Welcome to a President’s Day Edition of the News from Around the Bend! It has been another busy week here at the Small Scale Life Homestead, and a large part of that was the snowstorms that hit Upper Midwest. In this President’s Day Edition of News from Around the Bend, I will provide Julie’s Content picks and my content picks for the week! Let’s go!
Julie’s Picks of the Week
I thought it would be fun to get a woman’s perspective on some of the News from Around the Bend, and Julie happily provided her picks for the week:
Edible Landscape: More than Meets the Eye
Small Scale Life – Guest Post by Willow with comments by Tom
https://www.smallscalelife.com/edible-landscaping/
We tend to isolate our gardens in one section of the yard. Whether it is in a raised bed, tilled up ground or something exotic like Rain Gutter Grow Systems, we grow vegetables and herbs in areas away from our flower beds and other landscaping. With putting in mulch, ornamental plants and trees, we spend a lot of time and money! What if we change our thinking about those flower beds and landscaping? Why not use those beds to grow food or herbs? Willow provides a different perspective about those beds and other spots on our property that could be used to grow something edible. While she calls it edible landscaping, others call it foodscaping! Whatever you call it, I like the concept and will be trying it out this year!
As an aside note: I will be incorporating this article as a podcast, so stay tuned!
Episode 5 – Food Preps: Nutrition and Layering Prepping 2.0 – Glen Tate and Shelby Gallagher
http://prepping2-0.com/podcasts/episode-5-food-preps-nutrition-and-layering/
Glen Tate and Shelby Gallagher discuss nutrition in during a collapse scenario and how to layer your preps to cover a variety of situations and eaters. Since Julie does not listen to many prepping or survivalist podcasts, she wasn’t sure about the apocalyptic type conversations. I get it: most folks don’t want to ever think about our system going down, and it seems like a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory.
While you might think that, I would point to the food shortages in Seattle and other parts of the Pacific Northwest after this years Snowmaggedon. Stores ran out of food, and the situation was a bit tense. This can happen after big storms, massive events (earthquakes) or civil unrest. It never hurts to be prepared!
Chase Away the Winter Blues Living Free in Tennessee – Nicole Sauce
https://livingfreeintennessee.com/2019/02/18/episode-136-chase-away-the-winter-time-blues/
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real thing, and Julie has suffered from it in years past. Fortunately, she is VERY busy this winter season at her job, and days seem to fly by! That’s good considering we just set a record for the most snow ever here in Minnesota in February (with more on the way this weekend). Nicole does a really nice job listing some ways to break the winter blues and kick SAD to the curb. So, move your ass and listen to this one!
Tom’s Picks of the Week
Of course, I consume a lot of content during the week. I have some videos, podcasts and posts that I have picked this week:
The Personal Farmer Dallas Half Acre Farms Tour & Interview
Natures Always Right – Steven Cornett
Steven is in Dallas, Texas, for the Bootstrap Farmer Mastermind Convention, and while he was there, Steven had a tour of Dallas Half Acre Farms with my good friend Michael Bell. This was a really interesting video for a number of reasons:
- We see the significant changes to Dallas Half Acre Farms since this time last year
- Michael discusses various lettuces and kale that he is growing on the farm, and you will learn the varieties that he will be growing
- We learn Micheal’s strategy for planting greens that creates a ready-to-go salad mix as soon as he cuts it
- Micheal talks about the Bootstrap Farmer LED lights he uses to grow his starts. You can pick those up using the following link: https://kit.com/smallscalelife/garden-tools/1526108-bootstrap-farmer-led
Farm tours in MISSISSIPPI…and a surprise end to the day | The Grind 382
The Grind Vlog – Scott Hebert
Scott is down in Alabama, and he took a trip to a couple farms in Mississippi and Alabama. It is pretty cool that he is connecting with folks and taking some tours while he is in the States. This is all about building community and connecting with people face-to-face. Good on ya, Scott! Keep doing great things!
I spoke about how I started up my farm! 127th Tuskegee Farmers Conference | The Grind 383
The Grind Vlog – Scott Hebert
While he was at the conference, the Dean of the University asked Scott to present about his farm, SPIN Farming and his farming experience. This was unexpected since he was at the conference as an attendee, not a speaker. Scott pulled together a speech and a slide show, and you will get to see what he presented in this video.
Great job, Scott. What a great trip! I am trilled you are Building Community!
Homesteading When You Can’t Go All In
Living Free in Tennessee – Nicole Sauce
https://livingfreeintennessee.com/2019/02/22/episode-138-homesteading-when-you-cant-go-all-in/
Ok, this wasn’t planned (since Jules picked a Nicole Sauce Podcast already), but I saw this one on Living Free in Tennessee and wanted to put this in my picks. On Wednesday night, I interviewed Nicole Sauce for the Small Scale Life Podcast, and I was particularly interested in this very topic. We scratched the surface of this, but we didn’t get a chance to do a deep dive on this.
For this podcast, Nicole interviewed April Ray from Radiant Acres about the transition from city life to country life. Four years ago, April Ray and her family moved moved out to the country with a desire to grow their own food and be more self-sufficient. But April’s husband, Nick, kept his day job in Nashville and they’ve learned to be both city and country dwellers at the same time. They’ve discovered that homesteading isn’t an all-or-nothing venture.
This is an important topic that we will be exploring more at Small Scale Life. How do you make that decision and complete that transition? How does this change your life, your family’s lives and your interaction with friends? Check this one out, and stay tuned to Small Scale Life for my interview with Nicole Sauce from Living Free in Tennessee!
Putting The News All Together
As always, if you have a great post or podcast that you would like to include in these weekly news updates, send me a note at realsmallscalelife [at] gmail [dot] com or hit the Small Scale Life Contact Page.
Also, I am going to have some things for you in the near future, so be on the lookout for the following:
- E-mail newsletter coming to your inbox. Subscribe on smallscalelife.com on the Resources Page!
- FREE Seed Starting Guide coming to the Resources Page – Coming Soon!
- FREE Garden Planting Guide and Checklist coming to the Resources Page – Coming Soon!
- Lots of Gardening Posts, Podcasts and Videos coming soon.
There is a lot going on, so check out these content providers as you get your Weekend 3 Things done and enjoy some downtime (while I am shoveling…..again).
Have a great weekend! Go get em, Lifers!