Join us for a spontaneous Homestead Happenings today. We talk about the glamper, gardens, food forest, duck cave and more.
Featured event: June 9 Poultry Processing Class
Sponsor 1: TheWealthSteadingPodcast.com
Sponsor 2: HollerRoast.com
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!
Community
Advisory Board
Resources
Today Amy Dingmann from A Farmish Kind of Life and I get together for a long overdue catch-up (Not Ketchup) talk. We are much less angry and negative and finding our stride on our homesteads.
Featured Event: June 8 Chicken Processing Workshop at the Holler Homestead.
Sponsor 1: Kangen Water (Use my link)
Sponsor 2: Agorist Tax Advice
Show Resources
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.
Community
Advisory Board
Resources
Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and members of our community and beyond about building the life you choose, current events, building a durable life, community development, business, getting started, health and more.
Each Tuesday, we welcome a different guest to tell their story, as well as take your questions live.
Featured Event: The Self Reliance Festival, SelfRelianceFestival.com
Sponsors:
Show Resources
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.
Community
Resources
Episode 906 - Why Homesteading and Coffee?
Today we celebrate eight years of Living Free in Tennessee with a look back at where we started and why homesteading, why coffee, why community.
Direct Download for episode 1: https://traffic.libsyn.com/nicolesauce/NicoleSauce_Podcast_May_20_2016_-_52016_6.52_PM.mp3
Featured Event: Haven Earth Trade School Homesteading Bootcamp, June 14-16 in Old Fort Tennessee (Nearish Cleveland and the Ocoee River).https://www.havenearthtradeschool.net/homestead-bootcamp-haven-village
Live we did yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwreK9qPVKI
Sponsor 1: EMPShield.com
Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com
Livestream Schedule
BIG Week This week! Spicy Sisters are Back This Wednesday at 2pm, Joel Ryals will share his story about moving from Florida to Ohio on the Tuesday Live and we have our usual Homestead Happenings episode this Friday.
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Harvest Right Freeze Drier is back up and running and helping with a plethora of eggs
Affiliate Link For Harvest Right: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1095.html
Designing the final part of the house to include pantry storage, a pool, and an outdoor kitchen
Ground Beef Discussion
Time to finish curing the SRF Pork
Garden is finally coming together
Operation Independence
Reduced projects that I am focusing on and as a result finds have also reduced. We are assessing the homestead in terms of what brings value now more than ever. With the extra time, the home is almost back to a source of support rather than a drain. There is a lesson in this.
Main topic of the Show: Why Homesteading and Coffee
May 20, 2016 - an excerpt
Nine years ago, we started on an adventure in the country. What began as a weekend getaway quickly changed into a small homestead with chickens, gardens, laughter, neighbors, and sometimes the opposite of laughter.
The Holler Homestead is known in our area for our home roasted coffee (it takes less time to roast your own than drive to the store), elephant garlic, stone ground flour and hand rolled oats. We also help people learn how to preserve food and are keenly interested in self sufficient living.
Y’all, I have not listened to episode one since about a week after recording it to figure out how I could be a better podcaster. It feels like so much has changed, and it has. But the core, the mission, the motivation is still the same as it was on day one. Do you know how good that makes me feel? Also a bit surprised.
Back in 2016, this podcast was my only creative outlet. It was an attempt to reach more people who were interested not only on homesteading but it taking whatever steps in their life that they could to build something for them, outside the system, to live as they saw fit, without buying into the societal expectaitons - and without asking permission.
>>GexX on Tiktok and the FIFO approach to life<<
Fearlessness
Hypothesis, test, conclusion
Culture to support others who take that same approach
We live in a time where everything is at your fingertips and some people think that is the problem, but it isnt. The problem is that because everything is at our fingertips, people mistakenly think that theoretical learning replaces practical application. And as we like to say around here: Sheep don’t read books.
The book learning is helpful. In fact, I am 1 lesson in on Spirko’s composting course and that theoretical knowledge will greatly impact how we make compost at the Holler Homestead, but just nerding out on bacteria and fungi on the internet will not make the plants outside my back window thrive.
