Explore every episode of the podcast The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tater Biggums Is HERE | 06 May 2024 | 00:40:44 | |
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) ____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Create Resilient Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Floating Wetland Gardens In Pantry Ponds For Resilience, Function and Yield Stacking ~Epi-079 | 29 Apr 2024 | 01:01:34 | |
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:
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
_______________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Resilient Human Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Adaptive vs. Prescriptive Management For Homesteads And Lifestyle Design ~Epi-070 | 12 Feb 2024 | 00:39:42 | |
Adaptive Management: Observation-driven management for constantly increasing resilience and ecosystem function by employing planned, purposeful disruption. Prescriptive Management: Labeling your observations so that you can look up a prescription that fits that label. This is a much more myopic way of managing a landscape, as you're automatically confining yourself to pre-existing solutions for truly unique problems or challenges. Adaptation is Nature's way. Nature is always changing - things may rhyme but they are never exactly the same. Therefore our management needs to change with this constantly changing landscape. 3 Rules of Adapative Management
Never assume you've got it in the bag! ALWAYS base your actions on observation - adapt to the feedback that Nature is always providing, instead of prescribing from a narrow field of pre-existing solutions. Show Resourcesb
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Why We Use Functions-First Design To Create Holistic Ecosystems ~Epi-069 | 05 Feb 2024 | 00:47:36 | |
When we design holistic ecosystems, we start with mapping out desired and required functions THEN search for, select and/or design elements/systems that provide those functions in a way that aligns with the site-specific context. This is contrasted with how most people "design" systems - they see an ad or read an article and like the thing or the method/technique they see, and then say "I want thing A" or "I'm going to do technique B" on my land. And then systems start being built around these sexy, cool things that are out of alignment with the context of time and place. Today I hope I can convince you that starting your homestead design (or re-design) by first assessing your desired and required functions - and thus creating a map of functions and functional outcomes that you require to support your chosen Quality of Life - that you can then much more quickly and effectively design or select the appropriate elements to populate your design. This is functions-first design, and I encourage everyone to at least give function mapping a try when designing their homesteads.
Show Resources
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Courses:
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| Off-Grid Soil Fertility For Sovereign Food Systems ~Epi-068 | 29 Jan 2024 | 00:58:56 | |
If you are serious about food sovereignty, you're serious about building soil. In this episode I detail 4 methods for creating your own soil fertility inputs from what you are already growing, can source on your property or very close to home, or are already in the course of putting food on your table. They are:
It is in the SYNERGY between these methods that the real exponential gains are to be found. I chose vermicomposting as a way to create good biology in the first place as it is relatively simple to get started with and will yield returns of worm castins within a growing season or less. Next, utilize aerobic compost tea brewing to expand the amount of beneficial biology you have created from the worm castings. Once you have a tea you can spray it and cover large areas of plant bodies or soil surface with beneficial biology and nutrients. This is WAY more efficient than spot application of compost. Next, use your aerobic compost tea inoculated with worm castings to inoculate charcoal and turn it into biochar! Biochar is a millennia+ soil amendment - it will outlive you and the next 20+ generations in the soil - and it will provide a home for beneficial biology and retain nutrients for the entire time it persists. This is as close to an infinite improvement as we can get in our human form. And finally, to charge up naked charcoal and give all the beneficial biology something to eat, we make anaerobically fermented weed tea (though animal products can be used too) to create a mineral and nutrient rich solution. Use your compost tea brewing set up to hyper-aerate this solution to kill all of the anaerobic organisms, leaving a nutrient soup, and then introduce naked charcoal and beneficial micro-organisms (vermicompost) to create a nutrient-rich, hydrated, beneficial microbe hotel that will provide increasing benefit to your growing systems year after year without you having to do it year after year. This is about getting off the treadmill of annual inputs. Don't give your money to the big fertilizer companies when you can make a way better, site-specific product on your own for very cheap that doesn't have a long-term downside like typicaly salt-based fertilizers and centralized, commodity soil amendments. Food sovereignty can be acheived when our food systems build soil by default. That is what this synergy can do for you. Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Biosolids: America's Dirty Secret ~Epi-067 | 21 Jan 2024 | 01:12:10 | |
Today is an expose about one of America's dirty secrets - we're talking about the nation wide biosolids program. Supposedly its a great way to beneficially cycle a "renewable resource" to help fertilize crop fields, protect water sheds and keep people healthy. In reality, its anything but - and we know from first hand knowledge because we lived with it right across the street from us for months. For any would-be homesteader looking to re-locate to the country, be aware of the potential for biosolids in your watershed and potentially right across the fence (as in our case). This is a huge problem, one that has resulted from a society and civil infrastructure built around the assumptions of a perpetual and never-ending supply of cheap energy. Now those chickens are coming home to roost, and its on us to fix it. First things first we have to learn just how extensive the problem of dealing with our own shit is so we can wrap our heads around what will be required to retrofit existing systems to make them work for a lower energy future. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Making Landfall - Your First 60 Days On The Land ~Epi-066 | 15 Jan 2024 | 00:52:28 | |
Today's show is all about the things you have to do to get yourself onto your land quickly without shooting yourself in the foot withe improperly located or oriented structures and roads. Vehicle access is basically an absolute necessity in today's world. By their very nature, roads are a break from the inherent landform, and thus ALL ROADS CAPTURE AND MOVE WATER. This is just part of what a road does. If you put in a road, or are inheriting a road without understanding that fact, you will pay for it later - all it takes is one good storm. So today, in this first installment of the Making Landfall series, we're zero-ing in on Water > Access > Structures - the three primary design layers that have to get sorted out quickly when you move onto a new landscape. Where am I going to live? How am I going to get to it? How will this affect and be affected by water moving through the landscape? This show is about the essential things you need to do to get it right and not create a Type 1 Error that will hamper your efforts to create your sovereign homestead as long as it exists. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| A Strong WHY Can Bear Almost Any HOW ~ Epi-065 | 07 Jan 2024 | 00:30:27 | |
New Year's Evolution. This show is about doing the most important work first - your own internal visioning - an rooting that vision in your heart to create a WHY strong enough to bear any HOW. If you haven't done it yet, give yourself the gift of creating your Minimum Holistic Goal. It is the ONE THING that will make everything else that comes after easier, more fun and more effective. Creating a legacy worth inheriting starts in you. Let your life be a love letter to future generations and leave beauty in your wake. That's how we create a world worth inheriting.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Using Duckweed To Grow More Calories Per Square Foot ~ Epi-064 | 29 Dec 2023 | 00:42:04 | |
Duckweed is an amazingly productive floating aquatic plant that is highly palatable to a wide variety of small and large livestock (ruminants, pigs, poultry, fish etc). Duckweed is a tremendous ally for those of us looking to create independence from centralized commodity food systems. You may not want to eat duckweed (though you can) but what you eat is very likely to benefit from having duckweed in its diet (and your wallet will thank you for it!). Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| The 7th Generation Principle - Designing For Continuity Across Generations ~ Epi-063 | 22 Dec 2023 | 01:18:15 | |
In this episode I am sharing what I have come to call the 7th Generation Principle - a principle guide post of sorts that I've been refining for nearly 10 years now to help guide my design work (for my own life and for others) in the direction of inter-generational regeneration. Basically, it seems like throughout human history we've actually lived in a truly sustainable fasion - i.e. regeneratively. Some of those examples even persisted for quite some time, but now we are left with very few intact cultures that can successfully transmit the cultural values of regeneration through time from one generation to the next. Even those that still exist are struggling to keep it up. This principles is my attempt at refining design imperatives such that we prepare fertile soil for the values of regeneration to once again take root in the hearts and minds of the up and coming generations, and for them to have the tools to successfully transmit those values to their descendants. We'll break down all the context and various pieces of it in the podcast, but here it is in full: A 7th generation system 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. In this episode I'll walk through the questions that led to me writing this principle this way, and the ways to apply it in your own lifestyle design using the Regenerative Triple Bottom Line - Economic, Social and Ecological to create guiding criteria and questions to assess if you're on target or not. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| 5 Tenets Of Carnivore Homesteading ~ Epi-062 | 15 Dec 2023 | 01:07:11 | |
In today's show we discuss the idea of the Carnivore Homestead. For those of us that eat a mostly animal-based diet, we want to produce mostly animal-based calories from our homestead production systems. I got news - just because we like to eat steak doesn't mean we aren't going to grow plants - in fact, we've got to grow them in greater quantity and quality in order to feed the animals that become our food. Carnivore homesteads have to be regenerative by their very nature if they are to be sustainable. Join me as we discuss the ins and outs of what I'm calling the 5 tenets of carnivore homesteading:
Show Resources
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| Up-Leveling Calorie Production Per Square Foot With Azolla ~Epi-061 | 06 Nov 2023 | 00:47:42 | |
Today's episode came out of a Permies.com thread on Carnivore Homesteading. The seed questions for the thread was, for those of us enjoying the benefits of a carnivore lifestyle, how can we produce more high-quality animal-based calories for our own consumption from well designed and integrated systems at the homestead scale. Basically, there are three main focal points that need attention here:
With these focal areas in mind, we arrive at azolla - an incredibly productive free-floating aquatic fern that fixes its own atmospheric nitrogen, yields a high-protein vegetative crop that can be harvested DAILY, is incredibly simple to grow and propagate indefinitely for almost no cost after the initial system set up, and can be stored fed to practically all classes of livestock, fresh or dried! Azolla truly is a super plant, and if you haven't come across it - or even if you have - this one deserves your attention. It, along with other highly productive and nutritious aquatic vegetable crops, deserve a spot on the roster in your homestead production systems - especially if you're trying to raise nutrient dense animal products for your own final consumption! In this episode we will discuss...
Show Resources
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Opt In To Nature To Opt Out Of The System(s) ~Epi-078 | 15 Apr 2024 | 01:01:50 | |
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?
What We Can Do To Opt Out By Opting In To Nature Connection
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Autumn Equinox Break ~ Epi-60 | 18 Sep 2023 | 00:08:17 | |
Just a quick update on recent events here and announcement for taking a break until Novemeber 1st to visit family and dive into some design projects here in Tennessee and North Carolina. You can also follow Sovereign Homestead Design on YouTube. We've been having massive technical issues with our webhosting and emails this past month - basically incommunicado as far as our ability to reach out to the world, BUT, our Instagram account @honeybadgernursery is still up, detailing some of what's going on at the homestead. The Honey Badger Nursery website is still down, but we are hoping to resolve that and all the internet drama soon! We'll be diving into some larger property design work this month for the property we are currently living on, and hopefully into implementation in late October / early November for some mainframe water harvesting earthworks and vehicle access. I'll also be retrofitting a spring for 3 houses in Black Mountain, NC, just outside of Asheville, and will endeavor to film that project and turn it into a helpful tutorial video. If you have specific systems or designs that you'd like me to explore on the show, drop me a line and let me know - casey@thesovereignhomestead.com ------------------------------------------------ Need some help getting the "birds eye view" of your property and its surrounds to help you design your sovereign homestead? Check out our Hi-Definition Contour Base Map package. This package includes:
Deliverables include:
We also offer consulting calls if you need some design help or a fresh perspective - see the Virtual Property Design Review for details. ---------------------------------- Getting started designing your homestead? START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs. --------------------------------- 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.
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| Sovereign Food Systems - Pantry Ponds ~ Epi-59 | 04 Sep 2023 | 01:07:06 | |
Today we look at another Sovereign Food System - what I'm calling the Pantry Pond. Basically a homestead-scale aquaculture system designed to maximize your food sovereignty via independence from the centralized systems of supply and distribution for any of the inputs required to grow what you want to grow - fish, aquatic vegetables, crawfish, shrimp, water fowl etc. Well-designed homestead-scale aquaculture systems aren't that common here in the modern U.S., and yet they have a tremendously long and productive history in many cultures the world round. Because aquaculture is so context and place-specific, we're going to talk about things today from a paradim and principles perspective, as well as list the specific design criteria you'll need to pay attention to when shaping your pond(s) and selecting the species to live in them. We'll look at...
If you're serious about creating food sovereignty from your landscape, pantry ponds deserve consideration. Per unit area, there is nothing as productive, especially when it comes to producing protein. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Sovereign Food Systems - Perennial Protein From Silvopasture Meat Forests ~Epi-58 | 28 Aug 2023 | 00:58:16 | |
In today's show we are talking about creating Sovereign Food Systems. I think this will be a series, or at least a collection of episodes, each one focused on a different type of sovereign food system that can be applied at a variety of scales across a broad range of contexts. Basically, a sovereign food system is one that has eliminated any dependence on inputs from centralized production and distribution systems for its continued operation. I believe these systems are increasingly important in light of the war on independent food that we are seeing and experiencing all around the world right now. We are being squeezed, and the pressure is only going to keep building. Sovereign food systems are a way to in-source the inputs for your food producting systems - to literally grow and cycle them on-site - so that you don't need to depend on globalized supply chains, the price of deisel, and a functioning currency to put quality food on the table for your family. Sovereign food is all about designing systems that maximize the sunlight, water and soil resources on your property with good design and proper management such that the systems builds soil while feeding people. That's what sovereign food is all about. Show Resources
Getting started designing your homestead? START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #12 - Collaborate With Succession ~ Epi-057 | 22 Aug 2023 | 00:28:06 | |
Today we discuss permaculture design principle #12 - Collaborate With Succession. The more that we can align our designs, systems and management styles with the inherent successional trends already present in our landscapes, the greater our yields will be with fewer resource inputs required. This is all about energy efficiency, and it starts with OBSERVING AND INTERACTING (Principle #1) with your landscape to identify the patterns that are already present. Your land is telling you what it wants to become, you just have to have the eyes to see it! Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #11 - Make The Least Change For The Greatest Effect ~ Epi-56 | 14 Aug 2023 | 00:25:58 | |
Today we take a deeper look at the 11th permaculture design principle: Make The Least Change For The Greatest Effect. This principle is about economy of effort. When designing a sovereign homestead, we need to make sure that our systems are providing us with not only the right types of yields, but also in sufficient quantity and at a reasonable return to make our continued tending of the system worthwhile. Living systems that provide for generation after generation exhibit a high degree of economy of effort. We'll look at how you can analyze your current homestead and lifestyle to identify the leverage points where optimizing your system can produce outsized returns to your quality of life. We also talk about biasing your interventions and applications of time/energy/money to more "permanent" improvements - things that will require less of your time/energy/money as they mature while increasing in productivity and/or value that will outlive you by a long margin. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #10 - Optimize The Edge ~ Epi-055 | 07 Aug 2023 | 00:36:20 | |
In today's episode we take a deep dive into Permaculture Design Principle #10 - Optimize The Edge. We will discuss:
Show Resources
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #9: Choose Small-Scale, Intensive Solutions ~ Epi-054 | 31 Jul 2023 | 00:29:59 | |
This week we look at Permaculture Design Principle #9: Choose Small-Scale, Intensive Solutions. This is all about managing intensively in a small footprint at the start - and expanding what works and changing or eliminating what does not. We'll talk about the importance of testing your systems before expanding them by conducting Safe To Fail experiments. We also talk about PROFIT - that most important of words - that little bit of surplus energy above and beyond what the system requires to maintain and sustain itself that you can use to conduct safe-to-fail trials that will lead you towards greater efficiency, productivity and resiliency. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #8 - Integrate, Don't Segregate ~ Epi-053 | 24 Jul 2023 | 00:31:56 | |
Today we take a deeper look at Permaculture Design Principle #8 - Integrate, Don't Segregate. This principle is fundamentally about 'stacking functions' - a common term we hear a lot in perma-speak - but what does that really mean and HOW do you go about doing it? We'll talk nuts and bolts of creating functionally redundant systems, including:
Maximizing function is ALL about designing relationships between things, not so much the things themselves. Become a designer of connections between elements, and you'll become a better human being in all ways. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Principle Deep Dive #7: Design From Patterns To Details ~Epi-52 | 17 Jul 2023 | 00:23:26 | |
Design from pattern to details. Anyone who has read a permaculture book has heard this - but how to actually DO IT? Today we talk about Natural Constants and the Yeomans Scale of Permanence as tools you can use to help you design from big, broad, largely immutable patterns down to small, granular, actionable details. This is how you can ground the small actions you take in any given moment to a 7th generation vision - each action is informed by the many layers of contextual foundation that underlay it.
The most fundamental bit of pattern understanding you can develop to guide the design and evolution of your homestead is knowing your own internal map - your values, and what your life looks and feels like on a day-to-day basis when you live an alignment with them (your Highest Quality of Life). If you haven't done that work yet, start by developing your Minimum Holistic Goal. Then move on to researching and developing all of the factors the should guide sound design decision - do your own Foundational Site Assessment or bring us in to help. Once you've got your bases covered, then its time to put pen to paper and start designing. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #6 - Make No Waste ~ Epi-51 | 10 Jul 2023 | 00:31:11 | |
Today we're talking about the 6th permaculture design principle: Make No Waste. In Nature, "waste" = food. How can we design our homesteads and the various life support systems on them such that the "waste" from one becomes the food for another? How many energetic loops and connection can we create between elements, systems and organisms? We'll discuss one of the simple tools for enacting the Waste = Food principle - called Input/Output/Intrinsic Analysis. We'll also talk about the switch that flips once you change the way you view what most of our society calls "waste" and junk piles start looking like diamond piles. The more "waste" we can eliminate by creating systems that cycle energy better, the more resilient and independent we become, and the healthier the ecology becomes. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Designing For LIGHT At Every Level - Patterns For Incorporating Natural Light Into The Built Environment ~Epi-077 | 08 Apr 2024 | 00:53:10 | |
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:
Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
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Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #5 - Use And Value Nature's Gifts ~ Epi-50 | 03 Jul 2023 | 00:43:19 | |
Today we continue our Deep Dive series on the 12 foundational principles of permaculture. In this episode we take a deeper look at Principle #5: Use And Value Nature's Gifts / Collaborate With Succession / Work With Nature, Not Against It. There are numerous different ways this principle is written, and we'll explore the nuance of all three of the most common versions, as well as what you can specifically look for in your landscape and within your unique context to better align your design and management of your homestead with natural pattern, and how you can both increase your harvestable yields while expending less energy to do so! We're starting to get to the point where all of the preceding principles are indivisibly linked to each additional one. Indeed, its almost like they all function together somehow to create hyper-functional systems - i.e. natural ecosystems! Show Resources
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #4 - Self Regulate And Accept Feedback ~ Epi-049 | 26 Jun 2023 | 00:50:52 | |
In today's episode we continue with our Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive Series with Principle #4 - Self Regulate And Accept Feedback. We talk about why those two terms - 'self regulate' and 'accept feedback' come packaged together, and how each is important to create an environment that promotes rapid iteration and 'safe to fail' testing of systems followed by planned amplification or dampening based on the results. We'll go through the Cynefin Sense-Making Framework as a tool for understanding the context in which you are in and adjusting your Decision Model to suite it appropriately. This includes:
This is all about becoming a better designer and manager of your homestead. Show Resources
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #3 - Obtain A Yield ~ Epi-048 | 19 Jun 2023 | 00:53:01 | |
Today is the third episode in our Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive series - Obtain A Yield. This is all about intentionally designing living systems on our homesteads that provide for our needs to live a great life. Join me as we discuss...
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #2 - Catch & Store Energy ~ Epi-047 | 12 Jun 2023 | 00:42:00 | |
Today we take a deeper look at the second of the core permaculture design principles - Catch And Store Energy. This is what designing a functional and resilient ecosystem is all about - energy in vs. energy out. Everything that is alive needs to bring in more energy than it expends in order to 1) sustain its own existence and 2) to reproduce. If we design our homesteads and homes to catch and store useful forms of energy, we can create a holistic system that works for us even when we aren't around. In this episode we will discuss what to look for when you are designing a system to capture and store energy - gradients and cycles. We'll also cover the many different forms of energy you can capture and store with appropriate elements integrated seamlessly into a functioning whole. This show should give you a very tangible way to employ this second design principle as you go about designing your homestead and your life. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
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Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive #1: Observe & Interact - Epi-046 | 05 Jun 2023 | 00:52:02 | |
This is the first in a series of episodes that will go into depth on how to apply and leverage each of the 12 foundational design principles used in permaculture. The first design principle is Observe and Interact. It is the keystone design principle, from which all others are held together and applied toward a functional end. Join me as we discuss:
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| The 4 D's of Homestead Security ~Epi-45 | 29 May 2023 | 00:40:22 | |
Today we are talking about homestead security. It's a topic that is left out of a lot of "mainstream" permaculture design books - and really its hardly mentioned at all as a design consideration. We live in a weird time, when for just a few short generations, and then only for a select few people, we've been able to delegate our security to "the authorities" (911, the cops etc). We are quickly heading into disruptive, turbulent and hard economic times - with that comes an increase in crime - we are already seeing it, and have been for quite a while in urban areas. Even if you're out in the sticks, perhaps even more so, you need to be in charge of your own homestead and home security. Security is something that some people can go their whole life without ever thinking about - amazing but true. But when you NEED security, you NEED IT IMMEDIATELY. Far faster than any emergency responder can get there. So it has to come from us - by our own design, mindset and environment. Today we discuss the 4 D's of Homestead Security as I'm calling them - Deter - Detect - Delay - Defend. I did not make this up, but I don't know where or if I heard it from someone, but it is the framework I am using as we fix up our current old farmhouse, and it is the framework I recommend to all of my clients when thinking about homestead security from a design perspective.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Greg Judy's Grazing School ~Epi-44 | 22 May 2023 | 00:43:44 | |
In today's episode we re-cap the takeaways from the 2-day grazing school I attended at Greg Judy's Green Pastures Farm in Clark, Missouri. The school was awesome, with great instruction from Greg and his co-instructor Abram Bowerman of Still Waters Farm in Spickard, MO. Intensively managed ruminant livestock are the tool for building soil rapidly, at scale over broad acre landscapes. The benefits are too numerous to enumerate here, but suffice to say if you have even a couple of acres, you need to get livestock on them and you need to move them. Anything less and it'll be like trying to homestead with one hand tied behind your back - so much more work or damn near impossible! When it comes to building a fertile, rich and productive soil bank, there is nothing that can compete with well-managed livestock. And building soil is fundamentally what sovereign homestead is all about. If you don't have living soil, you don't have many choices available to you. Show Resources
Getting started designing your homestead? START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Do The Next Thing ~Epi-43 | 15 May 2023 | 00:25:29 | |
Today's episode is a short one about just doing the next thing. You don't have to have everything mapped out ahead of time. If you have a set of principles (permaculture) and a long-term, BIG vision (your Minimum Holistic Goal - aka your "10 Year Vision"), it becomes very easy to prioritize and act on the next most impactful thing, without having a master plan. It's the SAPA framework - Survey, Assess, Prioritize, and Act - a short acronum for a decision-making loop based on permaculture principles. Survey (Observe And Interact), Assess (Integrate Feedback), then Prioritize and Act on things that you can complete in an appropriate time frame and that will pay you back a multiple of what you've invested. If you feel overwhelmed with choosing your next thing to do in the evolution of your homestead towards greater self-sufficieny and self-reliance, start by getting your BIG vision outlined (I recommend this process). From there, assess your survival needs and start with something small that can be completed in one hour (there is almost always some low-hanging fruit that you can literally complete in an hour or less that will increase your self-reliance or self-sufficiency for one or more of your core survival needs - this is permaculture principle #9: Choose Small-Scale, Intensive Solutions. Then do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. And the next day, and so on. This is how you will create your sovereign homestead that is a perfect reflection of what you value most and will provide you with the things you need the most to live your highest quality of life. Getting started designing your homestead? START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear understanding of 1) who and what resources you have to work with, 2) your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and 3) what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Olexy from Pixabay.
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| What Makes A Sovereign Homestead? SAPA Framework ~Epi-42 | 08 May 2023 | 00:49:42 | |
Today's show is all about getting clear on what makes a homestead sovereign vs. a modern homestead vs. just a homestead. SPOILER ALERT: It's all about CHOICE. A well-designed homestead gives you more choice - more freedom to say NO to those things that are not in alignment with your highest quality of life, so that you can say yes to the things that are. We then go into the SAPA Framework for conducting your own sovereignty self-assessment for your life and landscape, applying it to all the basic survival needs: Water, Nutrition & Calories, Shelter, Physical Security, Hygiene & Sanitation, Health & Medical Care, Energy, Finances.
In short, applying the SAPA framework to all of your basic survival needs areas will help you identify the action steps with the greatest ROI that you can take today to move you and your family in the direction of resilience and greater time freedom.
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| What Is Permaculture? [The Millennial Pioneers Podcast] ~Epi-41 | 01 May 2023 | 01:08:47 | |
Today's show is the interview I just did with Jen and Sammy of the Millennial Pioneers Podcast on What Is Permaculture? We talk about the basics of what permaculture is about, and tangible, simple ways to get started integrating permaculture design and mindset into designing our own lives. We are living in a time when the bills racked up over the past centuries and decades of over-taxing our ecological support base, looting our economy and profligately expending energy are coming due. Permaculture design can solve a lot of the problems, or at the very least help us navigate the consequences of the predicaments that we find ourselves in, that we face as we navigate a future of decreasing net energy, fractured and dysfunctional ecologies and the death of the prosperity=constant growth economy. You can find Sammy's work and her own podcast at TheResilientLearner.com, and the Millennial Pioneers podcast at Jen's website GirlSeeksJoy.com Show Resources
YouTube Channels
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Zone 0 Pattern Language Fundamentals - Designing Your Permaculture Kitchen ~Epi-076 | 01 Apr 2024 | 00:54:38 | |
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:
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| All About Amazing Vetiver Grass ~Epi-40 | 24 Apr 2023 | 00:53:43 | |
Homestead Super Plant Showcase - All About Amazing Vetiver Grass If you haven't heard of vetiver grass and are homesteading in USDA zone 7b or higher, this is a must listen! Vetiver Grass - Chrysopogon zizanioides - is a perennail, tufted, clump-forming grass that grows up to 9' tall in the tropics, and typically 6' tall in Mediterranean and humid temperate climates. It is known worldwide for its incredibly dense and fibrous root system that grows 15'+ deep, and is utilized around the world for erosion repair and prevention, slope stabilization, water clarification, sewage effluent treatment, biomass, livestock fodder, hay, and essential oil. Vetiver grass is also incredibly well-behaved - it does not produce viable seed and does not have running rhizomatous roots or stolons - meaning it will stay where you put it. To make more you can very easily divide a mature vetiver clumpe to produce upwards of 30 viable vetiver tillers (young vetiver plants budding off the mature clump). Vetiver grass can survive winter temperatures as low as 0-5 degrees Fahrenheit, and highs up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. It can handle snow and frost as long as the ground doesn't freeze - which generally means it will grow and survive well in USDA Zones 7b and higher. Vetiver grass is incredibly drought hardy once established due to its incredibly deep root system and its C4 physiology. Vetiver grass culms are very stiff and upright, and when planted in contour strips, the grass will grow into a dense living wall that prevents sheetflow erosion and enhances infiltration. It can be buried in sediment and will root into accumulated sediments. It can be burned to the ground and will regrow from subterranean buds. It can be grazed heavily and is an excellent forage or cut fodder for horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits - even certain types of herbivorous fish! It can be cut multiple times a year and it literally a "carbon pump". It is used throughout the world to treat sewage effluent and to clarify manure lagoons, while producing mineral rich hay as a by-product. If you have a greywater reed bed or blackwater treatment system vetiver grass is amazing and reducing total dissolved solids (TDS) and E. coli counts. Join me in this show as we dive deep into all of the amazing characteristics and many functions that vetiver grass can perform for your homestead. This plant is incredible and is a true ally for any regenerative landscape. It is a total honey badger - incredibly tenacious once established and well-behaved in any landscape - this one can do so much for your homestead, especially if you have erosion issues or are looking to produce feed for your livestock at low to no cost! Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Design Your Life And Homestead To Yield Freedom In Time, Health, Wealth and Spirit ~Epi-039 | 17 Apr 2023 | 00:36:16 | |
How can we design our lives and our homesteads to maximize our freedom in Time, Health, Wealth and Spirit? This is a primary lifestyle design aim for anyone interested in living as a sovereign human being today. Join me today as we discuss the 4 freedoms - all of which are aspects of FREEDOM - the ability to choose / say "no" to things.
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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| Why We Are Leaving California And Moving To Tennessee ~Epi-038 | 10 Apr 2023 | 00:59:39 | |
The day has finally arrived! We are leaving California and moving to Tennessee! In today's show I go into all the things that are pushing us out of California and pulling us towards the Volunteer State! We'll cover the economic and regulatory reasons why California just isn't an option for us to build a life here, and why the economic and regulatory landscape of Tennessee is a much better fit for the things we want to do and the kind of life that we want to live. We'll also talk about taxes, business regulations, general legislative climate, actual physical climate, topography, cultural factors, and (gotta keep it weird seeing as we are from CA and all) even some astrological factors that are indicating that Tennessee, and specifically southeast Tennessee, is the place to be for us. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| DeGoogling Round 1 - The Phone ~Epi-037 | 03 Apr 2023 | 00:52:14 | |
In today's show I detail my journey into what will be a multi-year endeavor - completely de-Googling my life. For us to live as sovereign human beings this day in age, we have to consciously design our digital lives to maintain appropriate levels of privacy and security amidst the ever-rising tide of surveillance and tracking. De-Googling my phone was one process I began a year ago in order to start to take back some control over my data and my reliance upon centralized tech cloud services. Despite the many pitfalls we face daily with smartphones in our lives, they are also tremendously powerful tools, and can be one of the most powerful tools you have when operating your homestead and homestead enterprises as a well-integrated whole. We need to be conscious of how we integrate tech into our lives, and understand that anything they say is "free" means that you are the product. Join me today as I share my experience in de-Googline my phone and give you the concrete steps to follow to do the same and claw back from digital privacy from the technocrats. Show Resources (aka your guide to de-Googling a Google Pixel phone)
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Living With Fire (Part 4): Integrating Fire Into Daily Life (Again) ~Epi-036 | 27 Mar 2023 | 00:35:17 | |
What if we chose to view nature's gift of annually-replenishing fixed carbon sources (i.e. brush, forests etc) in high-fire danger areas as an opportunity to harmonize with the annual carbon cycle instead of as a nuisance to be combated? Could we improve home safety in the urban-wildland edge and take steps towards living within our annual solar energy budget, while saving money and improving habitat and ecology? We absolutely can. Join me for a journey into what could be if we chose to integrate fire into daily life again. In today's show we cover...
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Living With Fire (Part 3): Home Construction & Retrofitting For Fire Survivability ~Epi-035 | 20 Mar 2023 | 00:32:19 | |
In today's show we continued with the Living With Fire series in Part 3 - all about fire-proof or at least fire-wise home construction and home refit suggestions to increase fire survivability. Its all simple - some steps are easy and cheap, some are not. We will cover...
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Living With Fire (Part 2): Regenerative Firescaping - Protect Your Home With Fire-Resistant Landscape Design ~Epi-034 | 13 Mar 2023 | 00:41:53 | |
Today we dive into the nitty gritty of regenerative firescaping following Living With Fire - Part 1 in Episode 33. We will cover:
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Living With Fire (Part 1): Basic Fire Science, Home Site Selection and Personal Responsibility ~Epi-033 | 06 Mar 2023 | 00:44:34 | |
Today's show is the first episode in a series of shows that I'll be putting out on designing, building and managing a homestead in a high-fire risk climate. So much energy in the form of human labor, tax dollars, and lost ecological integrity is expended each and every year for the purpose of reducing fire risk - and yet many of these interventions don't actually reduce the risk of home damage or loss that much, AND they create a treadmill that requires mowing, chipping and spraying toxic chemicals year after year after year - with no end in site... ...sounds like a few other government programs I can think of. The solution is temporary, and actually ensures there will be greater fire risk and ecological harm next year - which means we always have to do MORE and pay MORE for fire mitigation and prevention each year - and the results show it isn't working! It's time for a fresh take on living with fire, and that is what this series is going to be all about. In today's show we will lay the groundwork for the rest of the series as we cover:
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| The Consequences Of Ignoring Reality ~Epi-032 | 27 Feb 2023 | 00:49:04 | |
Today's show is inspired by the Ayn Rand quote "We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." We (the larger collective of society, government etc) have been living in ignorance of reality for quite a while. Right now, a multitude of the consequences of this multi-generational ignorance are coming home to roost.
