Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce

Today, I want to talk about how focusing on a few things can help you get many things done. That's right. We have touched on this concept in other episodes, but today, I thought we could dive a little deeper. And what sparked this idea? Well, it is the new Facebook group, Living Free in Tennessee Coffee Break. This is where lots of listeners are starting to post up to 3 do or die items that they will get done that day to move themselves forward toward their long-term goals. Some of the things are small, like taking a walk every morning. Some are big: like put up 6 bushels of corn — or some crazy amount — that took that person three days, but she got it done. And people are posting pictures of their progress and sharing ideas. But why three? Why now? We will talk about that after our segments.

What Mother Nature is providing

• Lots of tomatoes, cukes, squashes, onions, cabbage, greenbeans
• Mullein flowers have arrive and it is time to harvest
• Mimosa flowers are here – tincture
• Someone put a goat roast in my freezer and we are having a curry from that
• Potatoes are here but I hope to put off getting any until October because my storage area is not well enough insulated to keep those puppies cool
• Peaches arrived this week but I have not seen any blueberries. I fear the frost killed those

What we are preserving this week

• Dried our runner beans so we can hull them (what happened last year)
• Should be canning corn, but I am sick and taking another week off – maybe 2. It's totally freaking me out
• Drying mullein flowers
• Bee balm would be coming on had I not killed it
• Making komboucha Karley / continuous style (see member portal for her fermentation video)
• Should be making pickles but again – sick

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• It's about time to re-organize all the canned goods and take an assessment
• Operation prepper pantry fury as Brian would say
• Defrosting the chest freezer will happen soon – as soon as I am well

Operation Independence

• Updating the duplex: New deadline – end of August, and a trade
• Airbnb has been jammin

Build Personal Productivity with #My3Thing Song: Special, By Sauce Resources

• Membership Sign Up
• Holler Roast Coffee
• LFTN Coffee Break

Today we talk about five uses for an abundance of cucumbers. Everyone else around me who got their gardens started on time are drowning in cucumbers! I even got a text from a long time friend asking me how to make pickles this week. And SHE doesn't do canning ---- yet. So if I am drowning in cucumbers without even having mine even begin to develop yet, then other people who were more responsible about planting this year must be covered up in these tasty veggies.

NEW Membership Portal Discount! MT Knives.

Resources MT Knives: MtKnives.net The MTK Talon Membership Sign Up Cucumbers as beauty supplies Canning in 8 Projects Episode: Pickles Tomato Cucumber Soup

What Mother Nature is providing Lots of tomatoes Overwhelming numbers of cucumbers Sweet potato greens Early onions Cabbage - sauerkraut Watercress and salad are done

Tales from the Prepper Pantry Hashbrowns on pizza - buy sharpies Dealing with smelly/mildew clothes in the south at this time of year Dishwasher soap experiment

Listener feedback New Facebook Group: Living Free in Tennessee Coffee Break Mewe Group

Ideas from the Booze Whisperer Cucumber Cocktail

Operation Independence Updating the duplex: $800 for roughing in three fixtures in a duplex remodel with a friend. (Numbers derived from national average installation pricing) Managed to keep my commitment to myself and keep the dishes and laundry caught up in the past week of busy

And now for the main topic of our show: 5 uses for an abundance of cucumbers.

If you are new to this show, or new to homesteading, etc., do feel free to reach out and suggest topics for me to cover. Just shoot an email to [email protected].

Make it a great week.

Song: Tripped Out by Sauce

I have a special one for you today. Remember the lady who bought the acreage in the Ozarks with multiple dilapidated cabins and a cave with a restaurant built into it? That's right, I had a chance to catch up with Dori a few weeks ago and find out how her winter went, where she has made progress and what her past 9 months or so have been like. Yes, today you get to hear about her walk toward independence, one year later.

Resources

• Awesome Soap: SimplyCleansing.com
• Dori's Project - 40 Acres and a Cave
• Membership Sign Up

What Mother Nature is providing

• The first tomato! (and New tomato transplants in the aquaponics system)
• Everything - we are getting just about everything right now minus Okra.
• Summer salads
  • Creamy cucumber with dill
  • German style potato salad (shhhh Lynn)
  • Coleslaw
  • Tart Pasta Salad

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• CANNING SEASON

Advice from the Cocktail Whisperer(See more from David over at Biltong for Breakfast)

• Icy Smooth Bourbon Beverage

Operation Independence

• $500 for grey water repair which is FINALLY done
• $1 a load for not drying the laundry with propane

Homestead Design One Year Later - An interview with Dori

Make it a great week.

Song: Wolf by Sauce (At Dori's request)

Photos from 40 Acres and a Cave

I had an inspiration, a breakthrough. It was really just a simple thought, but that doesn't sound as cool as a breakthrough. And it came to me at the oddest time. It came at a time when all was quiet, I wasn't thinking about grey water, or canning, or growing Holler Roast Coffee, or the paper or anything else. It came to me in a moment of silence, when I was kicking back observing the world around me, just walking along the road with my dogs. And it got me to thinking. What do we need to have in place to have breakthroughs? What can we do to help ourselves grow and change? We will talk about that later in the show.

