Small Scale Life

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about taking a break by turning off social media and getting away from the noise.  Gary Vee recently said that the cell phone is the remote control of today’s society, and your activity on Social Media is nothing more than the reality shows of our current year.  Why not turn off social media, put the cell phone away and enjoy people and nature instead? Please go to Small Scale Life for links, more information and the text of the podcast,

Welcome to Spring 2018, everyone!  I hope your plants are growing and things are greening up in your neck of the woods.  It is almost time to get into the garden!  Before we start talking about that, I want to revisit Earth Day 2018, which occurred on April 22, 2018. That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?  During the week leading up to Earth Day, students hear a lot about recycling and green technology and love for the planet.  A few years ago, I started going to schools to teach students about plants and gardening during Earth Day Week and Arbor Day Week.  I wanted students to see gardening in a different light and get excited about growing their own plants! This podcast is quite a bit different than other podcasts because you get to be part of the crowd of kindergarten students as I teach them about gardening! As part of Earth Day Week, I wanted to make a real impact on students' lives.  A few years ago, I decided the best thing to do is to teach gardening and let students get their hands dirty and grow some plants.  This year, I went to a local elementary school and presented about the three basic elements needed for gardening: light, water and soil. For those of you who want to make a difference in a student’s life while helping the planet, my Earth Day Tip: Teach Gardening. To find out more or get a copy of the presentation, please visit Small Scale Life.

Are you stressed out about money? On a given Sunday night, do you dread going into the work the next day? If you are, you are not alone. A recent study created by mobile-banking company Varo Money reported that out of 1000 Americans polled, “a whopping 85 percent say they "sometimes" feel stressed about money, and a full 30 percent say they're "constantly" stressed about their finances.” That is really amazing! What can you do about this? How about generating some additional income through a lifestyle business online? It is May Day, and in a celebration of capitalism, I am thrilled to have Kevin Geary as my guest today for a second time on Small Scale Life. This time, Kevin Geary and I discuss how to start a lifestyle business that allows you to put some of that stress at ease by earning extra income while charting your own destiny from almost anywhere on this planet. Kevin has started various online businesses over the years, and he has learned some critical techniques to target your niche audience and ultimately sell more of your products and/or services. For more information, links and the show notes, please see Small Scale Life Kevin Geary can be found at Six Figure Grind and Rebooted Body If you would like to join the Make It Stick Master Class and support Small Scale Life, please use the following link: https://academy.rebootedbody.com/makeitstick/?affiliate=smallscalelife

This morning I received a message on Instagram from Scott Hebert asking me when Michael Bell from Half Acre Farm was going to be back on the podcast.  It has been a while since the first BellCast (Season 3 Episode 5) in January, and a lot has happened!  Fortunately for all of us, Micheal Bell returns to the Small Scale Life Podcast to discuss progress at his urban farm in Dallas, Texas. Michael and I discuss a number of topics including the great weather in Texas right now (and the crappy weather in Minnesota), what he has planted and some of his profitable urban farming strategies. Michael is using some really interesting and simple marketing techniques to develop business opportunities and increase his urban farming operation.  As you will hear, he is employing techniques with great success! Michael feels that there are a lot of growth opportunities for profitable urban farming in the future, and he provides some positive encouragement to those who might be considering an urban farm as a side business. Topics Discussed on the BellCast: Profitable Urban Farming Micheal Bell and I discussed the following topics in this podcast: Welcome Back to the Show Texas weather Minnesota weather What’s Growing on the Farm? Tomato varieties Peppers Squash and zucchini Greens Onions Radish Beets Tomato Tips Septoria Leaf Spot Pruning Tomatoes Watering - low and slow Marketing and Customers for Profitable Urban Farming Instagram Strategy Telling the story How to sell a superior product Vegan Body Builder - YouTube Video Try to get restaurants for the Summer Start Profitable Urban Farming: 100 families = $100,000 Community Building Other farms are starting in the area, but there is a big market Rose Creek Farm Singing Frogs Farm Scott Hebert at Flavourful Farms Opportunities to collaborate and work together Diego Footer's Farm Small; Farm Smart Podcast Connect with Michael Bell on Instagram Putting It All Together As Michael stated, you can start profitable urban farming using simple techniques: connecting with people who are looking for great tasting, fresh produce in your area using Instagram. By starting small, you can focus on your client’s needs and share you story as you sell your produce.  As Curtis Stone has said on many occasions, your customers want to share your story with others, and once you sell your produce, customers will share their experience with others.  Michael experienced that very thing with the ladies who spent time at the farm and essentially sold his product to the whole office! You can do this, and there are people out there that can help!  We will continue to explore these topics with Michael in future BellCasts!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. Here is a question for you to ponder: would you be ready to drop everything and go if opportunity knocks?  If you are, you might have an opportunity of a lifetime.  This episode is all about the lessons learned from a local accountant turned Superman for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Those lessons are the following: Learn as much as you can. Get busy working on your passions. Grow your skills.  Connect with others. Always be ready to jump on opportunities. When you get your shot, perform like you mean it and have some fun to get it done! In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you?  I am Tommy Cakes.  Who am I?  I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things.  Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Sorry for last week; I was called out on business and had to get some things done.  The good thing is: we have a great story this week that should inspire you and push you forward.  Before we begin, here is a question for you to ponder: Would you be ready to drop everything and go if opportunity knocks?  Story Time – Be Ready Player One Somewhere in Middle America, an ordinary guy found himself under the lights of a big game in front of thousands of fans and the press.  The pressure was on: the game seemed to be in hand since the home team was ahead by four points.  However, the backup to the starting player had just developed cramps and had the leave the game. It was up to our hero to finish the game and help his time to a win. The hero of this story is an accountant by day; he is not a professional player at all.  In fact, years ago he played college hockey, and now he plays as goalie in a recreation league at night. Like some other local backup goalies, our hero usually sat near the press box, eating free food and waiting “on-call” as an emergency backup in case the professionals couldn’t finish a game.  It was unlikely that the accountant would be called in to play.  It was an easy gig: eat food, watch the game, root for his home team.  What’s not to love? As he was a block away from the arena, our hero was alerted that he might have to be ready to play.  If something happened, it was up to our everyday accounting hero to come off the bench, put on his helmet and finish the game. On this night, however, the starts, sun and moon aligned.  The starting goalie was out with an injury, and the backup left the game with cramps.  The head coach leaned over and told accountant Scott Foster, “Put your helmet on; you’re in.” The accountant Scott Foster played fourteen and a half minutes as a Blackhawk goalie against the Jets. He blocked shots, and he won the love of Blackhawks fans.  At the end of the game, he helped secure the victory, was celebrated by fan and player alike, and entered his name into the storied Chicago Blackhawk history and lore. Midweek Motivation Lesson: Be Ready Player One Life takes unforeseen twists and turns sometimes. If you aren’t ready, you can miss opportunities when they present yourself.  Always remember: Learn as much as you can. Get busy working on your passions. Grow your skills.  Connect with others. Always be ready to jump on opportunities. When you get your shot, perform like you mean it and have some fun to get it done! After all, you never know when someone will turn to you and say, “Ready Player One?  Put on your helmet; you’re in!” Always be ready! That’s all I got this week.  This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week!  Bada boom, bada bing! Sources The source of this story was theathletic.com and the source of the cover art Dennis Wierzbiki and USA Today Sports. Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast.  You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing!  Dat's how we do it!

