do you have to use a “replacement” jar or jar filled with water if you don’t have a full pressure canner load?
I usually have a full canner when I run it but I just found out you’re supposed to do this. i never have....😳😬🤭
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 go back to that discussion I started just before the workshop in episode 313. It breaks my heart to see the destruction and violence that has erupted this year. To watch people who managed not to lose everything during the covid shut downs, lose it to vandals as things start to open up breaks my heart. To see people claim there is no racism in the us when there so clearly is, breaks my heart. To see an ever mounting list of demands that do nothing to address the core issue but cause lots of news buzz breaks my heart - and all of this heartbreak is done from the quiet solitude of my home. Where I am also doing nothing.
So I thought to myself, what if I start talking about it on the podcast. And that was episode 313 was all about. The beginning of a discussion. An invitation to interact on this topic in a meaningful and open way. And several of you had something to say.
In the first of this series, we talked about, well, talking. How silencing discussions on the topic of racism is counterproductive. How bullying people for saying things that may not be quite right when on this topic leads to the kind of silence where people do not evolve their hearts and minds. And a bit about how government has amplified racism in recent years through its policies -- though if you look at the entire history of our country, racism was there at the beginning.
SO to have a reasonable talk about this, I asked the following:
So today, I want to read you some of the feedback we got. This is a series of things from multiple people in our network.
Make it a great week!
Song: Tripped Out 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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This week, I harvested a little over four gallons of honey and realized we have not talked honeybees in a long time. Today I will walk you through my honey extraction process.
#HollerHatWednesday
Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com
Stump the Sauce
From Sarah: What to do with too many pickles
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Extracting Honey
It is not hard, but it is dangerous as I have illustrated this week with my bee sting incident. I could have avoided it by waiting a bit longer before processing but I was being efficient. How about you other beekeepers out there? What do you do to process your honey?
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 the day you have been waiting for - the day that we do the LFTN workshop rundown. But unlike other years, instead of a blow-by-blow I thought I would center this on the community that we have at LFTN. So today’s run through will be of the superb people who attended the event and what they brought to the community. I think you are going to like this approach.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Sowing Seeds with Superb People
Grow 2020 - when I came up with that topic for the workshop, I had no idea what the first 6 or even three months of 2020 would bring. Many of us are walking around wondering which shoe will drop next, uncertain of what our future earning potential is, pissed off that the political factions are willing to tear everything down in order to win -- it makes a person uneasy, doesn’t it.
This year’s LFTN workshop was likely the one that has made the biggest impact on me personally and I think on most of the attendees as well. Perhaps it was because we came together as this time, a group of doers and helpers, all in one place.
It can be very difficult to convey the power of getting a group together like this once a year on an audio podcast and I took a few weeks to think about the best way to highlight the event, then I realized it was simple really. You see while we had great food, fun and content for the workshop -- that is not what made it so powerful.
It was you, the attendee, that did that. Every single person at the event had something to offer. Every single person did something that I am thankful for.
Sunday, after the great bee sting of 2020, I was talking with Jenni and she dropped a gem in my lap. She said something like “You know how you said that there was no huge “a-ha” moment at the workshop but that a major corner was turned. I think it was the theme - grow - that did that. We were all in the grow mindset. And if you think about how you grow things, you start with the soil and a seed and do a bunch of work. And nothing happens, until one day, there is a little teeny plant. And you nurture that until it is a big plant and pretty soon you have something that is a great big plant providing you with shade and food. That is kind of how the workshop was.
And she was right - this is the perfect way to describe it. We started with the hard stuff on Thursday, including a session about working through grief and taking care of your PTSD - which was somber indeed - and we did the hard work together, with and for each other, so that by the end most of us were ready to go back out, encouraged, and ready to grow what we want to grow no matter what the world brings.
And that, my friends, is the power of getting together once a year. A group of doers not takers. People who like to help and allow themselves to be helped. Who take responsibility for their current mistakes and next chapter. Yes, we demoed knife sharpening, knife throwing, how to make a hoop row cover for a raised bed, fermentation basics, a solar hot water heater, tasted homemade salad dressings and pimento cheese, and bourbons, and feta cheese, and salsa, and fresh salad, and smoked meatloaf and brats, and a pretty tasty venison ham. We played yard games and sang karaoke. We helped people accelerate their new and existing business ideas.
But the people. This year was all about the people. So I wanted today to give a rundown of who was there and why I am thankful for their contributions:
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.
