Today we talk about Managing the homestead while down one person, new infrastructure for the animals, impending birth and more!

  • Featured event: Homesteaders Meetup Sat at 4:30 here – info at LivingFreeinTennessee.com
  • Sponsor 1: StrongRootsReources.com: https://bit.ly/42UPCgJ
  • Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com: https://bit.ly/3hDFWpa

Forage

  • Paw paw time

Livestock

  • Bruny is getting close – her udder is growing
  • Time to process another round of rabbits
  • Where to look when the sheep go missing
  • Almost time to integrate smallest ducks which makes management easier

Grow

  • Having trouble getting harvest in while working in Nashville on my duplex
  • Lettuce is germinated just need to keep it going through times of no rain while the plants are small
  • Fall beets look horrible
  • Peppers are slow
  • Storing basil in the kitchen
  • Ginger is up

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Meetup for our local freedom cell on Saturday at 4:30
  • Played a new game – world without Rule of Law

Infrastructure

  • New chicken waterer – Cement tray with water – then put in a 5 gallon bucket, drilled a hole in the side to fill with a hose then turn it upside down. Easier to clean all the parts
  • Installing semi permanent fence through the tree lines in the secondary property. If it works, will do more sections to make rotation easier. _Aluminum wire that will be charged when in us

Finances

  • Tracking is on point – 
  • Focus on rental and home sale

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 the Berkey Lawsuit with the EPA, Artificial Intelligence, storing medications past their expiration date, chicken water, plants, homestead data management, Self Reliance Festival and business with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

Million Satoshi Give Away Episode Highlight: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2021/12/08/food-freedom-with-billy-bond/

Enter your favorite Episode here: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2023/08/14/one-million-downloads-celebration/

 

Mention the weekly mail

 

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

The Survival Podcast

 

Main content of the show

 

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

 

Winter is coming even though it is not fall. T is stressed out right now. Time to audit infrastructure, water, firewood, feed hay for the sheep and goats, wood chips and more.

Featured event October 16 Chicken Processing: https://selfreliancefestival.com/product/poultry-processing-october-16/

Sponsor 1: HollerRoast.com: https://bit.ly/3oq04OO

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

Forage

  • Shake the Paw Paw Tree
  • Watercress is back
  • Mullein Seeds
  • Oyster mushrooms
  • MInt and other herbs are still with us but the time is soon that a frost will come

Livestock

  • Pregnant Ewe
  • Male sheep are settled here – trying to eat bark of fodder trees
  • Baby Ducks going outside of the chicken tractor for the first time today 
  • Chicken Eggs should start soon
  • Max fd around and found out
  • About time to breed rabbits

Harvest Meals

  • Saute with wild mushrooms
  • Holler Stew 
  • The Pork Tenderloin thing

Grow

  • Lettuce has germinated
  • Fall beets look sad
  • Still getting beans and tomatoes off the garden but they are slowing down
  • First brussels sprouts harvest ever
  • Time to start prepping the garlic patch for the year
  • Peppers are very slow, unlike former years
  • Tomato horn works and other caterpillars have arrived (WHy and what we are doing about it)
  • Planning to just maintain the lettuce patch into the fall as things get super busy here

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Tested a prepper game: WROL
  • Traded coffee for eggs

Infrastructure

  • Getting ready to work in Nashville on drywall next week we could not find anyone to do work there so it is up to us
  • Staining tajmaholler
  • Rabbit redo starting

Finances

  • Started the new tracking system: meeting post errand run as a policy, spreadsheet, immediate reimbursements. 

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 Nicole Sauce and John Willis welcome Joel Ryals to talk about building on your passion, the rumors of coming shut downs, and more.

Featured Event: SelfRelianceFestival.com

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

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com: https://bit.ly/43r4dkx

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

FortressK9.com

Main content of the show

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

 

Over the weekend, I got y’alls attention with a post about bookkeeping software. And I FIRED QuickBooks Online. Based on your response, I think it is time to have a discussion about the struggles of a creative addressing things in business that are outside our areas of talent and priority. I will share the things I must make myself do and how I handle it. Just because I am not inclined toward a thing does not mean I should ignore it.

Featured Event: Back to the Land Festival: Backtothelandfestival.com

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Sponsor 2: The Wealth Steading Podcast: InvestableWealth.com

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Livestream Schedule

🎙️ Tuesday at 12:30 pm – Don’t miss the Tuesday Live with Bobby Spags and John Willis. You can also stream it on Odysee, here: https://odysee.com/@livingfree:b

LFTN YT: https://www.youtube.com/@lftn/streams

SOE YT: https://www.youtube.com/@SOEtacticalgear/streams

🎙️ Thursday at 7:30 pm – SRF Live with Toolman Tim! The master of kicking the poverty mindset to the curb will join me. Be sure to tune in for a great show!

You can catch the show:

SRF YT:  https://www.youtube.com/@selfreliancefest

LFTN YT: https://www.youtube.com/@lftn/streams

SOE YT: https://www.youtube.com/@SOEtacticalgear/streams

🎙️ Friday at 10:30 am – Tune in to the Homestead Happenings Show for all things homesteading. You can also stream it on Odysee, here: https://odysee.com/@livingfree:b

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • 64.5 jars of green beans put up
  • 20 jars of salsa
  • Added 8 pints of tomato sauce – tomato sauce shortcut tips
  • The turkey that was rabbit – a recipe
  • Covid shot down rumors, assessing your storage, thoughts on proper reaction to all this noise

Weekly Shopping Report: 8/26/2023

Dollar Tree: One drink cooler is still out of order, but the others are mostly full. There isn’t much Venom left, so I hope they get more, although they do have the brewed tea now. Other stock looks good too, and the store was busy enough that a second line was opened.

Although we skipped Home Depot, I checked online for the price of a 2x4x8, and it remains at $3.68.

Aldi was last. We found most of what we wanted except cherries and dark chocolate; they had other varieties which I skipped. They did have heavy cream back in stock. Staple prices were: milk: $2.78; eggs: $1.06; heavy cream: $4.69; OJ: $3.19; butter: $3.19; bacon: $3.99; sugar: $3.09, and flour: $2.19. I may need to add potatoes; Sonia said this is the first time they were over $6, and they had been under $5 or even under $4.

Untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.899 / gallon. A side effect of having a rental car while ours was in the shop is that I got to discover that the usual corrupted stuff (with ethanol) is $3.399 / gallon.

Frugality Tip from Janet

Save 8-1/2 x 11” sheets of paper (printer mis-prints, etc.) and when you have a large stack of paper, take it to a copy shop and have them turn it into small notepads for you.

Operation Independence

  • Today’s show is all about WHY a creative would invest hours of time in tracking finances and doing other annoying clerical things. It is all about optimizing tax deductions to keep more money in my pocket as well as increasing efficiency in my enterprises so that we are increasingly stable.

Main topic of the Show: Creatives’ Struggles in Business

I struck a chord over the weekend with a post about Quickbooks Online and bookkeeping: I fired QBO. I got more engagement on that post than most over the past few months. People reached out with advice and suggestions. People also reached out saying the want to follow my progress because they have the same problem.

And what is the problem? I am a creative. I think big picture first, then details. If I was going to be screened, I would probably be diagnosed with ADHD and my chosen lifestyle aplifies those characteristics. In fact, they REALLY wanted to diagnose me in the third grade and Mom would not let them. Thank you MAMA SAUCE.

Creative Challenges in Business

  • I know that tracking details gives critical feedback, but I hates it
  • Bookkeeping and tax codes are freaking complex – unnecessarily so – and this impacts tracking systems leading to frustrations
  • The bookkeeping and finance industry has no motivation to make this easy for us
  • High Pressure of doing it wrong: Fines, audits, and jail time OH MY!
  • The challenge of FINISH

Characteristics of creatives:

  1. We thrive when making something – and suffer when tracking things, unless it supports making something
  2. Prone to starting multiple things at one time
  3. Either shift focus often or can only concentrate on one thing (The coming presentation problem)
  4. Prefer operation outside the box, dont really care about rules or procedure

That being said, I know the power of having things tied up, prepared well in advance, finished and tracked from a feedback standpoint. The beauty of being in business is that the money stops when you are not meeting the needs of your customers and that is a pretty instant feedback.

Addressing Creative Challenges in Business

  • I know that tracking details gives critical feedback, but I hates it (Mindset)
  • Bookkeeping and tax codes are freaking complex – unnecessarily so – and this impacts tracking systems leading to frustrations (What I have tried, shortcuts, outsourcing)
  • The bookkeeping and finance industry has no motivation to make this easy for us (Work in advance to simplify your corporate structure)
  • High Pressure of doing it wrong: Fines, audits, and jail time OH MY! (You found your why – don’t let it paralyze you)
  • The challenge of FINISH (#My3Things)

Summary:

  1. Outsource or Hire to your Weakness
  2. Change your perspective: Investing time in tracking is an important tool toward future success and being able to create more
  3. #my3things

So my creative listeners – what do you do to handle your creative challenges in business?

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 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

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