Small Scale Life Podcast

Last week on the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discussed my Daily Gratitude Practice and gave four tips to establishing your own daily gratitude practice. As a recap, the four tips were the following:

This week, I am revisiting gratitude and putting it into action. I completed Number 4 on that list. I let two people on my list know that I was very grateful for them: Theresa and Dale. I also had a chance to talk to a member of the Small Scale Life Community that is in a tough place and is finding it hard to find gratitude for that member's situation.

To join the Small Scale Life Community, please go to smallscalelife.com and joint the conversation on the Small Scale Life Newsletter. Sign up today!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Tis the season for having a Daily Gratitude Practice and giving thanks.  After all, how many of us had this conversation during Thanksgiving dinner last week:

What are you thankful for?

“What are you thankful for” is the usual question that people have and expect a response after grace.  How often were we caught of-guard by such a simple question when the piping hot feast is right in front of us?  We typically mumble something about “family and friends,” stop paying attention to other answers once we are done mumbling and dive into the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing!  Am I right?

But did we really think about that question?  Did you pause for a minute and really think about your answer?  Seriously.

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to talk about starting my gratitude practice a year after writing Practicing Gratitude for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in October 2020.  I’ll finish this episode by discussing

REMEMBER: Snow, ice and subzereo temperatures can hurt you (ie, frostbite).  There are MANY ways to ground, develop a gratitude practice and get a dose of Nature. Get outside, be careful and be safe!

For show notes, links and more information, check out the article titled "Gratitude Practice: How to Start Expressing Gratitude" on smallscalelife.com!

In this episode, I break my silence and restart the Small Scale Life Podcast! I talk about our new farm in Western Wisconsin and starting to live at our farm. I talk about the following topics:

For more information and to subscribe to the Small Scale Life Newsletter, go to smallscalelife.com!

Special thanks to Sean at Osi and the Jupiter for writing and recording the song at the end of the podcast episode. You can fiund Osi and the Jupiter on YouTube, Facebook and Bandcamp. I really enjoy his Appalachian/Norse/Folk style.

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Tom talks about "going with the flow" and how he is developing a 10 step plan to navigate the rapids, waterfalls and log jams in life.

We can spend a lifetime chasing dollars and cents, yet we don’t have the sense to take care of the Small Scale Life Basic 10 Core Principles. We have become addicted to consumerism, screens, and Modern Western Culture that pumps out garbage at an incredible rate. That is where we get into trouble: too much debt, not enough savings, few prospects, no connection to Nature or people, and living life on the hamster wheel fulfilling someone else’s dreams.

Are you sick and tired of all that yet?

I can see how we need to ramp up and execute them as Julie and I start our new homestead in a rural place where we don’t know many people. It is going to be challenge for us, but I think all of the work we have done is going to pay off. We are starting to see results already, and we have just barely gotten started. Just wait!

Go to smallscalelife.com for show notes and links.

In this Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I provide an Eagles Ridge Update: Community, House Project and Stair Project Failure. I talk about 5 Lessons Learned from Our Stair Project that can be applied to our lives: relationships, jobs, money, tasks, DIY projects and even social media.

April has come and gone, and we had a lot going on gearing up for constructing our Eagles Ridge Barndominium. The machine is MOSTLY in place, and the weather had cooperated; however, we hit a delay. We are in a holding pattering until some things get sorted out, and that gives us time to do other things.

One of those other things was the stairs from the middle of Eagles Ridge to the Apple River. The Ridge is about 60 feet above the river, and we have been working on a stair project from about half way up the ridge to the river. Things were going well last Fall, but we ran into some serious issues in the past two weeks.

We decided to make some drastic changes with the stairs, and I walk you through the project and the 5 Lessons Learned from Our Stair Project. For photos, links, videos and other information, check out the article titled "In a Hole? Stop Digging! 5 Lesson Learned from Our Stair Project" on smallscalelife.com!

On this 189th Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am talking homestead hunting, Roberts Rules, grounding and gardening with Letti Loo from the Liberty All Day Blog, Podcast and Vlog.

Letti is a busy person! She is married and has a busy little boy, and along with her own platform, she is a co-host on the 80’s Mom Podcast and has her own virtual assistant company called Parli Pro Consulting as well.

Like Julie and I, Letti and her family are escaping Chicago and returning to the land. They want to get back to a place and a life that makes sense. They want the liberty and freedom to become who they want to be, grow their own food, have some animals, build a community and do something simply magnificent in a beautiful place.

