S4E156 Be A Helpful Homesteader

While scrolling through some of the Facebook homesteading groups, I saw over and over again people starting their post by saying, "Please be kind" or "Please don't judge me".  It's sad to me that people feel the need to start out their post that way.   And so, today's episode is really all about being kind, remember that we too, at one point didn't know the things, and that it really isn't hard to be kind to others.  (And when all else fails, we can just scroll on by!!)

Enjoy!!
Brian

Transcript

Brian: 0:02

I'm your host Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth generation homesteader Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here in beautiful upstate New York. In 2019, I launched the Homestead Journey podcast. To help people just like you get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and sustainability. This is the Homestead journey, and this is season four. Well, hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of the Homestead Journey podcast. My name is Brian Wells. I am coming to you from three B Farm and Homestead here in beautiful upstate New York, and this is episode number 156 of the Homestead Journey Podcast. And as I record this, today is Mother's Day. So first of all, let me start out by wishing all of the mothers who listen to this podcast, let me wish you all a very happy Mother's Day. I had the opportunity, the privilege, the blessing today to spend time with my mom and of course with Bonnie, and I don't take that lightly. There were many, many years where, because of where we were located geographically, I was unable to spend time with my mother on Mother's Day. And so certainly it is a blessing to be able to do that. Actually, yesterday evening we went out for dinner and then today we had dinner at my mom and dad's homestead, the humming bee homestead, and it was just a a wonderful time. My dad and I and Brian, Jay, we cooked. So far, nobody has, uh, fallen ill, so I, we'll, we'll take that as a win. But again, just a, a great opportunity, a blessing to be able to spend time with them. And actually just thinking about some things that my mom taught me over the years. Yes, mom, I, I, I did pay attention. Maybe you didn't think I was at the time, but I, I did pay attention. And that actually is a little bit of the background for what we're gonna be talking about as the main topic today on the charting the core segment. And really, it all boils down to be kind, be nice. And sometimes in the homesteading sphere, I see people being really, really nasty to each other. And so today, in honor of Mother's Day and in particular in honor of my mom, I'm gonna just maybe remind you of some things, and I know I, I know I'm preaching to the choir here because I know that the people who listen to my podcast are not nasty people. Okay. No nasty people listen to this podcast. No, I think all of us though, we do need a reminder every once in a while to be nice. And so anyhow, we're gonna talk about that. But before we do, let's jump on over to this week's Homestead Happenings, because folks, man, It was a busy week, both on and off to Homestead and I am so excited to share with you what we've got going on here on three B Farm and Homestead. So buckle up and let's jump on over to this week's Homestead Happenings. Well, certainly it was a busy week here lots of stuff going on, particularly around the garden. And when I talk. Around the garden. I mean that both figuratively and literally. So I spent quite a bit of time this week moving wood chips. I really put aside planting garden because the raised beds had just really gotten a lot of weeds around them. And so I think I mentioned last week that I had, I. We'd whacked that down to bear Earth and this week I just moved up load after load after load of wood chips and then I've got that all leveled out and I've got the fence up now around the, the raised beds and it just looks so much nicer and I'm just getting excited to, to be able to get out there and get. Things planted. I, I actually didn't get anything more planted this weekend just because of the whole, uh, laundry list of other things that I, I ended up doing here on the homestead. But I, I do feel like I've set myself up for success up there, and so hopefully, it will look nicer. So if it looks nicer, I'm, I'm gonna wanna spend more time up there that, that's at least what I'm, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Also spent some time in the Ruth Stout bed. I had shared with you that we had used some pigs to till the land and then I had leveled it out and this week I got some mulk and got that spread out. So that's already for us to plant. So just a lot of planting ahead of us here in the near future. But I'm also glad that I resisted the urge to put out anything that was tender or to plant things that might be frost sensitive. Because we have had up here what some people might refer to as fake. Other people might refer to as fault spring, and some people might refer to it as, Fools Spring because what happens is we get these nice. Beautiful days of 70 degrees even up into the eighties, and things are starting to green up and people are thinking, okay, great. Let me get out there and let me get stuff planted in the garden. But no, no, no, no, no, folks, it's way, I don't wanna say way too early for that, because tomorrow's gonna be May 15th. May 15th is really our last average frost date in my area. And you might remember on episode 1 54, I talked about how your U S D A Hardiness zone doesn't matter. What's important is knowing your last. Average frost date. And so for us, our last average frost date is the 15th of May, but looking ahead in the forecast on Wednesday, it is supposed to get down to 33 