Small Scale Life

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about the Super Bowl Spectacular that was held here in Minnesota. Did you watch the Super Bowl? Here are some thoughts and observations from Tommy Cakes. 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 – Super Bowl Spectacular This is a little different Midweek Motivation. In the past three episodes (which have done really well, so that tells me you like this stuff), we have talked about: Keeping Our Eyes on the Target Preparedness and Overcoming Dread This show, however, is a little different. We are going to talk about something else, ripped right from the headlines, if you will. In case you somehow missed it, the big game, the big dance, the Super Bowl was last weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is only the second time Minnesota hosted the Big Game: the first time was in the Metrodome and now it was in that fancy billion dollar stadium. People in Minnesota are just not used to having big games like this in their town. This game featured the New England Patriots against the Philadelphia Eagles. As you probably know, the Patriots have been in and won the Super Bowl a bunch of times, and the Eagles have been in the Big Game, but they have never won the actual Super Bowl. Obviously I am giving some credit to the early Eagles teams that won championships in the 1960’s before the merger. Story Time Let’s talk about what happened BEFORE the Super Bowl here in the Twin Cities. It really is a tale of two cities, and the contrast is interesting to discuss. Let me paint two pictures for you. St. Paul There is a lot happening in Minnesota even without the Big Game. This time of year, St. Paul hosts The Winter Carnival, which is a festival that includes all kinds of activities to celebrate winter. The Winter Carnival started in 1886, and this year it goes from January 25th to February 10th. There is a whole mythology and pageantry surrounding the rise of King Boreas, Queen Aurora their court and Klondike Kate. At the same time, there is a story about the rise and shenanigans of King Boreas’ arch nemesis Vulcanus Rex and his Vulcan Crew. There is a hunt for the medallion (sponsored by the St. Paul Pioneer Press), ice sculpture competition, snow slides, parades, concerts with local talent and sometimes a massive ice castle. It is quite a celebration of winter and distinctly Minnesotan! For more on that, go to this link: https://www.wintercarnival.com/ Minneapolis While the Winter Carnival is a St. Paul event, the Super Bowl is a Minneapolis show. The stadium is in Minneapolis, and a lot of the activities were focused around the US Bank Stadium and around Minneapolis. On this note, the NFL and their corporate sponsors rolled into town and set up shop. This included a whole “Minnesota Experience presented by Verizon” in downtown Minneapolis, where Nicollet Avenue (which is a transit-only roadway), that included booths for sponsors and a patch of snow for doing “winter stuff.” There were corporate events, zip line, and concerts. Oh yeah, they finally held a game and dropped some paper all over the field when it was done and over. Did I mention the celebrities that we here for the Super Bowl? Oh yes, they were all over Minneapolis in the fresh snow and cold! There was Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Pink, JLo, Bradley Cooper, Joe Biden, Stephan Curry, Alex Rodriquez, Donnie Wahlberg, Gary Vaynerchuk, JJ Watt, Floyd Mayweather in his coat, and Diddy in his bigger fur coat with his entourage. That is quite a cast of characters zipping around the Twin Cities showing up here and there, doing their celebrity things! Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of all this? I know what some of you are thinking. This is sportsball and celebrity stuff, and I know a lot of you don’t really care. That’s where you are absolutely wrong, my friends. The point of this story and your Midweek Motivation is the following: In today’s crazy world, we are all looking for something in our lives that are real, have meaning and are pure. Stop looking for that in mass media, sports and Hollywood. It isn’t there. Look for that kind of authenticity and reality in local events, festivals and gatherings in your community, with your neighbors, friends and family. Events and gatherings like the Winter Carnival in St. Paul that are built on community traditions, mythology and storytelling are where authentic and real memories should be created. Don’t waste your time with the NFL, Super Bowl, Hollywood, celebrities and their shenanigans. None of it is real. All of there world is hype and a sales pitch for a corporate, plastic world. After all, once the game was over, the private and corporate jets line up and flew off, and all that was left was their trash. Let that sink in for a moment. Now, I have to get back in the lounge to spend my winnings from the Super Bowl. I won big, so it’s time for my drink, some capicola, veal parmesan and canollis! I might even buy everyone a round! This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Bada boom, bada bing! 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!

It has been an incredible two weeks. Julie and I moved all of our gear out of a storage locker and into this little house in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am glad to be back on track with a Tuesday Gardening Show, and I think I have a good show for you today. After a couple weeks of short posts and podcasts, including the introduction of a new regular show called Midweek Motivation by the Coastal Cosmopolitan Tommy Cakes, we are gearing up for Garden Season 2018! In this post and podcast episode, I am going to discuss How to Develop A 2018 Garden Plan: what I am going to grow and how I am going to grow it. I am making some adjustments to my planting strategy based on conversations with Michael Bell, Scott Hebert, Doneil Freeman, Drew Sample, Greg Burns and other market farmers. While I am not going to grow commercially, I am going to adopt some of their concepts and principles to make my garden very productive in 2018. That is the plan, anyway! In case you are new to our podcast, blog and social media platforms, 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. Before we begin this episode, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life! Friends of Small Scale Life A Bee Friendly Compamy - Michael Jordan Are you interested in bees, beekeeping, honey or mead? If you are, you need to check out A Bee Friendly Company out of Cheyenne, Wyoming! Michael Jordan, who is on The Survival Podcast Panel of experts and has been on the Small Scale Life Podcast, is an actual bee whisperer. I am constantly amazed by the work that Michael is doing to improve apiaries and communities in his backyard, at the local school and across the country. Michael is broadcasting information on Facebook Live every Wednesday at 5:00 PM Mountain (5 minutes at 5 PM), so check him out. If you are interested in bees, beekeeping, honey or mead, check out Michael Jordan’s A Bee Friendly Company on Facebook! Nature’s Image Farm – Greg Burns Great news, everyone! It is time to start planning for spring. Are you looking for comfrey, bees or trees? Greg Burns from Nature’s Image Farm has what you need. Nature’s Image Farm has Comfrey Bocking 4 and Comfrey Bocking 14 cuttings available for you today. Looking to start beekeeping and are looking for bees? Natures Image Farm has 5 frame nucs available now! Keep in mind that there is a deadline of February 10, 2018, so contact Nature’s Image Farm today. If you want to add trees to your property, Greg will also be updating tree bundles next week. Nature’s Image Farm will once again have exciting bundles availavle soon for urban homesteaders and farmsteaders including pawpaw, seaberry, rugusa rose, apple, pear, American chestnut, butternut, elderberry, mulberry, service berry and more. They have everything you need to start your own food forest or family orchard, which is pretty cool! Remember: Use code “SSL” for Small Scale Life for 10% off and free shipping, and let a real American hero Captain Lumbersquatch Greg Burns know that you heard about Natures Image Farms on Small Scale Life. Check out naturesimagefarm.com today! 