Chris Johnson joins us today to discuss his journey of building a house on raw land. Chris was born and raised in Oklahoma and grew up in the suburbs of Tulsa. After high school, he went to a local university to study Computer Science and met his wife, Ashley.
They got married after college and started building the quintessential middle-class life in the suburbs. Following a winding path of 14 years and 4 kids later, Chris learned who Dave Ramsey was, dealt with a house break-in, bought a gun (and then a few more), listened to a bunch of podcasts (including some crazy dude named Jack), HODL’d, and started to make a point of learning everything he could, about everything.
After many years of planning and saving, Chris and Ashley were finally able to start their homestead journey by selling their suburban home, moving in with the in-laws, and closing on 10 acres…1 month before COVID.
The next two years of building a house during COVID were a rollercoaster of struggles and joys. Chris has documented their journey on YouTube and continues to provide his take on building a homestead from the ground up.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is The Ringer Cast Iron Scrubber. As a long time user of carbon steel and cast iron I was pretty interested when I first heard about this little gadget. I picked one up figuring I would try it out and likely it would be like many gadgets, sure it sort of works but big honking deal and it would end up in the junk drawer.
Um, WRONG! This thing is awesome, and it is one I am frankly late to the party on. I have had a lot of folks over the house and if I used my pans to cook for them, I always show them the ringer, most are like, yep got one of those. Why? Because it fricken works and it makes your cast iron better over time.
Here is what I do, I generally heat up my pan with what ever crud is in it to medium hot, I then dump in a cup of water or two, it deglazes the crud. I take the hot pan over to the sink and dump out the water, add a bit more and give it a scrubbing with the ringer. This with a well seasoned pan is all you really need, just heat dry and oil and you are good.
What I do a lot of times though, especially if there is a small amount of crud left is put in a big pinch of kosher salt, it acts like scouring powder and give it a bit more scrubbing with the ringer. This not only cleans it perfectly but it is doing micro sanding of the iron and patina at the same time.
So if you cook with carbon steel or cast iron, consider getting The Ringer Cast Iron Scrubber into your kitchen today. At only 15 bucks it is a great deal, I have had mine about 2 years now and it is still as good as new.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
Mick Morucci is the co-founder of Geyser, a reward-based crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin’s Lightning network. He built Geyser to help creatives, developers, educators launch their initiatives through the support of their community.
By building on Bitcoin’s lightning network Geyser enables what Mick calls “borderless crowdfunding”: crowdfunding that can happen regardless of geographical barriers, is fully interoperable with other platforms on the lightning network without any platform barriers and without censorship.
Mick has a background in Anthropology and Economics and has been studying and working in the Bitcoin ecosystem for over 6 years. He’s here to talk about Geyser, the Lightning Network, Bitcoin, money and more. In other words today we are talking about taking the quiet insurrection up a notch. Changing the world in a peaceful but unstoppable way, though 100% voluntary cooperation.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Price Alert– It’s back again because it is on sale for 50% off again and everyone of you guys that picks up one or two of these guys seems to love them. It is a lifestyle hack that costs about 10 bucks and five minutes to install. From that point forward your home runs just a little bit better.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Cable Matters 6-Outlet Wall Mount Surge Protector and it is one of my favorite little gadgets for making my life easier. It is available in both black and white depending on your preferences.
There are so many reasons I love this thing. First is my wife and her fricken air fresheners that plug in. She has them all over, and okay they smell nice but plug in one and you loose two outlets. This lets me take them back for more practical things like my favorite power failure lights. But I will admit those too take way an outlet and most of the time it doesn’t matter.
But then you are cooking and want to plug in your spice grinder or some other gadget, fricken outlet is blocked. By expanding dual boxes into quads or six ways you can still plug in another item or two.
Next there are the USB ports, these have two 2.4 amp charging ports for USB devices. While not as fast as 3.1 USB ports they are not snails either. I use them all the time and they put juice back in my phone plenty fast. They are really great at times when the phone is low and say I am cooking, I want to plug it in but am listening to music and don’t want to walk to the other room to skip songs, etc.
The next thing I love is something that could be a problem for some folks or in some rooms, suffice to say I won’t put one of these in my bedrooms. Why? Well they have a green power indicator light on them. It is actually bright enough to be like a night light. So when you get up in the night you have enough light not to stub your toe. I am sure you could paint over part of this light or put a bit of tape on it to dim it down a bit if you wanted to.
Last but not least the entire unit is a surge protector that protects your electronic devices from surges. And to top it all off, again it is on sale today with a total cost of 10.99 on sale today with free shipping on Prime.