Community
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Today we talk with John Athayde of Sfumato farms, Meticulous and Homesteadoji. He’s joining me today to talk all about scything and if you have not thought about using one at your place, or even if you already are, I recommend listening to this interview.
Last call for webinar registrations - if no one is signed up by tonight, I will delay the webinar 2 weeks.
Show Resources
Where to get scythes
https://www.onescytherevolution.com/index.html
About John Athayde
Work-from-home/farm, VP of Design for PowerFleet. Moved to a small 15ac farm outside Charlottesville with wife, Whitney, and 3 month old Quincy in 2013. PDCs with both Geoff Lawton and PermaEthos. Now four kids, finishing a house addition, and working on building out an orchard.
Covered on the show
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 walk, step by step, through the process of making comfrey salve with fresh comfrey.
#HollerHatWednesday: When is she going to finish?
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Make Comfrey Salve
What it is good for: swelling, healing cuts, itching, post shaving skin repair, post waxing skin repair, bee stings, bug bites
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
Never before have I taken time after the spring workshop to get away from the internet, from people, and from modern life. And it did just what I said it would do - allowed me to take the time to process. Change is coming. Change is always coming, but this year, we have taken a special path and I want to share one lesson with you today.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forrage: Wild Raspberry
For berry advice
https://nicolesauce.com/2015/06/14/wild-raspberry-summer/
Herbal uses
https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/raspbe05.html
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Change
It is always there under the surface. Ready to push you just a bit further. Ready to get in your way when you are in your stride. Ready to show you opportunities when you are least ready for them. Always there no matter how much you wish to cling to today and yesterday. Change happens.
Many people fear it, hate it, resist it. But change is part of life and if you are living, change is simply something that you must learn to integrate into everything. Because it will happen whether you want it or not.
And yet we can guide change, we can shape it and shift it in ways that suit us. Yep. Change is hard but change is also good.
I haven’t done our usual lftn spring workshop debrief episode this year. You know the one I speak of? Where I run through it session by session and talk about all the things we did and learned and how powerful the community is when we get together? A community of doers…
I haven’t done this thing because this year was different. Now don’t get me wrong, the workshop was fantastic, fun, hard, good, educational, and the community is why this is.
But unlike former years where the best outcomes of the workshop were on the surface, this year was different. It was more subtle. The group was both quiet and social and sometimes raucous. The sessions were usually focused and thought provoking. The group had a comfortable companionship about it and conversations tended toward long and deep over surface and short.
The whole time the event was happening I was worried that we would not meet the benchmark. You may wonder what the benchmark is. The benchmark for every lftn spring workshop is that at least 1 or 2 people figure things out. They find that it they have been missing. The thing that shows them a way forward toward building the kind of life they want. Usually, this happens quickly and obviously. But not this year.
The day after the workshop, Jenni stopped by. You know who I mean. Jenny of Word of the Year Jenni - to get her stuff and she said - I think we turned a corner at the workshop.
And she is right. There wasn’t one or two “aha” experiences, but rather a more subtle shift for most of us there.
Setting the stage for the workshop, we have seen the following in six short months:
As a group, we had people facing sudden loss of jobs, income, business revenue - paired with people who are still doing basically ok, and even some who have seen growth as a result of the turmoil of the first half of this year.
Perhaps you can tell by how I have framed this what I was feeling at the outset of our event: scared, a little sad, and scared some more. I got to pair all the big picture angst we all share with other, more personal stuff and that all ramped up the week before the workshop. And there I was, supposed to be the positive influence, the coach to help others find their purpose and go there. The find your opportunity lady doing an event that is supposed to spark the kind of change that brings people up. Let’s just say the weekend before the workshop I had a pretty intense meeting with myself about my attitude and the need to focus on the most important and let go of the crap.
Because when you think about opportunities and prosperity that we make for ourselves, much of it is SEEING that there is something there, but there is also the impact that a group of great minds can bring by deciding to make the change that will come into a positive change. And what better place to do it than here, in the Holler, where people come to rejuvenate?
As we navigated topics like how to work through grief, how to make sauerkraut, how to easily make a hoop house, phases of building a business, and talked about the ideas that some folks have for starting new things -- my internal angst got lighter and lighter. As people played cornhole together, sang karaoke, shared food and fun -- things got lighter still. And sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, as Jenni said, we turned a corner.
