Today is a homestead update where we discuss what happens next with the sheep, discuss the impact of this year’s drought, share another livestock loss, and more.

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Forage

  • Dill weed is ready to harvest or let go to seed
  • Should get green beans this week
  • Tomatoes are getting close
  • Wild raspberries are ripe
  • Bergamot / bee balm harvest time and mint harvest time
  • So much I am missing due to travel
  • Found a bartlett pear tree at basecamp that is HUGE

Livestock

  • Rabbit passed – not sure why but it was hot and she was pregnant
  • KH’s bunnies had babies
  • What is next for the sheep: Moving to the barn next door – we are prescreening the terrain for knows hazardous plants
  • Shade spot last week during the extreme heat
  • Sheep are bucket racists: they dislike the white ones
  • Sheep nutrient and seeking timothy hay in large amounts
  • 5-6 eggs a day from ducks

Grow

  • Hillside garden looks fantastic
  • Tomato wall is amazing
  • Rabbit poop/garden 30 results and update
  • Carrots, squash, etc

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • T took care of darn near everything by himself
  • Tapping into the local hvac talent to pimp out the roasting shack
  • What really happened on my “quiet” weekend (Potluck fun times, car repair, etc)

Infrastructure

  • Step in posts are not working well due to the drought
  • Chicken netting is up
  • Setting up the sheep barn
  • Watering on timers
  • Looking to add pasture spigots

Finances

  • Looking at sourcing scraps for the pigs and other things I learned from Billy
  • Sheep hay and materials is costing more still (As well as not knowing how the fencing was going to go)

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

Join us June 30 at 7pm for a member’s webinar as we discuss the 5 aspects of event management, gleaned from years of running successful events at the Holler Homestead and within the LFTN Community.

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Today we talk about permaculture, swales, livestock, bug out locations and more with Billy Bond and John Willis.

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Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

Perma Pastures Farm

Main content of the show

Replay of the 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. 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources


Today, we take a step back to the basics. You know, the shoulds, the coulds and the I cant’s. The things that are relatively easy to handle but get pushed aside.

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  • Managing Events Webinar – June 28 at 7pm (Moved the date)
  • SelfRelianceFestival.com has tickets, speaker and demo applications, etc up.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • The Beet Story (28 jars)
  • Round 1 of herb harvest and processing this week
  • How I handle the dill challenge
  • All the pork dishes!
  • Using up last year’s chickens

Shopping Report from Joe

Weekly Shopping Report 06/18/2022

Frugal Tip

  • Use the sun – clothing, water, freshening blankets, growing chicks

Operation Independence

  • No need for a grocery store

Main topic of the Show: Back to the Basics

Story of “Google doesn’t work anymore…”and other observations.

  • Layer after layer of training – even in those of us who think we are immune to it
  • Levels of complexity to everything: What it takes to buy gas at a Shell station

The programming is working even though we don’t want it to, and retreating into the woods as a hermit is not a viable life choice for most of us – especially if we are focused on building the life we want to live on our terms.

If the recession turns into a depression, if food shortage predictions turn true, if this is a purposeful reset of the economy – not if the why matters. What does matter are priorities, expectations, and community.

Back to the basics:

  • Kurt’s grandma story (Having fun costs money)
  • Fusion restaurants – What did you eat when you were 16? 25? ETC
  • What are you doing when you find yourself having fun separate from alcohol, drugs, etc?
  • What does healthy living look like to you? Are you taking that walk every day? (Coffee break with the sheep)
  • If you could only choose 3 things that matter in your life what would they be?
  • How many times per day do you fall into your phone – news, social, text, etc (The 30 minute test)
  • If you tossed out 50% of what you do each day, what would those things be? What would you be able to do more of because of this change?
  • What are you NOT doing that would make your life better because you “don;t have time”? (Cleaning, food plans, laundry, tax preparation, walking your dogs, working out, etc)

Back to the basics is something we should think about from time to time – especially if we see that we are starting to crack, to be exhausted, to fear, to become frantic, to tell everyone that we can’t because we don;t have time. By going back to the basics, we get a break, we hone skills we may have neglected that then got sloppy, and we set a better foundation for ourselves and our community.

