00:03:00.000hello and thank you all for joining us tonight um tonight we are talking about our ninth of our
00:03:22.800original nine noble virtues the virtue of perseverance and for that we have making
00:03:29.200his second appearance on victory never sleeps good friend of mine folk builder jason gallagher
00:03:34.800welcome jason it's good to have you on tonight good to be back thank you i'm honored thank you
00:03:40.160um before we start off i apologize guys i missed you last week um since last we talked
00:03:48.880uh my family and i first family trip we've been on in a very long time went down to florida for
00:03:54.560charming the cloud and york's off event was great there's some really good things but
00:04:00.640prior to the event we thought it would be a good idea to stop and get some lunch at a uh
00:04:06.720sushi and asian slash soul food buffet in rural florida and in retrospect it was poor choice
00:04:16.640i caught some kind of stomach bug and it it took me down hard on that saturday and it kind of
00:04:21.520worked its way through the house and i think we were finishing up the last of it last week so uh
00:04:25.600brandy filled in for me and i appreciate that um business at the top of the show uh please
00:04:35.040join us on any of the platforms that we are on we are on uh right now we are on twitter youtube
00:04:44.320entropy um odyssey and vk running live uh we also have replay um replay videos at any time
00:04:56.320on rumble and bit shoot and every friday this is released as a podcast on spotify
00:05:03.440if you guys want to join us tonight on entropy um it's really kind of a cool platform but it's not
00:05:09.360use nearly as not uh you did it's not used nearly as much as i feel like it ought to be it's kind
00:05:16.720of cool it's also the place you can go if you want to give us any uh any tips or if you guys
00:05:21.360want to participate in any kind of super chat um if you do that we'll uh get your get your question
00:05:26.960answered directly and you can skip the line also you know we we appreciate any kind of contributions
00:05:32.800and then go towards the projects that the afa is currently doing uh speaking on those projects a
00:05:39.760little bit right now we are focused on on two big things we are focused on sigerheim that we are
00:05:49.680trying to get our first uh first people moved out to and get started on doing some projects at
00:05:56.480we got a big mortgage on that we're looking to pay off before we we take on any more debt for it
00:06:01.920so the link to donate for that if you're interested is up now and also uh we're trying to
00:06:08.880establish phrasehoff that's our hoff that's going to be in eastern ohio we're very excited about it
00:06:17.600we've got a couple of things we got to do before we can make moves on that um first off we've got
00:06:23.680to pay off and york's off and we're getting really making a lot of progress on that i think we're at
00:06:28.720uh 41 point something as far as the payoff so far and we haven't figured out to where
00:06:40.400check here yeah i think 41.41 i think we had it figured out to where
00:06:48.560if every member of the afa were to donate 147 dollars today we would be able to pay that all
00:06:54.960the way off free and clear and start figuring out on phrase off but i appreciate everybody who's been
00:07:00.960generous you guys are awesome the other point of business i want to get to before we get started
00:07:05.040here is i want to encourage everybody who would like to who's able to whether you're geographically
00:07:11.440close or not to come out to our ostara celebration uh nick will throw up the dates for those it's
00:07:17.440It's coming up beginning of next month at Thorshoff, and that's in Linden, North Carolina.
00:07:24.460Those guys always host an amazing event.
00:07:27.280Thorshoff is always a very, very special one to me.
00:07:29.460That was the first Hoff that was done under my administration and put a lot into that place.
00:07:38.340They put a lot of love into that, to making it amazing.
00:07:42.480It's a beautiful spot on beautiful property with some of our very, very best people.
00:07:46.840I look forward to seeing you guys all there if you're able to. That being said, so I guess before we kick it off, perseverance isn't a complicated word.
00:08:04.840word. As far as looking it up and etymologically, it basically means to persist in a task or to
00:08:12.900persist in an endeavor through adversity or through times of difficulty. And it sounds very,
00:08:21.140very simple, but it is one of the major keys to accomplishing anything worthwhile. And it's great
00:08:28.760we have jason on he was you know acclaimed by his peers as the the guy that most exemplifies this
00:08:36.680and jason's been around for a long time put in a lot of years investing in building something and
00:08:42.200making something work and uh that's that's the reason we have a hoff in in minnesota so welcome
00:08:48.760jason can you tell us a little bit about what perseverance means to you as it relates to your
00:08:54.440afa experience perseverance to me means overcoming an obstacle like like in my case i i live with
00:09:02.920really severe chronic pain and it's very difficult for me to get out of the house sometimes so
00:09:08.520for me to keep pushing forward to never give it up i mean i could easily just grab some cheetos
00:09:14.200go sit in the basement grab my laptop and just be done with it right but instead i chose to
00:09:19.960to push past all that and it's not easy by any means it's difficult but perseverance is getting
00:09:26.360through all the the bad things the difficulties that are in your way and moving forward and
00:09:33.000accomplishing things no matter what you it may look like it'll never happen like i can remember
00:09:37.880years ago thinking that i would never even get out to odin's hop when we only had that one hop
00:09:42.600you know i thought i'm never going to get out of the house probably with my condition and
00:09:45.720and been there three times, and then I was able to build great things
00:09:49.780in Minnesota with all our folk and all the different things.
00:09:53.340So, in theory, when you're sitting there, it looks like it's impossible,
00:09:58.080but you don't know until you try, and it takes a lot of mental energy
00:17:25.060And I've always tried to encourage our folk builders to do that.
00:17:27.620And we're so lucky we have so many pictures these days, but it's so encouraging all the time to see every weekend the amazing stuff we got going on.
00:17:36.020So even if it's not happening in your specific spot, you know, that month, you're able to share in the in the celebration and the zeal of people across the country and around the world at this point.