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. News Before we begin, I want to go through some news items. First off, I am working on things behind the scenes to improve the Small Scale Life experience. It feels like we are getting momentum and starting to focus in on the message and direction of the blog and podcast. As part of that, we are going to start digging into Wicking Beds and launching Wicking Bed Nation, so stay tuned for that. Next, I get excited when I can connect groups of people. A great example of this was connecting Michael Bell with Michael Hingston from Aussie Flame Weeders, and I think these connections are happening in our Small Scale Life Community (on the blog, Facebook, and Instagram). To help connect people through Small Scale Life, a number of us are running or starting small businesses, and it is great to connect with folks and get your name out there. To help with that, I am working on developing a business directory on smallscalelife.com. We want to connect people. We want to connect our audience to your quality businesses and products. If you want to be included in our business directory, let me know. If you want to be included, contact us at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com or use the “Contact Us” page on smallscalelife.com. Finally, I do have some exciting news! A company that makes the Coir product for Burpee heard my Potting Soil Challenge Podcast from last year, and they have reached out to me. This company would like to donate some Coir product for the school outreach I do each spring. I tried Coir bricks for the first time last year in the classroom, and the kids loved watching this brick of material turn into a growing medium. I really appreciate their interest, and I am really excited to work with this company and report on this in the future. Wow…that was a lot, but it good stuff to talk about with you. Enough of all that; let’s get back to the show! Introduction The Super Bowl is over, and we are almost to the middle of February. For gardeners, homesteaders and farmers in the northland, people are in high-gear planning and plotting for this year’s Growing Campaign. I know folks down in Texas, other southern states and our friends on the other side of the world in Australia and New Zealand are already in high gear, and I always need to keep that in mind! I am no exception. I have been planning what plants I want to grow this year and how I am going to fit everything in these limited gardens! For those of you who are new to the show, I moved last June to a relatively small urban lot in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At this new house, I inherited two four-foot by six-foot square foot gardens. These raised beds do need some love and attention because the wood is rotting, and I have a plan to replace them with Wicking Beds in the near future. Developing a Garden Plan Planning what vegetables and plants you grow feeds right into your overall gardening strategy and seed purchase. It is almost time to get those seeds ordered and started! If you are here, you fit into one of three categories: New gardeners who have never grown anything before. Somewhat experienced gardeners and really didn’t get the results we were hoping for. Seasoned veterans who have had literally tasted the success of gardening. No matter where you fall in the Gardening Spectrum, we all start at the same place at the beginning of the season: The Garden Plan. The Garden Plan is the foundation for your season’s success. It helps guide you through the seed catalogs, websites, seed kiosks and tables of live plants at the local greenhouse or big box store. Your Garden Plan is all about you. What do you want to grow? Where do you want to start? This can be overwhelming, and I have acted like a therapist talking with people who are overwhelmed by choices and options or talked with people who want to plant it all. The fact is: we can’t plant it all. We can’t grow it all. After all, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, there are 25,000 tomato varieties. Other sources say 10-15,000 varieties being actively cultivated worldwide. That is a lot of tomatoes! We can’t grow it all, so you might be asking, where do you start? Grow What You Eat When you start your 2018 Garden Plan, you really need to think about what you and your family will eat. It doesn’t make sense to grow a ton of tomatoes, eggplant or squash if no one in your family likes to eat them! Focus on what you eat and grow those things. For example: If you like salsa, you should look to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro. If you like dill pickles, you should look at growing cucumbers, dill, onions and maybe some jalapeno peppers (to spice it up a bit). If you like pesto, you should grow basil and maybe some parsley. Think about what goes into your favorite dishes and recipes. Grow the things that you use often or can preserve for that long march in the winter between December and April. If you have trouble thinking about vegetables and herbs you use, take a notebook and keep a food log for a couple weeks. Write down the key vegetables and herbs you use on a daily basis. That can be a starting point for not only your Garden Plan but also your plan to prepare for tough times (some folks call it prepping or modern day survival). Write Out Your Garden Plan Once you have thought about those dishes, recipes and preserved foods, you can start to write down a list of vegetables and herbs that you want to grow this year. Start big; write them all down. I am serious: write all those vegetables and herbs down on a piece of paper. We will start with a “Pie in the Sky” Garden Plan and then start to hone it down to a manageable, realistic plan. How do you do that? Look at your available space in your growing area. Remember: your space in the garden might be very limited. Some of these plants can get pretty large (i.e., squash, zucchini, pumpkins and tomato varieties). You will need to balance your “Pie in the Sky List” with spatial realities (i.e., you want to grow pumpkins but are limited to a north-facing condominium balcony). I cannot emphasize this enough: do not waste your time and very valuable space for growing things that you and your family don’t like or won’t eat. Grow what you eat; otherwise, you will be making compost out of plants, herbs and vegetables that you do not eat. If you are tight on space or want to experiment with new vegetables and herbs, I recommend buying those items at the local Farmer’s Market, buying from a local farmer or finding a local gardener or friend who will trade with you. If you like those items, maybe you will expand your garden or work those items into your plan next year. If you have an opportunity to expand your growing area and grow more, there are a lot of options. We will discuss that in future posts and podcasts as well. My 2018 Garden Plan I started planning my garden in late January 2018. I sat down with my secret Small Scale Life Notebook (it has nuclear codes in it, trust me) and started roughing out my “Pie in the Sky” Garden Plan. As I wrote everything out, I started to think about how the gardening season has gone for me over the past few years. I plant everything in one shot in mid to late May, and certain plants just don’t fare well in the hot days in late June and July. Some plants, like spinach, lettuce, sugar snap peas and other greens, actually prefer cooler weather. I decided to develop a two stage approach to my Spring Garden Plan. As you can see in the image, I am going to plant greens, green onions and sugar snap peas in the early spring (i.e., April). These plants tend to grow quickly, and I can get a harvest before the Late Spring Stage kicks off. In the Late Spring Stage, I am going to plant the bulk of the other vegetables and herbs after the first frost date (May 10 in Zone 4B – Twin Cities). I will intercrop the Late Spring Stage Plants with the Early Spring Stage Plants. That means I will plant tomato starts next to sugar snap peas, and I will use companion guides to intercrop the peppers, onions, and greens. The other thing you might notice is that I don’t have enough room for all of the Late Spring Stage Plants. I have two four by six foot raised garden beds, and while they can handle a lot of plants, I am going to need more capacity. It is time to show you my plans for constructing and operating wicking beds. It is time to launch Wicking Bed