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Today is an interview with Jason Sparks all about starting a homestead from scratch, being a carpenter, building community and more.

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Show Resources

Kentucky Sustainable Living: https://www.facebook.com/groups/267335831465407

Main content of the show

43 year old male born and lived in bowling green ky my whole life.

Own a general contracting company in bowling green ky.

Graduated from Western Kentucky University with construction management degree.

I have a small homestead right outside of Bowling Green KY. We raise a few cows,sheep,chickens and pigs. We process all our animals at the farm. I started off in prepping about 12 years ago and realized that no matter how much you store it will run out eventually. There is where I started going more in the direction of sustainable living and growing more for my family.

I and one other person started Kentucky sustainable living with the purpose of building state wide community. The community is like minded people that help each other now and in the future no matter how the world goes.

We have meetings and training events for members.

Make it a great week

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

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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: rat poison, sheep, getting ready for a big event, homestead realtors in the network, and more.

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Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5uZlo2h_Q

Make it a great week!

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

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Today we talk about cross training, banana care, the future of the Holler bees and more on today’s show.

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Food Forest Class

Sponsor of the day: Freesteading.com

Forage

  • Mullein, Red Dock, Comfrey
  • Ground nut season

Livestock

  • Escaping Sheep Issues
  • Picking up butchered meat
  • Rodents are still a problem
  • Pasture update
  • Bees

Harvest Meals

  • Squash, Italian casserole
  • Green beans and butter

Winter on the homestead

  • Moving firewood 
  • Temperature management
  • Mulching the banana

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Newsletter going out
  • Normal Holler Neighbor Interactions (Musical cars), campfires

Infrastructure

  • Scheduled fencing movement
  • Water plans
  • Sourcing plants
  • Leaves
  • The microclimate under Tajmaholler

Finances

  • Nothing to report

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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!

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Today we talk about starting your own business, content creation, attitude adjustments, dog poop and more with Toolman Tim Cook and John Willis. Read more


Today, we will talk not about being forgiven, but about why it is so important to forgive those around you if you want to build the life you choose.

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Show sponsor: Paul Wheaton

Sponsor Links

Paul Wheaton’s new Kickstarter aims to create a video-based Garden Master Course featuring Helen Atthowe, and all the things she’s not allowed to teach in a university-sanctioned Certified Master Gardener Course. You can support the project, and get gobs of permaculture goodies by pledging as little as $1 here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=6cxu6f

OTHER SPONSOR LINKS

Free heat: https://permies.com/w/free-heat?f=495

Wood heat 8-DVD set: https://permies.com/wiki/63837f495/Wood-Heat-DIY-Rocket-Mass

Livestream Schedule

  • Monday: 10:30 Central- Monday Podcast Recording
  • Wednesday: 12:30 Central – Live with John Willis
  • Friday: 9:30 Central – Homestead Happening and Q&A

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Use up mode in full swing: Green beans and salsa
  • Preparing the menu for the Food Forest Event
    • Breakfasts are eggs (from the eversoles), hash browns, bacon or breakfast sausage, whole fruit
    • Thurs evening: Brats and burgers
    • Friday lunch – Turkey Tacos, Friday dinner BBQ – pulled pork, rotisserie or smoked chicken, green beans, mac n cheese, salad
    • Saturday lunch – Chili, cornbread, salad, Saturday dinner – butternut squash soup, oysters on the half shell, leg of lamb, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, birthday cake with wheat flour and everything
  • Fridge broke (outside)
  • Neckbones for dinner

Weekly Shopping Report 10/16/22

First was Dollar Tree. There were a few more items restocked in the Health aisle, but the food and drink coolers are now all very depleted. The food aisle still looks good though, and canned mackerel (although a different kind) has returned. I believe there were at least a couple of extra employees stocking shelves, but it appeared to be very random what they were putting out. I’ve seen more glassware available there lately.

Home Depot was next. A 2x4x8 has dropped again, to $3.75. It was hard to tell because some things have moved around, but I think they got in some more Duracell and/or Ray-o-vac batteries, as most of the battery shelves at checkout had some products on them.

Aldi was last. There was a lot more chicken there than in recent weeks, a good amount of lunchmeat, and most areas looked good. The only notable exception were the cantaloupes. They had a lot of them, but they all looked wrinkly, suggesting age and/or poor storage conditions. I didn’t see any significant holes, and we found everything we wanted.

All three places were busier than I remember, even for a Saturday. It did not look like anyone was panic-buying; they just all decided to go shopping.

