Small Scale Life Podcast

Today’s episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast is actually the second part of my interview with Doneil Freeman.  Who is Doneil Freeman?  He is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, regenerative farmer, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster.  He operates the Freeman Family Farm in Calhan, Colorado.  Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures.  He also has extensive experience with Wicking Bed Gardens to grow all kinds of vegetables!

This is the second part of my interview with Doneil.  If you want to catch the first, listen to Episode 30 of the Small Scale Life Podcast.  In this episode, we discuss Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast.  I am pretty excited about this podcast because it is launching a new series at Small Scale Life about wicking beds and how awesome they are! 

Topics - Wicking Beds and Regenerative Dads

Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 2 of our two part interview:

Thanksgiving seems to be a distant memory now, but I did want to circle around and talk about cooking a turkey using the tips discussed in Episode 29 and also talk about making turkey noodle soup with the leftover carcass and meat. This goes beyond Thanksgiving, and I hope you use this episode and the recipes/tips discussed when you cook a turkey in the future.

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on:

Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life.

For this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Drew Sample at TheSampleHour.com. He recently released Episode 171, which is all about Hogtoberfest 2017. I listened to this podcast, and this podcast put me there in the middle of it all. The stories and experiences told around the microphone reminded me of the stories and experiences shared around the barrel stove this past weekend in Central Wisconsin at Domres Deer Camp 2017. This is how community is built, traditions established and bonds between people developed. If you are missing that in your life, listen to this podcast. You will hear something special. I have to give Greg and Susan Burns and the Burns family a huge thank you for the invitation this year. Also, I would like to thank Drew Sample for recording this, and the Bee Whisperer Michael Jordan, Doneil Freeman and others for participating. It was special, and I will be attending next year.

While we are on the subject of Greg Burns, I would like to remind you that Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at naturesimagefarms.com. As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping! So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today!

Finally, I would like to remind you that our friends at Aussie Flame Weeders are still selling flame weeder kits to gardeners, market farmers and urban gardeners. These are stainless steel, five burner manifolds designed for a standard 30-inch garden bed. The kits also include 16-inch tires and the ability to carry propane tanks (so you don’t have to. Check them out at https://www.aussieflameweeders.com/

Welcome back to the show. As I mentioned in Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie, the boys and I went to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We got to enjoy the day with family, and they handled all of the elements of the meal. It was a lot of fun to talk and hang out, and the food was fantastic! Unlike last year, there was no snow on the ground, and I got some good pictures of the sunset.

With the boys home for the long weekend, we decided to cook a turkey on Sunday. I wanted to try Jack Spirko’s cooking advice, so I started to thaw the bird for Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get it thawed out in time to quarter and brine the bird for 24-hours, but I did try quartering the bird!

Learning to Quarter a Turkey

In Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 (http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/thanksgiving-2017-jack), he made a case for quartering a turkey before cooking it. Jack resorted to this when he had to cook a 38-pound turkey. No conventional smoker, roaster or oven can handle a 38-pound turkey. His solution was to quarter the turkey, which means you:

Cook these pieces of meat together, but you can remove the various pieces as they hit the right temperature. That means you can remove the wings (which usually cook first), then the breast meat, and finally the legs and thighs as they hit 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Using this method, you won’t have shriveled wings and Sahara-like breast meat!

I have to admit, I was a little intimated by quartering a turkey. I had never done it before, even when I cooked the whole bird in a roaster. When I carved a turkey, I usually sliced a bunch of breast meat off, and then I would remove the legs and slice some thigh meat (dark meat). It was not intentional or planned; I just did it.

At Julie’s cousin’s house, I watched as Julie’s uncle carved the turkey. He essentially quartered the bird after it came out of their roaster. It did not look too complicated, but I still was unsure. I even asked her uncle if he ever quartered a turkey before cooking it, and he had never done that method before.

Still a little unsure, I went to everyone’s favorite go-to for do it yourself-type videos: YouTube. I watched two very good videos on quartering and deboning a turkey:

The first is from Jack Burton from stellaculinary.com (http://StellaCulinary.com/CKS44)

The second is from Matt Proft, who was a turkey farmer for several years (according to his channel).

Both gentlemen made great videos, so check them out before trying this.

Quartering a Turkey

Since this was my first time quartering a turkey, I decided to not make a video. I figured that I was stumbling along on this one, so it would probably not make for good video. Sharp knives, slippery turkey meat and cameras seemed like a dangerous combination.

Grabbing the cutting board, knife and turkey package, I got to work. I removed the neck and the package of giblets. If you listened to Episode 29, you know where those giblets went (garbage can). The neck went into a stainless steel stock pot.