degrees, which means. Until that has passed. I certainly don't wanna put out anything that is going to be frost sensitive. And in fact, what I'm doing right now, I'm in the process of hardening off my plants, and so I won't be planning anything that's frost sensitive until after the Southern Adirondack Home Setting Festival, just to be on the safe side, but also because, it's gonna be a busy, busy week getting ready for that. So why put myself under any other pressure where we might end up having to cover raised beds and stuff like that? Nope. I'm just gonna wait until next week when hopefully the threat of frost is passed As I said, I have started hardening off my vegetables. I actually had not gotten around to fitting things out a little bit late to the game on that. So what I decided to try doing this year with my tomatoes that I thinned out is just trying to. Put them in some soil and seeing if I can get them to root. Now, tomatoes are something that really do well with that. If you've ever looked at a tomato plant, you'll see all of these little hairs on the side of the tomato plants. And what happens with those is if the conditions are right, those will actually turn into roots, which is why it's really recommended that you plant tomato plants. Deep because those little hairs are going to develop a nice, healthy root system, which will feed your tomato plant and will help it produce even, uh, a more abundant harvest. And so I'm just rolling the dice. I would normally throw those things out. So I just took another tray, filled up some cups with some potting soil, popped those down in there, and we'll see what we get. But it's always an experiment and it's always fun to try those things out. This week I also got the farm truck running again. That's the good news. Well, I guess the good news is also the thing that was wrong with it is that the MAP sensor, don't ask me what MAP stands for. I think it's manifold air pressure sensor, but don't hold me to that. But that is the reason why my truck was running really, really rough and it was running really, really rich and it was backfiring out the intake. And so, I swapped that out. It was like a$50 part, and boy, I'm back in business, got power, took it for a drive around the block, really, really happy about it. Get home and the thing was smoking like a 4th of July barbecue grill. Said What in the world's going on? Well, when I had it up to my buddy's place. My buddy Mark, who you might remember from my episode, he and my buddy Chad were the ones that I talked through what I should buy with regards to a farm truck. And he took a look at it while it was running rough and he said, Brian, um, it looks like you've got a. Leaky rear main seal. Now the rear main seal is the seal between the engine and the transmission. And while it seems like it's more than just a leaky, uh, rear main seal, it's like a gushy rear main seal. So that is not a job that I'm going to tackle. I just don't have the, I don't have the equipment for it. And so I'm gonna have to take it to my mechanic and have them do it. No idea what it's gonna run me. Uh, but that's the joy of an old farm truck, right? Uh, I bought the truck so I could work on it, and maybe I should just suck it up buttercup and do the work myself, but, It's just the wrong time of the year for me to tackle a project like that. Again, I really don't have the equipment for it. Transmission stands, I don't have a lift, so it would be a pain in the neck to do it, and it would be kind of dangerous for me to do it, so I'm gonna. Take it to a professional, have a professional do it for me, and then we'll see what other gremlins we find. But anyhow, at least the farm truck is running again, and I am very, very happy about that, but very, very sad that I'm gonna have to sink some money into a rear main seal. Last thing I wanted to share with you is that, This week I got a battery powered chainsaw. Now, you might remember back on an episode, I don't, it was several years ago. Don't remember exactly what episode number it was. I was not thrilled with the idea of battery powered lawn tools. I. And to be frank, I still am not convinced that they are a good fit, especially from a government mandate perspective. I think for Joe Blow, a homeowner who might be cutting down a tree every once in a while, A battery powered chainsaw might be a good thing that, in fact, that's the reason why I got that, because with a gas powered chainsaw, they sit around, the carbs gunk up and they're a, a, a bit of a pain in the butt, but, When I think about arborists or I think about people who do landscaping for a living, I'm still not convinced that batteries are at the spot to where you can charge them quickly enough without having to have tons and tons of batteries or very expensive batteries that are gonna hold the charge for a while. So still not convinced that for that application, The technology is there. I might be wrong, been wrong before, I'll be wrong again in the future. But for me, Joe Blow homeowner, who is going to use a chainsaw every once in a great while, I think a battery powered chainsaw and maybe a battery power weed whacker. Um, they're, they're gonna, they're gonna make sense. Uh, and they're, they're starting to get into that spot from a, from a financial perspective where they made sense. I went ahead and got a DeWalt because I already. Live in the DeWalt land. I have, I have a bunch of DeWalt battery powered, drills and saws and, and things of that nature. And this uses the same battery type, so it's a 20 volt battery. It's in that same family. And so it just made sense for me to stay. In that area, in the DeWalt chainsaw does have very, very good reviews, and I can tell you, having used it this weekend to cut down a