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Today, I have two topics for you. The first is a simple walk through our weekend of doing odd, quaint things. Someone pointed out to me that what I think of as a stress free Thanksgiving is filled with tons of basic homemaking skills that no one does anymore….and we will talk about a deeper idea: Mourning loss as an adult and also mourning loss for the first time, and ways to navigate sadness when you lose someone close to you.

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Today, we will talk about a basic homesteading activity: Processing Pigs for winter — and a deeper topic: Processing Life. The last 10 days, many people I know and ones I just recently got to know in the LFTN community have been facing hard life lessons. So we will look at lessons learned from processing pigs next to lessons learned from life. And they are not all that different.

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Howdy all,

We are ramping up for the Spring Workshop already and I hope to see you there. Today, we released 10 tickets to raise funds for a new classroom structure!

I hope to see you there – Make it a great weekend!

Nicole Sauce

Energy has long been ignored on the homestead. Join us as we approach energy for the home and homestead in a way most people ignore: with a masterplan in mind.

You see, most people build a rocket mass heater, or start with hydroelectric or solar. Not here. Not this year. We will walk you through a typical energy assessment so that you can start with the big picture before you dive into a specific kind of energy.

While you are here, we will be doing an install or two, just like last year. This year, with the focus on energy, the project is a solar heater for the roasting camper — unless we change our mind and go with the solar water heater for the house, who knows?

All this, plus practical homesteading arts courses, an update on the Aquaponics system we installed last year, even better food (I wrangled a chef to help with that part) and small business entrepreneurship.

You won’t want to miss this year’s LFTN 2019 Spring Workshop, the contact you can make, and the fun you can have.

Today, I run through three key lessons from the #TSP18 workshop that happened over the weekend at Jack Spirko’s place in Texas. There were many more than three lessons to learn, but when it comes to living your life rather than have someone else live it for you, this event was a great motivator.

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Make it a Great Week.

Song: It’s a surprise.

Today, we talk about what steps I will take to prepare the aquaponics system for winter, as well as go over what you can do now to get your garden beds ready for a great spring!

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Today is that moment you have all been waiting for: A debrief of our visit to see Dori at her place, 40 Acres and a Cave. We will have a short debrief of what happened for the visit and a run down of some things we can all learn from what she is doing out there with that fantastic property.

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So, this episode will focus on a man I have long admired in our area: Billy Kaufman of Short Mountain Distillery. Billy moved to Tennessee with a vision. What he started doing morphed into where he is today and we had a great talk about his distillery, the Haunted Woods event, and his journey from arrival to where he is today. There is so much to learn from how he has flexed and adjusted as he develops his farm into something beautiful. And while the what of he is doing has changed, his vision remains largely unchanged. It is a great example of how sticking to a vision over a tactic can help you launch the lifestyle you want.

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Today, we will talk about something a bit different: why we end each episode with make it a great week. We will also take a look at what that means for so many, and tell some stories along the way.

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Today, I want to talk about progress and the fall. Winter is coming, but right now, we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. More about that in the main show topic.

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Today, we talk through a roundup of questions I have gotten over the past two weeks related to fall homesteading activities. From canning to heating, y’all have been busy trying to figure stuff out. Of course, some of these questions have been addressed over on the LFTN Coffee Break group on Facebook, but I just figured if one of you has a question, many of you have the same question.

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