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Three Lessons Learned After 1 Month on Solar – EP 878

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Join me as I share with you three things about being on solar that I did not realize I would experience as well as our usual Monday segments.

Featured Event: Self Reliance Voices: Lessons from Legends

Sponsor 1: InvestableWealth.com

Sponsor 2: EMPSHIELD.COM, coupon code LFTN

Livestream Schedule

  • Tuesday Live with Hand Hewn Farms, 12:30PM CT
  • Wednesday Interview with The Canny Couple, 2pm CT
  • Thursday SRF Live: 7pm CT
  • Friday Homestead Happenings, 9:30AM CT

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • We’ve been eating lots of green beans because I lack motivation to make more effort
  • Makin Bacon
  • Still in a use it up phase and I canned so much more bone broth than w e need

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Dollar Tree

  • Drink coolers are partially empty i
  • Red Bull products for $2.50. 
  • Plenty of drinks on the shelves. 
  • The food coolers are mostly full too.

Aldi was rather crowded. Stock levels looked good, and we found everything we wanted. Staple prices were: 

  • eggs: $2.78; 
  • whole milk: $2.86 (-); 
  • heavy cream: $5.19; 
  • OJ: $3.29; 
  • butter: $3.69; 
  • bacon: $4.25; 
  • potatoes: $3.99; 
  • sugar: $3.09; 
  • flour: $2.29;
  • 80% lean ground beef: $4.59 (+).

Home Depot has  a lot of bulbs, vines, and onion starts in a row of islands in the front. The tool islands have lots of empty compartments. There are still specials going for Milwaukee 12V “Red Lithium” tools and batteries, with just a few of the Ryobi USB-charged tools left, and some 18V One+ items. Fire extinguishers area was full, including various smoke and CO alarms. 

A 2x4x8 remains at $3.38.

Untainted regular has dropped a dime to $3.599/gallon.

Frugality Tip from Margo without a t

Ever tried a new recipe and it ended up not what you thought it was going to be? Don’t throw it out, do something else with it. I recently tried a new humus recipe and it turned out like a soup. 

So I made some pasta, poured this roasted red pepper chickpea sauce on it, added some roasted tomatoes and a little homemade Italian salad dressing and boom, it is now a pretty darn good pasta salad. Maybe add some roasted chicken to it. The possibilities are endless… And now after writing this, I could have made a soup too. 

It can be frustrating to make something that doesn’t turn out like you want, but to me it’s more frustrating to throw good food away. Get creative, who knows you might accidentally make something you will make again one day. 

Operation Independence

  • Avoiding the need to buy a new appliance through appliance repair
  • Mechanical appliances and helpful video – NEED LINK FROM T – Sorry guys i will update it here when he sends it!!

Main topic of the Show: 3 Lessons Learned after 1 Month of Solar

Reference: HackMyHomestead.com

Background on the solar system and how we sized it. 

How long it took for it to work right and barriers to functioning that we ran into.

The lessons:

  1. Know Your Why, Don’t Be Rosy Eyed About The Savings, Choose Wisely
    1. Sized based on budget for resilience
    2. Developed to be scalable as in we can add batteries and panels if we like
    3. Reputable companies for equipment means we got a free upgrade when a new model came out
  2. Installing solar into an existing home will teach you things about the wiring that you had no idea about. 
    1. Found Bad Wiring
    2. Found Bad Grounding
    3. Needed to get some other things up to code for safety not just because of codes
  3. Access to the real time data helps you make wiser decisions
    1. Time of day to use water and why I have changed
    2. The clogged spin down filters
    3. Cloudy days make me even less happy than they used to
    4. Trimming Trees and the Big Picture
    5. Frosty mornings
    6. Snow and dust and panel cleaning

Bonus observation: Knowing the why and how it fits into my long term energy resilience plan has really helped me embrace the system, learn more about solar, and not have dispatched expectations. Also, batteries are WAAAAAAAY more important than panels. You do get a tax credit FWIW.

Make it a great week!

Song:

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

Community

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Creamy Shagbark Vinaigrette Dressing

  • 4 TBS balsamic vinegar
  • 4 TBS shagbark hickory syrup
  • 3 TBSP sour cream
  • 1 TSP salt
  • 3 TBSP olive oil

Place ingredients in a pint-sized mason jar and securely tighten the lid. Shake well to mix the ingredients. Store in the fridge when not in use.

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Homestead Happenings for March 8, 2024 – EP 877

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Today we talk about fencing decisions, the training center, a seed exchange next week and more with the Tactical Redneck.