Today, in celebration of eight years, i wanted to look at some of the reasons why LFTN, and the Holler Homestead have become what they are today -
Why homesteading?
Homesteading Mindset teaches us to create value with what we have so that we set a foundation of bringing value to others and can tap into the value that others bring to us. It is NOT a piece of land.
The threat of our society and economy - Back to the land and preserving heritage skills.
Homesteading’s natural offspring is freedom - like the true kind of freedom you build by no longer GAF about what you used to think you could not live without (which creates weakness)
Your health is the biggest gift you were given and the commercial food system is poison
Heals your spirit through seasonal connection, sun light, bacterial connection and more
As I think back on the past eight years of this podcast, I started out by wanting to share my personal planner with yall. That was the beginnings of My3Things. And the most surprising thing that happened was the community that we have become and that grows as we share episodes, help one another, get together to do GSD weekends and so much more.
8 years ago, I did not think we would become a counter economy and underground network (Explain more about this).
8 years ago, I was lucky if one person would come to Chicken day and new we fill event venues, sell out a spring workshop every year, and keep finding more people who want to opt out of the current “normal” and create a better life for themselves and their families.
Eight years ago, I had no idea I would talk this long, and I only have because of yall.
Why Community
Homesteaders were never alone
It is easy to attack one, but hard to attack many and remain in power (Raw milk story)
We all need to learn to keep building and we cannot do that without one another
Health | Community | Wealth
8 years.
8
WHY COFFEE
The biggest surprise I had when listening to that old episode was the coffee. In 2016, I sorta did coffee roasting as a side hustle to earn a few hundred dollars. That Nicole did not think she could fin 15-20k to get a commercial roaster. That Nicole still thought that changing policy in our current political structure from the inside would work. That Nicole had no CLUE that she would earn the bulk of her income in just eight years from selling coffee through the mail all over the world.
That Nicole already LOVED coffee she just did not see a way to tap into that love.
But that Nicole took a step, started a podcast, set a vision, and walked a little bit each day. And Holler Roast Coffee went from sometimes at the farmers market to what it is today. One steep at a time.
Some of you may wonder why I get a glazed over look when you talk to me about your idea that you are excited about only to tell me why you can’t go for it. In those moments, I am trying to decide how to best give you a little push. Some people love to be tied to the back of a truck on a skateboard and taken for a fast ride around the block. Others will back further away from their dream because it was all they could do to talk to me about it to begin with.
They are almost sorry to admit that they love whatever it is that they are telling me they love. As if it is not OK for them to yearn for a slower, simpler way of life. Or it is not OK for them to love knitting, soap making, bone broth, building things with their hands, and so many other things.
You love what you love and the truly sad thing is that we got programmed to think that loving something as physical as farming, or carpentry, or a gagillion other “non intellectual” pursuits is somehow less.
That is the biggest beast to overcome is that misplaced belief that non intellectual jobs are less. If you are going to spend most of your time building a future based on something you hate because it fits someone elses definition of what is a worthy pursuit, you miss your chance to do something you love. You miss the change for your job to not feel like a job.
Someone once asked me if I thought I would be satisfied just being a coffee roaster. They insinuated that being a coffee roaster was not worthy of my smarts.
To which I answered: yes.
So why coffee? Because I LOVE coffee, plain and simple. I love finding beans, roasting them. I dont love packing and shipping them which is why the new Kcups are done by a copacker.
But the idea that roasting coffee is somehow now worthy as a valid pursuit? Absurd and the day you realize your passion is worthy of your time no matter what anyone else thinks, is they day you choose freedom over programming.
Here’s to 8 years, almost 1000 episodes, and to what comes next.
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Follow me on Nostr: npub1u2vu695j5wfnxsxpwpth2jnzwxx5fat7vc63eth07dez9arnrezsdeafsv
Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
Resources
Join us for an update on the Holler Homestead: Weaning the bottle lamb, gardening update, what wild foods are in the woods around us, coming off the crazy train of Nicole’s speaking schedule and more.
