Today we have an interview show with Robert Ralston - a man who has approached prepping with a family member with special needs. It changes the equation.
Show Resources
https://www.prepper-presentations.com/
Main content of the show
My Wife and I are in our mid 50's and have been prepping for about six years. We have a 20 year old non verbal autistic child. I work for the family plumbing business in the warehouse where I build prepper items to sell and inspire others in the wood shop.
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Today we take a bit of a dive into finding like-minded people should mean, if it is a good idea, and how to make community work.
Livestream Schedule:
Hogget
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report from Joe
We made this week's trip on Sunday, with three stops. Traffic seemed a little heavy, but it must have been church traffic, because the store parking lots seemed relatively empty.
The first stop was Dollar Tree. Ginny on Homestead Corner said her Dollar Tree (somewhere in Maine) was running out of things, and holes were being masked by plastic items spread out on shelves, but I did not see that in ours. The Health aisle has still not been restocked, but everything else looks pretty full.
Next was Home Depot. A 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. The battery carrels at checkout are only 1/3 full, but I noticed some additional islands with batteries. They may be switching things around, as the carrels are mostly Duracell and Ray-o-Vac, but the islands are Ever-ready (Energizer). The store is otherwise well-stocked. While getting some 3-in-1 oil, I found a 26" RainX wiper blade there for only $11, so snatched that up. If you need wiper blades, they don't have a lot of them, but if your Home Depot has your size, that's an excellent price.
Aldi was last. I don't recall any notable price changes, but there seemed a lot less variety in the chips and snacks area. Produce looked good, the meat area had decent stock, and we found a couple of frozen turkey breasts which we had not seen there for a while. At $11 each, I'm glad we'll get at least a few meals from each one.
At my last fill, untainted regular was still $4.199/gallon.
Frugality Tip
The new freezer probes for $70
https://shop.yosmart.com/products/speakerhub-two-temperature-humidity-sensors
Operation Independence
SRF Might make a profit this time! 125% focused on the event. (Also tickets go up Wed after 12pm)
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton wants to show you how to build a shed quickly, out of materials right off your own land. The coolest part? Nobody will even know it's there... Check out The Berm Shed Movie at https://permies.com/w/berm-shed?f=495
Main topic of the Show: On Like-Mindedness
Back to the Land and Like-Minded People
What do we mean when we say like minded?
What should we mean when we say like minded?
Thoughts about critical thinking skills
Trust the Science and asking questions
Creating communities of like-minded people
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Assessing if something is a CRITICAL difference or a small difference
None of my business
Landing: Like mindedness is very important if we break things down to core values, but our human tendency is to equate strong opinions on a variety of things with core values. However, when we reach further, we often find that the BIG differences of opinion that we have are other people’s talking points, or things grounded in the HOW not the WHY or the WHAT.
We can do better and focus on real goals that make a real difference when we learn to look beyond the spin and work together on core outcomes.
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MeWe reminder
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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 Sunday so we have an interview show and today’s guest is someone I have wanted to chat with for a long time: Survival Punk! His is a story of setting personal priorities early on in life and sticking to them - something I did NOT do!
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Main content of the show
James takes a rational, creative approach to self-reliance, applying a punk DIY ethic to survivalism without any of the fear mongering or “tinfoil hattery” found in some other areas of the survivalist movement.
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.
Main content of the show
Replay of Friday’s Homestead Happenings from YT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6dKzDqT_o
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today we talk about disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
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. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Join us as we talk to a revolving set of folks who will be coming to Self Reliance Festival in a week and a half! Ask us anything. Billy Bond, Ken Eash, Stephen Boone, Brian Norton.
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Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXi3b79U5eo
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 talk about working against nature and ask an important question: why?
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton over at Wheaton Labs just released 16 hours of footage from his Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree innovators event. Using very little fuel, and producing next to no smoke, the folks down at the lab created a rocket sauna, cooktop, dehydrator, kiln, and a bunch of heater options for smaller spaces, and full-size homes.