Frankly I have looked at dozens of similar products and for the money nothing beats this one, especially marked down like it is today. So check out the Cable Matters 6-Outlet Wall Mount Surge Protector today and take back your outlets! I have two of these in my home, the oldest has been in operation for about 5 years now. It still works perfectly, I mean what else an you ask for at about 10 bucks and change.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
Would you like to know how to grow pounds of organic food… buy loads of groceries at cheap prices… stockpile enough food to survive any emergency… and slash your debt to “stretch your dollar”…
And I mean even if you have no land, live in a small home, make little money, and have never done it before?
Join John Bush and Rebecca Powers for the Exit and Build Homesteading on a Budget Workshop!
Throughout the workshop, you’ll discover proven methods for:
Growing pounds of fresh, organic food to eat year-round whether you live in a 0.1-acre suburban home or cramped apartment `
Buying high-quality food your family loves at bargain prices at select stores online and offline (where to shop, what to buy, tricks to use, and much more) `
Strategically stocking and prepping enough food to feed you and your family during a blackout, riot, storm, or total economic disaster `
Eliminating debt, slashing expenses, and cutting costs to have more money and freedom for the lifestyle you want even with little income and a low-paying job (these strategies work no matter how much money you make or how much debt you have)
And it gets better, if you buy you ticket before Friday August 12th at midnight you also get instant access to two awesome bonuses…
A workshop by Marjory Wildcraft on How to Grow Half Your Food in Your Own Backyard in Less than One Hour Per Day `
A workshop from Paul Wheaton on SKIP, Skills to Inherit Property. `
Both of the these are from Day 3 of the Exit and Build Land Summit II.
In my recent talk with Ken Berry about home meat/egg production the subject of quail came up. It may be the easiest and fastest way into production for the largest number of people. Eggs hatch in 18 days, young meat birds are ready for harvest in 6 weeks, new layers start laying in 7 weeks. You can breed your own replacements. It can all be done in a back yard or even a garage. Today we talk about how to maximize this highly over looked aspect of home meat production.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
Why the quail for meat and eggs
Fast growth
Easy to reproduce in house
Fast to egg production and meat production
Process a bird in less than 60 seconds
Food value of production
3-4 quail eggs equal about one chicken egg – link 1 – link 2
One adult will find 2 quail make a good meal, perhaps 3 without filling sides
Livers are a good source of fat, I like them and don’t typically like liver
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
Special Notice – I am bringing these around again today because they are back in stock. For how long I don’t know but almost every time they come around and I run this item it sells out in a few days. This is the only source of this item I am aware of in the US. And it is simply an exceptional tool for homesteading, gardening, etc. If you want one given they are only made in Turkey and the supply chain issues, I’d do it now.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is a Turkish Made Folding Harvesting and Pruning Knife, honestly I do not know what they are really called, but that is what it is. The description on Amazon is officially a “Folding Scythe Weed Garden – Scythe Grass Saw 12” and I think some things were lost in translation from Turkish to English. Anyway this is not a scythe, a scythe is for mowing and it has a non serrated blade. This tool has a serrated blade, it is for cutting, not chopping and not mowing. I have added a video to this review to further explain why I just love this tool.
I found out about it one of my favorite ways to find out about things, from the audience. I recently did a post on Rice Knives and a commenter named Joel said this in response to that post…
“I have tried a variety of these rice knives as well as a number of alternatives when I inevitably lost them. I finally settled on an alternative that I like better: a folding Turkish grape harvesting knife also on Amazon. It is of similar light duty build and I use it exactly like a rice knife. Its trump card is that it folds and can safely be placed in a hip pocket so I don’t lose it. I’ve used it daily for months and have no complaints. I’m thinking of buying one for backup because I only know of this one source.”
Well I asked him for a link and he provided it, I ordered one and I love the damn thing. It does everything a rice knife does and it is a little beefier in build though this is not a over built tool. Gonna bet in Turkey these are really common and likely sell for about 5-10 bucks vs. the 20 they cost on Amazon. You know what though, I think they are totally worth 20 bucks. Just like Joel said the weakness of a rice knife is you do not want to put it in your pocket, you will ruin your pocket and or cut yourself. Hence you end up setting them down and misplacing them.
This guy folds up like a big pocket knife and fits pretty damn comfortably into a cargo shorts pocket and even into jean pockets. That equals not put down, not lost, not rusted, etc.
Okay but how does it work? In a word perfectly. It does all the light duty stuff a rice knife does it also handled wild sunflower stalks the size of my thumb and simply stalks on a huge lambsquarter plant, no issues. Like a rice knife you must use a sawing motion.
There are some real advantages here though. The first is you are a lot less likely to cut yourself then with a chopping sickle. You hold the material, lay your blade on it and saw though. I do hope if you feel it on your skin you won’t pull it across it. Also if you do get yourself as soon as you start moving it you should feel pain and unless you are a moron stop doing that. When you chop something you are holding and miss you either cut yourself or cut yourself bad, like say hitting a joint or a tendon and fucking your hand up for good.
This is great for precision like trimming grasses out from in between vegetables. A missed chop and there goes that eggplant or swiss chard when all you wanted was to get rid of some stubborn grass that can’t be pulled up because it will bring your veggies with it. Oh and it is the best tool for cutting comfrey you will ever and I mean ever find. Harvesting mint and other herbs in mass for drying, amazing for that too.
While much like a rice knife this is best on material about thumb size and down that is still mostly green it will cut though some tougher stuff. I did some research on these things and they are used mostly for harvesting grapes and berries and for pruning said same like Joel mentioned. They seem to have been around in this form a very long time. In trying to get more info which is very limited I ran into some that claimed to be antiques over 200 years old, they look exactly like this one other than being very aged and not having the same markings on them.
When something is used by a society for over 100 years or more you know one thing, it works as designed. I plan to stain and seal the handle. The blade is carbon steel so I will likely patina it with vinegar, if you are not familiar with that process tune in today (episod 2709) and I will explain how and why to do it with tools like this.
In any event like Joel said there is only one source of this thing I can find so I am going to order a few more. I plan to gussy them up a bit and give them as gifts this year. Heck I may even give one to a couple instructors and raffle one off to a student this year at TSP20. You don’t have to wait for that though. Pick up one of these Turkish Made Folding Harvesting and Pruning Knives today and I don’t think you will ever regret it. I have to say as much as I like rice knives I don’t think I will ever buy one again. I mean summing it up, I now consider this tool on of my essential gardening and homestead tools.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
PS – The Stock Images from the maker do give dimensions but it doesn’t really convey scale well so here are a few pics of mine in hand and next to a rice knife to convey how well scaled this tool really is. Like I said when a culture uses a tool for centries there is usually a very good reason for it.
It has actually been more than a decade at this point since I first covered this concept in Epi-761 of the Podcast. I talked about it a lot after that but it became clear that some of what I was saying was being misunderstood. So in 2012 I did this YouTube video about it. Today a bit more than a decade into this we take a look at how it is playing out and what I got right and wrong.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
What We Must Pay For (needs)
Food
Water
Shelter
Energy
Security
Health and Sanitation
Means by Which we Define our LQ (lifestyle quotient)
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
Most permaculture design courses are thousands of dollars and require you to take time away from your life to attend. If you don’t want to throw thousands of dollars and weeks of time at a PDC, the Permies.com PDC + ATC videos are the perfect opportunity for you.
Not only do you get expert instruction from Permaculture power houses like Tim Barker, Paul Wheaton, and Helen Atthowe, you can also do this course at your own pace. You also have access to the resourceful community of Permies.com. This group is extremely responsive and helpful with any questions you might have regarding the coursework, permaculture design, appropriate technology, and so many other topics.
Whether you have decades of homesteading experience or are a total noob, this course will get you thinking like a designer.
Buying both the Permaculture Design Course and Appropriate Technology Course together at this price is unbeatable. Attending these courses in person would set you back $3300, but here you can get both entire courses worth of content for only $65.
That is more than a 95% savings. So if you’ve always wanted access to the content of a full PDC check this one out now.
Today on The Survival Podcast the expert council answers your questions on China & Russia, inflation, goats, business, tools, survival medicine, investing in equipment, the real “Galt’s Gulch” and more.
Make sure if you submit content for an expert council show you do the following….
Email it to me at jack @ thesurvivalpodcast.com
Put TSPC Expert in the subject line
Ask you question and state the expert you have the question for in one coherent sentence
Hit the return key a few times and then give all the details you think are necessary
Following that procedure makes it about 100X more likely your question will get though screening and sent on to one of our experts. All expert council members can be found on the Meet the Expert Council Page.
Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Calls and Discuss…
In the Ron Paul Liberty Highlights
What does Americans actually gain by poking China and Russia – Ron Paul & Dan McAdams
The difference between the Pelosi and Gingrich Taiwan visits – Ron Paul & Dan McAdams
“Inflation Reduction Act”, who do they think they’re kidding – Chris Rossini
Using terrorism to make your goats respect boundaries – Nick Ferguson
Keeping track of tools when working multiple job sites & making a living in a low income town – Tim “Tool Man” Cook
The problem of constipation when living on long term storage preps – Doc. Bones
Choosing a belt grinder – Patrick Roehrman
Hiding is plain sight is the new Galt’s Gulch – Jack
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
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