In Season 3, Episode 14, we had a very special guest for our 80th episode: my wife Julie. We had a great discussion about the 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life, and you, the listeners, responded!  We had 1000 downloads of this podcast, and we had a lot of engagement from the audience.  Julie wanted to come back to build on that podcast, and in this episode, we are coming back to discuss one of the 5 steps in more detail.  We are going to discuss how to declutter to make a simple and intentional life. Topics Discussed on this Episode Julie and I discussed the following topics on this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast. Julie is back on the show! 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life Hey Mom and Dad, we don’t want your stuff Four generations are practicing Minimalism in the current year: Greatest Generation, Boomers, GenX and Millennials “Right-Sizing,” Trendies and Millennial Nomads Dave Ramsey and the 2008 Collapse “Working very hard to earn money to pay for houses we can’t afford and impress people we don’t like” Expectations, time preference and delayed satisfaction Learning from the Crash of 2008 Julie’s Work to Declutter the Basement Declutter the basement over the weekend Clear it out and start fresh before you begin more projects 5 Steps to Declutter Determine your timeline and formulate your strategy Create 4 bins to sort items as you purge For items in the “Give” bin, take them immediately to your car For items in the “Keep” bin, ask yourself two questions Does it serve a purpose? Does it bring you joy? For items in your “Undecided” bin, keep 1 month and revisit the bin. Make sure you keep the bin visible for the entire time.  IF you haven’t used or thought of the items in the bin, get rid of it! Once Decluttering is Complete.... Restock the shelves and drawers in an organized manner. Julie’s tip; “USE LABELS!” Question from the Audience "What was the biggest benefit you saw from the Minimalist Lifestyle Change?" - Jay Dolan Members of the Small Scale Life Facebook Group had a number of great questions, but they came in after the show was recorded. We will record a new show where we answer these questions, so if you have questions, please add them to the thread in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group or add them as a comment to this show on smallscalelife.com. Friends of Small Scale Life Aussie Flame Weeders – My friend Mick at Aussie Flame Weeders is offering flame weeders to reduce your non-revenue producing workload. If you want to eliminate weeds from your garden beds, a flame weeder is an efficient way to do it.  I mean, who doesn’t want to burn pesky weeds with fire?  Mick’s flame weeders are perfect for 30 inch (80 cm) garden beds and feature five stainless steel burners, 16” wheels and an ergonomic design that carries a propane tank so you don’t have to.  Even if you don’t purchase a flame weeder, sign up on the Aussie Flame Weeder e-mail list to get access to videos and information. Gnarled Knot Design - From the Land of Illinois, our good friends Phil and Jen love to create furniture and home décor items to make your house feel like a cozy home. Since they were running out of space in their own home, they decided to share our items with others. So, if you are looking for customized and personalized furniture, signs or other items, connect with Phil and Jen at Gnarled Knot Design on Facebook, Instragram or Etsy. Connect with Phil and Jen today!

Houston, we have a problem! We have spindly, weak leggy seedlings that are barely strong enough to hold themselves up! This will result in fragile plants that are susceptible to disease. Luckily, Houston Control has a simple solution. The cure for leggy seedlings is direct, long and low light, and the best way to achieve those conditions are introducing grow lights for indoor plants. This week I have been fielding some questions in various Facebook Groups about Starting Seeds Indoors, and some folks are having some trouble with leggy seedlings and wondering how to fix the problem. In this post, video and podcast, I will discuss how I set up grow lights for indoor plants and starting seeds indoors. The stand that supports my grow lights is simple, very stable and costs under $15. What are Leggy Seedlings? The picture above was from a failed experiment that I conducted in 2016. I germinated this group of tomato seedlings by putting a black tray on top of the tray with the soil, and after four days added light. While I had good initial germination, you can see how "leggy" these seedlings were on Day 4. Is is a problem because long, spindly ("leggy") seedlings are more fragile than their stocky counterparts. The do not hold up in windy conditions, and if you let them grow too tall, they will flop over under the weight of their own leaves. Leggy seedlings are created by a lack of light. The plants accelerate growth in order to reach the light, any light, in their growing area. This can occur when a gardener plants seedlings and sets the container near a window or if the container is too crowded, and the seedlings are competing for light. This is a common problem for gardeners who are trying to start seeds indoors. You can correct this problem by adding an oscillating fan (tricking the plant by simulating wind) or adding grow lights for indoors plants. Grow Lights for Indoor Plants I recommend gardeners use grow lights for indoor plants unless you have a greenhouse that gets fantastic sun for 14-16 hours a day (which is one of my goals)! As I mentioned in other articles, I use inexpensive grow lights from Menards. In Menards-speak, they call these T12's "aquarium lights," but technically they are Sylvania 40-watt T12 Gro-Lux Fluorescent Light Bulbs, and you can find them in the Electrical Department. The lights cost around $10 per bulb, and I put them in inexpensive shop lights (the lowest cost ones I can find). All in all, two bulbs and one shop light will cost you around $30, and that will be more than enough for two plug trays (or 188 plants if you use the plug trays I am using this year). Grow Light Stand In the past I used the brackets of the shelving units to hang the grow lights for indoor plants. Moving to the wider workbench eliminated that possibility. While I have used PVC pipes and fittings to build grow light stands in the past, I found that unless you cemented them together, they fell apart. It is not ideal when your grow lights crash down on your tender seedlings! I decided to use lessons learned from gardening in St. Louis Park when I hung the grow lights from the shelves. I fabricated brackets that plugged into the pre-drilled holes in the shelving units, and then used PVC pipes with eye hooks to hang the lights over the seedlings with chains. That simple system allowed me to adjust the height of the lights as the plants grew taller. I knew I had some wood in the garage, so I went foraging. I found the 1" PVC pipes with the eye hook holes from St. Louis Park (yay for not throwing these away)! That was a win. I also found a 4' long 2x4 and a 2' long 1x3. I decided to make the base out of these boards. Using these pieces of wood, I made the following parts using a skill saw and my trusty drill: 2 - 12" base boards made out of 1x3's 2 - 18" vertical boards made out of 2x4's 2 - 14" horizontal boards made out of 2x4's Using screws I had on had, I put the two "sideways goalposts" together. I added a "L" bracket to the 12" base to give the stand more stability. As you can see in the video, the grow light stand is very stable. I added the two PVC pipes to the stand by using metal strapping typically used in plumbing projects. I cut 4 6" pieces and screwed them to the top of the stand. Sliding the PVC pipes in, the whole stand got that much more stable. The beauty of this system is that it is easy to construct, is inexpensive and can easily be moved if we have a project that requires using the workbench. Putting It All Together - Grow Lights for Indoor Plants The final stand - March 2018Gardeners get excited to start planting seeds in the Spring, especially after a long winter. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and plant the seeds before we are ready. This can result in seeds popping through the soil and growing before we have adequate light for them. The result are leggy seedlings that could collapse under their own weight! To avoid leggy seedlings, you must do the following: Add an oscillating fan to simulate wind and trigger the plants to thinken their stems Add grow lights for indoor plants to provide direct, long and low light to your tender seedlings. I have successfully used inexpensive Sylvania 40-watt T12 Gro-Lux Fluorescent Light Bulbs from Menards and have had excellent results. I will have to try LED Grow Lights some day when I have some extra dollars in the budget, but this is working for me now. To support the grow lights and shop light housing I constructed a simple stand consisting of PVC pipes, scrap wood, straps, some screws, eye hooks and two L brackets. The grow light stand is stable, inexpensive and mobile. If you are looking for a solution for your leggy seedlings, forage in your garage and head on over to a nearby big box store. You can get very creative and provide ample light for indoors plants! If you want to see a video of this stand and the seedlings, go to the smallscalelife.com for pictures or see the video at the Small Scale Life YouTube Channel for more information. Let me know what you design and build. I am really curious what designs you develop for your plants! Thank You That’s about all for this post and podcast. I hope you found that reviewing top seed sources was useful and helpful. If you have comments or questions, please leave them as a comment to this post on Small Scale Life, use the Contact Us page, or send me an e-mail at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com. Thank you again for listening to the Small Scale Life Podcast and visiting smallscalelife.com. We appreciate you and your time. Our wish for you is that you remove some of that stress in your life and live simply this week. This is Tom from Small Scale Life, and we’ll see you next time! Take care, everyone!

Welcome to Spring 2018!  Believe it or not considering it was snowing on the first day of Spring. It is only a matter of time before we can get into the yard and get into the garden.  Before you can do that, you need to plant seeds and grow some seedlings!  In this post and episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss setting up an indoor gardening area and starting seeds indoors for spring gardens. Have you planted seeds yet?  I did on St. Patrick’s Day, and I have some great news to share with you about that! Introduction – How to Start Seeds Indoors for Spring Gardens If you have been following along over the past few weeks, we have been going through the general process for preparing for the 2018 Gardening Season.  We have done the following steps so far: Developed a garden plan – Developed a list of plants we want to grow) Ordered your seeds – Selected a reputable seed vendor and purchased seeds for our garden. While there are many seed vendors out there, I focused on four big vendors that members of the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Group use most often. Finally!  It is the moment of truth!  It is time to stop thinking and start doing!  I grabbed my seeds and some soil and got ready to get down to business…. Not so fast! Before I could start planting seeds, I had to some additional planning and prep work. Setting up the Indoor Growing Area Part of my planning and preparation work was to select an area in the house to grow seedlings.  In our previous house in St. Louis Park, I grew seedlings on two shelves in a cold and dark basement.  I discussed how I started seeds and some lessons learned after have some failures over the past few years in the following articles (on smallscalelife.com): How to Garden Indoores 8 Steps to Starting Plants Indoors Lessons Learned from Growing Indoors Four Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds For the 2018 Gardening Season, I had to find a new space to plant seeds and grow seedlings.  While I knew I would be regulated to the basement, it was a much different situation in this house in Minneapolis.  The basement is not as warm as the upper level, but it isn’t as brutally cold and dark as the St. Louis Park house.  I attribute that to the fact that half of the basement is insulated and finished, and that does help retain the heat!  Having more heat retained in the basement should help with germination, and I am hoping that having a warmer basement reduces the potential for damping off disease! I had to select my indoor growing area, and it really came down to three choices: the built-in near the television, the bar area or the workbench near the furnace.  I would not be able to use a shelf in this house simply because we have gear and things on all of our shelves.  We just do not have the extra shelf space! The biggest concern I had as I was evaluating each location was the availability of power (for grow lights, heating pads and a timer) and the impact on other basement users (like my son and wife Julie).  Each spot had power, so really it came down to finding a spot that would be out of the way and not bother anyone. The best spot was the workbench near the furnace.  While losing the workbench for potential projects is not ideal, it is important to remember that I would only need part of the workbench until mid-May.  What could possibly go wrong?  Besides, if we needed to use the workbench, everything can be moved quickly. Of course, that might mean that the trays go on top of the freezer, but I would only use it temporarily (I promise, Jules). The workbench is 27 inches wide, and that easily beats the narrow 18-1/2 inches on the St. Louis Park shelves.  In case you are wondering: yes, in this case, size does matter!  The extra width easily accommodates both seed trays in a side-by-side configuration on the workbench. On the shelves, I had to use scrap pieces of plywood to get over the lip of the shelf to get the trays to sit side-by-side.  This is much, much better! Equipment Needed Part of getting your equipment might include buying soil and seeds - March 2018 With seeds in my hand and a growing area selected, it was time to get my “equipment” out of storage in order to start seeds indoors.  My equipment consistec of the following: Seed trays 9x9 plug flats (or cells, as I like to call them) 5 gallon bucket or kitty litter bin (to hold the soil) Pro-Mix soil Heating pads Grow lights Timer Surge Protector Jumbo popsicle sticks or other labels for your seeds Most of these materials had been in storage for the winter.  I had to rummage around the garage to find what I needed, and then I realized that I had thrown away my 9x9 plug flats last season!  I had used these plug flats for a three seasons, and they were showing some age, wear and literal tears.  I wanted to get new plug flats, so I got rid of them. I went to the big box store and found that they did not have the 9x9 plug flats anymore.  