Living Free in Tennessee - Nicole Sauce

Today, we talk about deb payoff and I will share with you the things I waste my money on. Why? Because this is part of the process if paying off debt.

Direct Download

Stump the Sauce

• From Alan - How do you protect your aquaponics plumbing through deep freezes?

Spring is Coming!

• Setting out the seedling schedule (some start this weekend)
• Seeking 6 blueberry bushes -- anyone?
• Early weed controls need to happen now
• Scooping poop
• Anti chicken defense fencing going up
• Outdoor hydroponics systems setup (and planning for the worm casting juice experiment)
• Also: Pigs or no pigs?

Main topic of the Show: Wasting Money While Paying Off Debt

I have been meaning to share with yall my journey to pay off bad debt - as in revolving debt - which started 4-5 years ago and has been a pretty bumpy road. But the end of my journey is very close at hand and over the years, my needs and wants have changed dramatically.

How I ran into trouble:

• A practice of putting things on low interest cards and paying them off (real estate and home improvements)
• Spending to fill an emotional void or cheer myself up
• A lifestyle of travel for work and not keeping my financial house in order -- upwards of $10k a year would go on my credit cards and no expense reports would be submitted
• An instant gratification mindset
• Am ever-increasing salary

Biggest two: the mental and emotional issues, an expensive paperwork aversion

The antidote:

• Dave Ramsey - emergency fund: with alterations
• Cash/Budget/Failure/Success
• Fits and starts and why
• Sell all the things, unless they do not sell then give them away (getting the house in order)
• Beans and rice, rice and beans did not work: Mental and emotional health and its impact on the process, scarcity mindset, if you feel poor you are poor
• What did work: commitment to paying it off with a schedule and decision to all all "extra" money to the project | much larger emergency fund | bringing down monthly costs | building in a non-poverty mindset with things that don't count as debt payoff

Behold the list

• House cleaning of $100/month
• 3 alcoholic beverages at home per week
• A really nice home espresso maker
• Imported chocolate
• Non-budget food: grassfed meats, etc (How I control cost on this)
• Biweekly counseling appointments
• Pets
• Amazon Prime (soon to go away)
• Travel to workshops and events
• Home improvement
• Seeds and plants
• Food Preservation Purchases (The $800 cryovac an how I made that decision)

What is not on the list (very often)

• Buying coffee, dinner, fast food out
• Concerts, etc
• Expensive travel, cruises, etc
• Corporate wardrobes
• Keeping up with the Joneses devices, cars, clothing, hair, makeup, shopping items, decorations, furniture, etc
• Charitable contributions beyond my means
• Crypto currency investment schemes
• Casino time
• Nights at the bar

You can do this!

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today, we discuss how the first month of a year focused on balance went and lessons learned to roll forward into my life.

Event Highlights

• Rogue Food Conference, June 5
• Phireon Launch in Florida - join their network for more information

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Increase on preparing Holler Neighbor Meals with Holler Stores
• "Fast Food"
• 1st lettuce harvest
• Shelving Dreams

Operation Independence

• Shifting from month in review to month in advance
• 3 event fridges for $300
• Rental Challenges

Main topic of the Show:

Balance

It seemed like the perfect word going into 2021. After a year of growth through a very challenging environment, balance is the obvious next step. Do I want a life where I work all the time and make no time for the other things I enjoy? What about my health and nutrition? What about creating a beautiful place to live? What about my friends and relationships?

Yes. Balance.

I started January full of starry-eyed hope and set out a plan where I journal at the end of each day, set the plan for the next day. My aim has been to work very hard on certain days of the week, leave other days open, and almost never do "business" work on the weekends.

A good walk of my dogs takes about an hour. There are 24 hours in a day. Therefore I should be able to walk my dogs just about every day and both they and I will be happier and more productive.

