Info

Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce

Homesteading, food, freedom and fun!
RSS Feed
Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce
2024
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2023
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2022
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
July
June
May
April


Categories

All Episodes
Archives
Categories
Now displaying: November, 2021
Nov 29, 2021

This show is dedicated to Mark and Nancy Alexander of School Bell Farms. Long time supporters of the show and our LFTN Community. After a long battle with cancer, Mark passed away last Tuesday at home. We will miss his sarcastic wit, new business ideas, and passion for life and he will love in our memories and every time someone pulls a good practical joke at events.

Today, I will share thoughts on victimhood and ways to opt out of the mindset so that you can make the best of what is happening around you. We also celebrate the life of long-time show supporter and friend Mark Alexander of School Bell Farms.

Event Highlights

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Thanksgiving Feast as a Daily Thing
  • Tonight's Casserole Recipe
  • Firing up the freeze Dryer to finish the rest of the summer bounty currently stored in the freezer
  • Making way for venison and beef
  • Illness treatment from the pantry: mullein, elderberry syrup, herbal teas from Angie’s Gardens

Operation Independence

  • Coaching from a friend on increasing cashflow
  • Purging all the Extras (Flour mill, tractor, cars, etc)

Main topic of the Show: Episode 507: Opt Out of Victimhood 

Thoughts on Victimhood and how our personal reaction to problems furthers the cycle.

  • Feeling defeated/helpless vs acting defeated/helpless
  • Predatory people
  • Self worth and perspective

Signs that you are in a victim mindset

  • Seeking reassurance, validation and sympathy for things that happen in your life
  • Thinking or saying “I can’t”
  • Feeling like the world is against you and you can do nothing about it
  • Taking things personally that are not that at all
  • Listing reasons why offered solutions will never work
  • <Story from my past>

Just because you change your mindset, does not mean that bad things will not happen, but you can draw more bad things to yourself based on reactions to current trauma - often through self-sabotage, pushing good people away through blame, etc.

What you can do:

  • Identify the self-sabotaging behaviors and decide to change what you can (Your reaction to trauma)
  • Leave or change situations that cause harm to you
  • Learn to find what you can do or take responsibility for when bad things “happen to you”
  • Seek outside help to build emotional intelligence
  • Spend time with empowerers and people who are like what you wish to become and cut out the energy vampires - even if they are blood relatives
  • Prioritize yourself

<Story of friend a>

Talk about Mark Alexander and why this topic today:

  • 2 year battle with cancer
  • Never stopped pushing for his dream, to support those around him
  • Gave 110% to every day - even days before his last day
  • Making the most of your dash
  • Could have given up but he lived every second he had
  • Wanna honor Mark’s memory? Make the most of your dash

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

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Nov 24, 2021

Today we have an interview with long-time listener Molley Wedding. She shares with us her journey from rural normie to homesteader, her motivations, and how she is preparing for a big move.

Dec 18 Christmas Reception

Thanksgiving Week Schedule

Show Resources

Follow Molley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblessedmess20_/

Main content of the show

I’m Molley Wedding I’m 30 years old, I’m a mother to 4 young children I started Homesteading out of necessity to take care of my young children during my time as a single mother on a very limited income, I recently asked you the question on a live show about tips for moving a homestead. I believe a show about shopping for “homestead worthy” property and how I am taking a working homestead & re establishing it in another location would make an interesting show

Interview

Membership and Coffee Pitch

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

Nov 22, 2021

Today, I share four recipe ideas for Thanksgiving in keeping with our annual LFTN tradition. One is a recipe I have shared before. The rest are this year’s ideas.

LFTN Christmas Reception

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Thanksgiving from the pantry
  • Preparing for the annual cow
  • Ferments and pickles
  • Use id phase can feel scary - what to do

Operation Independence

  • Turkey Day Update

Main topic of the Show: Four Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas

Intro and a word on keto and holidays

Staying Keto - the reality

Recipe ideas

  • Apple Pie
  • Chestnut Dressing (Keto cornbread)
  • Chevre Root Bake
  • Breakfast Frittata

Links to past episodes with ideas:

2020: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/11/25/thanksgiving-in-the-holler/

2019: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2019/11/20/unusual-thanksgiving-recipes/

2017: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2017/11/21/episode-57-a-resilient-thanksgiving/

2016: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2016/11/22/episode-12-a-homesteaders-thanksgiving/

What are your ideas?