I quartered the bird with the following steps:

With the bird quartered, I lined the roaster with tinfoil and dropped the meat into it. I brushed on olive oil and honey, and then I sprinkled on sage, rosemary, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper. I cooked the turkey at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the meat was 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When I took the meat out of the roaster, it literally fell apart, and that was without brining the turkey before cooking it. For more on brining the turkey, head over to Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast.

Turkey Noodle Soup

After the quartering process, I had a stockpot with some meat and water in it. After the turkey dinner was over, I divided the turkey: some was for sandwiches and some was for the turkey soup. I added the turkey to the stockpot, and I turned on the heat. We let the turkey stock simmer for two or three hours, and once it was completed, we removed the bones from the stock. We also removed the meat from the stock and set it off to the side. We’ll add it back in before the soup is complete.

At this point, you have a choice. Because we used dark meat and the carcass to make the stock, it does have some fat in it. If you want to remove some of that fat, you can let the stock cool and remove it from the top of the stock (fat will congeal on the surface of the stock). Otherwise, you can proceed as normal. The choice is yours.

Once you are ready, you can begin to add to your stock to make soup. We added onions, carrots, celery, salt and pepper to taste. You can also add thyme and parsely to the soup. Then we added the egg noodles to the soup. Cook the soup and noodles until the noodles are soft, and you are ready to roll!

Putting It Together

The next time you make a turkey, give these ideas a try. It isn’t as hard as you think, and I certainly learned a lot about the anatomy of a turkey using this method. The turkey noodle recipe is easy cheesy, and it is a great way to save some money by getting several meals out of one bird. Spread your wings and give it a try!

We have a great podcast for you today.  Today’s show is an interview with Doneil Freeman, who is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, farmer based on regenerative agriculture principles, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster.  Doneil Freeman operates Freeman Family Farms located in Calhan, Colorado.  Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures using principles from regenerative agriculture and permaculture.  He has run a successful CSA program, and he has a lot of advice for those of us who are starting small businesses which includes market gardens, urban farms CSA programs and even a blogs and podcasts.

This will be a two part interview.  In this podcast, we cover a lot of topics including attending Hogtoberfest, beekeeping, starting and running a CSA program, and regenerative agriculture including rebuilding soils in arid environments.  Part 2 will include a discussion about Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast.

Topics - Regenerative Agriculture with Doneil Freeman

Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 1 of our two part interview:

Hogtoberfest 2017 with Greg Burns, Drew Sample and Michael Jordan

Links

Doneil and I covered a lot of ground in this podcast including the following links:

Doneil Freeman on Facebook

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you are well on your way to enjoying the holiday with family and friends.  In this post and podcast, we are going to talk about cooking for Thanksgiving.  I’ll talk about turkey, trimmings, funny failures and other ways to prepare your turkey, stuffing and appetizers.

While you are probably already hustling preparing for your Thanksgiving feast and have a plan in motion, this post might spur a few ideas for future meals and give you a few chuckles about some of our past failures.  After all, people will sleep off their turkey coma at some point, football is only so interesting, and those dishes aren’t going to do themselves!

I wanted to start this podcast by wishing you all a great Thanksgiving and safe travels in your way.  AAA is reporting that over 51 million Americans will be traveling over 50 miles for this holiday, and that is a 3.3 percent increase over last year.  That translates to more than 1.6 million more people traveling this year than last year, so be careful out there on the roads, at the airports, at the bus stations and at train stations!

Thanksgiving 2017

Like last year, we will be on the road and will be traveling more than 50 miles from our home.  We will be heading to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day.  We will watch some football, socialize, play some games and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.  We had a great time last year, and I wrote an article about it called Thanksgiving Reflections. Of course, the bulk of that article was talking about the blog and podcast, particularly after a busy harvest season in 2016.  My have times changed!  I’ll have more on comparing 2016 to 2017 in a future podcast.

Turkey and Trimmings

Because I am not cooking a turkey and all the side dishes this year, I did not post an articles, podcasts and videos about how we make our Thanksgiving feast.  HOWEVER, if you are like us and will be guests at someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, you should still cash in on great prices for turkeys!  This is a fantastic time to buy a couple of birds at a low price and save them in the freezer for the future.  Save some money; buy them on sale now!

I am really excited that Julie bought one last night, and with the two Domres’ boys here this weekend, I will be making a turkey!  I am in charge of the bird, and I typically make them in a roaster.  I bought a 22-quart Hamilton Beach roaster from Walmart several years ago, and it works like a champ!  I have cooked many birds and other meals in this roaster, and it is really good to have during the holidays or for parties. One of the real advantages of the roaster is that the oven is free for other dishes and tasks (i.e., cooking other dishes and keeping other dishes warm while the bird finishes).