So, write that letter by hand, make time for a walk in the park, dive into laundry mountain, and look at what basics you’ve forgotten to keep  – because all that other mess out there is not worth your attention or time.

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


Today is the weekly homestead update including successfully addressing bloat in a ram, rabbits, pigs muscovys, weedmageddon and more.

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Self Reliance Festival, Fall Edition, Oct 1 & 2, Tickets, etc. here.

Forage

  • Mimosa blossoms
  • A second cauliflower!
  • Green onions, swiss chard, squash flowers, green tomatoes, new potatoes
  • Seed for things you want to have: plantain, clover, etc
  • Sweet potato greens, malabar spinach, etc

Livestock

  • Rabbits due this coming week
  • Sheep bloat story
  • White buckets
  • Pig is nesting but does not look pregnant
  • Muscovy Broody
  • Goats are jealous of sheep
  • Need help harvesting honey/with bees due to my allergy
  • On habits and new animals – step ins and reels, clay ground

Grow

  • Garden30 Update – weedmageddon
  • Fertility update
  • The wall of tomatoes
  • Green beans are blooming
  • Furnace like weather in June
  • Beets! 
  • Blight update with aspirin

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Jenni will be moving on to her next opportunity – and is still a Holler Neighbor
  • Chicken processing preparation
  • HVAC Install – woot!!

Infrastructure

  • Pig pond update
  • The ever increasing joule rating of new chargers and grounding rod strategy
  • Pasture rehab update
  • Food Forest Class in the Fall

Finances

  • Hay was not in our sheep calculus but it is not deadly – having a cushion
  • Gift reels from Nancy
  • Pretty much do not need the grocery store at this time of year

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 we talk about growing food the easy way and more with Michael Whisler of Easy Peasy Gardening and John Willis.

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Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

EasyPeasyGardens.com

Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UcF8_JYbbw

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


Today I am joined by Jake Robinson to talk all about freeze drying – a thing he has been doing for years. If you are wanting to know MORE about freeze drying, this is a great episode to listen to!

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Show Resources

My Harvest Right Affiliate Link: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1095.html

Jake’s Website: www.buybuyland.com

Main content of the show

About Jake:

Long time TSP member & contributor

Vocation Flipping Raw Land

Enjoy learning new self-reliant skills

Married, working to become more detached from systems of dependence

Beekeeper, mead and kombucha maker, working on developing animal production to win the 

Have you developed a routine or approach to FDing?

How can you justify the cost of the upfront investment – isn’t it cost-prohibitive and isn’t the breakeven point a bridge-to-far?

What are your favorite foods to FD?

You’ve been able to leverage your FD with trades or barters – can you explain how you did this?

Can you provide any source for research, support and feedback to improve a person’s FD experience?

What are some, if any, hacks you utilize to extend your return-on-your-investment

Are there some function-stacking ideas that fit in with FD?

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

 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources


Today we talk about growing food, monleypox, food plant fires, and the real things we should be talking about in relationship to guns with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

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This episode is explicit

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

The Survival Podcast

Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCvsmWZGHg4

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


Today we ask a simple question: What are you preparing for? I will share with you what I am preparing for, and what I am NOT preparing for and why I have made these decisions.

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Announcements

  • 1 seat left: Cricket Processing Workshop (I miscounted)
  • June Webinar: Starting an Event, June 26 at 5pm Central

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • First round of canning this week: Ant Helen’s Pickled Beets
  • Testing freeze dried beet greens to see if I can reconstitute and saute and have the mouth feel right
  • Defrosting freezer story and a word on freezer alarms
  • 50 lbs bacon
  • Breakfast sausage
  • Canning kitchen is set up!

