Red Ice TV - Homesteading, Subsistence Farming & How To Live Off The Land - Curtis Stone

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

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00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

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00:03:30.140 We don't want to break down.

00:03:32.000 So even if you're not actively at this moment engaged in it, it will never hurt you to have knowledge and understanding and begin to, you know, explore some of these areas and topics and hands on as well, obviously, in order to learn to move in this direction.

00:03:46.360 So with that out of the way, Curtis, welcome back.

00:03:52.360 Happy to be here, Henrik.

00:03:53.740 Good.

00:03:54.060 Good. How are you today?

00:03:54.780 I'm seeing you sitting in the greenhouse today.

00:03:56.500 It looks nice and green and warm, you told me as well in there.

00:04:00.340 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:04:01.220 It's lovely in here.

00:04:01.920 I mean, it's a very cloudy and rainy day as it is in the spring sometimes here.

00:04:06.700 But I know it's nice in here and I thought it would be a nice backdrop for our conversation today.

00:04:11.800 It is.

00:04:12.300 Very, very good.

00:04:12.940 All right.

00:04:13.320 Excellent.

00:04:13.780 So obviously, we have lots to get into.

00:04:15.340 Lots I want to pick your brain on.

00:04:16.820 And I kind of just want to pick up like maybe not where we left off because we did cover some of it.

00:04:21.420 But have you – so obviously, you teach in these areas.

00:04:27.060 You have the freedomfarms.com.

00:04:30.620 You have the homestead accelerator on your website.

00:04:34.720 I guess I can show that here too at the same time.

00:04:36.660 So I assume you're kind of in a position where people basically approach you and like, I want to homestead.

00:04:42.500 I want to go off-grid.

00:04:43.920 I want to be a subsistence farmer.

00:04:45.600 I want to get out of the system and be more self-reliant.

00:04:48.820 What do I do?

00:04:49.800 Where do I begin, right?

00:04:51.000 I assume that's something you get quite a bit, right?

00:04:54.500 Oh, yeah.

00:04:55.360 Yeah.

00:04:56.120 I mean, yeah.

00:04:57.580 And everybody's context is really important because where you are and where you've been will really dictate where you're going to go.

00:05:04.400 So, you know, there is so much to just getting started.

00:05:10.220 But often, you know, starting with the low-hanging fruit is usually the best way to go.

00:05:15.560 You know, start with where you are as best as you can.

00:05:18.500 Use the resources that are available to you first and then go from there.

00:05:25.120 You know, if you want to just get out of the city and get on the land, it's a big move.

00:05:29.360 It's a big move.

00:05:31.000 It takes a lot of time and planning.

00:05:33.380 And, you know, the best way to start really is to just understand, you know, if you have a spouse, you know, that's probably most important to check in and make these decisions together as a couple and figure out, you know, what it is you want.

00:05:51.880 And really be as specific as possible.

00:05:54.880 What do you want?

00:05:57.060 What are the kinds of services you want to be close to?

00:05:59.820 What are the kind of people you want to be around?

00:06:03.540 Where are your values?

00:06:04.980 And really just checking in because spousal disagreements are probably the number one reason that homesteads and farms fall apart.

00:06:13.380 Really?

00:06:14.260 And so, yeah, it is.

00:06:16.380 I mean, especially with commercial farms.

00:06:18.300 I mean, whether they're just business partners or the couples, disagreements are the thing that really shut it down for most.

00:06:29.880 Different motivations, you know, different desires.

00:06:34.380 And, yeah, you really want to be on the same page.

00:06:38.560 And so what I say to people, the first thing you want to do is make a list with your spouse of, you know, what do you want to do?

00:06:50.140 Where do you want to be?

00:06:51.300 What do you want to grow?

00:06:52.760 How does this life look like to you?

00:06:55.120 And then come up with a list of negotiable things and non-negotiable things.

00:06:59.920 And so, you know, a negotiable or a non-negotiable, you know, probably for a lot of your audience would be we want to be in a predominantly white community. 0.90

00:07:08.700 You know, we want to be in a rural area.

00:07:12.720 We don't want to be too far from a city that has services and resources, but you don't want to be too close to a major city.

00:07:22.340 And then the details of things that are negotiable might be, well, we want a, you know, one kilometer long driveway.

00:07:29.040 We want to have a really big setback from the road, but we found a place that's got, you know, a couple hundred meters and it's okay.

00:07:36.280 You know, things like that.

00:07:37.660 We want to have three sources of water, but we have one and we can maybe make another one for two.

00:07:45.100 You know, things like that.