Featured Event: Chicken Processing Class
Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/Webinar
Sponsor 2: InvestableWealth.com
Forage
Livestock
Grow
Catch up
Holler Neighbors/Community
Infrastructure
Finances
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
Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and members of our community and beyond about building the life you choose, current events, building a durable life, community development, business, getting started, health and more.
Each Tuesday, we welcome a different guest to tell their story, as well as take your questions live.
Featured Event: The Self Reliance Festival, SelfRelianceFestival.com
Sponsors:
Show Resources
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.
Community
Resources
Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and Chuck Peoples of Homestead Medical.
Each Tuesday, we welcome a different guest to tell their story, as well as take your questions live.
Featured Event: The Self Reliance Festival, SelfRelianceFestival.com
Sponsors:
Show Resources
Main content of the sho
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Resources
Join me for a show on things that have been going through my mind of late: workshop preparations, the new truck and more!
Featured Event: June 9 Poultry Processing Class in the Holler: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/product/poultry-processing-workshop-ticket/
Sponsor 1: The Wealthsteading Podcast
Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com
Make it a great week!
GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.
Community
Resources
Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and members of our community and beyond about building the life you choose, current events, building a durable life, community development, business, getting started, health and more.
Each Tuesday, we welcome a different guest to tell their story, as well as take your questions live.
Featured Event: The Self Reliance Festival, SelfRelianceFestival.com
Get you K-Cups here: https://hollerroast.com/product/freedom-pods/
Sponsors:
Show Resources
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.
Community
Resources
Join me today for all our usual Monday segments and a discussion of what the next six months look like in the Holler and for the LFTN Community. Changes, they are afoot!
Featured Event: Midwest Preparedness Project Spring Event: MidwestPreparednessProject.com
(ROADTRIP!)
Sponsor 1: John Pugliano and the WealthSteading Podcast (InvestibleWealth.com)
Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/Webinar
A word on the audio podcast numbering: Expect extra drops this week and they will be out of order. This week is catch up week
Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com - Speaking of feedback: Mullein and Water Hyacinth
Livestream Schedule
Tuesday: 9:30am with Jack Spirko and John Willis
Friday: 930am Homestead Happenings
Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Weekly Shopping Report
Thanks to a suggestion on the garden shed, I found a nearby place that does business with both Amish and Mennonite builders. The owner visited us to see our proposed site on Thursday, so our first stop on Friday was to his lot, to finalize details and make a deposit. We'll be getting a larger (8'x10') shed, for at least $700 less than Home Depot's price on an 8'x8' model.
Home Depot our next stop. They've got LOTS of batteries; I grabbed an 8-pack of AA lithium which will be for a label printer that won't get used a lot, and would likely be destroyed by alkaline leakage. A 2x4x8 is $3.73.
Aldi was last. It was also rather busy. We found everything we wanted. A few prices were actually lower. Staples were: bread (20 oz. white): 1.29; eggs: $2.05; whole milk: $2.83; heavy cream: $5.29; OJ: $3.29; butter: $3.69; bacon: $3.99 (-); potatoes: $3.99; sugar: $2.99 (-); flour: $2.35; and 80% lean ground beef: $4.09.
A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.599.
Operation Independence
What is the emergency fund for and what do you do after using it?
Main topic of the Show: What is Next for LFTN
It happened again. We turned a corner at the LFTN workshop. I kicked off the event with what was supposed to be a talk about using the #my3things method to move forward in life. But guys, I was BEAT. Like more beat that I have ever been. When I stepped in front of everyone to talk I saw much of the same fatigue on so many faces that I stopped focusing on the prepared notes and started a conversation.
By then end of our conversation I realized something: You are no good to anyone if you put yourself in the hospital. Period.
We have spent years helping people stuck in the throes of analysis paralysis just get started and then refine. We have spent years helping people who are having motivation problems, maybe a little depression or other things that keep them from persevering. We have talked about all the ways you can look at an impossible list, set a really big goal, then go for it and keep going every. Single. Day.
We have even talked about adding your personal health, relationships, and other really important things to your daily goals so that you build a happy life.
Why?
