Asatru Folk Assembly - 8⧸14⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 110 - Baldrshof Edition

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00:03:00.000 all right welcome to another exciting edition of victory never sleeps

00:03:14.560 today we're gonna see who joins us um ideas to have an episode today for the district

00:03:25.520 it's a little bit hectic we didn't think about it when we planned out this episode

00:03:29.520 But at Baldur's Hoff, coming up in just a couple of days this weekend, we are celebrating

00:03:36.960 Braithback, which is the Baldur's Hoff national event every year. It's kind of a focused regional

00:03:44.800 event. We've got people coming in for this event from all over. We've got folks from Georgia and

00:03:51.120 florida coming up for it folks from

00:03:58.000 i think we got somebody from indiana and from ohio going there

00:04:05.520 i will be flying out early in the morning with my wife and daughter so that's exciting it's

00:04:10.880 gonna be the first time we're gonna get to see baldur's home um so yeah looking to be an exciting

00:04:18.000 event we are our cast for this evening grows as uh as i've been speaking so that's exciting um

00:04:27.840 before we get kicked off some top of the show things as i mentioned frayfaxi baldershoff is

00:04:34.800 this weekend we've got some stuff going on friday saturday and then closing out on sunday

00:04:40.320 if you are interested if you'd like to make it if you can make it you should and you should reach

00:04:45.680 out to one of the fine folks on this broadcast or to any of our folk builders we can get y'all set

00:04:52.000 up if you'd like to be there we'd love to see you i'd love to get you the experience

00:04:58.080 the amazing amazing place that baldershoff is and come and celebrate freight fax with us

00:05:04.800 so something to think about i know that's really short notice but coming up if you are interested in

00:05:15.680 let's call it central montana we are having frayers harvest feast and that's the 20th through

00:05:25.840 the 22nd of september be next month i'm going to make it up there i've wanted to go see that now

00:05:32.720 for some time i'm very excited so if you're interested in doing that if you are in you know

00:05:40.640 in the area or if you want to make sure that you are in the area you should still reach out

00:05:45.360 to one of the folk builders we'd love to get you set up and have you come out and celebrate with us

00:05:51.440 um also

00:05:57.520 should go ahead and plug winter nights in october if you are planning a little ways out we've got

00:06:03.440 winter nights in october this time for the first time ever it's going to be held in new hampshire

00:06:08.640 it's the first big afa event that we have done north of

00:06:17.040 north of pennsylvania so this is really exciting uh i've never been to new hampshire i'm looking

00:06:22.800 forward to it it's going to be awesome um more info to come as you're looking forward to it

00:06:30.800 uh again reach out to one of our folk voters we can get you all set up if you'd like to attend

00:06:35.040 but it's going to be an amazing event very it's going to be beautiful that time of year in that

00:06:41.280 part of the country so definitely something to get on your calendars and think about going if

00:06:45.920 you can go to it and then kind of closing out what we've got scheduled so far for the year as far as

00:06:53.600 big national events we have feast of the iron yard coming up in november november 8th through 10th

00:07:01.440 in south dakota so if that's something you guys would like to make it to or able to make it to

00:07:06.560 i'd love to see you there love to see you guys at any of these events or all of these events

00:07:12.320 would be even better so if you guys want to come out meet folks see what it's all about we would

00:07:17.280 love to have you there if you're a member and you haven't been to one of these why not you should do

00:07:22.720 it we got a big spread we got something going on in minnesota and in montana and new hampshire

00:07:30.640 and south dakota so kind of all spread out a lot of cool things going on we would love to have you

00:07:35.840 guys be a part of it um other stuff top of the show uh really appreciate all of the donations

00:07:49.040 over the last few months we've done really really well on paying down our uh

00:07:54.320 our debt on york's off that's going to be the first step in us getting phrase off is to pay off

00:08:02.400 the remaining balance on york's off so you guys have been great we've made a lot of progress on

00:08:09.300 that still got a ways to go but we appreciate all your guys generous donations your generosity is

00:08:15.180 much much appreciated and yeah thank you as it looks now we've got 81 600 to go

00:08:22.320 um sounds like a lot is a lot but it gets chipped away every time one of you guys donates

00:08:29.820 a little goes a long way and if everybody does a little we'll get there uh sooner than we think

00:08:35.760 so thank you very much for everyone who's done that um i should also mention at the top of the

00:08:41.980 show some merchandise we have tonight um these are particularly dynamic with the the red and

00:08:50.800 black i think that's pretty cool looking um some athletic athletic wear along with some hoodies

00:09:00.480 for uh odin's off so that's pretty exciting i think those look neat hopefully these will be

00:09:06.320 big sellers if you guys are interested you never know how long we're going to have these products

00:09:12.400 we're still you know we're in a figuring out process on our store so far this stuff's been

00:09:17.920 really nice quality so that's really nice people have been pretty satisfied i think we've had some

00:09:22.960 really good designs so if you guys are interested we really appreciate your your contributions

00:09:29.760 um looks like we have got jeff jones joining us for the first time or at least first time

00:09:37.680 watching us live over in the chat room welcome jeff glad to have you with us

00:09:42.080 um checking to see if there's any other stuff to hit at the top of the program

00:09:50.080 not sure if there is i want to introduce the folks we have with us looks like ashley disappeared but

00:09:57.840 that ah she has risen um so before we introduce our uh special guest uh

00:10:08.880 uh yeah I suppose I'm still hosting so our special guests for the evening I want to

00:10:15.840 first in case this like Jeff may be their first broadcast 0.88

00:10:22.860 to manage the house true folk assembly we have divided up the world but the vast majority of

00:10:32.160 our members in the United States but it's important to remember all of our brothers

00:10:35.940 sisters who are in other countries around the world we have members in 14 different countries

00:10:42.580 right now but this kind of is a is a diagram and breaks it down into what the hoff districts are

00:10:52.100 so we have a district that is i guess rough roughly surrounded by and focused around

00:11:01.220 one of our Hoffs. We have four Hoffs and so as you can see we have separated them by the

00:11:10.640 kind of color of our Hoffs heraldry. And we've gone through and we did our first two Hoffs which

00:11:19.840 were Odin's Hoff that you see there in red, Thor's Hoff that you see in orange, and now we're on the

00:11:27.500 third half of the austro folk assembly baldershoff and that baldershoff itself is located in murdoch

00:11:34.220 minnesota but all those states you see in the blue there and corresponding kind of take those lines

00:11:42.620 and draw them up through canada that is what baldershoff district currently is so wisconsin

00:11:50.700 minnesota illinois missouri iowa nebraska north dakota south dakota and the other one

00:12:08.300 kansas kansas uh i feel a little bit better because i have not been to kansas so give me

00:12:15.740 a little bit of an excuse but only a little um but yeah there we go that is the district this

00:12:21.500 represents and a couple of a few different folks to talk with you this evening and that may change

00:12:31.180 over the course of the broadcast but let's introduce the folks that we have and we're

00:12:34.860 going to go around in the order that it is my screens everybody's screen i'm so used to seeing

00:12:41.260 folks like this on a video call not on one of our live victory never sleeps episodes so chris mcdowell

00:12:49.420 this is your first time welcome to victory never sleeps tell folks who you are how you

00:12:57.020 how you came to alsatru how you came to the astro folk assembly and where you're where

00:13:02.060 you're working out of, if you would please. I'm out in Iowa. I've claimed Ausitru for

00:13:11.740 just over a year now. I found the AFA through that, I believe it was the Guardian hit piece

00:13:21.580 that wrote about the AFA and Baldershof. And hearing some of the things that had to be said,

00:13:28.940 i decided to do my own research and i've come to found out uh this is exactly where i needed

00:13:34.460 to be and it's what i've been looking for my entire life i was raised with a christian

00:13:42.620 background and it never connected with me and for years i've always tried to

00:13:52.060 find what was supposed to be and after i had my first uh experience my first bloat with folk

00:13:58.220 builder jason gallagher for voting on the peak in hudson wisconsin i felt that connection

00:14:04.380 immediately and i knew i was where i needed to be and i wanted to start uh sharing that

00:14:10.140 same experience that i felt and have been missing out my life to uh do the same thing and start

00:14:15.660 bringing folk home well welcome we are glad you're here with us um other two folks have

00:14:28.060 been on before but still please introduce yourselves tell you tell us um i don't know

00:14:35.820 give folks an introduction if they haven't heard from you before and kind of tell them where you're

00:14:39.820 located jason welcome jason you are on mute oh oh that was nick that was nick

00:14:53.100 My name is Jason Gallagher. I'm a folk builder in Bloomington, Minnesota. I've been around for a