I decided to pick up two McKenzie Pro-Hex Plug Flats instead.  They were relatively inexpensive: $5 per kit included a plug flat (72 plugs, tray and acrylic dome).  I would later throw away both of the domes (I feel they encourage damping off disease). On the same trip, I also picked up the Pro-Mix soil.  While I did pick up a package of Coir for the 2018 Soil Challenge, I wanted to have a more controlled experiment using smaller plug flats.  I also wanted the 2018 Soil Challenge to focus on the best soil for growing greens.  More on my thoughts and how I am going to conduct the 2018 Soil Challenge in a separate post! Armed with all of this gear and the seeds, NOW it was time to plant! Start Seeds Indoors: Time to Plant! Plug trays are loaded! St. Patrick's Day 2018 As I discussed in my Garden Plan, I want to plant at four distinct times this year.  I called these times “Stages.”  The first stage is early spring, right when the soil is starting to warm up.  There are plants that do well in those conditions, and I want to have a crop ready to put in the beds to take advantage of the season.  Plants that do well in the Early Spring Stage (when there are some cold nights) are: lettuce, spinach, Swiss Chard and green onions.  I added one more to my Early Season Stage: broccoli.  Most of these plants are quick-growing, and I decided to hold off from planting them on St. Patrick’s Day because I wanted to get the Late Spring Stage plants started. The Late Spring Stage plants are the vegetables and herbs that will be in the ground in mid-May and grow until late August.  These are the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, squash and herbs that are listed on my plan.  Because some of these plants take 80 days or more to for fruit to be ready, I wanted to get them started as soon as possible.  For other plants such as zucchini, squash, potatoes, green beans and cucumbers on the list, I will sow them directly into the beds or planters in May.  The real critical ones are the tomatoes, peppers and herbs, so that is where I wanted to begin. On a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day, I poured a drink, put on some music and started planting seeds in my new plug flats.  I had so much fun getting my hands in the dirt and planting over 144 vegetables and herbs on my potting table outside!  It was fantastic!  All in all, I planted the following: Cherry Tomatoes (2 rows) – planted with seed I saved San Marzano Tomatoes (3 rows) Opalka Roma Tomatoes (2 rows) Jalapenos (2 rows) – planted with seed I saved Red Bell Pepper (2 rows) – planted with seed I saved Pepperoncini (1 row) Banana Peppers (2 rows) Sweet Bell Peppers (1 row) Yellow Bell Peppers (2 rows) – planted with seed I saved Orange Bell Peppers (2 rows) – planted with seed I saved Dill (1 row) – seed I saved Basil (1 row) Oregano (1 row) Rosemary (1 row) Broccoli (1 row) I made sure to label the rows with jumbo popsicle sticks.  With three different varieties of tomatoes and seven different varieties of peppers planted, I did not want to make a mistake this year! Finally, I brought the trays inside, put them on the heating pads and added water to the trays.  I figured I had 7 days before I had to hook up the grow lights, so I started working on a system to support the lights when needed. Again, it does not need to be expensive, sophisticated or fancy; it just needs to work! I have something almost ready for prime time, but I figured I wouldn’t need the lights for a few more days, right? Putting It All Together It is time to get planting those seeds for your 2018 garden!  You don’t have to have the most sophisticated equipment or a greenhouse start seeds indoors.  If you are overwhelmed with this whole process, you can buy plants from the big box store, from a greenhouse, or from a friend, but it isn’t that hard if you break it down into the following steps: Developed a garden plan Purchase Seeds from a Reputable Vendor Purchase Some Equipment (i.e., soil, grow lights, timer, heating pads and trays) Put the soil in the tray and put the seeds in the soil Label everything Add water to the tray Put the trays under the grow lights and on the heating pads Wait! Now, you see Number 8 above?  Tom Petty was correct when he sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.”  However, if you do all of these steps right, you DO NOT have to wait long…. I went downstairs after dinner and looked at the seedlings. I was shocked: After 4 days, I have seedlings!  Tomatoes, basil and broccoli have punched through the soil. I guess there is something to this starting seeds indoor thing! This is great!  Of course, I need to finish the light system as soon as possible (which is now complete and operational), but I am very excited for this season.  It should be a great year!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week however, I will be completing the Midweek Motivation due to the seriousness of the topic and story. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, I am your normal host of the Small Scale Life Podcast: Tom Domres. I am doing this episode by request from Daniel from Ohio.  He is a Marine with time in Afghanistan under his belt. Thank you for your service, Daniel.  He asked me to read this story for Midweek Motivation, and after reading the article, I wanted to move forward with it.  In this day and age, we see a lot of people who are elevated to “hero status” for strange reasons and to fulfill agendas and narratives.  What does real sacrifice look like?  Two Marines who gave all in defense of their Band of Brothers in Iraq in 2008 show us what real sacrifice is, even in this modern era.  While you might not make the ultimate sacrifice for others, what can you do to help your family, neighbors and community around you? Story Time Daniel sent me a link to a story written by Geoffrey Ingersoll from the Business Insider in 2013.  The title for this piece is “Everybody should read General John Kelly’s Speech about Two Marines in the Path of a Truck Bomb.” As a dad to a combat veteran, this story hits home.  My son could have been one of these young men when he was deployed to Afghanistan.  I am going to read selected portions of this story for you, and I will provide a link to the original story in the show notes.  The link to the original story is here: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-kellys-speech-about-marines-in-ramadi-2013-6 Midweek Motivation Lesson: Sacrifice for Others Many of us will never find ourselves in a similar situation as Corporal Jonathon Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter.  These men gave the ultimate sacrifice for men they knew, and some they did not know. How can you apply this story to your own life? We live in a fast-paced and isolated world.  We are connected by apps and screens, but we really don’t know each other. It is time to stop connecting on screens and start connecting in real life.  Reach out, meet face-to-face and develop those relationships.  Help your friends and neighbors with a project, or invite them over to your house for dinner.  Lend them some support and give them encouragement.  Sometimes some folks just need a smile and some time to talk. While you might not make the ultimate sacrifice to stop a truck bomb for your family, neighbors and friends, you might be able to help them when times are tough, or even when they aren’t (to quote Jack Spirko). Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast.  You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing!  Dat's how we do it!  