Because the problem most of us face as we begin our walk toward independence is not what other people think about us. It isn;t if a spouse is on board or not. It isnt even about squeezing that last nickel out of your day to finally put aside toward something better.
It is the broken promises to ourselves that must change.
We tell ourselves stories like: I will eat on plan, or I will do this thing by that time. Or I will by GUM conquer laundry mountain tomorrow.
Always tomorrow.Then tomorrow comes and it is so tempting to just not do what we set out to do even if we KNOW we feel better if we prioritize what we already promised ourselves (and sometimes others) we would do.
The pressure of the urgent will overpower the prioritization of the urgent if you let it. And that is what you were programmed to do. Programmed by the bell at school. By asking for bathroom breaks. By seeking permission.
Yes a corner was turned at the spring workshop, as it usually is. LFTN has grown as a community.
In fact, someone told me they wished they had a term for the Greater TSP/LFTN/SOE/DELINQUENTS community because we all overlap and we all share core values. I just call it The Community if that helps. That way when another community of doers appears, we dont have to rebrand.
The Community as in the Real Community - not a fake one that has been thrust upon us by outside forces but a group of people we can work with. Who understand the difference between friendly competition and toxic competition. Who DO instead of take.
Yes, LFTN has brown beyond the timid little group of women who decided to step outside expectations and start doing what people told us we couldn’t or shouldn’t do. We’ve grown as mentors, and leaders, and as supporters.
I’ve come to see that homesteads dont do well without women and that many of the best in this space will never be seen because they think that their “small” work on the homestead is nothing. But they are the heart and sole of the homesteading network.
And that is how this homesteading podcast started. It started because I was doing things on my homestead that men are supposed to do and laughing with another friend of mine about how we would have to adjust our approach based on such things as: oversized (for us) tools. Center of gravity differences on big projects. Not having grown up building things and not knowing what we don’t know.
In the case of my friend, her husband works full time and she takes care of the livestock and simply can’t always wait for a helping hand. In my case, I was both earning the income and needing to get infrastructure and processes in place to live what I knew would be in better concert with nature, producing food and peace from this small piece of land.
And here I am a decade later, helping to bring more people into our Community. Connecting folks with the skills they need to start their own homesteads. Like processing chickens or canning.
But the advice has not changed much. If we want something better, we have to figure out how to make that happen for ourselves. We have to move forward no matter what. We have to stop breaking the most important promises we have made to ourselves and just do it.
But because we have grown as a community, we have changed too. No longer is the primary demon inaction. No no no. It turns out that overaction is a bigger problem for us now that we have surrounded ourselves with doers.
There is always more we can do and we need a new skill: choosing to do the things that are most important. That move ourselves and our families forward. Whether your family be biological or chosen.
Most of you missed my talk at LFTN24. Members, you will get it in the portal in about a month. We talked about having three areas of focus to move me toward my personal vision: Health, Wealth, Community.
Three.
Wealth is the thing that most of us hesitate to start building. It is the reason my advice is usually to get off your ass and try. But you have all grown beyond that. And so have I.
Now it is time to get back on your ass and prioritize your three most important things. For me, my health has suffered as a result of delivering on my q1 and q2 promises. That is why I took last week all the way off.
While catching up on home and homestead tasks, it was clear we had turned a very important corner. We have grown to where more action does not build more health, wealth, and community. Focusing more effort on fewer things does. Building back time to keep the promises we make to ourselves (I’m looking at you my “quit smokers” and “more workouts” people) in service of our long-term life vision is important.
Becoming more ruthless about what you might catch from investing time in something - like the news or a toxic relationship - is important.
In short, when we started 8 years ago, we were like a tomato seedling pushing through the soil and putting on leaves. Our flourishing and future depend on pruning to allow for airflow and so we can focus our resources on the most important vines.
What does this mean for LFTN: We are still here and will go back to three shows (and maybe 2 in the future) a week. I will not be speaking at events so much because the cost of being gone from the homestead and from all of you is higher than most speaker fees. In short, we are honing in on the things that bring true prosperity and happiness.
I hope you will enjoy this journey with me - how are you honing in on better ways to bring your homesteading journey to what you want it to be?
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
Resources