Check it out here:
https://permies.com/wiki/188928f495/Earth-Friendly-Heat-Full-Event
This Week’s Livestream Schedule
Headed to Back to the Land Festival this weekend: Backtothelandfestival.com
Tales From The Prepper Pantry
Frugality Tip From Margo
First tip when traveling, is bring your snacks and road food, sandwiches or whatever you eat. This will save a lot of money on the road. I use re-usable ziploc bags to pack food up and I bring a half of a sponge and a small bottle of dish soap on the road to make sure I will be able to wash them no matter where we stay.
We keep a cooler in the car, I pre-freeze filtered water in 1 liter club soda bottles and use them in the cooler. All of the places we stayed have a refrigerator with freezer and the water bottles get re-frozen to use in the cooler, and we had filtered water as a back up if we needed to drink it.
For two nights I had rented an air bnb way outside of any town (even further out than the holler) lol. Once we got there the first night, we were not driving back 30 min to a store and then trying to find this place in the dark. I had packed some shelf stable foods that I did not need any tools to open, just in case. And I was able to make us dinner, saving time and money that night.
Shopping Report for 9/18/2022
We made five stops on our typical Saturday shopping trip. Traffic was light, and I only saw a few face-diapers.
First stop was Dollar Tree. The store has a lot of inventory, but is beginning to look a little unkempt. The food aisles have a lot of viable stuff, but the health aisle has a lot of unusual things in place of some more typical items, that have not been restocked in some time. The drink coolers seem to have a better selection.
Next was a Mexican store for a few specialty items like a vanilla flavoring and a few plantains. I've never seen their shelves not full. I've not done any real price comparison, but they have quite the variety. I've also never seen any kind of unpleasantness in there like arguing or rudeness.
Hobby Lobby was next. Stock levels seemed good, with a lot of Fall junk in there now, but I did see a couple of empty islands; probably just re-organizing.
Home Depot was #4. The price of a 2x4x8 has dropped again, to $3.98. We grabbed some Miracle Gro for next year; they had plenty of it. They also had a lot more sunflower seeds for birds than the last time we were there. They're more expensive, but there were at least three sizes, in big boxes. The quantities of common battery sizes like AA and AAA continue to drop. I'm glad I've switched to mostly rechargeable, but I'm going to order a few more. They have a LOT of solar lights in stock, much nicer than the cheap dollar store versions that are dim and barely make it through a season. They might be $6.xx, and I'm pretty sure they were at least twice if not three times that price earlier in the year. These make good guide lights; leave them outside during the day to charge, and bring them in at night.
Aldi was last. I don't recall any notable changes from last week, in fact if anything, they were a little better stocked than they have been (this Aldi has never been bad). I even saw some frozen turkey breast, which has long been absent. They had plenty of flour, sugar, TP, and other staple items.
At my last fill on Friday, untainted regular gasoline was still $4.199/gallon.
Operation Independence
Main topic of today’s show: Why Fight Nature?
This morning while driving at 3:30am, I got to thinking about circadian rhythms. You see, with a very early flight ahead of me, I had to get up at 3 to be to the airport in time to depart. It is always an interesting thing to rise much earlier than usual - not the end of the world, but for me it leads to several days of recovery.
Naturally, the next thought was Daylight Savings time as we are about to go back to normal time in a little while. Did you know that during the transition into and out of DST, there is a measurable increase in heart attacks and car crashes? This is because we are ripping our bodies out of their established circadian rhythm - going against nature if you will.
<thoughts on this>
As I Look around, we are not very successful when we go against nature.
7 layers of a forest in Permaculture
Training dogs
Raising children
Why then, do we think it is a good idea to :darken” the earth to fight climate change? How does trying to force the atmosphere into submission have a hope of being successful? Have we learned nothing?
This fight against nature is something that technology-minded leaders come back to over and over. When we do it on a large scale, there are very real, negative impacts.