Featured Event: March 16 seed exchange and potluck: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/seed-exchange-and-potluck/ 

Sponsor 1: https://bit.ly/3MBBELx, Coupon Code LFTN

Sponsor 2: Harvest Right Freeze Dryers: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1095.html 

Forage

  • Lots of chickweed and deadnettle
  • Watercress has been wiped out by flooding (But it will be back)
  • Dandelion flower and greens (Bitterness)
  • Plantain is up
  • Violet greens (A word on stems)

Livestock

  • Rabbit ear mites and ivermectin
  • Baby lambs are due so we keep expecting to see some
  • Duck coop daily hoe
  • 1 dozen chicken eggs for sale – just one 
  • Eggs are back at enough volume for T’s second dinner
  • Sheep look skinnier than we would like – increased their pellet
  • Goats looking for a new home

Grow

  • Seedlings are in
  • 15 minute homestead: Microswale 1 is fully prepped for mulch application and half way mulched
  • Round 2 of seedlings will happen this weekend/early next week
  • Longevity Spinach is putting off shoots for planting

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Steve helping with the ac foundation
  • Shooting day and holler neighbor dinner

Infrastructure

  • Pond fencing
  • AC Foundation
  • Rabbit coop

Finances

  • We finally have eggs for sale which means I need to make a sign
  • Time to launch to processing class

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

 

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Tuesday Live with John Willis, Nicole Sauce and Jack Spirko – Ep 875

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Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and Jack Spirko 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

TheSurvivalPodcast.com

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.com 

Main content of the sho

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

 

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Planting and Cultivating Garlic – Ep 874

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Today we talk about how to prepare for, plant and cultivate garlic because a listener sent a note in saying that she had struggled with this. We will also cover our usual Monday segments. And I have something to say about disappointing people and the word no.

Featured Event: March 16 Seed Exchange and Potluck, 1pm-3pm, FREE, https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/seed-exchange-and-potluck/ 

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/webinar

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

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

🎙️ Monday, 2pm, How to Plant and Cultivate Garlic

🎙️ Tuesday, 9:30am, First Tuesday Coffee Chat with Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast, and John Willis, Special Operations Equipment

🎙️ Wednesday, 2:00pm, Interview with Jessica Kraft

🎙️ Thursday, 7:00pm, SRF Live

🎙️ Friday, 9:30am CT: Homestead Happenings with the Tactical Redneck

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Ky Sustainable Living Expo Presentation: Power Pantry Method
  • Phases of homestead pantry management: Beginning | Intermediate | Advanced | Pro
  • Curing Pork Bellies into bacon – see videos
  • Basturma update
  • Freezer Update

Weekly Shopping Report 2/26

We took our usual trip on Saturday, skipping Home Depot again. We really need our Santa Fe back from the shop to carry large or long loads, like 8′ wood, 10′ PVC, or a half dozen bags of garden soil in addition to our groceries.

The Dollar Tree drink coolers were in much better shape. Will they stay that way? Cue the theme from Jeopardy; they have not been consistent. Other aisles looked good; Sonia found a couple of minor things in there, the typical craft stuff or organizing accessories.

Although we did not go in, the online price of a 2x4x8 at Home Depot is still $3.38.

Aldi has larger crowds than previously, but still not too bad. There was plenty of Masaca, and more of the chocolate I like than I’ve been seeing. Staple prices were: eggs: $2.78; whole milk: $2.93; heavy cream: $5.19 (+50c); OJ: $3.29; butter: $3.69; bacon: $4.25; potatoes: $3.99; sugar: $3.09; flour: $2.29; and 80% lean ground beef: $3.99. The egg price is correct; same as last week, a full dollar higher than the week before.

Untainted regular gasoline is still $3.699/gallon.

Frugality Tip from Justin

I don’t normally think of it in saving money, more about using it all up. Which ends up being very similar in the end.

This tip is for the bars of soap some people use for the shower or at the sink. When the little piece is getting so slim it is getting hard to hold on to it, I don’t throw them away.

I use the technique of scoring from pottery to attach the little piece to a new bar of soap. It will stay there and wear down completely without breaking off and being wasted if done properly.

I get both the new bar and the small sliver nice and wet and soapy (perhaps use them in the shower). Then I use a comb to put scratch marks in both pieces where they will press together. Anything hard and pointy enough to make marks in the soap will probably work for this.

Next I press them together very firmly. I try to use my palms to press them together with no gaps. I also try to not let them slide around at this point, I want them to start welding together. After they have bonded a bit, I will add some more score marks around the seams of the two pieces. 

