Lifestyle
S17: E13: When Homesteading Takes a Backseat
In this episode of the Old-Fashioned Purpose Podcast, host Joinger reflects on the evolving nature of homesteading in her life as she prepares for a break to focus on her upcoming cookbook. She explor...
S17: E13: When Homesteading Takes a Backseat
Lifestyle •
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Interactive Transcript
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The back of the beginning of this season, when we kicked it off, I alluded to the fact
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that our life has changed quite a bit.
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And if you've followed me over in my newsletter on social media, you've probably gotten
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that sense.
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Our goals are a little bit different right now.
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We're working on some different projects.
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And the typical pattern of life that we have followed for the past, I don't know, 15
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years is just different.
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Not bad, but different.
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And so I've been thinking about this a lot as I contemplate how to show up in my own
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life, how to show up here on the podcast, how to show up on social media, what that looks
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like, how it shifted.
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And so I wanted to dive into that today.
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This is our last episode for this season before we take a little break.
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So I figured it was a good time to explore this idea of what it looks like when home
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studying takes a back seat.
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So here we go.
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Welcome to the old Fashed Up Purpose Podcast.
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This is this show where we look at what we have left behind as we have race towards
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progress as a culture and how we can get good pieces back.
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I'm your host Joinger.
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I have been doing this home setting thing long before it was cool, long before it was
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trendy, long before tradwif was a normal term that we all talked about.
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And I'm really passionate about helping people ask better questions, be inspired to take
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risks and kind of adopt some of these old fashion skills into their everyday modern lives.
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So yes, this is the end of the season.
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I'm going to take a bit more of an extended break than I normally do just because I am working
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on the cookbook pretty heavy right now.
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My deadline is actually September 1st of this year, but I know how summer goes and it's
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insane and ridiculous.
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And so I want to have the bulk of the recipe testing done by me 31st, which is coming
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right up.
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And so I'm taking a little break off the show.
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So I can just hammer down on the recipes.
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It's going really good so far.
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I'm really excited about the recipes that are in the lineup, as we speak.
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You know, a lot of times when a cookbook does well, I feel like the follow up cookbooks
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are usually a little lackluster, kind of the sequel phenomenon, you know, movie sequels
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are rarely as good as the first one.
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And I really don't think that will be the case with this book.
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I'm following in that same vein of recipes that made the first one such a success, the
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stuff that you guys like, simple ingredients, whole food, stuff in your pantry, but we're
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just taking it to the next level.
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And hopefully some things you haven't seen before.
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So anyway, working away on that, testing, testing, testing, so much recipe testing.
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And I'm just going to be a little bit of a hermit for a while.
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Well, how I do that.
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So we'll be back probably mid summer, somewhere in the summer.
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But don't be concerned if you don't see an episode for a little while.
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All right.
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So topic of today's episode is what does it look like or what do we do when homesteading
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takes a backseat in our life?
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And there may be some of you listening to this right now who are going, yeah, that's
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not going to happen, right?
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You're fresh, you're excited.
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You've just jumped on the trend because it is trendy now.
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And I never thought I'd say that homesteading is a trend.
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I have some mixed feelings about that, but that's a topic for another episode on another
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day.
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But homesteading is everywhere.
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It is now a common term.
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When I used to talk about it, I had to always explain it first.
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And now I have random people come up to me and just use it in everyday conversation,
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which is fascinating.
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I'm also seeing how do I say this nice?
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Like there's a couple people in my life like on the periphery of my life.
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I follow on social media, they're like friends or extended family.
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I know when they start talking about something, it's mainstream because they are the opposite
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of early adopters, right?
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When we look at that trend of when ideas come into culture, I'm generally an early
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adopter.
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I know many of you probably are, but I have these people in my life who are the opposite.
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They are the end of the curve.
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They are the bottom of the curve.
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But I know when they start talking about something, it is mainstream.
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And I have started to see several of these people talk about seed oils and beef talo and
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sourdough and raw milk.
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And I'm like, all right, we have officially, we are mainstream in this homesteading idea,
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this homesteading principle.
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So it's kind of just fascinating to watch that.
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I've seen it so many times, there's so many things that I have pioneered or been in
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the beginning of.
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And it's just funny to watch that arc come down.
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So anyway, homesteading is trendy, homesteading is everywhere.
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I saw those homestead bundles that go around.
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I used to participate in them.
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I don't anymore, but they're like the bundle of ebooks and courses.
