Thriving The Future Podcast

How I turned my pasture of thorny Callery pears into an Asian pear orchard by bark grafting and cleft grating.Do a Google search on Callery pears and feel the hatred.Bradford pears, planted nearly everywhere, are usually grafted onto Callery pear rootstock. Callery pears are thorny pears that I have never seen growing any fruit. On my land they spread by suckers - literally everwhere.In this episode I share about How I turned my pasture of thorny Callery pears into an Asian pear orchard by bark grafting and cleft grating.Check out the show notes for the pictures of how I did this.Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.You've heard of this "food forest" thing, but it's so overwhelming to get started. I can help.My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at Thriving Food Forest.Grow Nut Trees still has chestnuts, hazelnuts, comfrey. Get them planted before Summer!GrowNutTrees.com

Sam Baker from Wrigglebrew and I talk about soil health, and what does nitrogen poisoning look like?My leaves turned brown, despite enough watering. Maybe I gave them too much nitrogen?Overuse of phosphorus causes plants to not be able to uptake zinc, magnesium, calcium. That's another reason why our food is mineral deficient.Wrigglebrew is even used by soy farmers to reduce their nitrogen load and move a little more toward regenerative farming methods.Compost tea only has a shelf life of 24-48 hours. How does Wrigglebrew maintain the flora and be shelf stable?Sam also shares about Wrigglebrew's research - a scientific gov't grant to use worms to digest plastic.Wrigglebrew is a fertilizer made from worm castings, but it goes farther by adding helpful soil bacteria, mycorrhizae, and mycelium. The mycelium is a species that will not grow into mushrooms, if that is a concern. You can use it as soil fertilizer or foliar feed spray. Wrigglebrew started as a project at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to offer a solution to combat the nitrogen runoff that causes red tide - algae bloom in the Gulf (of America).Episode show notes: Ep. 162 - Talking Soil Health with Sam Baker from WrigglebrewTimes are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.You've heard of this "food forest" thing, but it's so overwhelming to get started. I can help.My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at Thriving Food Forest.Grow Nut Trees still has chestnuts, hazelnuts, comfrey. Get them planted before Summer!GrowNutTrees.com

Jamon Mysliwiec joins me to share about TIAG - The Independent American Gardener, an online to in-real-life community, teaching permaculture and self-sufficiency through regenerative community.The goal is to move to a closed-loop economy, with communities producing surplus, leveraging home based small businesses, and creating a barter and trade network for the surplus. Jamon started Lulu's Garden, the first Demonstration Hub in Trenton, MO, and has bought a commercial property which will have a rooftop garden, greenhouse, a food forest, and to trade surplus through a farmers market type model. He also shares about his new off grid property and soon-to-be-Demonstration Hub in SW Missouri.Show notes for this episode: Ep. 160 - Creating Community with Jamon - The Independent American GardenerGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min Discovery call, to learn your vision and goals for your land.

As I get older, perennials have become more important in my garden.It is the first week of May, and this Spring I have not planted any new annuals, besides potatoes. But that doesn't mean that I do not have anything to eat. A couple of years ago I focused more and more corners of my garden and raised beds on perennials. I have bloody dock and other sorrel to add to salads. Bloody dock has a lemony taste, and it's blood red veins add an intriguing conversation piece when added to a guest's salad.This year I will add Skirret, which is a perennial that looks like a carrot and is described as "the sweetest carrot you've ever eaten." Skirret is a European perennial, popular in medieval times. Instead of one tap root, the skirret has multiple tubers off of a plant. I got the seed from Perma Gardens at plantonce.com.Yacon is a plant that has a deep tubers that look like a small sweet potato, and smaller tubers near the surface that look like sunchokes. Above ground it will look like a sunflower. It reportedly has a juicy fruity flavor like celery or fruit. I bought my Yacon at Raintree Nursery, and they also have a purple variety.Mashua is a plant in the Nasturtium family. It is a vining and flowering plant, but also forms tubers. The leaves and flower are edible. And it repels some insects and nematodes, so you can plant it between other plants. The tubers can also come in different colors. I bought my Mashua at Raintree Nursery.Sea beet is an ancestor of our beets and chard. It will have large edible leaves. It seeds in Year 2 and then, in midsection of country it would likely go perennial in Year 3.It is not a red beet, and I expect it to be more like a chard taste or closer to a sugar beet. I bought mine at Experimental Farm Network, which has unique things you may not find in your regular store or the usual online seed places.Try some of these plants, especially the tubers, and increase your self sufficiency by experimenting to see if you can get some of them to turn perennial.Show notes for this episode: Ep. 159 - New Perennials I am Planting this SpringGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min Discovery call, to learn your vision and goals for your land.

Matt from FarmHopLife, Joseph the Homestead Padre from Smith Homestead, and Grant Payne from Christine Acres Farm join me on a community call to share our Spring plans.Matt is growing mini cactusHomestead Padre is growing Ayote squash which tastes like chocolate. He also shares his farmers market success with selling freeze dried herbs, teas, and candy.I am growing new types of chestnuts, and grafting Asian pears onto invasive Callery pears.And Grant is doing everything. Greenhouses, IBC totes with comfrey as far as the eye can see, ducks, chickens, trees, and hundred of flowers.Come and join in our success!Show notes for this episode: Ep. 158 - Thriving the Future Community Shares Our Spring PlansGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min consult, a discovery call to learn your vision and goals for your land.

Perpend (David), who I started the podcast with, became an Orthodox monk and is now a Novice Monk at the Monastery of St. John in CA.As he was travelling from monastery to monastery throughout America, he occasionally was back in Kansas (the last time in September 2023). He would greet me, and others, with a greeting that he likely learned in his travels: Instead of saying, "Hi, how are you?", he would say, "How goes the struggle?"Instead of giving the usual response of "I am fine", you would think about it for a moment. This led to a more real and heartfelt conversation.In Orthodox Christianity there is a prayer: "Help the Orthodox Christians to struggle".Not "Help us get through the struggle". Not "Help us not to struggle".If you are saying to yourself, "That's un-American!", then you have lost touch with your history and tradition.I could go on for paragraphs here about how we have lost this touchstone of our human existence.We knew this just 100 years ago. The janitor knew that he was janitor and measured where he was in the world. He would hope and prepare his children to have a life better than his, but he knew where he was. In modern days, through credit the janitor thinks he can drive that fancy car.We watch TV or a movie and cheer when the hero goes through trials and comes out the victor at the end. We respond to these because these Hero's Journey stories are in our DNA.But now we watch the Hero's Journey story and do not want to experience trials and struggles ourselves.People watch TV and movies with the Hero's Journey and then grumble, complain, and take meds when they are called to the Hero's Journey.We need to struggle. We need the Hero's Journey.It all comes down to your mindset.Also - How is Great Lent going?Show notes for this episode: Ep. 157 - How Goes the Struggle?Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min consult, a discovery call to learn your vision and goals for your land.

Mike Thomas of the Catholic Land Movement joins me to talk about Catholic Land Movement news. We also share about our apple orchards and cider.The purpose of the Catholic Land Movement is "a rural resettlement of Catholics onto productive property which they own".This is a network of Catholics supporting one another to help people start homesteads, and to help make homesteads and small farms thrive. They do this through helping folks find land, as well as skill swapping and workshops.The Catholic Land Movement is now up to 30+ chapters.Mike and his team visited Rome to discuss their mission and were able to meet with Pope Francis.Now is a 501c3 and you can donate to help the Catholic Land Movement.We also share about apple trees, progress in our orchards, my challenges with fire blight, and lambing season on the homestead.It has been so cold that his cider froze. How Mike will recover and try to to restart the fermentation.We also talk about Lent and Mike's recent tweet: "Time to use Lent to purify myself, to conquer my disorder and weakness. Time to build a foundation."Show notes for this episode: Ep. 156 - How the Catholic Land Movement is Empowering HomesteadingGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design:We can create an edible foodscape, an orchard, or perennial kitchen garden so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Start your journey to Thriving with a free 30 min consult, a discovery call to learn your vision and goals for your land.