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about adding fun to get stuff done (fun to done).  Many of us set goals and resolutions, only to fall apart or abandon them on Day 2.  Why is that?  Maybe the problem is that you relate your goals to dreadful toil and bloodletting instead of enjoying the process and having some fun!  In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you?  I am Tommy Cakes.  Who am I?  I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things.  Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life Introduction – Fun to Done This is a Late Week Motivation this week. What can I say?  Business has been good and keeping Tommy Cakes on the run.  This is a good thing: it means more stuff is happening and Tommy is getting paid!  Fortunately, I have some time to relax before I go to the lounge, so I am going to get this done for you! Many of us set lofty goals and resolutions with the best intentions.  We dream big and then make grand announcements to all of our family and friends.  We say things like, “This time is different; I am ready.  This is my chance to change!  My goal is X!” We see this all the time at the start of a new year.  As we talked about in Episode 13, we concoct all kinds of goals and resolutions, and by the end of January, 64% of us have stopped trying.  By March 1st, 80% of us have dropped off.  Haven’t you noticed it at the gym, pool or in the sauna recently?  There are a lot less waiting for a machine, a lane or bench space for the gun show to begin. Why is that? Goals and Resolutions Don’t Work We have the best intentions when we start with our big goal and resolutions.  We don’t intend to fail.  We want change, but then something happens. Psychologically, we associate goals and resolutions with pain, misery and drudgery.  Who wants to be miserable eating kale when you can have some fantastic lasagna, red wine and cannoli? We see this with people trying to lose weight.  They set a goal, and then they think the quickest way to get to done is to start running, yet they can hardly walk around the block.  After two days of jogging, they are so sore they can’t even move!  This destroys motivation, and then the poor person gives up.  Kevin Geary talked about this in an interview here on Small Scale Life.  Michael Bell also talked about this during his discussion about fitness and weight lifting in Season 2, Episode 25. Midweek Motivation: Fun to Done Instead of pushing a massive bolder up a steep hill, we all need to rethink our goals and resolutions and inject the fun to done mentality into our everyday lives. Why not?  The project or work needs to get done somehow! Instead of hating to eating kale or broccoli, why not add a little butter to it? Instead of running or jogging, why not go for a hike in a beautiful place or walk with your spouse or the dog? Notice I did not equate the two! Instead of swimming laps in a pool, why not swim with your kids or in a lake? Instead of working out in a stale, sweaty gym, why not work in the garden or yard? Inject the fun to done mentality into your goals and resolutions.  Make it an adventure or a journey.  Stop making it a miserable marathon of sweat, blood and tears.  Identify something you like to do and incorporate your goals into that activity.  You might find that you get things done AND have some fun while doing it.  After all, how do you think Tommy Cakes got on the air in the first place? That’s all I got this week.  Add some fun into your lives!  This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week!  Bada boom, bada bing! “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done” This episode was inspired by author Jon Acuff in his book “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.”  As a person who has “squirrel syndrome,” which is a trait of ENFP personality types, I have found that adding some fun into my work and my goals has helped me accomplish so many more things.  Why?  Because those fun things are so much more enjoyable to do and complete! Not everything is going to be fun.  Taxes are boring, painting a room is tedious and filing reports is downright dull.  However, you can overcome that and get things done. In the book (particularly Chapter 4), Jon Acuff has some great techniques for getting projects done and goals achieved.  I recommend you listen or read his book today!  It is actually a fun read!  Get after it, and add fun to done to your life! Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast.  You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing!  Dat's how we do it!

This is our 80th Episode!  Whoo hooo!  For this episode, we are shifting gears a bit on this episode, and you are going to get to learn a lot more about our story.  My guest and I (and other celebrities who stop by) are going to talk about going from high paying, fast-paced lifestyles to slower-paced, more simple lives with less stuff.  How does one achieve that? Where does one begin?  My guest and I have some ideas, and in this episode, we are going to discuss the 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life. In this episode, my wife Julie Domres is my special guest, and we discuss some of Before we get to that, let me ask you a couple questions: does your stuff stress you out?  Do all the materials, goods, and things in you house and garage give you a sense of dread or anxiety?  My guest and I are going to take you on a journey. Show Notes for 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life In this podcast, Julie and I discussed the following topics and links: Friends of Small Scale Life (see below) Gnarled Knot Design Nature's Image Farms Introductions Who is Julie? What has been happening the past couple weeks? Weekend to Remember Marriage Retreat - Family Life Moving Our Stuff Home Our Story  Moving Out and Storing Stuff Planting Our Flag in North Minneapolis Schemes and Ideas Decision Process and Finalizing "The Plan" Our Journey to Develop a Simple and Intentional and Life Survival Mode and Chasing Dollars Jobs, Kids and Life Minimalism - Learn, Do and Grow in Motion How did we find Minimalism? Tom - Local Author and Blogger Aaron Clarey - Captain Capitalism Website Julie - The Minimalism Documentary Going to see the Minimalists in Minneapolis (link to podcast of the event) Other Minimalists Josh Becker - Becoming Minimalist Colin Write - Exile Lifestyle Patrick Rhone - Minneapolis Author of "Enough" What does it mean to us? 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life Eliminating Clutter Reducing Time Commitments Reducing and Eliminating Debt Replacing Screens with Reality and People Defining What's Truly Important in Your Life Putting It All Together Key Topics, Thank You's and What's Coming Up

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. How many of you set your New Year’s Resolutions and gave it up already?  You need to keep going.  Results are not guaranteed, but you will be better off in the long run for trying. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you?  I am Tommy Cakes.  Who am I?  I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things.  Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life Introduction A lot of us get to the end of the year and we are excited to get a new slate and a new chance to do things different.  Many of us want to change something in our lives: Lose weight Get healthy Stop drinking Stop smoking Travel more Get ride of clutter Get organized Start a new business Others - yada yada yada How many of us set goals and resolutions for the New Year?  How many of us have already dropped by the wayside and punted on those goals? Statistically speaking, research has shown that 31 days after the first of the year, 64 percent of you have dropped your New Years Resolutions.  By March 1st, more than 80 percent of you have dropped those New Year’s Resolutions and goals.  You can see this at the gyms: the crowds that created standing room only and long wait times for equipment has eased up or evaporated completely. How many of you are like that?  Does one of these questions describe your state of mind: Do you get frustrated with your progress and results? Did you fall back into your same old patterns? Do you lack the time to put into this resolution? Do you lack a game plan for success? Did you forget the reason why you started? There are ways to break the chains of failure and defeat.  You can accomplish your goal successfully! 4 Tips to Keep Going It is tough to keep going, especially when times are tough.  Here are some ideas on how to keep motivated and making progress: Get a coach or accountability partner – Working with someone can help push and motivate you when you lose motivation. A good coach or accountability partner has your back and will keep you on task, even when times are hard.  After all, you don’t want to let that coach or accountability partner down! Start small; go low and slow – Too many of us go all out after we haven’t been doing something for a long time. Then we get really, really frustrated when change doesn’t happen or when you are sore.  Go low and slow, but do it consistently.  It will help with your recovery and motivation. Make it part of your daily routine – Block off some time every day to devote to your goal. Focus on that doing activities that get you closer to that goal during that time.  Do not get distracted by people or screens! Track your progress – Take notes and document your progress. It might not seem like you are moving a mountain initially, but when you look back after a month or a year, you will see how far you have come! Midweek Motivation Lesson: Keep Going Change is hard.  We are impatient creatures, and when results aren’t immediately seen, we throw up our hands and stop doing what we are doing. Keep going.  Keep pushing yourself.  You might be on the verge of a breakthrough, but you will never know if you give up.  Do the following things to keep going: Get a coach or accountability partner Start small; go low and slow Make it part of your daily routine Track your progress That’s all I got this week.  This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week!  Bada boom, bada bing! Sources Sources for today’s Midweek Motivation include: New Study Reveals How Long New Year’s Resolutions Usually Last 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by February — here's how to keep yours How long do people keep their New Year resolutions? Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast.  You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing!  Dat's how we do it!  

