The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

If you're seeing this in your podcast feed it means our first child has either arrived or is very nearly earthside!

Sammy and I greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes in this time.

The podcast will be on an indefinite (though hopefully relatively short) break, while we welcome our first child into the world and find our feet as new parents.

Thank you all for listening and keep shining your light.

-Casey & Sammy (and Tater)

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WHAT I DO: Create Resilient Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Floating wetlands are a "new" old technology that is well worth looking into if you are doing aquaculture at just about any scale - from small backyard tanks a few hundred gallons in size, on up to multi-acre ponds and lakes.

Floating wetlands take the essential functions provided by wetlands and concentrated them into a smaller and more mobile footprint. Wetlands are the kidneys of the landscape, and floating wetlands amplify many of those beneficial functions, such as:

• Integrated wetland (edge) functionality into an open water body = excess nutrient removal and water clarification
• Increased biomass production = more habitat and more food for livestock, wildlife and humans
• More "optimized edge" without reducing storage volumes in ponds
• Shade - decreases water temps, reduces algal growth potential by reducing light in the water column
• Shelter - fish shelter underneath and amongst the hanging roots
  • some systems even have protected fish spawning beds hung underneath the island
• Shoreline protection / floating breakwaters - if wave erosion is a thing in your pond, consider a chain of floating islands to reduce wave action and protect vulnerable edges while also creating a highly-valuable living filter element
• Habitat Creation - floating islands contain so much edge in such a small space, they inevitably create habitat for many forms of life - from the micro (biofilms) to the macro (water fowl and fish) and everything in between.
• Waste water treatment - floating rafts with nutrient-accumulating vegetation are utilized to clarify and treat sewage effluent

Floating gardens are great for the homesteader as well. They are self-watering (obvious, but worth mentioning), benefit from increased sunlight availability to crops (light reflected off the water's surface to crop plants on the island), pest protection (no burrowing or terrestrial garden pests are going to make it to your floating garden - unless you've got Navy SEAL gophers!). They make excellent floating hutches for water fowl. Some folks have experimented with adding solar lights, fans and wheedwhackers to create nocturnal fish feeders by attracting insects and knocking them into the water for the fish to eat.

There are many ways to make floating islands - from DIY to pre-made - this would make an amazing summer time home-school project - construction, design, aquatic ecology, observation, nature time...talk about stacking functions!

Show Resources

• YouTube Playlist: Living Systems - Food Production - Floating Gardens
• Pre-made / Custom BioHaven Floating Islands
  • Floating Islands International
  • Floating Islands West
  • Midwest Floating Islands
• Epi-59: Sovereign Food Systems - Pantry Ponds
• Epi-61: Up-Leveling Calorie Production Per Square Foot With Azolla
• Epi-64: Using Duckweed To Grow More Calories Per Square Foot
• Epi-62: 5 Tenets Of Carnivore Homesteading

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WHAT I DO: Resilient Human Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

What do we mean when we say we want to "opt out" of the system?

Firstly, it's the system(s) - the means of production, transport, communication, value transmission etc that we have to interface with to acquire the things we need to live in the modern world. In general, the further the distance a product or service must travel and the more technology involved means you will have less control over how to source it, how much you pay for it, when (and if) it is available etc. If it is produced or provided closer to home you have more agency in how you obtain that product or service and it is more resilient to "disruptions"

Why are so many of us drawn to opting out? We have no agency over the direction of the system(s) - they are by and large completely hijacked by parasites - the political technocratic oligo-corporate controlling class. If we want to have more agency, and thus freedom to live life on our own terms - in alignment with our innate intelligence - the solutions are found in living in closer connection with Nature and other decentralized/distributed systems based on Nature.

Fundamentally, this is about designing your life to create freedom from the system(s) via interdependence with Nature. We all have an ecological umbilical cord - we are completely and utterly dependent upon functioning ecosystems to provide us with ALL of the things we need and want to live well. The sooner we acknowledge this the sooner we can be FREE from pretending we don't have an ecological umbilical and all resulting pathology that follows.