You can usually find one for under $50 at Walmart or other stores, and they will last a long time.  Of course, I am kicking myself that I don’t have an Amazon affiliate right now!

How I Cook the Turkey

Following my normal steps, the turkey is prepped and in the roaster!

Defrost the turkey (usually overnight process, so you might be in trouble if this isn’t done yet).

Funny Food Failures

Fortunately, we have not had too many failures (that I can’t remember or easily correct). Don’t let me fool you though: we aren’t culinary geniuses over here.  I shouldn’t toot our horn too loudly; we have had a few funny food failures over the years:

Paste Mashed Potatoes – We made mashed potatoes that had the consistency of paste. This was the result of overcooking the potatoes.  Try not to do that because the glue mashed potatoes are just not good!

Special Package – When Julie’s mom made her first Thanksgiving turkey, she didn’t realize that there is a package of organs inside the turkey. She cooked the turkey, and they “discovered” the package when they served the bird.  That is pretty funny and easily done, especially if you have never cooked a turkey before.  Make sure you remove the package of organs before cooking the bird.  Some people use the organs in stuffing, but I do not.  That would make the Mushy Stuffing even more difficult to eat!

Other Cooking Ideas: Turkey, Stuffing and Appetizers

I am not perfect, and I am always looking for ways to improve on my skills. Fortunately, there are some really talented people that I follow.  As I was finishing up my work in Western Wisconsin yesterday, I clicked on Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 - Cooking this Thanksgiving and Just Killing It.   In this episode, Jack covers a lot of topics including:

Handling those uncomfortable discussions about politics

While I could go on and on about all the different tips, advice and dishes he discussed on the podcast, I did want to focus on quartering and brining the turkey prior to cooking the turkey.

Quartering a Turkey

One of Jack’s “a-ha” moments was when he raised and slaughtered his own turkeys three years ago.  His Thanksgiving turkey was 38 pounds, and that creates a unique problem for most mortals like me, you and Jack: how do you cook a 38-pound bird in conventional ovens and roasters?

Jack’s solution was to quarter the turkey prior to brining and cooking it.  By removing the meat from the skeleton, he could brine the various parts and fit them into the oven or roaster.  He found an additional benefit from doing this:

Different parts of the turkey finish cooking at different times.

This is why your wings get fried, you breast meat is dry and your dark meat is almost done.  If you quarter the turkey prior to cooking it, you can monitor each type of meat and take it out when it is done.  Jack’e experience is that wings will come out first, breast meat will come out next and then the dark meat will come out last.

Jack discusses how he quarters the bird in the podcast, but essentially he removes the breasts first, then takes the leg quarters (think about how you see chicken leg quarters in the store) and finally the wings.  Jack uses the carcass, organs and other odds and ends for making turkey stock for soups later.

This makes a lot of sense to me, and it is something that I want to try.  There is an additional advantage to cooking a turkey like this: you are that much closer to serving your guests since you have removed the carcass from the equation.  It is easier to carve the turkey parts rather than mess with the entire carcass and all the juices! This makes a lot of sense to me!

Brining a Turkey

One of the common problems people when cooking a turkey is getting a dry bird at the end of this process.  Remember the turkey in Christmas Vacation?  Dry meat is just not good.

One way to help with the “dry white meat” problem is to brine the turkey for 24 hours prior to cooking.  As Jack says, “You notice that the deli turkey isn’t dry; why is that?”  Brining the turkey will add a juice to your bird,a nd it will add some flavor to the meat as well.  By brining the turkey overnight, you are soaking the turkey in a mixture of the following items:

Jack Spirko’s Turkey Brine

Per Gallon of Brine

1 Cup Salt

2-4 Star Anise

This brine will soak into the meat of the turkey, giving it some great flavor.  Additionally, your brined turkey will have more juices for the cooking process rather than just relying on the nature juices of the bird and/or your basting sauce. I have not done this in the past, but I will with my next bird.

Putting It All Together

Cheers - Thanksgiving 2017

Julie, Danny, Ryan and I wish you the best Thanksgiving.  May your travels be stress-free and safe.  May you enjoy the moment and the people you are spending your time with this holiday.  Thank you for being with us on this journey to developing a Small Scale Life.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share this journey with you and for your time, patience, feedback and thoughts.

Please be kind to each other this holiday and think of someone less fortunate than you.  There are people in our communities that are hurting and need help.  Give a little time, money and/or encouragement to others. Sometimes just a little help, encouragement and kindness goes a long, long way.

Thank you again for tuning in.  Remember to grow, explore and be healthy!  This is Tom from the Small Scale Life.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the joining of two souls in holy matrimony: Jay and Andrea. 

Congratulations, my friends!  Your friends from the frozen tundra in Minnesota celebrate this glorious event with you!