Now that you developed your garden plan, it is time to start planting seeds for our gardens! Yes! It is time! Before you plant, you need to buy your seeds (unless you saved some from last season), and there are a lot of options out there. It can be confusing and overwhelming. In this post and episode, I am reviewing top seed sources for your 2018 garden. The best part about this: I am using feedback from the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and Minnesota-Wisconsin Regenerative Agriculture Group about seed vendors you use! You, my dear friends, your story are part of the show! In case you are new to our podcast and blog, Small Scale Life is all about removing stress from our lives by living simply through: • Gardening, • Healthy living, and • Having adventures along the way We are thrilled you are here and listening to our show or reading our blog. That means a lot to us, and frankly we wouldn’t do this if you weren’t part of our Small Scale Life. Thank you so much! Before we begin this episode, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life: Friends of Small Scale Life • Aussie Flame Weeders – My friend Mick at Aussie Flame Weeders is offering flame weeders to reduce your non-revenue producing workload. If you want to eliminate weeds from your garden beds, a flame weeder is an efficient way to do it. I mean, who doesn’t want to burn pesky weeds with fire? Mick’s flame weeders are perfect for 30 inch (80 cm) garden beds and feature five stainless steel burners, 16” wheels and an ergonomic design that carries a propane tank so you don’t have to. Even if you don’t purchase a flame weeder, sign up on the Aussie Flame Weeder e-mail list to get access to videos and information. • Tommy Cakes – Midweek Mindset and the Small Scale Life Facebook Group Thank you to our friends of Small Scale Life. Remember: if you have a product or a service that you would like to be discussed on Small Scale Life, contact me at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com or use the contact us page on smallscalelife.com. Introduction – Seed Vendors As we roll through February, it is time to get planting seeds and getting our seedlings started. As you have been finishing up your Garden Plans, I am sure you are finding that you need some seeds! If you type “seed vendors” into Google, you will be overwhelmed with companies and vendors selling all kinds of heirloom and genetically modified seeds. Where do you buy your seeds? This was the exact question I asked the two groups I manage on Facebook: • Small Scale Life Facebook Group • MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Facebook Group I wanted to get the perspectives of urban farmers, homesteaders and gardeners. The great thing is that this is input from across the country (Small Scale Life Group) and locally in Minnesota and Wisconsin (MN-WI Group). I wanted to see if there might be differences in how small scale gardeners buy their seeds versus more commercial operations like Michael Bell’s Half Acre Farms or Scott Hebert’s Flavourful Farms. The results in each group are summarized below and will serve as the basis for reviewing top seed sources. Small Scale Life Facebook Group We had some good participation from group members, and I appreciate your thoughts and feedback in the poll and on my direct messages. Here is what the results are telling us: • Johnny Seeds is the clear leader for growers in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group. • Baker Creek is in second place with Seed Savers in a distant third place. • A few of our Small Scale Life members were very interested in saving their own seeds. Homesteader Greg Burns told me that his goal is to plant using saved seeds and not purchase any. New to gardening, Jacob Heinberg is starting his garden this year, and he is very interested in seed saving. While I won’t get into specifics in this post, I will have some posts about it in the near future. MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Group The MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Facebook Group is a smaller group composed of farmers, homesteaders and gardeners in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I wanted to set up a local network of people to replicate the Ohio Get Stuff Done Group, and there is a great group of people there. I plan to start meeting people in this group, but that is for another time. From the people that participated in this poll, we have the following results: • Seed Savers Exchange was the leader. • Burpee is second. • Saving your own seeds is in third place. Top Seed Vendors In order to help reviewing top seed sources, your humble correspondent went a little above and beyond and ordered seed catalogs from Johnny Selected Seeds, Baker Seed Company, Seed Saver Exchange and Burpee. I wanted to briefly review top seed sources from our polls and show the differences between their seed catalogs. While you can get a lot of information off each vendor’s website, seed catalogs provide a wealth of information about the seeds, produce or herbs, time to maturity, yield and some history about the origin of that particular plant or herb. One seed catalog provides specific information about resistance to certain blight (and that might be one of the reasons they are a leader). Johnny’s Selected Seeds Started in 1973, Johnny Selected Seeds is based in Maine and is 100% employee owned. They offer a variety of vegetable, herb, fruit and flower seeds. Johnny Seeds also offers a variety of tools and supplies for gardeners, market farmers and farmers. I am impressed by the information that Johnny Seeds has compiled beyond the description, days to maturity, what to expect at harvest and price options. The disease resistance information and germination guides are great! They also have some suggested planting program information for market farmers to follow during the “Stages” of the growing season. There is a lot to like about Johnny Seeds. What about cost? Johnny Seeds seems to be more expensive than other seed vendors; however, they offer seed packages for commercial producers (i.e., farmers). Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company printed its first seed catalog in 1998 when the owner was 17 years old. Baker Creek has three stores: Petaluma, CA; Mansfield, MO; Wethersfield, CT. They offer a variety of heirloom vegetable, herb, flower and fruit seeds, and if you are interested, they host events at their stores. Looking at their seed catalog, it is a straight-forward affair: history of the particular item, description of what to expect at maturity, days to maturity, amount in the packet (selected items) and price. Unlike Johnny’s, Baker Creek does not seem to have larger packages for commercial producers (i.e., farmers). What about cost? Baker Creek seems to be less expensive than Johnny’s Seeds and seems to be in the same range as Seed Savers Exchange and Burpee (depending on the item). Seed Savers Exchange Seed Saver Exchange started in 1975 and is based in Decorah, Iowa. They offer a variety of heirloom vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit. They promote their seed saving community and seed saving movement. Their seed catalog includes history of the particular item, description of what to expect at maturity, days to maturity, amount of seed in each option (all items) and price per seed option. Unlike Baker Creek, Seed Savers does offer some larger packages for more commercial operations. What about cost? Seed Savers seems to be less expensive than Johnny’s Seeds and seems to be in the same range as Baker Creek and Burpee (depending on the item). Burpee Burpee is big, and it is everywhere: Menards, Walmart, Home Depot, grocery stores, etc. Started in 1876, they are headquartered in Warminister, PA. They have vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruit, gardening supplies, seed starting supplies and lots of other items. Their seed catalog includes days to maturity, description