What We Can Do To Opt Out By Opting In To Nature Connection

• Create freedom from the system(s) by leveraging your interdependence with Nature - choose to ally your life with Nature - Nature is what "they" fear and cannot ever control.
• Harvest and use Nature's gifts - everywhere nature gives us gifts for free
• Become ecosystem literate where you live - every place has something that wants to grow there - use analogs to find productive species to meet your needs
• Embrace Cyclical vs. Linear
  • Cyclical = biology-based - slower, but infinitely more resilient and powerful - where how you grow & harvest can enrich the whole ecosystem.
• Trust in Distributed wisdom vs. Centralized "intelligence"
  • centralization of decision-making authority and technical know-how is a hallmark of the technocratic system being pushed upon us
  • the opposite of this is Nature - wisdom in every cell
    • YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE CELLS - composed of trillions of other cells - each with it's own innate wisdom
• Find your place and commit to it and it's people - so much of the control system is commodification of the things that used to be provided via reciprocity by close human relationships.

Show Resources

• The Regenerative Agora - Counter-Economics For Stewards Of The Future
• Epi-73 - Debt, Wealth and Counter-Economics As A means to create a world worth inheriting
• Epi-009 - Green Is The New Gray For Thriving In The Dim Age
• Epi - 005 - Light, Water, Soil and Life - The 4 Pillars Of A Productive And Profitable Homestead Ecosystem
• DIY Soil Fertility series - ways to start engaging with more natural cycles that reduce your need to buy

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Light is an essential human nutrient.

So much of our modern built environment is built without regard to orienting and integrating natural light, and our health - physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and communal - suffers for it.

The good news is that you can design your structures (or retrofit them) to bring natural light back into them and create buildings and places within them that support human thriving because they are well integrated with natural light.

Join me for a dive into the patterns of human habitation design that enhance our relationship with light from Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language:

• 105 - South Facing Outdoors
• 107 - Wings of Light
• 112 - Entrance Transition
• 128 - Indoor Sunlight
• 135 - Tapestry of Light and Dark
• 159 - Light On Two Sides Of Every Room
• 161 - Sunny Place
• 162 - North Face
• 163 - Outdoor Room
• 180 - Window Place
• 181 - The Fire (there is NO substitute for fire!)
• 182 - Eating Atmosphere
• 199 - Sunny Counter
• 223 - Deep Reveals
• 238 - Filtered Light
• 252 - Pools of Light

Resources

• A Pattern Language [WHOLE TEXT PDF DOWNLOAD]:
• PatternLanguage.com – website for the book and Alexander's works
• Zone 0 Pattern Language Fundamentals - Designing Your Permaculture Kitchen ~Epi-076
• Light, Water, Soil and Life - The Four Pillars Of A Productive And Profitable Homestead - Epi-005

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Join me today as we discuss designing functional kitchen spaces that people want to be in.

Lots of people are inheriting kitchens designed more for magazine covers than for function - and where there is a lack of function there is a concommitant increase in friction, which means more stress and less joy.

Kitchens are the Zone 1 of Zone 0 - Zone 0 referring to the space inside the home. Kitchens are the heart of human life - communion over shared food, shared work, a space for being together, conversing, and generally connecting over the daily activities that make up life. Poorly designed kitchens discourage healthy human interaction and bonding, and thus are a huge lost opportunity for not only creating a thriving, functional homestead, but can actively undermine human thriving.

In today's show we discuss some of the fundamental emergent patterns detailed by Christoper Alexander and company A Pattern Language - a seminal work on the patterns of human habitation that support and promote human well being. This book belongs on your shelf if you're serious about creating healthy human habitats. It is guaranteed to spark fresh ideas and perspectives for examining your space, even if you've been there for decades, and give you actual tangible design guidelines if you're starting from scratch or remodeling to build functional, beautiful places for life to happen.

In this episode we will discuss the following patterns as they pertain to permaculture kitchens specifically and Zone 0 home design generally:

• 127 - Intimacy Gradients
• 129 - Common Areas At The Heart
• 159 - Light On Two Sides
• 139 - Farmhouse Kitchen
• 184 - Cooking Layout
• 182 - Eating Atmosphere

Show Resources

• A Pattern Language [WHOLE TEXT PDF DOWNLOAD]:
• PatternLanguage.com - website for the book and Alexander's works

____________________________________________________________________________

WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Today I interview Joshua Longbrook on real world applications of Private Membership Associations for creating systems of support - i.e. the parallel society - outside the jurisdiction of the public (State dominated) sphere.

We'll cover what PMAs are, what protections they do and do not offer, how they are best utilized as extensions of a larger unincorporated Church, and the types of voluntary interactions they enable within and between local communities.

We'll also get into Josh's personal experience with running the Agora Food Club and how the structure has enabled many home-scale producers to supply their wares or seasonal abundance to their fellow food club members in exchange for credits they can apply towards their own grocery bill. I think this is one of the "killer apps" the PMA structure can provide a network of homestead-minded people. Let's face it - even if you're just gardening for yourself, or have a small orchard with even a handful of fruit trees, it's very easy to be overwhelmed with the seasonal abundance from these systems. The PMA creates a way for these small scale producers to exchange their goods that doesn't require all of the licensing and legal hopscotch that becoming an official business does. The PMA literally enables the creation of circular, local economies without the energetic drain of taxes, licensing and all the things the State requires to be deemed "legal".

As Josh shares in the interview, a PMA enables the same dynamics that take place when you invite friends over for dinner - you cook food for them in your home (no food service business license, no health inspections etc), you might offer them a drink of wine (no liquor license required), and you might even offer them a bottle to take home for a few bucks. All of this is OK within the confines of your private home, but for some reason when this activity takes place in a business, and selling is happening, then it needs to be regulated (and taxed). The PMA is basically just a bigger dinner party with more friends all happening within the private sphere.

Resources

• The Agora Hub - the Church that Joshua and company run, of which the Agora Food Club is an auxiliary
• The Agora Food Club
• The Agora Ministries - Christian ministry based in Hixson, TN.
• [VIDEO] Joel Salatin - Food Freedom In The Private Domain (PMAs)
• Rogue Food Conference
• David Edwards PMA Service
• Freedom Works - Mission Society-based Private Membership Association
• Josh's podcast - Our Foundations
• Josh's email if you'd like to contact him directly with questions: [email protected]

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

What Plants Crave T-shirts And Stickers!

Another fun way you can support the show AND start some fun and interesting conversations along the way. For those of you that have seen Idiocracy, you know what this is all about. For those of you that haven't...watch this.

Today's show is for those of you lucky enough to have a spring on your property. We will cover the basics of spring morphology and function - including the way I really think they work vs. what the textbooks say - and then we'll go over basic spring assessment criteria, and the main components of spring water collection and distribution systems.

Show Resources

• Past Spring Projects
  • Rivera Family Ranch Spring
  • Forestville Spring Retrofit
  • Wilson Family Ranch Spring Retrofit
  • Big Sur Spring
  • Black Mountain, NC Spring
• YouTube - Spring Development Playlist
• Technical Manuals
  • Springs - Their Origin, Development And Protection, Taylor, G.H., U.S. Dept. Of Interior Geological Survey. [PDF]:
  • Basic Ground Water Hydrology - Water Supply Paper 220, Heath, Ralph C., U.S. Dept. of Interior [PDF]: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/2220/report.pdf
  • NRCS National Engineering Handbook - Part 650 - Chapter 12 - Springs And Wells [PDF]: https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=46258.wba
  • SKAT - Spring Catchment Vol. 4, Meuli, Christian & Wehrle, Karl, 2001. [PDF}: https://skat.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Handbook_Volume4.pdf

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

What Plants Crave T-shirts And Stickers!

Another fun way you can support the show AND start some fun and interesting conversations along the way. For those of you that have seen Idiocracy, you know what this is all about. For those of you that haven't...watch this.

How do we create a regenerative economy and all that entails when that work is arbitrarily outlawed, suppressed or actively disincentivized by the value systems that dominate our current culture?

