Small Scale Life Podcast

Welcome to the Small Scale Life Podcast! I like to call it the “Half Hour Happy Hour,” and today is no different! I am usually selling Good Vibes to the audience, and I hope this episode inspires you to make a difference in your neighborhood and community. After all, our time on this earth is limited. It’s your life; do something positive with it! I am going to talk about some people doing positive things in their community, and I am going to talk about a new project and direction for the Small Scale Gardening project.

Topics in this podcast episode include the following:

For more information and links, check the show notes in the article titled: smallscalelife.com/do-something-positive.

As promised earlier this week, I am following up on my last podcast episode covering How to Extend My Garden Season. If you can tell from the title of this episode, I had some big failures and learned some valuable gardening lessons last Friday night and Saturday morning. In this episode, I am going to talk about the 6 Lessons Learned from the End of My 2019 Garden Season, and hopefully you will pick up a thing or two that you can use in your own garden!

You can find out more at smallscalelife.com including show notes, pictures, infographics and my previous post titled "Frost is Coming: How to Extend My Garden Season" that is effectively Part 1 of this episode!

Well, my gardening friends, they say "all good things must come to an end."  My question is: do they have to come to an end this early?  Frost is coming this weekend, and I don’t want the party to end.  I am wondering how to extend my garden season?  Should I try to push the limits and test my luck a bit longer?

I know what you hardened and veteran gardeners are saying: “Don’t stop now; keep growing!”

I know exactly how you feel!  I am feeling that way too!

The problem comes into how I set up the garden this year with vine crops on trellis systems.  Is the juice worth the squeeze for keeping these plants going?

Frost is coming, folks! You can’t stop it; you can just prepare.  I know others are wondering how to extend my garden season, so let’s dig into how we can do just that.

For about methods to extend your gardening season, check out the post on smallscalelife.com!

Successful events and failed events do not just happen.  The success or complete failure is set in motion long before the actual event.  This past weekend, my family, Julie and I experienced both.  I am going to tell a tale of those two events and give you 10 Tips to Successfully Plan and Host an Event.  By following these tips, I think you will be well equipped to successfully plan and host your own event!

For show notes, links and the 10 Tips for How to Successfully Plan and Host an Event InfoGraphic, please go to the Small Scale Life article titled "10 Tips to Successfully Plan and Host an Event."

In this episode, I discuss a great Fall Equinox weekend including:

For all the links and show notes for this podcast, please go to Small Scale Life and see the article posted Happy Fall Equinox 2019 posted there.

How does a company grow 1 million meals in a place with incredibly high temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter? On top of that, this company has no tillable soil, no heavy farm equipment (i.e., traditional tractors or combines) and only asphalt and concrete to grow food. In addition, this company needs to move garden beds for new attractions and exhibits, so these raised beds need to be mobile.

Impossible, you say?

It is not only possible, it is happening right now in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In fact, it is happening at the State Fair of Texas while the fair is happening! In this episode, I sit down with Drew Demler from Big Tex Urban Farms and discuss various aquaponic systems and mobile garden beds used to grow 1 million meals for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We cover a lot of topics including who Drew Demler is, what kind of aquaponic systems are used, pests, fertilizers, wicking beds and small aquaponic systems you can set up at your own home.

Big Tex Urban Farms has a focused mission: to "connect like-minded agriculture entities and provides fresh produce to organizations focused on hunger and healthy lifestyle programs." With people like Drew Demler leading the way, there is no doubt in my mind that Big Tex Urban Farms will continue to push the envelope and provide nutritous meals to those in need for a long time to come.

For more information, links and show notes, please head to the article titled "SSG: How to Grow 1 Million Meals with Drew Demler " on https://smallscalegardening.com!