Roman Shapla, from Nature School Startup, joins me to discuss Nature Schools - where the outdoors is the classroom.Roman recently shared on Twitter how he has taught tracking class: showing kids animal tracks in the dirt teaches kids about pattern recognition, thinking through timelines, as well as problem solving in their surroundings ("if this track is here, where did it come from, where is it going, and what is the animal doing?"). Definitely worth a Follow.He teaches homeschooling parents and co-ops how to start their own weekend nature school or to help those looking to bring the outdoors into a traditional classroom.Some of the benefits of outdoor schooling that we discuss:Engaging teenagers by giving them responsibility on tasks and even including them in mentoring younger children.Breaking the cycle of screen addiction and reawakening wonder through teaching outdoors.Teaching skills like pattern recognition, timelines, seasonality, and sense of place.Including marginalized or difficult children in a school outdoors significantly counteracts boredom, anxiety, and even ADHD.He has more tips in his excellent Substack article on Valuing the Marginal - Designing for Children and Elders.Show notes for this episode: Ep. 155 - Teach Kids Outside - with Roman from Nature SchoolGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

In this episode I cover an overview of the different types of chestnuts. And why do customers prefer hybrids over Chinese chestnuts? I share what named varieties that I am growing this year. And I give you tips to start your chestnut orchard, including soil pH and how/when to fertilize your chestnut trees.I forage buckets of chestnuts from local chestnut trees every Fall and store them in buckets of sand to sprout over the Winter. But in Spring 2024 my stored chestnuts were moldy and rotten - they had failed over the winter.I learned a lot more as I have diversified my chestnut offerings in response to this loss, as well as expanded my knowledge through my in real life contacts. In this article I will share what I have learned so it will help you as well.Varieties of chestnuts:American, Chinese, Japanese, European.Why are customers turned off by Chinese chestnuts? Why do they sell for less than hybrids?Dunstan chestnuts and other hybrids.Named varieties of chestnuts:A named variety, or a known-parent, is a tree or seedling that is chosen for it's heavy production and larger nut sizes. That known (named) parent mother tree is open pollinated by the surrounding trees. It's nuts are saved and grown into seedlings. This is a common way to grow and sell chestnuts, much more than grafting.Some sites call these named varieties of Chinese chestnuts Half sibs.Qing, Gideon, Amy, Peach, and Resilient are examples of named varieties (known parent/Half sibs) of Chinese Chestnuts.I am growing Qing, Resilient named varieties, and some Japanese hybrids this year.I am sprouting from seed:Eaton, which is a Chinese, American, and Japanese hybrid.Gideon seed. This will produce large to extra-large nuts that are high in quality and flavor.Hope is a Chinese, American hybrid that is a sibling of "King Arthur", a cultivar from the Connecticut Ag Experiment Station's chestnut breeding program.Revival: a HUGE hybrid with chestnuts as big as my palm.Tips to grow chestnuts:Chestnuts need moderately acidic soil, somewhere between 4.5 and 6.5 pH.Chestnuts need trace minerals like Boron, I have seen suggested that 1 tsp of borax, dissolved in water, poured on an 8x4 garden bed can help with this. I will experiment with adding boron this year.Do not put fertilizer in the hole when planting chestnut trees. You want the chestnut to grow out into the soil seeking nutrients. If you do fertilize, add some 10-10-10 fertilizer lightly to the top of the soil. Do not use long time released fertilizer.Foliar feed in the summer. This makes root growth and enhances the soil.Show notes for this episode: Ep. 154 - Tips to Start Your Chestnut OrchardGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

Believe it or not, it's never been a better time to reinvent yourself than it is now.Sure, the job market looks bleak. Stories of downsizing nearly every day.But you can learn new skills, often for Free.John McCoy of John McCoy Writes tweeted a few weeks ago:"Friday reminder: you can just learn a skill for free off the internet and start selling your services and people will pay you. Nobody can stop you."Tips to learn new skillsUse LinkedIn Learning. You can often get it for free by using the library. Topeka/Shawnee County offer it for free. If you are veteran you can get LinkedIn Pro and LinkedIn Learning for Free.Get some training and a certificate, either through Grow Google, or take a class that guarantees you will pass the certificate at the end.Start small, work for a small company (or the State), and then leverage that experience in a couple of years to significantly increase your salary. Working in IT for a manufacturing company is how I started in IT.Build your experience portfolio by freelancing on Upwork.Facing Downsizing? Build Something for YourselfIn the second half of 2024, it seemed like downsizing was on the horizon (when you know, you know). Like Justin Welsh says: Build something for yourself.I got tired of the fear and expanded Grow Nut Trees, growing and selling more trees than ever before. I started Thriving Food Forest Design (see details below) and had my first really big customer.Check out the show notes on our website:Ep. 153 - It's Never Been Easier to Reinvent Yourself - with John McCoyGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnuts. Qing (pronounced "Ching") is a Chinese chestnut Half-sib from a named tree that was open pollinated by other trees, including hybrids. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

Graham Towerton of Permaculture Canada joins me to share about his Michigan farm and his permaculture plans for this year.He is growing heritage raspberry and asparagus in permaculture with strawberries as the herb layer. Also Olive Leaf Arugula that is essentially perennial. We also share about chestnuts and our other tree plans for this year.In the last 10 years Graham has transformed his farm from regular corn and soybeans to a permaculture oasis!Go to the show notes on our website to see the amazing before and after pictures of Graham's farm.Can you integrate permaculture with a solar farm?Graham discusses what it's like when a solar farm moves in next door, and how he used that to his advantage, incorporating permaculture as much as possible to best use the bordering zones.Graham also shares about his mulching and compost strategy to build up fertility without having to bring in outside chemical inputs.You can connect with Graham on:Permaculture CanadaPermaculture Adventures MichiganGraham's Instagram page @GrahamTowertonGrow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.Grow Nut Trees.comNEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnuts. Qing (pronounced "Ching") is a Chinese chestnut Half-sib from a named tree that was open pollinated by other trees, including hybrids. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

A former colleague of mine posted a Remote job that got 500 applicants.I will share some tips with you on How to Find a Job in This Tough Economy.You Must Know Someone on the InsideWhen there are 500 applicants, they are either using AI or a HR-level1 person to filter through the submitted resumes based on keywords and skills. Even if you are a rockstar, your resume is being looked at by someone who doesn't even know what those terms on your resume mean.You know people who you have worked with in the past. Some of those people are now in leadership positions or are influencers.Contact them and have them give a heads up to the hiring manager: "I worked with him and he is legit." That's sometimes all it takes. The rest is up to you, but you won't get the opportunity to tell your story if you don't make it over this hurdle.You need to connect in Real Life.Say it again: You need to connect IN REAL LIFE (IRL)!Call that person up. Offer to get together for coffee. Sure, it will seem awkward since you haven't talked to them in 2+ years.Your resume needs to fit the jobEmployers are looking for "what can you do for me?"Remote work is dead. Position yourself for the "right" return to office job.If you are still working remotely, or you went back in the office but you still dream of working remotely.As I said at the beginning, most remote jobs have >100 applicants. The one I interviewed for had 500 applicants.Side Hustles R UsIn times like these, your side hustles can bridge the gap.Look, we are moving toward a multi-income stream economy by necessity. Build yours now.Episode website:Ep. 151 - How to Find a Job in This Tough EconomySponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design: This is your chance to grow exactly what you've been dreaming of. Like walking down a grocery store aisle. Let us create an edible foodscape for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall)Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.

Our reality is choked out by thoughts, static, noise, and by the "cares of this life". (not to mention the electronic noise of being "always on", "always connected".The other night I went to Vespers service at church. Vespers is my favorite service. The candles, the dim lights, the hymns, the "Now that we have come to the setting of the sun." It recognizes a cycle in the day and in life. It is much needed.Afterward, I told my priest, Father Nikolai, that it took 45 minutes for the noise of the day to fade away and for me to be immersed in the service - the candles, the hymns.He replied, with a smile, "That is why our services are so long."There has been a lot of talk lately in my circles of influence about Signal vs. Noise. How we are bombarded with "noise" to the point where we don't even hear the signal anymore.I give an update on Perpend. He has been on a quest to become an Orthodox monk. He was "clothed as a novice" monk in May at the Monastery of St. John in Manton, CA.I share thoughts from one of his letters about this "noise":We think of static as the white noise and pops between radio stations. If I say "noise", people respond with "sound" and "volume" as their points of reference. Yes, a neighbor's loud music is a potential problem, but I mean more than that. The term "inputs" also doesn't quite fit; it doesn't connect. Maybe "Static" is better."Static" is interference in your attempt to bring in the radio signal. In my case, the signal I want is God, Grace, the life of the Church, silence, prayer - a real life. These are the things that actually matter. Static is anything that hinders that.My thoughts, emotions, perceptions, desires are a static producing mechanism. The added static from those mechanisms is other people entering my life is a lot also. How I choose to react and think about them changes my perceptions of them and those interactions. That is what thoughts determine, what life is about.Episode website:Ep. 150 - Decrease the "Noise" in Your LifeSponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:Cedar Raised Bed - 148 x 13.25Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall)Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.