00:07:46.380 Going through this list and really creating a vision for what you want first before you start looking.

00:07:54.820 Because if you start looking without that vision and clear that articulation of what it is you want, you're going to just waste a lot of time looking.

00:08:09.520 You know, one thing we've done with our Homestead Accelerator program is we've put together an active list of, you know, real estate listings in the US and Canada that can give people, you know, a massive leg up as far as these properties are already vetted.

00:08:23.780 They have the hallmarks of what make a good homestead.

00:08:27.340 But the details all come down to what do you want?

00:08:30.840 You know, what do you want to see there?

00:08:32.460 Where do you want to be?

00:08:34.400 And there's certainly, you know, some places are better than others.

00:08:36.960 But I would say as a foundation, that's the best place to start.

00:08:41.260 Create a vision for what you want first and then start looking.

00:08:43.940 Yeah, don't just throw yourself in and see kind of what happens and then make up to, you know, try to create it as you go, which is kind of what you're describing there.

00:08:52.340 Obviously, that's the Goldilocks zone, right?

00:08:55.480 Especially with, you know, men can rough it.

00:08:58.540 We all know this.

00:08:59.360 This is not a big secret.

00:09:00.460 Men are like, yeah, this is great.

00:09:01.640 And the women are like, yeah, I don't, you know, my toilets. 1.00

00:09:05.360 Yeah, I'm not so sure.

00:09:06.220 But I'm running water and I get it, you know, but I get that.

00:09:09.960 But how long, and this can be hard to recall, but like how long versus short periods of time have you seen people like kind of find their spot?

00:09:20.300 Like upper limit, lower limit, if you even can recall such a thing.

00:09:25.540 You mean as far as how long it takes to find the place?

00:09:28.780 Yeah, to actually just literally find the land that they want.

00:09:31.700 Oh, man.

00:09:31.980 And I mean, it takes, for most people, it probably, if they're serious and they do it, it probably takes them years.

00:09:40.800 Yeah, I would assume so.

00:09:41.880 Just, and that's why I put together the Homestead Accelerator is because I went through that painstaking process myself and I spent the better part of a year looking for this place.

00:09:52.200 But I'm a guy who has experience.

00:09:53.500 And so, you know, I've been working on land and consulting on farm projects, large and small, for many, many years.

00:10:01.600 And it still took me a year to find that right place.

00:10:04.160 So, what we've done with this project is we have used, I basically have trained a team to use my critical analysis skills on how do you rate land?

00:10:16.060 Like what makes a good piece of property?

00:10:17.900 What are the hallmarks of a good homestead?

00:10:20.160 And then my team just go out and search and find these properties and then we review them.

00:10:26.880 And anything that doesn't meet the cut doesn't get listed.

00:10:29.820 So, anything that's on that list is a good homestead that has all the hallmarks of what one would need.

00:10:36.480 So, it has the capacity for growing your own food.

00:10:39.720 So, it has fields or gardens or greenhouses.

00:10:42.340 It has multiple sources of water.

00:10:44.640 We always list two.

00:10:46.740 And sometimes we might list that has one, but we would state that.

00:10:50.280 We would say this only has, you know, red flag, this only has one source of water, but you could develop another one.

00:10:55.740 It has infrastructure that a homestead would need.

00:10:58.800 So, it's got, you know, a home that's half-decent to live in.

00:11:01.600 It's got a barn, a shop, things like that.

00:11:06.020 And it would have, you know, systems available to expand.

00:11:10.460 So, whether the property is on-grid or off-grid, we list those accordingly.

00:11:16.880 But basically, it has everything for food, water, energy, and shelter.

00:11:20.240 The other thing that we're very stringent out about is making sure that nothing that we list is near any types of threats.

00:11:30.860 So, those types of threats could include FEMA threats like being in a tornado zone or a tsunami zone, an earthquake zone, or even socioeconomic threats like being close to a city that has a lot of violent crime.

00:11:45.940 You know, things like that.

00:11:47.680 So, we do all of that looking for you so that by the time you start looking at our list, you're just looking at homesteads that have passed the test.

00:11:56.840 So, with this, you know, people are getting on the land very quickly and saving months, if not years, and finding the right place.

00:12:03.840 So, we can do 99% of the relevant look, evaluating of a property just online.

00:12:13.440 I use Google Earth Pro.

00:12:14.900 We get in there and we look at the topography of the property.

00:12:17.660 We can find out where the water flows, where it gravitates to, where your flood zones are going to be, where your drainages are going to be.

00:12:24.060 We can analyze the floor and fauna.

