Featured posts

Today we talk about real estate, AI, community gardens and more with Davian McKnight and John Willis.

Featured Event: Wednesday, August 9 – Meetup in Medford, Oregon at 6 pm. RSVP Online to let me know you will be there. We will meet at 6pm at Bricktown Brewery!

Sponsor 1: John Pugliano and the Wealthsteading Podcast

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

Top Notch Community Gardens Youtube

Davian McKnight’s Tiktok: @weightsandrealestate

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. 

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Today, we talk about surprise baby rabbits, baby ducks in training, garden abundance, food preservation, ruining cheese, and more.

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

Forage

  • Goldenrod
  • Red Clover
  • Paw Paws in about a month
  • Comfrey
  • Mullein flower

Livestock

  • New baby rabbits
  • Not breeding until september
  • Baby ducks did all ducks go to bed successfully
  • Time to separate the ewes from males
  • Ducks are integrating
  • Sheep have a second grounding rod and the fence shock is improved

Grow

  • Tomatoes are coming on
  • Direct seeding fall garden plants (Weather looks favorable)
  • Japanese beetle attack and wood vinegar
  • Observation about which plants got targeted 
  • Last round of summer squash is up – have gotten two zucchini off of 6 plants (SVB)
  • Covered up in cucumbers
  • Peppers starting to come on
  • Trying to root willow – aquaponics works best

Harvest Meals

  • Cheese class yielded ALL THE CHEESE: Chevre, mozzarella, cream cheese, cheese dip
  • Making cheddar after my Oregon trip

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • The stray dog
  • Weekend Meetup

Infrastructure

  • The gate to Holler Roost is up
  • Another round of hard fencing is in process
  • Still wiring

Finances

  • Hip camp

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

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Today we talk about content creation, tools, new ideas, and building your business with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

Featured event: SelfRelianceFestival.com

Sponsor 1: Senior Chief Electric: https://bit.ly/3MKKbuu

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

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

 

Today, I share the benefits of having completed #75Hard, as well as talk about what life has been like AFTERWARD. We also will have our usual Monday segments on pantry management, the shopping report, a frugality tip, and operation independence.

Featured Event: Earlybird Pricing is Expiring for the Self Reliance Festival. Grab your tickets now.

Sponsor 1: Strong Roots Resources

Sponsor 2: EMPShield.com, Discount Code: LFTN

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Livestream Schedule – Live on Youtube and other places.

  • 🎙️ Today at 4 pm – I’ll be live recording the Monday Podcast. Join me for some interesting discussions!
  • 🎙️ Tuesday at 9:30 am – Don’t miss the Tuesday Coffee Talk with Jack Spirko and John Willis Show. Grab your coffee and be part of the conversation.
  • 🎙️ Friday at 10:30 am – Tune in to the Homestead Happenings Show for all things homesteading.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Barely keeping up with food preservation projects
  • Using up the meat in the black upright freezer to get ready for fall bovines
  • The tomato trick
  • Tomato Picnic Salad, recipe of the week
  • Harvest Right has a new line of freeze driers: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1095.html

Weekly Shopping Report, 7/25/23

I can’t find the page where I wrote down prices, in any pocket. Fortunately, I don’t think anything in Aldi changed.

Our first stop was the recycle center.

We skipped Dollar Tree this week, since I had bought an extra energy drink for my trip, and we didn’t need anything else there.

I ran into Home Depot to check the price of a 2x4x8, and it has indeed dropped quite a bit, to $2.98. It has been months if not years since they were under $3.00.

Aldi was last. Looking at last week’s staple prices, I don’t think anything changed. I did notice definite gaps in the meat coolers. I won’t decide anything about that until this weekend though, since we don’t normally shop on Tuesdays and this could be when they might have a lull. They also had none of the 70% chocolate I like, but the price tag at its spot had not changed, so I’ll just look again this weekend.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.899.

Frugality Tip

Hey all. Today’s frugality tip is a gardening hack. What I use to tie my plants to stakes and trellis is t-shirt yarn. It moves with the plants and prevents you from tying too tight and ruining your plant babies. 

Take an old Tshirt, lay it flat, and cut strips. I cut off any bottom folded over seam on the shirt and discard. Then cut all the way across the shirt. Take that strip and cut into pieces 3-4″ inches long. Then pull those pieces in both directions and they will spring into stretchy “yarn” like ties. 

Double hack, cut a couple of strips off the bottom, then cut the sleeves and neck line off (can use the sleeves to make ties as well) then sew across the bottom of the shirt and you have a stretchy bag you can use for harvesting your veggies, or shopping. 

Operation Independence

  • Freedom Cell and Homesteader’s Alliance Meetup in the Holler, Aug 5
  • Medford Oregon Meetup, Aug 9

Main topic of the Show: Life After #75Hard

What are you going to do to keep your gains after #75hard? What’s next? How is it going now that you are not on #75hard?