I didn’t stop, but untainted gasoline remains at $4.199/gallon.

Frugality Tip from Margo

I am a cheap person, or frugal I guess is a better label lol. This week’s frugality tip: 

We like to go to estate sales, the tip part is going on the last day of the sale when everything is at least half off. We buy things to use around the house for projects. Things we have recently purchased:

A whole coffee can of screws for $1

Chanel locks for $1

Screwdriver for 50¢

A dustpan for 25¢

A $300 extension ladder for $50

Assorted pvc fittings and pipe I grab any time I see them and have over $500 worth of pvc fittings and pipe that I paid maybe a total of $10 for…aquaponics is going to happen soon over here…

Go to the website estatesales.net and put in your zip code and find local sales. Happy Hunting!!

Operation Independence

  • All hands on preparing for the Food Forest Class
  • 1.5 lambs remain available

Main topic of the Show: Forgive

I have been pondering some deep things lately, among them are punitive actions that we humans take against others who do things “illegal.” I basically started because one of my friends was mad at another friend for her “Unchristian” lifestyle.

I started thinking about the large numbers of Christians in my life who never ask anyone’s religious views, who love those around them unconditionally, and who also manage to do this without getting hurt. 

Why?

One thing they share is a large capacity for forgiveness. 

Then this tweet came out:

Tweet fro Cyprian (Vin Armani)

While on the cross, Christ interceded on behalf of those who crucified Him, seeking that they might be forgiven and, thereby, saved.

“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

When you wish destruction on those whose degeneracy disgusts you, whom are you serving?

BUT WHY does forgiving lead to a better life?

  1. You move into the future and let go of the past so your mindset is right

>Story of my nonprofit years and losing my largest donor

  1. You stop evaluating new relationships with the lens of the old

>Story of the first fiance and interceding two decades of troubled relationships

  1. Your energy is on building good things, rather than seeping into non salvageable things

>Website clients who never pay their balance and collections

>The $240 commercial meat slicer

>John Willis when you do something wrong

  1. What does forgive and forget mean to me?

>Laprises and morning cuddles

Landing: Forgiving yourself. Forgiving those around you. Building your future.

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

Make it a great week!

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

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Today we have an interview with Steven File all about strategic home defense.

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Show Resources

Strategic Home Defense: https://www.strategichomedefense.com/

Instagram: @strategichomedefense

Main content of the show

Steven File is originally from Harrisburg, PA and relocated to Texas last year during the spring. Steven has been in the Army National Guard for over 11 years as an Infantryman and has worked in law enforcement for 7 years. He has worked operationally on a SWAT team and worked as a criminal intelligence detective. After seeing the aftermath of violence and traumatized victims Steven and his wife Kelsey devoted their lives to preventing victimhood and empowering people to secure their own future.

Interview

Membership and Coffee Pitch

Make it a great week

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

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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: sheep, dealing with depression, finding land, and more.

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Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/x6iW8JXI65A

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

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Today, we discuss sheep finances, livestock in the fall, growing food, a new segment and more.

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Sponsor of the day: FreeSteading.com

Forage

  • All going underground
  • Nuts
  • Harvest comfrey and other frost sensitive plants that are still with us

Livestock

  • 5 Sheep to the processor and how loading went
  • Going to retrain Max to like the Eversoles
  • One look close to giving birth – it is our first time so she may just be fat
  • Time to breed the rabbits
  • Ducks are still in jail – 1 egg 2 days ago (RATS)
  • Pigs for sale – IPP and a duroc/IPP mix
  • Lamb for sale

Grow

  • Putting all the beds to sleep
  • Lettuce and brassicas in the AP
  • Have not gotten the indoor grow operation together (And will not til after Jack’s)
  • May adjust this section for winter – thoughts

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Meat slicers, dinners, drone shots and emergency sheep assistance
  • New business launches post SRF
  • New feed source in the upper cumberland

Infrastructure

  • Geothermal lines are where they need to be. Some residual things to connect gravity water the house. ($2,000)
  • Getting the list of things for water redo project

Finances

  • Sheep Finance Review:
    • Sheep: $3,000
    • Trailer: $3,000
    • Feed/hay/seed: $900
    • Vet: $80
    • Dogfood: $200
    • Processing: $550-$600
    • Gas: $200
    • Fencing: $2,000
    • Per animal cost (depreciating the fencing and trailer): $539
    • Per animal charge: $450-$550

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!

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How does crowd funding work? What does Paul Wheaton, the DUKE of permaculture have in the pipeline as far as his next project? We cover this on today’s livestream.

Paul’s Kickstarter: Link to Paul’s Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=6cxu6f

Show Resources Read more


After a week to assess SRF, today is the Great Debrief of the event. The good, the bad, the ugly, the money.

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Live streams this week

  • Tuesday Interview Show (Audio podcast on Sunday)
  • Wednesday Live with Paul Wheaton
  • Friday Homestead Happenings and Q & A

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Transition from storing to using has happened
  • First frost of 2022
  • Freeze dryer is back in action
  • Preparing October Food Forest meals: Pulled pork, smoking home cured bacon, breakfast sausage, ground turkey for tacos, butternut squash soup, venison (More to come, as much from the Holler Homestead as possible)
  • Bumper crop of chestnuts this year (How we store them)

Weekly Shopping Report for Powell, TN 10/03/2022

We made two trips this weekend. The first, on Saturday, was to three usual places, Dollar Tree, Home Depot, and Aldi.

Dollar Tree looked about the same, except less frozen and refrigerated foods. The Health aisle has not been restocked. There are still a lot of cotton pads (good to soak in wax for firestarters), bandaids, and some OTC meds, but the selection is dwindling. One section of food coolers remains Out of Order, but the other sections are now almost empty as well. The drink coolers still have a lot of product, and canned goods are still pretty full, even though it’s mostly tier-2 brands.

At Home Depot, a 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. For the first time, we both noticed less selection on the tool wall, although we did find another pair of pliers. A lot of the tools are made in China, so I’d expect stock to continue dwindling as central warehouses are drawn down.

I don’t remember any remarkable changes at Aldi, and we found what we wanted, escaping at just under $100 for the two of us plus the kitties.

I don’t recall seeing any face-diapers on Saturday.

Today, we also made three stops. The first was Dollar General Market. Sonia did not find a large one-piece spoon she wanted (the prior one had just broken at the welds), but she found a small cast-iron piece for the toaster oven, and we added some apples and a small bag of potatoes. Stock looked okay, although they’ve got Christmas stuff out already, which is indecent. In line we were behind a couple of muzzled sheeple, but I don’t remember seeing more.

Second was the recycle center; nothing special noted. Traffic seemed light.

The final stop was a different Dollar General, where Sonia found the spoon, and also a muffin pan for the toaster oven. The latter turned out to be slightly too big, so we used our tools and turned it into a 4- and a 2-muffin set. Looking through the food aisles, there were lots of holes, but we found a couple of boxes of angel hair pasta for $1 each; hopefully it is edible.

Untainted regular gasoline remains at $4.199, although I’ve seen the corrupted stuff as low as $2.999 now.

Frugality Tip

Eggdrop Soup for breakfast

Operation Independence

  • SRF Made a profit for the first time!
  • A word on the food forest budget
  • Penny wise and pound fooling on water lines

Show Sponsor: Paul Wheaton – Launching a kickstarter tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Main topic of the Show: The Debrief

SRF is behind us and now it is time for the great event debrief.

Why SRF Exists

  • Bridge the gap between prepper and homesteader so that we are all stronger together
  • Master new skills
  • Remove barriers and roadblocks that attendees have to choosing success
  • Become a functioning and expanding counter economy to increase personal resilience

My personal involvement

  • I get to invest my time in something that helps people 
  • Replaces website development BU

The good

  • 440 people
  • 30 speakers
  • 28 vendors
  • Easy access to good food
  • Showers, hand washing stations and the like (Better infrastructure)
  • Raised $1700 for Darkhorse Lodge Veterans Retreat
  • Music and fun
  • Connections were made
  • Better flow
  • It made a profit

The bad

  • Pre event communications needed to me steadier and faster
  • Ticket sales was hard this round
  • Event coordination team understaffed (Trade offs in my personal business)
  • Speaker churn
  • Content challenges (We missed the mark on what some attendees were there for: practical vs lifestyle)
  • More vendors
  • Better marketing needed

The Ugly

  • Some internal tensions emerged
  • We got so big I am no longer aware of exactly who I should be thanking and I want to fix that

The money

  • I got to pay some people!
  • There is profit, but this does not account for the last 3 events’ losses or John’s or my team’s time (about 4 months of man hours per event)

A year ago, this was a small event with a handful of people and we are 4X the size and achieving great things: new businesses, relationships, virtual attendance, creative participation, and moving people off the fear!

Thankful for all the help, the sponsors, the participants and the progress. 

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

Make it a great week!

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

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