S4E167 Six Lessons I (re)Learned at the Fall Gathering of the Homesteaders of New England 2023

This past weekend, I had the privilege of helping Jack Pollner put on the Fall Gathering of the Homesteaders of New England.  What a great time!!! On this episode I share with you about the event, including 6 lessons I've (re)learned by attending the event.  Enjoy!!

Brian

Transcript

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I'm your host, Brian Wells. And I'm a fourth generation homesteader. Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here. 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. His season four. Well, hello everyone. And welcome back. To another episode of the homestead journey podcast. So excited to be back here in beautiful upstate New York after a weekend, over in beautiful Southern New Hampshire. But as always, my name is Brian Wells and I am coming to you from. Three before I'm at homestead. Here in beautiful upstate New York. This is season four, and this is episode number 167. Of the homestead journey podcast. If you were brand new to the podcast, Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. I am so glad. that you have decided to make me a part of your day. And I do hope that you find. This podcast. Helpful. If there's any way that I can be of help to you, any topics that I haven't covered in the past? That you would like to have me cover. And this certainly doesn't just hold true for people who are new to the podcast, but it also. Holds true for those of you who have been around for awhile. Reach out to me. brian@thehomesteadjourney.net is my email address. Or you can contact me on all of the social media. accounts that we have links for in the show notes. If you're a longtime listener, of course. Welcome back. So grateful to have you here with us. And today's episode is going to be a little bit different than what I have done in the past. for a couple of reasons. Number one for time constraints. I'm trying to get this episode recorded and edited in up. a day late. And a dollar short. No. A day later than I normally do. And I have another meeting coming up here at seven o'clock. so I need to get this recorded and uploaded. So this is going to be a shorter episode. that I normally do at least I think it will be. And also, I'm not going to do a homestead happening segment other than to tell you. That last Monday being labor day, Bonnie and I want kayaking. I spent a number of days prepping to go to the homesteaders. Of new England conference, which was this past weekend in Greenfield, New Hampshire. And so there really wasn't a lot to tell you about with regards to, what's been going here on the homestead simply because other than trying to keep body and soul together, And joined some of the provisions from the garden and then trying to keep body and soul together with my animals. There's not been a whole lot going on in the homestead simply because we were prepping to go to homesteaders of new England. And then we spent the weekend there. And so the focus of today's episode is going to be a bit of a recap of home centers of new England. And then also I'm going to share with you six things that I learned, or maybe relearned. Well, I was there at the homesteaders of new England. So on Friday. Bonnie and I left early afternoon and headed on over to a beautiful green field, New Hampshire, and a wound our way up through the mountains of Southern Vermont. And. We arrived at Oak park where the homesteaders of new England. Fall gathering, took place. Just before some. Wicked weather settings. I took over with me a 10 by 20 tent that we had borrowed from my sons. Boy scout troop. Or maybe I should say former boy scout troop, but anyhow, they were gracious enough to lend that to me. Bonnie and I arrived in Greenfield again, just as that weather was coming our way. So we set that up very, very quickly and were able to get it set up and state down just before. A series of thunderstorms roll through. Don Bradner for a little mountain life was there. Helped me get it set up. And then Jack headed home to bring his tractor. Back to the event. So while we were waiting for Jack to come back with a tractor, we were hanging out underneath the pavilion. As that first thunderstorm came in, as we're standing there, looking out, we happened to see. Jax easy up, start to kind of lift up off the ground in the wind. And so Don. Made a mad dash for that. I followed him. Couldn't keep up. I'm not in as good of shape as Don is. Evidently. And so we made it underneath the pop-up started holding it down just to see lightning start flashing all around us. And so Don kind of looks over at me and he says, well, Brian, If we go out like this, it's been nice. No one. Yeah. But anyhow, We were able to survive that first passing of thunderstorms. Another line of thunderstorms came in and Jack and Dawn decided they would make a, a little bit of a detour over to the park to check on everything because we had vendors that had set up pop-up tents. We had the big, huge tents. That had been set up and as they were pulling in and looking at it, well, a big gust of wind came through and it literally snapped. The top of one of the anchors we had some of those screw into the ground. Anchors it snapped the top of one of those right off and flip that 10 by 20 tent. Right up