Featured posts

It’s safe to say that people attending the LFTN Spring Workshop 2022 enjoyed the food as well as the nearly perfect weather. The kitchen crew kept us full and healthy through more than 70 pounds of bacon and 360 eggs, 15 gallons of soup or stew, 6 bus bins of fresh greens, 2½ gallons of salad dressing, and main dishes based on beef, chicken, rabbit, turkey, venison, fish, and pork.

Here are a few of their special recipes.

Read more

AC is my friend this week. We finally had a set of days above 100 and Autofab reminded me that this happens every year between mid August and Mid September. 

Winter is coming.

Featured Event: Girl Gun Weekend: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/girl-gun-weekend-2023/

FUNDRISER: https://www.kalebhouse.org/

One Million Downloads Reminder: 

Forage

  • Elderberries are ripe
  • There are weeds dying because it is hot 🙂
  • Pasture is much better than last year

Livestock

  • Helping animals with heat
  • Male sheep ate the bark off the fodder trees
  • Baby ducks are out of the brooder (2 weeks old)
  • Time to process more rabbits plus the stray we found

Grow

  • Deep harvested peppers andmade salsa
  • Post Mysterious Trip Harvest
  • Tomatoes not liking 100 degree days, a lesson
  • Beets germinating so struggling to keep the baby plants alive through this three day period
  • Adding lettuce seeds Saturday or sunday
  • Water automation is a god send
  • Harvesting brussels sprouts tonight

Harvest Meals

  • Holler Stew
  • Devilled Eggs

Holler Neighbors/Community

Infrastructure

  • Moving a garden gate
  • Wiring still isnt done
  • Moving the chimney in the main house, getting parts for that
  • Waiting to hear from Signature Solar about electrical issues with our cinder block wall giving us a shock.

Finances

  • Getting more feed which will serve as the foundational trip for our more in-depth financial tracking system

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 will talk about the content creating homesteaders that are kicking butt and taking names, and what that feels like.

Featured Event: August 24 at 6pm: Spokane Washington Meetup: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/spokane-washington-meetup-2/

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com: https://bit.ly/43r4dkx

Sponsor 2: Freesteading.com: https://bit.ly/3o2BcMR

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • 1st Cheddar is aging
  • Focused un using all the bits and bobs from the freezer that have long been there
  • 7 gallons of tomatoes in the freezer ready to process
  • No canning was completed this week, instead we fed the neighbors for a Holler Neighbor Campfire Night
  • New Green Bean Recipe – Grumpy Acres Calls The Cowboy Green Beans

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Our main shopping trip was Sunday rather than Saturday, as on Saturday one of the trips included a gun show at the Knoxville Expo Center. There, I found a few items, including a tourniquet, some small freedom seeds, and a garden implement for planting them.

Dollar Tree was a usual stop. The cooler containing the Venom I prefer is still down, so my drink was room temperature; oh well. Stock levels in the other coolers are still mostly good, with all at least half full, and some full. There were a lot of drinks on the shelves as well.

Home Depot had at least two visits. The price of a 2x4x8 has taken a pretty big jump, back up to $3.68.

As usual we got our groceries at Aldi. They do not have any of the 70% chocolate I prefer, nor the 85% alternative. Staple prices were:

Eggs: $1.06; whole milk: $2.86; heavy cream: $4.69; butter: $3.19; bacon (1 lb. low sodium): $3.99; OJ: $3.19; sugar: $3.69; flour: $2.19.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.899.

Frugality Tip: Send yours in

Operation Independence

  • Subpanel is moved for the Cabin Solar so that final automation can be completed
  • Heating water with the sun
  • Starting Sept 1, changing how we track homestead finances

Main topic of the Show: Failing Homesteaders From The Internet

The world of content creation has been rapidly growing in the homesteader and hobby farm sectors. You notice that?

Over the past few weeks, I noticed something interesting about fellow homesteaders on the Internet who are kicking butt. Most of the don’t realize it.

You see, there is this constant feeling that things are undone on a homestead and that is amplified when you are also working a job, or doing content creation which is like a whole other job.

That said, there are lots of homesteaders who are just plain showing the world that they are kicking ass. But when you get to know them, they are worried about the same things.

Then there are the homesteaders who are making great films but not actually doing the work. We’ve seen a few scandals in that regard of “Off Grid” folks living in the city but filing on their off grid locations.

