Direct Download

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 Tennesseee

Bear Independent

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.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

Direct Download

Join me today for a look at different ways to preserve food at home and ideas on how to make it work in your busy schedule.

Featured Event: Homestead Bootcamp at Haven earth Trade School: https://www.havenearthtradeschool.net/homestead-bootcamp-haven-village

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com

Sponsor 2: Holler Roast Coffee

Livestream Schedule

  • Tuesday, 12:30PM Live with John Willis and Bear Independent
  • Wednesday, 2:00PM Digital Sovereignty with Aron Wagner from American Cloud
  • Friday, 9:30AM Homestead Happenings with the Tactical Redneck

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Working through the rest of the pork, three meals a week
  • Smoked Pork Rib Roast
  • Bone Broth Overload as it gets hot
  • Drying herbal teas for winter
  • (Must harvest the mints)

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Our first stop was Hobby Lobby for some Velcro. Their sewing notions area looked well-stocked.

Next was Home Depot. The store was reasonably busy for a non-weekend day. There is still no price tag on the 2x4x8 studs, but online they have dropped to $3.48. Seems to me I’ve seen some stuff online suggesting the lumber market is “collapsing.” We’ll see…

Last was Aldi. We found everything we wanted. The 70% cacao chocolate was back in stock. It seemed there was more bread than there has been in recent weeks; more pork had returned to the meat coolers, and the cantaloupes were again decent. Staple prices were: bread (20 oz. white): 1.29; eggs: $1.54(-); whole milk: $2.83; heavy cream: $5.29; OJ: $3.29; butter: $3.59; bacon: $3.99; potatoes: $4.49; sugar: $2.99; flour: $2.35; and 80% lean ground beef: $4.09.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.599.

Frugality Tip NOT from Margo

Quality cabinets are hard to find (ask me how I know). If you have a ReStore nearby, you can find some amazing buys. We were able to get a 14 piece set of wood build cabinets. It included 2 tall units and another one with glass doors. Total cost $1800 before taxes.

Have a great day.

Operation Independence

LFTN Community Independence: Chicken Processing

Main topic of the Show: Home Food Preservation For Everyone

As we get into food abundance season, I thought today would be a good time to talk about various home food preservation methods, and how to fit them into your life. Anyone can preserve food and you dont have to invest in tons of infrastructure to do it if you are not yet ready to fully commit.

Growing food and foraging is like printing money when you do it right. Likewise, food preservation is your savings account for winter.

Why Preserve food (Healthier, Saves Time, Savings Account, Skills and resilience)

What are the methods of food preservation

  • Dehydrating
  • Fermenting
  • Curing
  • Removing Exposure to Air (oils, etc)
  • Canning
  • Keeping Cold
  • On the Hoof

TIME SLIDE

What Works Best Where?

How do I create my preservation plan? (The time money grid)

Preserving on a budget/supplies

Example Plan – store what you eat and eat what you store

Fitting it Into Your Busy Life

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

Today we talk about observing your flock, transporting workshop chickens, freezer alarms and sensors, a not so great garden update and more.

Featured Event: Haven Earth Trade School Homestead Bootcamp Next Week

Sponsor 1: EMP Shield, Coupon Code LFTN

Sponsor 2: Holler Roast Coffee

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Forage

  • Elderberry are flowering
  • Black Raspberry
  • Mint Harvest 1.0
  • Dandelion Flower
  • Red Clover
  • Jewel Weed
  • Yarrow
  • Queene Anne’s Lace
  • Lambs Quarter

Livestock

  • Observing your flock and the floppy ear
  • Hoof Trimming Challenge
  • Rabbit Update
  • Duck Drake Culling Season
  • Chicken Day
  • Broody Birds

Grow

  • Garden Slug Update
  • Runner Beans and the food forest
  • Fodder Tree Trimming
  • Weedmageddon
  • Volunteer Marigolds
  • Green Bean Challenge – not giving up yet
  • Duck Coop Compost

 

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Holler Neighbor Chicken Class Help
  • The livestock trailer
  • Basecamp will be available some time in the next 6 months

 

Infrastructure

  • Camper Roof Update
  • Slab Estimates
  • Freezer and a yolink fail
  • Chicken Gut Compost

Finances

  • Nothing to report

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

Today I am joined by Dalia Monterrosa of Welcome to Chickenlandia about chickens, finding your purpose and more/

Featured Event: June 8 Chicken Class at the Holler Homestead

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/webinar

Show Resources

Chickenlandia Website: https://welcometochickenlandia.com/

Instagram: @welcometochickenlandia

Dalia Monterroso is a chicken keeper and a popular teacher on the basics of backyard chicken keeping. She speaks and teaches classes on the joys of chicken keeping and is passionate about broadening the community of chicken keepers to be more diverse and inclusive. She is the creator of the website and YouTube channel “Welcome to Chickenlandia”, podcast “Bawk Tawk”, and an online course called “Chickenlandia’s Backyard Chickens 101”. She also hosted a TEDx talk titled “I Dream of Chickens”.