Nation! Putting It All Together Newbie or experienced gardener, we all start at the same place in the Long March of Winter. Before you get overwhelmed with the seed catalogs, websites, seed stands or plants available at the local greenhouse or big box store, do some planning! Develop that basic foundation that will set you up for success this year by following these steps: Develop your Pie in the Sky List Narrow the Pie in the Sky List down by visualizing your available growing space and what you and your family actually will eat If you want to experiment with new vegetables and herbs, plan to purchase them at the store, farmers market, local gardener or trade with someone If you can expand your growing area, go for it! We will discuss some ideas that you might want to try this year! Your Turn I am curious about your 2018 Garden Plan. How do you plan your garden? Have you completed this process yet? Have you purchased your seeds yet? Put your thoughts and experiences in the comments section of this post on smallscalelife.com or join the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and share your experiences there. What’s Next? In our next Gardening Podcast, I will be walking us through some seed catalogs and purchasing seed. It is time to move ahead with my 2018 Garden Plan and take it to the next level. I will also start discussing my Wicking Bed plans, so stay tuned for that. In addition, we are lining up some more guests for the podcast. I am going to talk about Minimalism with my wife Julie, Homesteading with Greg Burns and the Urban Farming on the February Bellcast with Michael Bell. Stay tuned, I feel that we are off to a strong start to the year and really starting to get some great momentum! 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 focused on overcoming dread. Are you spending all your time and energy worrying about something?  Are you afraid to tackle tasks?  Perhaps you need to change your perspective and mindset, and Tommy Cakes is here to help overcome your dread. 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 – Overcoming Dread At one time or another, everybody has that nasty feeling in the pit of your stomach. Maybe that feeling comes from one of these examples: Going into work at a job you don’t like, Talking to an authority figure after making a mistake, Meeting new people, Taking care of tasks Delivering a project or service to a client or Speaking in front of the public (like on a podcast…doh)! Over time, that nasty feeling in your stomach grows, and you feel exhausted or have little motivation to complete tasks and take care of business.  You procrastinate and, in some cases, that small task mushrooms into a massive problem that takes a lot of time and energy to resolve.  Have you experienced that? Story Time Let’s tell a little story outlining this.  Our hero hurried and scrambled last summer as he packed up all his belongings and prepared to move from his house.  His lovely wife made arrangements with a local storage facility.  Our hero, his boys and a few friends loaded the belongings into the storage locker. After a couple trips with a big truck, pickup truck, SUV and other vehicles, the house was empty and the storage locker was loaded.  Other belongings and furniture were taken to the new house, and our hero settled into his new place. This winter, the time came when our hero had to clear out the storage locker. Our hero started to be concerned.  Who was going to help empty the storage locker and load the truck?  Where was all of this stuff going to go?  Could our hero even move that much material? As the date came closer, our hero’s thought about it more and more.  Slowly bur surely, his concern turned into dread.  It seemed that this was too big a task to handle and too much material to move to a small house and small garage. The day came, and our hero and his lovely wife picked up the moving truck and drove it to the locker.  They opened the locker, and after taking a deep breath, they began to load the truck.  They loaded quickly, and as they worked, the hero’s feeling of dread began to diminish.  Dread slowly turned to confidence, and confidence slowly turned to euphoria. As they closed the door of the truck, the hero said triumphantly, “I have been dreading this day, and that wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Let’s try to get it all loaded tonight…..!”  The hero’s lovely wife reminded him that night was coming, and that the dynamic duo had extra help the next day. Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of this story?  The point of this story and your Midweek Motivation is the following: [tweetthis]Overcome dread by focusing your mind and completing one task at a time. Start easy tasks to get momentum! #mindset #overcomingdread[/tweetthis] [tweetthis]Stop letting your fear and imagination rule your life. #overcomingdread[/tweetthis] You don’t have a lot of time on this earth.  Use your time wisely. Worrying and dreading about something is wasting your time and energy.  Whatever that source of dread is, it is going to be over after you engage and finish the task, and chances are, you’ll feel a lot better once it is done.  Take a deep breath, close your eyes and pull the trigger.   BOOM! This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! 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!

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. Story Time Let me tell you about the very short-lived government shutdown. Did you even know it happened? Since we don’t do the political thing on Small Scale Life, I will tell you a story instead. On Friday last week, a lone Federal employee got a phone call from his boss in a far off regional office. The boss told him that the shutdown was most likely going to happen. Since this guy was classified as a “non-essential employee,” the employee would be on furlough (unpaid leave). The boss provided instructions about what to do if the shutdown occurred and hung up. As the employee completed his work, his mind drifted to what this shutdown meant and could do to his family’s budget. No work meant no pay. This could hurt since his paycheck went to pay a lot of the bills. If this was a long shutdown, the loss of this source of income could hurt in the long run, and the rhetoric out of Washington was not good (meaning this could be a long shutdown). The employee started to think about what he had been doing over the past couple years and how he had not followed through on some ideas and plans. His side hustle was merely a hobby, and the work he had done to prepare for a major disaster was not enough. He and his family were not ready to outlast a major event, even after everything he had read and researched on the topic. The employee stewed and resolved to take care of those things once the shutdown occurred. There were a lot of details to be worked out, but it just needed his undivided attention and focus. He planned his Monday, knowing that the shutdown was inevitable. Sure enough, the politicians could not agree, and the shutdown happened. The non-essential Federal employees were on furlough, and that included the hero in our story. Our hero was ready to act. Even though this would hurt in the short run, he would begin the process to develop that side hustle into something. As he sat down at the computer to implement his plan, the phone rang. The boss called and informed him that he was no longer non-essential, and that he had to report to work (without pay)! Our hero, thrown for a loop, made some phone calls and got rolling with his regular work day. Later that day, the government re-opened for business for another couple weeks. He resolved to implement his plan and start preparing for the next disaster right away. Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of all of this? The point of this Midweek Motivation is this: [tweetthis]Be vigiliant. Be ready. Be prepared. Life comes at you fast, and if you prepare, you are set up to adapt and overcome life’s challenges. [/tweetthis] How do you do get prepared? Save some money, get out of debt, store some food and water, and get healthy. Stop dreaming and researching. Start doing and executing. Prepare for the worst. Boom! If you want to learn more about HOW to prepare, stay tuned to Small Scale Life. More to come on that. This is Tommy Cakes, and I see you next week!