So why am I bringing this up? It is because someone embarrassed me the other day. They said nice things about my homestead and what we are able together done here, while also making this podcast and shooting some video. All I could think of what hose cluttered my living room is right now, how behind I am on the remodel, and how crappy the quality of my videos is. I aspire to make these cool tutorials, then end up just shooting something as fast as I can and getting it out there so that SOMETHING is done. 

Then I spoke with another friend who is newer to homesteading who was feeling like he hadn’t reached his stride yet because after a year, he had only done the following things <Insert an impressive list of stuff here>. He could not see how much he HAD DONE.

I started reaching out to other content creators who I know who seem to be doing awesome things and started hearing similar perspectives. They see what other homesteaders are doing, race to take care of everything while creating content that they feel is  not good enough, constantly behind, etc.

<CHEESE STORY>

Guys, what gives? What if we are the problem? What if we are undermining ourselves with these perspectives?

* You are the story you tell yourself, so make it a good one

* Maybe people like to see real content that may to be top quality editing

* Let’s face it, You don’t make much money as a content creator – Youtube is definitely NOT paying the bills so we all have to get creative on that front

* Every time we waste a thought on feeling inadequate, we miss an opportunity to show someone how to do something they did not now how to do. Homesteading is a never-ending learning experience, you know more than you think you know

* Most homesteaders are in fact bad asses. Bas asses who will jump in to save a hurt chicken or lamb. Bad asses who will hand pick cabbage worms off their plants to avoid insecticide. Bad asses who have figured out how to look at a pile of produce from the garden and pit it together into a tasty meal. Bad asses who can make 14000 egg dished because there is always a time when you have too mane. Bad asses who have had to look at remorse and feel the guilt when an animal in your care died because of you either not knowing what to do, or accidentally creating a situation that was unsafe for the animal, or it just died and you somehow think it is your fault. 

* We are fearless.

* We are not afraid to start something we know nothing about

* We are relentless and don’t give up

* We jump into things that other folks would never do and are more resilient because of it

But most of all, we have something most of the world does not: a true connection to nature, the cycles of life, and to God – however you define God. We are living in a way that is more grounded in the world and nature than most in modern society and because of this, we feel humble.

And I think this is why, when folks say something nice about what we do, we stammer, look around guiltily, and feel like they should be talking to someone else.

But what will change if we instead do this – say Thank you! I’ve worked hard to get where I am and often feel like I have not done enough and it is really nice to hear someone say that to me.

And what if we start telling each other more proactively when we see some homesteading kickassery?

What would that feel like? How could that change our worlds?

Just food for thought as we go into this hot week in August.

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

Today, we will talk about the content creating homesteaders that are kicking butt and taking names, and what that feels like.

Featured Event: August 24 at 6pm: Spokane Washington Meetup: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/spokane-washington-meetup-2/

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com: https://bit.ly/43r4dkx

Sponsor 2: Freesteading.com: https://bit.ly/3o2BcMR

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • 1st Cheddar is aging
  • Focused un using all the bits and bobs from the freezer that have long been there
  • 7 gallons of tomatoes in the freezer ready to process
  • No canning was completed this week, instead we fed the neighbors for a Holler Neighbor Campfire Night
  • New Green Bean Recipe – Grumpy Acres Calls The Cowboy Green Beans

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Our main shopping trip was Sunday rather than Saturday, as on Saturday one of the trips included a gun show at the Knoxville Expo Center. There, I found a few items, including a tourniquet, some small freedom seeds, and a garden implement for planting them.

Dollar Tree was a usual stop. The cooler containing the Venom I prefer is still down, so my drink was room temperature; oh well. Stock levels in the other coolers are still mostly good, with all at least half full, and some full. There were a lot of drinks on the shelves as well.

Home Depot had at least two visits. The price of a 2x4x8 has taken a pretty big jump, back up to $3.68.

As usual we got our groceries at Aldi. They do not have any of the 70% chocolate I prefer, nor the 85% alternative. Staple prices were:

Eggs: $1.06; whole milk: $2.86; heavy cream: $4.69; butter: $3.19; bacon (1 lb. low sodium): $3.99; OJ: $3.19; sugar: $3.69; flour: $2.19.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.899.

