Welcome to Fall 2019, Lifers! I am starting today some morning coffee and thoughts. I have lots of ideas rolling around in my brain; I don’t have tons of extra time to get them all done. Do you ever feel like that? It can get you stressed as it seems like that Weekend 3 Things List becomes a Santa-like Naughty and Nice List. Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.
Those ideas will have to wait for a few minutes.
Four years ago, I created this Small Scale Life Platform. We have gone in a lot of different directions over those 4 years! The podcast, blog and social media have grown nicely since starting, even with the constantly changing algorithms and adjustments that social media companies like Facebook and YouTube keep doing that make it more difficult to get a message out there.
As I sit in my comfy chair and look at my steaming cup of coffee this morning, I am in deep thought (hence, titling this News from Around the Bend “Morning Coffee and Thoughts”). The questions rolling around in my brain are about going forward. They are:
- What does the next 4 years look like?
- What does it look like, sound like and feel like?
- What adventures will we have together?
- How can I make that all of those ideas happen?
These questions can be applied to my own Small Scale Life as well as the blog, podcast and social media. Some folks close to me know I have done a lot of thinking about the path forward. There is an internal struggle about how to serve people best with my platforms, and balancing those ideas and “wants” with limited time. There is only so much time in a day, and a lot of time is devoted to family, sleep and my job. How can I make the biggest impact in the time that’s left?
I am working through that for myself. For the blog and podcast, I MIGHT have made things more complicated with re-launching the Small Scale Gardening site. I think that might have been premature. I know WHY I did it, but maintaining double of everything is overwhelming: two blogs, two podcasts, double social media accounts. Did you know we have a Small Scale Life Newsletter or two? Yeah….sigh. I don’t have the time to do everything really well. Instead, it is mediocrity at best and complete overwhelm at all other times.
I think that I have to step back on one and double down with the other. I really like my Small Scale Gardening brand, but I just MIGHT fold that back into Small Scale Life. I have an audience here that wants more gardening content, and they are on Small Scale Life already. I do love the Small Scale Gardening Podcast, and I am going to keep that brand/podcast on the Small Scale Life Network. The problem with trying to do it all is that I have been starting at the screen on more than one occasion wanting to write and podcast, but my mind is blinking back with a blue screen that reads “404 Error: not enough resources to complete ALL the tasks.”
It’s going to be ok. Did I mention I have a lot of ideas spinning around in my head? As I wrote (defiantly) in the News from Around the Bend last week: my best is yet to come.
This is true. All true.
But first….coffee.
Picks of the Week
The Domres Family gathered for a great photo in front of the hotel’s fireplace – September 2019
10 Tips to Successfully Plan and Host an Event
Small Scale Life
This week, I talked about event planning. I know, right? Totally not in our wheelhouse for simple living, gardening and financial freedom, but it strangely is connected. Events are how you build community. You can draw people into your space and build relationships with good events, and you can totally repulse people with poorly run events. Now, I know some of you are still scratching your heads in confusion, but a lot of folks run events: meals with friends, birthday parties, weddings, retirement parties, client events, workshops and garde/farm/homestead tours. These are all events of a different scale, and you can look like the “host/hostess with the mostess” if you do this right.
We had two events last weekend, and one went really well (our Early Christmas/Fall Fest event) and one did not (Recognozing our High School Championship Team). In this post, I talk about what went well and what didn’t go so well, and I provided 10 Tips to Successfully Plan and Host an Event. It is a healthy article, and I am recording the episode to go aling with it. Check out the infographic too!
Keep this post and information in your back pocket; you might need it someday!
The Contrary Beekeepers Show
The Three Amigos are back behind the mics at Nature’s Image Farm (Contrarian Headquarters)! It is a great listen. This podcast fits right in with my introduction to this article: we have busy lives and a lot of obligations; our hobbies and extra-curricular activities sometimes take the backseat. When you are a beekeeper, you need to spend the time to check the hives and make sure things are going “right.” Bees will react differently and do strange things if they are neglected, and you will get a good idea of what can happen when you listen to this show.
Living Free in Tennessee
Nicole Sauce dives into the pantry and gives some tips for managing our pantries. It seems like a simple thing, but how many of us have cans that are SUPER old hanging around? How many of us have that can of tuna from 1989 sitting in the back of the pantry? I know some of us do, so it is time to embrace a touch of decluttering and organizing sense and hit the pantry.
Building food stability into your life will be a critical skill in the future, so we need to start practicing now. Food stability comes through developing stores of foods that you actually want to eat. A key component is learning food preservation, and while you are “packing the pantry,” it is also worthwhile to discuss pantry management practices. Check this one out!
Suburban Farming | Josh Sattin – Sattin Hill Farm
Intellectual Agrarian
Terrance Layhew interviews Josh Sattin who has a suburban farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is Year 2 for the Sattin Hill Farm, and Josh left teaching and professional brewing to become a Suburban Farmer. Sattin Hill Farm is on a 2 acre lot, but he is actually farming on an 1/8th of an acre. Josh is focusing on greens and microgreens, with some seasonal crops thrown into the mix. Josh also offers chicken eggs, but he did have to get rid of the ducks due to the noise they make.
Take a listen; this is another person who has big ideas and is making his way by striking out and starting a new business! Josh and Terrance talk through the process of starting his Farm step-by-step, and it really is a How To Guide if you want to give this life a try.
More Morning Coffee and Thoughts
I will conquer the world, but first, coffee!
My mind is still buzzing about what I want to do and what I need to do. It is an ongoing struggle for dreamers like me. I will be getting to work and putting together some things for next week. There is a lot of gardening that I need to talk about including some interesting things I learned about potatoes and a Wicking Bed Cold Frame experiment.
Did I mention that I have a ton of garden photos and videos that I need to publish?
Oh, I need to make salsa too!
Yeah….more coffee and thoughts!