00:17:48.280Um, you know, there's more perseverance stuff I want to talk to, but I'd like to get to
00:17:57.820a couple of first questions we have here. Um, so a little bit, you touched on this earlier,
00:18:06.400Jason, but Nick asks, how's Fallfest slash Freyfaxi been built up and grown to what it is
00:18:14.900in minnesota so can you talk a little bit about how how that events i guess evolved over the years
00:18:23.700yeah i um i i think it's um really especially with the hop now you know being able to do it at
00:18:31.140the hop it's um changed a lot more family oriented i mean we we always did have some a lot of kids
00:18:37.700and families but it seems to be more towards that when we left that that camp model you know before
00:18:43.540we were at state parks and we were at group camps and stuff and i i think it's it has more of a
00:18:48.980holy feeling when we're at a hop and stuff and i it's grown quite a bit last year of course this
00:18:55.460last um fall fest was kind of low numbers a lot of people canceled they were sick and different
00:19:00.020things but our other fall fests before that they were usually growing the numbers i mean
00:19:04.500i think the first one at ballershop that was like i counted like 84 with kids i think i think it was
00:19:10.020like 84 was with 12 kids whatever so that was that was pretty big but yeah we've um i think the the
00:19:18.740people have changed quite a bit too i mean we still have a few of the the base people that were
00:19:23.300there from the very beginning you know from like 100 and people that come out but there's a lot of
00:19:27.860more people that are coming from different areas now and i'm sure the hop has something to do with
00:19:32.100that like last year i know we have people from different states a lot more from some of the
00:19:37.460neighboring states than we would before you know in the past i think a lot of it was
00:19:41.380you know our our minnesota our north dakota and then you know we had other people come from like
00:19:45.940california and different things and some other places but it seemed to be more our clustered
00:19:51.700area or whatever our core group and now i think it's it's changed up quite a bit and whatever
00:19:56.980since since what it was or whatever it's in a different part of the state now too of course
00:20:01.460you know before it was way up north up north as they say in minnesota you know it's straight west
00:20:08.020or whatever so i i think i think that's i mean what have you noticed since oh it
00:20:18.340so it's funny because whenever we talk about this kind of thing we talk about
00:20:23.300how great things are now compared to what they used to be as if what they used to be was you
00:20:29.380know sucked it was great the first fall fest was amazing and i loved every bit of it it's cool to
00:20:34.500see how it's changed and it's gotten so much better but it's you know it's always been been
00:20:41.220really special i remember our first event up there and you know in we had never done anything in that
00:20:47.540part of part of the country what first we barely had members up there and uh hosting a big event
00:20:54.260like that was something that you know out again there was a there was a time um when i first
00:20:59.220joined it was just just um midsummer in uh in california and then in 20
00:21:13.7002011 i think oh you could be wrong on my number we did uh winter nights over in
00:21:19.700in uh in pennsylvania but those were like the only national gatherings we'd done so fall fest was a
00:21:26.980was a real big deal to do something in that part of the country as a national event like that
00:21:31.460i remember the first one we were at was at an old lady like an old lady sewing retreat house
00:21:38.740you know set up for old ladies to do arts and crafts and like beating and and sewing and stuff
00:21:44.180which is cool don't get me wrong but it was kind of a you know an interesting thing and pluses and
00:21:49.300minuses with that because it was just a really strangely built uh big house with a whole bunch
00:21:55.620of beds scattered through it it meant that we got a lot of closeness a lot of time to just
00:22:00.180hang out with each other and really feel feel connected that way and that was really cool
00:22:05.780um we got to watch how that's gone and we've done it at uh at state parks there that have
00:22:10.500been really nice but bringing it home to uh to baldersoff has been such a huge evolution of it
00:22:17.380and uh yeah there's been tons of ups and downs and membership turn uh turnover and
00:22:26.820folks that left for one reason or another and a lot of those folks that have come back for
00:22:30.900for one reason or another and figured out whatever was going on in their life so
00:22:35.220it's it's been a really a really neat things thing to watch one thing i think is
00:22:40.900is really something that I've learned in my time in the AFA is the haters and the folks that want
00:22:51.540to complain about stuff, they tend to fade away. They come in, they'll go strong, they'll make a
00:22:58.000lot of noise, and they just kind of disappear. Persevering through those things where a lot of
00:23:04.040people would change course or, you know, back down or, or lose heart persevering through those
00:23:11.320things. Slow and steady wins the race. It really, really does stay in the course through adversity
00:23:17.000has always worked very, very well for us. And, uh, you know, we see that a lot with the,
00:23:23.140the whole Baldur's off saga. There was, you know, the left got ahold of it and through
00:23:29.680lies and media manipulation really made it sound like something ugly and terrible, but us staying
00:23:36.660the course and being who we are, it's really won over the whole community there. It's turned
00:23:42.740something that was very negatively disposed to something to where folks love us there. And it
00:23:48.400was really cool to watch that over the years. King of Cheese, Matt, Jason, it's great to see
00:23:58.700you both on how are y'all doing tonight how are you doing tonight jason doing awesome doing it
00:24:03.880awesome because i'm back on the show with my folk yeah it's always the same answer for me tony i'm
00:24:12.120doing really good um looking forward to these i really wanted to do it last week but uh family
00:24:19.220was sick and we had to deal with that um so i'm excited to be back because it you know i took a
00:24:23.720week off. So it's, it's great to be back and talking with you guys this evening.
00:24:30.240Sarah asks, Hey, Jason, what is that cool metal you are wearing?
00:24:39.920This is my 2017 folk builder of the year award. And I would wear this every day too,
00:24:48.440if I couldn't, maybe, maybe I'll find a way to do that. This is pretty awesome. Like I said,
00:24:51.780last time i um haven't won a lot of medals really and and this is one of the most important medals
00:24:56.900anyways that i've worn in service of my folk i i never expected to be a folk builder it was
00:25:05.140something that just kind of came out of nowhere so this is pretty awesome for me this is one of
00:25:10.580those things that you never expected to do and it was meant to be i guess you know well you know
00:25:16.580that's how it happens a lot. Another thing I've seen over the course of being involved in the
00:25:26.440AFA is the people that you see from the outset that maybe are naturally the best inclined to
00:25:33.920do something. If their heart's not in it, those people tend to fade away and often underwhelm.
00:25:42.940And sometimes the folks that find something to be a struggle or not naturally inclined to feel like they're, you know, the best fit for it, but they they go out, swing for the fences and are all heart.
00:25:54.180Those are the people that have built this and made it so very, very successful.
00:25:57.980And, you know, I felt that way myself at times to where I think there's a lot of people that might be, you know, inherently better at some of the things that I have to do as, as I was here, you're, you know, wired better for it on paper, but man, I love it with my whole heart and I try my very best every day.
00:26:20.580And I think that carries a lot. And I know, you know, going through everything that you've gone through, you've killed it since day one.
00:26:30.840When you started folk building, you came in so strong and that's kept up.
00:26:38.320You know, it's kept up to win you the medal there, but it's kept up ever since, too.
00:26:42.100um i can't i can think of very very few people in the afa who are you know in your realm as far as
00:26:50.260dedication to this that we do and it's really appreciated and everybody can see it but uh it
00:26:54.720as i recall that year it wasn't even a challenge like you you so far outpaced your colleagues with
00:27:00.860just how much heart you threw at this that it was you know you would have been robbed if we
00:27:05.640giving it to anybody else well i'm very honored this is this is awesome and we like i said people
00:27:12.520were so hungry it's like when are we going to do this next event what are we going to do this
00:27:16.920that hey you want to do this you want to do that i mean we just couldn't i mean that's some something
00:27:22.600when you come in somewhere where there's something missing and you fill that void and everyone just
00:27:27.400comes if they want to be part of it so very lucky so uncle krampus asks jason how much
00:27:35.560has your dedication to our folk motivated you to overcome your personal obstacles?
00:27:43.880A lot, actually. There are things that, like I said, that I never thought I would end up doing.
00:27:50.560You know, sometimes the pain is so bad, I thought I would have just gave up many times and just
00:27:56.120laid down, so to speak. And the folk are what drive me. The folk is what gets me out of bed.
00:28:02.800There are times when I'm hurt so bad that I think about them and the motivation that it gives me and whatever.
00:28:10.860So without them, I really think I probably would have, I don't know, gave up, gave up.
00:28:16.200But there was a time before I have two implants for pain.
00:28:21.780I have a fentanyl and I have a neural stimulator.
00:28:24.480And before that, I was pretty much bedridden.
00:28:27.680I didn't think I was ever going to go any further.
00:28:29.820So it's like you build on top of things.
00:28:32.080You know, I got those and I was able to go a little further.
00:28:35.020I was able to get some other medicine and push me a little further to get going and to have that drive with the support and all that.
00:28:41.600That was what keeps me going, so to speak.
00:28:45.820I mean, it's just one thing after another.
00:29:24.360I mean, we do go up north and we do palm the crowdies.0.99
00:29:27.520Crap. That's something else that's really cool about the AFA, and I'm really lucky I get to0.96
00:29:36.180experience is going to all these different parts of the country and around the world for different
00:29:40.520AFA events. You get to hear so many different, you know, local accents and stuff, and it's really
00:29:45.280cool. I've really been able to see a lot and experience a lot here in the AFA, and it's
00:29:51.240it's really neat uh we have a question from jamie uh i have a question are there any afm
00:29:57.960uh austro true folk members in other countries like sweden germany australia and even russia
00:30:05.320so yeah we have members in 14 different countries right now so we've got really
00:30:15.080it's a really good representation internationally that's not necessarily the case i would love to
00:30:19.640have have more international members um we've got folks in canada united kingdom
00:30:28.840we've got folks in france we actually have a folk builder in france we have folk in italy
00:30:38.760the netherlands denmark norway sweden we have a folk builder in sweden also and he's
00:30:46.680right up he's pretty far up north in sweden right up close to the finnish border
00:30:52.200we got folks in south africa and we have a folk builder in south africa
00:30:57.880we've got people in australia and new zealand as well so we do have quite a few international
00:31:05.080people and we're always looking for ways to shore that up and help support people in you know our
00:31:12.440widespread international afa community because those people are very often spread further apart
00:31:17.240than we'd like so we'd love to see some of that cluster up and get get some real good activity in
00:31:21.320some of those places i actually did uh you mentioned russia i did a interview with some
00:31:29.320russian folks that we encountered on vk that are uh also sure are practicing in the in the moscow
00:31:35.640area and i'm looking forward to when that comes out and communicating with those guys a little
00:31:39.880bit more but they sounded great and they were very encouraged and very excited by all the things we
00:31:44.760have going on over here daniel young asks how much has humor uh humor played a role in your ability
00:31:56.120to push through difficult times your sense of humor is top-notch jason uh humor is everything
00:32:03.160actually yeah like i i always say you know the old um laughter is the best medicine there is
00:32:13.560you know joking around and stuff and when i heard a lot when i'm by myself
00:32:18.200if i turn on something funny and cracks me up it's it's amazing how laughing kind of
00:32:23.320turns into like medicine and stuff so um when we do events and around the people especially at
00:32:28.680at Baldur's Hop we're all a bunch of smart asses like here in Minnesota that's all we do is run
00:32:33.260around I used to live in a town in Minnesota it was called Lee Sewer and I swear that whole town0.89
00:32:38.720was full of smart asses and I felt like I was going to work I was get paid to hang out with
00:32:44.680my friends because it was so much fun and that that's that's what it's like we're always joking0.59
00:32:48.940around we're always having a good time and just um people in general around the area are great
00:32:55.160to it in the community like when we do the food drive and different things a lot of the locals
00:32:59.560have a good sense of humors too i don't know i think it's that good scandinavian you know i i
00:33:04.280think you have to do that and there's just a lot of stuff to laugh at too so i mean
00:33:13.480well i was thinking you know yes absolutely anybody that knows you is just
00:33:19.160very much appreciate your sense of humor um you're a lot of fun you always have been and and it's
00:33:27.960i'm sure that it helps get you through rough times but it it absolutely just keeps keeps
00:33:33.240the morale so high for the folks in your orbit there um one our last question i should have
00:33:39.240mentioned uh when he asked about the international membership we've actually had uh members of afa
00:33:46.360leadership go to two different international gatherings of our afa members and that was
00:33:56.120that was really cool i've been very fortunate i was able to be on both of those trips one time
00:34:00.120was in i believe 2014 in denmark and then we also had an event in 20 i want to say 2018
00:34:11.240in uh in sweden and both of those were amazing we got to meet uh meet some of our members in
00:34:17.000different parts of the world it was really really special both those times but yeah we absolutely do
00:34:22.040have a lot of international stuff going on and we hope to have more um
00:34:29.320heathen hammer are there multiple hoffs within a given district or is it mainly one per district
00:34:35.720um the districts are built around the hoffs so we're that's why they you know our districts
00:34:42.200are named after our hoffs right now there's one per district you know i'm very excited and one
00:34:48.760of these days we'll have you know so many hoffs everywhere that we might have multiple hoffs in
00:34:53.880a district and maybe one flagship hoff for the district it depends on how that all gets broken up
00:35:00.440but at present we have odenshoff district which one hoff and that takes care of at present
00:35:12.280someone will look here and you know reading off all of the states would be tedious but basically
00:35:17.160the entire west coast uh with alaska um hawaii australia and new zealand and you know any of
00:35:26.600the folks sometimes we have people who are stationed in japan they're also part of um
00:35:31.400odenshoff district and it goes over to like the line is montana wyoming colorado and new mexico
00:35:40.680so that whole chunk of the united states is all odenshoff thor's hof is a little bit different
00:35:49.480it's um all of europe at present uh runs down everything down the east coast of the united
00:35:57.960states through the carolinas over through tennessee kentucky um indiana and michigan
00:36:07.000and kind of cuts out that that chunk there is all thorshoff and again that's just got the one hoff
00:36:12.920baldur's hoff is that middle section everything north uh kansas missouri illinois and up there um
00:36:24.040also including oh also including that central portion of canada and uh again that just has
00:36:33.880baldur's off mostly what we're talking about tonight that's baldur's hoff that's in wilmer
00:36:37.720minnesota um and then our newest hoff district mjords hoff district and that's everything
00:36:46.760uh texas oklahoma all the deep south kansas pretty much everything uh in the deep south
00:36:57.560except for the carolinas and then down into our south american and our south african folk
00:37:03.560so right now we've got the four hoffs and the four hoff districts but that will change as soon as we
00:37:11.320uh get phrasehoff that i was talking about earlier in the broadcast we will be splitting most of
00:37:17.720that's going to come out of the uh northern portion of the thorshoff district so we'll
00:37:23.800look forward to you know shifting that around and in getting that a little bit more centralized
00:37:31.320around those hoffs when we have that next one um cliff asks jason what does the kid so jason's
00:37:39.640kindred coordinator for the anyway jason what does the kindred coordinator do and how have
00:37:45.240afa kindred changed through the years that you have done that job um well a lot of the
00:37:54.680stuff that i do as a kindred coordinator um besides i'm working with the kindred we already
00:38:00.920have is setting up new probationary kindreds working with people that are interested and
00:38:06.040getting them set up helping them come up with the name and um i have the art lady that helps me to
00:38:11.960afa art lady madison east she's my my secret source that helps me out and um we we help them
00:38:19.960get established and work with them so they understand what it's all about and whatever
00:38:23.880what's expected of the program and i also um help um coordinate with events and stuff and
00:38:30.440different things and there's a lot more that goes on too um and they they've changed quite a bit i
00:38:36.520mean the number of kindreds that we've had since i came on i came on that yule time 2018 there was
00:38:42.840a couple other people before me that ran the program but um i i think um we've always stayed
00:38:48.120probably the the low to mid um 20s or whatever and kindreds and i've seen a lot a lot more
00:38:56.840change in the quality i think you know um a while back matt and cliff you guys when we came up with
00:39:04.600the idea to put in a six-month probationary period instead of just um bringing people on we were
00:39:10.680having some issues um some bad ones came on or certain things came on and whatever so by by
00:39:17.240having this probationary period we're able to work with them more and they understand so they don't
00:39:22.600just come on and well i thought it was this or that you know a lot less problems and whatever
00:39:26.840but trying to push more of the family type thing and that's one thing that i've always tried to
00:39:33.400push is more than just it's a group of guys or people hanging out just once a month or whatever
00:39:39.800it's actually like a family unit that get together and they are representatives of the afa that
00:39:46.360form events and different things and get together with other members and stuff so
00:39:50.120So I think that's very important that we have those local groups because, like you said, it seems like every weekend down there, there's an event going on.
00:39:58.840And when you look at those things that you post, a lot of times those are individual kindreds that are hosting those stuff.
00:40:04.660So they're the workhorse of the AFA, as I say, besides, you know, the other leadership we have.
00:40:10.740You know, we have the Pope Builders and the Goathar and the Wittnor, but these guys are non-leadership and they represent us and do different things.
00:40:18.680So I'm very honored to be part of this, helping out.
00:40:26.420So a couple of things, just as kind of a note, I was just looking at it.
01:06:40.220any and all um honestly i don't think there's a bad choice uh of our gods to pray to about those
01:06:53.820things and it depends on what exactly you're praying for i think there's you know gods and
01:06:58.960goddesses that are um you know maybe more strongly associated with certain things
01:07:06.580But at the end of the day, they're all divine beings and they're all, you know, the ones that we worship are all worthy of that worship and capable of sharing kindness and compassion and comfort and courage and health to folks in all kind of bad situations.
01:07:27.860So I don't think there's a perfect answer on who's best to pray to for those folks.
01:07:36.580a lot of that, I think, comes down to which of our gods you feel the closest to and you feel
01:07:44.440responds best to your prayers. Yeah. And that's something that is different about a polytheistic
01:07:54.880faith from monotheism. That's a challenge for people. And they, you know, it's odd because
01:08:01.440it's not what most of us are raised in so thinking of those things as if you know we're very quick to
01:08:08.560put our gods in boxes you know thor for storms odin for wisdom tear for big picture justice
01:08:18.000for seti for legal issues and that's all fine and good but each of those gods can do all of those
01:08:25.440things to one degree or another um but what we would find very often with our ancestors is
01:08:32.400certain classes of people or certain regions of people would have their gods that they would go to
01:08:38.320for the same thing that a different class of person in a different region would go to a
01:08:43.520different god for all within our pantheon all within the isir but um you know royalty would
01:08:49.600go to odin for these things perhaps and maybe the farmers in the you know would go to thor for these
01:08:56.720things maybe you know the swedes would go to fray with these things whereas the anglo-saxons would
01:09:03.200go to odin um there's a lot of diversity there jason do you have a idea of who you think the
01:09:11.280best guy to pray for um for those students in michigan state would be what you said all of them
01:09:19.280than the short answer well you know it it's the short answer and it may seem like
01:09:25.600an easy cop-out answer but it's the right answer yeah um it's it's absolutely the right answer and
01:09:38.000yeah we were talking about that a little bit earlier when the guy asked the question about
01:09:42.640doing bloat to valley on valentine's day it's always a good day to do bloat to any of our gods
01:09:49.040And last thing we would want to do, you know, as members of the AFA or certainly myself as a priest of the Eysir, is to say that it's ever a bad time to give worship to one of our gods.
01:10:02.820We want to see more of that and not less.
01:10:04.660And I think that, you know, I also offer this out there.
01:10:08.880um i think it is extra special to pray to our gods that get less attention to the others
01:10:21.440so i think that we're well served sometimes going outside of our comfort zone
01:10:26.800and praying to gods that are a bit more obscure that don't have the same popularity in modern
01:10:32.320culture that uh you know that the big ones like odin and thor have praying to to vidar
01:10:38.720or to valley or to ullur on some of these things i think that's got to be very special for them
01:10:45.040because much fewer people reach out to them so i i would encourage that as well
01:10:52.000um we've got a question from obsidian skull does the afa use
01:11:03.600uh scurth gold uh carved god totems um and what do you think about them so
01:11:14.880yes and no in some of the pictures and i i don't have them handy and nick is super quick on the
01:11:19.760draw on this but i think it's a little bit more of a challenge to find we do have some god poles
01:11:25.920up at odin's off there's one that's relatively new that's a freya god pole but in our ritual
01:11:34.720circle we have we have three we have an odin one a thor one and a fray one and uh they're
01:11:41.680I say very old. No, and they're not very old, but AFA-wise they are. They certainly predate
01:11:50.020my membership, and they were carved by an AFA Gothi Thordren Aden, and those are special,
01:11:58.720and we've moved those from a number of different places. We used to have those with us when we
01:12:03.400would uh set up our vey at uh camp norga which is a temporary camp we would rent out and use
01:12:11.640for the first midsummers that i used to go to and now they're they're permanently installed
01:12:16.920in the vey at odenshof um i like those just fine if those are something that people feel connected
01:12:25.800to and have been imbued with with their worship and with power and and you know our gods have been
01:12:31.640addressed through them, then absolutely. And they're sacred and wonderful. If that's something
01:12:38.120that you feel you're good at, and it's meaningful for you to carve, and you think that's a way to
01:12:44.620honor our gods, then by all means, that effort is appreciated. And I think it's amazing.
01:12:50.080I think there's other ways to do that. And I think that in this day and age, as the AFA,
01:12:58.160we have other things that we do. We spend time on creating hoffs. And then once we have the hoffs,
01:13:06.520and some of this is just a skill set. If we have really amazing wood carvers,
01:13:11.300I'm sure we could do some really great carved statuary that would be amazing.
01:13:16.640You know, if we had folks that were sculptors, I'm sure there's a lot of really amazing carvings
01:13:22.420we can do what we do have is um some folks that are that are brilliant uh painters and that are
01:13:30.740able to put that devotion into um the murals that we have at our hafs so i think that representing
01:13:38.500the gods on a on a flat wall of one of our hafs is what we have the people to put their devotion
01:13:47.300into that are good at it and that works really well for us they're able to capture a lot of
01:13:52.500detail work that they want on that kind of a space and make beautiful things but no i have
01:13:58.660no problem with the wooden god pole thing it's just very far outside of my expertise
01:14:04.340we don't have people who've stepped forward that are particularly good at that and i think it's
01:14:10.020because those are confined to poles you have so much more space to paint something beautiful and
01:14:16.100to get a lot more of the detail working again if you're an amazing artist you'd probably do that
01:14:21.140on a poll too in my mind i see that displayed much more in the kind of murals that we have
01:14:27.940but i think both are really cool things um sarah has an odyssey question i appreciate us getting
01:14:41.460questions from these other platforms sometimes i wonder how many folks are listening to us over
01:14:46.100there and it's nice to get those questions um jason do you listen to necro goblin con goblin con
01:15:02.020i can honestly say i don't even think i've ever heard of that
01:15:06.100i'm gonna be googling that afterwards i'm gonna be looking into that
01:15:10.260you got to that sounds right up your alley that that it's got the necro part in it so i mean the
01:15:16.500the criteria for good death metal like when me and my buddy back in the 90s when we go at record
01:15:21.780stores we would look at the the name it had to have like a death name you know and it also the
01:15:28.180the record label if it was nuclear blast or earache but yeah those were the criteria you
01:15:32.660know if it was circus of power yeah i know you probably don't want to be there but it was like
01:15:36.340immolation yeah they're darn right yeah so yeah there you have it well jason's gonna do some
01:15:42.820research and get back to you on his thoughts on necro goblin i'm gonna be looking that up yes yes
01:15:50.820all right uh next question have either of you read uh maria philhog's blade honer novels
01:16:00.020i have not um i don't read a lot of fiction that's just not something that i read i don't
01:16:09.220read a lot of novels i read a lot more um a lot more history and biography kind of stuff
01:16:17.280jason have you read uh those novels i have not no i've not heard of them sorry about that i've
01:16:26.280certainly heard of the author, but I've never read those novels. Monk asks, if I feel I need
01:16:34.620spiritual protection, I call on Thor, since he is the protector of Midgard.
01:16:43.280It's his wheelhouse, is it not? So, Monk, I'm going to go back to my other question. I think
01:16:50.920that all of those gods are good gods to call on for protection. But I think that Thor historically
01:16:58.060is the one that the most people have called on for protection. I think that he is still
01:17:03.560overwhelmingly the one that most people call on protection for protection. And honestly,
01:17:08.600when I need to call on one of the gods for protection, also Thor is my go-to for that as
01:17:13.700well. But everybody, I want you guys to hear me. I think that there are a lot of good choices for
01:17:18.720that depending but um the champion of asgard is always uh always an amazing choice for protection
01:17:31.040what are your thoughts jason i agree i am usually thor was the one that i
01:17:37.920usually think of for protection that i call upon and because of the hammer and stuff but i
01:17:44.800i do think all the gods are good to call on too or it would be another one that i have called on
01:17:50.240for that too but usually thor you know there's a number of people that call on heimdall as well
01:17:57.360for protection um especially what at some of our wayfarers bloats um for him keeping an eye out
01:18:04.720and watching your back and being able to see threats at a distance and that's uh that's
01:18:10.800something that that i know a lot of folks call on or that's someone that i know a lot of folks call
01:18:15.280on uh finn are there modern day rune stones that are made today just like the vikings did um
01:18:30.000so i'm going to go out on a limb and say yes in over the surface of this wide world i guarantee
01:18:36.000you that there probably are as far as stuff that i know of
01:18:47.200there are some things that i think are similar um and i ran into that in
01:18:55.120denmark so i didn't see as much runestone carving when i was in sweden i did see some in
01:19:06.000I think I saw some in old Uppsala, and I think that a lot of those were medieval runestones
01:19:15.820that were carved after the Ossetru period, and they were like Christian runestones, but a couple
01:19:22.920were older. In Denmark, I saw a lot of very, you know, ancient Ossetru runestones, but they
01:19:32.740uh their organization slash like you've got to be affiliated with this over there to get
01:19:42.740the tax money to go to it your your national religious tax or whatever so they've got a
01:19:48.340loose affiliation over there of foreign say there and they did a stone over there that i went and
01:19:55.540saw that was a rune stone in a lot of ways it was very much traditional like a traditional viking
01:20:01.540era runestone but it also had some metal work on it that uh that was more modern um they also took
01:20:08.980us to a really special park and i wish i could figure out the name of this place i would love to
01:20:14.580find it again on google earth and and look at it it was amazing runestone park that we went to
01:20:23.860and it had uh it had some very ancient runestones but it also had like a world war one
01:20:30.980era runestone there as well that was much more modern and that looks very much like it was done
01:20:38.900in in an original viking style um but that was really special i think you know i've also seen
01:20:47.540runic stones that as opposed to being done in rooms are done in like roman alphabet
01:20:52.580um but no that one in that runestone park i i'm gonna have to start hitting the books and
01:20:57.700trying to figure that out where that place was because it was it was amazing it was one of the
01:21:01.860coolest places that uh i've ever had the privilege of being part of a blowdad but yeah there are some
01:21:07.620but i think they're very few and far between stone is a very hard material obviously it's a very hard
01:21:12.820material stone is a material that's very very difficult to do a lot of that artwork in
01:21:17.860um cliff asks jason were you also true before you found the afa and if so what was that like
01:21:28.300um yes and no um i wasn't practicing i um i i became um awesome true i i say in 2011 when i
01:21:40.760joined the afa but about five years before that i had come across the ruins and actually that
01:21:46.920that book that you talk about matt all the time the runes workbook that's when i've actually got
01:21:51.600the same one from 2005 that i had but back in the day i um i had a friend that thought i'd be good
01:21:57.740at like divination and certain things because i don't like got empathic quality so he um led me
01:22:02.800to um um borders bookstore and at the time they they had that the the real bloom book of ruins
01:22:10.780the the cookie cutter i still have them actually but i got into that and as i was doing that i
01:22:16.100I would do rune readings on people at parties and different things.
01:22:19.220And as I was doing that, I was starting to connect to the stories of the gods.
01:22:23.600And as I was doing that, I was getting closer and closer to the gods.
01:22:27.920And I was starting to feel this pull and whatever.
01:22:30.780But I had some baggage in the back of my head.
01:22:33.860And I talk about how the phone's ringing down the hallway, and that's the gods call.
01:22:38.300But I just couldn't get down there and answer it.
01:22:40.580It took me five years to get past the Christian stuff in my head.
01:22:44.440So I guess I was Ositru, but I wasn't actually practicing.
01:22:52.640So I don't know if I would have quite found Ositru if I hadn't come across the runes that way and whatever.
01:22:59.800Because then I was on Facebook and I was friended by somebody who called himself a heathen.
01:23:06.340And I didn't realize that was the actual religion.
01:23:08.360You know, I didn't know that people that we practice that or whatever.
01:23:11.320So after that, then I found out about the AFA and whatever, and I joined in all this history.
01:23:18.280Got an interesting question from Bruce.
01:23:22.080Hey, Matt and Jason, can you guys talk about what kinds of things you keep on your altar and the significance of those things?
01:23:33.200Jason, go ahead and tell us a little bit about, you know, the kind of things over the years that you've had on your altar and why you have them there.
01:23:41.320Oh, well, of course, I have quite a few God statues, some that I have bought, a couple that were gifted to me that somebody had made for me.
01:23:52.780I have a big hammer. I kind of have my altar over here. I don't want to move the camera.
01:23:57.880But I have a horn bowl that was made out from a horn, and they pounded it out and formed it into a bowl.
01:24:05.060And that was from the Kensington Runestone Museum.
01:24:07.060So I have that. And I also I keep a few items on my on my altar.
01:24:11.820Like right now, I I have the Baldur's Hop candle that Melissa had brought for all of us that we bought at Yule.
01:24:19.280And there is a home white type candle that Brandy did a ritual with, went in Callahan at Yule.
01:24:26.100And we brought him home, put on our altar.
01:24:28.580And I also have a sterling acorn that Brandy had gifted to me a few years back when she became old and she gave it to a bunch of other leadership.
01:24:40.280And I also have a rune that Githya poured, brought back from when she went to Sweden years ago to that, I forget the name of that big rock that people climb up and they look over the fjord at.
01:24:57.300and she took a piece of that and brought it home and painted a rune on it it was which is pretty
01:25:02.020cool so that sits on my altar and a couple other things like that but that's pretty much it what i
01:25:08.340have on there oh i think i'm doing dead space here okay so i'm gonna go like this then since
01:25:23.860i've done in right here real quick here okay so this is the the the candles that we were talking
01:25:33.060about here i don't know if you can see here and this is a horn that gofi stam made for me years
01:25:41.060ago this sits on my altar and this was a balder god statue that i had carved from the balder top
01:25:49.620god pole that um goki stam did recently back in july so i took that from there and this is a tier
01:25:57.300one that an old member had made for me he's no longer with us i wish he would come back actually
01:26:03.540so he carved this from years ago it's pretty awesome got that and this is the horn bull i was
01:26:09.620telling you about so i got that and my big old white oak hammer the same way is like five tons
01:26:19.060pretty pretty heavy here so i have that then i have a couple of statues here i got this odin one
01:26:27.620that from dead is for two from the ukraine i had him make that back in 2015 and the air one right
01:26:34.420there air was the first one i had made and um this is the rune i was telling you about that
01:26:42.100that anna had made for me that's pretty cool so i got that sitting on there and i also
01:26:51.220well if you can see with my big big fingers there there's the acorn
01:26:58.660here's the other candle here that we brought back
01:27:03.940and the balder one up close that's pretty cool so i got that and then i have like a couple other
01:27:10.420things that are on the bottom part of my altar here like this this was gifted to me from bruce
01:27:17.140here on our folk builder put a spoke builder up in duluth and give you anna there we go painted
01:27:25.940that painting for me so i got that oops sorry put that right in my face there so that that's a bunch
01:27:32.660of things here and um our folk builder michael sespas my cousin here he um gifted me this odin
01:27:40.420kind of walking stick here his staff is pretty cool that sits there by my altar
01:27:47.020and the the altar itself i kind of made with with firewood years ago i took like like some
01:27:55.620wood here and some birch and put it up put um some other wood on top of there and whatever
01:28:02.660made a little makeshift one so it fits in my bedroom pretty good and whatever so
01:28:07.000all righty so sir i'm supposed to keep you talking so tell me about some of the symbolism
01:28:30.120behind uh your kindred flag i guess uh which one the first one or the old one or the new one
01:28:39.560i'll go i'll go with the new one and then i i if i needed to keep talking i'll talk about the
01:28:45.720original because the original has a lot of meaning to it too but um basically we got our our slogan
01:28:53.000on there our blood runs deep i thought that was important and we got um the the trihorn
01:28:59.960since we're a afa affiliated kindred i thought that was important that we had it on there but
01:29:04.600the original one here over here this is the one that we created one of the phony members she's
01:29:09.880no longer with us she helped draw it up and what we have on there is we we have the state of
01:29:15.240minnesota and we have a sign in red kind of behind it and we um what i thought was really important
01:29:21.800was to have our name written in ruins i i thought that would look really good and plus it has
01:29:26.760like four othellas on there so okay well i'm gonna cook bablin now so awesome thank you jason for
01:29:32.600covering that sorry guys i had something i had to take care of real quick uh as far as altar stuff
01:29:38.920my altar now is a little bit different um than it's been over the years uh
01:29:45.880I used to kind of have everything in one spot. And so my, my God's altar and my ancestor altar
01:29:55.460were like just one big, massive altar. Now in the house that we've got, I've talked about this on
01:30:01.040the show a number of times, but I've got that picture wall that kind of goes up in my entryway
01:30:06.620and I had to move my altar into my office. Used to be it was, I don't know if this will even make
01:30:13.660sense there's a four year at the bottom of my stairs and my stairs kind of you know up against
01:30:19.820the wall hit a square angle and make a nice little enclave in there that i would have the altar at
01:30:25.980and then i've got my pictures of my ancestors going up the up the stairs and so those pictures
01:30:31.040stayed there and that's where i go to talk to and commune with my ancestors but i had to move the
01:30:36.540altar because having a having a a young child around sometimes they like to play with stuff
01:30:42.960on the altar and chaos ensues so had to move that in here in a little bit more secure location stuff
01:30:49.760that i you know again like i said i'd have uh pictures of my ancestors which was was neat and
01:30:57.440i'm looking across over now i have a set of runes on my altar that i carved when i first got involved
01:31:11.440i'm trying to remember pretty early on maybe 2002 2003 um but i carved those myself out of a
01:31:20.240crab apple tree branch from my my grandparents backyard and i carved those and i blooded them
01:31:29.280with my own blood and i've used those throughout the years and they're special to me i have those
01:31:34.080on my altar i have statues of and this is just you know what what i've got right now there but
01:31:44.000i've got statues of thor of odin of fray and of tear right now i have various candles um
01:31:52.720I have an incense burner where I'm burning some resin incense as opposed to the sticks and the cones.
01:32:01.740I'm trying some loose resin incense, and I like that a lot.
01:32:05.900I've got a little candle set up with a little nondescript metal guy with an axe piece of flat kind of junk art,
01:32:20.960but it's not junky it's just kind of uh anyways you know what i mean and i've got that there i
01:32:25.920picked it up one time it's got he's holding a um i guess he's holding a basin for a candle and i
01:32:32.720light a candle in there and that's to symbolize just lighting candle candle for my ancestors
01:32:39.440along with that i've got a big brass offering bowl that's really ornate from pakistan and
01:32:47.920my grandfather went through there when he was in the army um he was stationed there he had some
01:32:52.240kind of a trip through there he had to do back in i believe the 50s and uh it was a real big
01:32:58.720deal for him and he got a number of items from there but this was you know this was a piece that
01:33:03.680he got that he really liked is this really really ornate brass bowl and so i use that as an offering
01:33:08.560bowl um yeah that's what i've got on my altar right now and over the years that changes um
01:33:16.000Um, I still have in my closet, there's stuff I have other places. It's still very important to me, but, um, I've picked up special rocks from places that I've been. So I have a little piece of that on the altar with me. I have, uh, a stone that I picked up from the Tute Bergerwald in Germany that I sometimes keep on my altar to have a little piece of, of fatherland with me on there. Um, things like that. That's kind of what I got on my altar.
01:33:46.000Um, Cliff asks, hey, Matt, some of our states like Ohio and California or Florida have a lot of folk builders. How many is too many? There is no such thing as too many folk builders. We can find something for everybody to do.
01:34:06.040Um, I will say that the more folk builders we get in an area, the more challenging it is for them to find their individual niche to where they're contributing at a high level, because, you know, you're only going to host so many events in a very small geographical area.
01:34:22.680But, you know, we always, we love having a lot of folk builders. And when you have a lot of folk builders, there is a lot you can do.
01:34:31.760yeah it just gives us a lot of utility we got people that
01:34:37.460our numbers are growing the AFA is bigger now than it's ever been and we're doing great but
01:34:43.900we've got a long long long way to go and I think that you know we're not anytime soon going to
01:34:50.440reach a number to where all of the you know heterosexual conservatively minded white people
01:34:56.100in a given state in the United States are also true.
01:35:01.300Our numbers, we're at a point where too many folk builders is not a problem.
01:35:06.780Every different folk builder is going to, they're going to interact with people a little bit
01:35:30.720We kind of opened the door to everybody who wants to be a folk builder to be able to get them in a spot where they can give that a try if it's something they want to do.
01:35:46.820and this last year alone we grew by 20 percent and thanks in huge part to our just you know
01:35:54.180abundance of folk builders that are out there working hard for us every day so there's no such
01:35:58.580thing as too many folk builders in an area um nick asks what are your thoughts on white folk
01:36:05.620beating the native americans to america um you know i just question hey jason is that something
01:36:11.860you've you know spent a lot of your attention on or you have thoughts on the original inhabitants
01:36:18.820of the americas i've looked into it a little bit here there i i don't have a big opinion on that
01:36:26.580i'm i'm the type of guy that i'm like solid evidence and proof and different things and
01:36:32.340if i don't see a certain thing i or whatever i don't know i i i have to see concrete things
01:36:37.620sometimes a lot of times so a lot of times i don't give something too much thought unless i
01:36:42.740it jumps out at me more but i i have thought about different things whatever
01:36:48.180civilizations have come before so that's fascinating i just never know what to do with
01:36:55.540it it's it's super interesting but it's also very uh very frustrating because it's hard to
01:37:03.860to have anything to grasp onto in those things now i've seen lots and lots of evidence to where
01:37:10.820i believe that there was very ancient uh white people that made it to the americas there's a lot
01:37:17.540of reasons that i believe that but knowing the specifics of it are are so tricky i see somebody
01:37:24.420over on the side mentioning about skeletons that have been hidden by the smithsonian which is
01:37:29.620absolutely a real thing hiding skeletons which skeletons how many were there what do we need to
01:37:37.220know about the skeletons unfortunately because they've been hidden we don't know the answers
01:37:41.060to those questions in a way that it just leaves so much open um obviously and this this with a
01:37:47.780lot of stuff this isn't just in our circles um i've been listening to so somebody asked earlier
01:37:53.940what what i was listening to and i didn't answer we kind of kept it on jason and the black metal but
01:37:58.580But I listen to audio books, and I've been listening to some Graham Hancock stuff lately, and it's fascinating.
01:38:04.720Again, I don't have any huge conclusions on it other than that there's a mainstream orthodox view of archaeology and view of history, and people are not at all open to fair scientific inquiry into that and into changing that.
01:38:22.940so unfortunately um in the world that we live in a lot of the quote-unquote authorities
01:38:31.820have burned me so bad that i don't trust them on things so it's it's hard i you know it's
01:38:39.820i don't like to be the guy that is contrary to an idea but then doesn't have an alternative to
01:38:46.200back it up with and that's what you find with a lot of these things i can't tell you exactly what
01:38:50.780did happen but i can tell you what didn't happen there were absolutely white people in the americas
01:38:56.860before uh what are termed native americans were here and during in different capacities
01:39:05.740and there's amazing and fascinating archaeology to prove a lot of that one of the things
01:39:11.900and again i don't make any bold claims on it other than you know there's way too much smoke for there
01:39:17.660not to be fire there but um something was really interesting um when i'd mentioned that i took a
01:39:24.540trip to denmark and uh directly following that like a month later i went to winter nights in
01:39:32.620pennsylvania but before i went to pennsylvania we visited a friend in moundsville west virginia
01:39:39.260and so we'd just been in denmark and we'd been in these these dolman burial chamber mounds
01:39:45.740and we've looked at runic rock carvings and then we go to this place moundsville and it's named
01:39:51.260that because of all these this you know quote unquote native american mound culture there
01:39:56.860that is remarkably dissimilar to any other native american stuff and there's carvings
01:40:04.700that don't look like any native american stuff that baffles the people there looked very very
01:40:11.660similar to what we've just seen in denmark as far as the mound burials and as far as the uh
01:40:17.980almost runic script to the writing that again looked nothing like uh native american carving
01:40:23.740but looked a lot like um rune stone and stone age european carving and so it's really interesting
01:40:31.980again i don't know the exact conclusion on that but it was fascinating it was really cool to be
01:40:36.380able to see those things so close together and see the similarities um
01:40:43.260yeah so i don't know where to go with that other than i know that it's a thing and i
01:40:46.060find it fascinating and i love learning about it uh from nick what are your thoughts on the
01:40:53.740american room stones and their veracity kensington havener and the like um what are your thoughts
01:41:01.420on those jason i know you've seen uh uh kensington have you seen the havener room
01:41:05.740zone do you have any thoughts on those two rooms i haven't seen the havener um the kensington i've
01:41:11.740actually done a lot of looking into studying like even before i was asked to like i said back in
01:41:16.8602005 i my my mom actually married a guy from kensington and they got married in an old church
01:41:22.460there he grew up on a farm there but um i personally i i don't think i i think i think it was a
01:41:29.100reproduction in the 1800s from the different things i've seen the writing they used and the
01:41:34.620different things the soil samples that they had they've recently had some new tests done on the
01:41:40.380roots that were around the actual stone different things like that i i think i don't i don't think
01:41:45.420it was ola that did it but i think it was somebody because around that time too there was a viking
01:41:50.860revival you know they had the world's fair they had the big viking thing so there's a lot of
01:41:55.260scandinavian people here this is just my own personal opinion i know a lot of people disagree
01:41:59.020with me on that but the different things that i have seen in whatever that is just my opinion the
01:42:03.820havener i i don't have any thoughts on that i i don't really know a lot on it i kind of google
01:42:10.060it a little bit but i i seem to know a lot more about the one up here because it's in my neck of
01:42:14.940the woods about the others so i've uh you know i've i've been fortunate enough to see both the
01:42:23.980kensington and the havener runestone the havener runestone i just saw for the first time uh this
01:42:29.500this last november um i think they're awesome uh i i think some of it's missed like i don't
01:42:39.820i don't believe that either of those two rune stones is necessarily
01:42:47.900you know viking age um i think the haverner one is a little bit more compelling for being
01:42:55.260something very ancient but either way i think it's fascinating at some point before the modern era
01:43:04.300well i say modern era but before you know the 1900s we have people that know how to carve
01:43:12.700runes in these stones and that's you know that wasn't super common knowledge for everybody
01:43:19.500it's really amazing and cool to me if somebody in the 1800s did carve these runestones that would
01:43:27.980be fantastic um the fact that we have people that knew enough about runes and carving runestones
01:43:34.140to do that at that time in the americas is is really a neat thing um if we have them there
01:43:40.540from a much earlier period even cooler but i think that they're they're both fascinating and
01:43:47.500wonderful things um it's kind of interesting the uh the kensington one and the more medieval script
01:43:55.900that it was as opposed to like viking age rune stones which is which is also kind of fascinating
01:44:01.660to me because there was somebody with this corpus of knowledge to do that and if you're you know
01:44:07.100in the 1800s in minnesota and you know 12th century swedish rune script that's that's still
01:44:14.060really interesting and really fascinating to me so i think they're amazing pieces to go see and
01:44:19.420and just dream and think on i agree uh jason do you uh you do some pretty cool woodworking
01:44:28.620are you currently creating anything yes i'm working on a couple things right now um
01:44:36.300just um i usually do some mold near carvings that i make necklaces for people whatever i'm
01:44:43.180working on a couple of them i'm working on uh ear missile um project right now i've been kind
01:44:48.060of just playing around with that design and i got a couple of things i'm working on for some
01:44:52.860donation things whatever but yep trying trying to keep up on stuff i have them good days and
01:44:58.460bad days i'm when i'm hurt real bad the mojo doesn't flow as much so there's times where
01:45:03.260i don't go out in the garage to work but then there's other times where it doesn't stop
01:45:07.020because the creativity so but it keeps me busy
01:45:17.660yeah very similarly cliff asks um do you still carve mjolnir pendants and are they for sale
01:45:25.500somewhere i do and um no i do not sell them i i just gift them i make them for people if
01:45:33.820people are interested reach out to me i love making them for the folk so there's somebody
01:45:39.100that doesn't live around here normally i i originally started making them for the kids
01:45:43.340in our group for yule 2017 and then it turned into i started making them for members around here and
01:45:49.020then for anybody who wanted them so yeah if anyone wants them just let me know i i'd rather just get
01:46:03.180Okay, so this is a question from Jamie. I wondered, is there a festival or some sort
01:46:17.040dedicated to the AFA? So try to understand the question. And I think that Jamie is outside of
01:46:26.880the United States, I believe. So I'm not, I think something's a little bit lost in the,
01:46:31.340in translation per se so there's tons of afa events that happen
01:46:39.420there are several what we would call national gatherings that i think might be what you're
01:46:43.820asking about festivals in the united states and those are uh
01:46:51.580so our longest standing one was midsummer in the sierras and that's in northern california and for
01:46:57.820For a long time, that was at various camps there, and now that is hosted by Odenshof, and that's in June, and that's our biggest gathering, and people from around the country go to that.
01:47:10.660Because we now have something of that magnitude at each of our hoffs, people from far away tend to go less to them, so they become more big regional festivals or regional gatherings than national ones.
01:47:26.340but we still do get people from all over that go to them. So I mentioned in June, we have
01:47:33.540Midsummer at Odenshof. I was just, okay, so we have Ostara coming up here in just a couple of
01:47:42.320weeks in Linden, North Carolina at Thorshof. And I'd encourage anybody that can make that or can
01:47:49.840be a part of that and wants to see that to get in touch with their folk builder and get squared
01:47:54.240away on that we'd love to meet you guys love to have folks out there and if you've already been
01:47:58.320there we'd love to see you again uh baldershoff which we've talked about a lot tonight with jason
01:48:03.280they host frayfaxi and that's in august and that's uh that's in linden or i'm sorry that's in murdoch
01:48:12.720minnesota and then we have um for the first time this year we just had it it's where i was a couple
01:48:18.720weeks ago we have charming of the plow at njordshoff and that's the njordshoff district
01:48:24.240regional event but it gets people from all over and that's in uh that was in was this month that
01:48:34.240was i'm sorry that was in february and it's um in the town of white springs florida and that's
01:48:42.880in the northern part of florida there we also have winter nights in the poconos which well
01:48:50.000it was originally winter nights in the poconos it was not hosted in poconos last year and
01:48:54.480still determining exactly where in that part of country we're going to have winter nights this
01:48:58.320year that's also a you know certainly a big regional but also a national gathering and
01:49:05.120for a number of years now running we've had elsie fest devoted to the folk mother elsie christensen
01:49:10.800and that goes on in wisconsin so yeah we have several of those gatherings or festivals and
01:49:17.440that's what we've got and anybody who wants to make it to any of those afa member or not please
01:49:23.520reach out to your local folk builder and we can see about meeting you at one of those events
01:49:28.720antonio asks i know i asked uh the question like months ago but if anyone who is white
01:49:36.480but has let's say 25 or less black ancestry are they still folk even though they are more
01:59:55.220First, I will, I will certainly answer your question, but I don't want to spend too much
01:59:59.280time on it because i think we all get it and we all don't like it um no they there is
02:00:09.760the reasons that they do those things are all in a in a spectrum that you know a bunch of
02:00:18.040slightly different theories that are all in the same basic thing to beat white people down
02:00:25.960and to artificially raise other groups of people that aren't quite up
02:00:32.280one truth of if you want to make everybody to the same and i don't think they want to make
02:00:40.200everybody the same at this point i think they want to get rid of or diminish us but if you
02:00:48.760want to make equality happen two things you can get there one of two ways or a combination of both
02:00:57.400you can make the underperforming people perform you can encourage those people to perform better
02:01:04.120so they can bring themselves up to the rest of folks or you can take the high achieving people
02:01:10.440and you can hurt them and diminish them and bring them down to the level to where everybody else is
02:01:18.760And I think that's part of what's going on. And I think another part is there is a hatred of white people in the West and certainly in this country by the very loud forces of the media and Hollywood that have have gotten a momentum and a life of their own of trying to literally destroy or end whiteness, as they say.
02:01:48.760and it's evil, and it's bad, and it's wrong, but take heart. That's why we're trying so hard,
02:01:55.960and we're very lucky in this country that we're able to do homeschooling so readily available,
02:02:02.180and so we've worked really, really hard to get the AFA Oustru Academy up and running,
02:02:09.320and we're almost, you know, we're over halfway through our first year on that. Now, the first
02:02:15.080year, it was just kindergartners because we're figuring it out. But I've been promised that at
02:02:18.780the very least, we're going to have kindergarten, first and second grade curriculum already in this
02:02:25.020fall. And we're going to continue at that kind of a pace until we have a full K through 12 curriculum
02:02:30.820for our homeschooling program. Because, you know, that's essential. It's really easy to
02:02:39.560see how terrible a lot of options are. But what's much more important is that we see what good
02:02:46.500options are and that we take advantage of the good things that we have. And we've got a lot
02:02:51.500of great people working really hard on that curriculum. Even our enemies, upon evaluating
02:02:56.080our curriculum, begrudgingly say it's amazing curriculum. They just don't like us. So it's
02:03:02.540fantastic we are so we are absolutely dedicated with each new student to make sure that our
02:03:10.700program is compliant with all of the rules of the state that you're in and that's such a big thing
02:03:15.820i know that parents are scared like man does this count man what if what if my my state's really
02:03:21.480restrictive there's all these hoops we're there to hold your hand through that so that we can do
02:03:26.900that together. That's a huge priority for us. And it's something that we learn with each new
02:03:34.000student from each new state. We perfect our program to where it is completely legitimate
02:03:39.220and meets all of the standards for the state that you're in. And we gear it towards the toughest
02:03:43.580states so that it's, you know, more guaranteed to work for any state that you apply. And also,
02:03:50.400we're trying to get it squared away for the Canadian provinces that are friendly to homeschooling.
02:03:54.820So we're working very hard on that. And if you guys have children that are, you know, in kindergarten and you want to switch them over, please do that right now. You got to be AFA members to do it, but please do that.
02:04:09.200Also, if come this fall, you have kids that are going to be kindergartners, first graders, or second graders, please get them involved.
02:04:19.020I know as a new parent that it is terrifying what's out there, but I'm so excited that we have this program in place to where I can put my daughter when she's ready to go to school or when she's ready to be enrolled.
02:04:33.360So know that that's there and that that's an option.
02:04:36.700And, you know, I think that we can all see the terrible agenda that's that's out there in educating white children these days.
02:04:47.860How many members does the AFA have now? And can you make a special announcement when we hit the one thousand mark?
02:04:55.600I can and I will try to shut me up when we reach one thousand.
02:04:59.140I will. I'm going to be obnoxious with just how excited and proud I am when we reach that.
02:05:03.840because it's something we've you know we put so much time and effort into into building and it's
02:05:09.080taken a long time and we're doing the very best we can uh so we're seeing the fruit of that and
02:05:14.600we're getting really close so you ask how many we have as of right this second we have 987 members
02:05:23.280um we try to do regular maintenance with our database to where we're not counting people
02:05:30.120that aren't current, that aren't active. And we're trying really hard to keep that to be a very
02:05:35.660honest number. And we prune that every day. So it slows the rate of getting the number up there,
02:05:42.820but it's honest. And we know that when we hit it, we hit it. So we've got 987 right now. That means
02:05:47.820we are 13 away from hitting that 1000 mark. And we will celebrate and be excited and announce it
02:05:53.280all over the place as soon as we hit it, because I'm very proud of the hard work folks have done.
02:06:00.120Um, what is, how long does the membership application process take usually from Willow?
02:06:15.060Willow, I've seen your application go through.
02:06:16.780We're, we're working on that right now.
02:06:19.020It takes up to a week to get figured out before a person will get sent their initial invoice.