In this episode, Micheal Bell returns to the Small Scale Life Podcast to discuss progress at Half Acre Farm. There have been a few changes and improvements since our interview in October 2017!  Michael and I discuss urban farming in cold weather and high winds, and we will discuss the effect on his crops and his plan moving forward.  We discuss some future projects and building soil using Regenerative Agriculture techniques discussed in a recent seminar by Gabe Brown.  We also discuss the NFL games last weekend including the Minneapolis Miracle. As a programming note, this is the first episode of the BellCast: a monthly podcast on Small Scale Life focused on the ups and downs of urban farming on Michael’s Half Acre Farm.  Michael has been farming at this location since purchasing the land in 2016, and he sells produce locally to friends, colleagues and others. Topics In this podcast, Michael Bell and I discussed the following: Minneapolis Miracle and Football Games New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Patriots Super Bowl and Dynasties Introductions Who is Michael Bell? Half Acre Farm - Humble Beginnings 2000 square feet to 15,000 square 30 inch wide garden beds that are 25 feet long Urban Farming  Winter Conditions: Wind Storm and Cold Weather this Year Crops:  Damage and Destruction Low Tunnels: Success or Failure? Long Term Weather Outlook in Texas Bouncing Back: Planting New Crops Salinova Zucchini 5 Tomato Varieties 50 Large Cherry 25 Super Sweet 100's 10 Glacier (will blossom in 38 degree F temps) Marigolds 25 Black Cherry Tomatoes - they get big! Aggressive pruning and blight control - how to control blight Selecting crops based on vegetable and profit potential Customer Service and Sales Breaking Bad News Getting New Customers - Developing the "Waiting List" Grocery Store Clients Instagram connecting People and Customers Eating Real Food - Michael's Salad Mix creates a Unique Taste which Sells Itself Regenerative Agriculture Rebuilding Soil using Regenerative Agriculture Techniques - Gabe Brown Rancher and Soil Expert from North Dakota Regenerated Soil in 3 or 4 Years on His Ranch Five Laws to Regenerate Soil Urban Farm Backyard Gardens Micheal's West Texas Project Tom's Central Wisconsin Project Philosophy and Continuous Learning Time waits for no one Getting things figured out; having a successful life Why Michael and I REALLY do chores Farm Expansion and Logistics Greenhouse Purchased!  How to transport? Future Greenhouses of Half Acre Farm Keeping the Greenhouses Warm Putting It All Together Key topics discussed and next steps  

Midweek Motivation is a new weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is focused on the big lesson learned from the Viking's Minneapolis Miracle in their game against the Saints.  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's 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.   Story Time This story is about a man named Marcus.  He has been playing football all his life.  Marcus did all the drills, participated in all the practices, played in all the games and finally made it to the NFL.  Marcus is a rookie playing in his first big game.  The game has come down to the final minutes in the fourth quarter.  Marcus' team has a slim lead, and all his team has to do to win is to stop the opponent on their final drive.  At this point it looks like Marcus' team will win the game.  Victory is in the bag!  All Marcus had to do is stop the opponent from scoring a touchdown. With ten seconds left on the clock and third and ten, the opponent's quarterback steps up to the line of scrimmage.  He gets the ball and scans the field.  He throws the ball downfield to a receiver, who makes an incredible jump and grabs the ball. This is Marcus' big moment.  All he has to do is tackle the receiver and the game is over.  However, Marcus puts his head down and completely misses the tackle.  The receiver sprints to the end zone, winning the game!  Marcus' team loses, and the "Minneapolis Miracle" is born.   Marcus is Marcus Williams from the New Orleans Saints.  A rookie who put his head down and missed an easy tackle. This play inspired this post, and it inspired a whole nation of Vikings fans who are looking forward to "bringing it home."  Midweek Motivation Lesson The point of this story and your first Midweek Motivation is this: [tweetthis]Keep your head up; finish strong!  Keep your eyes on the target.  If you don't, you will miss every time.[/tweetthis] Stay on target and succeed!

What a GREAT weekend!  We are really excited and are celebrating here in Minnesota.  Of course, most of the people are celebrating the Minneapolis Miracle where the Vikings vanquished the New Orleans Saints and are heading to the NFC Championships. As a life-long Packer fan, I could grumble, but I won't.  It isn't the real reason we are celebrating.  The real reason we are celebrating is that we have achieved another great milestone here at Small Scale Life.  As announced in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group this weekend, we are celebrating because we hit another 10,000 downloads of the Small Scale Life Podcast!  That is pretty exciting news, and we wanted to say thank you for hitting 20,000 downloads since starting this podcast a couple years ago. I know some of you are new to our podcast, blog and social media platforms.  In case you are new, Small Scale Life is all about living simply by focusing on: Growing, Exploring and Living healthy. That is pretty general, and we typically focus on: 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! Learning, Doing and Growing in 2017 I really didn’t know what to expect when blog in November 2015 and I started this podcast in January 2016, and I am truly grateful and blessed that you are spending your time with my guests and me on the podcast, on the blog, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Gab and YouTube. This has been a learning process.  We are, in fact, learning, doing and growing in real time, before your eyes.  What do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at the numbers from Wordpress for Small Scale Life and compare 2016 to 2017: 2016 6,590 views 3,389 visitors 75 published posts 30 podcasts 5,000 downloads 2017 10,922 views 6,862 visitors 53 published posts 35 podcasts 15,000 downloads By listening and engaging with us each week, you are pushing me to improve my processes and the quality of the blog, podcast and social media platforms.  This is not an easy job, so I am calling in some support to help in this effort.  I will provide more detail about that in the next post! Putting It All Together Thank you again for your time and your attention in previous years. I am looking forward to 2018!  We are going to focus on developing our urban homesteads and farms, small businesses, tribes, and healthy lifestyles.  At the same time, we will continue to seek and find adventures, where ever they take us.  We should have a lot of fun together and hopefully bring some great content to you. My call to action for this post and podcast is to connect with us.  Become part of the Small Scale Life story.  Engage with us and share you comments with us.  Ask questions and let us know you are out there.  If you are inspired to try gardening, urban farming, getting healthy or taking the road less traveled, let us know! I am but a humble pirate. The wind is blowing at our backs, and the tide is rising.  There are empires to plunder and rum to drink.  Hoist the sails; man the mizzen mast! Bring me that horizon, yo ho!

Welcome to 2018, everyone!  Back in 2016, one of my first interviews was with a guy who was kicking off his small market farming operation in Chilliwak, British Columbia. That guy is Scott Hebert, and his farm is called Flavourful Farms.  Since that interview, Scott has been working hard on his farm, landing new clients, and starting a new podcast and Vlog!   He is a busy guy.  I am thrilled to Scott back on Small Scale Life to kick off the new year.  In this podcast, we discuss a number of topics including farming, stoicism, his podcast Stoic Mettle, launching his Vlog, developing a tribe and growing and maintaining his beard.  I had a lot of fun on this episode, even with a minor technical glitch and some background noise (on my end) that will be addressed in future shows. One cool thing that happened during this interview was that Scott announced starting a weekly Vlog on his YouTube Channel.  Scott Hebert and I discussed the following topics in this interview: Who is Scott Hebert? - Flavourful Farms and Farming - Starting the Farm - Mindset - Cost of Entry for Farming - Case for Being Debt Free - Pricing and Customers - Plan for 2018 - Physical Requirements for Farming - Bees and Chickens - What would Scott do differently? Stoic Mettle, Stoicism and Tribalism - Why stoicism?  How does this relate to farming? - Starting and revising the Stoic Mettle Podcast - Stoicism, Tribe, and Friend Gap - Future of Stoic Mettle Growing and Maintaining a Beard Key Take-Aways from the Interview