To support this, I made a few changes:

1. I hired in someone to clean my house every other week, as well as added someone to help with coffee orders once a weeek (goal, simplification)
2. I looked over all my processes with an eye toward automation
3. I looked for things that take lots of time and don't move me forward

My morning routine got a face lift too

1. Reading time for learning
2. Tidying time
3. Then start the day's activities which were written up the night before

But I got most of my stuff done in January - those things important to me:

• Regular podcasts
• Participating in the Greater Reset
• Successful LFTN Spring Workshop Launch
• Year over Year growth of Holler Roast Coffee
• Lots of debt paid off
• The roasting camper sold
• 6 months of tax data prepared for the CPA
• A successful regional freedom cell event
• Personal documentation developed
• A second old vehicle obtained as backup for my primary old vehicle
• 7 lbs shed

Some things I have learned about balance in the last four weeks:

1. No.
2. The Walk Away Method.
3. Watching the news or dumpster fires on social media is even more important to avoid.
4. Balance works exactly like freedom.
5. Get your houses in order.

You have to have your house, financial house, health house, work house, friendship house, mental health house, recreation house, hobby house and learning house in order to truly find balance. If you neglect any of these, they will quickly take over your life.

Remember that life strategic plan I talk to you guys about all the time? I had three strategic areas of focus:

1) Debt Payoff

2) Health and recreation

3) Increase stable/local revenue

To attain true balance I must address all my messy houses. This doesn't mean I have not been addressing them, but it is time to ramp it up. SO the replacement area of focus will be that All My Houses are in order so that they empower me rather than hold me back. And under that I will set 2021 achievements. One of which is the rest of my debt payoff (that needs to still happen), weight loss and fitness goals, etc.

The life you want is within your grasp if you but reach out with purpose and intention.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today we have a thought of the walk on mind control as well as some thoughts on how to break the cycle if you are in it (and maybe don't even know it).

Greater Reset tonight -- community - I will be on the air talking about getting our tn freedom cell network up and running.

Friday Feature: Eric Meyers Online

https://odysee.com/@EricMeyersOnline:f

What's Up in the Garden

• Continuing to get beds ready
• Setting out early spring seeds

Main topic of the Show: TOTW on Mind Control

It struck me the other day that people are walking around hypnotized

Hypnotized and unable to react to things with critical thought, an open mind and heart, or a willingness to learn.

1. Bullying
2. Fear of change
3. Go along to get along

And the funny thing is that I am not 100% certain that I am not also hypnotized. I would like to think I am not, but

We as a society have become hypnotized, and those who break out are not to be tolerated.

So then what can we do about this? How do we wake people up.

It goes back to gardening: Do no harm and plant seeds.

So how then do we protect ourselves from falling trap to this hypnotism?

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today I will walk you through my indoor lettuce growing operation for 2021.

Medical system frustration story.

Greater Reset

What's Up in the Garden

• Hillside garden is ready but the chickens are still getting in
• Starting early spring starts
• Setting up row covered areas for carrots, brassicas, radishes
• Forging new grow space with tarps

2021 Winter Lettuce Growing System

Why I grow lettuce inside

What I did Last Year

Lessons learned: (Volume, algae, EC Meter and nutrient, plant spacing, lighting cycles)

This year's system (16 Plants every two weeks)

Timeline

• Week One: Germination and root development
• Week Two: Prepare for Kratky Air Gap
• Week Three: Transplant to Grow Bin (Start New Seeds)
• Week Four: First Harvest
• Week Five: Second Harvest
• Week Six: Final Harvest