Frugality Tip: Send yours in

Operation Independence

  • Subpanel is moved for the Cabin Solar so that final automation can be completed
  • Heating water with the sun
  • Starting Sept 1, changing how we track homestead finances

Main topic of the Show: Failing Homesteaders From The Internet

The world of content creation has been rapidly growing in the homesteader and hobby farm sectors. You notice that?

Over the past few weeks, I noticed something interesting about fellow homesteaders on the Internet who are kicking butt. Most of the don’t realize it.

You see, there is this constant feeling that things are undone on a homestead and that is amplified when you are also working a job, or doing content creation which is like a whole other job.

That said, there are lots of homesteaders who are just plain showing the world that they are kicking ass. But when you get to know them, they are worried about the same things.

Then there are the homesteaders who are making great films but not actually doing the work. We’ve seen a few scandals in that regard of “Off Grid” folks living in the city but filing on their off grid locations.

So why am I bringing this up? It is because someone embarrassed me the other day. They said nice things about my homestead and what we are able together done here, while also making this podcast and shooting some video. All I could think of what hose cluttered my living room is right now, how behind I am on the remodel, and how crappy the quality of my videos is. I aspire to make these cool tutorials, then end up just shooting something as fast as I can and getting it out there so that SOMETHING is done. 

Then I spoke with another friend who is newer to homesteading who was feeling like he hadn’t reached his stride yet because after a year, he had only done the following things <Insert an impressive list of stuff here>. He could not see how much he HAD DONE.

I started reaching out to other content creators who I know who seem to be doing awesome things and started hearing similar perspectives. They see what other homesteaders are doing, race to take care of everything while creating content that they feel is  not good enough, constantly behind, etc.

<CHEESE STORY>

Guys, what gives? What if we are the problem? What if we are undermining ourselves with these perspectives?

* You are the story you tell yourself, so make it a good one

* Maybe people like to see real content that may to be top quality editing

* Let’s face it, You don’t make much money as a content creator – Youtube is definitely NOT paying the bills so we all have to get creative on that front

* Every time we waste a thought on feeling inadequate, we miss an opportunity to show someone how to do something they did not now how to do. Homesteading is a never-ending learning experience, you know more than you think you know

* Most homesteaders are in fact bad asses. Bas asses who will jump in to save a hurt chicken or lamb. Bad asses who will hand pick cabbage worms off their plants to avoid insecticide. Bad asses who have figured out how to look at a pile of produce from the garden and pit it together into a tasty meal. Bad asses who can make 14000 egg dished because there is always a time when you have too mane. Bad asses who have had to look at remorse and feel the guilt when an animal in your care died because of you either not knowing what to do, or accidentally creating a situation that was unsafe for the animal, or it just died and you somehow think it is your fault. 

* We are fearless.

* We are not afraid to start something we know nothing about

* We are relentless and don’t give up

* We jump into things that other folks would never do and are more resilient because of it

But most of all, we have something most of the world does not: a true connection to nature, the cycles of life, and to God – however you define God. We are living in a way that is more grounded in the world and nature than most in modern society and because of this, we feel humble.

And I think this is why, when folks say something nice about what we do, we stammer, look around guiltily, and feel like they should be talking to someone else.

But what will change if we instead do this – say Thank you! I’ve worked hard to get where I am and often feel like I have not done enough and it is really nice to hear someone say that to me.

And what if we start telling each other more proactively when we see some homesteading kickassery?

What would that feel like? How could that change our worlds?

Just food for thought as we go into this hot week in August.

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

 

Try one of Nicole Sauce’s signature dishes, as enjoyed in recent weeks at Hatch Chili Weekend. Read more

Today, we return to our interview show series with a chat with the Renegade Butcher. Josh joins us from his overly hot studio, in the heat of summer, in Texas to talk about what he has been working on, AI, Nostr, Butchering meat and more.

1 Million Download Celebration Reminder: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2023/08/14/one-million-downloads-celebration/

Featured Event: Girl Gun Weekend, Last Call!
https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/girl-gun-weekend-2023/

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com: https://bit.ly/43r4dkx

Sponsor 2: Freesteading.com: https://bit.ly/3o2BcMR

Show Resources

RenegadeButcher.com

Main content of the show

Josh grew up in the midwest with an ever-growing passion for cooking and food in general. Making his way to Texas nearly a decade ago, he added craft butchery and charcuterie as well as Texas style barbecue to his list of culinary obsessions. Eventually starting his own series of small businesses in an effort to help ease the pressure on small processors caused by the events in 2020. Not only has he been working to teach small ranchers and homesteaders how to process their own livestock in person, he runs a video/audio podcast, has built an active online community and has launched a much anticipated line of seasoning blends based on his own personal recipes. His blends have been well received by his wild game customers, and his sausage products are in demand every fall with local hunters.