She is also the author of the book, “Let’s All Keep Chickens! The Down-to-Earth Guide to Natural Practices for Healthier Birds and a Happier World”, a comprehensive guide for both beginners and experienced chicken keepers. The book has also gained popularity among homeschooling families, who appreciate its educational value as part of their learning curriculum. Dalia lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her family, continuing her mission to share the joy and simplicity of chicken keeping to the world.

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

Direct Download

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

TheSurvivalPodcast.com

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.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

Direct Download

Join me today as I share some ways that we thrive through power outages learned by spending days without power over the years. Some of these tips are things no one thinks to tell you.

Featured Event: SelfRelianceFestival.com

Sponsor 1: HollerRoast.com

Sponsor 2: The Wealthsteading Podcast

Livestream Schedule

Tuesday: 9:30am Live with Jack Spirko and John Willis

Wednesday: 2pm all about Chickens with Dalia Monterosso of Chickenlandia

Friday: 9:30a, Homestead Happenings with the Tactical Redneck

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Green beans are GONE!
  • Bone broth every day. Cant wait to get my jars back
  • Freeze drying eggs and other abundance
  • Air drying wild herbal teas
  • Might actually pick and freeze some wild raspberries this week. Might
  • Looking back at pulling the roof from the prepper pantry and redoing it so things are moisture tight in the next few months

Weekly Shopping Report

Our first stop on this Friday’s shopping trip was Home Depot, primarily for bird seed. There is still no tag on the 2x4x8 studs, but the online price is still $3.73.

Our only other stop was Aldi. They have run out of 70% cacao chocolate again. I saw more trays of salmon than usual, in lesser amounts per tray; it’s priced per pound, so that’s not “shrinkflation,” apparently just a packing choice. Other meat choices looked a little sparse, with no pork butts and not a lot of ribs; fewer trays of ground beef as well. Lunch meat remains in good supply. Over in Produce, there was a big box of cantaloupe, but they all looked sorry, so we passed on those. The bananas (and other fruits and Bidens) looked good. Staple prices were: bread (20 oz. white): 1.29; eggs: $1.79; whole milk: $2.83; heavy cream: $5.29; OJ: $3.29; butter: $3.59 (-); bacon: $3.99; potatoes: $4.49; sugar: $2.99; flour: $2.35; and 80% lean ground beef: $4.09.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.599.

Operation Independence

Chicken Processing and the PURGE

Main topic of the Show: 

Seventeen years ago, when I came to the Holler Homestead, some of the first things we did to the place was get set up to thrive through power outages. Back then they were rare and often repaired within an hour or two but growing up in a place where ice storms blew through every few years and no one was really set up for them – well that had set a foundation for things I wanted to make certain were handled no matter where I chose to live.

So much has changed from the early days, including how much time it takes to get things up and running when the power goes out, frequency of power outages, and how gracefully we weather these times.

Yesterday, I sold off two inverters that I had. They were intended to turn my car into a generator in the event of a power outage so that I could cool things down in my fridges and freezers and not have to panic pressure can all the meats here. As I watched them find a new home, I realized that we have not done a show with tips on how to thrive (not just survive) through power outages. Especially the kind that last a long time.

This show is for folks who are on grid but who want to do better when the grid goes down.