This year has been the best of times and the worst of times. Okay, maybe not the worst. (after all, I am still employed).But this is the dichotomy (or is it a contradiction?):It is performance review time at work.I just copied last year's review and changed the project names.But my Goals and accomplishments in real life were off the charts!This year I:- Built 4 web sites/side businesses- Got my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from Midwest Permaculture.- Gained my first 2 paid Food Forest design clients, including a huge 3 acre orchard design and implementation that is a several thousand dollar gig.- Grew 10x+ trees- 5x my revenue from last year- Learned to use a mini-excavatorCome along with me as I share my wins (and losses) and get encouraged!Sponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

How Do You Use AI?Most people use it as a search engine.Some people use it write blog posts or customer emails.Some for analysis.But some assign it a role to do the analysis, like "evaluate this as an executive of XYZ company" or a hiring manager.My son-in-law, Eric Niday, uses AI for all of the above. Talking with him about his experiences with it was interesting, so I decided to have him on and share it with you.How far is too far?In addition to using AI at work to evaluate candidates and write SQL, Eric uses ChatGPT to research and debate theology. He made a chat bot theologian, instructed it with which theologians that he liked, so he could ask it questions. He even made it so it would "counsel" him. The chat bot even offered to "pray" for him (!). Um, that may be going too far.Episode website: Ep. 148 - How Do You Use AI? - with Eric NidaySponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

Jason Snyder of Doomer Optimism shares stories of how his family in NC weathered Hurricane Helene and what he is doing to regeneratively recover from the aftermath.Resiliency through community and culture."Biblical flood? Plant trees, cultivate gardens, raise livestock."Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/hurricaneSponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

Next week is the election. Once again it is being billed as the "most important election in our lifetime!". And four years from now they will tell us the same thing. If every election is the same way, then maybe they are not as consequential as they say that they are.In Oct-27's homily/sermon, my pastor, Father Nikolai Meyers talked about the election (starts at 1:30:00, if it is not cued already).We are sold that there are only two sides to this. But Life has many sides.We got rain in NE Kansas after weeks and months of drought. The storm brought down trees. Neighbors helped each other to clear the downed trees. Maybe that is more consequential than the circus 2000 miles away in DC."If voting could actually upset the power of the establishment, you wouldn't be allowed to do it." - CyprianCyprian (aka Vin Armani) and I talk about the "Invisible Enemy" from an Orthodox Christian perspective.The Invisible EnemyFor totalitarianism to come into power you must have an Invisible Enemy.In 2020, Trump called Covid the "Invisible Enemy".Who is the Invisible Enemy today?For the Left, it is White Supremacy. It's the white guy with a rifle asking, "What kind of American are you?"For the Right, it's Trans people or "illegals".What about the homeless and the poor - are they the Invisible Enemy?Fear of the Invisible EnemyThe fear of the Invisible Enemy is fueled by social media, especially Twitter. You get more Likes and Views when you scare people with it.This pattern of declaring someone (or specific people or groups) as an Invisible Enemy and then declaring (social or real) war against it usually happens right before a big upheaval, and usually leads to some form of totalitarianism. Examples in the 20th Century are many: Germany, Russia, China.The Real Civil War is Within You. What are YOU going to do?Positive solutions to face your own personal Civil War:Pray. Pray for humility and discernment.Avoid the mind virus trap of thinking of groups of people as the Invisible Enemy. It never ends well.Give.We discuss: do you give to the homeless person if he will likely spend it on drugs?If you have an issue with this:How about asking his name? Greeting him with his name would be acknowledging him as human being.How about having a meaningful conversation?"The rich exist for the sake of the poor. The poor exist for the salvation of the rich.” - St. John Chrysostom.Read the daily Lives of the Saints. Their strength in trials and persecution will be a guide and model for you as you face the same. Because it is coming. (Didn't you learn anything from Covid?!)You may think you are winning. You don't think it will happen to you, but someone will be asking you, "What kind of American are you?" and you likely won't fit their definition.Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/civil-war2If you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Thriving Food Forest Design: Let us create an edible foodscape, perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me

It's been almost a year since Grant and I shared about How to Propagate your own Trees, Plants, and Flowers for Free, and Sell the Extras as a Side Hustle (recently as a Flashback episode on Oct-11.What has changed with our nursery businesses in the last year? I started my food forest design business and have my first paid design client.We share about becoming an "expert".Finding your niche: you are an expert in something (or more expert than others).How to position yourself as an expert.One way to start is to speak to audience or perspective client as you would to yourself several years ago.We also talk nursery biz:Hostas, trees.Grading nursery stock based on pot size and tree caliper.Episode website:Ep. 145 - How to Position Yourself as an Expert - with Grant PayneSponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design - Let us create a low maintenance perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

What are you doing to put your garden to bed for the winter time?Maybe you are luck and your growing season is still in swing. We are nearing the first frost date. It has been too hot and dry for my Fall greens to germinate so I will need to start them in the greenhouse, where they can grow until Jan or Feb.How do you clean up your garden beds?For Milpa beds, I chop and drop the beans and other plants for mulch, cover with a little compost, and then some woodchips.In the main garden:I loosen the soil with a broadfork. Not too much. I add amendments like lime, rock phosphate, and liquid kelp.Then a thick layer of compost.I add a thick layer of leaves that I collect from the curbside in town once the leaves drop. Then I cover it with a layer of woodchips.If I am creating a new garden bed, I use the lasagna method:Break up or turn over the soil with a broadfork.Like Nick Ferguson, I may add a layer of animal feed pellets.I adda layer of compost or horse manure.Then I add a layer of molasses mixed with water to feed the soil bacteria.I cover it all with leaves and woodchips. What do you do to put your garden to bed for the winter time? Share your wins and losses on our Telegram group. Sign up at signup.thrivingthefuture.comI also share in this episode - What happened to the podcast?My tour of Charlie's Chestnuts and the hybrid chestnut called Revival, which is almost as big as the palm of my hand.Episode website:Ep. 143 - How I Put My Garden to Bed for the WinterSponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Thriving Food Forest Design - Let us create a low maintenance perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

This flashback episode with Grant Payne has tips that you can also use on your homestead to save and propagate trees and plants, with enough abundance to sell the extras. Create your own nursery side hustle,Propagation - from cuttings - elderberry, mulberry, figs, berries, and discarded trims from nursery plants.Flowers, mums, and bulbsObtaining seeds and plantsWhere to sell - FB, Craigslist, ebay, and creating a popup website. The pros and cons.Episode website: Ep. 144 - Flashback - How to Propagate your own Trees, Plants, and Flowers for Free, and Sell the Extras as a Side HustleSponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.Thriving Food Forest Design - Let us create a low maintenance perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

What are you doing to increase your self reliance and self sufficiency?Jack Spirko's definitions:Self Sufficiency – The percentage of your needs met by your own systemsSelf Reliance – The duration in time you can live well without systems of support (or to live well with YOUR systems of support)Let's face it - the 2024 election is not going to go well. The side that loses is not going to accept the results. There will be civil unrest. Plus WW3 conditions are looming.Change is coming. People can feel it.What would you do in another 2020-type situation? What lessons learned can you apply from the last time?What could you do to be ableLong term/short term -Plant treesCultivate gardensTend livestockMore short term:Look at your gaps in energy, food, water. What can you improve so that you can live well with your systems of support?Fight the mind virus and the fearPrepare mentally and spirituallyBuild communityLearn skills through self study and networkingExpand your other forms of incomeI share what I am doing to become more self reliant and self sufficient.Episode website: Ep. 142 - How Are You becoming More Self Reliant?Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.Thriving Food Forest DesignPermies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

Lindsay Brandon, CEO and Permaculture Consultant at Permaculture Canada joins me to share about Armagarden, her new project to integrate community design into the permaculture design.We discuss Armagarden and how it contrasts with the usual permaculture design. From the website:What is Armagarden?Armagarden was born from the desire to get back to the land and live a lifestyle that is connected to family, place and community. Through strategic design methods considerations are made through the design process towards food/water security, community resource management, and holistic design from a community perspective. With the recent increase in people desiring a homesteading lifestyle many realise that self-reliance is best when combined with the skills of their community. That we are stronger, more resilient, and can accomplish much more when we pool our resources, talents and skills together.The community resilience is created with elements including food production, on-site (off-grid) energy production, infrastructure for community events, educational courses and sustainable construction and energy efficiency practices for all buildings.Episode website: Ep. 141 - Armagarden - Regenerative Community Design, with Lindsay BrandonSponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

With tough times, more people are looking for homestead property, or to add gardens, fruit and nut trees, and chickens to their existing suburban property to be more self sufficient.Kerry Brown of Strong Roots Resources joins me to share tips to find your homestead property:Look for off-market properties. Properties are selling before they show up in Zillow or MLS. Contact your network of folks, like realtors to give you a heads up when something is coming available. If you are in the Tennessee area, Kerry recommends Marcie and Jeff Yadon. On FB as on fb as Marcie n Jeff Yadon or email: Marcieaeasttnhomes@gmail.comIntentional CommunitiesSome have a membership model or you can live there seasonally.FB Group - Homestead RoommatesTSP Land Group on TelegramPermies SKIP program on Permies.comWhat to consider when looking at a property:Water sourceAccessSolar aspectForaging and trees - what is on there now?Suburban tips:Look at space and think of "what else could that be used for?" (stack functions)Avoid HOAsDon't discount garage space (like for aquaculture).Episode website: Ep. 140 - Tips to Find Your Homestead Property - with Kerry BrownSponsors:Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.