We stopped talking so much about the covid stuff, we stopped worrying about burning cities, the Trump and Biden jokes faded away, and we got real. Some people started taking stock. I know I did.
Because I was wrong all along. Change is not coming. Change is here. It has been here the whole time, inviting me to take that next big step. And like the bad habit tempter that it is, the wealth of opportunities presented to me include some that will keep me stuck in the wrong place while I miss the boat to the better one.
But you can’t grab that boat if you can’t see it is there. And to see the boat, you have to open your eyes.
I am not really sure what everyone got out of the workshop this year. So many have reached out to me to say. Some who have been struggling to get their dreams going are starting.
But I know what I got out of it this year. I got sight.
All my life I have been preparing to soar. And I have soared here and there, and sunk other times. And all my life, I have been ready to weather something like the first six months of 2020. But these last 6 months are not my destination - they are a lesson about what has always been there. Change. Unpredictability. A subset of people who wish to be in control. These things simply are.
And now I can see beyond them - I have often railed against that last category and will continue to do so. But think about what is on the other side of those people: the masses that ultimately cannot be controlled.
Through all of this, the real opportunities are within you, within me, and within everyone else who is willing to first see, then act. It is that simple. We already have what we need to prosper, built in and we just need to turn the corner. To change. To make the choice to jump on that boat.
And the best part is that this looks different for every single one of us. And what that means is that any solution that looks the same for everyone is the wrong solution. This small measure makes choices much easier to make.
I was doing just fine before we all got together a week ago. There was no big risk of losing it all for me because I have been moving toward better stability for some years now.
But the change that was there the whole time was largely energetic and perspective.
Think about that - all in the mind and heart. An acceptance that now more than ever, it is the best time to change they way we want to. To make a move. To grab another bit of independence -- and to help others do the same.
I apologized at the workshop for choosing the word grow for this year. Because in order to grow, something has to happen to motivate you and usually that thing is pain. And pain is something we have all felt this year as things have unfolded. But I am not sorry - sorrynotsorry.
Because of covid, I know how insatiable my biggest source of income was -- and now it is gone so I get to focus on building something better. I can either grow the things I love, or try to get back what I once had. I choose grow.
Because of the racial strife, I understand how much further we can go to build a society that decides based on merit, not heritage. I can either refuse to look at what is happening, or I can grow my understanding. I choose grow.
Because we have landed in a recession, it is harder to leverage what I have to expand the rental properties, to close new deals, and to find things that used to be easy to get. I can either use recession as an excuse, or I can grow by business. I choose grow.
Because many people in our world are easy to control, to leverage, to pit against one another, the oligarchy that has controlled us for basically every is gaining ground. I can either poke that oligarchy in the eye and moan about it, or I can help as many people around me grow beyond the chains. I choose grow.
Yep, the change that happened at the workshop was not loud, it wasn’t a fireworks moment, it wasnt an in your face thing. It was just a little shift. A small move from one not so bad track to a much better one. On little jump really.
And now I can’t wait to see what the next six months of 2020 brings! What about you?
Make it a great week!
Song: The Flood 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 will go over the woes of the grey water system and what we are doing to address them.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Nicole in the woods Thursday and Friday
What’s Up in the Garden
Main Topic: Grey Water System Overhaul
What about you? Have you thought about how you will handle black and grey water when you move to the land?
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 I will share the great car breakdown of 2020, the aftermath, and the lesson it taught me.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forage: Thistle
Edible parts: Crushed well for fodder (Unless you have a goat), Seeds = oil, Stems, roots and leaves,
Possible medicinal uses: Wound poultice, skin care, stomach complaints, swelling joints, ibs
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: Don't Worry Be Happy
Today, I want to tell you a story from the Thursday before the LFTN workshop. And the reason I want to tell you this story is that this has been a year of calamity. Covid forced us to move the workshop due to travel problems. We had speakers scheduled who could not make it. We lost 25% of our participants due to the reschedule. There was no way to know what that had not bee locally produced would be available for meals. And just when things were coming together for the event, riots broke out causing additional troubles for our event.
So as you can imagine, having my only vehicle punk out on i-40 with Mama Sauce the Thursday before the event was not the best timing.
Here is how that day went:
Poked around and it looked like 1500-3500 to repair a transmission on my car and it blue books at 3500-4500. Big transportation decisions needed to be made.
Called the mechanic and he said he was covered up and would need a week to get me a bid.