of what to expect at maturity, amount of seed in each option (all items) and price per seed option. Burpee does not seem to have larger packages for commercial producers (i.e., farmers). It is a one-size-fits-all approach, and you can easily purchase their products at big box stores near you. What about cost? Burpee seems to be less expensive than Johnny’s Seeds and seems to be in the same range as Baker Creek and Seed Savers (depending on the item). What About Saving Your Own? Perhaps you don’t have the funds to spend on all these vendors. Times are tough for some, and there are ways to get gardening without breaking your bank. Seed saving is a great way to get your own seed collection started on the cheap. While I am not going to go into detail in this post about saving seeds, it is as easy as saving those pepper seeds in your bell peppers or jalapenos. Instead of composting them (and maybe growing vegetables and herbs in your compost pile), save the seeds from peppers, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables on a plate and let them dry out. Just make sure you label them or it could get messy! Saving tomato seeds is a little trickier. Tomatoes have a gelatinous membrane around the seeds, and you need to break that down by “fermenting” the seeds for a couple days. It isn’t hard, but I am planning to write a post about that. Of course, if you have a tomato you like, you can take a slice with seeds in it and plant it in soil. You will generate tomato seedlings! We will cover seed saving in another post. Other Seed Sources Be on the lookout for other sources of seeds. Some groups and organizations have seed exchanges and offer seeds. These can be great sources as well. The only potential drawback is that you might not get the particular variety you want, but you might get something unexpected! Putting It All Together After developing your Garden Plan for this year, it is time to purchase seeds. There are a lot of vendors out there, and it can be overwhelming to sort through all of them. The key is to use your Garden Plan to identify the seeds you need, and purchase your seed according to availability and price. Maybe you want to get your seed from one vendor that has them all? Perhaps you want to try a couple different vendors? Keep in mind that I only listed the big four from our poll. There are other vendors out there. You can save seeds from vegetables from the store or from your garden. That will save money and get you going this year, but you might not get the variety of tomato, pepper, bean or other vegetable you want. The benefits to saving your own are gaining that experience and saving money. Be on the lookout for seed exchanges or offers for free seeds. These can be ways to add to your collection. There is no right or wrong answer. The key is to get moving and collect your seeds because it is time to plant! That is next week’s topic! Thank You That’s about all for this post and podcast. I hope you found that reviewing top seed sources was useful and helpful. If you have comments or questions, please leave them as a comment to this post on Small Scale Life, use the Contact Us page, or send me an e-mail at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com. Thank you again for listening to the Small Scale Life Podcast and visiting smallscalelife.com. We appreciate you and your time. Our wish for you is that you remove some of that stress in your life and live simply this week. This is Tom from Small Scale Life, and we’ll see you next time! Take care, everyone!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about the lessons learned from the life of PT Barnum and the movie “The Greatest Showman.” There are some great lessons learned about friends, creativity and unstoppable drive from the life of PT Barnum, and Tommy Cakes tells you some of those lessons in his own unique way. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you?  I am Tommy Cakes.  Who am I?  I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things.  Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life   Introduction – The Greatest Showman In case you haven’t noticed, Midweek Motivation is a little different than your typical Small Scale Life post.  We get into some social and cultural commentary while I try to motivate you with some of that knowledge. In this show, we are going to focus on a movie that everyone is talking about.  The movie is good entertainment with some life lessons buried inside it. As you know, movies have depicted some interesting and uplifting characters that have done some truly remarkable things beyond wearing fancy clothes and impressive hats! Story Time The hero of this story started from humble beginnings as the son of a son of innkeeper, tailor and store-keeper.  Our hero was excellent at math but didn’t like physical work! From his first job as a shopkeeper, he moved up and eventually purchased a museum.  He added new attractions and transformed it to include: A lighthouse lamp that shown light down Broadway A strolling garden on the roof with a view of the city Giant animal paintings from the windows and Hot-air balloon rides that launched from the showplace daily. Over time and by adding exotic acts to his show, our hero met with the Queen of England, Czar of Russia and royalty across Europe. In just a few years, he owned several museums and had a draw of 400,000 people a year! Our hero lost his wealth in some bad business and real estate deals, and he spent four long years in litigation and public humiliation. His friends stood by his side and supported him, and eventually he gained momentum and created the US’ first aquarium and met with the President of the United States. Even after his museums burned down, our hero once again connected with friends and started a circus in Delevan, Wisconsin.  He had the first circus to move from town to town and across the country by train (and the first circus to own a train).  It was billed as the Greatest Show on Earth! After leaving the circus, our hero wrote books and became a politician, serving as a State Representative for four terms and later served the mayor of his town. Midweek Motivation Lesson: Friends, Creativity and Drive So what is the point of all this? Life is hard, and it knocks you down.  Things happen that don’t seem fair, and the odds can be stacked against you. We can learn from Phineas Taylor Barnum, the hero of our story and a distant relative of Julie Taylor Domres. When times were tough, PT Barnum's friends supported and helped him.  Even when the chips were down, PT Barnum used his creativity and relentless drive to push himself to new limits and new successes. What’s holding you back?  Get started making good friends and using your creativity and drive today.  We are waiting to help you, friend.  Reach out and take my hand. That’s all I got this week.  This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week!  Bada boom, bada bing! "The Greatest Showman" Recently Hollywood released a movie about PT Barnum called “The Greatest Showman.”  While there are a lot of things that are Hollywood fiction and narratives, it is an uplifting movie.  Tommy Cakes gives it two thumbs up, so go see it. After all, it takes an Upcoming Showman to know the Greatest Showman! For a taste of the energy of this movie, watch this pre-production video from "The Greatest Showman."  Throughout the movie and this clip, I kept waiting for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine moment, but we got something completely different and inspiring! I have to give my wife Julie credit, it was a good movie and had great energy (even though it did not match historical accounts).  By the way, my wife Julie IS a distant relative of PT Barnum (that is true), so you can see why she puts up with an amateur showman like yours truly. Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast.  You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing!  Dat's how we do it!

We have hit mid-February!  It is time to get planting seeds for our 2018 garden!  As many of you know, I have been starting seeds in my basement for a few years now.  I learn something new each year, and last year was no different.  Like everything in life, you learn the most from your failures, and I had a couple last year.  I am not afraid to admit it!  In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss Four Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds in my basement last year. Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!  I hope you had a great day yesterday and had some fun. Julie and I went to a winery in Waconia, Minnesota, for some wine and jazz with our good friends.  It was a lot of fun to catch up and enjoy some really good wine and food!  We even made some new friends who just purchased 20 acres north of the winery and are making a really cool place out of the wetlands and woods on their land. I am taking Tommy Cakes’ advice from last week’s Midweek Motivation: enjoy local events and make real, authentic memories with friends, family and your community. Update: Developing Your 2018 Garden Plan In the last show, I discussed Developing a 2018 Garden Plan.  Your garden plan will serve as your foundation for gardening success this year.  I did get some feedback from folks about that show, and I wanted to add two points for narrowing down your “Pie in the Sky Plan” to a feasible, realistic plan: Climate - Consider your climate and what grows there. If you live in Minnesota like me, you do not want oranges, avocados and lemons in your plan if you don’t have special climate controlled facilities to grow them. Actual Layout - To help with planning your garden, it might help to actually plan out where everything will go using a piece of graph paper, wipe board or computer. The key is to get realistic sizes for plants and your garden (to scale).  I will have another post on how to do that in the near future. Those are great suggestions, and I have added them to the show notes from the last episode. 4 Lessons Learned from Seed Starting I have been starting plants from seed in my basement for a few years now.  I learn something new each year, and last year was no different.  Like everything in life, you learn the most from your failures, and I had a couple last year.  I am not afraid to admit it!  Let's discuss four lessons learned from starting seeds in 2017. Why start seeds yourself? I started planting my own seeds in 2014 or so.  Back then, I was buying plants from big box home improvements stores, but I found that I was getting frustrated with the following: Quality – Plants at the local big box home improvement stores were just not healthy.  Some were wilting or had blight, others were terribly stunted and looked “bad.”  I usually could nurse them back to health but it always took some work to get them growing in the right direction. Selection – Big box home improvement stores just did not seem to offer a wide enough selection of plants.  Some had a couple of varieties of tomatoes, but I didn’t want to grow that particular type of cherry tomato, big beefsteak tomato or “summer salsa” tomato.  I wanted something a little different.  I found the same applied to peppers as well.  When I started growing my own, I had control and picked the type of plant I wanted to grow. Cost – The final reason I started growing my own plants from seed was that the cost was simply too high.  Typically, you are paying at least a dollar for each inch of height of seedling, and some of the more mature plants can be six to ten dollars a piece.  If you have a big garden bed or several beds, gardening gets very expensive very quickly!  I had a 12-foot long bed with 16 tomato plants in it, the cost for these 3-inch tall plants could be $48 (plus tax)! I decided to start growing my own seeds, and I found that the materials to start growing were fairly inexpensive.  I had articles and a podcast about that last year in the following articles: How to Garden Indoors 8 Steps to Starting Seeds Indoors 9 Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds Indoors - Season 2, Episode 6    4 Lessons Learned from Seed Starting That said, I am going to need to set up a new growing area since moving to this new house.  Regardless, I need to keep the following four lessons learned from last year in mind as I begin growing plants this year. 1. Label, label, label Make sure to label everything as you plant seeds and later transplant your seedlings. One of the problems I ran into last year was how I labeled seedlings when I started growing them.  I was trying to be clever with the Potting Soil Challenge by using masking tape on the seed trays.  It worked great initially when I had the grow lights a few inches above the soil, but as time went by and the seedlings grew, I needed to put some kind of marker/label in the seedling cell.  Over the course of growing, I move cells around to check the plants, take off the first leaves and eventually transplant them.  If I take out several of the cells, the cells get mixed up, and I lose track of what is what.  Labels are cheap, so take the time to buy some popsickle sticks or plastic sticks to label each plant.  If you don’t label plants, you garden will be like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: “You’ll never know what you’re gonna get!” 2. Keep a Journal Life is busy, and as much as we like to THINK we are going to remember details about our growing season, things and life happens. We actually forget what happened!  Keeping a simple journal will help you remember: What worked What didn’t work How you tried to fix problems and/or counteract plants and blight One thing that I have tried to track is germination rates and growth for different types of seed in the different types of soil (part of the 2017 Potting Soil Challenge).  While my intentions were good, I fell behind last year and eventually abandoned the log.  This was unfortunate because I could not draw solid conclusions from the 2017 Potting Soil Challenge.  I will do a better job this year as part of the 2018 Potting Soil Challenge! 3. Transplant Seedlings Earlier I traditionally have planted and transplanted seedlings according to the following timeline: Late February – Plant seeds in cells and seed trays Mid-Late April – Transplant seedlings into cups Late May – Transplants seedlings into garden beds I want to change this timeline this year.  While it has worked out “ok” in the past few years, I find that the seedlings’ roots become tangled messes by mid to late April.  While the seedlings usually survive the transplanting process, I want to see if the seedlings will be healthier and stronger if I transplant them earlier. The last frost date in Zone 4B is typically around May 10th, and that date defines when I transplant plants into the garden without fear of a killer frost.  I cannot change that date (it is due to climate), but I can change when I start planting seeds in the garden beds.  Because I live in Minnesota, I need to push to get every day that I can for plant growth.  By delaying to late May or early June, I have lost valuable time and produce from my plants.  Getting these plants in the ground might result in a late harvest from some of these plants! 4. Using Coir…Effectively I used Burpee’s Coir product for the first time last year in the classrooms and with my own seedlings. I had never used it before, and for those of you who have never used it, coir is made from recycled coconut fibers.  It comes in a small brick.  Once you add water to it, the material is ready for your seeds.  It is important to know that coir holds up to 150% of its weight in water and, most importantly, retains that water. For me, I was used to my traditional methods of growing seedlings: add soil to the seed tray cells or cup, plant the seeds, and water from the bottom.  It never occurred to me that coir was already a saturated medium and would not wick up more water.  In fact, it would start to rot in the cup (anaerobically) if it got too much water! I realized this because the coir soil began to smell horribly.  Some of the seedlings growth slowed, and some seedlings died because of root rot. I used coir exclusively with my school outreach in 2017.  The two classes that I worked with last year did not have this problem.  In fact, their plants thrived and did quite well because they watered the plants from the top where I was watering from the bottom. I am going to try growing more seeds with coir this year and track my results as part of the 2018 Potting Soil Challenge. Putting It All Together I have found that planting seeds improves the quality of your plants, provide better selection of plants and is cost effective (especially if you have larger gardens).  Over the years, I have learned a lot of lessons.  Last year, I learned the following: Label everything Keep a journal Transplant seedlings and plants earlier Use coir more effectively Even if you don’t start your plant from seed this year, you can implement some of these lessons in your own homestead, garden and flower beds.