tree and to cut up a tree, it works very, very well. Now I did go ahead and buy the chainsaw with the five amp power battery. And the reason why I did that is because the other batteries that I have are two amp power batteries, and I felt like I would have to be swapping those out a lot, even though they technically will work with the saw. It's just not gonna give you the number of cuts that I might want, even the little bit that I'm going to use it. So I did get the five amp hour battery. So glad I did. It worked like a champ. I dropped, I don't know, it's probably, um, it was probably a 10 to 12 inch in diameter tree, so we're not talking a giant Sequoia, but it was still a larger than a sapling. And with a 12 inch bar, I was able to, Um, drop that tree and drop it exactly where I wanted it. So I, I was very, very pleased with myself, uh, and I was also very pleased with the performance of the chainsaw. Now, of course, it wouldn't be me running a chainsaw without getting the bar stuck in. Uh, uh, in, in the tree I was, I was, uh, going to cut up some of the limbs and it shifted. And of course now the bar's pinched, and so I had to go get my reciprocating saw my saw saw, and um, cut out the chainsaw because that's just how I roll. Every time I use a chainsaw, I always pinch the bar. Yeah. So I guess I gotta, I, I mean, that's why I don't have a beard and I don't wear flannel. I'm not a lumberjack. Anyhow, I was overall very, very happy with that saw, and we'll see how it, it continues to work for me in the future. Have a few other saplings that need to, to come down around the property and so once I get the garden in, probably start doing some tidying up. But again, very happy with it. So all of that to say folks, Very busy week here on the homestead. A lot of good stuff going on, and I'm just looking forward as we look forward to garden season 2023. Really ramping up. Just trying to remind myself, Brian, it's been fools springing. It's been fools springing. It's been fools springing. You're not as far behind as what you feel. And even if you are, it is what it is. We'll get planted. What we get planted. We'll harvest what we can harvest, and we'll just have to be okay doing the best we can with what we've got to work with. So that's what's been going on here on three B four. I'm in Homestead. I hope things are well wherever you are at. Before we jump on over to this week's charting the course, I did want to let you know a little bit about this coming weekend. So this coming weekend, uh, May 19th, 20th, and 21st is going to be the Southern Adirondack Home Setting Festival here in beautiful, upstate New York. And if you live in this area, And you are interested. We do have weekend passes still available. We have day passes still available. If you're interested at all in checking that out, head on over to the homestead journey.net/festival. You'll be able to, uh, see the, the list of speakers, the timeframes, and also to be able to buy tickets there if you are interested in attending. But what I'm also going to be doing, hopefully, fingers crossed I'm gonna be able to pull this off, is I am planning on going live both Saturday, so that'll be May 20th, and then on Sunday, May 21st at noon Eastern time. And I have set up an event on Facebook. So if you are interested I'm going to be streaming it live on Facebook now. I, I would love to try to stream it live to Facebook and to YouTube. I just don't think the computer I have is gonna be able to handle that. I also am not 100% sure that the bandwidth I'm going to have to work with would support that. So this year, just trying to keep things simple. We're just going to go live on Facebook for sure. Well, when I say for sure, fingers crossed that I can get everything all set up and working the way, but I'm planning on going live on Saturday and on Sunday from noon Eastern until one o'clock. I am also hoping to maybe throw in a few other lives, just kind of on the fly as we go throughout the weekend. So maybe Friday night I might be able to pull it off maybe Saturday night. We'll just have to see how things go. I'm hoping to also get some interviews while I'm there. For future episodes. And I am also going to take both of those lives and I am planning on turning those into future episodes as well. So if you miss the lives or you don't like Facebook, or you're not on Facebook, don't worry, you're not gonna miss out. Those will be future episodes, probably edited, but uh, those will be available in the future. So if you can't make it to the lives, certainly don't. Don't panic, they'll, they'll be available in the future. I'm also fingers crossed, hoping to record both of my talks that I'll be giving. I'm gonna be giving a talk, a keynote, uh, on what is home studying and why does it matter. And then I'm also gonna be talking about chickens. And so, uh, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to record both of those and those will become future. Episodes of content here on the podcast, but all of that to say, my guess is that next week after a busy, busy weekend, I, I'd love to say, There's gonna be an episode, or the episode might be a day late. My guess is there's not gonna be an episode next week. My guess is I'm just gonna be so beat. I'm gonna come home, I'm gonna collapse on the couch, and that's gonna be all she wrote. So, uh, if there's an episode, there's an episode. If there's not, there's not, please bear with me. Please have patience, but certainly there will be the lives available. Just in case you have to have that Homestead Journey Podcast fix. All right. All of that said, let's jump on over to this week's charting the course, and let's talk about being kind one to another. Here we go. So as I was scrolling through some of the