In last week's News from Around the Bend on smallscalelife.com, I opened the article by talking about kids going back to school. In some cases, our friends are taking their young adults to college for the first time. Julie and I have been there and done that. After all, both of our boys left our house and went to the US Army (Danny) or college (Ryan). We just took Ryan back to Winona, Minnesota, for the next phase of his college career. Whether you are taking your young adult to college for the first time, to kindergarten for the first time or sending your child to school for another round, we all have feelings of excitement, nervousness and doubt.

Why do we feel this way and what can you do about it?

In this podcast, I am mainly going to focus on young adults going back to school or heading off to college for the first time. A friend is feeling that sense of loss and depression after sending his son to college several states away. He was feeling pretty bad, and I wanted to respond to some of his questions in this podcast.

The bottom line is that you have to let these young adults launch and start to explore their world. We are going to have to give up some control; these young adults are out of sight and out of "reach" (so to speak). You don't have control, and you need to let them learn.

On the other hand, there are some things we can do to prepare for this phase of life. We need to have a plan in case things go awry. Life happens, and it can catch you by surprise if you don't have a plan. At the same time, there are some things we need to do to think about the next phase of OUR LIVES. Yes, the kids are going to leave the nest, so what comes next?

Remember: failing to plan is planning to fail. We want you to be the best you, so start to put that thinking cap on, make some plans and execute!

For more information and links in the show notes, check out the article titled "Preparing for the Next Phase of Life" on smallscalelife.com!

In this episode, I am trying something new! This is the pilot episode of the new Small Scale Gardening Podcast. In this podcast, I am focusing on gardening and food preservation, which are my passions. As I learned from my good friend Greg Burns, I need to "Start with the Why" as I begin this effort.

I talk about the following topics in this podcast including:

This podcast will be hosted on Small Scale Life, and I will also provide links on Small Scale Gardening. Let's learn, do, and grow together!

Special thanks to Hyde Free Instrumentals for the Acoustic Folk Instrumental. For more information, please see the following:

Acoustic/Folk Instrumental by Hyde - Free Instrumentals https://soundcloud.com/davidhydemusic

July was a great month full of time spent with family and friends. We need to be part of our community and strengthening existing relationships while making new ones. It isn't always about the money; it's about building social capital!

This is a Just Tom Show while I am on the road from Duluth, MN, to Minneapolis, MN. As I worked on the shores of the great Lake Giche Gume (Lake Superior for everyone not in Minnesota), I had time to reflect on July. We had a great time with family at our house and on the road in Stevens Point, Kimball and northern Wisconsin. It helped that we have a lot of July birthdays; that translates into family celebrations! Family can be hard to love at times, but as my dad said, "Blood is thicker than water." We have been working hard to build up those family relationships.

At the same time, July has been a month of friendship. We are thankful to spend time with our good friends and make some new friends along the way! Friends have invited us over, and we have opened our house to them as well. A great example is this weekend: we are heading north (after I just got home) to our friends' cabin near Hayward, WI. It is going to be a weekend of fun and shenanigans, but that is what it is all about, right? We have to open ourselves up and take the time to connect with others, even those folks in our neighborhood.

For more on this podcast (and the show notes), head over to this article on Small Scale Life!

In this podcast, Julie and I talk about How to Budget Your Way to Financial Freedom. We unpack the 9 Steps to Creating Your First Budget (with an additional bonus step at the end).

This is the podcast you have been waiting for!

After recording this podcast, Julie and I realized that there was a lot to this topic. Budgeting so important to your future success, but creating your first budget can be overwhelming and stressful. Julie and I have done a lot of thinking about how to present this material and share our process with you.

To help you with successfully creating your first budget, Julie and I decided to create and release a Quickie Monthly Budget rather than a complicated spreadsheet. We want you to try this method of budgeting in a simple and easy to follow format.

As part of Creating Your First Budget Week, Julie and I will be releasing a Quickie Monthly Budget with instructions on Wednesday this week at smallscalelife.com. We will have a special page dedicated to this Quickie Monthly Budget, and we will include a link in the show notes once the budget has been posted.

In the meantime, head over to smallscalelife.com to find more information and get the show notes on this podcast!