Membership Plug

Make it a great week!

Song: Grandpa’s Song by Sauce

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Nov 19, 2021

Today, I share a recording of my underground networking presentation done last week at The Survival Podcast’s Fall workshop. Original video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zfMjCHxg5A&t=102s

Want to build your Underground Network? Join is on February 21, 2022 at Special Operations Equipment for a Self-Reliance Festival. Earlybird Pricing Ends Dec 31.

Enjoy this transcript of Underground Networking. We will dive deeper into this topic over the next 12-18 months.

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!

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

Nov 17, 2021

Welcome to Living Free in Tennessee.

In LFTN Tradition, I bring you the annual Handmade Christmas Gift Idea Episode for 2021!

Christmas Reception is December 18 and registration is here.

Turkey day is sold out but i still have a few turkeys if you want one for Thanksgiving. Order Form.

Stump the Sauce

  • From a listener: What is this digester you speak of?

Main topic: 4 Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

Mugshot Book (Use the concept for next year!)

Molded Candy (Melting chocolate)

Ornament Ideas

  • Decorated Pinecone Ornaments
  • Woodburned Ornament

Spice Mix

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

Nov 15, 2021

A year and a half ago, I recorded this episode after a VERY HARD first half of 2020. The moment it was released, my whole life changed for the better. We are replaying this episode today as a reminder. A reminder to be the change you need to be for yourself, your family and your community.

OLD SHOW NOTES:

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • We had rain so I hope to do a batch of beets this week
  • Added lamb to the freezer
  • It is time to do the now quarterly freezer defrost and audit - a thing that has been keeping me honest on using stuff up
  • Still drying herbs like mullein flower and bee balm

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

  • Tea: high in calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and vitamins B, C, and E.
  • Excessive menstruation
  • Antidiahrreal
  • Reduces fevers

Operation Independence

  • This whole show is about this topic, really

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:

  • A strong financial environment to start out the year
  • A scary pandemic illness that brought along with it the following:
    • Population-wide acceptance of the top-down control of private lives.
    • An awakening that people seem to want a crisis really badly - so they won’t let go when new information comes to light
    • Acceptance of politically charged narrative on a topic that should not be at all political - both sides have shamelessly used this pandemic to desperately further their agendas with no consideration for the impact on real people
    • A media meltdown - To this day, media is frantically reporting increase in cases with no context on increase in testing, or link to hospital beds needed - the more important measure of the impact of covid. Literally - Tennessee saw it’s largest spike in cases the same day that they also finalized testing of all people in all old folks facilities, for example. 
    • Government overreach in the form of shutting down private businesses - you can say what you want about if it was or was not the right move, but it was an overreach and court cases are starting to show this
    • Destruction of our livelihoods, retirement accounts, educational facilities, ability to travel, and autonomy
  • Racially - charged, divisiveness in a world where I truly believe most of us want to coexist -- followed by rioting to further the clear division between a and b, 1 and 0, r and d, because that is the only way to control us
  • A recession that very well may melt into a depression, especially if the masses continue to let the oligarchy that runs this country bring us to ruin lest they lose power

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?

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

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

 

Advisory Board

Resources

Nov 12, 2021

Today, Ryan Mitchel of TheTinyLife.com joins me to share his story of simplifying, prioritizing and building a better life

Show Resources

TheTinyLife.com

https://thetinylife.com/build-a-better-life/

https://amzn.to/38dVebM

Main content of the show

Living in only 150 square feet for years, Ryan Mitchell has learned a thing or two about living simply. From downsizing to life simplification, and designing a life that’s right for you, Ryan brings a lot of experience and practical knowledge to the table. He built his own tiny house in 2012 learning as he went along which inspired him to help others in their journey to live small. Today he still lives in his tiny house full time and off grid with solar, teaching others how to live simply. As a best selling author, he’s been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Associated Press, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Mother Earth News, Treehugger, and NPR.