All these questions have been pouring in since I finished my 75Hard challenge and I have stayed pretty quiet about it because I just wasn’t sure. I can tell you that my final ten days were the hardest. My body was struggling with the exercise and I had to push through. My morning motivation was crap. I was doing that thing I do when I have done “most” of a thing and do not feel like finishing. 

Which brings me to the lessons learned part of this.

Lesson one: finish

Lesson two: decide

Lesson three: plan

Lesson four: prioritize yourself – and just prioritize the important

Lesson five: no

Lesson six: early starts

Lesson seven: You are the story you tell yourself – i finally dropped below my “stuck weight”

Lesson eight: making old age easier & knowing what you can do

Lesson nine: physical health improves mental health

Lesson ten: our food system is jacked up

So really. What does life look like after #75hard

John willis asked me that and I said I am basically still doing it, just not the water part. He was surprised that was the thing that wrinkles. The delio is sometimes I do not need a gallon, sometimes I need less, sometimes more. Listening to my body seems more important.

  1. Building swimming/workouts/dog walks/pilated/fitness as top priority
  2. Eating clean
  3. Keeping the deadline discipline
  4. No
  5. Looking at doing 75hard type things on a schedule 
  6. Lose another 10-15
  7. Challening myself to swim faster
  8. Working with SHTF Fitness on making more strength and function gains
  9. Marketing consistency, business development, and a big transition at Holler Roast

Social Reminder

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 talk about proper tire selection, the oven turning on, getting ready for fall, and the race to make salsa.

Event: Chicken Processing with Joel Salatin: https://selfreliancefestival.com/product/poultry-processing-october-16/

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Homesteader Alliance and Freedom Cell Meetup Aug 5 at 4:30 in the Holler

Forage

  • Goldenrod
  • Red clover is needing to be picked now
  • Surprise sunflower
  • Root willow cuttings

Livestock

  • 2 dead baby ducks
  • Egg laying desert
  • Teen ducks found pond
  • Teen ducks are trained to go to bed
  • Chickens are all set
  • Ants

Grow

  • Tomatoes are coming on
  • Peppers about to be ready
  • Removed first row of beans
  • Egyptian walking onions seeds
  • Tactical cant identify basil in Nicole’s garden
  • Shade cloth needed
  • Propagating comfrey
  • Fall garden starts in 2 weeks

Homegrown Cooking

  • Ham hock roasted
  • Cucumber Recipe of the week

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Zello and emergencies
  • Hipcamp dog

Infrastructure

  • Cabin electrical
  • Fencing 3.0

Finances

  • Hipcamp income

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

 

When the corn’s in the garden or cheap, cucumbers threaten to take over your counters, herbs are loving the heat, and tomatoes have ripened, try this fresh, fresh side dish.

Today, I am joined by John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and Toolman Tik Cook to talk about building your empire, using social media and YouTube to grow your audience, and more.

Event: Advanced Wound Care with Chuck Peoples

Sponsor 1: John Pugliano of The Wealthsteading Podcast

Sponsor 2: EMP Shield, Coupon Code LFTN

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

ToolmanTim.Co

NicoleSauce.com

SelfRelianceFestival.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

 

Today, I am going to talk about being ready for first aid needs on the homestead.

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

Sponsor 1: Strong Roots Resources: https://bit.ly/42UPCgJ

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

Homestead Advanced Wound Care Class. https://selfreliancefestival.com/product/homestead-medical/

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

  • Tuesday 12:30pm CT Live with Toolman Tim Cook: Build Your Empire
  • Thursday 7pm CT Live for SRF
  • Friday 8am CT Homestead Happenings

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • More Green Beans to put up
  • Sioux Vide Venison Roast
  • Drying more mint for winter teas
  • Redoing the prepper pantry since we wont be remodeling it this year
  • Kitchen Remodel Update

Weekly Shopping Report

Our trip was a little abbreviated this week. Not needing anything there, we skipped Home Depot; I figured to check the price of a 2x4x8 online, but it’s not clear which product I’ve been viewing; it might be $3.67, but it may have dropped a lot, to $2.98. I’ll have to actually go inside next time.

The first stop, as usual, was Dollar Tree. No big changes were evident. The shelves all look pretty well stocked, although there is some duplication.

Aldi was next and last. We found everything we wanted, which for some reason was a short list this week; perhaps because the garden is producing. 

Some staple prices are:

Eggs, $1.12; milk: $2.92; heavy cream: $4.69; butter: $3.19; bacon: $3.99; flour: $2.19; sugar (jumped): $3.09. 