00:12:26.220 We can even tell you what the soil is going to be like based on the topography.

00:12:29.520 So, we can do most of the critical searches that way.

00:12:35.080 And anybody who's looked for land knows this, that, you know, you look at the real estate pictures, it looks good.

00:12:40.120 You talk to the realtor, they're always going to tell you that it's great.

00:12:43.680 And you get there and you notice immediate red flags.

00:12:47.740 You're going, you know, the house is too visible from the road.

00:12:52.220 We didn't notice that in the pictures.

00:12:53.620 We noticed that one of the neighbors properly, you got maybe a sketchy neighbor who's got a bunch of like crappy cars.

00:13:04.220 And that's a little too close for comfort, you know.

00:13:07.040 Right.

00:13:08.240 Things like this, you know, the culverts on the ditchway in front of the driveway haven't been serviced.

00:13:15.680 You know, little things like this.

00:13:17.180 We can figure this stuff out without even being there so we can save people dozens of trips from driving around.

00:13:24.180 So, by the time that you actually go to a property, you've already got most of the things checked off on what you're looking for.

00:13:31.460 Now, you're just looking for things that we couldn't see from online and then that can make your trip a lot quicker.

00:13:35.980 Do people approach you like, here, I found a listing.

00:13:38.800 Can you check this out for me?

00:13:40.220 We do that too.

00:13:42.260 So, if people join up Freedom Farmers, we do a monthly call where we have our members come in, do a Zoom call, and they can just throw properties at us in real time.

00:13:53.460 So, if there are properties that haven't been on our accelerator list, we'll just review them in real time.

00:13:58.420 And I'll tell you, it's always an interesting process.

00:14:00.900 Pretty much, I would say, nine times out of ten, when people throw properties at us, they fail.

00:14:09.320 Why?

00:14:09.760 Because people don't see, they don't have the critical eye of what to look for.

00:14:16.040 I mean, I didn't just, you know, come to this information by happenstance.

00:14:22.020 I have visited farms around the world for ten years, and I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of properties, and I know what to look for.

00:14:32.980 And so, people just don't see things.

00:14:36.000 And they're often things that are right in plain sight.

00:14:39.280 Like, usually, properties are too close to the road.

00:14:42.480 You're going to be too close to a noisy highway.

00:14:44.940 You know?

00:14:45.220 Yeah.

00:14:45.400 Often, people buy properties in flood zones, and they don't even realize because they haven't looked at the topography.

00:14:51.940 Sometimes, it's something like there is some kind of industrial agriculture or industrial manufacturing or something like that, relatively close, that there might be a smell or noise or off-gassing.

00:15:05.520 Things like that.

00:15:06.360 People just don't see these things.

00:15:07.880 And so, that's why we do this list, because we're just like, hey, trust us.

00:15:13.240 We've put the time in to evaluate these places, and if you can find them in an area that you're interested in, you're probably not going to find a better homestead.

00:15:22.040 My team go through up to 300 properties a week that we analyze that make a cut of about 30.

00:15:29.700 So, it's about 100 to 1 that we eliminate of properties.

00:15:36.080 So, it's – or no, sorry, 30 to 1.

00:15:39.880 So, yeah, it's a hard thing.

00:15:43.520 And, you know, if you've done it for a long time, you know what to look for.

00:15:46.280 But, you know, one of the biggest things that people don't really realize is the importance of the movement of water.

00:15:52.640 It's probably the most destructive force in nature, and it's a thing that people really underappreciate.

00:15:58.800 Especially if you're in the United States and you're in the eastern seaboard, basically, everything east of the Mississippi River is a temperate climate, and you get a lot of rain in the summer.

00:16:10.900 So, places like Tennessee, Arkansas, parts of Oklahoma, parts of Texas are very wet.

00:16:18.320 Alabama, Georgia, these places are very wet.

00:16:20.980 Even like North Carolina, you know, we had that big storm there last year that flooded out Asheville.

00:16:26.660 So, you look at Asheville on a map, it's basically the bottom of a three-valley gap where the water amalgamates in.

00:16:36.540 It's a horrible place to put a city.

00:16:38.380 It's – I've been there.

00:16:39.320 It is beautiful.

00:16:40.520 But, yeah, it comes with risks.

00:16:42.760 It comes with risks.

00:16:43.860 And so, you know, people just don't think about these things.

00:16:47.420 And even the movement of water in a dry climate like where I am is very important because when it rains here, it surges.

00:16:54.620 And I'm on a mountaintop, and so the water always goes down, fortunately.