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

Nov 9, 2021

It was May 20, 2016. That day that I got a wild hair. I had created a world for myself that was pure misery. I had founded a nonprofit around my passion, but put myself in a role of administrator, not the person delivering the very services I loved providing. There was absolutely no creative outlet. Worse, I was supposed to be a catalyst for change toward the better and was watching the country backslide away from increased freedom to an alarmingly fascist government.

I thought, why not? Why not start a podcast and talk about increasing your ability to live a life you love, to have more stability, to tap into opportunities that others may not see? So I did and I got EIGHTY downloads.

The next day I got 14 and one of them was my mother.

Who knew that five years later, after lots of joy, hardships, slaps in the face, heartbreak, new friendships, and help from all of you -- we would reach episode 500.

Today, we celebrate this milestone with content from y’all.

Thank you for making our community so strong, for lifting each other up, and for sticking with me through thick and thin.

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

Nov 8, 2021

Well, a year ago or so, we talked about choosing your year of the word with Jenni Hill and how it can change your life, one phase at a time. Many of us have been choosing words for years now and this year, mine was balance. Today, I will update you on how that is progressing.

Turkey Day Reminder

Tales from the Prepper Pantry
*Road Food - a 10 day trip
*All salsa and tomatoes are canned
*Freeze drying candies for the holiday sales project
*FD the basil and smoked chilies next
*1st Deer!

Operation Independence
*Exit and Build (Should have sold my books there)

Main Topic: Balance, a Word of the Year Update

What the word of the year is
Why we do it
How grow worked out
This year’s word: Balance and why I chose it
The dark side of the word balance
Lessons Learned
*Boundaries
*Taking back my mornings
*One thing at a time and focus
*Email management
*No
*Commitments and progress (Membership, etc)
*Yes and managing busy times
*Self care
*4 hour work week
*The Indian Assistant
*Working ahead
*Asking for help

Overall update and thoughts on the work balance as well as choosing a word in 2022.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

Nov 5, 2021

Today is a thought of the walk episode - a collection of short thoughts shared on a variety of topics. These thoughts are shared on Odysee every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, then produced as an audio podcast every other Friday.

 

Today’s Thoughts Include:

  • Cut Through the Noise
  • Back to Normal Time
  • Winterizing Solar Water Heater
  • Lessons from Dogs

 

To view the videos for Thought of the Walk Episode, go here: Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

 

They are also produced on Youtube as a playlist.

 

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!

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Nov 3, 2021

A little over a week ago, I experimented with freeze drying candy as a test for a possible new side hustle. Today, I will share with you the lessons learned from this little adventure.

LFTN Presale sold out in 28 minutes! (Mid January the workshop tix go on sale)

Schedule over the next 10 days

Stump the Sauce

  • From Beatrice: How do I post without sounding like a spammer?

Main topic of the Show:  Lessons Learned from Freeze Drying Candy

Why I did this project

What I wanted to learn

What I learned:

  • Candy = crack
  • You can produce something you never even eat (Cupcake story)
  • The money side
  • Where it can fit in the overall Holler Economy
  • Freeze Dryer Specifics
  • Per candy feedback
  • How much time it takes (the starburst story)
  • A word on side hustles
  • Can you pay off your freeze dryer this way?

Landing

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. 

 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Nov 1, 2021

Today, I will talk about how #My3Things can help you navigate the busiest of times while keeping your life on its best forward pathway.

Workshop Presale Launches TODAY! 7pm - here.

Turkey Day 2021 (Or buy your turkey)

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Prepper Pantry Winter Makeover
  • Last of the tomatoes are canned
  • Last batch of milk in the FD
  • Lots of lasts!
  • Using canned foods as sides (Easy green bean dish)

Operation Independence

  • Opportunity October Update

Main topic of the Show: Managing Busy Times

Why this topic? (Christmas is coming, Winter is coming, Fall homestead reality)

Preparing for 10 days on the road while still delivering coffee and podcasts, 2 presentations

Addressing conflicting priorities (Self and health, customer deliverables, Preparing to be gone, Homestead things)

  • List
  • List of minimums
  • Getting Real
  • Delegation and help
  • The real list of Minimums
  • #My3Things/day
  • Clarity of deadline and deliverable 
  • Built in sanity and assessment time

Grain of Salt/Taking yourself too seriously

No excuses

Landing

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

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

Advisory Board

Resources

 

1