Featured posts

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Homestead Starter Pack, 5pm Central

Forge Your Path to Self-Sufficiency

Are you over it? Over relying on unstable commercial food sources? Longing for a resilient and self-sufficient lifestyle?

Explore the Homesteading Starter Pack, an online course. This seven-week series, starting on June 21, will equip you with essential homesteading skills to transform your home into a productive homestead.

Led by three long-time homesteaders:

  • Nicole Sauce of Living Free in Tennessee (THAT’s Me!)
  • Michael Leonido of Leos Homestead
  • Ryan Steva, The Homestead Consultant

This course provides practical tips and knowledge to help you design a productive home, reduce your grocery bill, and connect with high-quality food. These skills can be applied to any home, even if you don’t have a homestead yet, allowing you to immediately benefit from the homesteading mindset.

Catch the workshops live or watch the recordings at your convenience. Here’s the schedule:

  1. June 21: “Create a Successful Garden Your First Year” – Secrets to a bountiful harvest, optimizing small spaces, troubleshooting pests and diseases, and tips for weeding and harvesting. ($95)
  2. June 28: “Raising Small Livestock: Poultry and Rabbits” – Best practices for choosing livestock, providing nutrition and water, avoiding illness, and utilizing homestead-scale processing options. ($95)
  3. July 5: “Victory Garden Poultry: A Permaculture Approach” – Integrate poultry into your permaculture system for a self-sustaining ecosystem. ($95)
  4. July 12: “Beginning Canning: The Waterbath Method” – Learn preservation methods, the importance of home canning, and safety measures to avoid foodborne hazards. ($95)
  5. July 19: “Advanced Canning: Safety with Low Acid Foods” – Insights into pressure canning, time-saving tips, and delicious meal ideas. ($95)
  6. July 26: “Curing Meats on a Homestead” – Explore meat curing methods, food safety, and try out different recipes. ($95)
  7. August 2: “Introduction to Making Cheese” – Step-by-step process of making cheese, sourcing milk, and proper cheese storage. ($95)

The Homesteading Starter Pack provides guidance from experienced homesteaders who understand the challenges of integrating these skills into a busy lifestyle. Choose the projects aligned with your goals and receive practical advice.

Get all seven webinars for $495 (originally $665). (LFTN Member, check your portal!)Meet Your Instructors

Nicole Sauce – Living Free in Tennessee: A catalyst for rapid community creation, business growth, and homesteading. Nicole simplifies the development of a productive home through her podcast.

Michael Leonido – Leos Homestead: Transitioned from city living to homesteading over seventeen years. Manages pigs, goats, poultry, and perennials with his family in New Hampshire.

Ryan Steva – The Homestead Consultant: Experienced in permaculture, home and land inspections, and building his own homestead. Addresses personal health challenges through regenerative food systems.

Embark on your journey towards self-sufficiency and resilience. Purchase the Homesteading Starter Pack and I will throw in my popular SMART Homesteading Webinar recording for FREE!

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Episode 761 – You Need To Fire Someone

When you are making lots of policies, you need to fire someone, and other words of wisdom.

Featured event: The Homestead Starter Pack, a 7-week course: https://dev.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/homesteading-starter-pack-a-seven-week-course/

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

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

Livestream Schedule

  • No Tuesday Live
  • Thursday 7pm SRF Live
  • Friday at 10:30am CT – Homestead Happenings

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Chicken Workshop Prep
  • Chili and Smoked pork enchiladas
  • Redoing the shelving in the prepper pantry
  • Intervention

Operation Independence

  • Thank you to the community

Main topic of the Show: You Need To Fire Someone

When you are making lots of policies, you need to fire someone.

Call people back. (on their terms)

If you are having trouble focusing go work out.

Anyone can die at any time: Embrace that.

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

 

Consistency wins over skill in the long run.

Invest time in what matters, not in endless distractions.

Not my monkeys, not my circus – and none of my business.

Pushing through no matter what, matters. So does prioritizing yourself.

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Episode 760 – The Holler Solar Build with Shawn Mills

Today I welcome Shawm Mills from Hack My Homestead to talk about the Holler Homestead solar project as well as talk about how to approach off grid planning in a big picture way, with goals in mind.

Featured Event: Self Reliance Festival

Sponsor 1: StrongRootsReources.com

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Show Resources

HackMyHomestead.com

Shawn’s Kickstarter

Main content of the show

Shawn Mills, founder of Hack My Homestead has been active in our network for over six years. His Mission is to help fellow homesteaders by providing practical and accessible ideas with easy to follow instructions.