Last time, in Ep. 138, Jason Thomas shared stories and we discussed how to design your intentional life.We talked about the main categories - wealth, health, relationships, and spirituality.I was contemplating my journey to design my intentional life and I had more to add.Having an Intentional Life means:Aligning your life and actions with your values, as much as possible.Being deliberate in your actions and forming good habits.Taking positive steps rather than being driven by your circumstances and surroundings.Preparing for adversity - both physically and mentally.Being more at peace and having a positive view of your future.Focusing on your physical and spiritual health.Write down your values.Evaluate things to Change:Make a plan. Start simple.There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. You won't get to 100% (unless you are very lucky, or you have the right situations). There will be some tradeoffs.It's not All or Nothing.Get out of the "I am going to replace my job!" mindset.Redesign your life by changing your lifestyle and expectations:Paul Wheaton's (in)famous "Story of Ferd and Gert"Get out of the "progressive mindset"Grow your own food.Find your tribe - Grow community.Episode website: Ep. 139 - More Tips to Design Your Intentional LifeSponsors:Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.

What does your perfect day look like? Does today look like that perfect day?In this episode, Jason Thomas of Regeneration Nation Costa Rica shares foundational steps to design your intentional life.Needs most people have:WealthHealthRelationshipsSpiritualityWhat does your perfect day look like?We also discuss how to apply permaculture principles to your business or side hustle.Check out Jason's FREE e-book: 77 Ways to Practice Permaculture Professionally. (some may surprise you)Episode website: Ep. 138 - Jason Thomas on How to Design Your Intentional LifeSponsors:Permaculture Business Design Course from Regeneration Nation Costa Rica - This course will guide you step-by-step toward designing a profession that cultivates your permaculture education into a regenerative livelihood.Permies Permaculture Design Course - 70 hours of videos for $50. Watch what topic that you want to learn for your homestead (water, swales, ponds, earthworks) - without taking a week off of work or getting a certificate.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.

It's been a crazy week. The assassination attempt on Trump.Now a Global cyberattack (“no, it was just a bad patch!”)What will you do with this moment?Focus on your local Circle of Influence and Circle of ConcernPlant treesCultivate gardensRaise livestockPrepare mentally and spirituallyGrow your local communityBecause Gov't will not save you.Episode website: Ep. 137 - What Will You Make of This Moment?Sponsors:Permies Permaculture Design Course - 70 hours of videos for $50. Watch what topic that you want to learn for your homestead (water, swales, ponds, earthworks) - without taking a week off of work or getting a certificate.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest. Now taking orders for shipping in Sept/Oct.

A pandemic is incoming. They are testing chickens and cows and are culling flocks. A v@xx is ready.Even in 2023 they started registering chick sales at the farm store - even in Red State Kansas.What can you do?We won't vote our way out of this .Homestead Padre joins me as we discuss positive solutions that you can do to stand against the tide in the War on Food.Positive Solutions:Seek out and buy from your local farmer.Grow your own food!Learn how to eat seasonally.Learn to forage. We share our experiences of all the bounty picked just from my mailbox to the house.Prepare yourself mentally and spiritually.Fight the War on Food with your wallet, Don't support Big Box stores that compromise your freedom.Learn how to cook and eat better.Episode website: Ep. 136 - Positive Solutions to the War on FoodCheck out Padre's hot sauces and other stuffShameless plug - I have hazelnut and elderberry available at Grow Nut Trees. Buy now and they will ship in Sept/Oct.

What is the core problem that you are trying to solve? How does Thriving the Future help you to solve that problem?...or is it just entertainment?The best testimonial I ever received was from Jason Snyder from Doomer Optimism:"Shout out to Thriving the Future, relentlessly upbeat and practical, all about making your life more resilient and regenerative, doesn't get involved with Twitter drama."Wow. Jason gets it. And has described my Brand very well.Episode website: Ep. 135 – Why Are You Listening to This Podcast?I am taking the Permaculture Business Design Course from Regeneration Nation CR and one of the exercises is a Deep Dive on your "Why?".You ask yourself: "Why are you doing this?" or "Why do you want to do this?" (if you are starting something new).You keep asking "Why" until you run out of answers.In Justin Welsh's Newsletter on Saturday Jun-22, he talked about your number one Priority for a side hustle: "A successful side hustle doesn't solve a problem that's too broad or vague."Why are you listening to this podcast?What is the core problem that you are trying to solve? How does Thriving the Future help you to solve that problem?How would you describe Thriving the Future Podcast to others? (and why they should listen)What does Thriving the Future mean to YOU?Tell me about it -Join the mailing list and our Telegram groupShare your feedback with me on Twitteror email me: ThrivingtheFuture at gmail.com.Reality Check. Doing a podcast is great until at the end of Year 1 when your hosting doubles. And at the end of Year 2 it doubles again.Thriving the Future Podcast does not make enough money to cover hosting, plugins, and Zoom licensing fees. It takes a lot of trees sold to pay for podcast hosting.What you can do:If you like this content and the podcast, here is how you can support the podcast and my Thriving empire of side hustles:Shoot me a tip on Venmo or CashApp @ThrivingtheFuture.​Go to the Stuff page on Thriving the Future site and buy something.OR - click on one of the Amazon links on the Stuff page and then buy your other stuff that you want. Anything you buy on Amazon for 24 hours will give Thriving the Future a credit (a Piece of the Action).Buy comfrey crowns or cuttings on Grow Nut Trees. More trees will be available in Sept.Go to my other site AllGardenAdvice.com - Gardening Ideas and Tips, and check out the articles and stuff.Opportunity Cost is a Reality CheckBecause here's the reality check - if the podcast doesn't make a difference, if it isn't solving your problems, if it doesn't make money and break even, I have to look at spending my time and money on something else. Sorry, but that's reality, and Opportunity cost is a reality check.