on it top. And so I get a text from Jack that said something along the lines of. How partial are you to that tent? And I'm like, oh my goodness what's happened. I said, did it flip over? He said, yup. Okay. Is it mangled? Nope. I don't think there's any damage. What couldn't you have led with that, Jack? I mean, come on now. I have a little bit of heart. But anyhow, it survived the rest of the tent survived. And on Saturday we went ahead and kicked off the event and really had fairly good weather for the day. In fact, it was probably a little bit on the hot side. But no rain at all on Saturday, which was amazing considering what the forecast. W had been now on Sunday, it was a bit of a different story on Sunday. We did have some more rain that came through, but it did come through it, it felt like at optimal times, When we would have people under the tent, listening to the speakers and really between speakers, people were able to make their way from one tent to another, if they were going to switch, because we did have two speaker tents going this year. And they were able to do so relatively in a dry manner. With the exception, I think of one of the breaks. But overall the event went off. W very, very well without a hitch. There were a few little snafoos here and there, but overall it just went so very, very well. And just so grateful to all of the speakers that came, had a great lineup of speakers. I didn't get to hear everybody because there were times when I was at one tent. Hyping a speaker in there to kind of assist them. And so I didn't hear what was going on. In the other tent, but the talks that I did here were just absolutely excellent. And I really, really enjoyed them. Certainly it was great to see Jack and Jackie. And their family from the mindful homestead, Don Bradner from little mountain life, always just an absolute pleasure to hang out with them and to renew acquaintances and just kind of pick up where we left off Emma, Jack and Jackie's daughter just loves Bonnie. But it certainly was just an absolute pleasure and just a great time hanging out with them and some of, of their friends from, from back in the day and hearing some of the stories, some of their college friends. Just was an absolute, absolute privilege. And it was just a joy. And it certainly was great to, to see people who were at last year's event, there were a few people that had joined us for the Southern Adirondack home setting festival back. In may who were there. And so it was great to renew acquaintances with them. I was able to see rich Giordano who was just absolutely a wonderful, wonderful guy. A brilliant, brilliant man. And so it was great to see him as well. And then of course I had the opportunity to to meet some new people. I will have the opportunity to meet some people that you may be familiar with. In fact, some of them, I know you are familiar with because they've been on the podcast before and I've been on their podcast. And a, an example of that would be Troy McClung from red tool house, YouTube channel, and from the pastured pig podcast. And I got to meet him and his wife. And their family, and that was just an absolute, wonderful, wonderful time. I was able to meet Alan Gina from lamina acres. Great people just wonderful people. I can't say enough. Good about them. And had the opportunity to meet ginger from Murray McMurray hatchery. Marie McMurry was the title. Sponsor of the, I guess the presenting sponsor of the homesteaders of the England conference this year. They were last year as well. And getting to know her and spend some time with her was just absolutely a joy as well. I've got to spend a little bit of time with Morgan gold from gold Shaw farm. And Danny from wicked awesome gardening. YouTube channel and Facebook. And so it was great getting to know and to renew acquaintances with, with people like that. But it was also great to be able to sit down and to break bread with other individuals, other homesteaders, maybe that don't have a YouTube channel, Some of them might have a small YouTube channel. don't have a huge following. But just such an honor and a privilege to meet everybody and to have conversations and to share stories and to commiserate one with another and to share in the joys and successes. And it just was such an awesome, awesome time. And Bonnie and I ate lunch with some people from the north shore one day and we ate lunch with some people that were from Rhode Island. The next day. It just had really great conversations and had great interactions and. It was just, it was just an absolutely amazing, awesome time. And then just to hear from people who listen to the podcast and for them to share with me how much the podcast has meant to them. Um, certainly was a validation of why I do what I do. And so thank you so much. Thank you so much to everybody who made the event. As awesome as it was such a joy to be a part of that. We got home late last night. I think it was a little after eight by nine o'clock. I was in bed zonked out. I was absolutely exhausted. I think on Saturday with the exception of the lunch break. I think I sat down a grand total of probably 20 minutes throughout the whole day. I was on my feet on the go. All day long and enjoyed every minute of it. But certainly it wore me plum out. I'm certainly not as young as I used to be. And so definitely those kinds of things catch up to you. Very very quickly. But thank you so much to everyone. Attendees vendors, speakers, sponsors. Who helped make homesteaders of new England, what it was this year and for your continued support to make it, to continue to make it even better in years to come. I'm already looking forward to. Homesteaders of new England, 2024. So what I wanted to end with today is I want to just share with you. Six lessons or six things that I learned, or maybe you relearned from being at the home centers of new England conference this year. The first thing I learned, and this is a little bit tongue in cheek, a little bit of a poke, maybe. But that is that a New Hampshire isn't as free as I thought. It's one of those things for me to live here in upstate New York and have people tell me that I live in the calming state of, of New York. And sometimes it feels that way. All of the regulations, the high taxes, all of the, the nonsense that we put up with. And you kind of look and think, well, maybe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and, and. In all seriousness, there's probably a lot there, there are probably a lot of ways where it is that way in New Hampshire, but certainly it was very interesting to me. As I listened to some of the talks in particular, there was a talk by the cooperative extension from the university of New Hampshire. On selling. Poultry. Um, On breeding and selling poultry in New Hampshire. And there actually were some regulations that they have that we don't even have here in New York state. And so that kind of left me chuckling a little bit. And then we also had a great panel discussion led by Don from porcupine real estate. And then w members of that were Morgan from gold Shaw farm and Danny from a wicked awesome gardening. That was focused on buying land in new England. And because Dom is licensed in New Hampshire, it really was focused heavily. With regards to that. And again, hearing some of the gotchas, the land use restrictions. Zoning regulations and so forth that can be found in New Hampshire. It's one of those things that I was reminded that wherever you go there you are. And so the grass is not always greener on the other side. Of the fence. The second thing I was reminded of is the more local the event is to you. I think the more valuable the information you're going to get. And again, a great example of that was the panel discussion on buying land for your home set now? Well, there certainly was a lot of information, a great information to take away from that talk that would apply to buying a homestead anywhere you go. Certainly though. The information. Was more helpful and more, more useful. To people who are looking to buy land in New Hampshire. Because again, that's where Dom is a licensed real estate agent. And it would be very, very difficult nigh unto impossible to bring in somebody who could speak to that in every state. Within new England. And then when you go to a conference like homesteaders of America, which really encompasses all of the United States, Maybe even Canada and Mexico, and I don't even know where else they've got people that come from. But then to get somebody that can speak to the minutia, the nitty-gritty. Maybe gotchas that you need to think about that might pertain to the area that you're looking at. It becomes even more difficult. And so that's why I think these regional events are so very important. Because the more localized it is, the more meaningful it's going to be. To you. And so I was really reminded of that fact. This past weekend, the third thing that I learned this past weekend. Is that the UNH cooperative extension is looking to put together a comprehensive, website and program specifically geared to homesteaders. And that's something that. I at least I'm not aware of with cooperative extensions. In the states near where I am. And now if you live in a state where they have a comprehensive program, For home setters through the cooperative extension, I would love to hear about that and I will certainly make people aware of that through. Whatever means I can, because I think it's very, very important that people have access. To those kinds of resources, but UNH cooperative extension certainly has. Identified that as a gap. And so what they're doing is while they have a lot of things that would be helpful to homesteaders, it's kind of siloed. And they're trying to pull all of that together and connect the dots to really help people who were brand new to homesteading know how to homestead well within New Hampshire and how to be able to access the resources that maybe they need in order to find success. And I think any kind of program like that. Is going to be very, very beneficial to homesteading in the long run. And so I'm very excited to see how that grows, how that morphs. I spoke to the gentleman who is leading that effort. And one of the things right now is they really don't know what they don't know. And so if you're a homesteader in New Hampshire and there are resources. That you would like to see or that you would like to have available to you? Reach out to them. Reach out to the UNH cooperative extension. And just let them know. I'm excited to see how it grows. In New Hampshire and looking to see if maybe we can use that as a pattern or a template to do