00:15:01.980 little while. I also run the Kindred program. We've been hosting, I am part of Northern Blood

00:15:09.060 Kindred too, part of, in this part of Minnesota. And we've been hosting events for quite a few

00:15:14.880 years. And this will be the ninth fall fest that we've had. And fun fact, Matt, you and I are the

00:15:21.220 only two that have been to every single one of these wow okay i hadn't realized yeah last year

00:15:28.920 after i kind of looked at the attendance and everything and throughout the years yeah it's

00:15:33.560 just you and me but it's amazing how far we've come and that beautiful hop that we have and we

00:15:39.360 have such great folk and yeah it's it's it is amazing to have a hop to go to i mean it's great

00:15:45.580 be with your folk standing in a circle it's cool in the backyard but it's even more awesome when

00:15:51.900 you're at a hop the piety and everything and balder's hop the energy there is just amazing

00:16:00.620 well excellent we're glad to have you on with us this evening and then ashley tell folks about you

00:16:09.660 and where you're coming to us from i'm coming to you from alder's hof um i'm at the hop right now

00:16:17.180 but i live in um we're in minnesota as well just a couple hours from from the hop um when i found

00:16:25.420 the afa was through a an article it was accidental um happened to be a time in my life where i was

00:16:31.900 very um i was definitely in some need of spiritual guidance and pregnant with my youngest and um

00:16:40.380 i just lost my husband who had um introduced me to aussitrew and i'm in a small wonderful small

00:16:46.220 town but a very very christian town um and then i found this article and all i saw was there's a

00:16:51.740 church in milmer and um looked it up and um mapped it out and from my doorstep to the doorstep at

00:16:58.860 at Baldur's Hof at the time, it was 44 minutes, you know, and at the time there was, it was

00:17:03.900 just opening. So not even dedicated yet, but so just three hops. So being that close to one of

00:17:11.000 three in the country, it was pretty astounding to me. And I reached out and I talked to Jason

00:17:15.320 that night and then I was a member and here we are. Excellent. So, well, actually first GW Farnsworth

00:17:26.440 bought us five coffees 25 donation thank you very much we appreciate it

00:17:33.240 um yeah if anybody wants to do the donate us coffee thing there are instructions in the uh

00:17:40.280 description of the video we appreciate that um yeah thank you so two of you guys mentioned that

00:17:50.760 you found all of this through uh the hit piece by the guardian um i know we've talked about it

00:18:00.920 on the program before but i know we get you know new listeners that haven't been on i'm not sure

00:18:08.760 you about this yet ashley but i know we haven't talked to you about it chris um

00:18:13.960 um yeah it's it's really interesting those of you that might not know um

00:18:23.560 Baldershof itself was a former uh Lutheran uh church and in a short interval it had gotten

00:18:34.000 rezoned for residential and the people who took on that uh that job and thought they

00:18:43.300 to turn it into a house got a very very small start on that process and then decided not to

00:18:50.980 so we did not really realize when we got in there but we had to go through a zoning process to get

00:18:57.860 it zoned back to its original purpose as a house of worship and that involved

00:19:03.300 having to have the uh i don't know that proposal go in front of the city council and as such

00:19:14.940 uh antifa in minneapolis got a hold of it and it caused a big kerfuffle about it and in doing so

00:19:25.680 uh folks at the guardian ran a a hit piece on us that they kind of presented in a really

00:19:32.340 dishonest way and it was one of the best things to ever happen to us um it drastically increased

00:19:41.780 our membership certainly there locally and continues to bring members to us to this day

00:19:48.980 so that was kind of a fortuitous happenstance that occurred with that um

00:19:55.220 Um, what, what do you remember about that, Chris?

00:20:02.380 Like what about, what about that, uh, video brought you to having an interest in the AustroFolka Center?

00:20:14.880 They would speak a lot about the hate that would be about us or about the AFA in general before I, well, because I wasn't a part of.

00:20:25.220 But I would just look up and I would see pictures and it just it seems just like a gathering of just amazing folk having a grand time and worshiping their gods.

00:20:36.740 And I was like, OK, this doesn't seem like what I'm being told.

00:20:40.800 I don't see anything hateful.

00:20:43.100 I looked up Runestone and read everything.

00:20:45.900 I'm like, there's nothing about this seems full of hate.

00:20:50.180 So I decided to fill it out.

00:20:51.720 i had a conversation with folk builder jesse schaefer and she explained everything else and

00:20:57.960 i was like okay i want to go and be a part of this and actually see what this is about

00:21:04.280 told me about the moot and ever since then i knew that it had nothing to do with hate

00:21:09.240 because all the only that was the only word i could keep hearing was hate hate hate

00:21:12.760 and all we talk about is love and honor so here i am now well excellent glad glad you're with us

00:21:23.220 and i see jeff uh our new new visitor over in the chat room says that's uh how he heard about

00:21:30.120 the austral folk assembly as well so there you go um

00:21:35.660 Um, Ashley, same, same question. Um, well, to, to clarify my, um, I guess exposure or introduction

00:21:48.560 to the AFA was a different hit piece, a more local one. It was just in the Wilmer paper had

00:21:54.820 something about this, um, white supremacist church that was coming to Wilmer and blah, blah, blah,

00:21:59.360 you know, just lots of stuff. And you kind of read, you know, read through all that and just

00:22:03.620 kind of um found the facts and looked into it myself but it was um it was just a kind of this

00:22:12.200 perfect trifecta of a time period in Minnesota especially because it was right after the George

00:22:18.080 Floyd situation happened and so there's all this this uproar and this anxiety and all just you know

00:22:24.020 craziness going on here and it was 2020 COVID everybody was just at home with nothing to do

00:22:30.200 but to find things to, um, either fear or complain about, or, um, you know, be ridiculous about. And 0.67

00:22:37.120 so all those things just kind of fueled this, you know, this kind of big to do about, um, about us,

00:22:43.420 you know, but, you know, I, again, you know, the half being 44 minutes from where I was standing,

00:22:50.940 finding that out was just astounding. Cause I was, like I said, pregnant with my, my youngest,

00:22:56.340 i already had a nine month old and my late husband was the guru of all this you know he'd explain it

00:23:01.380 to me in very easy ways um but i was novice at best you know and i was really trying to do some

00:23:08.100 readings and i was having some difficulty there because i didn't know where to start i just didn't

00:23:12.180 have i didn't have anybody i didn't have anybody talk to or ask um and this just presented itself

00:23:18.420 whether it was you know mass and hate or not um but to piggyback off the hate thing you know um

00:23:24.820 we get a lot of um attention to through the um i don't want to um credit their name here but

00:23:32.420 organizations have put together things like hate lists and hate maps and all these hate hateful

00:23:37.300 things that um are just so such a um is so hypocritical and in and of themselves to

00:23:44.500 be calling us hateful when they're you know compiling lists of people that they see is hateful 0.53

00:23:49.380 Yeah, that would seem self-evident, but yeah, the folks that talk so much about tolerance and how hateful we are, the ones trying to get people to protest our exercise of our religion and causing threats to be made towards our houses of worship and a lot of nonsense.

00:24:18.740 but so that's that silliness is cool because it brought everybody or brought so many people here

00:24:26.880 and so many people home to also true but the I don't know the cooler I guess part of the story

00:24:33.940 and this is something I want you guys to speak on and Jason maybe you've got something to start

00:24:38.960 us with on this but how has our relationship with the town of of murdoch and like the general

00:24:47.920 area been how's that developed over the years it's um it's turned into like a really great

00:24:58.480 friendship we we figured that once they they learned who we really were through our deeds

00:25:04.080 and didn't listen to all the stuff they were reading and hearing online they would realize

00:25:08.800 the town folk would realize that we were decent people and we started building relationships with

00:25:13.680 our neighbors and people would stop by when we were working on the hop in the early days and

00:25:18.480 whatever and we would wave and people would be like hey what's going on and they would ask us

00:25:22.640 questions and as time went on we built more or more relationships with the local people and

00:25:28.720 with the food pantry especially i mean ashley can speak on that that that's really what's created a

00:25:34.800 nice bond with people and we have the regulars that come in and whatever and it's just it's

00:25:38.960 come a long way because i remember before we got the hop and whatever i remember thinking yep

00:25:43.760 they're gonna go crazy because you know you go back to the very first fall fest how we got kicked

00:25:48.800 out of our first place and blah blah blah long story but you know we knew that being minneapolis

00:25:53.680 like ashley said with the george floyd thing just happening recently everybody was losing their

00:25:58.480 and whatever so to speak so we knew we were in for a ride but once we got to that small town and