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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Shawn Mills Solar Water Pumping Documentary Kickstarter: Researching Solar Power

Shawn Mills of HackMyHomestead.com is running a Kickstarter campaign for a documentary that does deep research on pumping water with just the sun. Support for his project starts at just $1. Check out all the details here.

Shawn’s documentary will research the setup and testing of water pumps, controllers, and solar panels. Over 90 combinations will be explored, providing invaluable data. With this information, you can design your own system confidently rather than spend $4000 or more on an “off the shelf” solution.

Shawn’s campaign funded in only a few days but he has gotten tons of questions about Ram Pumps so we put our heads together on a stretch goal.

Stretch Goals and LFTN Collaboration

Today, Shawn announced a collaboration with LFTN to provide digital add ons if he reaches the $7,000 stretch goal. With this extra funding, he will add research on ram pumps to his documentary. 

Support Shawn’s campaign to make this educational documentary a reality. Funds raised will acquire new pumps and cover editing, publishing, and distribution costs.

Shawn has been a key member of our community for over 6 years and I am so excited to see him launch this new project. Let’s give him a good boost.

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Episode 759 – The Mindset to Body Connection

Today, we will cover our usual Monday segments and discuss the connection between Mind and Body.

Featured Event: Chicken Processing: https://bit.ly/3MU6xLr

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

Sponsor 2: Senior Chief Electric: https://bit.ly/3MKKbuu

DONT MISS OUT on the seven skill Homestead Starter Pack bundle of online classes! https://dev.livingfreeintennessee.com… LFTN Members, you know what to do.

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

Episode 758: Homestead Happenings for June 9, 2023

Today we talk about newest forage in the Holler, injuries and homesteading, and garden success. 

Featured Event: Featured Event: Chicken Processing: https://bit.ly/3MU6xLr

Sponsor 1: DiscountMylarBags.com: https://bit.ly/43r4dkx

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

Forage

  • Bee balm is blooming
  • Lemon balm and mint are in high production
  • Elderflower – fritters
  • Honeysuckle
  • Jewel weed
  • Queen Anne’s lace versus Poison Hemlock
  • Wild raspberries
  • Lambsquarter

Livestock

  • Duck jail, 
  • Incubating duck eggs, 
  • Bunny processing (chicken workshop june 24)

Grow

  • brassicas and wood vinegar, 
  • lettuce, 
  • peas, 
  • chard, 
  • nasturtium, 
  • radishes, 
  • basil, 
  • sage, 
  • oregano, 
  • thyme. 
  • Garlic is close. 
  • 1st tomato…not mine
  • Suckers
  • carrots!!

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Getting ready to drop a car to Jenni
  • The Auction Website: jennihill.livingfreeintennessee.com

Infrastructure

  • Still reshaping places on the property to calm water runoff

Finances

  • Hipcamp is working!

Homesteading Starter Kit Starts June 14, 2023, members, you know what to do.

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 757: Sustainable Living with Jason Sparks and Jake Snyder

Today I welcome Jason Sparks and Jake Snyder from Kentucky Sustainable Living to talk about how their community grew in just three years, what it takes to be a homesteader, and how to get a regional festival up and running.

Featured Event: Kentucky Sustainable Living Festival

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

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

Show Resources

Kentucky Sustainable Living Festival

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

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Episode 756: Tuesday Kick in the Pants with Willis, Spirko and Sauce

Today we talk about the abuses of the foster system in the US, how men are treated in family court, starting and growing your business and we take listener questions with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

Featured Event: Self Reliance Festival: https://bit.ly/3McscNj

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

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com: https://bit.ly/3hDFWpa

Connect With Us

GoFundMe for Jenni’s Cancer

Events Cited in our Discussion

* June 17 Chainsaw Event at SOE

* July 20 15th anniversary event for TSP in Dallas

* June 24 Sixth Annual Poultry Processing in the Holler (1 hour east of Nashville): 

* October 14-15: Self Reliance Festival at SOE: https://selfreliancefestival.com/?aff=nicolesauce

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

 

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Episode 755: Train to Your Weakness

Today, I talk about when to train to your weakness, rather than outsource to it because I just took Fighting Pistol at Tactical Response in Camden, Tn and was blown away with how much I was able to learn in just two days.

We’ll dive into the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, so you can make informed decisions for your personal growth.