Supplies

• Texas Tomato Food: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LVNVCW?pf_rd_r=Q9HFPA1J0MRKNKM9KAZQ&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=d8801fa9-f66b-42d5-a572-c6682bcffe52&pd_rd_w=lUmky&pd_rd_wg=KE5Wo&ref_=pd_gw_unk
• A word on other nutrient and work casting juice
• Rapid Rooter Grow Plugs: https://www.walmart.com/ip/General-Hydroponics-HGC714135-Rapid-Rooter-Plant-Starters-50-Plugs/153249330
• Rock Wool Works Too: https://www.walmart.com/ip/1-5-Grodan-Rockwool-A-OK-Starter-Plugs-Sheet-of-49-THCity-Stakes/808795635
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• EC Meter: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Professional-TDS-ppm-Conductivity-Meter-Quick-Easy-EC-Temperature-Test-Pen-0-9999-2-Accuracy-Perfect-3-in-1-Tester-For-Ro-Water-Aquarium-Hydroponics-/637575630
• Net Cups: 2 in vs 3 in and different qualities https://www.walmart.com/ip/50-2-INCH-NET-CUP-POTS-HYDROPONIC-SYSTEM-GROW-KIT/846491929
• Cambro Bus Box at Sam's Club: https://www.samsclub.com/p/cambro-bus-box-2pk-storage/prod22321945?xid=plp_product_2
• Corrugated Plastic sign material from Lowes or elsewhere: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-24-in-x-36-in-Blank-Sign/3340838
• Heating mats: https://www.walmart.com/ip/20-x20-20-x10-Seedling-Heat-Mat-Waterproof-Plant-Seed-Warm-Hydroponic-Heating-Pad-for-Seed-Germination-Cloning-Plant-Propagation/751367161
• Barrina Lights: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Barrina-LED-Grow-Light-144W-6-x-24W-800W-Equivalent-2ft-T8-Full-Spectrum-High-Output-Linkable-Design-T8-Integrated-Bulb-Fixture-Plant-Lights-Indoor-P/650628729
• Timer: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Timer-Outlet-Outdoor-Kasonic-24-Hour-Mechanical-Timer-Switch-Heavy-Duty-Water-Resistance-with-2-Grounded-Outlet-ETL-Listed-Black/187284452
• 1 gallon milk jug

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today by request of the chatter over in our MeWe group, I will share with you my perspective as a landlord of 20 years, tell you the story of how I got started and what brought me to this point, as talk about some best practices I have put in place to support by growing business.

This is not investment, legal or real estate advice - rather I will share my personal journey.

Save the date: Rogue Food conference, June 5 in Tennessee - more details as things develop at https://roguefoodconference.com/.

The Greater Reset starts tonight at 6pm Central and sessions will stream here: https://thegreaterreset.org/.

Today's topic: The Agora.

Tomorrow at 6: Take Control of Your Health and Education

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Crawling through the food and buying lots of fresh - will adjust grocery list for next month
• Fresh salad update (video coming out this week)
• Monthly grocery update: $260 excluding feed and including all non food replenishings
• Duck Fat Roasted Cauliflower with Truffled Parmesan - a recipe

Featured Forage: Update

• tubers: sassafrass, jerusalem artichoke and dandelion

Operation Independence

• Event Chair Score
• Focus on Taxes

Main topic of the Show: My Experiences With Rental Properties

How I became a landlord:

• Childhood, father, and first job
• Starter Home Purchase and Renting Rooms
• Assisting a friend with managing and maintaining their 5 rental properties
• Cross-country move
  • PDX Rental and lessons learned
    • Long distance management is tough
    • Drugs and other crimes
    • Property managers
  • Moving to the country - Nashville Experience
    • More troubles with late rent/damages
    • Being Nice
    • The full eviction process
    • Recouping damages
    • Background checks
• Renting for property appreciation vs Cashflow vs vacation rentals
• My current strategy: Cashflow
• Best Practices
  • Background checks
  • Rent slowly, evict quickly
  • Digital payments (I use Cozi.co)
  • Bank Account Discipline
  • Tracking Miles Driven - what did and did not work for me)
  • Choosing paint and fixtures
  • Strictly by the book on contractual items
  • Showing kindness to your clients (AKA renters)
  • Outsourcing Maintenance (Look at the ROI)
  • Landlord Associations
  • Find Mentors

Purposefully did not talk about rental laws, business structure and liability protections because this is very specific to your location, where your rentals are, and what your long term plans are with the properties.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today I am excited to have an interview show for you that I am sure you will love: we will talk about the best decentralized video platform I have used from a user standpoint and to do that, we have Jeremey Kauffman the CEO who is also a freedom loving New Hampshire Freestater. I think y'all will love this episode.

