Featured posts

I know I’m not alone in procrastinating when kale is in my frig. I don’t dislike it, I’m just profoundly blah about it. I’ll also admit that I feel pretty guilty about the situation. Kale is such healthy food!

One cup of raw kale – that’s nothing – has 3 grams of protein and 2 1/2 of fiber; vitamins A, C, and K; folate (that’s a B-for-brain vitamin); some good fat and minerals; and lutein and zeaxanthin, which promote eye health. If you count calories, chalk up a mere 33 per cup.

But I do like chips and dips, which led us to today’s recipe, which you can crunch down while still warm or dip in Holy Moly Guacamole or Use the Zucchini Pesto.

Please go out and buy some kale to try this: you may become another convert. Read more

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Join us for the update on moving the ram in with the girls, a dry October, molting ducks and more.

Featured event: Developing Off Grid Water On your Homestead, Webinar Wednesday! 6pm with Ryan Steva, The Homestead Consultant

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com

AbovePhone.com: https://abovephone.com/?above=104

Use coupon code for $50 off: LiveFreeTN

Rams clearing the outer ring of my homestead – found old fencing

Eversole GSD Weekend

Sheep Out

Getting the bananas ready for winter

Separating the girls and adding the ram – is he doing his job??

Drone in the Holler to see things far away from the house

Ducks molting and no eggs

Fall garden update

Swim spa is up to temperature (finally)

Breaking records dry in October

Discussing the process for finishing the prepper pantry – linear versus multiple fronts

Bred the rabbits

Rabbit tractor concept

Tracy helping to purge the Holler and the impromptu dinner

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

 

Direct Download

Join me today as we dive into how to come up with your homestead design plan that works as you age. We will also talk about our usual Monday segments and the Shopping Report is BACK!

Featured Event: Partner with Trees on the Permaculture Homestead with Strong Roots Resources, November 2, $90

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com
Sponsor 2: EMPShield.com, Coupon code LFTN

Livestream Schedule
Tuesday, 9:30 AM: Coffee with Kiri Torgler os Thunderhill Farms and Shawn Mills from Hack My Homestead
Friday, 9:30 AM: Homestead Happenings with the Tactical Redneck

Tales from the Prepper Pantry
Counterintuitively, we are doing our best to use up things in the pantry (WHY)
Pizza party and cake with the neighbors
Planning the finishing of the prepper pantry
Time to “really” can the rest of the frozen tomato
Picking up the Harvest Right repair project again

Weekly Shopping Report
Dollar Tree: Stock is good in all areas, including plastics. They also have TP and paper towels.
Home Depot: A 2x4x8 was unchanged from last week, at $3.85. Quickly looking at some tools, they have reduced the quantities of a lot of other brands like Klein in favor of Milwaukee, but pegboards were full.
Aldi: Once again, they had almost no wet cat food, just individual small “peel” cups. There were actually some price decreases this week. Staple prices were: eggs: $2.15 (-); whole milk: $2.88; heavy cream: $5.39; OJ: $3.45; butter: $3.99; bacon: $3.99; potatoes: $3.99 (-); sugar: $2.99; flour: $2.35; and 80% lean ground beef: $4.49. They again have a small amount of TP in stock
A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.599.

Frugality Tip from Margo
Have you ever had a bird peck your window non-stop. Like wake you up and then you have a constant headache for weeks or months because it’s trying to kill it’s reflection?!
Don’t waste your money on all the gadgets to keep birds away like plastic owls, window clings and spinners. Go to the store and buy a $5 cloth shower curtain and hang it on the outside of your window with a couple of cup hooks. It lets light in and can get rained on and most important, it works.
So save your money on all the things that say they deter birds and just block their reflection.
I did this two years ago and still have the same shower curtain up on the bedroom window and we sleep peacefully.

Operation Independence
The sheep are split and ready for a visit from the ram. Lamb futures we hope!

Main topic of the Show: Plan Your Homestead For Old Age

Assess Your Homestead
What works well for mobility matters
Are things far away that should be close (Zones)
How is the house for injuries or illness, prolonged versus
What happens if you have to be suddenly gone for a few days (Watering, livestock care, self care, pipes freezing, etc)
Community needed? (On site helpers, etc). SOPS? Succession housing
List manual processes
What does it cost to maintain with you doing the work? With outsources help (lawncare, firewood, etc)
What happens with land, pets and livestock when you die?
Har far are medical services and how ready are you to wait? (Yellowstone)

Brainstorm Solutions and Changes
Automations
Relocations
Renovations
Relationships
Permaculture

Timeline and Budget
Prioritize projects (Spa – what?)
Assess before you begin
1 step at a time – enjoy the journey – that is the point of a homestead.
Be ready to just let some things go (sheep, housing, trade skills for food in your community, homestead and off-grid purists, etc)

Connect with the community!

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
Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b
Resources
Membership Sign Up
Holler Roast Coffee
Harvest Right Affiliate Link

With colder days and ripening pumpkins calling “buy me,” here’s a delicious savory soup. Make it with pumpkin or any hard-shell winter squash. Add a cabbage salad, kale chips and a vegetable sauté, you have a whole meal and several leftover soup servings. Read more

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Today we talk about the sheep breeding strategy, helping plants through the first frost, GSD Projects in East Tn and more.

Featured Event: Off Grid Water Webinar with Ryan Steva, Oct 30 at 6pm
Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com
Sponsor 2: Simmer Well Affiliate Link and Coupon Code

Baby Rabbit Update
Setting up ALL the rotations vs just letting nature take its course
Frost on the gardens and jury rigged protection
We may make it through the entire month of October with no rain (HAY HAY HAY)
Roaster Rebuild
Partnering with Trees in the Permaculture Homestead
Minerals for Ducks and lack of eggs without them
Idea for getting them minerals more easily
First FIRE
Chimney cleaning this week’
The broken fence
Shawarma beef in the crock pot
Ram aprons

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
Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b
Advisory Board
The Booze Whisperer
The Tactical Redneck
Chef Brett
Samantha the Savings Ninja
Resources
Membership Sign Up
Holler Roast Coffee
Harvest Right Affiliate Link

Direct Download

Join me for a discussion with 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. 

Today we talk about the efforts that our network has done in East Tennessee to rebuild as well as what happens next with Jessica Hinton.

Each Tuesday, we welcome a different guest to tell their story, as well as take your questions live. 

Featured Event: Partnering With Trees On The Permaculture Homestead, nov 2

Sponsors:

Show Resources

At the end of this show, I play a song I wrote called The Flood. Read about it here.

Connect with Jessica

THE FORM for projects that are needing help

GrindstoneMinsitries.com

Living Free in Tennessee

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.com 

Main content of the show

Get started with Nostr – Brian’s Video: https://youtu.be/UvSBPvYnNxM 

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

 

Direct Download

Join me for a talk about running a small business, a homestead, and community building as well as our Monday segments about pantry management, operation independence and more.

Livestream Schedule

  • Tuesday 9:30 am, Coffee with Jessica Hinton
  • Thursday 6pm, Great American Preparedness Tour Live
  • Friday 9:30am: Homestead Happenings

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Final harvest of herbs
  • Row cover for fall chard
  • Preparing for ram processing
  • Canning the last of the tomatoes
  • Tomato fall usage process
  • Doing the pre-winter “buy: this week but there are challenges

Weekly Shopping Report (Shut out of Mewe)

Frugality Tip (none)

Operation Independence

  • Swim Spa Power, SWIMPLY and other memberships
  • Rental house coming up around Dec 1

Main topic of the Show: Do the Work

Murphy is a bitch. Murphy likes to visit right after Self Reliance Festival and other busy times. Murphy came over last week. Or did he?

The funny thing about Murphy is we blame “Murphy” for things going wrong but whose fault is it really.

Roaster

It is all your fault

Do Hard Things because if you don’t do them now you will have to do harder things later and this goes for personal health (miking the right small choices every day) and for your business.

As the owner, YOU see things that need addressing and you have to make a big choice: Do it yourself or set it up for someone else to do it.

The answer is not that simple.

That was THE WORK that had to be done so I did it.

Because failure is not an option.

So back to my roasters and Murphy. It wasnt Murphy’s fault. It was mine.

But right after they told me they wanted some extra handling. In a week where I felt tired. In a week with extra emails to answer, supplies to stash, communications to write, and steps to take to set up a great 2025.

What saves the day: My3Things

Doing the Work means identifying which work is most important to do.

Example: The location of the ditch for electrical service

How to use My3Things, steps to take – Business owner: everything is your fault even when it isn’t your fault.

Doing the work that was most important first
Doing the work to keep healthy
Doing the work earlier and later than everyone else

Because sometimes doing the work is what needs to be done.

Make it a great week!

Song: The Flood

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
Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b
Resources
Membership Sign Up
Holler Roast Coffee
Harvest Right Affiliate Link

Here’s a side dish that takes about as long to prepare as a hamburger does, so you can have both for dinner. If you begin cooking carrots in a skillet with lid, you’ll have a single pan to wash. Read more

Direct Download

IF YOU WANT TO HELP FLOOD VICTIMS: Join our Telegram group.

Today we talk about preparations for cold, livestock husbandry season, a cool tree class and more!

Featured Event: Nov 2, Partner with Trees on the Permaculture Homestead with Kerry Brown of Strong Roots Resources

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Sponsor 2: The Wealthsteading Podcast: Investablewealth.com

Separating ewes and moving them to the ram

Dyslexic weather

Way station for Hurricane relief

Some permanent fencing

New rabbit update

9 baby rabbits doing well

Raised bed update – need to build the waterer

Pool: digging a ditch and getting power

Last round of mint harvest this weekend before the first frost

Moving firewood and chimney preparation

Hay update

Why are we adding trees

Tomato wall coming down

SRF recovery projects

 

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

 

Direct Download

Join me for a group discussion with 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

The Lots Project

Living Free in Tennessee

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.com 

Main content of the show

Get started with Nostr – Brian’s Video: https://youtu.be/UvSBPvYnNxM 

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