Two Year anniversary: Membership sale for one week!

Resources

Membership Sign Up Five Elements of Homemade Salad Dressing

What Mother Nature is providing Elderflowers are still going strong Wineberries Basil Cabbage Raspberries for about another week Green Garlic: Cream of garlic soup Green tomatoes First Jalapeno pepper from the Aquaponics system

Tales from the Prepper Pantry Drying last year's garlic - yes is stored that long with no problems Honey Harvest: 8 mediums (!!!) Borrowing a centrifuge from our friend Ricky

Learning Aquaponics Trellising in 15 minutes - a story Rooting things in the ebb and flow bed

Operation Independence Hit the paper hard and it yielded two big clients!

Breakthroughs Come when you least expect them.....some thoughts.

Make it a great week!

Song: The Flood by Sauce

Today we will talk to Vin Armani about declaring independence. What struck me about his talk at Liberty Forum was that it was not a tired lecture on the the historical relevance of our Declaration of Independence here, it was an evaluation of what sparks people to choose to be free, and what character elements one needs to have to do it. We also have a crypto tip from our friend Kurt.

Show Resources

• Find Vin Armani Online
• Membership Sign Up
• Episode 8: Five Uses for Summer Squash
• Purse.io

What Mother Nature is providing

• Poke Weed, Tiger lillies - Lilium lancifolium, Basil
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Yellow squash begins
• Raspberries are ripe
• Garlic is coming out of the ground this week
• And we've still got elderberry blooms to fritter up, as well as red clover flowers to harvest and dry for tea

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• We got our first round of beets to pickle

Harvest Bounty

• Letting Tomato Suckers get about 6-8 inches long them putting them in the ebb and flow bed to root for future transplant
• Starting to plan which plants will leave the system and go to Kurt's where the Middle TN GSD crew is planning to do an aquaponics installation this weekend

Questions from Listeners

From Amy on FB: "I've been enjoying your podcasts for quite a while. I enjoy them bc I'm homesteading not far in N. Alabama and our climates are very similar. I'm wondering if you or your TN audience would like to share what counties in TN you think are great for finding good homesteading land for a good price. I'm planning to look for some land on the other side of the state line. Also any reasons TN is so awesome in general to homestead in?"

Operation Independence

• Something has been added to the Independence fund - we just don't know what
• Community and self reliance
• Thanks Knighthawk
• Kurt's segment on Purse.io

Declaring Independence with Vin Armani

• A conversation about Satyagraha, crypto, declaring independence for yourself, what is none of your business, self ownership and more.

Make it a great week! Song:

Today we talk about animals on the homestead, and more particularly training animals on the homestead. This is not the all-successful animal trainer's view of getting your animals in line telling you how to achieve impossible results with just one week of practice when they have spent a lifetime learning. This will be a discussion of the benefits of training your livestock and some ideas on how to do that, as well as stories and examples of things I have done well here at the Holler Homestead === and not so well.

Direct Download

What Mother Nature is providing

• Poke Weed
• Tiger lilies - Lilium lancifolium
• Lettuce
• Garlic flowers
• Chard
• Dill
• Basil

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Using up non-pickled beets
• Drying last year's garlic to make garlic powder

Harvest Bounty

• The 5 foot tomato was really 4 feet. NOW it is 5 feet and the blight begins
• Trellising
• Sweet potato greens are ready

Questions from Listeners:

• What exactly do 'you' do with dandelions. Do you roast the root, dry the leaves for tea, etc. How do you best use the 'weed'?
• What do 'you' do with mullein. Do you simply dry the leaves and then use it for hot tea?
• How do you make your comfrey salve? Do you get the bees wax from your bees or do you buy it?
• Compostable toilets--can it really be as easy as a 5 gallon bucket and sawdust? Operation

Independence

• $50 in the independence fund - rental property faucet and why basic skills are important The hack saw that saved the day

Topic of the day: Training Animals on the Homestead

1. Learn the animal's perspective. Observe - every day.
2. Find out what motivates them
3. Figure out what you need to train them to do, or not to do
4. Schedule your time to train them

Membership Portal

And with that, go out and Make it a great week!

Song: Mr. Clammy by Sauce

Today, we walk through all the endeavors here at the Holler Homestead and assess if we are in track, where to focus and how to move forward. Assessing your progress along the year is important to developing the lifestyle you want, building independence and stability and staying focused.

What Mother Nature is providing

• Poke Weed
• Elderflower Fritters
• Watercress is done until it cools down
• Seeing unripe wild raspberries on the vines

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Corn is used up! Celebrating
• Strawberry Geranium Jam

Harvest Bounty

• Lettuce and chard
• The 5 foot tall tomato
• Vining plants are ready for trellising

Operation Independence

• $50 in on the replaced plug

Make it a great week!