Featured Event: Chicken Processing: https://bit.ly/3MU6xLr

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

Sponsor 2: Senior Chief Electric: https://bit.ly/3MKKbuu

Fighting Pistol: https://www.tacticalresponse.com/products/fighting-pistol

Livestream Schedule

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Gearing up for canning season
  • Adding a window unit to the freeze drying room so we can use it in summer
  • Fire lit under my hiney on gardening this year
  • On parity with garden produce
  • Prepper Fail – coffee bags
  • Pending Freezer Audit (usually post workshop)

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe 05/28/2023

We only made two stops this weekend, skipping Home Depot. Not to worry, the online price of a 2x4x8 is still $3.35. The tag’s been missing anyway the last few weeks so I’ve had to look it up anyway. While I need to re-organize some tools, I don’t need to buy any more!

Dollar Tree was the usual first stop. We almost always find some small useful things there. The food coolers in the back are well-stocked. Some of the selections have changed in the drink coolers, but they’re also pretty full now. We were behind someone in line who bought a lot of groceries, so that’s certainly still possible. Some things will be cheaper elsewhere, so be careful of that, especially on cans of veggies.

Aldi was our final stop. Eggs have continued to drop, now at $1.62/dozen. Since I have read of impending shortages of coffee, Sonia grabbed an extra jar of both normal and joyless coffee (she’ll drink one or the other, depending on time of day; now that the weather is warm, I have not been drinking coffee). We found everything else we wanted, including canned cat food.

A gallon of untainted regular gasoline remains at $3.999/gallon. The stuff corrupted by ethanol is considerably cheaper.

Frugality Tip from Margo

Here’s a little tip on your journey to self reliance. Figure out how to make things that you want.  At the LFTN Workshop I saw a really cool leather holder for a multi tool, pen, and flashlight. So he took it off and I traced it on a piece of paper to get a general idea of size. While I don’t have a “pattern” done yet, I made one. It’s pretty darn cool, if I do say so myself. Also I didn’t have large pieces of leather laying around, but I did have an old purse I haven’t used in a year or so, so I cut that up and repurposed it. So this cost me a conversation with a man that had something I really liked, and some time. You can do whatever you put your mind to, you just have to try. And sometimes (as in this case) try again. This was my third attempt. So go make something!

Operation Independence

Rejiggering the big picture construction plan for the Holler Homestead to integrate a spa pool long term. Have not figured out how to make it happen but I am working on the plan.

Sheep money paid for flea meds for the LGDs for the year.

Main topic of the Show: Train to Your Weakness

You know how they say hire to your weakness? That is great advice, but it does not cover when you should address a weakness you have through learning to be stronger in that area.

  • Hard75 gives me time for deep thinking and self reflection – avoidant behavior regarding self defense
  • Story of what mentally stood in my way of taking Fighting Pistol or really any training class
  • The MOMENT
  • The amplification effect
  • Lessons learned at fighting pistol
    • It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be – sort of like unloading the dishwasher takes 90 seconds, but you can spend all day not doing it because you do not have time
    • True to Tactical Response’s MO, it tore down mental barriers that I had
    • Key to success was coming in with a novice’s heart and mind

So here are some thoughts on the when and why of training to your weaknesses.

Understanding Your Weaknesses and Strengths

  • Defining weaknesses: Exploring areas where you lack proficiency or experience, and acknowledging their impact on your goals and performance.
  • Recognizing strengths: Identifying the areas where you excel, have passion, and find yourself naturally inclined to succeed.
  • Establishing your growth mindset: Understanding that weaknesses can be improved upon and strengths can be leveraged for growth.

Why Train to Improve Weaknesses

  • What is my potential?
  • What will it take to improve, and what am I trading off?
  • What happens if I don’t train
  • To run, you must first walk

The Art of Outsourcing Weaknesses

  • Benefits of outsourcing – dont do things you hate
  • Leveraging strengths to go further – and being there for your loved ones (Drywall example)

Find Balance

  • Self-reflection and introspection: (Your passion, your skillset, your goals)
  • Re-evaluation on a schedule

Conclusion:

  • Personal growth is a dynamic process that requires balance between training to improve weaknesses and outsourcing them when that is a better fit. 
  • When you choose to grow, you sometimes choose the hard way – but as my friend Kevaan Kjar likes to day, “Do hard things now so you don;t have to do harder things later.”

Stay tuned for future episodes where we’ll continue to explore topics aimed at helping you cultivate a growth mindset and unlock your full potential. 

Connect with our networks!

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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Weekly Streams

Want to keep up on when we are livestreaming? Following is the schedule for this week.