My friend Kevin Brubaker from Dallas Media Productions, an independent film producer in Dallas, joins me to talk about LLC Tips (and lots of film stuff).What does a film producer have to do with my usual content of homesteading? It fits into creating side hustles and businesses to Design Your Intentional Life.We were having a conversation about LLCs and we decided to record it. We also talk a lot about film. How can you make money on film production in the streaming era?We dove into these topics:Should you have an LLC for each project or side hustle?Should you wait to become profitable before forming an LLC?Do you have to be profitable after 3 years to be considered legit (or bear the wrath of the IRS)?Should I spin Grow Nut Trees into its own LLC?To answer these questions, you have to ask yourself - why have an LLC?Although you want to use an LLC to offset your expenses, an LLC is mainly to protect you in a hyper-suing culture that we are currently in. If I was sued (for some reason) on trees, I would lose all my businesses, including the podcast.Tips:It is recommended that you have an LLC for each project or side hustle.You do not have to be profitable after 3 years if you are showing growth and an "intent to make a profit".Make sure that you create an LLC in a state where the application and charge is one-time only. (some states require yearly renewal). I have mine in KS (cost me $166). Kevin has his in TX and cost about $150. You can create the LLC and get an EIN on the state website - you don't need a lawyer or Legal Zoom.Find a mentor.Disclaimer: This is not tax or financials advice. Discuss with your tax or financial planner for your situation.Episode website: Ep. 134 - Surprising Small Business LLC TipsJoin the mailing list and our Telegram group and you can keep up to date with all of Grant Payne, Homestead Padre, and my homesteading projects. Signup at https://Signup.ThrivingtheFuture.comIf you like this content and the podcast, here is how you can support the podcast and my Thriving empire of side hustles:Shoot me a tip on Venmo or CashApp @ThrivingtheFuture.​Go to the Stuff page on Thriving the Future site and buy something.OR - click on one of the Amazon links on the Stuff page and then buy your other stuff that you want. Anything you buy on Amazon for 24 hours will give Thriving the Future a credit.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees: Buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. Seeds and trees have “memory”. They thrived and reproduced in a certain climate.Often when you buy chestnut trees, seeds, or plants online, you have to buy from nurseries in the Northeast or Southeast US, or the Pacific Northwest.Take it from us, trees and plants grown in those climates do not do well in Kansas.So buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Jeremy is better known as DeweyLikeDonuts on Instagram and TikTok.We start his story in 2008 and how a SHTF can be your own personal apocalypse. He turned to "raising chickens, growing his own food, and striving for a more sustainable life" (his tagline).Prepping to Thrive rather than survive. Not living in fear.He shares about is recent adventures with a bee swarm.How he grew his Instagram account with a chicken video that went viral.And what is the "Internet in a Box"?Episode website: Ep. 133 - Striving for a More Sustainable Life - with DeweyLikeDonutsJoin the mailing list and our Telegram group and you can keep up to date with all of Grant Payne, Homestead Padre, and my homesteading projects. Signup at https://Signup.ThrivingtheFuture.comIf you like this content and the podcast, here is how you can support the podcast and my Thriving empire of side hustles:Shoot me a tip on Venmo or CashApp @ThrivingtheFuture.​Go to the Stuff page on Thriving the Future site and buy something.OR - click on one of the Amazon links on the Stuff page and then buy your other stuff that you want. Anything you buy on Amazon for 24 hours will give Thriving the Future a credit.Sponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for a reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. Seeds and trees have “memory”. They thrived and reproduced in a certain climate.Often when you buy chestnut trees, seeds, or plants online, you have to buy from nurseries in the Northeast or Southeast US, or the Pacific Northwest.Take it from us, trees and plants grown in those climates do not do well in Kansas.So buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Part of Thriving is embracing both the wins, as well as the losses.Homestead Update:My Spring garden has failed, for the most part.I usually sow plants and then spread lettuce and kale seed around to act as a cover crop - hey, lettuce is a companion plant of everything.This year hardly anything came up. The starter plants that I planted also did not thrive.Why? Lots of rain.In Kansas we do not get "April showers bring May flowers."We get May and June thunderstorms. Almost all of our annual rain comes in May and June.This year it rained almost every other day in May. We even had a mini-tornado pass just south of us and we got 8-10 inches of rain that week. Should have been a Spring bonanza of crops.I added a couple of truckloads of compost from the nursery. The compost is worse-than-usual municipal compost.The perennials saved the day - plantain, walking onion, bloody dock sorrel. They all did wonderfully.Some trees thrived. Some did not.My apple grafts are all thriving. Nearly 80% success so far, which is rare.But the chestnut seedlings from last year didn't come out of dormancy. The 5 year chestnut trees are looking sickly, with half the branches with no leaves. I need to heavily fertilize and see if they recover.Side Hustle Update on GrowNutTrees.I sold hundreds of $ of elderberry on FB marketplace.I am adding black lace elderberry for next Fall and in 2025.Episode website: Ep. 132 - Never Give Up, Never SurrenderIf you like this content and the podcast, here is how you can support the podcast and my Thriving empire of side hustles:Shoot me a tip on Venmo or CashApp @ThrivingtheFuture.​Go to the Stuff page on Thriving the Future site and buy something.OR - click on one of the Amazon links on the Stuff page and then buy your other stuff that you want. Anything you buy on Amazon for 24 hours will give Thriving the Future a credit.Sponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for a reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. Seeds and trees have “memory”. They thrived and reproduced in a certain climate.Often when you buy chestnut trees, seeds, or plants online, you have to buy from nurseries in the Northeast or Southeast US, or the Pacific Northwest.Take it from us, trees and plants grown in those climates do not do well in Kansas.So buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Enough talk. Get Stuff Done. It's Proof of Work.Grant Payne and Matt DeRosier share what Stuff they are Getting Done this Spring, as well as Side Hustle and Tree Nursery tips.Hear why "The IBC King is Back":Grant's weddingGrant added MANY chickens and ducksTurkey production - if you start now will they be ready to sell for Thanksgiving?Tree nursery tipsHedge production by coppicing.Grant Payne - PayneHomestead on TwitterMatt at FarmHopLifeEpisode website: Ep. 131 - Get Stuff Done - with Grant and MattIf you like this content, shoot us a tip on Venmo or Cashapp @ThrivingtheFutureSponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for a reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. Seeds and trees have “memory”. They thrived and reproduced in a certain climate.Often when you buy chestnut trees, seeds, or plants online, you have to buy from nurseries in the Northeast or Southeast US, or the Pacific Northwest.Take it from us, trees and plants grown in those climates do not do well in Kansas. So buy Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings - all adapted to the Midwest. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Real world examples to start and then grow your side hustle.I am taking a Permaculture Business Design Course through Regeneration Nation CR. The exercises and worksheets are fantastic and have helped me to focus more on the customer.What is the problem you are trying to solve? What does your customer actually want? Are you trying to solve what you think the problem is?Example: If you are evaluating someone's land and doing a permaculture design, have you asked: "what do you like to eat?"So many people plant things that they actually don't eat, or will not likely eat.Define who your customer really is and let your customer define themselves by what they really want.Niche down and then niche down some more so you are known as an expert in that space.Quickly go to market with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test the response and whether it is worth throwing money (and more importantly TIME) at.Charge less for it in a beta test. Get real world feedback.Let your customer ultimately decide if they are your customer. Don't chase after someone who doesn't want to be your customer.Learn skills while doing. Charge less while learning those skills, build clientele and experience, then raise your price.Become a producer and not just a consumer.Like the permaculture principle – Use your yield. It can be used to give, trade, or sell to grow your forms of capital.Don't grift for the sake of the grift or people will easily see through you.Use research tools like Google Trends and Answer the Public.I do a deep dive on How to use Answer the Public in the latest Thriving News article on How to Overcome Writer's Block.Episode website: Ep. 130 - Tips on How to Grow Your Side HustleSponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Monday I got a new org chart in my email at work. I was not on it.The answer I got was: “oops we didn't mean for that to go out so soon.”That's how soon you can be replaced.Build something for yourself. It's basic prepping. Build your side hustle. Multiple streams of income. Do it before you get that “Oops” email.In this episode I will share tips on how to discover and develop your side hustle niche.How to find your side hustle nicheLet's talk about YOUR side hustle.Are you having difficulty finding your side hustle niche?What are you good at?You know stuff. You may not think it is much, but there is someone out there who will pay (or pay attention) for that knowledge.Remember - Guys on YouTube are getting hundreds of views from sharpening knives or using a scythe. This week I saw a post on permies where a guy took a scythe blade that was mangled by a lawn mower and he fixed it. All are skills that can be taught or sold as a side hustle, or as sales of knives and scythes.Grant Payne takes pruned and trimmed pieces of plants and rejects from the big box store and grows them out into full plants and sells them.Anything like that can drive into a side hustle.Even better - you can tell someone how to do a skill step by step and they will often PAY YOU to do it for them.Try it. Talk about your skill in your community. Offer to show someone how you do it. Make a proof of concept web page, YouTube page, or use FB Marketplace. Sell your service or your product/what you make. Or sell your knowledge and skill.Use Flippa as a Side Hustle Idea GeneratorGet on Flippa. Check out the current listings. But, even more importantly, check out the listings that have recently sold.The prepper site BunkerBasics.com sold not long ago for $1,100.You could buy a website like this, build one similar, or use it as an idea for a niche.This is my usual process and checklist for evaluating a website:Is the site within my niche or in an adjacent niche?Is the site in my price range? Most that I have bought are starter sites that are $100-200.They must be created in Wordpress.Do I have a vision for them:Do I buy the site, build the audience, and then generate affiliate income?Will I resell the site?Do I think that I can make the site better?I usually brainstorm 10-15 article topics that I would write for each site as a proof of concept to support my decision.Check out the show notes on the Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/side-hustle-nicheGuitar Pedal ManiaSponsors:Duplicator Pro - when you buy a website off of Flippa, Transfer the website over easily with Duplicator Pro plugin. It creates the database and sets up all plugins and content. Check out Duplicator Pro plugin.Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.