00:16:58.960 So, I never have to worry about flooding here.

00:17:01.260 But what I do have to worry about is surge.

00:17:03.240 So, the water will just move really quickly, and it can overwhelm things.

00:17:09.920 It can wash away soil.

00:17:13.280 If it builds up in an area, it can damage landscaping you've done and things like this.

00:17:18.700 So, yeah, the movement of water is probably the most important thing to factor in.

00:17:23.380 Yeah, I mean, there's things, undoubtedly, that are fixable on the property,

00:17:26.340 but then there's circumstances outside of that or around it that you just can't work with or, you know, not –

00:17:31.420 And that's – and you hit the nail on the head there, brother.

00:17:34.460 That is actually another one that people most often fail on is they look at the property itself,

00:17:42.120 and they don't look at what's around it.

00:17:44.700 So, when we do our property analysis, we do a 60-mile or 100-kilometer radius check.

00:17:50.420 So, we zoom out, and we look at everything around there.

00:17:53.720 You know, one really common one that people don't think about is there might be some kind of landing strip

00:17:59.740 or airport relatively close by, and maybe it's not a busy airport.

00:18:04.540 Like, you know, you might not be looking at a property just outside of Chicago, O'Hare Airport,

00:18:08.600 but you might be looking at a place that has a smaller airport,

00:18:11.720 and maybe even when you visit the property, you don't notice it.

00:18:14.920 But then you move in, and you're like, my goodness, you know, these airplanes are driving me crazy,

00:18:19.820 and they're in my line of sight, and it's a real eyesore, and it's noisy,

00:18:25.960 and, you know, that's the thing that people often miss, and so it's just looking outside.

00:18:30.200 And that's even another one as far as rain and water is concerned, too,

00:18:34.920 is that the property you're on might have the right landscaping and the right earthworks

00:18:40.240 to move the water correctly, but what about your neighbors?

00:18:42.780 Because, you know, what happened in North Carolina there, and often happens in these rainy climates

00:18:49.140 like in Tennessee, is if you're on some kind of rural subdivision where, say, you're on 10-acre

00:18:55.880 or even up to 50-acre strips, and the road access where the driveways come in,

00:19:01.480 roads always have ditches, and then they have culverts for the driveways,

00:19:05.560 and that because water sheds off the roads, and then it moves to the lowest point,

00:19:09.640 and then it moves away, is that sometimes your neighbor's culverts get overwhelmed,

00:19:14.560 and this can be a liability to you, and we saw this in Asheville

00:19:18.320 where some people who hadn't cleaned out their culverts, the water builds up behind it,

00:19:23.120 it surges, and then it creates a cascading effect that it over surges all the other culverts beneath.

00:19:29.680 So it's things like that, too, that people just don't think about that can be very, very costly.

00:19:34.860 You do everything right, but your neighbors don't, and you pay the price.

00:19:37.580 That's right.

00:19:38.880 Yeah.

00:19:39.100 So what kind of people do you get?

00:19:40.260 Like preppers, doomers? 0.76

00:19:41.580 Is it positive people?

00:19:42.720 Like, yeah, you know, excited and happy, you know, start a new life.

00:19:46.720 Yeah, I would say mostly positive.

00:19:49.160 Yeah.

00:19:50.320 Yeah, mostly positive.

00:19:53.080 Not really doomers.

00:19:54.360 I mean, yeah, maybe some.

00:19:56.680 Preppers, for sure.

00:19:57.700 Sure.

00:19:57.860 But, you know, I think the prepper movement these days is a lot different than it used to be.

00:20:02.340 I think the permaculture movement, the sort of regenerative agriculture movement, has had a pretty positive influence on those people.

00:20:11.760 And so I find there's a lot less doom and gloom in those spaces.

00:20:15.420 But then you've got people that are just taking action.

00:20:18.340 You know, I see a lot of interest and potential in a lot of the white nationalist movements that are starting communities around the world.

00:20:27.140 They are, they're just doing it, you know, they're just like, hey, we've had enough and we're taking action.

00:20:34.000 And so we're seeing more of that.

00:20:36.140 It's because I've been in this space for, geez, it's been 11 years, I guess, and out there publicly.

00:20:44.820 And at first when I was into it, it was a lot of, it was kind of hippie-ish.

00:20:50.260 It was like hippies that had. 0.52

00:20:52.340 Yeah, like kind of a conspiracy, hippie, new agey crowd, maybe?

00:20:54.660 Yeah, yeah, kind of, yeah.

00:20:56.600 Maybe less conspiracy, though, even.

00:20:58.080 Okay, oh, really, okay.

00:20:59.120 More left wing. 0.66

00:21:00.780 Interesting, okay.

00:21:02.460 But it was before woke.

00:21:04.140 Like, it wasn't really woke when I got into this stuff.

00:21:06.540 And then it started to shift woke.

00:21:08.020 And then there was a big bifurcation of the people interested in that kind of stuff.

00:21:12.540 And now it's just more of the people that are just more honest about what's going on.

00:21:17.620 Traditional, conservative.

00:21:19.720 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:20.360 Yeah, totally.

00:21:21.860 Yeah, well, they run the system now, right there.

00:21:24.240 It's on their side, so now they want to be, they don't want to get off of it now.

00:21:27.540 We do.

00:21:28.920 Exactly.

00:21:29.620 So you kind of touched on this earlier, obviously, you know, how you recommend the transition.

00:21:33.120 And again, it depends on people's situation.

00:21:35.240 Obviously, most people will have a job, although there are some that do take the leap, right?

00:21:39.120 They actually, like, just get off, get out of the city, whatever.

00:21:41.800 They buy a property, they get out there.

00:21:43.120 Perhaps, obviously, they have a family already, children, et cetera.

00:21:47.060 And time is limited, especially if you want to, like, well, I kind of have one foot in the normie world, so to speak,

00:21:52.240 and one world in Homestead off-grid world.

00:21:55.840 And obviously, you can get your children, as you should, involved in these things.

00:21:58.940 They can learn.

00:21:59.480 This is fun for them.

00:22:00.240 They can, you know, help out as well.

00:22:02.760 I assume it's not a one-size-fits-all in terms of how you recommend, like, a gradual process or go all in.

00:22:10.300 Do you consult people on this, too, somewhat?

00:22:13.100 Yeah.

00:22:13.720 Oh, yeah.

00:22:14.400 I mean, I've been consulting people on this for a very long time.

00:22:17.660 That's what kind of, mostly what inspired me to build this platform is because I just said, like,

00:22:23.080 I don't have enough time to help this many people.

00:22:25.280 It's also more expensive to pay for somebody's time one-on-one than it is to just be part of a service.

00:22:32.900 Yeah, there is no one-size-fits-all type of thing.

00:22:36.200 And that's why I kind of try to teach people principles, like, understand your context, what you want,

00:22:42.460 have these discussions with your spouse, like I said earlier.

00:22:46.700 And that's going to give you a better roadmap of where you can go.

00:22:49.740 And also, yeah, what your limitations are, what your budget limitations are, what your lifestyle limitations are.

00:22:56.600 Because, you know, there are some people that are ready to just go out into the bush and just really go at it.

00:23:05.080 I would say, generally speaking, from what I see, that's going to be people that are more experienced family people.

00:23:13.680 So they've got a few kids, the husband and wife are experienced with raising their children and kind of just doing that.

00:23:25.540 Whereas younger families, so, like, just say newlyweds with maybe a baby on the way,

00:23:31.140 to just go right out in there and tough it in the bush is going to be a lot more difficult

00:23:37.080 because you also have the challenges of a new family, you know.

00:23:41.380 And so you have to really figure these things in.

00:23:44.020 And I try to keep it as sort of family-orientated as possible because you can go too hard in the sense that

00:23:51.680 if you go too far out, you're too far away from the nearest town, your wife is not going to like that.

00:24:00.360 Like, it gets to the point where it's like an hour drive to the nearest town.

00:24:05.640 I mean, that really sucks because people really idealize what it's like to get out here and do this,

00:24:11.540 but they don't realize that it takes a lot of time and trips back and forth to finish it.

00:24:18.000 You don't just show up here and it's all there.

00:24:20.180 Unless, you know, having said that, you know, we do list some properties on our Homestead Accelerator

00:24:25.060 that are what we call turnkey.

00:24:27.220 We have an A, B, and a C rating.

00:24:30.700 So an A property is mostly just a turnkey property.

00:24:33.500 It's got everything you need, multiple sources of water.

00:24:36.160 The house is in good shape.

00:24:37.200 It's got places to grow.

00:24:38.460 It's got ponds.

00:24:39.280 It's got all that infrastructure.

00:24:40.720 Yes, you can get that.

00:24:42.780 But even still with that, you still have to set up and get orientated into your new life.

00:24:49.700 And that does mean a lot of trips to town.

00:24:51.600 And so I think what's ideal is if you are, say, no more than 20 minutes from a town that has, call it 80% or more of the services you need.

00:25:09.040 And then, so that way it's like little things.

00:25:11.480 Oh, I need this thing.

00:25:13.080 Oh, you know, we don't have any of this for the kitchen.

00:25:15.980 We can go into the nearest town and get that.

00:25:18.700 And if that nearest town doesn't have all the services you need, as long as you're, say, two hours or so from a town that does have those services, it's not so bad.

00:25:29.420 Because then you can go into that town maybe once a month, twice a month.

00:25:33.020 Even if it's once a week, it's not that bad.

00:25:35.800 But when you're starting out, people really underestimate all the things that they're going to need.

00:25:41.540 And you just kind of have to tough through it.

00:25:43.160 I can give you all the best lists.

00:25:45.120 And we do.

00:25:45.580 In the courses that we have at Freedom Farmers, we get into this stuff and we talk about the equipment you need and all this kind of stuff.

00:25:52.180 But there's still going to be things that you have to figure out.

00:25:55.840 Yeah, definitely.

00:25:57.040 It's the worst if you're having to drive an hour to just go and get a couple things.

00:26:02.000 Like, it's terrible.

00:26:03.240 And, of course, good planning, you know, will change that.

00:26:07.600 But, you know, nobody has the best plan, by the way.

00:26:11.120 You have to learn as you go.

00:26:12.940 You will not think of it all.

00:26:14.100 This is the reality of it.

00:26:16.420 Women need community. 1.00

00:26:18.780 Men do too, but we can get away without it for the most part on average, right?

00:26:22.440 That's right.

00:26:22.900 We can for a while.

00:26:24.740 And that's why people opt for the co-op type thing or buying land together and, you know, a couple of families do it or whatever.

00:26:30.840 So you have support out there, you have help, you have more labor, etc.

00:26:35.020 But not everyone is in that situation.

00:26:36.740 Not everyone can or can do that.

00:26:38.520 Or the land you're looking at is not big enough.

00:26:40.260 You don't want, you know, there's a lot of moving parts to something like this.

00:26:45.420 A lot of things to uncover.

00:26:46.560 There is a lot of moving parts.

00:26:48.620 Yep, there is.

00:26:49.480 And you're really correct about the women thing. 0.97

00:26:53.720 And it's often something that, you know, a lot of men who want to just, you know, step up and provide, which is what you should do.

00:27:02.840 But if you don't factor in the considerations of your wife, you are going to run into tensions in your relationship.

00:27:11.940 There's just no question about it.

00:27:13.240 And I've seen it hundreds of times in my consulting over the years.

00:27:17.080 So many times I'm just like marriage consulting.

00:27:21.440 Yeah, I was going to say it.

00:27:22.560 Psychologist.

00:27:23.160 It's kind of like, well, just being like, you know, sometimes a man needs another man to tell him, you know.

00:27:29.940 And sometimes it's not enough to, like the wife is rolling her eyes sitting there like, I told you this. 1.00

00:27:34.720 And so I have to kind of be like, well, you know, you know, you should listen to her here because she does have some good considerations.

00:27:40.320 And do you want your family to be healthy?

00:27:42.460 Like, do you want a good family life?

00:27:44.100 Do you want your wife to be like happy?

00:27:46.560 Yeah.

00:27:46.940 Happy wife, happy life, right?

00:27:48.740 So, yeah, being on the same page with your spouse is absolutely critical.

00:27:55.300 That's why I said right at the beginning, get that sorted out right away.

00:27:58.520 What are your goals? 0.98

00:27:59.820 And really be on the same page because things, shit always happens. 0.96

00:28:05.220 You know, things go south. 0.99

00:28:07.480 The unexpected happens.

00:28:08.740 That's inevitable.

00:28:10.300 And you want to be on the same page when they do so that you're not scrambling to make hasty decisions.

00:28:18.240 That's right.

00:28:19.160 Yeah, absolutely right.

00:28:20.560 Yeah, I would assume it'd be easier to, if people are in that position, to start out slow, right?

00:28:26.440 And again, even if you're on a property, learning some of the processes already, obviously, no matter what type of situation you're in, in terms of growing and, you know, beginning the steps towards farming.

00:28:36.560 And it takes me kind of to the next question there.

00:28:40.580 Like, yeah, what kind of farming, right?

00:28:42.660 And again, this will be dependent on the land, the soil that you have access to and all these things, right?

00:28:46.880 But you have, like, hugel culture.

00:28:49.060 You have permaculture that you mentioned before.

00:28:50.900 No-till gardening.

00:28:52.740 There's so many different methods and techniques.