Friday Feature: LFTN

https://peopleforprivacy.com/privacy-consulting/

Show Resources

Odysee.com

Lbry.tv

Connect with Jeremy @jeremykauffman on Twitter

Main content of the show

Jeremy Kauffman is the CEO of Lbry and Odysee a great decentralized video platform that empowers the content creators and offers a better alternative to YouTube.

Make it a great weekend!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today Sue Zoldak joins me to talk about a myriad of things: community, marketing on Mewe, the state of the Union, and much more.

Greater Reset Jan 25-29, 2021 - Do not miss it!

Email feedback to [email protected]

Stump the Sauce

• What to do with coffee grounds on the homestead

What's Up in the Garden

• Hillside garden update: Looking for a good gentle mulch
• Found sweet potatoes
• Setting the foundation for early spring planting in the upper and hillside gardens

Main topic of the Show: A Fireside Chat with Sue Zoldak

About Sue Zoldak

After a decade in the public relations agency world, Sue Zoldak founded The Zoldak Agency in 2016 after leaving a stint at the RNC during the 2014 cycle where she met her future business partner, Cassie. The Zoldak Agency serves organizations, trade associations, grassroots coalitions, and campaigns to further their communications and outreach goals with one purpose: to help her clients pass or defeat legislation. Zoldak loosely translates into "hired gun" in Slovak and she certainly loves to win.

Why we love her

• She always gives to the LFTN community
• She is not afraid to share her opinions and will love you even if you do not agree
• She cooks some pretty great looking things for dinner
• Design is in her blood
• She is not afraid to admit when she is feeling weak
• She REALLY likes to win
• She has a great sense of humor and likes to have fun

Find Sue:

• The Zoldak Agency
• Instagram: @szque2

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Over the weekend, we met in the mountains and shared ideas, feelings, information and camaraderie at The Station at 19e on Roan Mountain. Today, I will share some of my thoughts from this experience and what it means for the "New Normal."

A Spring Workshop Update: We sold out over the weekend but if you were paying attention to TG or Mewe, I opened up four more tickets. Those are already gone, so if you had wanted to go but did not grab a ticket in time, sign up for the waiting list.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Expanding into 2 pantries: personal and communal
• Monthly Grocery Shopping Update (too much milk, just enough produce minus that one kale issue, restock will take about a week between online orders and in-person shopping.)
• Sprouts Story
• Not using salsa fast enough (WHAT?)
• Pantry Management Webinar

Operation Independence

• Holler Roast Growth Idea and a meeting with another craft roaster

Main topic of the Show: There Really is a New Normal

It was so very cool - 33 of us decided to go into the mountains and meetup at a hiker's hostel. It was a meetup on crack.

Freedom Cell and what it is --

The why

How the meetup came to be

The purpose of the meetup

Things I learned

Make it a great week!

Song: DR Feeley Dr Skinner

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

It's a Friday so we usually do an interview show or a thought of the walk. What is a thought of the walk -- simply a short episode where we dive into a single concept. How do I pick the topic? I go for walks with my dogs and shut off all media. While out and about, something that has been niggling on my brain often comes clear, then I share it with you.

This week, I have been thinking about punitive and restorative justice and will share my thoughts on that with you later in the show.

Workshop Ticket Update

Social Media and the move toward more decentralization and additional platforms

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Justice - the idea that we can make right the wrongs that inevitably happen in this world. Drove you car into someone's house because you fell asleep at the wheel -- well you ought to pay to fix it. Stole a chocolate egg from the store? How do you make that right? Pay for it?

Justice get's harder as transgressions get bigger. Kidnapped and killed someone -- how do you ever make that right with the family? Can you be trusted to walk freely among society? If not, is the rest of your life in prison the answer, or something else. What is a proper response to kidnapping and killing someone?