As I woke up this morning, I was thinking about this event and your wedding.  I woke up thinking about what I would say to you both as you begin this phase of your lives together.  I have been married for almost 24 years, and I have learned some things along the way that I would be happy to pass along to you both.  This is the same advice from the same philosophers I gave to my brother when I was his Best Man at his wedding some years ago.  It is the same advice I will give my two boys when they wed some day in the distant future.

Go with the Flow

The first piece of advice comes from a great philosopher of the modern age.  This man hails from the far north as well.  In his case, he comes from Canada and is one of their most cherished treasures.  In the timeless words of John Candy:

[tweetthis]"Go with the flow like a twig on the shoulders of a massive stream!" John Candy[/tweetthis]

Marriage and life can be compared to going down a river.  Sometimes, marriage and life is good and easy.  The waters are calm, and things take little effort.  Other times, there are rapids, and it takes a lot of effort to avoid getting hung up on the rocks.  In the worst of times, the river rushes over a waterfall.  You need to hold on to each other tight and go over to uncertain depths below or figure out a safe way around the impending disaster.  The key through all of this is to be together and work like a team.  By doing that, you will be equipped and able to take on whatever is around the next bend in the river.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

The second piece of advice comes from another great mind and talent of our current year and current age.  This is truly an exquisite mind and talent: one that is unparalleled in all the land.  I, I mean this talent, firmly believes that you should, no matter what, always try to laugh.  Life comes at you fast, and sometimes the only way to cope with it is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, make a joke and laugh.  Don’t take yourself too seriously. Live, laugh and love.  Truly is more than a cheesy slogan on an Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest page.  It is the truth.  It is how I try to approach life, although sometimes I am better at it than others. You have to laugh together to make sense of this mad, mad world.  Even when Jay leaves his nasty workout socks on the floor or the toilet seat up.  You just have to laugh.

Congratulations!  Start Your World

Julie and I wish you two the best.  We wished we could be there with you to celebrate this event, but we will make efforts to celebrate sometime and in some place in the future.

Congratulations! Good luck, good fortune, and may God smile upon you. Start your world; it begins….now!

It is time for another exciting episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast!  This is a long overdue Healthy Lifestyle Update, and I am checking back in to with you as my accountability partners.  So for this episode, treat is like a warm-up for Thanksgiving: prepare yourself to hear all about my ailments and knee pain and problems, just like you are listening to your dad around the dinner table.  No, not really…well, maybe a little.  Seriously though, I am going to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly in regards to my journey towards improving my health and fitness.

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy.  To put it simply, we are focused on:

Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life.

Friends of Small Scale Life

Lumbersquatches Greg Burns and Drew Sample - Good Men and Good Friends!

I would also like to remind you that the Hogtoberfest host Greg Burns from Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at Nature's Image Farm.  As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping!  So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today!

Healthy Lifestyle Update: Good, Bad and Ugly

So. Many. Patterns. Icing my knee this afternoon. Starting PT tomorrow. Thanks @mbell971 and @jdoms91 for keeping my spirits up. Sucks to hobble around. You don’t realize how much you rely on your knees until they don’t work right (pain free).

The last time I talked about this topic was back at the end of September.  I have had a whole month, so what progress did I make?  In a way, it is like showing your homework, a project or a speech in front of the class.  Some of it might be good.  Some of it might be bad, and in some cases, just plain ugly.

The good news is that I am still here, still working on it and still moving forward.  I am working through the pain, and it has given me a serious appreciation for people like Todd Ehrhardt that are living and making progress on their dreams in spite of their physical pain.

We’ll start from the worst case and work backwards, so we end on a positive note. What can I say?  I am a positive guy and want to end on a positive note and looking forward.

The Ugly

Let’s start with the ugly.  If you follow Small Scale Life on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you have seen a lot of pictures and posts of my knee under various ice packs.  I have been nursing a bad knee since the end of August when I worked at the Minnesota State Fair.  So, what is going on?  To answer that question, we have to go back in a time machine.

Back in my youth, I played football in high school and in college.  As a defensive lineman and linebacker, I had my share of sprained ankles and fingers.  I also had two knee injuries.  As a Senior in high school, I strained my Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) on my left knee against Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (my son Ryan’s nemesis from high school basketball).  That healed fairly quickly.

The bigger, more serious injury occurred in college.  I was chasing down a running back on a broken play in a game against Hamline College, and a guy who was subbing in for our injured safety dove right into my left leg, bending it backward.  I partially tore my Posterior Collateral Ligament (PCL) and once again strained my MCL.  I also taught the Hamline sideline a new vocabulary and language that would make Salty Seaman proud.  I was out for the year, and I decided to end my football career.