00:28:55.060 And, you know, everyone is like, this is the one and this is what you have to do, blah, blah, blah.

00:28:58.860 But I would assume same thing there, right?

00:29:00.440 It's very adaptive to the circumstances around you, perhaps, or what do you recommend?

00:29:04.780 What do you think?

00:29:05.740 Yeah, yeah.

00:29:06.560 I mean, it's adaptive to the circumstances around you, the way you garden, the way you manage your homestead.

00:29:14.320 I mean, there's many different ways to do all of these things.

00:29:17.660 There's not necessarily one right way to do anything.

00:29:20.860 Right, yeah.

00:29:21.260 You know, I always try to look at nature as an example.

00:29:23.880 I mean, nature is a cornucopia of different solutions to get to the same end.

00:29:32.520 And so I think context is everything.

00:29:37.440 You know, what do you have?

00:29:39.280 You know, a big part of figuring out what you're going to do on your land first is to figure out what's there first.

00:29:45.680 What do you have?

00:29:46.460 What's your soil like?

00:29:47.540 You know, you mentioned hugel culture.

00:29:49.860 You know, that's a really interesting method of gardening that came from a man named Sepp Holzer from Austria.

00:29:56.700 Really, really cool pioneer.

00:29:59.100 But he's in the Alps.

00:30:00.580 You know, he's in a really mountainous climate where there's not a lot of soil there.

00:30:08.880 And it's actually similar to where I'm at.

00:30:12.060 Hugel culture for me is a lot of extra work.

00:30:14.140 I don't know.

00:30:15.480 I mean, it certainly is beneficial.

00:30:17.160 But it's kind of just, it's details.

00:30:20.620 It's minutiae.

00:30:21.480 It's like, yeah, sure, that works.

00:30:23.260 This works, too.

00:30:24.340 You know, 30-inch market gardening beds works, too.

00:30:26.960 Raised beds work, too.

00:30:28.260 There's all kinds of ways to do it.

00:30:30.320 It's just, you know, what suits your context?

00:30:32.440 What suits the resources that you have available?

00:30:34.920 And going from there.

00:30:36.640 Yeah, it's one of those things.

00:30:38.880 People shouldn't stare themselves blind to a certain technique.

00:30:41.960 Or that it has to be done like this.

00:30:44.200 And then they lose.

00:30:45.300 Do you see what I'm saying?

00:30:46.000 Like they, which is not to criticize the list that you made.

00:30:50.060 But I'm saying don't stare yourself blind maybe on exactly how it should be done.

00:30:54.220 More that you should be do it.

00:30:56.020 Be less concerned about the path there.

00:30:57.840 You have your goals set.

00:30:58.820 How you reach that point is up for debate or whatever.

00:31:02.700 Well, and this is the other big failing point for homesteaders is the analysis paralysis.

00:31:08.840 Oh, yeah.

00:31:09.240 Is that, you know, in today's, you know, attention economy, there's just so much content out there.

00:31:16.520 And the problem with a lot of the content today is we live in this, and I hope it ends soon.

00:31:25.400 We live in this narcissistic content creator world where, you know, everybody just wants to be a content creator.

00:31:36.200 And, hey, I've been doing it for 10 years.

00:31:38.180 I'm sick of it, frankly.

00:31:39.640 I don't make content the way I used to.

00:31:43.580 But especially, you know, platforms like TikTok and Instagram really destroyed content.

00:31:51.120 Yeah.

00:31:51.420 And now you just got all these influencers.

00:31:54.100 Everybody wants to be an influencer.

00:31:56.820 And so they're just vlogging every single thing they do, despite if it works or not.

00:32:03.060 They don't care.

00:32:03.800 They're just making content. 0.53

00:32:04.860 And so that's the problem with content today is you have to sift through so much crap because most people are just trying to monetize their platform.

00:32:13.400 And so.

00:32:14.100 Your homesteader comes about your YouTube channel maybe more than actually homesteading.

00:32:17.860 Dude, literally, I mean, I have a lot of protégés out there because I was an early adopter in this space.

00:32:25.120 Right, yeah.

00:32:26.260 And a lot of people just did it to be a content creator.

00:32:29.480 They weren't doing it because they were particularly drawn to living on the land or being off grid.

00:32:36.240 They just identified a niche market and said, hey, I'm going to make content in that.

00:32:42.020 And you can see it.

00:32:43.000 I mean, anybody who's who's been doing this stuff for a long time, you can see it because you often ask yourself the question, like, how do you actually get anything real done on your homestead?