And yet, despite the state of things, we have more opportunity before us than ever before to create beautiful, abundant, healthy lives. I posit that homesteading is one of the BEST ways to raise and develop whole human beings. An intentionally designed homestead and the lifestyle that goes with it has the three things that ALL people need in order to lead meaningful lives:
A sovereign homestead is so much more than a collection of things and organisms that puts food on your table or money in your pocket or a roof over your head. It can literally be the foundation for becoming the best version of you possible and - perhaps the greatest legacy we can hope to leave behind - raising whole, intact, fully-actualized children that know and own their own power. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| 5 Rules For Happy Homesteading ~Epi-031 | 20 Feb 2023 | 00:40:43 | |
Join me for a discussion of 5 Rules For Happy Homesteading from my own lived experience.
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Building Freedom And Community In The REAL Private Sector - Real World Applications For Private Membership Associations with Joshua Longbrook ~Epi-075 | 25 Mar 2024 | 01:14:25 | |
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
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses: Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
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.
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| Homesteading As A Tool For Creating Freedom Outside The Scope, Reach And Will Of The State ~Epi-030 | 13 Feb 2023 | 00:52:05 | |
Today's show is about homesteading being one of the best tools we have as sovereign individuals for creating freedom for ourselves and our families outside the Scope, Reach and Will of the state. The State, which I'll refer to as the Matrix here, has 3 aspects to it's control structure:
Where Scope, Reach and Will overlap is "The Matrix" - there is total control. Anything outside of the center is more free. If you can move from a 3/3 situation to a 2/3 situation, whole new horizons of freedom open up. Let's look at the different 2/3 overlaps.
Homesteading is the secret weapon for creating more freedom in our lives. They are all based on who we become while walking the sovereign individual's path. Homesteading is the ultimate human development regimen in my opinion. Let's look at three ways that homesteading helps us create more freedom:
REMEMBER - What you do matters. The State would have you believe in the inevitability of their control - but they are not inevitable. Practice discernment to take better action, and improve your discernment by dialing in your orientation. This is why all of my design clients must distill their Minimum Holistic Goal before we begin designing anything, and it is what I have to offer you on your sovereign homestead journey. Show Resourcesb
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl
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| Get Comfortable Going First And Being Weird ~Epi-029 | 06 Feb 2023 | 01:02:13 | |
To build and live a sovereign life in a time when the majority of society is not interested in, and even vehemently opposed to, the ideas of personal responsibility and self-ownership, you will have to get comfortable going first and being weird. In today's show I am joined by Sammy as we discuss the ways in which we as sovereign humans must "go first and be weird" in order to be healthy, to grow true wealth, to locate ourselves in a place that allows us to thrive, to navigate technology's impact on our lives, and to build and maintain strong relationships in a time when isolation and social division are the norm. We share many personal anecdotes and lessons of going first and being weird, as well as some questions to assess the degree of external vs. internal validation that may be driving your current lifestyle choices. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl | |||
| Basic Principles Of Resilient Whole-Site Access Design ~Epi-028 | 30 Jan 2023 | 00:53:08 | |
Today's show is about the second layer of designing resilient homestead properties. Last week we started with the basic principles of holistic whole-site water system design. This week, we build on that with the basic principles that guide holistic access design and implementation across broadacre landscapes.
Access DO's and DON'Ts
Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl | |||
| The Basics Of Whole-Site Water Systems Design ~Epi-027 | 23 Jan 2023 | 00:40:37 | |
Today we go over the four basic questions that guide all holistic water patterning design. Whether you're an experienced designer or homesteader, or a complete novice that is just getting introduced to optimizing water patterning on your land, this show is for you. That's because, no matter what level you're at, the process is always the same! Every good whole-site water design follows this same progression:
Water is blessedly predictable - it always flows straight downhill. Because of this, we can design systems that optimize the productive capacity of every drop of water that our landscapes receive - we just have to take a little bit of time to objectively analyze our landscapes. This is how you do it. Show Resources
____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Design: Online Site/Project Consultation
Implementation: High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Courses:
Media: The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
Music by Alex Grohl | |||