Flash forward 26 years from 1991 to 2017.  I went from endless hours behind desks and in meetings to working on my feet a lot.  In my current role, I am inspecting railroad crossings, working at events like the State Fair or presenting to people.  That means I am standing, sometimes for hours on end.

In addition, I am just a little heavier now in my 40’s than when I was 18 years old.  Just a bit!  Those old injuries coupled with extra body weight and being on my feet a lot created a perfect storm for arthritis in my knee.  Welcome to getting old and years of neglect, my friends!

*The Bad

Since the end of August, I have been hobbling around the house or at work and icing my knee at night.  It affected me during the 14-Day Rebooted Body Walk Challenge, and I had to sign up for the 1 mile per day challenge because I was really worried that I couldn’t go farther on a given day.

I have gone to the doctor a couple times: once at the end of September and then again recently.  I saw a general practitioner in September, and while the direction I got from them was okay, it was based on old information, x-rays and data from 2012.  I knew I had to go to a specialist.

In late October, I was able to get to see an ortho.  They took new x-rays of my knee and confirmed that I had arthritis and poor cartilage in both knees, particularly my left knee.  Apparently the x-rays revealed that my lower legs are slightly misaligned from my knee, and this alignment forces the bulk of the weight and force to my inner knee and inner foot.

Based on discussions with the ortho, we decided to move ahead with Physical Therapy, holding off on cortisone shots or surgical options.  One of the options was removing a wedge from both of my lower legs, forcing realignment of my legs.  This would force my weight to be more evenly distributed through my legs to my feet.  While the ortho shrugged it off and said it was like taking a chunk out of a tree (with a reciprocating saw), the thought of that did not appeal to me at all! Who wants someone sawing off part of their leg?

The bottom line is that my why’s for getting healthier are becoming even more urgent.  Life will get a lot less painful if I do the work to rehab myself and can shed some weight.

Truth be told, it has been a miserable few days since the weekend.  My knee was really sore after swimming a mile on Sunday, and I was really hobbling around the house and work.  It was pretty painful, and I could feel my other muscles tightening up and tiring out while they compensated for my knee.

The Good

Got a walk with @jdoms91 tonight in the neighborhood. When we got close to shingle Creek, we hear two Great Horn Owls in the stand of cottonwoods and other trees along the creek. Owls are awesome, and I have learned to mimic their calls. Needless to say, we stopped and I called. Two owls got excited (they are territorial) and flew into trees right over our heads. They eventually decided to move on, and they took flight. The geese and ducks called out warning calls as the two owls flew over the water. It was a fantastic to see them fly. What a night! It is amazing what you see on a walk in the urban area sometimes.

A post shared by Small Scale Life (@smallscalelife) on Oct 5, 2017 at 9:17pm PDT

She was able to see a lot of issues I have with my legs and muscles.  The fact is that my calves are too tight, as are my hamstrings.  My glutes, core and my quads need to be stronger, and my hips need some work as well.  All of these things impact my knees and my lower back, which have both been pretty sore over the past several months.

I walked away with a laundry list of stretches and exercises to start rehabbing those muscles.  I am working on that list of stretches and exercises at least two times a day, and I will be going to have therapy for the next six weeks.  I have to do the work to make this better; no one can do it for me.

It certainly has been a wild year for me.  I don’t usually go to the doctor or physical therapy.  I haven’t in years.  That all changed this year as I have truly tried to rehab my body.

Maybe I should send Kevin my bills?

So, you might be asking, what is good about any of this?

The good part of this journey is that I am trying to get myself in a better place physically.  Stretching and working out again is going to help me.  I have been getting back in the pool more consistently, and last night I even tried the stationary bike.  I can tell you that the pool has felt better for my knee that the bike!  It was rather painful to spin those pedals, and my resistance level was set at 3.  Sad because I used to start at 8 or 10.

Anyway, this journey is not an overnight sprint.  It is a long, slow walk.  My progress will be measured by inches at first, and then feet.  It is going to take time and effort, but it is not too late to fix myself.

I have to do the work.  I have to commit to it.  This is important, and it is becoming more and more important as I get older.  When you are young, you can do things that and ignore warning signs.  I do not have that luxury.  As I told the physical therapist, my 68 year old father-in-law walks better than I can right now.  That needs to change.

My journey is just starting.  Stay tuned to these Healthy Lifestyle Updates; it is going to be an interesting, and sometimes frustrating, walk.

Your Challenge

Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast.  Share this post and podcast; maybe that person you share it with will get inspired to go to the doctor and get help for their pain.  Maybe you will be inspired to get moving and start your own journey.  I am starting small, and you all can probably walk circles around me.  Are you willing to get off the couch and start?  Join me and give it a try!