Frugal Tip

  • Bone Broth Process

Shopping Update from Joe on Mewe

Weekly Shopping Report for 06/04/2022

The weather should be reasonable all weekend, but warmer tomorrow than today, so off we went. We made four stops.

The first stop was Dollar Tree. They have no more mackerel. We saw a few other “second-choice” options, but the only thing I got there was a cold drink.

Second was Home Depot. The price of a 2×4 has dropped further, to $5.48. Ryobi Days is still ongoing, so if you have any interest in their 18V One+ line, now’s the time. My wife and I have many of these tools, and none have let us down. The savings on the batteries is great right now. We found the 40 lb. bag of bird seed and 60 lb. bag of blacktop patch we wanted.

Third was Aldi. A few prices had dropped: English muffins $1.29–>$1.15, bacon $4.35–>$4.29, eggs $2.26–>$2.21. Pork prices were unchanged, so I got a couple of loins for the freezer; I will can what was in there tomorrow. We found everything we wanted.

The final stop was Food City for cat food. They had a decent amount of Friskies cans, and a good amount of various bagged kibble.

Overall, stock levels looked good in all of the stores, with no glaring holes.

Untainted regular has jumped though, to $4.699/gallon; that’s up 14c from a week ago. 

Operation Independence

  • Chicken workshop is about sold out, which helps
  • Launching sponsorships and new coaching programs in three weeks!

Main topic of the Show: What are you preparing for?

What are you preparing for? Is it rumore of shortages? Normal things that happen to most people? Zombies? Nuclear War? Economic collapse? What is the thing you have in mind?

This weekend, as I say in my garden doing my “Daily Thirty,” which equates to half a row of weeding and cultivation, I say what was doing well, and what was not. It got me to thinking about this question: What are you preparing for?

You see my reaction could have been fear and panic as I saw some plants looking sad, or the blank places in the garden where nothing has germinated. Or I could look at the things that have taken off and ask myself WHY? Why are they doing well and how can I replicate that in this blank spot?

I mean, this year, we are in drought conditions in TN which means the water is NOT wicking as well through the soil into my plants, in part because I did not cultivate the plot for five years and it is a little out of balance. 

Yet other places here have thriving plants completely ignorant of this drought. 

TELLING.

As I sat there, listening to the sheep baaah, to the goats bray, to the bees buss and to the world filled with life, it triggered the next question: What are you preparing for?

As gas prices climb above 4 and 5 dollars, more and more people reach out with questions. SO many questions. Some feel fear. SOme are just feeling lost – like what ELSE can I spend less on in order to still go to my job. They are seeing parts of their garden no longer germinate and fill with plants and they are focused on the problem.

So I ask: What are you preparing for?

What I am preparing for: 

  • A stable life on the homestead, teaching, learning new things, enjoying, caring, eating well, and carving some time for outdoor recreation
  • Normal life events (Job loss, illness, family crisis, tornadoes, ice storms)
  • Ongoing rolling shortages in our supply chain

What I am NOT preparing for

  • WWIII
  • USA’ descent into late stage facism or communism
  • The ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
  • Multi year shortages
  • Nuclear war
  • FEMA Camps

BUT WHY??

  • What really happens when things get that bad?
  • Adjusted expectations
  • A bank account of skills and creative thinking
  • Critical thinking capability
  • You have one life to live – use it well

Something we like to focus on here is lots of homesteading things. Why? Well, because I LIVE on a homestead. But another thing that is important to keep in mind is that not everyone wants to live like I do, but you can still have the kind of life you want. And building various bank accounts helios add stability: food bank accounts, cupply bank accounts, skills bank accounts, relationship and community bank accounts, your actual bank account, crypto bank accounts, regenerative bank accounts, energy bank accounts – the list goes on an on.

But you will never know where  to focus if you are preparing for WWIII. SO I ask again today, what are you preparing for?

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

Today we talk about sad things, clearing land with sheep, incoming ducks, making unusable land usable and more. There will be a live Q & A after the show so get your questions in!

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