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 talk about the great duck reset of 2023, a new way to do green curry, community fun and more.

Featured Event: Midwest Preparedness Project: https://www.midwestpreparednessproject.com/ 

Sponsor 1: StrongRootsReources.com: https://bit.ly/42UPCgJ

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com: https://bit.ly/3hDFWpa

Weather has been awesome – nice and cool relatively speaking.

Forage

  • Elderberries are ripe

Livestock

  • New baby ducks
  • The hatches are all meat birds
  • Teenagers are integrated with old flock and the other babies are learning to
  • Need to check sheep for work pressure – flokie’s ears are hanging down
  • Sheep love box elder

Harvest meals

  • Green curry turkey – roasted the leg quarter first and it tasted good
  • Tomato, cucumber, basil mozzarella salad

Grow

  • Ts peppers are coming on
  • Swimming in tomatoes
  • Green beans, harvest 3 this week
  • Reseeding beets, top watering each day
  • Swiss chard looks sad
  • Malabar spinach and forever spinach doing very well
  • Deciding if I feel like direct seeding lettuces, etc before my secret trip next week

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Island Mt Pat is back in town, bonfire with the whole neighborhood this weekend

Infrastructure

  • Shocking gutter
  • Seconds away from all cabin wiring being complete
  • Getting ready to fix the rest of my home joist problem

Finances

  • Sending another round to the auction

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 take your questions on trombincino squash, songs, society, building your business, and more.

Featured Event: Self Reliance Festival: https://selfreliancefestival.com/?aff=nicolesauce

Sponsor 1: The Wealthsteading Podcast: https://bit.ly/3oPLTmr

Sponsor 2: Senior Chief Electric: https://bit.ly/3MKKbuu

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

SelfRelianceFestival.com

 

Main content of the show

Mona

What is the change you made coming up to this SRF that you think will make the biggest improvement?

ANOTHER QUESTION

Curious if either of you have a reaction (good, bad, or indifferent) to that song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” I just heard it for the first time this morning.

From Lettie = What is one topic that has not been done at SRF that you would like to see?

  • Scything
  • Assassination

John: Have you always been the  kind of person who goes your own way without really caring what other people think?

John: If you could not sew anymore, what would you do?

Nicole

From andrea

  1. How do you store the tromboncino squash? And do I harvest it when it turns yellow? What are ways that you use it in your food?
  2. You talked about harvesting chocolate mint on Monday’s show. How much of it do you use to make tea? I have some growing and figured that it would make a great Christmas present but I am not sure how to use it in tea. I am just used to buying the already put together tea.

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

It’s time to celebrate! We have had our first million downloads at LFTN. Today we reflect on how we got here and how we want to celebrate!

Featured Event: Oct 28 & 29, Kentucky Sustainable Living Festival

Sponsor 1: Holler Roast Coffee: https://bit.ly/3oq04OO

Sponsor 2: EMPShield.com: https://bit.ly/3MBBELx, COUPON CODE LFTN

Livestream Schedule

🎙️ Tuesday at 12:30 pm – Don’t miss the Tuesday Live with Skypirate. Due to the nature of Skypirate’s job, this may get rescheduled. He does important things and they can be unpredictable. This week, we are only streaming to LFTN and SRF on YT due to SOE having gotten a STRIKE! You can also see this stream on Odysee, here: YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PX-bHfC3AEOUPWgJ5d40g

https://odysee.com/@livingfree:b

🎙️Interview shows are BACK! I am interviewing Josh the Renegade Butcher this Wednesday at 4pm. 

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PX-bHfC3AEOUPWgJ5d40g

Odysee: https://odysee.com/@livingfree:b

FB: https://www.facebook.com/LivingFreeInTN

🎙️Backwoods Butcher and Renegade Butcher are going HEAD TO HEAD! Join us for an SRF live as we talk about their coming contest!