Happy birthday, Small Scale Life! Happy birthday to me! We made it one more time around the sun, and January 2nd was our collective birthday. Small Scale Life is two years old, and I am just a little older than that (really). The purpose of this post is to thank you all for all the love and kind word's yesterday on my and Small Scale Life's birthdays. Please note: I originally posted a much longer post about where this platform is going in 2018, but I am re-writing this post to thank you all for all the well-wishes I received yesterday. The longer article will be published in a separate post. Just in case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on: • Gardening, • Healthy living, and • Having adventures along the way Happy Birthday On my and Small Scale Life’s birthday, I wanted to thank everyone for being a part of our story and being a part of our Small Scale Life. I had so many good conversations and well wishes on my birthday! It was a little overwhelming, and I really am thankful for your comments. I am totally serious: if I could throw a big party and invite you all, I would! Maybe I'll have to think about organizing something like that.... All in all, I had a very busy year at Small Scale Life and in my personal life, but through it all, I think I have gotten a little wiser and a little better at this blogging and podcasting stuff this year. I know there is a lot to learn and I am constantly improving, and I appreciate new friends who have helped me over the past year. I really want to thank all the people who were guests on the Small Scale Life Podcast this year including Greg Burns, Jay Dolan, Travis Swanson, Todd Ehrhardt, Micheal Jordan, Michael Bell, and Doneil Freeman. What a great group of people! I really do appreciate the support and your time. If you haven't listened to those shows, you are missing out. Go to the Podcast tab and start listening today (or just click the text)! Just Getting Started We will use the lessons learned this year to improve Small Scale Life, the podcast, our urban homestead and ourselves this year. We have some ambitious goals in 2018. I am working hard to put a team into place that will allow us to grow and improve this platform. We will have regular guests and a more regular schedule for posts and content. More on all that in upcoming posts and podcasts, and the proof will be the quality of our work. The bottom line is that I think we are going to have a great year! Thank you for everything in the past two years. Thank you for the engagement and taking your time to follow us. We would not be doing this if it wasn't for you. We are just getting started. 2018 is going to take your breath away, and I can't wait! Stay tuned and continue to live simply, grow, explore and be healthy with us in 2018!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you are spending lots of quality time with your family and friends this season. We certainly will be doing just that over the next week! In this post and podcast, I wanted to establish a tradition here on Small Scale Life by rebroadcasting my reading of the poem “Twas the Night before Christmas.” My dad used to read it to my family when we were young, so in that fine tradition, I am posting it for you and your family to enjoy. Reading this poem brought so many memories back from when I was young. This time of year was always a lot of fun for us: we would go sledding, make snow forts, have snowball fights, cross country ski and spend all day out in the snow. We would come home wet and cold, and warm up in the living room near the wood burning stove while drinking hot chocolate. Our wet boots, hats, gloves, and snow suits hanging in the basement laundry room (or wadded up in a ball near the laundry room - our boys come by it naturally). Nothing says the holidays more than some of the classic songs from bygone eras. I have added three of my favorite songs to the end of the podcast. These songs are "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Frank Sinatra and "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. In this age of techno-modified singers, it is excellent to listen to these songs from the Golden Age of our country: when times and living were a little more simple. In this day and age when we are so caught up with shopping, presents, dinners, parties and technology like our phones and social media, it is important to take a little time to stop and enjoy the people around us and the moments we share with them. That is my hope for you this season. Show Topics During this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discuss the following topics and play the following songs: list text hereIntroduction list text hereHistory list text hereTwas the Night before Christmas Poem list text hereA Visit from St. Nicholas Wikipedia list text hereTwas the Night before Christmas – UK Carols Blog list text hereReading the Poem list text hereClosing Remarks list text hereTraditional Holiday Songs: list text here"White Christmas" by Bing Crosby list text here"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Frank Sinatra list text here"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole list text hereClosing Song Putting It All Together From my family to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Always continue to strive to live simply: grow, explore and be healthy! May your 2018 surpass your expectations!

This time of year, we gather and celebrate the holidays with family and friends. For members of our family, this is a particularly meaningful Christmas: this is the first Christmas without Barb Taylor and without Mary Cicero. Two great ladies that made our world a brighter and better place. While these wonderful women left us too soon, we continue to practice Holiday and Christmas Traditions that bring family and friends together. We will build on these Christmas Traditions in the future as we celebrate each other, our lives, our history and our heritage. In this post, I will discuss Five Christmas Traditions that we practice, and if you don't have your own Christmas Traditions, maybe that will inspire you to give some of them a try! Just to be completely honest with you, I am late with this post. I originally wanted to post it earlier this week. Given the mix of emotions this year, I found that this was a particularly difficult post for me to write. I struggled with how to frame and write it as I have been working on it all week. I want to thank my sister-in-law Kelly Domres for helping me "get over the hump" on this post. As she said eloquently, "Do not dwell on the negative; you have a lot to be thankful for this year." She is absolutely correct. This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law, Kelly. 1. Decorating the Christmas Tree We moved from our house in St. Louis Park in July, and most of our stuff is still in a storage locker. This is by design because we moved into a furnished house, and we were planning to move our gear when we finally purchased our house. The drawback to this strategy, however, is that all of our holiday decorations (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) is buried deep in the storage locker somewhere. Fortunately for us, Julie's parents had an artificial tree, lights and ornaments stored in the basement of this house. Christmas was Julie's mom Barb's favorite holiday, and she always tried to make it special for the family. Using her tree, lights and decorations is comforting and special for all of us. Julie and I set up the tree and the lights, and then we all took turns adding ornaments to the tree. There are some special ornaments from the past, some that are funny and some from relatives long since passed. Inspired, I even decorated the outside of the house with lights and ornaments. Barb might not be with us in body this year, but her spirit and her memory lives on for all of us. Her decorations, lights and trees remind us of what a great and generous woman she was. 2. Favorite Christmas and Holiday Movies https://youtu.be/4fyS5CLBgyM I have really made a conscious effort to NOT watch much television and movies in 2017. Sure, I watched Taboo (and even did some podcasts about the show Taboo earlier this year), Game of Thrones and The Punisher, but overall, I have done a pretty good job limiting my time in front of a television or movie screen. This time of year, however, I make an exception. With Ryan home from college, we gathered together as a family to watch some classic Christmas and Holiday movies. There have been some great ones over the years, and the following movies are our family favorites: • Planes, Trains and Automobiles (I seriously know almost every line of this movie) • Christmas Vacation • Elf • A Christmas Story We have watched two of the four movies so far this season, and we will have to find the time to watch the last two. It is easy to forget how funny these movies actually are, so if you need a break and want a good belly laugh this time of year, check out these classics. You won't even shoot your eye out, kid! https://youtu.be/9jyCfRHumHU 3. Wooddale Church Christmas Program For the past few years, we have gone to Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. This year, Julie, Danny, Ryan, David and Jenny (brother and