BudDIY Podcast

It is going to be a hot year this year, much like every year. It always seems when we get to summer we want to figure out ways to stay cool in the shop. Or to at least not have the shop as hot.

I recently made some changes that will effect the future of my shop, and force me to deal with the heat in the shop for a longer period of time. So I have spent some time researching how to keep the shop cool.

In this episode I discuss several ideas on how to keep your shop cool. Many of these things can work together to make your life a lot easier. I think my shop was build the worst way possible, so I am going to have to employ several of them.

Learning to sell is a huge weakness of mine. This year I stepped out and worked to sell a cow, granted it was to family. With guidance from my father-in-law who has done it before my wife and I figured out what needed to be done, and we got a cow sold.

It was definitely and interesting experience, and a lot of learning had to take place. We had to negotiate cuts with customers, coordinate with the butcher to do those, we had to find a butcher date when most where backed up a year and half.

However, we saw an opportunity in the market, we had to resources, and we took advantage of it. That is exactly what you should do as a sales person. In the end we walked away with some profit, and some meat so it was all great.

There were definitely problems that arose to be sorted out, and we will do better next time.

Working in the garden can be hard work. Whatever you can do to make life easier is a great idea. In this episode I talk about 3 projects that you can do to make life easier.

I think the most exciting project for my wife is an outdoor sink. My favorite is an actual hoop house that is affordable, and wont fall apart on you. The other project just makes sense to do so you don't keep losing garden tools.

Sometimes you have weeks where a lot of stuff goes wrong, or the culmination of a lot of problems hit all at one time. This week was that week for me, and my chickens.

The week started out with some problems with the chickens, and ended with delays and figuring out I was feeding my chickens the wrong feed.

In this episode I talk about the failures I had, and how I worked through them to get to resolutions. It wasn't my funnest week, but it was the conclusion to a lot of things.

Experiencing putting in electric is very different than the planning. This last week we did all the work to run new electric wire that can push 200 amps to the shop. Now I can run anything I want in the shop.

In today episode I walk through everything we did to put in the electric along with some lessons learned. I also talk about the mistake I made that cost us a half a day of time.

Reading is super important to expand the mind, keep your brain active, and to learn and do more things. I try to make sure I average 1 book a month. Sometimes that is batch of five or six in a month, and podcasts for 6 months. Other times it is methodical listening once a month.

In this episode I talk about 3 non-fiction books I have recently read that I have found most beneficial. They help to expand my thought process around business, as well as helping me around the homestead to make things better. They have given me a lot to think about so I can try to do everything better.

These books are actually good enough I will probably listen to them one or two more times. I think they are packed full of information most people need to hear, especially if you are a small business owner.

The other book I talk about is a fiction series I absolutely love. If I am wanting to just do some casual, but I am not sure what to listen to I turn to this series.

This last week we had a scare with my dads health, and it lead to a lot of thinking. Because when you are in the hospital you have a lot of time to think. The question is what happens to your stuff and your family after you die?

Do you have a plan so that your loved ones don't have to stress over what to do next? Do you know where to get started with this line of thinking?

While we have spent time working on this over the last few years, we come up short in several ways. However, in this episode I go through the things I have set in place, and the framework I use to develop what needs to be available for my family if I pass. The idea being they need to do as little as possible.

It is almost time to put the meat chickens out on pasture to eat what chickens eat naturally. It has been nearly 3 weeks since getting the cornish cross, and they are growing nicely. Now it is time to decide whether to put them on grass permanently or not.

In this episode I talk about what I move the chickens live in, and what goes into deciding if it is time to actually move them out of the brooder. There are several important things to consider, and we go over them in this episode.

I also talk a bit more about prep work, and research, done for the electrical work that is coming up. Unfortunately it continues to be delayed by weather, but the longer it takes the better the solutions, and more expensive lol.

Emergency projects never seem to go well. Upgrading the electric on the property has turned out to be an emergency project because if we are going to do it, it needs to get done now.

With that in mind we planned out what all needs to be done. The materials we need to get the job done. Plus a little scope creep to add to the excitement. All of that combined made for a long and interesting week.

In this episode I talk about what needs to be done, the plan and how we figured out our materials list. Then finally the extra stuff we have decided to do a long the way to make life just a bit easier.

Your first week of having chickens can be a roller coaster of things to do and emotions. Here you have these living creatures, and you are responsible for them.

I also had the twist of having 2 different types, not breeds, of chickens. There are meath chickens and laying chickens. One of the issues is how fast the meat chickens grow.

In todays episode I talk about actually getting my chickens, and the first week of having them. I discuss whether my prep work actually worked. What has gone good and bad. It has been an interesting week.