Song: Mr. Clammy

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

Today, I want to circle back on community, self-reliance, and side hustles. You see, we had a great Spring Workshop here in late April, and some pretty cool relationships came from that. And not just the - oh hey I met you at a workshop kind, but some real relationships. My next door neighbor has worked two days at another participant's farm, there is another gathering coming up this weekend that has coordinated itself, and so much more.

What Mother Nature is providing

• Hemlock is flowering
• The usuals for salad: hairy vetch, watercress, dandelion
• Garlic scapes!!
• Salad
• Sprouts are back up and running since I am home

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Farmers market update: All salads all the time - things are waaay behind this season
• Staying the course on using things up

Harvest Bounty

• We lost about 5 of the 20 fish

Operation Independence

• Update on the new schedule: Today has been the first day I was able to really follow it.
• The AirbnB is open for the season and we are getting lots of rent

Song: Wolf by Sauce

Today, we explore why adding creative pursuits into your life helps you succeed in other areas, even if you are not the best in show in whatever creative thing you choose to learn. You may be wondering what this has to do with designing a successful and happy life, homesteading, freedom, or side hustles. Here's the thing. It's hard to justify it in a pithy soundbite. But creative pursuits result in physical, mental and emotional benefits. So hang with me on this and I hope you will find ways to reprogram yourself through creative pursuits as you design the life you love.

This episode is dedicated to Puff --- our kitty that was with us for too short a time.

What Mother Nature is providing

• Asparagus
• Goldenseal, a plant rife with medicinal uses
• Salve season is here with the comfrey and jewelweed right at perfect harvest size for this purpose.
• Aquaponics update: Another salad has resulted from the system, which is crankin out some growth. We added 20 goldfish last night and have lost one so far. And I did plant all the seeds in advance of what was supposed to be a rainy day. It's sunny. And blazing hot.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Still getting set up to dry teas for the winter
• Hoping to see beets at the farmers market soon.

Operation Independence 13 hours in the car with Mama Sauce has helped me restructure time in a way that I think will leave more room for creative pursuits - guys - if you can't afford a consultant to help you deconstruct your choices as you build your life the way you want it, find some close friends and ask for coaching from them. The outside view is instrumental in helping you get more effective and this long talk with mama sauce really helped me adjust some priorities that were more oriented toward urgent rather than important.

Five benefits of building creative pursuits into your life.

Song: Feed My Hunger by Sauce

Make it a great week!

Today, I want to share with you a beginner's perspective on Aquaponics. At the LFTN Spring Workshop, two awesome guys installed an Aquaponics system here, so I got to witness first hand how to install something right the first time, AND we have been using it for a week now. One of the things that has kept me from doing aquaponics here has been how hard it sounds to set something up, so having this in place is a big deal. So for those of you out there thinking about aquaponics, or even those who are not sure it is a good idea, I want to let you know what it is like as a beginner to launch and learn about Aquaponics.

Direct Download

Membership Portal

What Mother Nature is providing

• Watercress is winding up
• Hairy vetch, chickweed and deadnettle
• Stinging nettle is blooming here and will die back until fall, unless we get rainy/cooling in the next month or so
• Asparagus
• Goldenseal, a plant rife with medicinal uses
• Tea time: lemon balm, blackberry and raspberry leaves. There should be bee balm, but I must have managed to kill my patch of it.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Putting up dried herbs and tea makings - both for flavor and medicinal. Creek mint is ready to harvest.
• Beeswax
• Story: the swarming bees - when 2 hives become 4, plus 2 off site

Harvest Bounty

• Aquaponics are in and we are setting strategies for where/how we will run vines.
• Garlic should scape out in the next few weeks.

Stretching meals

• Workshop leftovers

Operation Independence

• Mama Sauce came and helped do another round of get rid of the clutter - which frees us to focus on the important rather than the urgent
• Spring Workshop ROCKED and is a foundation in our walk toward independence.
• Taxes are back on the todo list right after carnegie hall.

Speaking of Carnegie: May 12th, 2pm meet up in New York at a pub near Carnegie Hall. The Irish Pub: 837 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019. DO check on our Facebook page and website though because if it is full, we will adjust our plans. Just look for the chick with the cowboy hat.

Why Aquaponics: Things grow too well in Tennessee - by which I mean the wrong things grow too well and with the coffee business, I wanted to have time to devote to coffee.

Project goal: Aquaponics that looks great in front of the house so Mark does not make me remove it, pays for itself or even earns money, runs itself when I am away in case Mark is out working on the paper.

Lesson 1: Aquaponic is much easier than it seems when you start learning about it.

Lesson 2: Installation can be cheap and hard work, or more expensive and quick and easy

Lesson 3: It is frightening how fast things grow

Lesson 4: You can plant things closer together - and kill things fast.

Lesson 5: It's not about the fish

Make it a great week!

Song: Special by Sauce