the same thing here in New York state. The fourth thing that I learned. And I, and. I want to say learned relearned, but I was reminded of. Is that there are always new rabbit holes to go down. It doesn't matter how long you've been doing this folks. There are always new things to learn and. You go to events like this, Whether it's homesteaders of new England or the Southern Adirondack homesteading festival or homesteaders of America or whatever it is. And there's always something new to learn about. And a new rabbit trails to pursue. And so for me, Two of the big ones that I came away with was to explore again. heritage meat, birds, ginger from Murray McMurry gave a really, really excellent presentation on hybrid versus heritage. Meat birds. And really piqued my interest with regards to a few varieties that I had not really considered, not really thought about. And so I'm thinking about maybe exploring those will. I, I don't know, but it's definitely a rabbit hole that I'm thinking about. Heading down how far I go down that rabbit hole. Still remains to be seen. But it certainly was a very, very interesting talk. The second thing. Is something that I'm aware of. I actually was introduced to back at the sharkutery event that I went to with. With Jack that was led by Meredith Lee, who you might remember. From being on the podcast a couple of years ago. But was Koji fermentation Had an excellent presentation on that at the event this past weekend. And so it's something that I'm interested in exploring a little further, how far I go down that rabbit hole. I don't know. But I was just reminded that there's always something new to learn. There's always something new to discover and. Those were two of the things that really stuck out to me. The fifth thing that I was reminded of, this past weekend, at the fall gathering of homesteaders of new England. Is that hearing other people's stories is inspiring. One of the things that I just really, really enjoyed this weekend was sitting in chatting with other homesteaders and hearing their stories, hearing how they had gotten into homesteading hearing about the mistakes they'd made along the way, hearing about the successes that they had had. And all of that just really served to inspire me, reinvigorate me and send me back here to three B farm and homestead just re-energized to keep. Doing what I'm doing. And I think. That's probably. The best reason to go to these events. It's one thing to chat with people online. And I'm not discounting that. But it's such a different thing. When you are sitting with people across the picnic table. And joining tacos and joined chips. And just chatting about how people have gotten to where they're at and where they plan on going next. And. Having people ask me about things that I have learned along the way. And just making those connections. It's just so inspiring reinvigorating and I just absolutely enjoyed. That part of it. But I would also say. That I came away reminded that I need to homestead. For the stage of life that I'm at being careful that I don't do too much, that I don't go down too many rabbit holes, knowing when to say yes, knowing when to say no, knowing when to start things, knowing when to quit things, knowing when to put things. On pause. All of those things are so very vitally important in order for somebody to have success long-term as a homesteader. And so I certainly was reminded of that again, this past weekend. So totally enjoyed the homesteaders of the wingless fall gathering this year. And I am so excited about the one in 2024. I hope, but if you are in the great Northeast, if you miss this one, don't miss next. Year's. Mark and on your calendar the second full weekend in September, you're not going to want to miss it. And of course, Coming up in April of 2024, there will be the Southern Adirondack homesteading festival. And so if you want to be a part of that as well, we'd love to have you. And if you don't live in the great Northeast, my recommendation to you is to find. As close to you as possible. Homesteady new vent. So that you can make those connections. Because, as I said before, The closer that event is to where you live. I think the more valuable the information, because it's going to just have greater focus. In the area that you're at. In my opinion, if it's done correctly. And certainly I felt like Jack did it right. Once again. So folks, that's it for this episode of the home set journey podcast. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope it's inspired you. To go find a home setting conference. If there's not one near you start one. I just tell you folks. As physically tired as I was, when I got home, I was so recharged. Re-energized reinvigorated. Reinspired. By being at the fall gathering at the home centers of new England. And so I want the same for you. If you're kind of stuck in a rut, if you're feeling bad, And you're thinking about throwing up your hands and in, and moving on and trying something else. Before you do that. See, if you can find. An event like this to go to and see if it reignites that, that fire in your belly. Just re sparks, rekindles that desire for you to pursue self-sufficiency self-reliance and sustainability. Folks. I hope you've enjoyed this. That's it for this week. Until next week, everybody. Keep up. The good work.