Mao and the sparrows
So WHY go against nature in the environment, or in interactions with people around you. Would it not be better to seek to understand the realities of nature and go with those to impact better outcomes?
Which brings me to politics: A big problem in how governments and policy works is that it often goes against human nature.
>Humans rebel against being told what to do
>Humans will act selfishly (and that is not a bad thing)
>Humans are herd animals and flourish in communities (Like real ones)
>And, yes, humans are violent - we are - our nature is not al poetry and roses
How then would it look if we worked with nature in governing ourselves?
>Rather than issue black and white edicts for great area “problems”, we would find ways to incentivize positive outcomes (Tapping into selfish, tapping into the herd mentality)
>>Point out that herd instincts make many of us get a selfish rush from helping our communities.
>Set up our culture and educational effort to empower people to find their purpose so that there are more people pouring energy into that and fewer people focused on being dicks
>Accept that there are a percentage of humans who are psychopaths and create system where they are disincentivized to harm.
Accept that there is no perfect.
With this mindset, working with nature, what else can we solve?
What about environmental concerns?
>Leaving the forest alone vs stewarding the forest (We are part of nature, therefore we are part of forests. We evolved together)
>Discovering parts of nature that can help us: Ivermectin as an anti parasitic.
Some kid turned algae into some sort of plastic…?
Which makes me want to start asking more what if questions.
Let’s talk about Chlorophyl. And batteries. What if we figured out how to tap into the energy created in turning the sun into green stuff? What is all the plant around us ARE batteries? I mean in some ways, burning firewood for heat is in fact tapping into an energy store in plants. But what if there is a low-impact, chemical way to harness the forest around us? What would that do to our dependence on fossil fuels? And how would the world change with such a discovery?
Think about it: our dollar is based on petroleum. In some ways, tapping into that energy store is tapping into nature - but is there a better way?
Guys, I know this idea sounds crazy and sci fi. But if you think about it - there must be many discoveries of this scale to be made. But we miss them if we focus on how to control nature rather than to work with it.
Which brings us full circle: working with nature is the whole foundation of permaculture as a design science. So much effort is put into mono cropping in the form of heavy equipment, and fighting pest pressure, and fungi, and so much more. The earth is poisoned in the interest of fighting the natural way things grow — in plant communities - almost as if diversity is part of nature’s plans. And we accept the notion that we can only feed the world if we abuse the soil and interfere with nature.
Yet is that really true? How come no one is challenging that notion? What would happen if we worked with nature to steward diversity of plants and animals, based on what is suited to different regions. And how should we measure success on such an undertaking? By pure number of calories produced, or by the quality of food outputs paired with building healthier soil?
We have been programmed to see things that are grey in black and white terms. While this simplification of the world can make it easier to get things organized and rally people around projects and causes, it comes at a cost. And a very damaging one at that: We have developed some pretty big blinders.
Why not find a way to see beyond them? Why not work with nature in our homestead designs, business set up, political efforts, environmental projects, cutting edge research, and, yes, in commercial food production?
Why fight nature?
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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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: rat poison, sheep, Self Reliance Festival, the new Holler Neighbors, and more.
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
Episode 620 - Homestead Happenings for Sept 16, 2022
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Fall is taking hold in the Holler. We still could use more rain, but it is much cooler. The second wave of plants is upon us and we are preparing for winter.
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Today we talk about building market share and defense dogs with Joel Ryals and John Willis.
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.
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 learning new things as you dive into homesteading or anything else. I realized over the weekend that we have many new listeners interested in growing food, cooking, prepping, starting a new business. Let’s talk about analysis paralysis and getting going!
Livestream Schedule This Week
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Frugality Tip
Shopping Report: 09/10/2022
The entire weekend is likely to be dreary and rainy, so we went during light sprinkles, thinking it may be worse later. Traffic was moderate. We made three stops.
The first stop was Dollar [twenty-five] Tree. The Health aisle still looked rather picked, but other shelves, particular in foods, were stuffed.