Once the pieces have been scored and pressed together I set them down on the soap dish to dry. The next day they are bonded as if they were made that way at the factory and the different colored piece of the last bar will simply wear down until nothing remains but the new bar. And the new bar will be welded onto the next ad infinitum.

Community Highlight: 

What to do when you disappoint people.

Sunshine Prepper

https://www.youtube.com/@SunshinePrepperTN 

Operation Independence: Let things go when you need to

Rams and goats oh my.

Main topic of the Show: Planting and Cultivating Garlic

Why we are doing this

How to choose your garlic: Hardneck vs soft neck

Sourcing Seed Garlic: Baker’s Creek, Seed Savers, RareSeeds

Example: https://www.rareseeds.com/garlic-music-1-2-lb

  • Seed versus bulbs

Preparing your planting area

When to plant

Mulching practices

Watering needs

When Are they Ready to harvest?

Processing Garlic After Harvest

Storing fresh garlic

Other ways to store garlic

Choosing garlic for replanting

A garlic business idea

 

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

 

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Homestead Happenings for March 1 2024 – Ep 873

Direct Download

Today we talk about changing our approach to sheep, mindset in assessing homestead finances, egg influx, the power of community and more.

Featured event: Last change for early bird pricing: https://selfreliancefestival.com/?aff=nicolesauce 

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com

: 400;”>Sponsor 2: Mastersingers of Cookeville Unity in the Community Concert Sunday at 3pm, https://mastersingersinc.com/product/unity-in-the-community-viii/ 

Forage

  • Stinging nettle
  • Dandelion
  • No mushrooms this week but morel season is upon us

Livestock

  • The priority talk
  • The ram decision
  • Catching the baby ram
  • 5 eggs a day on the ducks and 4 a day on the chickens
  • Time to reset the coop

Grow

  • Seedling shelves are in – seedlings are not
  • Peas have not yet germinated
  • Swiss chard is starting to come on
  • IMO week

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Chasing sheep as a neighborhood activity
  • Community connections through MAGS
  • 1 Million Satoshi give Away

Infrastructure

  • Fence Posts and Fencing
  • Pond fencing
  • Failed dishwasher and repairing vs replacing

Finances

  • Currently measuring in terms of not needing to buy food rather than generation profit

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

 

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Episode 872 – Jumpstart Ken Eash

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Today, we help Ken Eash find ways to accelerate his coaching business. This is a flash mob of the best kind and YOU may be the key to it all.

Featured Event: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/self-reliance-through-permaculture/ March 2 in Crossville, TN $25

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

Sponsor 2: EMPShield.com code LFTN

About the Accelerator Program: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2024/01/30/accelerator/

Apply to be accelerated: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2024/01/29/accelerator-application/

The Experts

Shawn Mills, Hack My Homestead https://hackmyhomestead.com/ 

Toolman Tim Cook: https://www.toolmantim.co/ 

Nicole Sauce: https://www.nicolesauce.com/ 

Show Resources

Find Ken Eash: https://www.empoweringforwardmomentum.com/membership-8916

A brainstorm discussion with Ken as he developes the next phase of his 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

Advisory Board

Resources

 

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Tuesday Live with John Willis, Nicole Sauce and Dustin from Wazoo Gear Company

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Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and 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

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.com 

WazooGear.Com

 

Main content of the sho

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

 

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Episode 870 – Late Winter Garden Prep

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Today we talk about what you can do now to get your garden beds ready for spring planting, even though you procrastinated til late winter on setting them up. We will also cover Tales From The Prepper Pantry, The Weekly Shopping Report, A Frugality Tip, Operation Independence.

From the Weekly Mail. Livestream Schedule https://www.youtube.com/@lftn/streams

🎙️ Monday, 2pm, Late Winter Garden Preparation

🎙️ Tuesday, 12:30pm, Tuesday Live with Wazoo Gear Company, and John Willis, Special Operations Equipment

🎙️ Wednesday, 2:00pm, Accelerator for Ken Eash!