  1. Embrace the suck (Which is that you will be putting more effort into comfort during a power outage)
  2. Emotional boosts: rechargeable light bulbs, lanterns, hot coco and a way to make it, story time or other entertainment, having a known plan
  3. Have a plan – make sure everyone knows the plan and their roles, be cross trained, bonus points if it is documented (Mine isn’t)
  4. Tips
    1. Reduce what you cool or heat (Why I have a wood stove)
    2. Use what you have: camping supplies, the propane grill outside, your tent for sleeping in the summer at night, etc.
    3. Inverter/generator is a game changer BUT
      1. While they are in use take everything from the fridge that you plan to use for the day and keep it in a small cooler
      2. Countertop ice maker is a game changer
      3. Consolidate fridges and freezers so they are full
      4. Use paper plates and dish bins bins and wash 1-2 times a day WHILE IT IS STILL LIGHT OUT
    4. Top off battery operated devices while driving if you will be driving (Cigarette chargers with multiple USB Ports). Bonus points if you have power bricks
    5. Fast to cook meals, or low and slow in an insulated bin (or rock pot)
    6. What can you function stack? Woodstove is a crockpot and water heater
  5. Some things to consider for long term resilience
    1. What do you have that ONLY works with electricity and which of these things need to be handled to keep everyone thriving? (HVAC, Cooking, Drying, Lighting, Internet Equipment, Entertainment, Medical Equipment, Animal Habitat like aquariums or ponds)
    2. Can you shift to an alternative? (Gas, Wood, Camping Gear, Regenerative technology, Hard copies, do without)
    3. Can you use a battery supply for the things that you NEED? (Built in battery (A rechargeable device), Power bricks, battery bank, solar device)
    4. Can you find a way to regenerate the things that take power? (Hydro, wind, solar, gases, wood, gravity, hooking up a bike, composting. Etc.

A word on communications.

Mostly make it fun.

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 us for a spontaneous Homestead Happenings today. We talk about the glamper, gardens, food forest, duck cave and more.

Featured event: June 9 Poultry Processing Class

Sponsor 1: TheWealthSteadingPodcast.com

Sponsor 2: HollerRoast.com

 

Forage

 

Livestock

 

Grow

 

Holler Neighbors/Community

 

Infrastructure

 

Finances

 

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!

 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Direct Download

Today Amy Dingmann from A Farmish Kind of Life and I get together for a long overdue catch-up (Not Ketchup) talk. We are much less angry and negative and finding our stride on our homesteads. 

Featured Event: June 8 Chicken Processing Workshop at the Holler Homestead.

Sponsor 1: Kangen Water (Use my link)

Sponsor 2: Agorist Tax Advice

Show Resources

A Farmish Kind of Life

Living Free in Tennessee

 

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

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Direct Download

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 

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

 

Direct Download

Today we celebrate eight years of Living Free in Tennessee with a look back at where we started and why homesteading, why coffee, why community.

Direct Download for episode 1: https://traffic.libsyn.com/nicolesauce/NicoleSauce_Podcast_May_20_2016_-_52016_6.52_PM.mp3 

Featured Event: Haven Earth Trade School Homesteading Bootcamp, June 14-16 in Old Fort Tennessee (Nearish Cleveland and the Ocoee River).https://www.havenearthtradeschool.net/homestead-bootcamp-haven-village 

Live we did yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwreK9qPVKI 

Sponsor 1: EMPShield.com

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com 

 

Livestream Schedule

BIG Week This week! Spicy Sisters are Back This Wednesday at 2pm, Joel Ryals will share his story about moving from Florida to Ohio on the Tuesday Live and we have our usual Homestead Happenings episode this Friday.

 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Harvest Right Freeze Drier is back up and running and helping with a plethora of eggs
  • Affiliate Link For Harvest Right: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1095.html 
  • Designing the final part of the house to include pantry storage, a pool, and an outdoor kitchen 
  • Ground Beef Discussion
  • Time to finish curing the SRF Pork
  • Garden is finally coming together

 

Operation Independence

  • Reduced projects that I am focusing on and as a result finds have also reduced. We are assessing the homestead in terms of what brings value now more than ever. With the extra time, the home is almost back to a source of support rather than a drain. There is a lesson in this.

 

Main topic of the Show: Why Homesteading and Coffee

 

May 20, 2016 – an excerpt

Nine years ago, we started on an adventure in the country. What began as a weekend getaway quickly changed into a small homestead with chickens, gardens, laughter, neighbors, and sometimes the opposite of laughter.

 

The Holler Homestead is known in our area for our home roasted coffee (it takes less time to roast your own than drive to the store), elephant garlic, stone ground flour and hand rolled oats. We also help people learn how to preserve food and are keenly interested in self sufficient living.

 

Y’all, I have not listened to episode one since about a week after recording it to figure out how I could be a better podcaster. It feels like so much has changed, and it has. But the core, the mission, the motivation is still the same as it was on day one. Do you know how good that makes me feel? Also a bit surprised.

 

Back in 2016, this podcast was my only creative outlet. It was an attempt to reach more people who were interested not only on homesteading but it taking whatever steps in their life that they could to build something for them, outside the system, to live as they saw fit, without buying into the societal expectaitons – and without asking permission.