Home Depot was next. A 2x4x8 remains at $4.48. The store was normal-busy, and I didn't notice any holes. They have a good number of chest freezers now taking up space in at least a couple of aisles. I think $179 was the price for a 5 cu.ft. model. If we had the space...
The battery carrels were mixed. The coin-cells were fully stocked, but the more typical sizes (AAA up to D) had massive holes, such as only the center one of three columns being stocked on one side. If you need batteries, you'll still find them, but levels are definitely declining. Many are made in China, so with very few cargo ships coming from there now, I expect them to run out. I saw a couple of end-of-season deals on a couple of the Ryobi One+ outdoor tools, and hope that is just starting and will spread.
Aldi was last. Canned cat food has jumped a whopping 14c/can, to 54c. Bacon has dropped to $3.99 (from $4.3?). They had plenty of TP. The meat selection was a little better; we added more pork, some of which will find its way into the slow-cooker by the end of the weekend. They had decent amounts of the canned tea I like, and the instant coffee that Sonia has been drinking. Produce was very well stocked and looked good.
I saw only a few face-diapers on this trip. At my last fill, untainted regular gasoline was $4.399. I'm seeing much lower prices on the corrupted stuff; I want to say as low as $3.199, which is a huge difference.
Operation Independence
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs & Permies.com
<DO NOT PUT THIS TEXT ONLINE>
Paul Wheaton at permies.com and Wheaton Labs has something to help you with your food preservation efforts this harvest season: He wants to help you build a solar food dehydrator!
For only $5 bucks, you can check out the full movie that details the development of two different models of solar dehydrators at Wheaton Labs, and all the successes and challenges with each.
If you like what you see, you can also grab the plans for a solar dehydrator from permies.com as well, so check out the movie at the link in the show description.
</END>
Ready to preserve your harvest for the months to come? Build a solar dehydrator! Check out this movie detailing the development of 2 models of solar dehydrator at Wheaton Labs:
https://permies.com/wiki/91978f495/Design-Build-Giant-Solar-Food
Main topic of the Show: Learning New Things
Sometimes we forget how hard the things we do on an everyday basis were way back when we started doing them. As y’all know, LFTN hit a tipping point this year. We are growing faster than ever. In fact, if you want to help us grow - please share the episodes you find most helpful. The more people we bring into the LFTN community, the more of us there are who are building food savings account, becoming more financially stable, and learning new skills.
Which brings me to today’s topic: Learning New Things
What do you want to hear about that you are trying to learn?
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MeWe reminder
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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WE GOT RAIN! Join me today at 9:30 Central for a Homestead Happenings session: Jerusalem Artichokes, incoming visitors Imanee and River from Haven Earth on Youtube.
Forage
Livestock
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Holler Neighbors/Community
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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. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Today we talk about Zero down loans, networks of regenerative farms, Fnords and more with Jack Spirko and John Willis.
Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com
Paul Wheaton's rocket ovens movie shows all the nitty-gritty details of how you can build an oven to bake pizzas, pies, cakes, turkeys, and more, while only using a few sticks for fuel! It heats up in just 15 minutes, and can be built for dirt cheap. Check it out here: https://permies.com/wiki/rocket-ovens?f=495
You can also get your hands on some FREE rocket mass heater plans so you can heat your whole home on just a few sticks, so grab those here: https://permies.com/goodies/7/lftn
Show Resources
Main content of the show
Youtube Live Video:
First Tuesday Fireside Chat with Nicole Sauce, Jack Spirko and John Willis
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GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
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Today we talk about integrating the LGDs with the sheep, late summer gardening, simplifying, infrastructure plans and more.
Homesteading on a budget: https://livefree.academy/sp/exit-and-build-homesteading-on-a-budget-workshop/?ref=52
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
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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. It makes a great Christmas Gift!
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Today we talk about the SHTF, relocation, Self Reliance Festival, The Midwest Regional Meetup, Being 60 and Homesteading, preparedness and more with Bear Independent and John Willis.
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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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