Andy Hickman (shagbark_hick on Twitter) shares his new adventures. Andy was on on Ep. 83 - You're Gonna Make it.His video "You're Gonna Make it" is still the most encouraging video I have ever seen, and still puts a smile on my face.Andy has a big Summer planned:He is getting married to Keturah in June, with a wedding in the woods of upstate NY, with bring-your-own-picnic lunch, and campout. (Saving money and gaining family).Before that, he is travelling the month of May coast-to-coast on Amtrak to visit new friends from Twitter in NE and TX, stealth camping, and in Oregon to greet the father he has never met.He shares tips for traveling on Amtrak.Plans to travel to Europe on QE2.Making a living writing on Substack. Subscribe and support him (I do). It is a must-read!We also talk about Thriving by being Time Rich.Check out the step by step instructions on the show notes on the Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/shagbark_hickSponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry, pecan, hazelnut seedlings, and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Do you forage nettles? A guy I know forages and freezes nettles and they are his main green veg for the entire year! Check out the How to Forage and Prepare Nettles on AllGardenAdvice.com

New health challenges require Homestead Padre to rethink and redesign his garden to adapt to those changes.After some health issues, Homestead Padre and his wife are adopting the Mediterranean Diet.Padre shares about IBS and Crohn's Disease.Unlike American Italian Food, the Mediterranean Diet is heavy emphasis on vegetables, seafood, lean meats, fat from olive oil, and whole wheat pasta (if they have pasta).Padre is realigning his garden around those foods. Changing what he will grow in his garden - based on new dietary needs. Come and listen to how he plans out his journey.The usual disclaimer: This is a personal story and is not medical advice.Padre also shares about his updates and challenges with the farmer's market this year as they take on leadership of the market.Check out the step by step instructions on the show notes on the Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/garden-healthSponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry cuttings are still available. Now have hazelnut seedlings and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Check out the Companion Planting Guide on AllGardenAdvice.com

Try to go without your phone for a few hours, or even the whole day.Like most people, I reach for my phone when there is any break in the conversation, when a commercial comes on TV, or when I am even slightly bored.This episode will empower you with some tips to reduce your screen use - and reclaim your life.Phone Settings to Fight Screen Addiction:Night ShiftFocus settingLevel Up on Fighting Screen Addiction with the Grayscale Setting:This is a tip that Father Turbo gave to Perpend: You set your phone to Grayscale. Nothing changes, but everything is in shades of gray.It is designed to lessen the draw to the phone, as well as decrease the dopamine hit that you get when on social media. Things just don't look as appealing in grayscale and they don't trigger the same things in the brain.Watch Your Scrolling HabitsFocus on your Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern:Let's get real. That thing that is happening in Texas that is the Outrage-of-the-day on social media. Does it really impact me?If I don't live in Texas, chances are it doesn't impact me at all.Does it even concern me?Probably not.Wear Blue Blocking Glasses at nightThis helps me to manage my circadian rhythm and helps me to sleep.Be Time Rich:Put things in perspective. Spend time on things that matter. Especially your family. Your kids will grow up before you know it.Check out the step by step instructions on the show notes on the Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/screen-addictionSponsors:Check out the Solar Food Dehydrator. Watch the movie, get the plans, all for reasonable cost.Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry cuttings are still available but Hurry before they come out of dormancy. Now have pecan seedlings and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Check out the Companion Planting Guide on AllGardenAdvice.com

Scott the Little Pine Farmer on Twitter is back with me and we are talking about his bakery and how he favors"Why don't you come down to this market or deliver to the boutique in the city? We want to feed our neighborhood first."Scott the Little Pine FarmerIt's all about the goal:"The overarching goal is to stay home, produce value, and have people bring us money."Reaching that goal through:Bakery, focusing on sourdough.Making relationships with the animal shelter. Selling bread in the animal shelter parking lot, which is a schools bus drop off.Community compost program.Dog sitting service.Community pasture grazing - like Rent-a-Goat but in the neighborhood.Be the Gray Man and Build Alternative Systems:Choose the path of focusing on building new alternatives rather than fighting the behemoth. If you get to the point where you are driving tractors down to the state capitol - it is too late."I am of much more benefit to my community working here on the farm than sitting in a holding cell in the big city."Spend your time building alternatives and be the Gray Man. Did you learn nothing from Covid? If you ignore them, fade into the background, and do your thing - it's most likely that they will not be paying attention to you.Find the Remnant:Go to dinner or drinks with people. Build Local Community, Grow Local Food. be the Gray Man. Build alternative systems. Much more effective than protesting.Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/local-community-local-foodSponsors:Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry cuttings are still available but Hurry before they come out of dormancy. Now have pecan seedlings and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Check out the Companion Planting Guide on AllGardenAdvice.com

Grow Food, Not LawnsHow to Create a new garden bed with MilpaHow you create a new garden bed depends on what time of the year it is. Most people sheet mulch by covering an area with cardboard, then layers of compost and woodchips. This works well, but only if you do it in the Fall AND you get lots of rain in the Winter to break down the cardboard. This year we had lots of snow in January and the bed that I created last Fall broke down pretty well, although while digging a hole in the new bed to plant a hazelnut bush, I dug up a piece of cardboard that wasn't completely broken down.To Use Cardboard or Not Use Cardboard?The permaculture powers-that-be are increasingly warning against using cardboard as the base when creating new garden beds over lawn grass. Paul Wheaton is famously against using cardboard. And scientists warn against using cardboard as well.Cardboard reportedly has dioxin and PFAs and "forever chemicals". The article also says that cardboard inhibits soil life. Only plastic sheet mulching is worse (supposedly).I use Milpa to create new garden bedsIn the Spring, I don't have time to wait for the cardboard to break down. I would lose the entire planting season.My soil is compacted heavy clay, with little worm activity in places, so I would have to add a large amount of woodchips and compost to get something to plant in. And the grass always manages to poke through and take over anyway.So I take my trusty Meadow Creature Broadfork and turn over the sod. Then I add a layer of compost. I sow with a Milpa seed mix, and then cover with a light layer of woodchips.Milpa Seed – Buy or Mix Your Own SeedWhat is Milpa? It is a mix of seeds, usually with the Three Sisters - corn, squash, and beans - as the core plants. Beans to add nitrogen, corn to provide structure, and squash to grow up the corn or out. Milpa also has other seeds, with a focus to grow as much food as possible on a small garden plot. It sometimes can have buckwheat, okra, cucumbers, greens, radishes, or anything that you want.The idea is to spread out the harvest through the seasons as well.I mix my own mix of Milpa seeds:Grazing corn or Strawberry corn - something that is shorter. Mix it lightly.Red ripper cowpeas, which work well in heavy clay soil.BuckwheatCucumbersSquash that I have leftover or I get from a Spring seed swap.Pollinators.You will get a dominant crop based on when you plant. If you plant early in the Spring, the buckwheat and beans will be dominant and the squash will be shaded out. If later in the season (late May, early June) then the squash will become dominant.By using this technique you can create a new garden bed with minimal effort, avoid using cardboard, and get an abundant crop in the first year (even with poor clay soil). At the end of the season chop and drop the chaff from the buckwheat and beans to mulch for the Winter.Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/milpa-garden-bed.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry cuttings are still available but Hurry before they come out of dormancy. Now have pecan seedlings and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Check out the Companion Planting Guide on AllGardenAdvice.com

You don't hear this permaculture message very often: Start Simple. Usually people are watching videos of Geoff Lawton and planning swales and dams and grafting, and...Cormac Harkin of Vine Permaculture starts his consults with basic questions:What do you like to eat?What kind of time do you have during the week to devote to a garden. (if you spend 8 hours a week on a garden, where does that time come from?)When you walk out to your garden, what does it look like?He starts people out simply, with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and then add on from there. A salad garden by the back door with cut and come again lettuce. A kitchen garden. A layout that makes sense: You walk out to the chicken coop to get eggs - what gardens or beds can you harvest from on the way?Cormac does a Free Food Forest Abundance planning session as well. Contact him at cormac@vinepermaculture.com.Subscribe to the Vine Permaculture Newsletter.Check out the Vine Permaculture Podcast at https://vinepermaculture.com/podcast/Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/start-simple.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees: Elderberry cuttings are still available but Hurry before they come out of dormancy. Now have pecan seedlings and red mulberry seedlings. At GrowNutTrees.com.Times are tough. How many feet of potatoes and how many potato plants would you need to live off your garden? Thriving Garden Planner spreadsheet can help you. It also has a tab to track how much money you saved by growing your own food. Last year I grew 14 pounds of tomatoes, which would have cost me $50 in the store. It's on sale for $10 at ThrivingGardenPlanner.com.