🎙️ Thursday, 7:00pm, Three Sisters Live

🎙️ Friday, 9:30am CT: Homestead Happenings with the Tactical Redneck

Featured Event: Early Bird Is Almost Over for The Self Reliance Festival! SelfRelianceFestival.com

Sponsor 1: HollerRoast.com

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/Webinar

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Fresh sprouts in four or five days 
  • Refining what I store since the dietary needs have changed in the household
  • Planning the garden for 2024
  • Seed Starts
  • Investigating the ability to update the prepper pantry (Not sure if we CAN hang melamine)
  • Basturma

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Dollar Tree was first. Some of the drink coolers are again completely empty. I think they may still just be trying to assemble their defecation in there, because there are plenty of drinks on shelves. The food coolers are well-stocked, and other aisles look to be in good shape too. Don’t overlook Dollar Tree for cleaning supplies; that area has always been well-stocked. They have a lot of the Awesome branded products, which we really like. Lysol, Ajax, and other name brands are all represented in this section. A buck and a quarter (plus extortion) beats the tar out of typical grocery store prices on these products.

Although we did not go into Home Depot, the online price of a 2x4x8 has gone up, to $3.38, a 13-cent increase.Aldi has had slightly larger crowds the past few weeks. Other than the hiatus with the Masa, they have not had difficulty maintaining stock, and we found everything we wanted. Staple prices were: eggs: $2.78 (+); whole milk: $2.93; heavy cream: $4.69; OJ: $3.29; butter: $3.69; bacon: $4.25; potatoes: $3.99; sugar: $3.09; flour: $2.29; and 80% lean ground beef: $3.99 (+). That egg price is a full dollar higher; if not hand-written, I’d think it was a typo. We didn’t buy eggs this week, so I can’t confirm on our receipt. Although I had heard egg prices might be going higher again, I’ll keep an eye on this one, as that’s a huge jump.

Untainted regular gasoline was $3.699/gallon last week. That’s slightly higher, but could also be a station difference.

Frugality Tip from Margo with an oCool weather, means outside projects. For me one was a painting project. I did some house touch up, and I painted the driveway. My frugality tip is NEVER buy the Cheapest paint roller.  Save yourself paint and energy expended by buying a good roller!!! Ask me how I know. 

Operation Independence

  • Making an egg for sale sign this weekend to FINALLY start the egg business after almost a year of getting ready, starting with the building of the Holler Roost.
  • Sheep Math

Main topic of the Show:  Late Winter Garden bed Preparation

Intentions can help us move toward our best goals and build the life we want to live, rather than continuing to live a life that was developed for us, by someone else. We talk about this a bunch here because the systems in our society increasingly lead toward a life lived in service to the system rather than to ourselves and our chosen communities.

It can be so hard to get people who have been programmed by the system to see the system as the only option on how to break out. Yet when the system fails people, they get scared and start looking for options. And when they start looking for options, if we can be mentors and connectors, a small percentage of those looking for a better life will start to make the changes it takes to get here.

Many of you have heard my story of transitioning from a socialist leaning toward communist to libertarian overnight. <Tell the story>

And that change seems like it just happened and I became the Nicole Sauce you know today, but that is not at all how it happened. I still had habits and programming to bust through. Heck, despite being a thought leader in the world of agorism, I still find programming that I MUST deprogram.

But the Intention to move myself toward true freedom and opt out of the system as much as I can is how I have moved from an urban chick completely unprepared to take care of myself through anything, to a prepared, badd-assed homesteader not afraid to share failures alongside successes because the INSTAGRAM homesteading community often only shows the good side of homesteading and, gorsdurnit, homesteading is heartbreaking, hard, messy, gross and one fo the most rewarding parts of the life I have built for myself.

What does all this have to do with garden prep you ask?

Well, I HAD intentions to get my garden beds put away for the fall, but what really happened is I spoke at a bunch of events and handled a major repair to my home. And it is time for spring planting in Tennessee though we are not in spring for another 3 weeks.

So today I talk about getting your garden ready for spring planting.

Never had a garden there before:

  1. Til vs no til
  2. Raised bed vs in ground
  3. Sod removal
  4. Solarizing or smothering
  5. The role of mulch
  6. What I would do if faced with a grass bed in late February north vs south

Existing garden

  1. Cover crop vs no cover crop over the winter
  2. What you could have done with tarps or cardboard but you did not do
  3. Germination and mulch
  4. Planning what you will plant with your current reality
  5. What I would do now to get ready for spring planting
  6. Biochar, IMF, Lactobacillus, fungi from the woods, synthetic fertilizers, etc

Stephen Raisner: https://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/naturalframing-ai

All in all it is not too late to get your beds ready but you will not do as well as you would have done. However, you can make a HUGE difference this year by simply making some IMF, which you still have time to do, for example. And if you do a bit each weekend between now and planting, you should be in good shape anyway.

So get out there and grow some food guys!

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

Community

Resources