Share and Interact

Please help the podcast and blog grow.  How do you do that?  Subscribe on iTunes, leave a rating and share this podcast with others.  For those of you who have left reviews and ratings, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I do appreciate it.  We have great followers and friends of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and I appreciate you all.

If you have any comments on the show, feel free to leave them on the contact us page or as a comment under this blog post.  Reach out.  Engage.  You are not alone in this world.  You have friends here.  Connect with us on the blog or in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group.

Thank you again for tuning in.  Remember to grow, explore and be healthy!  This is Tom from the Small Scale Life Podcast, and we’ll see you really soon!

A chill is in the air.  The winds have blown the leaves off the trees, and the nights are getting short.  Here in Minnesota, we are getting our first snowfall today!  The garden season is over, and it is time to prepare for winter.  In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss how I will winterize the garden, tools and other gardening gear for winter.

Fall in Minnesota

We have been having a gorgeous fall here in Minnesota.  The temperatures have been perfect, and the leaves on the trees have been fantastic.  One comment on the leaves before we jump into the main topic: the progression of fall colors seems to have been sporadic this year.  If there was a stand of trees, we would get one tree changing, and then another.  It wasn’t like other years where they all changed at once.  I would say that the peak colors in the Twin Cities happened around October 15th, and I took a lot of pictures of trees this fall.  Julie and I will be traveling down the Mississippi River this weekend, so hopefully we will find some good views and fall color downstream!

First Snow in Minnesota

We are getting our first snow in Minnesota - 10/27/17

This podcast and corresponding post are essential a To Do Checklist for me (and perhaps for you as well) before we get an accumulation of white stuff and the ground freezes.  Once the ground freezes, it is all over here in Minnesota.  It really does turn into permafrost, and if you have any dead plants in the ground, they will be stuck there until the spring thaw.  Trust me: it has happened to me before with my wicking beds.

As I look at the current state of my garden and garden area, I realize I have a lot to do before that happens!  As of today, I have not pulled any of my plants.  I had tomatoes and peppers on the plants last night. In fact, the basil is still sprouting new leaves and there are buds on the tomatoes and peppers, even though we got our first frost on October 10, which was exactly on the National Weather Service’s average frost date for this area.

So, let’s get down to what needs to be done, shall we?

7 Steps to Winterize Your Garden

You worked hard to grow those plants, so you should reap the rewards! Don’t let frost, snow and the deep freeze take that from you!

If any plants have signs of blight, remove plants and dispose of them. Do not throw them into your compost pile!  If you throw infected plants into your compost pile, you could be infecting your compost with blight spores.  Get rid of the plants with blight!

Unwrap and untie trellis string from the around the plants and conduit.

If it was earlier in the fall, I would recommend planting an over-winter crop such as garlic, onions or carrots. These plants can get a start growing in the warm soil and fading fall sun and will start growing during the spring thaw.  As a gardener, there is something magical about seeing a green onion shoot or garlic shoot popping up in April after a long, hard winter.  I am not planting any over-winter crops this year due to changes I am going to make next spring.

You will want to empty your rain barrel! Water expands by about 9% when it freezes, and that is why containers that have a lid and water in them break when frozen.  At the same time, water weighs about 8.3 pounds per gallon, so our full 40 gallon water barrel will weight over 330 pounds!  Yeah, you want to empty that rain barrel out before moving it.

With blight infected some of my tomato plants, I want to clean and sterilize my tools and containers. I don’t want next year’s plants to come in contact with any blight!  I will use Lysol or a solution of 90% water to 10% bleach. It is important to dry metal tools after cleaning, so they do not corrode.

I will be organizing and storing the various bins, containers, soil, buckets and other odds and ends I have acquired as part of my gardening efforts. After the move, I stored them along the house near the garden bench, but I have to admit that the stack of materials does not look great. I also will be shoveling the walkway, and those materials are going to be in my way.  I need to move those materials into the garage and store them there.  Of course, that will kick off a garage organization and storage project as well!

We will be covering our wood patio furniture (swing and Adirondack chairs with tarps). Weather (sun, rain, snow and ice) are hard on wood furniture, and we have found this helps preserve these wood pieces. Julie has talked about spray painting the chairs before the snow hits; we’ll see if that happens.

We will be draining all lawn equipment in the near future. It isn’t good for the lawn mower, blower or weed whip to leave old gas in them. I usually run the equipment until they run out of gas.  Using old gas and an old spark plug are typically the reasons why your lawn equipment won’t start in the spring.

These are pretty quick projects, and you can get them done in a day or so. Take the time; it is worth getting organized and ready for winter.  You will find that being organized and having clean tools and containers will lead to a strong start this winter when you start seedlings and gear up for the new year!  After all, we will be starting tomato and pepper plants in February, which is right around the corner.  Do the work now, and set yourself up for success.