Hearing of shortages, I expected to see the 70% chocolate I like going up, but it is still $1.99 (I don’t think it has ever changed that I remember); and OJ is $3.19 (that’s at least a quart, but I need to recheck to be sure; it’s a large glass bottle).

Untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.899/gallon.

Frugality Tip: Nothing in this week

Operation Independence

  • Around 8 jars of green beans added for “free” this week 

Main topic of the Show: First Aid on the Homestead

Why it is important: Often the hospital is far away, things go wrong on the homestead quickly. It becomes up to you to handle things.

  • Chuck People’s Class at SRF on Wound Care got me thinking
  • Clean, Covered to protect from dirt, Observe
  • The Zello Message
  • What we did: Pressure, Cleaning, Etc – but the hair
  • Sewing scissors (Have a sharp pair of scissors on hand)

Butterfly, steri strips, etc, Good quality clippers

  • Some things to audit:
    • Bandages, supplies, guaze etc
    • Bentadine vs alcohol
    • Stop Bleed, Wound Care, Signs of a concussion, etc
    • Ointments and meds
    • Organization – we moved things around and did not communicate well about it (oops)
    • COMMS

Turns out the animal first aid kit was more together for today’s incident than my generalist human one so that got used.

What to do to prepare

  • Stop the bleed class
  • Wound care class
  • Learn how to handle snake bites and bee stings gone wrong
  • Learn about dealing with illness and herbal remedies

Homesteading can look like all baby goats and garden abundance, but it is a very physical lifestyle. This means that you are exposed to getting hurt, and responsible one it does happen.

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

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

Resources

 

Today we talk about the overall gardening season

Featured event: Foraging Walk by Kerry Brown

On Saturday August 12th, around 10 am at Solomon Park in Wartburg, TN I’ll be holding a foraging walk as a guest of the Morgan County, TN Homesteaders Group. They have a group on Facebook if you search that particular title. Location: Wartburg Civic Center- Solomon Park 132 Carter Street Wartburg, TN 37887

Sponsor 1: John Pugliano of The Wealthsteading Podcast, InvestableWealth.com

Sponsor 2: Agoristtaxadvice.com

Forage

  • Wine berries
  • Watercress is coming back
  • Mint is all over the place
  • Yarrow

Livestock

  • Trapped!
  • Baby ducks got free
  • Compost area is built for chickens
  • Rabbits are moving to grass next week – took us a long time to get that set up because of sheep being added (talk about adding too much at once)
  • Separating the boys from the girls (why)

Grow

  • Overall season update
  • Last seeding of summer things and rotation into fall
  • Processing garlic
  • More on the onion harvest
  • Green beans and shade cloth

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Update on Jenni
  • Meat curing class

Infrastructure

  • Rain assists with analyzing hydrology of the land
  • Solar and power outages

Finances

  • $15 for 16 jars of homemade relish

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 learning new things and how that fits in with a happy and productive life. I also highlight a new side hustle that one of our community has launched, and review the results of a recent survey that came from the weekly mail.

Have you signed up for the weekly mail? Do so here.

Featured Event: Early Bird Prices are about to be a thing of the past for Self Reliance Festival

Sponsor 1: TheHomesteadConsultant.com: https://bit.ly/43aLbid

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

Livestream Schedule

  • Tuesday Live with Davian McNight, 2:30 PM Central
  • Friday Homestead Happenings, 10:30 Central Time 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Getting ready for the canning webinar: Bone in chicken
  • Failed to notice a rotting butternut squash “What’s that smell?”
  • Spicy Pickle relish (thoughts on condiments)
  • Return of the Dinner for One concept
  • Quick Cube Steak Recipe
  • Send me pictures of 4% vinegar if you find them at your store (And how to react to information like that)

Side Hustle Feature: BovineBits

Operation Independence

  • New Round of Items for Auction
  • Chicken Composting System is Beginning to Work
  • Holler Roast Update

Main topic of the Show: Learn New Things or Die

Evocative headline, no?

They say if you are not growing, you are failing in business – the same goes for building your life. If you are not learning something new, you are dying.

  • 75hard, one more day (LEARN new things)
  • Spinning Wheel Community Story
  • Setting it up: attempt | Learning | Attempt | Learning | ATTEMPT | jury rigged part filed | Ordered new part
    • Youtube university
    • Revisited the drop spindle
  • So now yall are going to her for the next few months all about me learning how to spin wool – and this is a good thing
  • Chicken Processing Story (LEARN new things)
  • When things become habitual they seem easy, yet for a first timer, they can be quite hard
  • Are you cruising right now? Or pushing yourself?
  • LEARN new things
  • What is that one thing you have been avoiding because you do not know how to do it? (LEARN new things)

Weekly Mail Survey Results:

  • Community Update, Events, Recipes and Tips (Avoiding the greater reset)

Social connection: Medford Oregon Meetup on August 9 – RSVP Here.

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