They are on the path that so many urbanites and suburbanites are on right now: escaping the large cities, the rules and the chaos. The land rush is on, and prices are climbing and property is scarce. Homestead hunting has been really tough and intense because potential places are sold sight unseen and as-is for premium prices. Will Letti and her family find that oasis in the sea of confusion?

I know they will!

Remember, dear Letti, good things are coming. It will work out and you will get the right place for you. Keep your chin up as your keep homestead hunting. Speak it; claim it; believe it!

Have you ever felt overwhelmed as you think about how to start gardening or kicking off a new garden season? There are so many questions, options and methods; it can feel like you are lost in a lush jungle of options and questions:

• Do I start seeds or buy them from a store or a greenhouse?

If you feel this way, this new How to Start Gardening Series is for you. I am designing this series for people starting from scratch and with a clean canvas. My goal is to reduce the confusion and help you successfully grow plants and vegetables.

In the Frozen Tundra of America's northland, we seem to have turned a corner on the weather last week. Something is in the air. The birds are showing us that something is up: from the pairs of eagles flying over Eagles Ridge and near the Third Floor Castle in the Sky to the cardinals popping up everywhere. We are entering a Season of Change!

On this 187th Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discuss about how Our Time is Finite as we enter a Season of Change here at Small Scale Life. Spring 2021 is coming, and there will be a lot happening on Eagles Ridge, Small Scale Gardening, Small Scale Life and in our lives.

Time is finite. There is only so much time in a day, and it really comes down to how we use that one essential limiting resource: time.

It is time of new beginnings, and we can still be the lighthouse even though things look differently. If you remember, these are my Guiding Words for 2021. Things may change, but not all change is a bad thing. After all, gardeners and homesteaders know that as old, unproductive growth is removed, new plants can sprout and grow.

Head over to smallscalelife.com to get all the show notes and links.

This episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast is all about How to Raise You Vibes with Maria the Energy Healer. As with many interviews, we had a plan and scripted questions for Maria, but we swerved into some really important topics that will serve as way stones for what Small Scale Life is becoming.

For all of our knowledge and understanding, there are things in this world that humans don’t know or have forgotten during our evolution. The fact of the matter is that there are energies and vibrations at work all around us.

In our crazy Western Civilization, modern men and woman are on the go and don’t often stop to contemplate WHY things happen or WHAT they can do to change how they feel, think and act. Instead, they chalk it up to bad luck or blame someone else for their misfortune.

Feelings, thoughts and actions are all tied together. When we have stinking thinking, it is usually the result of problems with our internal energies, our chakras, conditioning and mindset. We have been programmed from a young age to be on the go and move through the normal, chaotic progression of birth, school, college, job, relationships, perhaps kids, rearing children, career, retirement and death. The only constants are death, taxes and never-ending consumption.

Stop, breathe and think for a minute. Turn the lense on yourself and your path. Ask yourself:

• What if you could understand the deeper meaning of our pain, stinking thinking and relationship problems?

If you are like me six months ago, I wouldn’t have known what this is all about. I would have thought this was woo woo voodoo and looked at you funny as I hit “block” on my phone. Oh have times, and I, changed!

Our guest this week is a Reike Master and Intuitive Energy Healer Maria Voorhees-Reincke. Julie and I discuss the following topics:

• What is Energy Healing?

We talk about these and a host of other topics on this 186th Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast! For liinks and show notes, head over to smallscalelife.com!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Lifers. I hope you have a good holiday with your significant other.

How is it going? How are you feeling? Are you making it through these tough times and cold weather?

It can be hard this time of year. It feels like Spring is never going to get here, and we have a long stretch of sea before us before we get to a warmer seas and safe ports.

On our course, there a rocks, reefs and sandbars that can snag our sailing ship. We can get stuck and hung up there, and that can be dangerous in foggy or stormy seas.

You didn’t know you tuned in to a sailing podcast, did you?

This is all a metaphor for life right now. Many of us are struggling with issues and problems, and sometimes we get stuck. We stop moving and get bashed and battered, much like a ship stuck on a rock, reef, or sandbar. Captains use charts, buoys and Lighthouses to safely navigate rivers, seas and oceans. We need the same in our lives as we deal with problems, issues and hang-ups.

On this 185th Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, let’s put on our Captain’s hat, hoist the sails and grab the charts and a glass. After all, its time to discuss When the Struggle is Real, Find Your Lighthouse to skirt the rocks and find better seas or a safe harbor. We can even say “Yarrrrrr” as we do it, maties! Now bring me that horizon…Yo ho!

For show notes and links, head over to smallscalelife.com!