Next Steps and Your Turn

The final harvest of 2017!

If you have any comments on the show, feel free to leave them on the contact us page or as a comment under this blog post.  Reach out.  Engage.  Become part of the community in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group.

Thank you again for tuning in and reading this article on Small Scale Life.  Remember to grow, explore and be healthy!  This is Tom from the Small Scale Life Podcast, and we’ll see you really soon!

Welcome to Small Scale Life!  This is Season 2 Episode 25, and in this episode, I am completing my interview with Michael Bell from Dallas, Texas.  Michael is a husband, dad, teacher, small business owner, body builder, trainer, and urban farmer.  In Season 2 Episode 24, Michael and I discussed his urban farm called Half Acre Farm, but that is only one of Michael's businesses.  Michael is also a body builder and fitness trainer, and I had to get his Healthy Lifestyle Advice for those of us just starting out on our journey.  What is interesting is that Michael's advice is similar to what he heard from Kevin Michael Geary in HELP Episode 7.  That tells me that these two guys are ON to something....

For all of my homesteader, market gardener and urban farmer friends, you will want to hang through this podcast.  In fine Tomres' fashion (that isn't a spelling error, by the way...I guess I have a nickname), I swerve the discussion back to his urban farming operation and talk about lessons learned and the future of the Half Acre Farm.

Thank you Michael Bell for spending the time with me and our listeners at Small Scale Life!  You are always welcome back to our show, and I am sure we will be talking with you in the near future.

Topics

Hammered quads this morning! Heaviest Ive gone in leg press in a few weeks, I've been doing supersets and rest pause so it was nice to get that heavy weight feeling back in the quads. This was the 5th and final set so I went to failure and got 24 reps. Now I have 6 meals to get in to complete a successful day! #gamedaypreworkout

Body Building

How did Michael get into Body Building?  What is your story?

Lessons Learned in Body Building that translate to Urban Farming

Links for Michael Bell

Had a freaking awesome bi's and calves training session at home this morning! Hoping to train tri's for the first time in 6 week next week.

Michael Bell on Instagram

Friends of Small Scale Life

Photo courtesy of Aussie Flame Weeder

Aussie Flame Weeders makes stainless steel flame weeder manifolds.  They are making manifold set available this month, and they expect to start shipping them all by the start of November.  The manifold set up will contain:

Custom manifold to suit 30-inch bed

To be in the competition all you have to do is:

Order a manifold before the October 31, 2017

Check Aussie Flame Weeder out using the following links:

Aussie Flame Weeder website is www.aussieflameweeders.com

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This is Season 2, Episode 24 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and I have a great interview lined up for you today.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you will have a break from my monologues with this podcast.  I am SURE there is much rejoicing with that news.  In this episode, I am interviewing a husband, dad, teacher, small business owner, body builder, trainer, and urban farmer!  This gentleman’s name is Michael Bell.  He is a fellow kindred spirit from down in Texas, and in Part 1 of our two part interview, we are talking urban farming!

He is not only a mountain of muscle, but he also owns and operates Half Acre Farm.  Inspired by some of my heroes including Gary Vee, Curtis Stone and JM Fortier, Michael is carving out his organic footprint in a quiet spot six miles from down Downtown Dallas.  It is pretty cool talking with Michael, and I learned a lot from him.  Whether it is starting your own small business (not necessarily urban farming) or getting fit, I think there is something for everyone in these next two podcasts!

Topics

In this podcast, Michael Bell and I discussed the following:

Introductions

Who is Michael Bell?

Urban Farming

Why urban farming?

In Part 2 of this interview, we discuss body building and the journey to develop a healthy lifestyle.

Links for Michael Bell

Custom manifold to suit 30-inch bed

To help promote this deal, Aussie Flame Weeders are offering all customers who purchase a custom manifold the chance to win Coolbot!  These are perfect tools for your urban farm!

Order a manifold before the October 31, 2017

To find out more:

This is Season 2, Episode 23 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and today we are going to talk about the Fall Garden. How are things going? What is happening with the new seedlings? If you follow Small Scale Life on Instagram or Facebook, you already have a clue on what has been going on in the garden. As a gardener, I have to tell you: it isn’t always smooth sailing. In this episode, I will be talk about the new seedlings and some serious garden pests who have made a mess of the Fall Garden.

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are dedicated to intentional living through learning, doing and growing. We are focused on:

• Gardening,

Welcome to October! We have gotten over two inches of rain here. The rain barrel is completely full, and the garden has absorbed the water. Beyond this rain, I have also been fighting pests in the garden as well (as a spoiler alert: I just picked off two dozen slugs off plants and from the garden beds). Even with these challenges, plants are still growing and producing. So, as the harvest moon rises in the east, I thought that it was time for another Fall Garden Update! In this episode, I am going to talk about going on Pest Patrol. Grab your rubber boots, your flashlights and follow me out into the garden.