sister-in-law) went to Wooddale's Christmas Program. The church is massive, and they had a full orchestra, choir, organ and even interpretive dancers. The program consisted of the following songs: • Overture "Canticle of Glorias" • Gloria in Excelsis Deo • O Come, All Ye Faithful • White Christmas • How Great Our Joy • Pat a Pan • Noe! Noe! • Fum, Fum, Fum • The First Noel • Angels We Have Heard on High • The Christmas Story • Ecolgue for Piano and Strings Opus 10 • No Eye Had Seen/All is Well • Amazing Grace It was very profession and extremely inspirational. Some of the songs had a Celtic feel to them, and the grand finale included a Scottish man playing bagpipes in traditional dress. It was amazing to hear, especially since it was my dad's and Barb's favorite hymn. If you have a chance to go to a church program, you should. It is a chance to decompress, tune out the commercialism of the season, sing carols and hymns, and share in the Christmas message with family and friends. https://youtu.be/euWfTiYwRB0 4. Decorating Christmas Cookies When Julie and I were in high school, we would decorate sugar cookies with Julie's family, her cousin, her aunt and her uncle every year. It was a lot of fun (and it tasted good too)! This year, we gathered once again to decorate Christmas cookies. It was a team effort: we made dinner, Julie's dad and fiance Sue made the sugar cookies, and Julie made the frosting. We had a great dinner, and then we got down to business decorating the cookies. It was a lot of fun, and we had a bunch of laughs as some of our "artists" got creative with gingerbread men and Santa cookies. In fact, you can see one of those cookies in the picture above (just don't point it out to your kids). I am sure eating tons of cookies covered in the world's best frosting didn't help my healthy lifestyle goals, but it was worth it! We'll have to do it again next year! 5. Christmas Eve Meal My ancestors on my mother;s side came from Poland and Czechoslovakia. This year, I did a little research about Polish Christmas traditions. In Polish households, Christmas Eve is an extremely important day. The Polish people celebrate Christmas by preparing a big meal called "Wigilia." This traditional meal is a big deal. According to the Polish Women's Alliance of America, the wigilia consists "of twelve meatless dishes, and includes many kinds of fish, beet or mushroom soup, various dishes made from cabbage, mushrooms, or potatoes, pierogi, followed by dried fruit compote and pastries for dessert." The meal does not start until the first star is seen in the sky. Like Polish homes, we traditionally have a big meal on Christmas Eve. Unlike the Polish dinner, we eat meat (and lots of it). We have adopted something my side of the family started doing years ago: fondue. We will cook shrimp, beef, and vegetables in boiling oil or broth (we have tried both). We will make a cheese fondue and dip bread into it (big hit around Green Bay Packer fans), and we will have a dessert fondue with chocolate, marsh mellows, strawberries and pound cake. The beauty of the Christmas Eve fondue is the social aspect of the meal. It takes time to cook the food, and it is a lot of fun to talk with everyone, joke around a bit, and yes, steal someone else's meat or shrimp (accidentally, of course)! It takes some time to prep: cutting the meat, breads, pound cake and vegetables; preparing the various fondue pots; and gathering the various dipping sauces for the cooked food. A few words of caution before you do fondue: list text hereThe oil, cheese and chocolate are VERY hot. Be careful around the fondue pots! list text hereThings splatter and spill, so use a disposable table cloth. list text hereBe careful using the fondue forks. Someone usually ends up spearing their finger by accident. list text hereThere usually is a lot of clean-up after the meal, so be prepared for that! This year, we are planning on a smaller meal on Christmas Eve, but we will eat very well. We will celebrate Christmas Eve dinner with Julie, Danny, Ryan and me, and we are eating steak, shrimp, twice baked potatoes and salad. It will be a great dinner! How about you? What are your Christmas Traditions? What do you do with your friends and family? I would love to know, and maybe we will incorporate some of your traditions into our Christmas and Holiday Celebrations. Feel free to share your Christmas Traditions as a comment on this blog post. This is a busy time of year. Before we let the moment get away from us, I would like to thank you for following Small Scale Life. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you and your support. Please be safe this holiday season. Enjoy each moment, and be kind to someone. In case we haven't said it yet, Julie, Danny, Ryan and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Today’s episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast is actually the second part of my interview with Doneil Freeman.  Who is Doneil Freeman?  He is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, regenerative farmer, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster.  He operates the Freeman Family Farm in Calhan, Colorado.  Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures.  He also has extensive experience with Wicking Bed Gardens to grow all kinds of vegetables! This is the second part of my interview with Doneil.  If you want to catch the first, listen to Episode 30 of the Small Scale Life Podcast.  In this episode, we discuss Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast.  I am pretty excited about this podcast because it is launching a new series at Small Scale Life about wicking beds and how awesome they are!  Topics - Wicking Beds and Regenerative Dads Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 2 of our two part interview: Wicking Beds in Arid Environments - list text hereSecond-hand watering troughs - list text hereLiners - Pond liner and 6mm liner - list text hereCompost - Mulch - list text hereCharging the system Regenerative Dads Podcast - What is the subject? - Why is this important? - Where is it going? Putting It All Together  - Wicking Bed Nation - Upcoming shows - Thank you!

Thanksgiving seems to be a distant memory now, but I did want to circle around and talk about cooking a turkey using the tips discussed in Episode 29 and also talk about making turkey noodle soup with the leftover carcass and meat. This goes beyond Thanksgiving, and I hope you use this episode and the recipes/tips discussed when you cook a turkey in the future. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on: list text hereGardening, list text hereHealthy living, and list text hereHaving adventures along the way. Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life. For this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Drew Sample at TheSampleHour.com. He recently released Episode 171, which is all about Hogtoberfest 2017. I listened to this podcast, and this podcast put me there in the middle of it all. The stories and experiences told around the microphone reminded me of the stories and experiences shared around the barrel stove this past weekend in Central Wisconsin at Domres Deer Camp 2017. This is how community is built, traditions established and bonds between people developed. If you are missing that in your life, listen to this podcast. You will hear something special. I have to give Greg and Susan Burns and the Burns family a huge thank you for the invitation this year. Also, I would like to thank Drew Sample for recording this, and the Bee Whisperer Michael Jordan, Doneil Freeman and others for participating. It was special, and I will be attending next year. While we are on the subject of Greg Burns, I would like to remind you that Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at naturesimagefarms.com. As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping! So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today! Finally, I would like to remind you that our friends at Aussie Flame Weeders are still selling flame weeder kits to gardeners, market farmers and urban gardeners. These are stainless steel, five burner manifolds designed for a standard 30-inch garden bed. The kits also include 16-inch tires and the ability to carry propane tanks (so you don’t have to. Check them out at https://www.aussieflameweeders.com/ Welcome back to the show. As I mentioned in Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie, the boys and I went to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We got to enjoy the day with family, and they handled all of the elements of the meal. It was a lot of fun to talk and hang out, and the food was fantastic! Unlike last year, there was no snow on the ground, and I got some good pictures of the sunset. With the boys home for the long weekend, we decided to cook a turkey on Sunday. I wanted to try Jack Spirko’s cooking advice, so I started to thaw the bird for Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get it thawed out in time to quarter and brine the bird for 24-hours, but I did try quartering the bird! Learning to Quarter a Turkey In Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 (http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/thanksgiving-2017-jack), he made a case for quartering a turkey before cooking it. Jack resorted to this when he had to cook a 38-pound turkey. No conventional smoker, roaster or oven can handle a 38-pound turkey. His solution was to quarter the turkey, which means you: list text hereRemove the wings list text hereRemove the thighs and legs list text hereRemove the breast cutlets from the skeleton Cook these pieces of meat together, but you can remove the various pieces as they hit the right temperature. That means you can remove the wings (which usually cook first), then the breast meat, and finally the legs and thighs as they hit 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Using this method, you won’t have shriveled wings and Sahara-like breast meat! I have to admit, I was a little intimated by quartering a turkey. I had never done it before, even when I cooked the whole bird in a roaster. When I carved a turkey, I usually sliced a bunch of breast meat off, and then I would remove the legs and slice some thigh meat (dark meat). It was not intentional or planned; I just did it. At Julie’s cousin’s house, I watched as Julie’s uncle carved the turkey. He essentially quartered the bird after it came out of their roaster. It did not look too complicated, but I still was unsure. I even asked her uncle if he ever quartered a turkey before cooking it, and he had never done that method before. Still a little unsure, I went to everyone’s favorite go-to for do it yourself-type videos: YouTube. I watched two very good videos on quartering and deboning a turkey: The first is from Jack Burton from stellaculinary.com (http://StellaCulinary.com/CKS44) https://youtu.be/Z-sMdmCDXJ4 The second is from Matt Proft, who was a turkey farmer for several years (according to his channel). https://youtu.be/fV-m5o6fhDQ Both gentlemen made great videos, so check them out before trying this. Quartering a Turkey Since this was my first time quartering a turkey, I decided to not make a video. I figured that I was stumbling along on this one, so it would probably not make for good video. Sharp knives, slippery turkey meat and cameras seemed like a dangerous combination. Grabbing the cutting board, knife and turkey package, I got to work. I removed the neck and the package of giblets. If you listened to Episode 29, you know where those giblets went (garbage can). The neck went into a stainless steel stock pot. I quartered the bird with the following steps: list text hereFirst, I removed the wings and put them in a cake pan list text hereThen, I cut the top of the turkey (breasts) from the bottom of the turkey (legs and thighs). Removing the wings makes this easy. list text hereNext, I removed the legs and thighs from the bottom of the bird. The bottom of the bird went into the stock pot for soup later. list text hereWhile I could have removed the breast cutlets, I decided to move ahead and get the turkey into the roaster. I did not go that extra step this time. With the bird quartered, I lined the roaster with tinfoil and dropped the meat into it. I brushed on olive oil and honey, and then I sprinkled on sage, rosemary, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper. I cooked the turkey at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the meat was 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When I took the meat out of the roaster, it literally fell apart, and that was without brining the turkey before cooking it. For more on brining the turkey, head over to Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast. Turkey Noodle Soup After the quartering process, I had a stockpot with some meat and water in it. After the turkey dinner was over, I divided the turkey: some was for sandwiches and some was for the turkey soup. I added the turkey to the stockpot, and I turned on the heat. We let the turkey stock simmer for two or three hours, and once it was completed, we removed the bones from the stock. We also removed the meat from the stock and set it off to the side. We’ll add it back in before the soup is complete. At this point, you have a choice. Because we used dark meat and the carcass to make the stock, it does have some fat in it. If you want to remove some of that fat, you can let the stock cool and remove it from the top of the stock (fat will congeal on the surface of the stock). Otherwise, you can proceed as normal. The choice is yours. Once you are ready, you can begin to add to your stock to make soup. We added onions, carrots, celery, salt and pepper to taste. You can also add thyme and parsely to the soup. Then we added the egg noodles to the soup. Cook the soup and noodles until the noodles are soft, and you are ready to roll! It is a pretty tried and true method to make turkey noodle soup. We have also done this with a chicken carcass as well (from rotisserie chickens). While this has been general instructions, I’ll have a written recipe for you as well (because I know some of you prefer that). Putting It Together The next time you make a turkey, give these ideas a try. It isn’t as hard as you think, and I certainly learned a lot about the anatomy of a turkey using this method. The turkey noodle recipe is easy cheesy, and it is a great way to save some money by getting several meals out of one bird. Spread your wings and give it a try!

We have a great podcast for you today.  Today’s show is an interview with Doneil Freeman, who is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, farmer based on regenerative agriculture principles, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster.  Doneil Freeman operates Freeman Family Farms located in Calhan, Colorado.  Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures using principles from regenerative agriculture and permaculture.  He has run a successful CSA program, and he has a lot of advice for those of us who are starting small businesses which includes market gardens, urban farms CSA programs and even a blogs and podcasts. This will be a two part interview.  In this podcast, we cover a lot of topics including attending Hogtoberfest, beekeeping, starting and running a CSA program, and regenerative agriculture including rebuilding soils in arid environments.  Part 2 will include a discussion about Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast. Topics - Regenerative Agriculture with Doneil Freeman Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 1 of our two part interview: Hogtoberfest 2017 with Greg Burns, Drew Sample and Michael Jordan Origin Stories My Story Doneil's Story Doneil's Bees Regenerative Agriculture, Restoring the Land and Farming Boom to Bust CSA Program Freeman Family Farm Links Doneil and I covered a lot of ground in this podcast including the following links: Doneil Freeman on Facebook Freeman Family Farms Regenerative Dads Podcast Website Regenerative Dads on iTunes The Sample Hour Episode 171 - Hogtoberfest 2017

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you are well on your way to enjoying the holiday with family and friends.  In this post and podcast, we are going to talk about cooking for Thanksgiving.  I’ll talk about turkey, trimmings, funny failures and other ways to prepare your turkey, stuffing and appetizers. While you are probably already hustling preparing for your Thanksgiving feast and have a plan in motion, this post might spur a few ideas for future meals and give you a few chuckles about some of our past failures.  After all, people will sleep off their turkey coma at some point, football is only so interesting, and those dishes aren’t going to do themselves! I wanted to start this podcast by wishing you all a great Thanksgiving and safe travels in your way.  AAA is reporting that over 51 million Americans will be traveling over 50 miles for this holiday, and that is a 3.3 percent increase over last year.  That translates to more than 1.6 million more people traveling this year than last year, so be careful out there on the roads, at the airports, at the bus stations and at train stations! Thanksgiving 2017 Like last year, we will be on the road and will be traveling more than 50 miles from our home.  We will be heading to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day.  We will watch some football, socialize, play some games and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.  We had a great time last year, and I wrote an article about it called Thanksgiving Reflections. Of course, the bulk of that article was talking about the blog and podcast, particularly after a busy harvest season in 2016.  My have times changed!  I’ll have more on comparing 2016 to 2017 in a future podcast. Turkey and Trimmings Because I am not cooking a turkey and all the side dishes this year, I did not post an articles, podcasts and videos about how we make our Thanksgiving feast.  HOWEVER, if you are like us and will be guests at someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, you should still cash in on great prices for turkeys!  This is a fantastic time to buy a couple of birds at a low price and save them in the freezer for the future.  