Joseph Lofthouse is the author of Landrace Gardening: Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination.Landrace gardening is adapting crops to your land and climate, and then saving seeds, while also selecting for the best flavor, color, and pest and disease resistance.Joseph lives in the high mountains of Utah - a mountain valley with cold air coming down out of the mountains, yet sun almost every day in the Summer, and low humidity. He grows for the farmers market and for himself and friends, and with a shorter season and these conditions he had difficulty growing warm weather crops.Seeds have a memory and they "remember" where the plants grew and the seed was saved.Heirloom crops did not grow for Joseph because the seed was from far away and not grown in his climate. Hybrids had low germination rates and did not thrive because they did not like the conditions and the plants that they were saved from were used to lots of inputs.He saw 80% of the crops that he planted die. He saved the seeds from the ones that survived and planted the next generation. And it only takes about three generations for the crops to get really happy about growing at his place.He next selected for flavor and color, and even selected plants that were raccoon resistant (!).Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/landrace-gardeningGet Joseph's Landrace Gardening book hereIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Gear that I use and recommend: Meadow Creature Broadfork 14 - I have used this to turn over sod for new Milpa garden beds, and even hand dug swales with it. Bulletproof. https://amzn.to/4c7Dhve

A lot of people are talking about Civil War lately. There is even a big budget movie coming out in April 2024 that depicts CW2. In the movie trailer a guy in camo points a rifle at the main characters, journalists, and says, "What kind of American are you?"That clip from the movie trailer has become a meme online, especially on Twitter. "What kind of American are you?" seems to be the theme of 2024.Cyprian (aka Vin Armani) and I talk about the ramifications of this and talk about it from an Orthodox Christian perspective.The Invisible EnemyFor totalitarianism to come into power you must have an Invisible Enemy.In 2020, Trump called Covid the "Invisible Enemy".Who is the Invisible Enemy today? For the Left, it is White Supremacy. It's the white guy with a rifle asking, "What kind of American are you?"For the Right, it's Trans people or "illegals". What about the homeless and the poor - are they the Invisible Enemy?Fear of the Invisible EnemyThe fear of the Invisible Enemy is fueled by social media, especially Twitter. You get more Likes and Views when you scare people with it. This pattern of declaring someone (or specific people or groups) as an Invisible Enemy and then declaring (social or real) war against it usually happens right before a big upheaval, and usually leads to some form of totalitarianism. Examples in the 20th Century are many: Germany, Russia, China. The Real Civil War is Within You. What are YOU going to do?Positive solutions to face your own personal Civil War:Pray. Pray for humility and discernment. Avoid the mind virus trap of thinking of groups of people as the Invisible Enemy. It never ends well.Give.We discuss: do you give to the homeless person if he will likely spend it on drugs?If you have an issue with this: How about asking his name? Greeting him with his name would be acknowledging him as human being.How about having a meaningful conversation? "The rich exist for the sake of the poor. The poor exist for the salvation of the rich.” - St. John Chrysostom.Read the daily Lives of the Saints. Their strength in trials and persecution will be a guide and model for you as you face the same. Because it is coming. (Didn't you learn anything from Covid?!)You may think you are winning. You don't think it will happen to you, but someone will be asking you, "What kind of American are you?" and you likely won't fit their definition.Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/civil-warIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Gear that I use and recommend: Meadow Creature 14 - I have used this to turn over sod for new Milpa garden beds, and even hand dug swales with it. Bulletproof. https://amzn.to/3V988kO

Positive Solutions in a Tough Labor MarketYou are in a social gathering, like church or some other social function, and the question comes up: "What do you do?" (for a living). How do you respond?Most people answer: "I am (this role) at XYZ company". But what is that really saying?You have boxed yourself into a role. And you (perhaps inadvertently) declared your allegiance to your current company. It is better to say: "I am a (role), currently working at XYZ company." This is subtle, but it leaves the door open. I have seen a person react with, "oh we have an opening at my company", or "my relative has been looking for that role at his company". That works for project managers and it also works for all jobs in a tight labor market.This is also why the recommended career advice is to change your LinkedIn profile title from your role at XYZ company (which is the default) to your role built into a one-line hook (like a one-line elevator speech).Not only the "what I do", but also the "where"“Where you are is more important than who you are.” - Wendell BerryYou are greater than the sum of your parts.Write down all of the ways you would describe yourself to a new person that you have met - if you were initiating the conversation. Most likely, you would not start with your job title.Positive Solutions in a Tough Job MarketOwn your own career.Get training and stay at a job that is providing opportunities. Change jobs for better opportunitiesKeep the mindset that this may be temporary. Be prepared for adversity, but don't be ruled by the fear of it. Prepping is necessary to offset downturns and adversity.Your mindset is everything.You know stuff. You might not think it is all that much. You could even lay out the steps to do it. But someone will pay you to do those steps instead of doing it themselves.Establish your authority by doing.It has never been easier to outperform someone by doing. It's Proof of Work.Go beyond the hobby. Run it like a business.This is my side hustle formula:Dream, Plan, BuildBuild in Public, releasing often.Measure the outcome. Pivot if necessary.Tweak. Repeat.Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/you-are-not-defined-by-your-job-titleIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Check out How to Pick Your Homestead Property series on Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.com

In this episode, John McCoy and I discuss creating content and building your own brand.John McCoy is a freelance blogger and owner of JustEnoughSEO.com. John was on Ep. 75 - How to Reinvent Yourself as Freelancer."Time is the most precious asset that I have. And I decided that my time needed to go into building my own brand, not their brand. Numero uno comes first."Surfer SEO app (and most SEO tools) prod you to game the search engines by keyword stuffing and doing things that make it machine readable but not user friendly.As John says in his pinned tweet:"You are creating content for human beings and optimizing it for machines. Don't forget who you are writing to."We share our takes on ChatGPT one year later: You can easily tell that something is written in ChatGPT or other AI tools. It either talks around the topic, or it is overly effusive and the emotion is contrived and not believable.Tip: If you can write well, you can outdo AI. There is an ever-increasing market (at least for now) for human written content. Many blogs are selling the fact that their content is written by humans rather than machines."If you are worried about AI taking your job, maybe you should spend your time getting better at what you do."And many more tips on SEO and optimizing your content.Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/build-your-own-brandIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Check out How to Pick Your Homestead Property series on Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.com

You're looking for a side hustle. What if you could buy a mini business that already has a website created for you?Flippa is an auction site to buy websites. It is similar to eBay - everything is an auction.There are two types of sites on Flippa: Startup site: This site does not have any traffic, or very little. It does not have any significant income. Established site: This has been running for some period of time. It usually has some traffic to the site and it may or may not have monthly revenue or income. Mindset:Do you want to own the business? Do you want to flip the business? Like build it up a little bit, improve it a little bit, and then flip it?Or do you want to use a domain name for something else? Monetization:Usually through AdSense ads or affiliate sales - Amazon, or your fave affiliate or partner. May also sell e-books, courses, training, or services.AI:Would you, in good conscience, spin up a side hustle website with AI content just so you can make bank with affiliate marketing?The pros and cons of using AI.Most sites have some AI content."Google favors content written in a way that illustrates first-hand knowledge of a topic" - John McCoy.Real world examples:All Garden Advice:Startup site (no traffic or revenue) - Garden blog site with great graphics.And another Startup Garden site - Garden Guide with a nice layout that sells e-books.Some of the problems that I ran into: Read the fine print! Do you really own the content and the website assets? Do you get those assets with the purchase? Do you “own” them or is it just a license? Can you use those assets somewhere else?Will the seller clone the website with a different domain name and resell the same content (competing with you)? And how many other sites have this same layout and content? - this is a common occurrence. Established site - ask yourself:Can I do better than this?Can I write content better than this?Can I create a better looking site? (or spin up a similar site in this niche)?Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/flippa-sidehustleIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Check out How to Pick Your Homestead Property series on Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.com