So I did what anyone in this situation should do: Stopped worrying about it, and focused on what I CAN do: make the workshop awesome. From time to time I would look at rental cars but really just ignored the car issue.
Got a call Friday of the workshop and did not call back because at that point I did not want to know.
Monday’s call: $125 for the tow.
My car is not totaled -- at least not yet. We have no idea why it overheated. They can’t find anything and with my upgraded AAA in place, I am just going to go on as usual while keeping my eye out for deals on the kind of vehicle I should own.
In the end - when things are what they are, and you can’t really do anything but your best, the time we spend on worrying about it only sets you up to:
Really a better approach is to maybe complain a bit about the situation to let your emotions out. Step back and make arrangements that will get you through the crisis phase, then reorient on what is most important. Because even though things may feel really urgent in a situation like this, nothing you do until you can do something changes a thing and if you use that gap time to get other things going well, you end up ahead in the end.
So today, with riots, emerging nation states, pandemic madness and all the other news cycle stuff. Today, when maybe you just los your apartment and need to figure out what is next. Today, do your best to take the advice of Bob McFerrin and Dont worry be happy. Because you can only control one thing in this world and that thing is you.
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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Today I speak with photographer Jay Farrell about how he went from a forgotten and abandoned building explorer to author and photographer.
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Jay Farrell Information
website URL(s): www.jayfarrellauthor.com
Instagram and Facebook: @jayferrellauthor
Jay Farrell is a Nashville Tennessee-based photographer and book author, featuring the work of abandoned and forgotten buildings in various states and regions.
Make it a great week! (Talk with you again on June 16)
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today is wednesday so we have a how to topic and what is top of my mind today is focus. Focus through the noise. Focus through the news cycle. And ways to trick yourself into focusing in times when there is simply too much going on. I will share with you four of my favorite strategies for focusing.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Four strategies to Find Focus When You Feel Scattered
Do you ever have one of those days or weeks where it seems like every time you turn around you are being interrupted by something urgent? And at the end of the day you have started nothing you need to start? Sometimes these days happen, but all too often it is up to you to keep it from happening by making choices to focus on one thing at a time.
I often say that multitasking is a fiction. Sure, some people are good at changing their focus from item to item quickly, but if you look at how they are processing things, you often find they are really just able to shift rapidly, not process two or three things at a time.
This is not to be confused with function stacking when you do one thing but it serves multiple purposes.
But back to focus - the best way to navigate a scattered day is to dig in and focus on the top priority item until it is either finished or as far as it can go before you move onto the next item.
But if you are like me, when there is tons of stuff going on, you feel anxious. Stressed. The LAST thing you want to do is buckle down and do just one thing when so many need attention.
But focusing on finishing things is the best way to get over the scatter. To bust the clutter. To move beyond the overwhelming panic that you have. And today, just one week out from the LFTN Spring Workshop, I share with you four of my strategies for MAKING myself focus.
Pregaming:
Four Strategies for finding focus
It may seem like I am playing games with myself but the thing that discerns people who GSD vs those who don't is the ability to finish things, not just start them and focus is key to that endeavor.
So what do you do when you cannot focus? How do you bust through the metal clutter to get your stuff together?
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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Grow is the word of 2020 and sometimes growing means learning to talk about hard topics. In the past, I have not said much about racial issues, mostly because it isn’t easy to talk about, there is not a clear solution, and when you try to open a dialogue about this topic, many people on all sides take issue and attack rather than seek to find a shared understanding.
So today, in the spirit of growing myself, I want to open a dialogue about class and racial issues in our society. I hope you will give me your thoughts so that we can grow together.
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Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forage: Honeysuckle: https://elmaskincare.com/herbs/herbs_honeysuckle.htm
TEA, Tinctures, Syrup (flowers and buds)
Decoction: Leaves and stems
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: A Discussion
Intimidation and shaming has become the norm for influencing people who have opinions that run counter to the prevailing, chosen narrative. When it comes to race in America, this approach has backfired because there is not an open forum to discuss, learn and grow. One tiny misstep and you may find yourself a target of judgement, a job loss, calls, threats and worse. In this environment, how can we ever hope to find lasting societal change? The answer is we can’t.
It is time to discuss hard things. It has been time to discuss them for my life and for the lifetime of my parents and my grandparents. And here and there along the way, we have found a way to address racial and gender biases, generational poverty, and much more, in a way that moved things toward the better. And we have found ways to step backward.