Save some money; buy them on sale now! I am really excited that Julie bought one last night, and with the two Domres’ boys here this weekend, I will be making a turkey!  I am in charge of the bird, and I typically make them in a roaster.  I bought a 22-quart Hamilton Beach roaster from Walmart several years ago, and it works like a champ!  I have cooked many birds and other meals in this roaster, and it is really good to have during the holidays or for parties. One of the real advantages of the roaster is that the oven is free for other dishes and tasks (i.e., cooking other dishes and keeping other dishes warm while the bird finishes). You can usually find one for under $50 at Walmart or other stores, and they will last a long time.  Of course, I am kicking myself that I don’t have an Amazon affiliate right now! How I Cook the Turkey Following my normal steps, the turkey is prepped and in the roaster! As I mentioned, I have cooked several birds in the roaster over the years.  I have used a pretty straightforward method for cooking my birds: Defrost the turkey (usually overnight process, so you might be in trouble if this isn’t done yet). Remove the package of organs and neck (throw them away – like those worthless tomato cages) Line the roaster with tinfoil (it makes for easier clean-up) Put the turkey into the tinfoil-lined roaster Brush the turkey with olive oil Brush the turkey with honey Sprinkle on garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, pepper and seasoning salt Cook the turkey at 325 degrees F until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F Remove the turkey, carve it and serve it to the family and guests Note: I do not put stuffing in the bird. That is reserved for the oven to be cooked separately Save the leftovers for sandwiches and other meals (if there is anything left) This system has worked well for me for a number of years, and I usually have a moist turkey at the end of this process. Funny Food Failures Fortunately, we have not had too many failures (that I can’t remember or easily correct). Don’t let me fool you though: we aren’t culinary geniuses over here.  I shouldn’t toot our horn too loudly; we have had a few funny food failures over the years: Paste Mashed Potatoes – We made mashed potatoes that had the consistency of paste. This was the result of overcooking the potatoes.  Try not to do that because the glue mashed potatoes are just not good! Mushy Stuffing – When we were first married, I used to make stuffing from scratch from breadcrumbs, celery, broth and other odds and ends. Unfortunately, Julie informed me that the stuffing was “mushy and slimy” and that she preferred Stove Top Stuffing. Since then, we have been making and eating Stove Top Stuffing.  I might have to make a homemade batch to see how much better of a cook I have become (or not). Special Package – When Julie’s mom made her first Thanksgiving turkey, she didn’t realize that there is a package of organs inside the turkey. She cooked the turkey, and they “discovered” the package when they served the bird.  That is pretty funny and easily done, especially if you have never cooked a turkey before.  Make sure you remove the package of organs before cooking the bird.  Some people use the organs in stuffing, but I do not.  That would make the Mushy Stuffing even more difficult to eat! Wild Turkey – I am a turkey hunter, and I have prepared a few wild turkeys that I have killed over the years. Wild turkeys are not Butterballs; they are very lean birds. When you prepare a wild turkey, you need to use chicken broth to marinate the bird while it is cooking, and you should put plenty of bacon over the breast. This will give the wild turkey some much-needed moisture (otherwise it WILL be too dry).  Besides, everything goes better with bacon! Other Cooking Ideas: Turkey, Stuffing and Appetizers I am not perfect, and I am always looking for ways to improve on my skills. Fortunately, there are some really talented people that I follow.  As I was finishing up my work in Western Wisconsin yesterday, I clicked on Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 - Cooking this Thanksgiving and Just Killing It.   In this episode, Jack covers a lot of topics including: Handling those uncomfortable discussions about politics Getting chronically late people to be on time Meaning of criticisms from older generations Making appetizers Sweet Potato Rounds with Cranberry and Walnut Lebneh Apple and Chestnut Stuffed Mushrooms with Bacon (or anything small) Twice Fried Finger Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Garlic Warm Cranberry Sauce Quartering and brining a turkey Smoking or roasting a turkey Making a cornmeal stuffing Making gravy Creating some great mashed potatoes (his aren’t Paste Potatoes) Mixing after-dinner cocktails Making dessert If you have listened to Jack, you know that he is very passionate about cooking.  He loves to cook!  I am always interested in what he is cooking and how he does it. While I could go on and on about all the different tips, advice and dishes he discussed on the podcast, I did want to focus on quartering and brining the turkey prior to cooking the turkey. Quartering a Turkey One of Jack’s “a-ha” moments was when he raised and slaughtered his own turkeys three years ago.  His Thanksgiving turkey was 38 pounds, and that creates a unique problem for most mortals like me, you and Jack: how do you cook a 38-pound bird in conventional ovens and roasters? Jack’s solution was to quarter the turkey prior to brining and cooking it.  By removing the meat from the skeleton, he could brine the various parts and fit them into the oven or roaster.  He found an additional benefit from doing this: Different parts of the turkey finish cooking at different times. This is why your wings get fried, you breast meat is dry and your dark meat is almost done.  If you quarter the turkey prior to cooking it, you can monitor each type of meat and take it out when it is done.  Jack’e experience is that wings will come out first, breast meat will come out next and then the dark meat will come out last. Jack discusses how he quarters the bird in the podcast, but essentially he removes the breasts first, then takes the leg quarters (think about how you see chicken leg quarters in the store) and finally the wings.  Jack uses the carcass, organs and other odds and ends for making turkey stock for soups later. This makes a lot of sense to me, and it is something that I want to try.  There is an additional advantage to cooking a turkey like this: you are that much closer to serving your guests since you have removed the carcass from the equation.  It is easier to carve the turkey parts rather than mess with the entire carcass and all the juices! This makes a lot of sense to me! Brining a Turkey One of the common problems people when cooking a turkey is getting a dry bird at the end of this process.  Remember the turkey in Christmas Vacation?  Dry meat is just not good. One way to help with the “dry white meat” problem is to brine the turkey for 24 hours prior to cooking.  As Jack says, “You notice that the deli turkey isn’t dry; why is that?”  Brining the turkey will add a juice to your bird,a nd it will add some flavor to the meat as well.  By brining the turkey overnight, you are soaking the turkey in a mixture of the following items: Jack Spirko’s Turkey Brine Per Gallon of Brine 1 Cup Salt 1 Cup Brown Sugar Handful of Black Peppercorns (whole) Small Handful of Whole Mustard Seed 4-6 Bay Leaves 8 Sage Leaves (1tbs dry) Optional Items 2-4 Star Anise Small Handful of Whole Coriander Brine turkey parts for 24 hours prior to cooking the bird. This brine will soak into the meat of the turkey, giving it some great flavor.  Additionally, your brined turkey will have more juices for the cooking process rather than just relying on the nature juices of the bird and/or your basting sauce. I have not done this in the past, but I will with my next bird. Putting It All Together Cheers - Thanksgiving 2017 There are a lot of ways people celebrate this great American holiday.  Enjoying a great Thanksgiving meal is a great way to bring family and friends together and enjoy each other’s company.  Pulling it off just requires a little planning and some good advice; it is not as hard as you think! Julie, Danny, Ryan and I wish you the best Thanksgiving.  May your travels be stress-free and safe.  May you enjoy the moment and the people you are spending your time with this holiday.  Thank you for being with us on this journey to developing a Small Scale Life.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share this journey with you and for your time, patience, feedback and thoughts. Please be kind to each other this holiday and think of someone less fortunate than you.  There are people in our communities that are hurting and need help.  Give a little time, money and/or encouragement to others. Sometimes just a little help, encouragement and kindness goes a long, long way. Thank you again for tuning in.  Remember to grow, explore and be healthy!  This is Tom from the Small Scale Life.  Happy Thanksgiving!