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PX-bHfC3AEOUPWgJ5d40g

Odysee: https://odysee.com/@livingfree:b

FB: https://www.facebook.com/LivingFreeInTN

🎙️ Friday at 10:30 am – Tune in to the Homestead Happenings Show for all things homesteading.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Taught a canning class this weekend and ended up just 2 quarts shy of our 60 quart goal
  • Added 7.5 quarts of tomato sauce, thanks rick
  • Added 5 pints of salsa from the Holler Tomatoes and peppers
  • Greatly reducing the stored commercial foods (like spaghetti sauce), but still keeping some on hand (why)
  • Green Curry Turkey this week

Weekly Shopping Report. 8/7/23

Our first trip on Saturday started with Dollar Tree as usual. The cooler with the Venom I like has been dead long enough that the drinks there are now room temperature. Oh well, I’m not interested in Coke or Pepsi products for caffeine. 

Next we went to Hobby Lobby so Sonia could pick up some art supplies. We had not been there in a while, but I didn’t notice any significant changes. The parking lot was mostly full as usual, and Sonia found what she wanted.

We skipped Home Depot today (I figured I’d check online for the 2x4x8 price), so the next and last stop was Aldi. The pad I was keeping in the car to record prices is still in the car; we’ve got a rental due to the car dying. I looked at the same things, and don’t recall any significant changes. I’ll grab another pad for next week.

Back home, we realized we forgot the fruit. We also discovered that some ladder supports we had ordered were eunuchs (both missing their nuts), and Sonia also decided she wanted some more of a particular product she bought at Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby isn’t open on Sunday, so we took our second trip today. Hobby Lobby was just as busy, and Sonia got what she wanted.

The second stop of the weekend at Home Depot also allowed me to check the price of a 2x4x8. It is back up to $3.25 after being just $2.98 last week. That’s still lower than it has been; they’re probably still adjusting.

Aldi had the cherries, bananas, and cantaloupe we had forgotten.

A gallon of untainted regular remains at $3.899, but I suspect it is wishful thinking to believe it will stay there.

Frugality Tip

None submitted this week

Operation Independence

  • Seven Series Homestead Starter Pack Product Build Out!

Main topic of the Show: One Million Downloads

I never even gave a thought to having a million downloads when I first started Living Free in Tennessee, especially with only 14 downloads of my second episode. Yet we passed that number a little while ago. 

So the question came up, how do we celebrate?

1,000,000 Downloads Give Away: 

Entering is super easy

  1. share you favorite episode (You can just use the link at my website for that episode)
  2. tag me in it
  3. use #LFTN
  4. fill out the form below to tell me you did it

We started as a creative outlet, became a show, transitioned into a community of doers.

Some People To Talk About

  • Dori
  • Janet Szabo
  • Shawn and Dawn Mills
  • Bryan
  • Autofab
  • Jenni
  • Mark Alexander
  • Jack Spirko
  • Jack’s Friend David, aka the Booze Whisperer
  • Patrick from MT Knives
  • John Willis
  • Knighthawk
  • Ford
  • Dawn Ghoram
  • Paul Wheaton and Crew
  • Tactical Redneck
  • Oxy the Savings Ninja
  • Tag and all the MWPP guys
  • Margot
  • Lettie
  • Jessica Dixie Mills
  • PA Prepper
  • Ken and Carmel Eash
  • Leos
  • Chef Brett
  • Matt and Gabby from Homesteading for a living
  • Matt and Ashley
  • Scott from the LIberty Lab
  • Mama Sauce
  • Kerry Brown
  • Billy Bond
  • Rebecca Cunningham
  • Eric Meyers
  • Ryan Steva
  • Renegade Homesteaders
  • John Pugliano
  • Dr. Ken Berry
  • Brent from BBC Inc
  • John Bush
  • Joe shopping report
  • Melissa of honeybees
  • Toolman Tim
  • Brian from Food Forest Farms
  • Porterhouse and Teal
  • John A

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

We did it! We surpassed a million downloads a little while ago. This week, we are launching a one-month celebration of this milestone at LFTN.

How will we celebrate? Well, I put a million satoshis aside and will give them away to someone.

Entering is super easy

  1. share you favorite episode (You can just use the link at my website for that episode)
  2. tag me in it
  3. use #LFTN
  4. fill out the form below to tell me you did it

The search function on this site should unite you with your favorite episodes from years past, including episode 8, the squash episode, the episode that brought in both Janet and the Redneck… That must have been a really good episode because they are still hanging around.

Much like a walking taco salad or 7-layer dip, this is a party-worthy main dish salad with innumerable variation possibilities.

Read more