 

>>GexX on Tiktok and the FIFO approach to life<<

  • Fearlessness
  • Hypothesis, test, conclusion
  • Culture to support others who take that same approach 

 

We live in a time where everything is at your fingertips and some people think that is the problem, but it isnt. The problem is that because everything is at our fingertips, people mistakenly think that theoretical learning replaces practical application. And as we like to say around here: Sheep don’t read books.


The book learning is helpful. In fact, I am 1 lesson in on Spirko’s composting course and that theoretical knowledge will greatly impact how we make compost at the Holler Homestead, but just nerding out on bacteria and fungi on the internet will not make the plants outside my back window thrive.

 

Today, in celebration of eight years, i wanted to look at some of the reasons why LFTN, and the Holler Homestead have become what they are today – 

 

Why homesteading?

 

  • Homesteading Mindset teaches us to create value with what we have so that we set a foundation of bringing value to others and can tap into the value that others bring to us. It is NOT a piece of land. 
  • The threat of our society and economy – Back to the land and preserving heritage skills.
  • Homesteading’s natural offspring is freedom – like the true kind of freedom you build by no longer GAF about what you used to think you could not live without (which creates weakness)
  • Your health is the biggest gift you were given and the commercial food system is poison
  • Heals your spirit through seasonal connection, sun light, bacterial connection and more

 

As I think back on the past eight years of this podcast, I started out by wanting to share my personal planner with yall. That was the beginnings of My3Things. And the most surprising thing that happened was the community that we have become and that grows as we share episodes, help one another, get together to do GSD weekends and so much more.

 

8 years ago, I did not think we would become a counter economy and underground network (Explain more about this).

 

8 years ago, I was lucky if one person would come to Chicken day and new we fill event venues, sell out a spring workshop every year, and keep finding more people who want to opt out of the current “normal” and create a better life for themselves and their families.

 

Eight years ago, I had no idea I would talk this long, and I only have because of yall. 

 

Why Community

  • Homesteaders were never alone
  • It is easy to attack one, but hard to attack many and remain in power (Raw milk story)
  • We all need to learn to keep building and we cannot do that without one another

 

Health | Community | Wealth

 

8 years. 

 

8

 

WHY COFFEE 

 

The biggest surprise I had when listening to that old episode was the coffee. In 2016, I sorta did coffee roasting as a side hustle to earn a few hundred dollars. That Nicole did not think she could fin 15-20k to get a commercial roaster. That Nicole still thought that changing policy in our current political structure from the inside would work. That Nicole had no CLUE that she would earn the bulk of her income in just eight years from selling coffee through the mail all over the world. 

 

That Nicole already LOVED coffee she just did not see a way to tap into that love.

 

But that Nicole took a step, started a podcast, set a vision, and walked a little bit each day. And Holler Roast Coffee went from sometimes at the farmers market to what it is today. One steep at a time.

 

Some of you may wonder why I get a glazed over look when you talk to me about your idea that you are excited about only to tell me why you can’t go for it. In those moments, I am trying to decide how to best give you a little push. Some people love to be tied to the back of a truck on a skateboard and taken for a fast ride around the block. Others will back further away from their dream because it was all they could do to talk to me about it to begin with.

They are almost sorry to admit that they love whatever it is that they are telling me they love. As if it is not OK for them to yearn for a slower, simpler way of life. Or it is not OK for them to love knitting, soap making, bone broth, building things with their hands, and so many other things.

 

You love what you love and the truly sad thing is that we got programmed to think that loving something as physical as farming, or carpentry, or a gagillion other “non intellectual” pursuits is somehow less.

 

That is the biggest beast to overcome is that misplaced belief that non intellectual jobs are less. If you are going to spend most of your time building a future based on something you hate because it fits someone elses definition of what is a worthy pursuit, you miss your chance to do something you love. You miss the change for your job to not feel like a job.

 

Someone once asked me if I thought I would be satisfied just being a coffee roaster. They insinuated that being a coffee roaster was not worthy of my smarts.

 

To which I answered: yes.

 

So why coffee? Because I LOVE coffee, plain and simple. I love finding beans, roasting them. I dont love packing and shipping them which is why the new Kcups are done by a copacker.

 

But the idea that roasting coffee is somehow now worthy as a valid pursuit? Absurd and the day you realize your passion is worthy of your time no matter what anyone else thinks, is they day you choose freedom over programming.

 

Here’s to 8 years, almost 1000 episodes, and to what comes next.

 

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