00:26:04.800 they realized everything and and started seeing everything we built it it took a little time but

00:26:10.000 that's what it's all about is through deeds and doing good things and building those relationships

00:26:15.520 and all our neighbors love us yeah yeah certainly true that's that's what i've seen there um

00:26:27.360 it's really

00:26:30.560 it's very nice uh we

00:26:32.400 it's easy to say whatever you want to say but reputation really matters and real in life in

00:26:48.320 in real life interactions with with people with communities makes such a difference it's been such

00:26:56.880 a blessing having Hoffs because having the Hoffs has really given us a opportunity to meet our

00:27:05.520 neighbors to interact in the communities that we find ourselves and it's been an overwhelmingly

00:27:11.680 positive experience that's something that we find at all four of our Hoffs and that we're you know

00:27:19.040 developing at Sigurheim where we you know have folks out there every now and again but we don't

00:27:24.240 have a building established yet we still have a lot of goodwill and a lot of people that

00:27:29.440 get to know us and become our friends um yeah it's nice i mean ashley you do uh a lot of the

00:27:39.200 charitable interaction that we have with the community what's your experience been like

00:27:43.920 dealing with you know real people in and around murdoch yeah it's been all all good you know there

00:27:51.760 hasn't been um i guess i would say the only um kind of i guess hiccup or non-constructive

00:28:01.520 interaction that we had with so you know there's there's always going to be a an outlier or two you

00:28:06.320 know in some of the more uh prominent names in this whole uh scenario since day one with the

00:28:12.960 city um had me removed from the facebook group and that really um that really stuck because after the

00:28:19.520 the um the thanksgiving food shelf um we had run out of stuff but i had funds that were donated

00:28:26.440 and someone had um found me on facebook and was like hey i just got off work are you guys still

00:28:31.680 open and i was able to go and meet her at walmart and use those funds and get her her thanksgiving

00:28:36.000 dinner you know and that that only happened because we had that we had that avenue to each

00:28:40.240 other and you know so i'm grateful that that happened but you know that it was then it was

00:28:44.720 halted. So I guess I have, um, I've tried to find more creative ways. Like I give out my

00:28:48.900 flyers and business cards and stuff and tell people to reach out, but, um, people are so

00:28:54.460 grateful. Um, you know, this is a really, really hardworking, um, small community that really

00:29:01.160 doesn't take, really doesn't take, you know, and so if they're allowing you to contribute into

00:29:06.240 their lives, it's a big deal. I mean, we're consistent, you know, we're here some, some

00:29:11.260 months are more muddent than others, you know, but there's always things in us, you know,

00:29:16.160 people come to see us too, which is, which is fun, which is great, you know, so even in the

00:29:22.460 winter months, we have very, very cold and snowstorms people trudge through. Their closest

00:29:29.820 resource is in Wilmer, which is, it's about 30 miles. So I think an hour round trip for

00:29:36.000 an uncertain, you know, resource to go and rely on. It's not always plausible, you know, so it's

00:29:42.300 really a gap that they're trying to fill. So, you know, also to you, tell folks a little bit

00:29:51.900 about what we do there. If they don't know about our food pantry, if they don't know about,

00:29:58.200 you know, you mentioned that it's

00:29:59.580 different or amped up around the holidays um there's the thing you do with school supplies

00:30:08.060 let people know kind of what we do there as far as charitable outreach yeah so this um

00:30:13.260 this month is probably my my favorite um food shelf that we do and that's we do the school

00:30:18.060 supply giveaway um so what what it's kind of evolved into is i um i split up donated backpacks

00:30:27.580 um kind of younger crowd and older crowd boys and girls and then just take a peek at the local

00:30:33.420 school supply list and just get a good idea of um what they need and we we pack these backpacks full

00:30:39.580 of um really everything um you know minus the kleenex boxes and stuff like that but the the

00:30:46.220 cool part is is um i get pretty cool backpacks and so then when they come through the food shelf line

00:30:51.020 if they're um if they're with you know um sometimes i'll go home and grab them and come back um

00:30:56.940 and they can come over and pick out, um, a backpack. The first year I did it, um, Matt,

00:31:02.720 you were here as you've been at everyone. Um, and the first two that came over were the two

00:31:07.180 little girls from across the street and one loves kitties and one loves unicorns and one got a

00:31:11.900 kitty backpack and one got a unicorn backpack and they were so excited and it was just, it was great.

00:31:15.960 It was, it was fun. Um, and being a mom myself, you know, back to school stuff is crazy, you know?

00:31:22.860 So though it might not check off the whole list, you know, it's, it's a, it's a decent and helpful chunk. And we've been very fortunate to have those things all fall into line by, I mean, happenstance really. I mean, the first year all those backpacks were donated because I was doing what I do and talking to the person at the checkout while I was waiting for the savers manager to come up and put in our tax exempt stuff.

00:31:50.220 so next time we come in to get things it would be um um it would be uh tax exempt and so

00:31:56.660 i was just talking to him and he had mentioned that um his girlfriend works at dollar general

00:32:01.760 and they'd just gotten a bunch of the the uh backpacks dropped out to a penny so he grabbed

00:32:06.280 25 of them and he was just going to donate them to sabers and did i want them yeah yes yes i do

00:32:12.560 want all those 25 backpacks and so um all those things are you know you can't necessarily plan or

00:32:18.180 you know or I guess have a backup plan for if it doesn't happen it's just it's just a an energy and

00:32:27.220 a I don't know a genuine being that we all collectively kind of put into what we do and

00:32:32.640 it works out pretty well most of the time because we we mean it you know so no that's awesome

00:32:39.380 Yeah, and if folks don't know, it's a little bit different at each of the Hoffs on exactly the, you know, shape some of that takes, but we do the food pantry once a month at each of our Hoffs, no matter what, we always make sure that happens.

00:33:05.800 and then different hosts house different things uh going at different uh different holidays

00:33:11.700 different times of the year different things depending on the community but

00:33:15.240 that's something i'm very proud that we do and has been a tremendous thing to build our reputation

00:33:23.960 in the community and also to just meet the members of the community and be part of the area in which

00:33:29.280 who live. It's a big deal. And some of these towns that we're in are relatively small and

00:33:36.560 we're able to be a significant force for something positive in those communities. And that's

00:33:42.580 really nice. Very fortunate that we have that opportunity. We have a question here. Goethe

00:33:55.560 trent east wants to know for the baldur's hof leaders which hof do you plan to visit next chris

00:34:04.680 odin's off would be my next one i've already had a chance to visit and you're it's off

00:34:11.640 excellent when you coming out to odin's off i plan for midsummer next year all right that'd be

00:34:17.960 fantastic um jason what half are you gonna visit next well i've always said i wanted to go to

00:34:25.240 thor's house since i've been to odin's half three times but with next summer being the 30th

00:34:30.600 anniversary i know tons of people are going so i'll probably end up at owens hop before i'd end

00:34:37.320 up at doors off but doors off would be the next one on my list for sure all right ashley what

00:34:45.960 What hop are you visiting next?

00:34:47.840 Odin's hop is a plan next year.

00:34:50.420 So I haven't been to any of the other hops.

00:34:53.640 I've been to lots of other national events that were,

00:34:57.860 I feel like they were held at other places more often

00:35:00.360 than they are now because our hops are growing,

00:35:03.840 but they just all happen to be at not hops.

00:35:06.840 So Odin's hop is next.

00:35:11.160 Excellent.

00:35:12.480 we just had a new york's off member donate 150 to help us pay off new york's off

00:35:21.280 we appreciate that so much thank you um

00:35:31.520 so

00:35:31.760 there's more to the district than just uh just baldur's off and i know it gets a lot of attention

00:35:44.160 and certainly that's kind of where a lot of this coalesces but we mentioned another event that we

00:35:50.480 are having in y'all's district this year and that's um the feast of the iron yard coming up in

00:35:58.160 november ashley do you want to tell people about the feast of the iron hair yard what it is and

00:36:06.160 what it you know where it's going to be what to expect and kind of plug that to folks that maybe

00:36:12.800 have not attended in the past yes so um the feast of the iron here is an event that's um held over

00:36:21.920 veterans day weekend are very near to it um every year and it is um centered around our

00:36:28.720 our veterans and um the unharry are of course being the chosen um fallen warriors that spread

00:36:36.160 up to vahala for um to fight in for ragnarok and that aspect in and of itself being the uh

00:36:45.360 the focus and the connection that a lot of our veterans find when they come and gather um

00:36:51.920 we've had an amazing turnout every year um last year we um we were thrown to kind of every every

00:37:01.200 curveball that you could imagine and um it was almost didn't happen many many many times but

00:37:06.960 then it did and it was great it was awesome um everybody had so much fun and um it was just

00:37:12.080 beautiful and perfect weather in november and in south dakota and it was just um it was really

00:37:17.040 really great um we um nathan doesn't i hear bloat which is very um very in-depth and you know a lot

00:37:28.560 of work goes into that um virtually when one year ends the next year's it's being you know thought

00:37:34.400 of and worked on and everything um yeah and so uh this year it'll be um we are having it at the same

00:37:42.480 location just because it was um it was perfect it worked really well and they actually uh it was a

00:37:50.000 proud afa moment they reached out they reached out to us to see if we were and wanted to have

00:37:54.640 our event there again this you know back in um i think march maybe no in january they did in

00:38:00.960 january they reached out to see if we were going to do it there again which i thought was neat

00:38:04.160 you know not that we ever see any pushback or anything but um um you know it's just a neat

00:38:09.840 feeling to that's how um that's how good everybody was and we had about 80 82 i can't remember 82 or

00:38:18.480 86 um this last year so really good turnout no it's fantastic and it's it's always very nice when

00:38:29.040 facilities that we use want to have us back it's something that

00:38:32.240 back in my day so there was a time when we didn't have all of these hawks and what we did before

00:38:42.160 was exclusively having to you know rent out a camp or a lodge somewhere some other facility

00:38:50.960 to host events at and it was always a point of pride with us that we tried to make sure we left

00:38:57.360 it you know at very minimum as good as we found it if not you know a little bit better taking

00:39:04.720 care of any you know mess that we might have found when we got there and really making that

00:39:09.760 making a point of taking care of the facility and being good guests

00:39:14.860 hospitality is one of our virtues and it's very important and i think that we're used to

00:39:22.580 conceiving of it in the sense of welcoming people into something that's ours and being

00:39:29.560 good hosts. I think all too often, sometimes we don't think as much about how important

00:39:35.680 it is to be good guests somewhere. And when we're using other people's facilities, other

00:39:41.660 people's things, taking really good care of them, being people that weave that as part

00:39:47.160 their reputation so i'm very happy to hear that um yeah those the feast of the iron yard that uh

00:39:55.800 gofie nate erlinson puts on are very very nice very important for our veterans but also for the

00:40:03.640 rest of us that attend um just the atmosphere is really nice uh they do a really good event

00:40:12.360 and uh ashley is a a far bigger part of that than she may may let on um

00:40:22.120 especially last year like she was she was hustling making it making it turn out to be

00:40:27.400 as spectacular as it was so we really appreciate that thank you and our last thing that i will

00:40:33.480 plug that we decided we will plug with it is um uh following the event is our is our wedding so

00:40:41.000 that is going to be not part of the event but um um along with the event so

00:40:49.640 congratulations i'm very excited for you guys i'm looking forward to being at your wedding and

00:40:56.440 makes me happy

00:41:00.680 he's happy about it too we have more leadership they're just in the woods or something i don't

00:41:04.440 yeah um it's sparse tonight a lot of people there's so many of us

00:41:10.640 so for a variety of reasons i know a number of our uh our leaders especially our gothar in the

00:41:18.600 area and some from outside of the area are involved in a spiritual retreat right now

00:41:22.740 um in preparation for this weekend's event and so that's that's affecting stuff but everybody

00:41:28.880 else is kind of hustling with last minute things and it sounds like there's some

00:41:32.700 questionable weather in certain parts that are making a little bit more challenging for folks

00:41:38.940 to get on we do have more read more leaders in that blue space than just these three folks

00:41:45.300 um but you have to take a word for it for right now uh cody wants to ask what's your favorite

00:41:54.300 baldur's hoff tradition chris what's your favorite baldur's hoff tradition

00:41:58.440 so far i would have to say that my favorite tradition would be

00:42:05.060 the boulders bowl that witten brandy facett has us uh dance to at every major event

00:42:14.260 or by major i mean like every like three-day event

00:42:16.880 so you planning to bust a move this weekend i'll uh i'll try to knock out a few i may uh

00:42:27.180 tip over with my bad back, but you know what? I think it'll bring plenty of good laughs and have

00:42:31.800 a good time nonetheless. There you go. Jason, what's your favorite tradition that y'all have?

00:42:42.080 There's so many, I can't really pin one down. I mean, like Chris said, the baller's ball is kind

00:42:48.280 of fun, but I like the offering things that we do in the morning, the dedication to the altars.

00:42:55.500 i don't know if they do that other hops too but we do the dedication to lc and then to balder and

00:43:00.940 then to the ancestors different things people take turns going up to the different altars

00:43:06.700 i i do enjoy that that is something that i never experienced until we went to the hop

00:43:12.060 i don't know if that is something that is kind of been used at every one or if it's just um

00:43:17.980 exclusively the balder's hop um it's a balder's hop thing that i think other hops have

00:43:23.820 incorporated to one degree or another but i think it definitely certainly in the way that it's done

00:43:28.940 originates at baldershoff uh for folks that may not be familiar each of our hoffs has a a hero of

00:43:38.060 our faith that is kind of their patron hero uh and the hero for baldershoff is the folk mother

00:43:45.580 lc christensen and so she has a special altar space there and uh you know a special spot to

00:43:54.380 be remembered and worshiped there at the hof by you know all of us who are so very grateful to

00:43:59.980 the contribution she made to to alsatru and to our folk um what is your favorite hof tradition ashley

00:44:09.580 um i'd say our um our colning and our blessing of the mead beforehand call it our um women magic

00:44:22.940 and other fun names um but it's you know the the idea and the concept of the women folk being

00:44:32.300 required to bless the need and the the centralized focus um of what we're offering to the gods that

00:44:41.900 that being a necessity for a ceremony is something that's just really important to me growing up

00:44:47.340 catholic you were always you know there we were there you know but there wasn't a lot of um need

00:44:54.780 you know of us you didn't feel um it never had an opportunity to make any connection or whatnot so

00:45:00.300 So being fortunate enough to have Brandy, you know, and to have, you know, just to have that centralized focus on what we can all do is great.

00:45:15.540 And combing is fun and at first awkward and feels strange a little bit, but then it's really, really empowering.

00:45:24.660 and Mr. McDowell loves it.

00:45:29.260 So it's a lot of fun.

00:45:33.080 If you guys are unaware,

00:45:36.760 a big part of Oust to Ritual within the AFA

00:45:40.460 is that our ladies bless and prepare our mead,

00:45:46.820 which is very often what we use in ritual.

00:45:49.640 Sometimes it's a different liquid.

00:45:53.740 Sometimes it's beer.

00:45:55.120 Sometimes it's ale.

00:45:56.400 Sometimes, you know, if we have children or folks that are not drinking, we also often have a horn of sparkling cider or something.

00:46:04.860 But the idea is the liquid used for ritual gets special treatment by our ladies and imbued with a sacrality that way.

00:46:18.220 that's always been very important to our folk.

00:46:25.440 Tacitus, when writing about the Germans back in the first century,

00:46:31.360 talked about the common belief amongst the Germanic tribes

00:46:35.960 that the women had a special way of accessing the other realm

00:46:46.640 that is is different and is special and proprietary and can help imbue things with holiness

00:46:55.300 and we really make that a part of our rituals and a part of our things and it's done uh done

00:47:01.700 very well for us it's been a tremendous blessing that way the practice of doing that in the afa is

00:47:07.020 you know long-standing but it was initiated uh i talked uh talked last week i think about

00:47:16.160 our gothar that passed beyond the veil and how really special it is that we have

00:47:22.180 representatives of our priesthood

00:47:26.500 in the afterlife beyond the veil in a way of

00:47:33.100 serving our folk who are there and serving us who are here in a really special and different way

00:47:43.680 than we get to in you know in our current existence on this side of the veil and so that's

00:47:51.840 really special and of the two of our gothar who have passed uh gothi david james that was that

00:47:59.360 was his idea way back when to incorporate that into afa ritual and that was one of the

00:48:04.940 kind of spiritual gifts he gave our folk

00:48:07.620 so question from michael from york's off folk builders you have a preferred god and ritual

00:48:23.740 slash holiday? Which and why? Chris?

00:48:31.500 Hmm. I wouldn't say I have a preferred God, because they all have very honorable and well-being

00:48:40.320 aspects that we should all be looking towards in certain situational times of needs.

00:48:46.180 But to choose on a ritual holiday, I would have to say with sigur bloat. 0.92

00:48:53.740 and then looking to tear for sucker or victory through sacrifice 0.94

00:49:02.060 all right and jason

00:49:07.740 i would say odin because odin was what drew me to asa true i would kind of finally got me to pull

00:49:14.700 the trigger to to um get rid of the christian baggage so to speak and move forward with our

00:49:20.940 gods and whatever i had been being called for a while and it was something that took me a while

00:49:25.740 but it was odin that brought me to i believe and yule is my favorite one i've always kind

00:49:32.140 of liked that time of the year and that was kind of the right around the time that i made the

00:49:36.860 decision to become assetru and it just i just love all the different aspects in the 12 days

00:49:42.300 and all the different things that have to do with yule so that would be my two excellent what about

00:49:49.180 you, Ashley? I'd say the deity that I probably call upon the most is Frigga. I, being a mother,

00:50:01.740 has been the sole source of my spiritual strength since finding Asatru. And for event or holiday,

00:50:11.980 I would say are charming of the plow in February and for mild reasons that go along with the

00:50:22.060 holiday itself, but for some very profound experiences that happened on those holidays

00:50:27.640 with a ton of our members and members of leadership that every year just seems to be

00:50:34.060 amazing. So there's something to be said about that.

00:50:41.980 um all right a couple of orders of business here first a thor's hof member donated two

00:50:49.100 hundred dollars to help us pay off new york's off that is much much appreciated thank you so much

00:50:55.660 um i've been tallying it on the side i'm gonna hassle nick to make sure the thermometers get

00:51:01.500 updated because i'm ridiculous about that i think the little thermometer progress bar things are the

00:51:07.340 coolest thing ever so i nerd out about that um much to perhaps nick's chagrin but uh they make

00:51:15.500 me happy so thank you i appreciate it gets us that much closer and it makes a difference we appreciate

00:51:20.380 you also and this is something i did not mention earlier but producer nick will throw up a graphic

00:51:27.580 because he's awesome this same member uh donated forty dollars to the staple fund baldershoff

00:51:35.740 needs a steeple so part of the story of baldur's hof is we got it at an amazing deal part of the

00:51:45.020 deal was because it was falling apart so we've had excellent and dedicated uh members and leaders

00:51:53.420 there putting in countless hours of blood sweat and tears making that place amazing

00:51:59.660 but one of the things was the beautiful steeple that was there had been not taken care of for a

00:52:07.520 very very long time and it was rotten in a way that was very dangerous so earlier this year we

00:52:13.980 had to remove a big chunk of the steeple and as with anything we want to make it you know

00:52:21.720 restore it better and more grand than it was before kind of rule of thumb is to make it as

00:52:29.640 good as it was, plus 10%. So we're going to make that spectacular. We got a couple of plans of

00:52:36.540 things we're going to do, but we need to raise a little bit of money to do that. And the link that

00:52:43.240 Nick put up helps us be able to make that happen. And the $40 that the Thorshof member donated gets

00:52:54.820 us that much closer to getting where we're trying to go. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much.

00:53:01.220 Also, another Thorshoff member got generous and gave $100 to the AFA General Fund.

00:53:08.560 We appreciate that tremendously. Absolutely go to good use. And thank you so much for your

00:53:13.780 generosity. In the meantime, we have been joined from the Bavarian Alps by Goethe Rob Stamm.

00:53:21.840 Um, so when you are not, um, wearing lederhosen and blowing the like, what is the big like

00:53:33.340 Ricola horn called?

00:53:34.680 I feel bad now.

00:53:36.120 Anyways, when you're not engaged in Alpine activities, uh, can you tell folks who may

00:53:42.480 not have seen you in your previous appearances where you are coming to us from and a little

00:53:49.780 bit about yourself so they know who they're talking to. Sure. That is an Alpenhorn, by the way.

00:53:59.860 So I'm coming to you tonight from Iowa, where I live now, but I spent most of my time in the AFA

00:54:07.900 and my adult life in Virginia, but I'm here in Iowa now in Baldursoff country. A little bit about

00:54:16.360 me um i'm been in the afa since 2018 uh i was a folk builder and um and then a gothe my daughter

00:54:27.800 scarlet was the first baby named to thoris off when it first opened so that's kind of a pride point

00:54:33.800 um and uh i've been also true uh i found it in the military so it's it's been a long time 20 years or

00:54:42.760 so excellent well thank you for joining us this evening so for those of you who don't know

00:54:56.200 go through rob stam is the dean of the austro academy and that is our afa homeschool program

00:55:04.520 and we are about to start or are starting or i'm not sure we're kind of on the overlap period

00:55:11.560 of the very beginning of the third year of that program and rob can you tell people

00:55:19.560 who aren't familiar have never heard of it before tell them what it is and you know what we have to

00:55:26.760 offer with that program as of now uh sure so this fall we'll be uh doing kindergarten through sixth

00:55:36.040 grade um what it is homeschool in general is it's scary to some parents because they think

00:55:44.840 wow i don't have seven hours a day to devote to education but really that's that's not what the

00:55:51.400 case with homeschool you don't really need that um a lot of the school day in a traditional brick

00:55:56.840 and mortar school is filler time it's not actual instruction a lot of parents don't realize just

00:56:02.680 how many everyday opportunities or every every activities or opportunities to learn and for

00:56:08.680 instruction so it's really not as bad or as scary as one might think now our program we have as our

00:56:15.960 academic backbone we have what's called waldorf waldorf homeschool some of you may be familiar

00:56:21.960 with that it's a developmentally based education program it's pretty traditional that was one of

00:56:29.480 our requirements when we were looking for an academic backbone to our program. There are

00:56:35.080 Waldorf schools all over the country. It's not a fly-by-night new thing. It's very, you know,

00:56:40.200 it's set, it's been around a long time, and it's proven. So that is our academic backbone. And then

00:56:46.520 we have religious instruction that myself and Githya McNailen and other folk builders and

00:56:54.760 and and and uh gothar have put together um to to go along with that academic construction

00:57:02.840 now on top of that so for example in uh in waldorf there is a section uh that the kids learn about

00:57:10.200 saints christian saints well we've rewritten that to to have them learn about afa heroes

00:57:16.760 rather than christian saints uh so we go through and we look where we can take where we have to

00:57:22.520 to take a little bit out and put our own stuff in. And then we also supplement heavily with

00:57:28.540 our own religious material that we've written. We have videos from various members of leadership

00:57:35.240 that have contributed their time, whether it be reading stories or telling of the lore, etc.

00:57:43.140 So it's a pretty comprehensive program. And then on top of that, so if your state requires, because different states require different things. So some states require letters, some require testing, some require you keep a portfolio of all the work, these things.

00:58:05.980 we we walk you through the requirements for your state and then we help you uh we we help you uh

00:58:12.300 stay in compliance with that now of course being homeschool ultimately the parent is responsible

00:58:17.580 for staying in in compliance but we certainly uh we help you with that we uh we help you write it

00:58:23.740 or help you keep track of it as best we can and uh there shouldn't be any surprises

00:58:28.460 fantastic what um what grades do we currently have available that we're enrolling kids for

00:58:42.700 uh currently we have kindergarten through sixth grade

00:58:47.820 excellent

00:58:50.780 um and just to let you guys know a big thing that we talked about was the commitment to

00:58:56.140 at least follow that first kindergarten class three so you know we were committed right now

00:59:05.100 to have second grade done with but in that time our volunteers i have done an amazing job

00:59:14.300 and we have curriculum all the way up through sixth grade so that's three times the uh the

00:59:21.420 projected uh expectation which is which is tremendous um so we're very proud of that

00:59:29.740 ah from coke crawford um you considered allowing another afa interview or article about the afa

00:59:38.540 even if it was a quote-unquote hit piece it seems like the hit piece was a really good thing for the

00:59:44.220 afa uh hit pieces are most always a really good thing for the afa as i've seen as i've said

00:59:51.820 on here a number of times the i don't know biggest factor preventing us from growing more than we are

01:00:00.940 is the limited visibility we have to so many of our folk that need to come home to house a true

01:00:09.180 or if they already you know participate in some form of also true need to come home to the astro

01:00:14.540 focusing it always surprises me when i find out from people that they didn't know we we existed

01:00:21.500 and they've been wondering you know they've been wanting something like this in their life

01:00:25.580 and didn't know it was a thing and those type of articles put us in front of eyes we wouldn't

01:00:32.300 normally be in front of and that brings a lot of our folk home um so we we do we you know

01:00:41.260 absolutely we don't get to allow or disallow articles people are going to write articles

01:00:45.100 about us if they want um unless the intent of the article is you know obviously nefarious or

01:00:57.420 obviously meant negatively we are willing to do articles and interviews quite often

01:01:07.500 we don't always get requests for it and we

01:01:12.540 they come in different forms i mean we've been doing this long enough that even when they

01:01:18.140 are promised to be favorable or about something positive i think we all have a fair degree of

01:01:25.260 caution knowing where that might lead and that they might flip the script on us like the guardian

01:01:30.140 did but we still you know participate in those a lot of the time because it does have a really

01:01:37.660 positive effect that said we never want to create drama or controversy in order to encourage those

01:01:47.660 kind of articles it may accelerate um our membership but it's not the right thing to do

01:01:54.780 and it makes it very uncomfortable for local members who you know are in the eye of whatever

01:01:59.740 storm created but yeah we're very open to doing interviews and and participating in articles

01:02:05.740 about the astro folk assembly uh assuming that people are coming at us fairly and not you know

01:02:13.020 now, not openly attacking us in the asking. Goethe Stam, being the dream of the academy

01:02:27.480 and an extremely fit in the dean. Okay, now I see the correction at the bottom. Being

01:02:36.100 the dean of the academy and an extremely fit individual, would you ever consider a physical

01:02:41.580 education program included into your yearly program? Yeah, so Waldorf itself is really

01:02:52.660 focused on being outdoors, rain or shine. So there is a lot of activity, physical activity

01:03:01.140 involved in just the Waldorf program. But certainly, we always advocate that individuals

01:03:08.980 and create healthy lifestyles, and that starts as a child.

01:03:13.360 If you create those habits at a young age,

01:03:15.360 then you're going to continue that on into adulthood.

01:03:19.080 So, yeah, we absolutely will consider writing that

01:03:22.580 into the program itself.

01:03:26.360 Yeah, it's a good thing.

01:03:28.060 And eventually we'd like to have kids playing sports and whatnot.

01:03:31.520 We just don't have enough kids in one area

01:03:33.640 to really make that possible at the moment.

01:03:36.720 All our students are kind of spread out.

01:03:38.700 over the country but uh it's it's absolutely a good idea then and we will do that in the future

01:03:44.200 fantastic um

01:03:48.660 yeah i don't know if people realize just how far we've come um

01:03:55.560 we've all had dreams of doing a lot of these things for a very very long time and it's in the

01:04:06.540 relatively recent past that we got to the point where we can start implementing them.

01:04:13.600 A difficulty has always been proximity. The few of us way back when who were in the Ausatru

01:04:23.400 Folk Assembly and participated in Ausatru were often separated by many states in between, and

01:04:31.400 it was very, very sparse. Now it's exciting to look at where our members are located. We've

01:04:39.160 got folks all over the place. Maybe for someone just coming in, it may seem like there's not a

01:04:45.820 lot of activity in one place or another, but it's so much better than it's ever been, and it gets

01:04:50.800 better every year. The more kids we get involved in the academy, the more doing things like that,

01:04:57.300 or you know doing kind of cooperative team up events becomes more and more real uh last school

01:05:04.580 year we did have some like field trip get together stuff for students in minnesota i believe

01:05:10.820 so that's cool some of that's already already happened some and i can only foresee more of that

01:05:16.580 in the future we actually have a question from one of the new kindergartners enrolled in the

01:05:24.980 austral academy question from owen uh will i get to talk to other kids in the austral academy

01:05:35.300 yes absolutely we do uh once the school year starts we have uh week usually weekly meetings

01:05:42.900 where in the first part we talk to the parents and we ask them how things are going we ask if

01:05:48.980 they have any questions are they needing anything etc and then usually the last uh well and it

01:05:55.620 actually probably lasts longer than the parents meeting uh the kids talk to each other and uh and

01:06:01.220 get to interact um through video chat um and then also we'll have uh we'll have special guests on

01:06:10.740 uh that read stories for the younger kids obviously um and teach lessons about our

01:06:16.100 lore and our faith so there's absolutely a lot of opportunities for the kids to talk to each other

01:06:21.060 and see each other and they really enjoy that so we highly recommend our parents do that excellent

01:06:28.420 and his little sister alice who is currently in preschool would like to ask ashley what is your

01:06:36.740 your favorite ostrich battle? My favorite ostrich battle. Wow. From a preschooler.

01:06:55.400 I guess I would have to say,

01:06:57.520 you put me on the spot. I don't know if I have a favorite battle. I guess my favorite

01:07:09.040 result of a point of mischief being the story of Thor's hammer. And yeah, so that's my answer.

01:07:24.440 All right.

01:07:28.400 there you go um just a little plug that that story comes up next week

01:07:34.880 all right one of them next week uh nick will be going into the details

01:07:40.720 oh no oh yes no i okay cool so i spaced the topic of next week's victory never sleeps

01:07:48.480 next week myself and witness fawn will be going into that story in some detail nice

01:07:57.520 So, you guys are the most cold weather Hoff, or I would say, first, your Hoff is the most

01:08:25.720 cold weather hoff um you're also the hoff that gets the most seasons

01:08:39.960 how does that affect stuff y'all do as far as i don't know hoff events your programs

01:08:48.840 your food pantry all of the things that you do because we have quite a bit of activity in the

01:08:55.000 you know relatively far south and then way out in california that doesn't really get a lot of the

01:09:01.000 seasons well from my experience here the last well it'll be four years oh three years since dedication

01:09:11.800 um this last winter was i we we shouldn't even be able to call it a winter it was disappointing

01:09:19.640 you know so you don't get that notoriety of like making it through a minnesota winter but the two

01:09:23.800 before that had extreme snowfall. And so I have a ton of pictures of, you know, especially like

01:09:30.280 member, one of our members, Josh and my kinder brother, a random member of leadership, just up

01:09:36.600 to their, you know, at least mid thigh, you know, if not higher, just trying to shovel a path,

01:09:43.160 you know, to get from the curb to the door, you know, and then another pathway to bring stuff out. 0.55

01:09:49.800 Um, and we're, you know, we're very lucky to be as close to the Hoff as we are, but we're not

01:09:57.720 down the street, you know, it's, it's for Nathan and I, it's over two hours and, um, you know,

01:10:03.460 and it's all kind of sprinkled in between there, but nobody's closer, um, like then an hour that's

01:10:08.960 leadership. Um, and so getting out for every snowfall to shovel, you know, it's not, um,

01:10:15.320 especially just a path in the yard doesn't, it doesn't happen, you know, and so you kind of have

01:10:18.740 to game plan when you get here. And it's Minnesota. So probably the worst, worst weather that we had

01:10:26.100 ever that was, yeah, it was absolutely ridiculous was Ostara, not this year, but the year before

01:10:33.220 that. Ostara is not in the middle of winter, but it was one of the worst snowstorms that we had.

01:10:39.500 Even my Subaru got stuck, which doesn't happen. So, you know, so, so yeah, I don't know. We never

01:10:45.720 really know how to plan and i felt like we were still prepared this year and then nothing just

01:10:51.880 nothing's two sleds in in the garage i gotta i gotta throw a flag on the play oh so uh charming

01:10:58.920 in the plow uh there was still snow on the ground lots of it okay and uh nathan and i were outside

01:11:05.720 doing uh or gothe earlinson and i were outside doing uh the the food pantry one weekend i think

01:11:14.120 it was january and we had icicles in our beards so it absolutely was cold okay so everybody keep

01:11:23.480 in mind as as stated earlier in the broadcast go the stam comes to baldur's hop district from

01:11:30.520 the old dominion of virginia yeah things a little bit different up there

01:11:36.200 it's just a souvenir of winter that's not that's not a you know over the top that's just you know

01:11:41.240 that's just january you know but um but no yeah it was cold but but also our school years this

01:11:49.560 year weren't cut short at all um they actually are sorry our um school years didn't go longer

01:11:55.320 because of extra snow days we actually didn't use any in our district and so my daughter was

01:11:59.960 out of school two weeks early because we didn't use any of our snow days which is sad sad time to

01:12:05.320 you got snow days factored in that's crazy we didn't have snow days factored in when i

01:12:11.560 went to school up in alaska all right well we're not alaska no you are not um

01:12:21.800 so question from cody how has being a leader in the afa impacted your life chris

01:12:27.880 I would say that since stepping up and becoming a leader in the AFA, my life has gotten

01:12:40.000 more purpose than what I felt I had lost when I had left the Navy.

01:12:46.920 It feels great to be able to be doing something that is bigger than myself.

01:12:55.560 and i'm happy every day i get to wake up and do what i can for the afa for our folk and for the

01:12:59.480 future so it's been a grand time joining what about you ashley how has being a leader in the afa

01:13:09.880 impacted your life can you repeat the whole question just how being a member of leadership

01:13:21.560 how has being a leader in the AFA impacted your life?

01:13:28.760 Well, I guess in a healthy way, it is our life. Nathan being in leadership in Agothi,

01:13:41.000 who I got to join the AFA, I might add.

01:13:43.720 um you know our lives have really encompassed um all things afa and i say in a healthy way

01:13:53.080 because not not that it's all consuming um sometimes it's a lot but it's um for for us

01:14:00.280 in particular it's our lives working together that way like it would have it would have to for

01:14:06.280 just the way that we are um you know if if he were just doing it and i weren't i i don't know how we

01:14:12.760 we would make that work and vice versa. But it's like I said, it could be a lot sometimes, but it

01:14:19.180 also the significance of things being known like to the other person, you know, so if he's dealing

01:14:26.540 with, you know, some situation or person or something that popped up, there isn't a need

01:14:32.840 for like an explanation of why that's significant or important, you know, like it is sometimes with

01:14:39.240 extended family or or you know something like that so that that aspect is um is um important

01:14:47.080 but also has helped us grow our our parenting styles and our goals and reviews and everything

01:14:54.920 it all seems obtainable you know because we do these little things every day that are huge things

01:15:01.800 you know and these things come to fruition on our um you know from our own personal growth and things

01:15:07.320 that we're doing and then collectively together as um as a whole leadership team and and whole

01:15:13.240 church you know and so all those aspects you know you can really use as a template or a guideline

01:15:20.360 for for anything that we want to do you know and it's um it's a lot of time and work and and sweat

01:15:28.600 and tears and tired and you know but it's it's also so freeing because it's it's it makes things

01:15:37.000 so clear as to you know what we can do and and where we can be and um and what i'll stop saying

01:15:44.840 we but and what um like like i want you know it's not i'm not life isn't cumbersome anymore because

01:15:55.080 i can do it you know and that's been a huge aspect of leadership

01:15:58.760 that's awesome thank you for sharing that um rob how has being a leader in the afa impacted your

01:16:09.380 life in many ways um i don't view it as so much like a a job or even a volunteer opportunity

01:16:19.940 it's a calling um i feel like it's my vocation to uh that's about the best term i can i can say

01:16:27.260 Um, it's made my, my life very fulfilled. Uh, I've met some of the best people in the world

01:16:33.480 that I'll ever meet right here in the church. Um, I've met, you know, my best friends and my

01:16:41.180 partners here in the church. Um, and it's, it's funny. Eventually you start, you don't count time

01:16:50.180 in months and in years. You're like, Oh, well that was three Ostaros ago, or that was two winter

01:16:56.860 nights ago um because the the the times that you're with your folk at these events they mean

01:17:04.300 so much that that's how you reckon time eventually um it's just uh it's given my life a purpose and

01:17:11.260 fulfillment beyond uh you know much else the only thing i can think that even does that more is just

01:17:17.500 being a father and and really those are the two most important things in my life is the afa and

01:17:23.420 my kids fantastic so can i add one more thing you absolutely you can um um both these sam

01:17:36.060 reminded me um talking about his his kids what i wanted to factor in to um my whole life

01:17:43.180 wholeheartedly being affected by leadership is um with my my oldest to my daughter she'll be um

01:17:50.620 she will be 16 and she knows the days it's it's it's less than a couple weeks okay um and um she

01:17:59.820 has really really um just really taken a liking to absolutely everything afa and the church and

01:18:07.580 that steeple came down because of her into and and nathan and one other member you know like

01:18:13.180 there's you know she's really really dove into um everything here and um chris had taken a video of

01:18:21.180 the uh children's blow that she led at i forget what event it was but it's beautiful it's great

01:18:27.980 i mean she's she's all in it and to see your kids um you know you see little kids um doing things

01:18:36.540 and being involved and so cute and um you know the amount of knowledge that they're gonna have

01:18:40.460 when they're already just unfathomable you know but um but seeing like your older child um you

01:18:48.780 don't like really get it and just be so all about it is you know i i guess i i didn't know how much

01:18:56.540 that was uh lacking in in her and i's life you know so um so yeah that's all no that's fantastic um

01:19:06.460 um so if you guys have a

01:19:16.300 I don't know broad district um if folks want to find activities near them what should they do

01:19:27.820 should i go i never stopped talking so i don't want to just go for it that's why we have you on

01:19:37.180 here um well at baldishoff.org we have an amazing um interactive calendar on there that has you

01:19:47.100 you can see it in three different views too if you play around with it you can do like this this week

01:19:51.500 a year in the month you know um and it has um all the events going on you know small to big

01:19:58.940 so whether that's a virtual meeting or study group or or something um along those lines or

01:20:05.340 a local moot that's held um in your area um or events that are being held by the afa or at a

01:20:13.740 hawk and then also the national events are on there too um and then they're all hyperlinked

01:20:18.700 so you can just click on them and it brings you either to the link to runestone if there's more

01:20:23.340 information there or it's a link to the flyer that has the contact information for the person

01:20:28.620 or folk builder that is um in charge of it and it's all very um very easy to to to navigate and

01:20:35.820 you can also um um if you it works on my phone i don't know if it's just iphones but you can

01:20:43.660 save the calendar and it'll impose into your into your calendar on your phone so you can't

01:20:50.380 ever not know because then your phone will tell you what's going on

01:20:55.420 but wait what if there is not an event near somebody can they make one happen even if 0.79

01:21:03.340 they're not a folk builder absolutely um anybody can host an event or a mooch a mooch is a um

01:21:12.300 is a is a meeting it's a get together it's a it's a gathering of like-minded people um

01:21:18.540 in one spot whether that be a park or a play or a a coffee house or a apartment you know it is

01:21:25.500 anything um and yeah all right so i need to dispel a myth um

01:21:37.340 there is no afa genie that gets summoned that makes events and stuff happen places

01:21:47.900 um doesn't work that way i wish i was able to conjure up the afa genie and say

01:21:54.060 you know go out to

01:21:57.980 i don't go out to nebraska and make events happen go but it doesn't work like that um

01:22:06.620 every place that we have afa community afa activity and eventually afa hoffs are because

01:22:15.020 someone stepped up looked around said hey i want to do stuff there's nobody near me doing anything

01:22:23.740 how about how about i try to make stuff happen and that is such a huge step and i don't mean

01:22:31.260 to make it sound like it's smaller than it is it's a big thing but it's a very simple thing

01:22:39.020 um i think a lot of people and and there's there's so first

01:22:45.660 if you want to be a folk builder cool we would love to have you if that's something that you

01:22:52.780 want to do and that's something you're called to do we would love to have you serve in that capacity

01:22:58.300 and we can get you set up and we always need folk builders and these folk builders make this stuff

01:23:04.140 happen and organize it and get it set up but something else that they do is they coordinate

01:23:11.660 individuals who want to set things up and make things happen in their area maybe you don't want

01:23:17.340 to go all in on folk building but you're willing to host something you're willing to make something

01:23:22.620 happen you're willing to be that guy that goes and does stuff so much of this starts from one person

01:23:32.220 opening up their home and saying hey let's have some people come over and we'll host a dinner

01:23:40.300 that's huge that's how so much this starts or maybe that you know isn't what you like to do

01:23:45.900 are not something you're comfortable with hey folk builder i'm gonna go to i don't know

01:23:54.860 tito's bar and grill this weekend and have a burger and a beer how about you have some people

01:24:00.060 come join me there counts that's a moot it's a thing and if you and one other afa member get

01:24:06.380 together and enjoy your burger and your brew fantastic maybe next month you guys do it again

01:24:14.220 and there's a third one that shows up all these things start from that kind of grassroots simple

01:24:25.260 but fun interaction that's how this that's how this happens i think it's really easy to see

01:24:33.260 the broad strokes of hoffs or national events or these these big things but they're all built

01:24:40.300 upon all those little small things on hosting a moop where you're at and saying you know hey

01:24:46.780 folk builder how about you help me get some people to show up to this thing i want to do

01:24:52.940 doesn't have to be fancy doesn't have to be elaborate what it does have to be is one afa

01:24:58.540 member reaching out and saying hey help me see if there's another afa member near me maybe we can

01:25:04.620 get together and do something and that's how really amazing things start so think about that

01:25:10.540 if it's something that you're interested in and credit in minnesota for that goes to mr gallagher

01:25:16.780 for sure you know his the boots on the ground flyer hanging you know uh folk building that he

01:25:24.060 did was the absolute basis and core for everything that you know not just minnesota but bouldershoff

01:25:31.180 is uh now and it just started with those little you know those little things yeah jason snuck off

01:25:39.100 and disappeared on us um but yeah it started from next to nothing it started

01:25:50.300 this meeting is happening because jason gallagher way back when

01:25:55.420 wanted wanted to see this or something like it and stepped up um with a number of health concerns

01:26:08.820 that just made you know it's never the perfect time it's never the perfect circumstance so he

01:26:17.140 said you know what i'll give it a shot and he became a folk builder and he you know had a couple

01:26:23.800 a couple of folks sort of near him kind of come over and do some stuff at his house

01:26:28.920 and they did and he had them get together and do some you know some pizza moots they did

01:26:36.920 get together and do some hike moots and they did maybe they'd get together and have a meal

01:26:42.040 and do a do a bloat a ritual in his backyard and they did and you know sounds like that's

01:26:49.480 way back when but not really less than you know shoot doing that for a little while relatively

01:26:58.360 quickly there was enough people close by interested in doing something that we got together and we

01:27:04.360 hosted uh the first um event that was kind of the prototype for this fray faxie that we're

01:27:10.840 celebrating this weekend but it was originally in september and it was called fall fest and

01:27:16.280 And it was in, you know, this house that was a strange house.

01:27:24.660 This house was, it looked like this cobbled together Lego house of all these different little rooms and chambers.

01:27:30.840 And you'd go in there and there was random halls and bedrooms and guest rooms and then like beds out in common areas.

01:27:39.700 and it got set up it was a house rental for some old lady selling get-togethers

01:27:47.260 and that's where where it started and where the first one was and it was amazing i loved being at

01:27:52.420 it and now that was 2016 and now eight years later we're you know what four or four years

01:28:03.680 into having our very own hof there with people regularly gathering at that hof every single

01:28:09.920 month to honor our gods who worship balder and to celebrate with our folk and to grow together

01:28:17.760 it all happened because one guy in not the most perfect circumstance said hey let's let's make

01:28:23.920 this happen i want to see this become something let's do this and he did and people got together

01:28:32.160 and amazing things happen that's how these things start so if you want to see more stuff near you

01:28:39.280 step up and be willing to be willing to host it can be as simple as hey if i google someplace

01:28:45.520 near you or if you have a recommendation how about you go sit there and we get some other people to

01:28:51.040 come show up and we'll we'll make it happen that's something you want to do reach out to your local

01:28:56.000 folk builder and they can help you make it happen and run all the logistics for you it's very very

01:29:01.040 doable. So think about that. Another thing I want you guys to think about, if you're watching this

01:29:08.780 or listening to this later down the road, and if you don't know, this is released as a podcast

01:29:13.540 for the audio format on a bunch of different stuff on Spotify, on iHeartRadio, on Amazon Music,

01:29:26.320 um you know however you oh also on apple podcasts on however you get your podcasts

01:29:33.280 get this listen to it um or share it with other people you think might need to

01:29:38.140 best thing we got is word of mouth if you think other folks would benefit from

01:29:42.880 listening to this broadcast or would just enjoy it please let them know about it like share

01:29:48.560 subscribe send it out there um i got a number of people uh this is primarily on youtube but we got

01:29:57.120 a number of people right now watching this on odyssey we got people on entropy on twitch twitter

01:30:04.320 rumble and in vk um so yeah we got a pretty healthy following over on twitter that's watching

01:30:13.440 this right now so hello to our our friends on twitter um yeah so spread the word that'll help

01:30:23.600 it's a big deal also if you enjoy this if you agree with what we're doing and if you're a

01:30:31.920 heterosexual white person consider joining we'd love to have you be a member and be

01:30:36.960 part of what we're building part of what we're doing

01:30:43.440 And it's not some strange, far off thing that just happens.

01:30:51.140 This is organically grown from you and from me and from every one of our, every member of our AFA family that gets together and that shares in the gift cycle with our gods.

01:31:02.200 Be part of that.

01:31:03.120 Let's do great things together.

01:31:07.080 So, yeah, check it out.

01:31:09.080 Our main website is runestone.org.

01:31:13.440 It's got links and calendars and all kind of good stuff there.

01:31:19.160 It's also got a join link so that you can join the team and be part of what we're doing.

01:31:43.440 brian it's good to see you over in the chat i hope you're doing well um yeah he points out

01:31:50.720 have them all says you know with with half cup and half a loaf um

01:31:57.520 i mean a full friend was made that's a that's a thing doesn't always have to be something huge

01:32:03.120 together it doesn't have to be something spectacular or dramatic or planned out or

01:32:07.840 expensive or or or or it just has to be something the biggest difference between stuff sorry i got

01:32:18.240 this really fancy robotic camera that follows me around and it responds to hand signals so if i wave

01:32:24.640 at somebody or does something it turns on a little auto focus and outsmarts me um

01:32:31.840 but seriously on that a lot of people think there needs to be this perfect time and perfect place

01:32:42.020 and perfect circumstance to host something or to do something but doesn't you know people think

01:32:48.840 about it and him and ha and wow busiest month well i got family and then you know next thing

01:32:56.660 know we're gonna have the holidays maybe starting next year i don't know i got kids and maybe when

01:33:03.620 maybe all right maybe in spring of 2027 we can arrange something if i start planning now

01:33:12.100 no how about maybe next tuesday like you can make it it doesn't have to be some huge thing

01:33:18.980 you can build to that that'd be amazing if you want to get it there but it's as simple as hey

01:33:24.660 hey, I'm not doing anything next Saturday.

01:33:29.600 Hey, folk builder, we got some folks near me if you want.

01:33:33.540 Me and my family are going to go, you know, we're going to go to the zoo.

01:33:37.620 We're going to go to walk at the park or go on a hike.

01:33:41.360 If some other AFA people wanted to come with us, that'd be cool.

01:33:45.160 And boom, amazing things happen from just that.

01:33:49.300 So think about that.

01:33:50.620 Is there anything else that you folks would like to tell people or think they should know

01:34:01.020 about stuff in general or your amazing Baldur's Hof district in specific?

01:34:08.140 I'll go first.

01:34:16.580 So this is a small representation of the abundance of Baldur's Hough leadership that we have.

01:34:24.420 But the continuity and communication and respect that happens amongst us is really substantial

01:34:36.300 and that trickles all the way down to every interaction that everybody has.

01:34:41.320 So anytime that anybody's talking to anybody from Baldur's Huff, it's never superficial

01:34:47.500 or like a customer service voice, that's just, that's how we interact.

01:34:51.720 And I know that some, sometimes that's surprising because we live in a really like cynical world

01:34:58.640 sometimes.

01:34:59.640 And especially as of late, it's just, I don't know, it's kind of hard to trust good or nice.

01:35:09.320 I guess I've just always wanted that to be very black and white, very clear. There's no other

01:35:15.580 reason that we do any of this than for the rewards that we reap from each other. There isn't this

01:35:25.260 big title or anything that's unseen. It's us. It's this. It's the things that we're doing.

01:35:32.000 That's why. You're not being used for anything. There's no bigger agenda that's unknown or secret

01:35:37.300 it or something like absolutely everything else seems to be. And it's like, it's comforting to

01:35:42.760 know that those things still exist, you know, just people working their butts off for, for the good,

01:35:48.140 you know, that's all. Come to, come to break vaccine. All right. Anybody else?

01:35:59.440 Okay. Well, that being said, it's kind of an early one this evening, but I know a bunch of us have

01:36:05.240 got to get set and ready for this weekend's amazing Frey Faxie at Baldur's Hawk. There's

01:36:11.500 still time. If you want to join us, let's get on that. Make that happen. Talk to any

01:36:16.660 of your folk builders. They can get you all set up. It's going on this weekend in Murdoch,

01:36:21.380 Minnesota. My family and I will be there. We got to get up real early in the morning

01:36:26.900 to make that happen. So I'm going to go ahead and pack and get something to eat and get

01:36:32.940 set and ready for it um i will also acknowledge that sarah just bought us five coffees that's

01:36:41.500 25 we appreciate that thank you so much and monk absolutely i will definitely have you

01:36:48.700 in my prayers uh to lady air that she that she helps you with your upcoming test

01:36:56.140 um that said hope you guys have an amazing amazing next week hope that i can see you at

01:37:03.820 baldershoff this weekend until then hail the icr help a folk hail the afa hail balder and remember

01:37:15.180 victory never sleeps

01:37:25.260 We'll be right back.

01:37:55.260 Thank you.

01:38:25.260 Thank you.

01:38:55.260 Thank you.

01:39:25.260 We'll be right back.

01:39:55.260 Transcription by CastingWords

Asatru Folk Assembly - August 15, 2024

8⧸14⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 110 - Baldrshof Edition

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