And at the core of taking on hard topics is this: making rules to fix things doesn’t work. Capturing hearts does.
Whitewashing language doesn’t bring change, it merely makes it harder to have a discussion. Oh. Did that word bother you? Do you know what whitewashing is? It is painting a place to make it look cleaner and it has come to mean a means by which we hide the truth or truth in meaning from people. And it is dangerous to do this if our goal is in fact to create a society that values people for who they are, not what they look or sound like.
So then, how can we begin to talk about hard things like race in America? I think we need a set of discussion standards.
When we discuss hard things:
So now I would like to open a discussion:
When I got up this morning, I wondered how many more livelihoods were stolen from people by vandals who wanted to loot and start fires? Notice I don't call them protesters. Fomenting this kind of violence on innocent people because you are mad about a cop killing smacks of one of two things: Vast immaturity, like three-year-old tantrum-level immaturity, or a huge lie. I tend to think that we are seeing a huge lie. Protesters go out and they communicate their displeasure with the status quo - and hopefully they have a solution in mind when they do it.
Vandals burn things, beat people up, and steal stuff.
And yet the media - an establishment that is supposed to exist to uncover the truth, comes out with headlines about protesters burning things.
OK OK - we know how they came to that spin: It is totally unacceptable for police to kill a man in the way that George Floyd was killed and people are right to be pissed off about it and demand change.. You and I should be demanding change. Police for too long have been immune to prosecution when they do wrong - and what was done to Mr. Floyd and everyone who loved him was wrong. It is called ”Qualified Immunity” and goes to a 1982 supreme court decision:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_v._Fitzgerald.
Link to the text of the decision: http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep457/usrep457800/usrep457800.pdf
Basically, qualified immunity requires that the act that was done by the government official against someone be previously established as something that was in violation of the victim’s rights. And the way it is being interpreted is that, for example, when police sicked a dog on a suspect who had surrendered, they were not in violation of his rights because he was sitting up with his hands in the air. Had he been lying down as the victim was in a previous case, it would have been a violation. Sicking a dog on someone who has surrendered, sitting instead of lying on the ground totally different right? (It is no wonder this has led to our current tinderbox with cops.)
We’ve talked about the corruption of the justice system and how it is built to keep itself in business and in office. Well qualified immunity is another part of this.
It allows assholes like Chauvin and every other cop who stood around letting this happen get off scott free when they have clearly done something that at a minimum should have them out of a profession, and in reality in jail.
So back to race. It is also not a secret that people of color are the target of police violence more than those with white skin. This is an endemic problem that must be addressed. But it goes much deeper than a simple solution. And in order to find a path forward, we MUST be open to have this discussion without shaming and violence. Without ruining people’s careers as they form opinions.
An open discussion hurts. But an open discussion can also begin a healing process.
But the riots are scary and the media is just EATING THIS SHIT UP. They were having a really hard time keeping the coronavirus panic up and nothing new was happening and then a cop killed a black man, people protested, some protests got violent, and here we are.
Is it any wonder that some folks are screaming conspiracy?
And can we talk about a lifetime of programming that we have been exposed to? You know, the programming that pits one side against the other on almost every topic? From pandemics, to rioting, to personal life choices, what you do is either Democrat or Republican. How wildly absurd is that?
Why can’t I believe that racism still exists in the US, that the cop who killed Mr. Floyd should be tried for his actions, that rioting and violence are not only wrong, but a pathway toward getting the opposite of what the protesters want, that the media and government officials overreacted to Caronavirus, that coronavirus is still a terrible illness for some people and we should protect those vulnerable to it, that regulating every word, move, job, landscaping choice, food and healthcare decision is leading to even more tension and bigger problems, that taxes should be lower, that our education system has been broken for years and we need to open up opportunities for our children to learn outside the broken system or it will never get better, guns should be legal, that regulating ourselves out of local, stable sources of food was a terrible idea, that holding patents on plants that already exist is criminal, that drugs should be legal and I mean all drugs.
And really at the core of things, why can’t I believe that it is in part the preponderance of regulations and laws that makes it all worse? People would not be complaining that cops were bad apples if the cops did not have so many victimless crimes to enforce. We try to fix things with rules and the more rules we get, the more unfair everything is - under the guise of fairness.
But back to having hard discussions - How about we open with just one aspect of it. Something I have trouble understanding in the discussion of race is this idea: If you are not <insert race or gender here>, then you don’t have a right to have an opinion.
