Community Lessons Learned at SRF and TSP - Ep 818

Today we talk about the past few events and what we learned from them here in the holler. I will also go over our usual Monday segments.

Featured Event: Dec 3 West Knox County Gathering, Email Kerry for address and directions 

Sponsor 1: FreeSteading.com

Sponsor 2: Strong Roots Resources

Livestream Schedule

Monday at 4pm Central: My Interview with The Rural Report with Debut on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAAGcUEPzik 

Tuesday, 12:30: Live with Evan Dixon of Radio Made Easy and John Willis of Special Operations Equipment.

Friday, 9:30am: Homestead Happenings 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Processed 6 roosters for freezer camp (hand plucked them)
• Went to smoke our bacon and it turns out there is only 3lbs cured so I will be doing a series on curing bacon as we cure the rest of the bellies
• Been shopping at the grocery store for fresh veggies even though we usually do not do this
• "Shepherd's Pie" and "Stroganoff" to use up winter squash
• Hoping to find wild mushrooms this week
• Basing meals on odds and ends

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

We made our usual three stops today. Dollar Tree was first. Though there is still a good variety there, the plastics area is again beginning to be depleted. We wanted a new trashcan for the bathroom, and we may have gotten the last one of its type. The coolers remain in decent shape for quantity and variety, but they're still not putting any energy drinks in them. Oh well; in this weather, room temperature is okay. I saw the first cloth face-diaper I've seen in quite a while on a woman in here.

Home Depot was next, as I wanted a couple of things for a car toolbag. They have some "Black Friday" stuff out, so it might be worth a look. A 2x4x8 is still $3.18. They have good stocks of alkaline batteries, but still few lithium other than a normal amount of coin cells and CR123. I saw some deals on Ryobi and Milwaukee tool batteries as well.

Aldi was last. We found everything we wanted, including my preferred 70% chocolate. Staple prices were: eggs: $1.23 (decent increase; I hear the parasites have forced the slaughter of millions more birds); milk: $3.02; heavy cream: $4.69; OJ: $3.19; butter: $2.99; bacon: $4.49; potatoes: $3.49; flour: $1.99; sugar: $3.09; 80% lean ground beef: $4.19.

Untainted (i.e. no ethanol) regular gasoline remains at $3.899 per gallon.

Frugality Tip from Will

Last fall a friend of mine was processing turkeys for thanksgiving and she was overwhelmed and it was taking her far longer than expected. So she sent out a request for help. Having processed hundreds of birds I went over and helped get caught up. When we were done she asked "What do I owe you?" I pointed at her amazing garlic bed she has been growing for years and said a few of those. Well this fall I just planted bulbs I grew this year from that garlic. Not only did this help a fellow homesteader, but I now have a strain of garlic that I know grows here and it cost me nothing. As a bonus being 30 minutes apart if something ever happens to either of our garlic beds we can always help each other get restarted.

Operation Independence

• Holler Repair Project on 2023, an update: Hearth being built this week for woodstove. No more electrical heaters!

Main topic of the Show: People often as WHY - WHY should I go to an event? It costs so much.

Poultry Processing with Joel

• If you missed this class, you made a huge mistake 
• Intro was amazing
• Always something new to learn - I am rewriting my processing book as a result of this class
• Took the fear out of the process
• Met a local farmer who is growing chickens that rival Polyface ones: Hoff the Grid Homestead
• We got praise third hand from Joel saying it was one of the best run classes
  

SRF

• Best Team Ever! Things went so smoothly
• Every. Single. Talk. changed someone's life. From Joel Ryals Build a Niche Business, to Joel Salatin giving a talk he doesn't usually give
• More people skipped sessions and that is a good thing
• Integrating art and music because we must balance our creative with our logical
• Connections Session and stories pouring in after about what people are doing to change their lives- And therein lies our differentiator.
• Things are taking their own shape: eg the onsite interview thing that happens, the nightly campfire

TSP

• 1st time ever: no speech, just MCing
• Family Reunion and new people
• Do less
• Steven Reisner's session on growing plants
• Network of big brothers at a time when things are hard for me = healing

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

• Follow me on Nostr: npub1u2vu695j5wfnxsxpwpth2jnzwxx5fat7vc63eth07dez9arnrezsdeafsv
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

• Harvest Right Affiliate Link