home setting groups on Facebook, and, and to be frank, I don't do that much anymore. I, I was struck by the number of times where people would post something along the lines of, I have a question, please be kind, or, I have a question. Please don't judge me. I thought how sad it is that people cannot come to a forum, a Facebook group, where there is a lot of knowledge that they can draw from, and yet they cannot do it in a way where they're. Not afraid of being ridiculed and made fun of and people just being jerks. To me, that's so sad because a big part of homesteading is community and unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't have the physical community that I've been blessed. To, to have, they don't have a, mom and dad that support them They don't have family that they grew up in who have been willing to pass on the, the knowledge and the skills They don't have the. The, the network of friends that have been willing to show them how to castrate pigs like my buddy Jack Rowland showed me, They just don't have that community. And so they come into these Facebook groups looking for that. And unfortunately, a lot of times what they find is they find vitriol, they find meanness, they find unkindness. And today in the spirit of Mother's Day and in the spirit of saying, Hey, mom. I did hear what you were saying when I was growing up. I haven't always put it into practice, but I did hear what you were saying. Let's just talk about a few things. So the first thing I want us to remember is that their journey is not our journey. When you look at what somebody's wanting to do on their homestead, and maybe they're desiring to go off grid and you're like, that's crazy. Or maybe they're not gonna go off grid and you think they should go off grid, whatever it is, just keep in mind that their journey is not our journey. In fact, I was talking to a friend of mine today at church and we were talking more in the context of what it means to be a farm. Now they have a homestead. In fact, they've bought some pigs from me and they're going to be getting a family milk cow this week. And they have, uh, meat birds right now out on pasture. Like they're doing the things and they're learning skills and they're trying to pass those skills on and share those skills with other people as they've been learning things. And she was telling me how when she talks to people, she always feels like she has to qualify what their farm is because so many people think that unless you have 800 cows or a thousand cows that you're milking, you're not a real farm. And in fact, both she and her husband grew up on. I, I believe on dairy farms or around dairy farms like that. And so even they have a hard time wrapping their heads around that. What they're doing really is, is farming and they don't need to qualify it. They don't need to make excuses for the reason why they do the things that they do. Because their journey is not anybody else's journey. Now they're getting a family milk cow this week. Guess who has no desire to have a family? Milk cow. This guy right here? Yeah, me. I have no desire to have a family milk cow. Now, I'm not saying that I will never have a family milk cow, but right now, that's not part of my journey. I don't think it will ever be a part of my journey. I'm excited for them, but that's not my journey. That's their journey, and so I'm gonna cheer'em on. I'm not gonna say you're crazy for getting a family milk cow. Do you realize how much is gonna tie you down and how much it work? No. Why would I do that? I'm gonna encourage them. Because that's their journey. It's not my journey. And so when you see people going a route that's different than you, or they're doing things differently than what you would do them, just keep in mind that they're on a different path or maybe they're on a different step of the same path, but it doesn't matter. Your journey is not their journey and their journey is not your journey. The second thing I would say is, Your self-sufficiency is different than their self-sufficiency. Now what do I mean by that? Well, as you might remember, way, way, way, way back in the day as I was talking about what it means to Homestead, and in fact if you look at this logo right here, those three S's, which look like a path, you know, signifying a journey, but it's three S's. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance and sustainability. Now you might remember I talked about self-sufficiency, meaning stuff, the things that we can raise, grow, produce, and or process on our homestead. Self-reliance speaks to skills. Do I have the skills necessary to raise, grow, produce, and or process the stuff that I need? And sustainability speaks to systems. Do I have systems in place whereby with minimal to no off-farm, off homestead inputs, I can apply my skills to raise, grow, produce, and or process the stuff that I need? Well, the stuff that you need. And the stuff that I need are probably going to be two totally different sets of stuff. The things that are important to you may be different than what's important to me. Going back to my friends, they're getting a family milk cow. For them, having their own dairy is important. So what's self-sufficiency to them is different than what is self-sufficiency to me. And that's okay. What's important to you is probably gonna be different than what's important to me. And what's important to me might be different than what's important to you. And you know what? It might change over time. As you know, I'm in the process of getting out of pigs. Why am I getting out of pigs? Well, I'm getting out of pigs in part because we have been transitioning to the Mediterranean diet and we don't need the pork. So why raise pigs? I don't need to raise pigs to be a homesteader, right? That part of self-sufficiency is no longer a part of my journey, and you're going to have those ebbs and flows and it's all good. So when. You see somebody generating or try attempting to generate something that maybe you think is foolish. So what? What's important to them is different than what's important to you. And maybe you look at somebody and you say, well, why aren't you doing this? And why aren't you growing this? And why aren't you generating this? Maybe it's not important to them. Or again, going back to what I said before, maybe they're on a different step on their journey. It's okay. Their self-sufficiency is different than your self-sufficiency. Your self-sufficiency is different than their self-sufficiency. What they need and want is probably different than what you need and or want, and it's all good. The third thing I would say is this. You don't know at all. You don't know at all. And what you do know, keep in mind. This what you do know at one point in your life you didn't know at one point in your life, somebody shared with you the knowledge that you now currently have. Now, maybe you've learned it through the school of hard knocks, okay? But even learning it through the school of hard knocks means that at one point in time you didn't know what you know now. And the other thing is, folks, there's more to learn. You're never gonna know everything. And I, I see so many times on the home setting groups, people who think that either A, they know it all, or B, they have no desire to help other people. All they wanna do is just stand and mock and be like, well, I learned it through the school of hard knocks. So you need to learn the hard lesson. Why B, that way, why, why, why be that way? If you're further on down the road than somebody else, pass on what you've been given, pass on what you've been blessed with. Pay it forward. You know, my buddy Jack Rowlin, he came here one day and he showed me how to castrate pigs, and I had some friends. That bought some pigs from me later on. Who? Then? They're Sal Faron, and so they had some piglets and so now it was a matter of they needed to learn how to castrate pigs. Now I could have been a jerk and be like, watch YouTube videos, or I had little figured out why would I do that? Jack was kind enough to show me how, so you know what I did? I went up to my buddy's house and I showed him how to do it. Uh, it's not the most pleasant thing in the world to do, and there's a lot of different ways you can do it, just to be frank. I shouldn't say a lot of different ways, but there's several different ways that you can do it. But I went up there and I showed him, Passed it on. I paid it forward because there was one point in time in my life when I didn't know how to castrate pigs. Quite honestly. It's a skill I'd rather not know. I don't think there's anybody that enjoys that process. If you do, you, it's sick, twisted son of a gun. But no, it's something that I learned and so I passed it on and I'm just simply saying that as we learn skills, we acquire knowledge, help somebody else along the way, and just understand that you don't know it all. You're never gonna know it all. And if you think you know it all, you are a fool. There's always something else to learn. It's a new way to learn. And you know what? Sometimes folks are gonna do things differently than you do. They may not necessarily buy into the same philosophies that you do. They may go down a different road than you're going down. God bless'em. You know what? It might work. You know what? It might not work. And if it doesn't work, don't be a jerk about it. Ah, I told Jada, why, why be that way? Just try to help'em learn from their mistakes, encourage them to get back up to try it again, to keep on going. And the other thing is this. Sometimes you run across stuff and, and folks, this is a growing edge for me. I'll just be honest with you, but you don't have to jump into everything. There's sometimes there are people who post things that they're just seeking attention. Scroll on by. There are other people who maybe they've got an opinion about a topic that's different than yours. Sometimes it's best just to scroll on by. Other times, maybe there's an opportunity to have a dialogue with somebody to try to understand why they have that perspective. But if you start seeing things go off the rails, just let it be, keep in mind, homestead is not a competition. There's not any prize for world's best homesteader. It's not a race, not like who can get there bigger, faster, et cetera. No, it's just a way of living where hopefully today, I'm a little bit more self-sufficient, self-reliant and sustainable than I was yesterday and what other people think. And what other people say and what other people are doing. Does it really matter if I'm finding joy and I'm generating the things that I need and I want, and if my soul is filled and my soul is fed, does anything else really matter? I don't think so. But what do you think? Reach out to me, Brian, at the homestead journey.net. I would love to hear from you. You can also find us on all of the socials links are in the show notes. Folks, it's gonna be a busy week here on the homestead. I'm looking forward to the Southern Adirondack Homestead Festival. if you are up here in the great Northeast. And you've got next weekend free. I'd love to meet you in person, but if not, don't forget, we'll be going live. And so you're going to be able to hear from some of the attendees, some of the speakers. If this all works out well, I think it's gonna be a good time. So if you can't make it in person, show up for the lives. And see what's going on here in beautiful upstate New York. Until next time, everybody, as always, keep up the good work.