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And I was just for fun, clicked on it.
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And I was looking at all of the people who had contributed to that bundle.
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And there was probably 30 or 40 people in homestead influencers, quote unquote.
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I knew one of them.
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Back in the day on something like that, I would have been in the bundle and I would have
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known every single person.
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And it's kind of like, I feel like the old guard of homestead influencers, we're off doing
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our own thing now.
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We have this whole new fresh crop of folks who are doing YouTube and stuff.
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So just, it's very interesting.
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But it's also interesting that as homesteading has finally become quote, quote, mainstream,
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trendy, whatever, I have felt like in my own life, homesteading has started to take
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more of a backseat, more than it ever has.
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You know, it used to be my main identity.
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It was my main focus.
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It was the thing that lit me up more than anything else.
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It was what I was talking about nonstop.
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It was what I was sharing about online.
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And I have felt this shift coming gradually for a couple years.
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And then this past six, eight months, it's really picked up speed.
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And I really kind of hit home or really, I sat back and thought about it a month or
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two ago when we lost Oakley, our matriarch melt cow.
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Some of you might have seen that on social media or if you're on my newsletter.
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She was old.
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It was going to happen.
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I hadn't noticed her ailing.
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I think she just died in her sleep.
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But she was, I mean, we've had her since 2011.
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We got her as a heifer.
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So she's been around a while.
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I knew it was inevitable.
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She lived a good life.
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I kept my promise to her that I would not send her to town.
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We would not turn her into hamburger.
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She would earn her retirement with us and she did.
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So it was a peaceful passing for her and I.
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It was something that felt natural and expected.
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But I think more than anything, it felt like the end of an era for us.
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Because Oakley was what started it all.
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I mean, the goats started it all to be fair, but I don't always like to give goats credit.
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So I say Oakley started it all, but she was really the icon for our homestead.
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And when I was posting or preparing a post about her, for Instagram, I was going through
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all my photos of her.
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I have more freaking glamour shots of that cow than I do anything else on our homestead,
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including myself.
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She was just the queen of the homestead.
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And we were, we were, she was, or I was one of the first homestead people in the space,
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the public online space to get a milk cow.
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So her and I were pioneers in that.
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And I know when people watched me with Oakley and our journey with Oakley and all her, her
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babies in subsequent years, it inspired a lot of you to get cows or a lot of you to get
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goats or to look into raw milk.
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And so her passing was just the sense of transition and shifting.
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And it made me think a lot about just what homesteading, the place of homesteading in our
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life now, even though we still have milk cows and we still have some of her grandbabies
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that are set to cab any day now, that will continue.
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But it really felt like the end of an era.
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And I think that's something that perhaps as homesteading is so trendy and so popular
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at this exact moment in time, that maybe a lot of folks haven't thought about yet.
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And it's expected that they wouldn't because a lot of folks are still in that honeymoon
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stage.
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And I think it's important that we acknowledge this because whether you're new or in
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the middle of your homesteading journey or you're, you know, just starting or whatever,
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you're going to sense the shifts just like I have.
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Like I've been doing this for 15 years now.
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So I've gone through the seasons and I want you to be prepared for this will happen
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to you at some point, maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but it will happen to
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you at some point.
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So I want you to have thought through this, even if you're just getting started.
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But there is certainly a whole honeymoon period with homesteading, right?
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Everything's new, everything's exciting.
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It's really this intoxicating sense of bucking the system, making your own choices.
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It's fantastic.
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And I think that's why we're seeing such excitement across the culture right now is more
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and more people get the chickens, start the sourdough, you know, it's almost become
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cliche now, which is funny.
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When I see their memes and the reels, it's like tongue and cheek and I'm like, wow,
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not that long ago, this was still considered so unconventional and so off the beaten path.
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But now everyone I know has chickens, like it's not even a thing.
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No one blinks.
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Everyone's talking about raw milk.
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Everyone's worried about seed oil.
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So there's that excitement when it's fresh and new and you get a ton of dopamine from,
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you know, trying what previously felt scary, whether that sourdough or raw milk and then
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you do it and you realize, you can handle it and it's good and you like it and it just,
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it's the best feeling ever.
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And I said that honeymoon period can last a good long while in your homestead journey
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and in other journeys.
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When anything is new, it's fun and exciting.
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And then you're going to start shifting into more of that comfortable, been there
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done that stage.
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I don't have a fancy term for it.
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But it's kind of that middle stage of homesteading where not everything is quite as new.
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You start to adopt some of these things as just normal, right?
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You've had the chickens for a while.
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You've had some pigs.
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Maybe you've had the cow or the goat.
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It doesn't feel as novel, but there's still pieces that you're expanding and and depths
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that you're going to and your skills and your knowledge that still gives you that excitement.
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And it still keeps that curiosity and that interest fresh, right?
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And so I like that stage and I was in that stage for a long while where we've had, you
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know, the things were built.
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The infrastructure was there.
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I'd pretty much gotten all the farm animals I was going to get.
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I didn't need to keep going and buying new ones or new types.
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But I started to just expand deeper into each of those categories and ask myself, how
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can I garden better?
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How can I bake bread better?
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How can I calm post better?
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And so many of those explorations for me became podcast episodes and blog posts and newsletters.
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And so that season is wonderful and lovely in its own right.
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And I didn't think there was a third season of homesteading.
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I kind of thought that second one was it.
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But I realized there is a third piece and that's where I'm kind of entering now and it's
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uncharted territory for me.
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And I think a lot of folks, although I see some other homestead friends entering it,
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maybe even if they don't realize it yet, it's there.
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And that's this idea where you still are homesteading.
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You still love the principles.
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You still believe in the pillars of what you're doing, why you're doing what you're doing.
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But you start to shift your intentions and your energy into other places.
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And for us, it really became more of a community thing because when we were in that honeymoon
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period or in that comfortable middle stage, it was so self-focused for us.
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Right.
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I was on the homestead 24, 7th.
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Christian was on the homestead.
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The kids were, we were homeschooling all the kids and we were just home, home, home, home.
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And it's beautiful.
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It was a fantastic stage.
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But as our kids get a little older and I've talked about this before and I have felt
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more called to be involved in our community.
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I've realized that that's where I need to be.
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And so it's having a foot in both worlds, both worlds for me, one foot on the homestead,
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still doing the things I believe in to the depths of my being, growing the food, being
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connected to the soil, knowing where my food comes from.
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But also trying to figure out how do I honor this calling.
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I feel very strongly about where I am called to be in our community, having face-to-face
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contact with humans instead of just screen-to-screen contact and making a difference there.
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And so that's where I find myself at this point.
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And I see this happening to other folks too.
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I think this will potentially happen to you if you stick in this world long enough.
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And that's okay.
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And I want to give you some assurance today that if you're there, I don't think it's
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a bad thing.
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I don't think that it's something where we are losing our homestead passions.
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And it's okay if some of the things that you were doing previously, making the bread,
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making the food, don't feel quite as exciting, right?
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Don't feel quite as first shattering or intoxicating because you've done them a million times.
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I think that's also okay.
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And it's okay to let homesteading run in the background while we begin to
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invest our time and energies and focuses elsewhere.
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So that's what I've been ruminating a lot on lately.
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This idea that homesteading, and whatever you want to call it, if you don't want to call
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a homesteading, whatever, growing your own food, cooking from scratch, DIY, whatever you want
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to call this thing that you're doing.
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The reason that you listen to this podcast in the first place, that whole, that call.
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I've really been exploring it as a tool in our life rather than just an identity.
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And I think it's okay if it is an identity for a while.
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It was for me.
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I needed that.
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I've never fit in anywhere.
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I've never, you know, been able to put myself in a box or label myself with other people
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my age or in my categories and I didn't want to anyway.
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But for a while, especially as a young adult, I felt a little bit unmoored because of that.
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And homesteading gave a title and a purpose to my eclecticness and my
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weird collection of interests and the skills I was chasing.
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And I needed that identity for a while.
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And I think so many other people do too, right?
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And that's okay.
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But now I'm like, what if homesteading isn't my main identity?
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I don't need that as my title anymore.
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And now it's a tool.
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It went from homesteading above all else.
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Homesteading is my primary focus to now homesteading as a piece of the larger picture of who I am.
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And I think that's okay.
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And I think back, you know, historically, right?
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We know that food production farming was a huge part of our ancestors lives.
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Prior to the Industrial Revolution, we know that it took a lion's share
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of their time and their energy.
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But I, and I've asked this question on the podcast here before.
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Was that out of necessity or out of choice?
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And I think for most of them, it was out of necessity because I had to eat
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and there was no other way to get food.
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And so now that we are in this modern era, with its good and its bad parts,
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I don't know if food production has to be our primary focus of our life at all times.
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I think it's important.
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I think it's beautiful.
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I think it's, I think every single person should have a part in growing what they eat.
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I still hold all of that.
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But the question I've been asking myself is what if I can still produce food for myself and my family?
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Have my hands in the soil, be connected to the earth, but it doesn't have to be the thing
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that monopolizes my time and energy 12 hours a day.
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And so my question is, can I do that?
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Is that possible?
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What does that look like?
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Is that crazy?
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And that's where I'm at right now.
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Do I have the answers to all of that?
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No, I do not.
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But I have a few pieces and I want to share those with you just more of it,
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off of a tactical angle here in a minute.
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But again, I just want to reassure you that if you're in the honeymoon stage, go for it.
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Dig in, enjoy it, ride the dopamine high.
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And if you're starting to shift away, I don't want you to feel guilty for that either.
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I want you to be able to honor the skills and the knowledge that you have built that you've created.
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Keep those, keep what you want.
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Keep what serves you and then figure out what that next calling is and weave it in
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to the old fashioned life that you've created thus far.
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Hey, friend, I'm interrupting this episode for just a second to tell you about something new
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that I recently discovered and I think you might be interested.
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So here on the show, we talk a lot about ingredient swaps and how we can get back to the nutrients
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we're designed to consume without all of the industrial junk.
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And one of the ingredients that's super important that I think we often overlook is water.
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So obviously our bodies are made up primarily of water and we're supposed to consume a lot of water
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during the day, whether or not we do that is a whole nother topic.
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And beyond that, water can greatly affect the outcomes of some of your old fashioned
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from scratch foods, I'm namely thinking of things like sourdough or lacto-fermented veggies.
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So I was really excited to discover aquatroup, which is a reverse osmosis
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countertop water purifying system, kind of a mouthful, but it's super cool because it filters out
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a ton of chemicals that are likely in your tap water that could not only be less than ideal for
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your body, but they may be messing up your homemade foods and you don't even realize it.
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This filter will take out the forever chemicals, think like PFAS, fluoride, chlorine,
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arsenic, nitrates, pesticides, and herbicides. And those last three are especially concerning if
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you live in an area with a lot of industrial farming because they'll get into the groundwater.
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And I think what I love most about it is it's a countertop purifier pitcher system. So you don't
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have to redo your plumbing, you don't have to hire someone to install it. You just take it out
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of the box and go, honestly, my 11 year old put it all together for me and it was super easy.
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So it filters out 15 times more contaminants than an ordinary pitcher. And I especially love
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the chlorine part because I wish I had a nickel for every time one of you have emailed me asking
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how to get the chlorine out of your water for your sourdough starter. So it can do that
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plus so much more. One filter lasts anywhere from six months up to two years. And if you have
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been buying bottled water, it will save you the same as buying up to 4500 bottles of water. So
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it's a really good deal. And if you head on over to aquatru.com, that's a q-u-a-t-r-u.com. And use
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the code homestead, you can save 20%. So head on over, check it out, and let's get back to the show.
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So I think the danger, if we don't honor shifts like this, is we can get into burnout really,
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really fast. And I have been there in the past where I have needed to put time and energy
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into other areas of my life that were calling to me. But I still felt the obligation and generally
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that obligation was self-induced generally from comparisons, right? I'm thinking, well, I'm a homestead
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content creator. I have to do these certain things. I have to be able to create this content
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because that's what people expect. That's what my peers are doing. So I would put these
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rules on myself, so silly, of what I needed to grow and what I needed to make and what I needed to do,
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even though they weren't really speaking to me personally. And then when you combine all that into
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what you're actually trying to work on that's actually calling to you, that's where you start to
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get resentful. That's where you start to let things slip. You drop the balls and you dabble with
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burnout. And so I think being able to honor the seasons, I'm not trying to beat a dead horse
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here, but I think that's really, really crucial as we are these modern people trying to figure out how
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do we eat these old-fashioned skills into our life. So here are a few practical strategies
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that I am looking at right now. It's spring. The homestead season here in Wyoming, if you want to
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call it that, is really getting ready to explode. We have green grass coming. I mean, hopefully it
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stays green because right now we have no moisture, but I have ceiling started in the basement. I'm
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looking at getting chickens. The cows are going to freshen. So that busy season of homesteading
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is about ready to kick off. And I am feeling, or initially I was feeling a little bit anxious about
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that because I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm writing a cookbook. I'm really involved in the soda fountain
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right now. That's where I want to be. We're having a blast. We're having huge growth there.
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How am I going to do the garden? How am I going to melt the cow? What is this going to look like?
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Am I starting to feel that tension? And so I had to kind of sit down and go, okay, what parts,
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am I keeping, what parts am I putting on the back burner? Maybe not forever. Maybe not. Maybe I'll
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come back into this world. Full fledge. All in. Whole hog. But I had to have this conversation. So
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here's what I ended up with. For me, this probably won't be the same for you, but hopefully this
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thought process will be something that you can apply into your own life, even if you are still in
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the honeymoon stage. These are still good questions because I think we all have the tendency in this
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lifestyle to go a little bit crazy at first. I'm not going to judge you for that because I like some
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crazy. I like some obsession. Obsession gets things done. Obsession changes the world. I am not
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anti-obsession. So go all in if you need to for a while. But I know that in every area of my
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home setting journey, I've had to go kind of big and sloppy and then I had to dial it into what
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works. And then I go big and sloppy again and do all the things and I have to dial it into what
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works. So that's not a bad lesson to apply even in that honeymoon stage if it fits. So the first
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thing I'm really thinking about this year is not abandoning things, but downsizing. So more is not
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always more. I'm trying to figure out how I can do less in ways that are more meaningful. So
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the big one for me with that is the garden. Traditionally, it's been more is more is more in the
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garden. And if I could plant any spot in our property, I was planting it. And that always felt
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good in the spring. And it felt real, real bad. Come on, kiss or September. Because you know,
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you just school starts and you got other things going on. And then you're like, oh my goodness,
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I have to deal with all this stuff that I planted. And now I have to harvest it. And I have to weed it
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and preserve it. So I chose this year to not do that. Or I'm committing to not do that. I haven't
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hopefully I will stick with that. I will stick with that. That is my commitment to myself. I'm
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so I've chosen to not plant our big potato and onion strips this year. I have done that in the past,
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kind of out of obligation again, like I need to do this. And then they take so long to weed,
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even with my landscape fabric. And I just wasn't monitoring them well. And so what I ended up
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having was a pretty poor yield. I put a ton of work in at the beginning, but then I didn't really
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get a good yield. And I'm like, this isn't working out. So if I'm going to do the big long strips
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of potatoes and onions, I need to have a better system or I need to have more bandwidth. Neither of
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which I'm going to be able to put into place by May of this year. So I'm choosing to not plant those.
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And yes, whenever I make a choice like that, I have a little bit of internal tension and fear of
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missing out and a little bit of that guilt, like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I should be doing this,
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other people are doing this. And you got to just like, you got to just ignore it folks. You just
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got to like do what's right for you. So I will be planting potatoes, but not insane amounts of
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potatoes, which is probably fine. It will be fine. We will we will not starve through the winter.
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I'll still be planting my greenhouse. And I'm still planting my raised bed garden. I'm going to
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be planting more strategically. So again, in the past, more was more. So it was scrambling stuff in.
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If I didn't have a plan for a certain bed, I just would put random things in there just to
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fill it, fill it, fill it. And I'm going to be much more strategic. I'm going less tomatoes,
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like let me let me rephrase that. Fewer tomato plants, but I'm going to manage them better,
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because before it was a ton of tomato plants poorly managed, which I think probably my yield
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will be the same if I plant fewer plants, but stake them better, prune them better, trellis them,
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etc. On the vegetables that I always plant that we rarely eat, I'm looking at you beets,
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I plant beets every year because I feel like you I should plant beets. I don't know who's
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telling me I should. I just feel like that's the thing I should plant beets. But then I when it comes
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time to preserve them, I never want to preserve them, because my family doesn't really like them.
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So I'm like, I'm not going to plant the freaking beets this year. Just don't plant the beets. Y'all,
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just don't do it. Revelation, right? It's a revelation. So we're not doing that. I usually
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plant a bunch of charred and an excessive amount of greens. Like I go crazy on the arugula. I don't
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know why. Does anyone else do this? Like I just plant so many rows of arugula, it goes to seed so
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quickly. And then I give it to the chickens like every freaking year. So I don't need to do that.
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I don't need to plant 16 rows of arugula. Maybe one, maybe one row of arugula. And that will be fine.
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So I'm just being strategic and it might sound so silly to some of you. Maybe you guys already
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do this naturally, but I don't. And it's really easy to have your eyes be bigger than your garden
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space in the spring. We've been cooped up all winter. We're tired of being inside. We're ready to
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get outside. It feels good. Go, go, go. But your spring self and your fall self are two different
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selves. You have to remember that. So less is more in the garden this year. And I'm hoping that
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also equates to less maintenance throughout the summer, less weeding, etc, etc. I'm also applying
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this idea into our animals. And the coyotes helped me out a little bit with this with our chickens
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because they got a lot of our chickens this winter, which, okay, it drives me if you want, but
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it kind of needed to happen because there was a bunch of old ones and too many roosters. So I was like,
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well, nature, y'all, it's fine. So we have some of our chickens, but not a lot. So we're down,
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we're way downsized on chickens. More downsides than we've ever been, which initially I'm like, oh my
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gosh, bad, bad, bad. I need to go get 50 more chicks. And I'm like, wait, do I need 50 chicks right
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now? Possibly not, because when I had 50 hens, I was wasting eggs, giving eggs away. I mean, I like
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a lot of eggs. A lot of eggs is fantastic. I don't need quite that many eggs. I was actually losing
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money because I'm not going to sell. I know with how my life is selling eggs is just not something I
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want to do. According to you pick up and money exchange, I just don't want to do that. So I'd give
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them away or we would give them to the pigs and it just like, it wasn't a good use of time or
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resources. So we're going to get more chicks. I'm going to be strategic. I'm going to get fewer
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hens. I want, I want more eggs than I need, but I don't need a ton of more eggs than I need. I
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don't need to go crazy. And so we're going to be doing that this year. We are reorganizing our
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chicken situation. So it's less about just like crazy quantities of chickens that are everywhere
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and kind of sloppy and messy and there's no systems and we're just going to downsize it to where
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it's manageable and easier to take care of. I also think this will be better for the kids because
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they're in charge of a lot of the chores. And sometimes I think with our chaos of
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animals or our lack of systems, it was harder for them to do a good job on chores. It was harder
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for us to hold them accountable. So we're going to go fewer chickens, but better at managed chickens.
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When it comes to our other animals, we're going to finally be getting rid of the goat herd. We have six of
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those Nigerian dwarfs. We haven't been milking them in a while, but I've kept the round because I
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don't know why not, but they just get into everything and they tear up and feed sacks.
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And they're they just don't need to be here. So I'm like, why are we keeping this excess of chaos
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when we don't need to? So we're going to be getting rid of those, giving those goats to a good home.
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Where they're not wreaking havoc around our property. So it's just this idea of
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downsizing, which doesn't mean you're quitting, right? It doesn't mean you're stopping. It just
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means getting more intentional with what you're doing. And my hunch is, honestly, I think we'll
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probably produce the same amount of food that we have been, but with less mental turmoil in the
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process because there's just been that level of chaos, which makes things feel more complicated.
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And I don't think it I know it doesn't equate to yield or food grown.
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The other big piece of this is
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simplifying and systematizing. And I talked about this before and we already kind of had this
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in place, but I'm really leaning on it now. We are being really strategic with automated
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watering, right? So we have floats on our big stock tank. We put an automated water as a couple
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of years ago. So making sure those are up and running. So we're not having to fill buckets
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for every single pin every single day. That's huge, which that allows us to keep things rolling
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in the background and put our energy towards things that are more meaningful versus just
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those chores. Again, that may not be in the budget for you right now. That may not be something
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you can set up right now, but it's something to consider. And I've talked about this. I've had
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whole episodes on this, but in the garden, if I were to hand water my plants, I wouldn't have a
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garden. There's no way I could do that with my schedule right now. There's no way. So having
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timers on the hoses or timers on the sprinklers, you know, Christians pretty handy at setting up
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the overhead fancy automated watering systems. If you aren't able to do that, just get one of those
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timers who screw onto your faucet and let that time your sprinklers or time your
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hoses or whatever. That way there's one less thing you're having to worry about when you're
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juggling all of the balls. So again, little little tweaks here and there, but that is what
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is allowing us to keep that home steady. The pieces that are important to us running in the
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background while doing other things. And I think the last piece of this, so we had just like
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downsizing, but not abandoning, creating the systems and simplifying where possible.
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But the other big piece of this for me is not gilting myself for shifting. And it's easy to do
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right. We get into the comparison trap, but just acknowledging that it's okay to evolve and it's
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okay to shift and it's okay to let new things light you up. And I think honestly, if the same
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things and the same skills that got me excited 15 years ago were the exact same skills that are
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having really learned them yet. I feel like we should be progressing and we should be evolving.
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That's not to say that baking bread still doesn't give me satisfaction. It does. I have a loaf of
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100% whole wheat sourdough bread in the oven right now. And I'm really excited about it because
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it's turning out really good. And my starter is really happy right now. I'm getting joy from that.
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But that's a different level than the bread bacon that gave me joy 15 years ago. And I think we
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need, in fact, I know we need to give ourselves permission to shift and grow. And it's also giving
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ourselves permission that to accept that home setting will always be a part of us, even if it looks
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different, even if it doesn't look like everyone on Instagram, even if you're not in your garden
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wearing your prairie dresses with your baskets every day. In fact, I never do that. So that's never
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but it doesn't have to look like someone on Instagram where they're home setting full time
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or they're staying at home full time in order for it to count, right? Keep the pieces that are
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lighting you up, keep the pieces that aren't making you feel connected to yourself and your family
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and the earth and your community. And then let go of the ones that don't serve you anymore.
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And it sounds elementary, it sounds obvious, but sometimes we can really get stuck on that. I know
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I can for sure, especially when we get into that comparison trap. So remember my friends, as we shift
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into this season of spring and summer and all the home setting things wherever you are in your
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journey, whether it's the honeymoon stage, the middle stage, or you're starting to look into other
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passions and skills that light you up. Home setting is the mindset. It is a tool, but it doesn't have
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to be our whole identity all the time. It can be if you need that, that's all right, but it doesn't
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have to be. So I hope that as you progress into your home setting life, whatever that looks like
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for you, that you can find that happy medium. I know for us, it feels good and I don't even feel
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as inclined to call myself a home set or anymore. Somebody the other day I was in Utah at a
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horse clinic and somebody was asking me what I do, which is always a really hard question to answer
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some like whale. I write books and I do these some stuff online, which anytime you try to explain
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what I do online, it just is really complicated. And then I'm like, you know, I have a restaurant,
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but that's not really our bread butter, but I do things and they're like, oh, are you a home
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setter? I'm like, yeah, but yes and no. Like I used to just own that and I'm like, I am, but I'm
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also other things, right? And so I think there's some freedom in that too. So that's my rambling for
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today. I hope that made sense. That's where we're at. You might start to see me show up a little
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differently online. Like I've been sending a newsletter every Wednesday for years and years and
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years. I think I might change that cadence a little bit. Sometimes I feel like, well, consistency
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number one is good, right? Consistency in business is good. And I believe that and I've taught that
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and I've coached people into that. I also think that sometimes I know for myself I can get into this
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rat room, producing content just for the sake of being consistent and it doesn't always feel
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as useful as I want it to feel. So I may cut down the intervals of my newsletter and just start
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sending things when they're really resonating with me. Because what I found, and this is a note for
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any business owners listening, when something resonates with me, it also resonates with you, the
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audience. And when something feels a little bit stagnant or stale to me, it doesn't really hit
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with the audience either. So don't be surprised if you don't see a newsletter. I'm fine all as well.
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But I'm just going to start sending when it really feels useful and really is lighting me up.
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We're going to just going to try that. The podcast will be coming back. Once I get the cookbook
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buttoned up a little bit more. If you're in the area definitely come see us at the soda fountain. We
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are doing big things there. Our supper nights are selling out. We're experimenting with all kinds
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of food, making some incredible connections with the community. That's just something I'm absolutely
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in love with at this moment. And I'm riding that weight, right? We tried to sell the soda fountain
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last year. You guys know that story or if you don't, you can listen back a couple episodes,
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a couple seasons ago. And the answer was no, you're not going to sell it, you're going to dig in deeper.
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And so that has caused a part of the shift. It's part of the impetus for this episode is,
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what does it look like when we shift? What does it look like when we're called into something
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like a restaurant, like this community involvement? How do we balance those things? How do we hold
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two ideas at once? So you're in Southeast Wyoming, come stop by the soda fountain.
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And that's what I got for you today friends. I hope that was helpful. A little rambly, but
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there we are. So thanks for listening. My bread timer by the way, I'm going to have to go get it out
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by the oven. Hopefully it's okay. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being here and we will catch up
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on the next episode of the old fashion on purpose podcast.