Wait what? Why not?
Because you can’t know how it is for a person who is <race, or gender>.
While this statement is true, it is a fundamental flaw to demand silence in a quest toward shared understanding. True, I will never know what it is to be black, to be Asian, to be a gay kid afraid to come out. I’ll never know what it is like to be in combat, or a billionaire either.
But why would you want to stop me from imagining what that is like? Why not encourage an open discussion about it so that I can better understand?
The shut up approach to winning hearts just seems so counterproductive.
What do you think? Should people be allowed to talk through their thoughts on this topic openly, or should we continue the silence? Should we avoid the problem?
I’m curious to hear what you have to say.
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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Today, I share with you the story behind my mysterious fundraising efforts 2.5 years ago, as well as let you know what your funds helped make happen.
Announcements:
The tale of a woman and dog who needed our help and what happened next.
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, I will review five things to consider regarding visitors to your farm or homestead s that you can navigate this slippery slope with grace and humor.
Thursday at 7pm - Live with the Holler Neighbors on Youtube: https://youtu.be/nhm-S4xbDuA
Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com
Stump the Sauce
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Managing Visitors to Your Farmstead
In the end, wether you decide to allow visitors or helpers to your homestead or farm or not is your decision and people who become pushy about visiting are probably not the kind of people you want. On the other hand, inviting people in to see what the lifestyle is like, or to learn a bit about what you do can be great for business - both from a tourism profit standpoint and to sell what you produce. But be mindful of the roi on your time for tours, visits and helpers - many time the help that comes is more work than doing the task for yourself would be and at that point you are providing a training service - which can be great because then folks learn how much work all this growing food stuff is and are more understanding of the farm to table price point.
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 am joined by Joshua Sloan, also known as PA Prepper on the TSP Zello channel to talk about SEO and increasing your online visibility. This is something we could all improve on!
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Main content of the show
Joshua started out in political activism and learned along the way that he was suited to digital marketing. After working for a large online website development firm, Joshua launched his own consultancy, Sloantech and provides hosting, website development and online marketing services from his home on Pennsylvania.
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 I looked around the homestead and wondered what is going on that might be a good topic for a homestead-focused podcast and it occurred to me – I have been planting sweet potatoes all week. Why not talk about how to set yourself up for success with them on the podcast.
Stump the Sauce
Link to the meat grinder I use: https://www.amazon.com/STX-International-STX-3000-TF-Turboforce-Electric/dp/B0012KJBR0/ref=sr_1_42?dchild=1&keywords=meat+grinder&qid=1589918357&sr=8-42
What’s Up in the Garden
Main topic of the Show: Planting Sweet Potatoes
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 explore the concept of silence used as a tool to teach, a tool to reflect, and a tool to manipulate.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Featured Forage: Rose Petals
Herbal: https://commonwealthherbs.com/rose-herb-of-the-week/
SKIN Toner - rosewater -
Food: raw in salads, candies as dessert (petals)
Rose hip jam, jelly, or chutney, add them to muffins for a sweet-tart treat, and you can even dehydrate Rose hip puree to make Rose hip fruit leather!
Stump the Sauce from Krystal
Operation Independence
Main topic of the Show: The Power and Danger of Silence
Silence is a tool, it is something we need to be mentally healthy. But the cultural silence that occurs when people see a trend that may not be healthy, that people do when being polite - THAT silence is dangerous. It is a result of peer pressure. So look around you? And ask yourself - am I going along to get along right now? And is that the best course of action?
Make it a great week!
Song: Anonymous 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, someone said something about a neighbor tattling on another neighbor and I thought we need to look deeper into tattling, what it is and is not, and why tattling is VIOLENT.
Stump the Sauce
Main topic of the Show: Thought of the Walk on Tattlers
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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Last fall, community member Kurt Dugger said: Screw the toolbox fallacy, I am going to try something big - really big. I want to raise awareness of the issues facing combat veterans and raise money for the Darkhorse Lodge - a veterans retreat in Tennessee. And he did.
He set out on a journey across the state in a paramotor which basically looks like a lawn chair with a parachute and a giant fan. This multi-day effort ended prematurely due to weather, but it raised lots of money for the lodge. Fast forward to NOW. Kurt is embarking on this challenge a second time - never give up - May 22-25 ish.
But first: Stump the Sauce
From Mark: Spicing up feeding tube food
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Main content of the show
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