HINT: We have to step outside of the current imposed power structure - no permission required.

My presupposition for this episode is this: Mainstream, state sponsored and enforced economic theory and practice has herded humanity as a whole onto a degenerative trajectory with respect to environmental integrity, social cohesion and individual well-being.

We are living in a debt-driven world - stealing from future generations so we can have more now.

If we want to live regeneratively, there has to be another way of meeting our needs today without destroying the ecosystems that provide them. In fact, we need to make them stronger and more productive!

That "other way" is Counter-Economics.

Counter-Economics is the theory and practice of all human action neither accepted by the State nor involving any initiatory violence or threat of violence.

Counter-Economics exists and can be practiced outside the boundaries of State power (the State being that institution that has a legal monopoly on the use of force within a certain arbitrary geographic border). State power exists at the intersection of three things:

• Scope – laws on the books.
• Reach – boots on the ground.
• Will – what lives in the heart of the agent of the State.

To engage in the counter economy is to engage only in moral actions (voluntary, without initiation or or threat of violence). They may or may not be legal as viewed from the perspective of the State Agent.

In order to get to a regenerative economy, we have to add one more layer - an ethical framework provided by the Prime Directive and three ethics of permaculture.

Prime Directive: The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for yourself and your dependents. Make it now.

Permaculture Ethics

• Care Of The Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply.
• Care Of People: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their own existence.
• Setting Limits To Population And Consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to reinvest towards the first two ethics.

Once we have combined Counter-Economics with the ecologically sound guideposts from permaculture, we have created the foundation for a truly regenerative economy. One in which the 7th Generation Principle can come to fruition in act and spirit:

The 7th Generation Principle: A 7th generation systems creates socially and economically fulfilling lives for its inhabitants, whose daily activity patterns regenerate natural ecosystems and increase living capital year over year, such that the economic and social value of natural ecosystems is always increasing, and the value-ing of those systems is transmitted intact across generations.

Show Resources

• The Regenerative Agora: Counter-Economics For Stewards Of The Future
• The Prime Directive, Ethics and Principles Of Permaculture
• The 7th Generation Principle: Designing Ecosystems For Continuity Across Generations
• Counter-Economics: From The Back Alleys To The Stars - by Samuel Edward Konkin III

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Today's episode is a short primer on live staking - what it is, how it works, what its good for, what types of species you can use to do it, and how to harvest, prepare and plant your live stakes.

If you have perennially moist soils in need of stabilization, or are able to irrigate certain areas to ensure adequate soil moisture for establishment, you can plant hundreds of trees for pennies per stem and create living structures that provide many layers of function while getting stronger over time!

Livestaking is a great way to establish living fences, plant and grow living structures, stabilize eroded stream or gully banks, establish large trees in pasture, plant living fence posts and much more. It is a greate example of how when we work with nature we can create landscapes that are exponentially more functional and abundant for us, both today and in the future.

Show Resourcesb

• SHD Primer - All About Live Staking
• Expanded list of woody species that can be used for live staking - all but guaranteed that you've got what you need growing nearby
• Curated YouTube playlist showing live staking application across a variety of different settings and bioregions.

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

As within so without.

If we want to see changes in our external world (i.e. regenerating landscapes and ecosystems), we have to first address our internal state.

The older I get and the more I learn, the less I can say I know for sure.

This, though, is one of those things that I've arrived at as being one of those "indivisible kernels of truth" - something solid and constant upon which I can build a foundation for regeneration.

The external state of our landscapes is a direct reflection of our own internal states.

This has always been true in every consultancy I have ever done.

This is why I always have my design clients beging the process by creating a Minimum Holistic Goal. To start designing without first calming and clarifying your own internal landscape is basically the same as giving a bunch of apes spaghetti to throw at the wall and then seeing what sticks and saying "Look, design!".

We can do better than that.

We have to do better than that if our goal is to regenerate the ecosystems upon which we depend for our sustenance and quality of life.

Every landscape ultimately becomes a mirror of one's internal state.

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Building Your Sovereign Homestead

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram