Small Scale Life

Garden Update Podcast - Week of 8/15/16 - S1E14 As I discussed in my most recent Workout Plan Update, I am changing how I am rolling out posts and podcasts for Small Scale Life.  I am going to post Workout Plan Updates at the end of the week (looking forward to the next week) and Garden posts at the front end of the week.  I will post podcasts in the middle of the week.  Other posts will pop up as I write them.  Since I haven't posted an update in a month, I am posting a Garden Update Podcast, post and videos.  It is time to talk about success, failures, pests and blight.  It has been a learning year in 2016! I outline what is happening in each garden bed below, so if you want to hear the podcast, skip ahead to the very end of the article! Garden Bed 1 [caption id="attachment_930" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Garden Bed 1 continues to be the flagship raised bed in the main garden - 8/14/16[/caption] Garden Bed 1 has four varieties of tomatoes, red onions, basil and cucumbers in it.  This is my longest bed

Charles Hugh Smith - S1E13 In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Charles Hugh Smith.  He is an entrepreneur, author, blogger, podcaster and gardener.  Charles started the Of Two Minds blog in 2005, and his "side project of self-expression" has mushroomed into a 3,500 page website that has generated 20 million page views!  According to Charles, "the blog is #7 in CNBC's top alternative financial sites, and is republished on numerous popular sites such as Zero Hedge, Financial Sense, and David Stockman’s Contra Corner. I am frequently interviewed by alternative media personalities such as Max Keiser, and am a contributing writer on peakprosperity.com." Fortunately for me, Charles is on a podcast with our good friend Drew Sample.  Drew mentioned Small Scale Life, and Charles agreed to come on the podcast.  I was really excited to have Charles on the show.  I had read some of his posts on Zero Hedge over the years and found him to be a very good writer and deep thinke

Gardenchat with Bren Haas - S1E12 When I started Small Scale Gardening in 2014, I wandered into the world of Twitter to see what it was all about.  On some Monday night, I found my way onto GardenChat session and discovered a tribe of really fantastic gardeners.  The leader of this tribe was a very interesting woman named Bren Haas.  Over the past year, we have had a lot of fun getting to know each other and sharing information, and I have had the opportunity to be a guest writer on her blog and host a session of #Gardenchat! Bren is a gardener, blogger, podcaster, "people collector" and all around great person.  On her rural property in Ohio, Bren and her husband have a variety of gardens, a pond, a greenhouse and a Bio Dome!  At the same time, her blog and social media empire keeps her very busy online, but she has a great blog full of interesting gardening articles and fantastic recipes.   Her recipes have even been recognized and published by Better Homes and Gardens! I asked Bren to be a guest on the Sma

Get Out of Your Rut - S1E11 For the past month, I have been in a rut.  From the outside, people would not really know it since I keep smiling and trying to move forward.  Some things converged together and hit me like a tidal wave.  It came to a head on the week of Memorial Day, and I have been getting out of my rut since.  In this podcast, I talk about what I am doing and what I have learned along the way, and maybe this will help you get out of your rut and moving forward. This is a difficult podcast for me to post, and I struggled with putting it out there for a couple reasons: I had some technical issues with my laptop that delayed my posting of this podcast This is a very personal podcast, and I hesitated posting it Believe it or not, I don't like talking about what goes on in my head. I keep things pretty close.  My friend Drew Sample told me that I needed to share it because there lessons to be learned from this experience.  I agreed and decided that it was important to me to share this with you.  Take

Urban Farming and Podcasting with Drew Sample - S1E10 In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I interview Drew Sample about urban farming and podcasting. Initially inspired by Joe Rogan's podcast, Drew Sample started his own podcast called The Sample Hour.  Initially, it was mainly focused on comedy and stand-up comedians.  After becoming interested in permaculture and urban farming, Drew shifted the focus of The Sample Hour.  After more than 112 episodes, Drew feels that he is hitting his niche interviewing permaculture and urban farmers (sounds familiar). Drew and our recent guest Scott Hebert have a weekly podcast where they talk the problems, solutions and progress they are making on their urban farming operations.  In addition, Drew has interviewed some very interesting people on his podcast including Curtis Stone, Jean Martin-Fortier, Charles Hugh Smith, Jack Spirko, Diego Footer, Rob Kaiser, Paul Wheaton, Matt Powers, Grant Schultz, Luke Callahan and others.  That is a lot of brain power right

Urban Farming with Scott Hebert - S1E9 Scott Hebert starting urban farming in 2015 in Chilliwack, British Columbia.  A year ago, Scott was working at his dad's cabinet shop, and when his dad announced that the shop was closing, Scott knew he had to find a new path forward. After losing 60 pounds on his own weight loss journey, had an interest in growing healthy food.  At that point, he started his urban farm called Flavourful Farms. Using his previous experience using coaches in Mixed Martial Arts, Scott reached out to an urban farming expert that lived two hours away: Curtis Stone.  Paying a consulting fee, Scott visited Curtis and spent the day with him, looking at this urban farming operation and asking questions.  Of course, Scott had done his homework beforehand, and he asked a lot of questions and walked away with a lot of answers. During the podcast, Scott and I discuss urban farm, his creativity and his artwork.  Scott has sold some of his art to customers and used it in his kickstarter campaign.  One

How to Lose 70 Pounds - S1E8 Part 2 of the Cows and Kettlebells Podcast is focused on how to lose 70 pounds.  As part of Jay's training, he was focused on getting in shape and losing weight.  As you'll find out, it takes commitment, consistency, focus and in Jay's case, a kick in the rear from instructors.  Diet is a key component of weight loss, and Jay discusses his diet and eating regimen. Jay's tips for starting to work out are the following: Consistency. This is crucial.  You are going to have days where you don’t want to workout.  You must push through those feelings and complete your workout.  The phrase that we all use “life gets in the way” is complete baloney.  If anything, run in place for a minute at a time.  Try it for ten minutes. Lifestyle Change and Commitment. There’s a ton of stuff out there that makes working out a huge presentation.  There’s a reason: they’re trying to make you feel like you’re part of a tribe, like you belong to something.  With that membership to the tribe comes commitme

Cowbells and Kettlebells Part 1 - S1E7 My friend Jay is back on the Small Scale Life Podcast!  Jay and I recorded a two-part series called "Cowbells and Kettlebells," and in this episode, we discuss Jay's vision of buying and owning rural property.  Specifically, we discuss the following topics: Why purchase rural property? What is your vision for this property? What are you looking for as you start to look at rural property (i.e., features and characteristics)? Will you need to commute to your job?  What kind of a commute are you willing to tolerate? What are you seeing in your market?  Is rural property available?  What does it look like? What advice/tips do you have for others? Throughout this episode, we discuss permaculture concepts (i.e., hugelkulture mounds and small scale food forests). I also sprinkle in some of my (and Julie's) thoughts about our future rural property, and I learned a few new things from Jay during the course of this podcast as well. My take-away from this podcast is that I will be

What is a Sustainable Life? - S1E6 After a bit of a break in March, the Small Scale Life Podcast is back!  Before we posted another episode, I needed to get some infrastructure in place that would allow this podcast to be placed on iTunes.  This is the official reboot of the podcast, and we are looking forward to more episodes in Awesome April.  In this episode, I discuss the elements of my vision of a sustainable life including the following topics: Mission of the Small Scale Life Podcast and Blog What is a Sustainable Life (in my view)? The definition of sustainable The three pillars of sustainability (economics, social development and the environment) How that definition and the three pillars relate to what we are doing on Small Scale Life Healthy Living Economics and Frugal Living Gardening Adventures and Having Fun Restarting and Rebounding after Failure Awesome April and the 2nd Annual Salsa Contest All of the elements that I discuss are related to the Core Principles I described on the About Page of th

Season 1, Episode 5: How to Grow Seeds Indoors - Small Scale Life Podcast In an effort to maximize our potential harvest and start planning spring planting, I have started some tomatoes, lettuce, kale and lettuce in the basement. I discuss my techniques for how to grow seeds indoors in Season 1, Episode 5 of the Small Scale Life podcast. Why Start Seeds Now? Spring is right around the corner, everyone! Depending where you live in the world, it might not feel like it as February comes to close. In our house, we have started thinking forward to the 2016 Gardening Campaign. In addition, I kicked off the Grow What You Eat Challenge by planting the leafy greens (lettuce, spinach and kale). I am excited to see if I can grow enough leafy greens to effectively take that off our grocery list...permanently. At the same time, Julie reminded me that I always am kicking myself that I waited too long to start seeds. I quietly disagreed, but she showed me the articles I wrote about starting seeds early in 2015 and in

In this episode, I discuss the following topics: 1) Further discussion about transitioning from Small Scale Gardening to Small Scale Life. Facebook has been a bit slow due to rules in place for pages, but that change should occur this weekend. UPDATE: I made the change on Valentines Day 2016. 2) I am kicking off the Growing Green Challenge this weekend. For this challenge, I am going to grow enough greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, etc.) in my basement to effectively knock those items off our grocery list. I am setting up and planting the first round of greens on Valentines Day weekend. Links: I mention or discuss the following sites and articles in this podcast: Small Scale Life Blog - www.smallscalelife.com Small Scale Gardening Blog - www.smallscalegardening.com Small Scale Life Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/SmallScaleLife Small Scale Gardening Group Page - www.facebook.com/groups/821558261269485 Beatsby_Roi Lemon Water Chronicles Volume 1 - Beatsbyroi – Lemon-water-chronicles-vol-i

In this podcast, Jay and I discuss the following topics: 1) Blog Merger - Why I decided to merge smallscalelife.com and smallscalegardening.com 2) Snow Apocalypse 2016 - Snowstorm that hit the Eastern Seaboard and how people are not prepared for a life's disasters. The photo on the cover for this podcast is Jay's from the snowstorm 3) Jon Acuff's Three Questions for 2016 - setting a path for success in the new year 4) Learn Do Grow - What are we doing over the next week? Links in this podcast: I mention or discuss the following sites and articles in this podcast: 1) Small Scale Life Blog - www.smallscalelife.com 2) Small Scale Gardening Blog - www.smallscalegardening.com 3) Jay's A Crash Into Life Blog - acrashintolife.wordpress.com/ 4) Beatsby_Roi Lemon Water Chronicles Volume 1 - Beatsbyroi – Lemon-water-chronicles-vol-i

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discuss my background in gardening and where I am focusing my gardening efforts in 2016. The theme this year is "Grow What You Eat," and I am reducing the variety of vegetables and herbs I will grow to 1) focus on becoming a better at growing things our family eats and 2) reduce the amount of vegetables and herbs that are wasted each year. Links for this podcast: 1) Small Scale Life Blog - www.smallscalelife.com 2) Small Scale Gardening - www.smallscalegardening.com 3) Cranberry-Jalapeno Jelly - http://www.smallscalegardening.com/2016/01/13/how-to-make-roll-tide-cranberry-jalapeno-jelly/ 4) Indoor Gardening - http://www.smallscalegardening.com/2014/12/02/indoor-gardening-made-easy/ 5) March of the Aphids - http://www.smallscalegardening.com/2015/01/19/2015-failure-march-of-the-aphids/ 6) Square Foot Gardening - http://squarefootgardening.org/ 7) Beatsby_Roi Lemon Water Chronicles Volume 1 - https://soundcloud.com/beatsbyroi/lemon-water-chronicles-vol-i 8) Ja

Introduction Podcast to Small Scale Life This is a "reboot" of the introduction podcast for Small Scale Life. In April of 2016, I adjusted the sound quality and cleaned up the podcast. Small Scale Life is a podcast and blog dedicated to learning, doing, and growing. We hope to inspire you to learn new skills, complete projects and grow mentally, and physically. We are all about getting stuff done, particularly when it comes to fitness, weight loss, finances, gardening, preserving the harvest and adventure. In this Podcast.... In this podcast, Jay and I introduce ourselves, discuss the vision and goals of the podcast and discuss three questions asked by Jon Acuff about 2016. We will discuss the answers to those questions in Season 1, Episode 3. In addition, Jay and I discussed the Kwitchyerbellyakin Fitness Challenge. This is a fitness challenge designed for all types of people from beginners to seasoned fitness veterans. It is a points scoring system based on duration of exercise. There will be weekly winner