The Schoolhouse Life

Ever feel isolated? Alone in your sadness? A little lost in what it is you truly want out of your life?

Often we let these keep some elements of our desires or suffering to ourselves. We don’t want to burden others, or make ourselves vulnerable. Our society trains us to believe that independence is the truest measure of success. 

Alisha Wielfaert is a connector. One of @Triad Business Journal’s 2020 40 to watch under 40, she brings women together in a way that soothes souls and develops a wholeness we can only experience through our community with others. 

Alisha facilitates conversations that lead to clarity & often help her clients reconnect with their purpose and personal creativity. She’s a treasure!

Visit Yokeandabundance.com for your free 30 days of meditation!

It's our Wellness Awareness series! Susan Sykes is a passionate chiropractor and Wellness Advisor who has spent decades learning how the human body works & how to help people feel their best. 

She has built a practice around targeted support for her patients & continues to help them find huge relief with traditional knowledge paired with the best technology available today. Listen to learn about some of what she does, and be inspired! Natural health takes so many forms, and we can all be healthier when we know what’s out there--and who will support us be our best!

This week we're talking with Lilly Emendy from the Urban Teaching Farm. The Farm is part of @outofthegardenproject. They are all doing their best to keep the kids in Greensboro and surrounding areas fed with good food.

In Europe, people are starting to eat Black Soldier Flies as a really great source of protein.

Karl is an expert in the world of the Black Soldier Fly science and the cultivation of Black Soldier Flies.

 On the homestead, we use Black Soldier Flies to eat all our rotten vegetables, rotten meat, food scraps, and livestock that has died, and then produce amazing food for birds and poultry. 

If you haven't ever heard of black soldier flies this is a great deep dive into What BSF are, Why you should have a BSF bin, and how to get started with BSF.

A combination of every heavy-hitting, pain-reducing, inflammation eliminating, knot erasing, ache relieving oil! One of my best friends for those persistent trouble spots. Penetrates stimulates cell repair and improves circulation. Easy, and potent!

I have a very stiff neck. Massages, chiropractor, heating pads, cold pads...I have used all of them and they're great. But in a pinch, I just want quick and easy pain relief on the go. I didn't think I'd ever find anything other than over-the-counter that make my stomach hurt. But this blend takes the cake for effectively giving me quick relief! It honestly feels too easy! I've run out of it multiple times I use it so much, but at just a few dollars for the ingredients--it's good for the pocketbook too!

We started this whole homesteading thing with a dream of having a goat farm. I'm not really sure why we wanted goats other than we wanted to be able to pet them and laugh at their cute little babies when they jumped around. . We did do that a lot but we also spent a lot more time trying to figure out how to keep goats in their fences. But it got really old because goats had way more time to figure out how to get out. Like that's really all they do all day AND night long! . 

So one day we got a few sheep and added them in with our goats. We found the sheep were super chill. All they wanted to do was stick with the flock, if they did that, they were very content. So we got rid of all the goats and bought more sheep. 

Sheep come with their host of problems. Mainly they are born looking for a way to die. But they love staying in fences and are for the most part really easy to handle. 

Today is sheep moving day. 

 We use electric netting fencing that we can move so that they have fresh grass and older pastures can have time to rest. Which they need to do so the parasites die back and the grass can have time to grow more again. Our goal is to only use a section (paddock) every six months. Which is really challenging but with proper management we can make it happen.

For more homesteading guidance join the Academy: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/theacademy

Are you ready to start homesteading? Learn from 15+ homesteaders all over the world: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/thehomesteadopenhouse

We need volunteers for our new E-course. Sleep, Stress, Bumps, and Bites: Lavender for a healthy family.

We've had chickens for the past seven years, A flock comes and goes about every two years. Last year when we went out of the country for a month something ate our whole flock!  We thought that might happen and were kind of ok with it. They were on year two and had pretty much stopped laying eggs every day. They were also eating up my garden and pecking holes in my tomatoes! So they got banished to total free-range status, which means no feed at all. It's an eat what you can find kind of thing. Around our property, a chicken can live really happy that way!  This new flock we started in the early spring. We just picked up some from tractor supply. It seems like we have been raising this flock forever. They have gone through all kinds of disasters. They had snakes eating them, then an owl, a raccoon and finally some hawks eyeing them. We moved one of our guardian dogs near them and he sorted things out but not before we lost a good many of them. Our free-range chickens are finally laying eggs again. That means fresh eggs for us, which means beautiful golden yokes and tasty eggs again!   In a few more weeks we should be getting a dozen a day, which is really about what our family eats!

For more homesteading guidance join the Academy: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/theacademy

Are you ready to start homesteading? Learn from 15+ homesteaders all over the world: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/thehomesteadopenhouse

A story about stinky things.

When we first started raising chickens we need a way to feed them as cheaply as we could. It's really hard to raise chickens on a budget and especially to make sure they are healthy and having a great life. So I researched a ton about different ways to feed chickens. We sprouted our own grains. We fermented grains. We tried growing our own grains. All of that took way more money than just buying good chicken feed. But then I found this guy that was selling these bins for black soldier flies. It made so much sense to be able to reduce what we were putting into the trash. We also had a place to put weeds and things that we didn't want to compost. The soldier flies eat the seeds so there's nothing to worry about there. I went to buy some and found out you don't even have to buy them! They just come out of nature and grow right in your bin. That made it even better the only thing we had to buy was the bin!

A few years ago after chicken processing day, we put the remains of about 300 chickens in it at one time. That was way too much. The whole homestead stunk for about a week. but after that things were back to normal and we had lots of food for the new batch of chickens. Is it wrong to feed chickens larva that ate other chickens?

But now we have had them for a few years and as long as you keep them fed they stay around and take care of our waste. When we have little animals die we put them in there too. It keeps the predators from coming around and we don't have to dig a hole.

They make these bins in a small backyard size too or you can make your own just google the plans.

For more homesteading guidance join the Academy: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/theacademy

Are you ready to start homesteading? Learn from 15+ homesteaders all over the world: https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/thehomesteadopenhouse