Fall Crops

Two weeks ago (and as I discussed in Season 2 Episode 21), I took the seedlings growing in the trays and planted them into the Square Foot Garden Beds. I planted almost all of the sugar snap peas into the Western Bed. I put the seedlings in two rows across the entire length of the bed. I figured I would install a simple trellis system consisting of two 2"x4" posts, two 3/4" conduits, some fencing and zip ties. Once the sugar snap peas got a little taller and sent out more tendrils, I would install the trellis. Unfortunately, that plan has been delayed a bit due to some unwelcome visitors to the garden. More on that in a minute.

Like the sugar snap peas, I took the green bush beans and planted them into the Eastern Bed. They completely filled out the open area in front of the compost tomatoes. Two weeks later, they are look pretty good; however, there is some leaf damage from some pests.

Finally, I do have some reserve Fall Crops that have not been planted in the garden beds yet. I have lettuce, spinach and a few sugar snap peas growing happily in the seed trays. In addition, I pre-soaked some sugar snap pea seeds (soak them in water overnight), and I planted 3/4 of a tray this week. I figure if we have a mild Fall, I might get some new seedlings down in the beds and perhaps can get some sugar snap peas before the hard freeze. Time will tell if it works out or not.

Rabbit Terminators

In previous garden updates, I mentioned that there are a number of rabbits in this neighborhood. These furry terminators seem to have an insatiable hunger. So much so that they chewed through the flimsy plastic Walmart fencing that ring each of the garden beds. Seriously. They ate through the plastic fencing!

Earlier in the season, I repaired the holes by using chicken wire and zip ties. These rabbits would not be denied: they chewed new holes and got into the beds. While it really wasn't a big deal to lose a couple pepper leaves, it WAS a big deal for the rabbits eating down the sugar snap peas. In a course of a week, they grazed over the peas every night, and my two healthy rows of peas turned into a few plants on the edges of the West Garden Bed. I had peas every 2"-3", and now I don't have many plants in the middle of the bed. I now have pea stubble, and I had to do something.

I wanted to salvage some peas this fall, so I went ahead and pulled out the flimsy plastic fencing on Garden Bed West. I was going to beef up the stakes that support the fencing, but I needed to get the new fencing up before nightfall. I replaced the flimsy fencing with good old fashioned chicken wire, and I affixed the fence to the stakes with zip ties. The chicken wire is taller than the cheap plastic fencing, and it should provide some protection from the furry menace.

Sluggish Menace

The light was fading as I was working on the fencing. I slowly unrolled the fencing around the garden and attached the fencing to the wooden stakes. As the sun started to set, I began to notice creatures slowly slinking out from dark areas near the stakes. I actually bent down and looked closely, and then it hit me. I had a slug problem!

Slugs will feed on leaves of plants and ripening fruit. I had noticed some damage on the basil leaves, tomatoes and a couple of the peppers, but I just kept doing my thing. Having DEALT with slugs in my gardens before, I should have known the signs and done something earlier.

Garden Beds

The mature plants in the garden beds continue to produce fruit. The Early Treat Tomato Plants are loaded with new tomatoes, and the Cherry Tomato Plants continue to produce fruit as well. I am very pleased with the red and green bell peppers, particularly the red bell peppers. They are getting massive and there are quite a few of them. The basil has really grown since I last harvested the leaves. It is time to harvest more!

The compost plants are chugging along. The tomatoes are showing buds, and we'll see if they bear fruit before the frost. I have my doubts. The melon plants are showing some buds, and one melon has started on one of the vines. Again, I have my doubts on this one maturing to anything substantial.

Next Steps

In the last Garden Update Podcast, I talked about building a wicking bed. Given the remaining two weeks before the first frost, I am actually going to put this project on hold until the spring. I am going to plant the seedlings I have, and I will get a container for the lettuce and spinach. There just isn't time to build the wicking bed, particularly with most of my tools in storage. Don't worry! I will build this project; we will just have to wait a bit longer.

I do need to replace the fence around Garden Bed East, and I need to install a trellis for Garden Bed West. These are projects I can still complete given my limited power tools and equipment here.

In addition, I have to get to the Farmer's Market to pick up supplies to make salsa and some other goodies. The season is almost over! It is time to get these last projects done!

Your Turn

How about you? What is left to do this season? Are you harvesting anything from your garden?

Thank you again for tuning into Small Scale Life. We do appreciate each and every one of you. This is Tom from Small Scale Life. Remember to learn, do and grow. See you really soon!