It turns out that justice, while a very simple concept, becomes much more complex as we dive more deeply into it. People push for justice from people who new the person who transgressed. People want their pound of flesh because they were hurt. People want their pound of flesh on behalf of someone they perceive to have been harmed who is not themselves demanding one. People want things righted from generations past.

The problem? People got involved.

Yet that which is complicated is usually made so because we tend to take a simple concept, in this case justice, and make it complicated in order to manipulate things into going our way even when the simple interpretation does not go as far as we would wish. By over rotating on the concept, we can manipulate others into giving us what we want.

But is that truly justice?

One way to think about justice and how it is wielded is to break it down into two categories: punitive and restorative.

Simply put, punitive justice sets up the framework for retribution against the transgressor. Think eye for an eye. At the end of a punitive approach, the person who transgressed will be hurt so that they are also hermed as were the person or people they harmed.

The death penalty for murderers is an example of punitive justice. The person killed someone or many someones and therefore they themselves must also die. The families and friends of those killed, while they may get a bit of a morale boost, receive nothing to restore the damage caused to their lives.

Restorative justice on the other hand takes a different approach. It seeks to restore relationships and repair the damage caused by the transgression. This is most easily accomplished in crimes that are nonviolent but it is also possible in a murder case to come together and find a clear path toward reparations. In a murder case, it may mean that the transgressor agrees to send half their income to the family of the person they killed. This of course assumes the person does not kill again and there is no "Template" for what the right answer is to restore that kind of damage since you can never bring a person back -- at least not with our current technology.

Note: I do realize that there is also a concept around rehabilitative justice, but am concentrating on the two concepts for the purposes of today's show.

Part of why the action taken against Parler is so disturbing this week is the punitive nature of the action taken being far out of scale for the transgression: They allowed people to freely exchange ideas. They are having their lives destroyed for someone else's action because they did not intervene to stop it before there was even any proof that the hot air posturing was going to be acted upon.

Because they did not take punitive action against people who had not really done anything wrong, they must be annihilated.

It is quite dangerous to encourage this sort of action. Yet we have set up in our society the approach that it is ok to take 5 pounds of flesh in exchange for the slightest perception of a transgression. Think expelling a child for eating his poptart into a gun shape. Publishing names addresses and calling for violence against the children of politicians we don't agree with. Getting people fired from their jobs because we do not agree with their opinions.None of these actions address a core problem with an eye toward making amends or even persuading the person to change from their heart. Rather, it extends a stick or threat over their head and over the heads of all others so that they do not step out of line. A stick will work to change behavior -- but only for a time.Point: We are all tempted to demand punitive justice, but a restorative approach is better and those that demand their pound of flesh are making the division in our society far worse.

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

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

Today I will share with you a real view of the first week of January on the homestead.

Spring Workshop Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9am - make sure you can log in. It is all tested and ready to go!

https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/spring-workshop-2021/

The Greater Reset Online Conference

http://thegreaterreset.org/

What's Up in the Garden

• Hillside garden update
• Getting beds ready with mulch and early spring weeding
• Indoor Lettuce update

Main topic of the Show: Real Life Homestead Week One

Projects

• The finish list: Hillside garden
• Firewood trimming
• Compost Bin Redo
• Preparing the camper for sale
• Indoor Lettuce & Sprouts
• Egg log: 7 at 8:30 -- 4 if collected earlier

Food Highlights

• Turkey in halves (Baked and curried)
• Wild and garden foraged greens
• Started Sauerkraut

The Suck

• Snow+Cold+Mud and the pig pasture
• Country Dirt OMG
• Chased by Pigs
• Pump House Fail

The Fun

• Brutus the slow riser
• The Coffee Dogfood
• The Pig Milk Incident

Quaint Things That Seem Normal

• Why I do Laundry Every 2 days
• Row cover on, row cover off
• Making Mayo to make Deviled Eggs (and the lesson this week)

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee