Featured posts


Today we catch-up on integrating LGD’s with our sheep, homestead bootcamp, creating a new garden bed, getting ready to leave, and more.

Download

A word on next week – Nicole is out but there will be shows.

Forage

  • Goldenrod
  • Elderberry
  • Watercress
  • Echinacea, other herbs
  • Sassafrass leaves
  • Fodder tree – final round

Livestock

  • Pig is due – LB needs to go
  • Forging steep sheep pasture
  • LGD update: Arrival Cluster
  • LGD Update: orienting them with the herd
  • LGD Update: Orienting them on electrical fencing
  • Baby
  • Duck training problems
  • Chestnut is sick
  • Rats

Grow

  • Back to watering the garden
  • Green beans are slowly trickling in
  • Tomatoes: 100 lbs so far
  • Squash is abundant
  • Sweet potato green explosion
  • Waterchestnut is dying – not sure how I killed it (A note on growing food and killing plants)
  • Time to harvest hops here
  • One big last round this evening on the gardens and I am out for a week (Pins and needles)
  • Seeded beets and carrots

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Homestead bootcamp
  • Seeking trees and shrubs for the food forest class: Blueberry, cherry, apricot, crabapple

Infrastructure

  • Expanding supplies for electrical fencing to make more paddocks in advance

Finances

  • Nothing to report

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


Today we talk about getting ready for our first round of homestead bootcamp with a listener who purchased land and wants to come here and see up close and personal what it is like. I will cover how it came to pass, what we did to prepare, and what the next few days have in store for our first participant.

Download

Live this week:

  • John Willis and Billy Bond, Wednesday at 12:30pm
  • Homestead Happenings, Thursday at 9:30 am (Explain why)

Oct 28-29 Food Forest Class – a few seats left! Sign up here.

Email feedback to nicole@livingfreeintennessee.com

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • 36 jars of green beans
  • 7 jars of salsa
  • Smoked brisket
  • Homemade tomato basil soup while it is in season
  • Storage challenge 2022 (The why and the solution)
  • Purging season – walmart shipment goal

Frugality Tip

I have a tip on how to stretch your dishwashing liquid. This has cut down the amount that I buy to one large bottle or two medium bottles per year.

I take an old wine or other see through bottle and wash it out thoroughly. I fill it 2/3 of the way with water and add 1/3 dishwashing liquid. I top the bottle with a spout so that I can easily pour it onto a sponge or into my hands for washing up.  The kind of spout I use is like those you would see on oil and vinegar or liquor bottles and can be picked up in most big chain stores or liquor stores for a couple couple of bucks.

When refilling the bottle add the water first! This should be done in a very slow stream to prevent a lot of bubbling. If you do get some bubbles they will go away once the mixture settles. 

This has made my life so much easier and the bottle with the spout is much more attractive than an ugly bottle of dawn on my kitchen countertop. I’m including a photo of my freshly filled bottle below.

Anna

Shopping Report

Weekly Shopping Report for Powell, TN 08/13/2022 (JOE)

We’ve resumed doing our shopping on Saturday, partly in case another trip is needed. So far, I think I’ve had to make a second trip only when something happens like a cat needs to go to the vet or the USPS slackers have failed to make a delivery.

Today’s first stop was Dollar General Market, mostly for cat food and some craft items. We walked around a little more than usual, and found the store pretty well-stocked. I think I saw limited quantities of some things, but no glaring holes.

Second was Dollar [-twenty five] Tree, mostly to look, but I got a drink there. They have decent quantities of second-tier but still well-known brands.

Third was Hobby Lobby, mostly for sewing stuff. The store was full of merchandise, and we had essentially no wait to check out as multiple lines were open.

Fourth was Home Depot. A 2x4x8 had dropped further, to $4.75. We did not find the bucket of patching goo we wanted; maybe they’ve stopped carrying it? Batteries, tools of all kinds, and lumber were all plentiful.

Last was Aldi. Stock levels were all good. I’m not sure that anything changed significantly, but our particular combination of items did produce a higher bill than we’ve had lately.

The last time I filled up, untainted regular had dropped to $4.899/gallon.

Operation Independence

  • Free dogs are not free
  • Homestead supply sale: Fence chargers, Lb the stud boar, Dewalt compressor, ninja blender, furniture (Surplus is going into 12v fencing solutions for the sheep)

Main topic of the Show: Homestead Bootcamp

What is Homestead Bootcamp and how did it come to be 

What we hope to achieve with it

How did we prepare?

What a typical program looks like 

#My3Things: Poultry, Sheep, Garden Bed

A word on the chaos

My hope for homestead bootcamp and mentoring programs in general 

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

Advisory Board

Resources

Harvest Right Affiliate Link

Want to learn how to plan a food forest, do the earthworks, and plant it out? We will start with the theory in the classroom, then head outside to do the actual install.

Permaculture Badass Nick Ferguson will be on hand to answer all your questions and oversee the build.

Location: Lancaster, TN (The Holler Homestead)

Course costs $400 US, or $360 Bitcoin.

$150 non-refundable deposit required for cash purchases to hold your seat (well I WILL refund it within the first week minus processing fees if you change your mind)

CRYPTO customers have 24 hours to complete payment- I will email you to make arrangements and even help walk you through the process if it is your first time.

WHAT IS THIS, ANYWAY??
This year, we decided to invite y’all in for an October class because the food forest will be installed for my 50th birthday! We are doubling up – have a ton of fun and GET SHIT DONE, all while learning a ton about improving your land.

I have LONG put off the addition of a food forest on the property because there were so many other decisions to make in honor of the Big Picture Plan: Event space, drainage and runoff, livestock and fencing, gardens and aesthetic. All of these things seemed to come in front of the thing that most people install first: a nice space of perennial plants and trees that will produce food long after I leave this life.

The catch in permaculture is this, though: The big picture dictates what happens when. While it may seem like the first thing to ALWAYS do is to plant fruit trees and other long-term producers we could never have even chosen where the food forest would go without other large infrastructure being in place.

It has taken 6 focused years and about a decade to get to this time. The time to put in the food forest. It will be designed with my specific long-term needs in mind. My time available to maintain it. And the boundaries that this steep space dictates.

Will we put in swales? NO. Well, not the swales you are thinking of. When we talk about “When do you NOT put in swales?” this land is a perfect example. You will see when when you get here and Nick will cover that in the classroom.

Here is what you can expect from the event:

  • Theoretical and hands-on instruction for planning, installing, and planting a food forest
  • Clarifying THE WHY
  • Pop up sessions on totally unrelated topics as time allows
  • GREAT food produced from this homestead – we feed you better than other classes of this nature
  • Holler Roast Coffee freely flowing
  • Night time hijinks, long talks around the campfire or Karaoke mic, yes there are adult beverages
  • Barter Blanket
  • On-site camping with the best outdoor shower in the state. really – it is lovely.
  • Classroom time is in a heated or cooled space depending on what we need to do
  • Access to Nick Ferguson, Nicole Sauce, Tactical Redneck, and any other network folks who are on site for longer conversations about whatever strikes your fancy!

Note: This is a smaller had count that the spring workshop so that we have plenty of time to talk things through.

Agenda (Subject to adjustment based on sessions and weather)

Arrive after 2pm Oct 27 – Light dinner of burgers and brats (or whatever Nicole cooks) will be served.

Oct 28: 8:30 breakfast – like a real one with eggs and breakfast meat.

10am: Classroom session

12:30pm: Lunch

1:30 or so: Initial Earth Works

7pm Dinner

Oct 29: 9:00 breakfast – like a real one with eggs and breakfast meat.

10am: Earthworks and planting

12:30: Lunch

2pm: Classroom or install work, depending on the progress and weather

6:30pm Dinner

(Open house birthday celebration this night for Nicole Sauce)

Be prepared to be outside!

Leave Sunday Morning by 10am (grab and go leftovers and coffee)


In this week’s update, we will talk about sheep recovery, new animals coming to the homestead, planning a food forest, and late summer garden bounty.

Download

Forage

  • Elderberry
  • Mint, late summer teas
  • Watercress is back – liver cleanse

Livestock

  • Separating the girls from the boys in sheep
  • Tippy is recovered
  • Need fatter sheep
  • Henry’s foot, and a word on trimming hooves
  • LGDs coming to avoid the parasite load of barn keeping sheep
  • Baby found the pond

Grow

  • FINALLY getting peppers
  • Squash Year
  • 2 jars of green beans and four jars of tomatoes
  • Both round 3 and 4 of beans have germinated and the rain has been perfect for this
  • Seeding carrots and beets by Tactical’s house
  • Strawberry round two
  • Food forest install workshop Oct 27 & 28

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Homestead Bootcamp next week
  • Shower GSD at SOE
  • Airbnb update

Infrastructure

  • Goat pasture upgrade with solid wire/centralized charger for sheep rotation

Finances

  • Nothing to report (Buying supplies makes T happy)

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


Today we talk about starting your own business, content creation, attitude adjustments, Self Reliance Festival and more with Toolman Tim Cook and John Willis.

Download

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

ToolmanTim.co

Youtube replay video

https://youtu.be/UKXBUh6udB8

 

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, I share my journey of dealing with loss on the homestead because if you enter into livestock, some will die – and some will die because of you. If you grow plants, many will die – and they will die because of you.

Download

Network Update: Open House and Homesteader Swap Meet Last Weekend.

Save the Date: Tickets go on Sale Saturday for the Food Forest Class at my place. Oct 28-29

DEADLINE WEDNESDAY! Email community events and meetups 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Canning dribs and drabs and how that works (Weird year)
  • Almost through the 2021 chickens 
  • Tomato Pie Recipe?
  • Moving everything out of the prepper pantry (Why)
  • Chinese Food Moment

 

Frugality Tip

Another time saver: Setting up your canning system

Shopping Report Update – 08/04/2022

We missed a couple of things on Tuesday, so did some more shopping last night, since we’ve got the replacement refrigerator to restock.

Right after leaving work, I went to the Aldi which is not our usual one. I only rarely visit that one, because some of their prices are a little higher than the two Aldi stores we regularly visit. There were holes all over the place. The store looked rather picked and sad. Entire produce bins and shelf sections were empty. There was very little meat, and almost no fish, but they did have some chicken thighs, and I got the last pork loin. Their pet food area has always been paltry.

After dinner, we went to our usual Food City. Most shelves looked full, but there were a few things missing or limited. There was very little natural peanut butter, and none of the large jars. Even the stuff with waste added was limited to small and medium jars. There was a lot of flour, but very little unbleached. They had decent amounts and variety of cat food. Some varieties of eggs were in short supply or absent.

The changes I am seeing are not in a good direction.

Operation Independence

Main topic of the Show: 4 Phases of Loss on the Homestead

Why

Phase One: Deeply Hurt, Debt

Phase Two: Deeply Hurt, Self Loathing or Blame

Phase Three: Deeply Hurt: Anger

Phase Four: Deeply Hurt: Acceptance

What about you?

Membership Plug

MeWe 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

Advisory Board

Resources


Today we catch up on 2 weeks of homestead updates, discuss a sick lamb, produce overwhelm, and more.

Download

Forage

  • Echinacea flower and leaves (Discuss root harvest)
  • Fodder trees
  • Creek mint
  • Goldenrod
  • Elderberry

Livestock

  • The story of the sick sheep (Vet, etc)
  • Baby duck
  • Muscovys are free ranging
  • The molt
  • When sheeps get feisty
  • Pigs and pond
  • LGD

Grow

  • Success with zucchini (duck factor)
  • Round 2 of beans, hoping for a third
  • Pasture veggies
  • 55 lbs tomatoes so far (Duck factor)
  • WEEDS

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • KH stayed home from swale – seeking a homestead sitter to work with over time
  • 1st Airbnb renter comes from our community
  • Story of connections and housing

Infrastructure

  • Water system failure

Finances

  • Spent money on a vet
  • Swale workshop broke even – There will be a training video from the class to hopefully recoup time

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


Today we talk about international and US politics, monkeypox, growing food, the swale class, and more with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

Download

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

The Survival Podcast

Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/_imqfsQ9Jlw

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 have a fun conversation with Bradley Bleasdale: Raw milk producer, freedom fellow, and founder of a preparedness training center.

Download

Open House: Saturday 9am-1pm. Bring a dish to share. 605 Long Branch Rd, Lancaster, TN

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • All tomatoes ripen at once as predicted
  • Time to harvest and dry mint – (The creek mint is prolific)
  • Hoping to be canning green beans or corn or salsa this weekend

Frugality Tip

TIME SAVER

This tip saves time, which IS money, right? If you think this idea applies to your Frugality Tip section, here’s what I got:

I have a printout of all of the recipes that I use frequently. It’s called my Frequent Recipes Cheat Sheet. ALL of the recipes (at least 50) are on 1 sheet of paper (front and back). They’re not detailed at all, just the ingredients and oven temp, basically. Since I make them so often, I don’t need all of the individual steps. This saves me tons of time because I don’t have to look up recipes on my phone, computer, or big ole recipe book. Bonus tips: you can keep it in a plastic sheet protector so it doesn’t get dirty, AND you can use a magnetic clip to hang it or stick it to your upper cabinet handle right in front of your face while you’re cooking. Saves me so.much.time.

Operation Independence

Working on a video project with Billy Bond from footage gathered at the Swale Workshop.

Main topic of the Show:  Choosing Liberty with Bradley Bleasdale

About Bradley:

  • One of 13 kids
  • Grew up in Massachusetts
  • Got running water in our house in 3d grade
  • Left Law school at the beginning of my last semester
  • Went from owning an 5,000 square foot home in Florida to living in a barn in Tennessee
  • Made every homesteading mistake possible
  • Now my family has the largest raw milk dairy in Tennessee and I am the founder of the Sequatchie School for Self-Reliance
  • Www.Sequatchieschool.com

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


Would you be able to physically handle it if services stopped for a few weeks and you had to carry all your water, chop wood for heat, or walk ten miles to get to a new place? Today, we talk with Stephen Boone of SHTF Fitness about getting our bodies in shape.

Download

Show Resources

https://www.shtffitness.com/

https://boone.fitness/

Main content of the show

Stephen has been coaching clients in person for years in his studio. His passion for helping others become the best version of themselves has led him to start SHTF Fitness so that he can help like-minded, freedom loving individuals who may not have access to a gym.

Stephen specializes in strength training and corrective exercise. He blends conventional strength training methods with Chiropractic corrective movements in order to create a strong, mobile, and pain free individual.

Stephen wants to provide value to the prepper community by teaching them how to be physically prepared for the future. Stephen feels that this is currently extremely lacking in the prepper/homesteader space where most things are considered except for physical fitness. This is done without the use of a gym, since most preppers and homesteaders will not have access to a conventional gym.

Interview

Membership and Coffee Pitch

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