Tips on Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet and other ways to deal with Hashimoto's - from our own personal experiences.Ryan Mitchel Brown joins me to talk about Hashimotos Autoimmune Disease, AIP Diet.I have Hashimoto's Autoimmune Disease - where the body attacks the thyroid.Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid disease leading to progressive damage and inflammation of the thyroid gland. The resulting damage from Hashimoto's prevents the thyroid from producing adequate levels of thyroid hormones, It originally presents with hypothyroid symptoms - extremely tired, weight gain, sometimes muscle cramps.Just treating the hypothyroid symptoms with thyroid medicine did not help very much. I struggled many years with it and then took a Functional Medicine approach with a lab workup (showed high TPO (thyroid antibodies) and messed up values that were not being treated by the regular thyroid meds.AIP DietMost of us have some form of inflammation, and many of us are allergic to some of the foods that we are eating.The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet has helped me in the past. This is an elimination diet where you cut out and grains, legumes, dairy, nightshades (peppers and potatoes), sugar, carbs (including pasta) and other things that may cause inflammation, for at least a month. Then add back in foods, one at a time, to determine what you may have issues with.It is also to see what clears up. Often your IBS-type symptoms, eczema, sinus issues, and other problems will clear up or improve.We also discuss supplements having good light therapy - blocking blue light as much as possible in the evening by using blue blocking glasses or red lights.Let's face it - we were made to look at candles and firelight in the evening. These blue lights from LEDs, TVs, and phones are likely messing up our circadian rhythms.Disclaimer - We share our own personal experiences and should not be taken as primary medical advice. Please check with your medical or health practitioner.Lots more tips on the episode show notes -Episode website and show notes: https://thrivingthefuture.com/hashimotos-autoimmuneIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Ryan Mitchel Brown at https://ryanmitchelbrown.comGrow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Check out How to Pick Your Homestead Property series on Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.com

How to develop skills while doing your side hustle.Toolman Tim and I talk about how to develop skills while doing your side hustle. Lots of side hustle tips in this episode!It was -46 in Canada in mid-January. What it is like living in a mobile home in -46. Note that Celsius and Fahrenheit merge at -40.Skills Over StuffPractice with your equipment when the weather is good. "You don't rise to the occasion, you fall to your level of training."Generator stories.Side hustles that you can start easily: Lawn aeration, cleaning windows, property management.Side Hustle Tips"The more someone pays for something, the less likely they are to complain about it.""Price by the job, not by the hour. If you price by the hour, the owner will constantly watch to see if you are on your phone."More of Toolman Tim:Toolman Tim on TwitterToolman Tim's WorkshopToolman Tim's Workshop on YoutubeEpisode website: https://thrivingthefuture.com/ToolmanTimIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Strong Roots resources at strongrootsresources.comGrow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Check out How to Pick Your Homestead Property series on Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.com

Clint from FAFO Farms shares how he started regenerative farming a little over a year ago using the Joel Salatin method, by rotationally grazing cows, chickens, and goats. They have a farmshare, providing raw milk to their members.When they were looking for land, their criteria was at least 20 acres, access to water or a creek, and fertile land for regenerative farming -no herbs or pesticidesRevitalize the soilRotational grazing cows, then chickens, then goats to break the parasite cycle.The War on FoodWe talk about how he inadvertently became the latest front in the War on Food, with people from Austin reporting him to the Health Dept for selling raw milk (although farmshares are perfectly legal in TX).Tips for New HomesteadersClint's tips for new homesteaders:Focus on one animal at a time.Don't get too many animals to start out with.Do your research on the animals.Clint had a very strange episode with a mushroom spore on his property that caused his calf to get Overeating Disease and die.We also talk about raw milk and Clint's success with the carnivore diet.You can contact them at:Their farm website: FAFO Farms TXFAFOFarmsTX on TwitterEpisode website: https://thrivingthefuture.com/FAFOFarmsTXIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Strong Roots resources at strongrootsresources.comGrow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.NEW! Thriver.News is now Thriving News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThrivingNews.comWill Horvath of Permaculture Apprentice has opened up his ​Permaculture Farm Design Course and it is HALF price for the next week.​ Get it for $197 now through Jan-26. Check it out.

Tips on How to Handle Imposter Syndrome...and January.It's the doldrums of January. Christmas has passed. Deer season is over and I didn't get a deerAlthough I love the snow. I can't do anything when it's zero degrees outside and 25 mph wind like it is today. After shoveling 2 foot snow drifts on 60 feet of driveway, it has now drifted over again.Like many of you, I'm starting to get the seed catalogs and I'm starting to plan my garden, even though I really need to stay in the moment and embrace this season.We live in a world where we want permanence, but we buy stuff that breaks - and we do it on purpose.So this episode is about how to Embrace the Suck.(military slang) To consciously accept or appreciate something that is extremely unpleasant but unavoidable.And even though I've been at this for two years, I still struggle with Imposter Syndrome once in a while. So what is Imposter Syndrome? It's especially affects entrepreneurs. It's that self-doubt. It's that thinking: “you're not good enough”.It's thinking that “I'm not an expert and I feel like I'm going to get called out on it.”Way back in episode 11, we did an episode on Imposter Syndrome.Here are some tips on how you can Embrace the Suck, whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're not:Look back and on your wins and celebrate them.Embrace the Suck and learn from your losses. A lot of the times the losses are just bad timing. Or it means that you need to tweak something, you need to adjust, you need to change.Ask yourself - "what can I learn from this?"If you're an entrepreneur, diversify. We are all stuck in a one-income mindset and that's not how it works. In a side hustle, that's not how it works. In entrepreneurship, you need to have multiple income streams.And the best tip is to Rest. And at this time, where it's the downtime, the doldrums of January: Plan. Everybody thinks that the nursery guy or the farmer are sitting around doing nothing at this time of year. But if you talk to anyone, like Akiva Silver from Twisted Tree Farms, they're doing planning and they might use this time to also do marketing and write a book. They're doing something, they're not just sitting around. Sure it's not as busy as summertime, but it has a season, it has a place.Free your mindset - Turn Off the BS.Episode website: https://thrivingthefuture.com/januaryIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Strong Roots resources at strongrootsresources.comGrow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Thriver News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise at ThriverNews.comWill Horvath of Permaculture Apprentice has opened up his ​Permaculture Farm Design Course and it is HALF price for the next week.​ Get it for $197 now through Jan-26. Check it out.

With Brendan from Posterity CiderworksBrendan from Posterity Ciderworks tells stories of how he finds neglected heirloom apple trees on long forgotten homesteads in California and uses them in his cider.His adventures are like watching an apple treasure hunt reality show.Quince - the Homesteaders Secret -Did you know that heritage homesteads had 1 or 2 Quince trees - to be used to create pectin for jams and jellies - before store bought pectin.Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/posterity-ciderIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Cider from Posterity Ciderworks.Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, elderberry cuttings, comfrey crowns, adapted to the Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Thriver News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise. https://Thriver.News.New 2024 Homesteading and Permaculture Bundle from Permies. 35+ e-books, courses, and videos. Forest Garden, Agroforesty, Community, Fermentation, and more! Plus 2 books by Nicole Sauce.

Homestead Padre and Grant Payne join me and we share our Christmas memories and traditions.Our memories are at times bittersweet.Christmas is a wonderful time of the year. For Homestead Padre and his family, their holiday season starts when eggnog becomes available in the store. They put their tree up in October. They also celebrate Hannukah.In Lawrence in NE Kansas, they light the Christmas lights on the evening of Black Friday. The fire department mock rescues Santa from the roof of the department store on Mass Street. (there is so much hidden meaning in that, but that is for another time).The Christmas lights are one of my favorite traditions. But they leave them up until Valentine's Day.We talk about the Foxfire Christmas book. The Foxfire books are a series of books that capture the oral history of the Appalachian folks during the Depression. “A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories and Traditions” is the book dedicated to Christmas memories and traditions.I have been reading this book aloud to my wife in the evenings this week. This book was so humbling. The families in the book were beyond poor. Many of the kids got only a stocking full of apples, one orange, a Brazil nut in the toe of the sock, and some candy. A home knitted pair of wool socks. Maybe one small toy, a comb, or a mirror. That was it. Yet they celebrated family. They seemed more solid and more happy than many of us today.They had gifts that they appreciated. (Whereas my daughter gives some of her kids' toys away to Goodwill so that they have room for the inevitable new presents).Christmas also can be bittersweet. You remember loved ones who have passed, and that loss is especially felt at Christmas. Homestead Padre and I also did not have very happy childhoods.Have a Merry Christmas and a Thriving New Year!Episode website: https://ThrivingtheFuture.com/christmas-memoriesIf you like this unique topic, shoot us a tip on Venmo @ThrivingtheFuture or CashApp $ThrivingtheFuture. Or join the Thriving Patreon at Patreon.com/ThrivingtheFuture.Sponsors:Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, elderberry, comfrey crowns, adapted to then Midwest. https://GrowNutTrees.com.Thriver News - Thriving Community News, without the Noise. https://Thriver.News.