00:32:53.900 When you dedicate this much time to making videos, right, you know, you're live streaming like six hours a day.

00:32:59.880 How do you do anything?

00:33:01.880 And so, you know, the point is, is there's a there's a lot of posers out there and there's a lot of bad content out there.

00:33:09.560 And what I've always tried to do is just deliver honest, real information that helps people.

00:33:17.980 I'm not I mean, if you follow me on any of the platforms that I'm on, you'll notice that I'm not out there just making Instagram reels every, you know, four times a day.

00:33:28.560 I'm actually doing stuff like I'm building things.

00:33:30.840 And so I try to just show value instead of satiate the algorithm.

00:33:38.780 I think there is a draw and it's not a bad trend.

00:33:41.040 Right.

00:33:41.280 But you do have, you know, the women make their sourdough bread on Instagram or whatever, you know, like they do there. 1.00

00:33:46.300 Obviously, it's better than, you know, many other trends out there.

00:33:50.100 So I'm not going to counter signal it.

00:33:51.780 But but but with, you know, with that those trends common in authenticity as well, obviously, kind of kind of to it.

00:33:58.380 And in some cases, you just you kind of just have to do it.

00:34:00.960 You don't have to show everyone you do.

00:34:02.340 There's nothing wrong with that.

00:34:03.220 That's that's fine.

00:34:03.920 People want to do it on the side.

00:34:05.060 Obviously, that's fine.

00:34:06.580 But yes, it is.

00:34:07.560 I would advise any men out there, though, you know, looking for a potential spouse.

00:34:12.380 Do not date an Instagram girl.

00:34:13.980 No, no.

00:34:14.760 Dude, do not date a girl who has 20,000 followers on Instagram and is making videos every single day. 0.99

00:34:23.360 You're not you're not you're not going to get the real homestead life that you want.

00:34:26.800 You want to find a real girl, maybe go to church and meet a girl at church, a girl who's not just narcissistically in front of a camera all day.

00:34:36.340 That is not going to translate well to real life on the homestead.

00:34:40.120 I mean, if you just want to depict the image of it.

00:34:43.560 OK, that's another thing.

00:34:45.040 But there's like I said, there's so many people out there that are just faking it that and I've been around.

00:34:51.320 You know, I bet I've been out there for a long time and I visited a lot of different content creators.

00:34:56.480 And and I'll tell you, there's there's a lot there's a lot there's good people out there, too.

00:35:00.500 Don't get me wrong.

00:35:01.060 But there's a lot of people out there who are just posing and they just they literally just want a way to make a living online. 0.98

00:35:08.040 And they're not actually doing real shit. 0.98

00:35:11.020 Yeah. 0.98

00:35:11.740 Yeah.

00:35:12.160 Well, it's kind of part of our overall actually trend of life, though, right?

00:35:15.440 Like, and I'm not saying I'm not saying jobs are non-existent yet, but again, where the trend seems to be going is more automation, more AI, even farming, right?

00:35:26.960 Automated vertical farming, indoor hydroponic, like, you know, there's all these techniques and things now.

00:35:32.800 And so part of this is like, I mean, even, you know, the rise of things like OnlyFans, right?

00:35:38.320 Of what a sad state that's in, like women have to like monetize their sexuality and things like that. 1.00

00:35:43.040 But it's a it is a trend.

00:35:44.660 And in terms of where where it's going.

00:35:47.860 And so people I do understand.

00:35:51.140 That if you can supplement it with something, you know, where you're like, hey, look at what I've done or what we've built, what we've done, there is there is a function function of that, because same thing there, right?

00:35:59.400 As you take that leap, not everyone obviously will be able to like be a subsistence farmer right away and have it done out the gates, right?

00:36:08.000 You have to do other things you have to.

00:36:09.840 Maybe you have to go to the farmer's market.

00:36:11.300 Maybe maybe there's barter.

00:36:12.700 Maybe you have a network and, you know, you get to piece things together, I would assume.

00:36:17.420 That's more of a scenario where you're like, you have to take a little bit of this, a little bit of that and all small streams, you know, create a river, right?

00:36:25.280 Yeah, that's right.

00:36:26.500 I agree.

00:36:27.420 And yeah, I'm not trying to deny the world we're living in.

00:36:32.020 I am seeing a major backlash to it.

00:36:35.080 I do believe that the future is offline for people who have eyes to see.

00:36:40.100 I just think that the way AI and, you know, I've been a guy who has been online for 10 years and produced so much content and courses and things like that.

00:36:52.080 I've seen the TikTokification of the content world and then the integration of AI into it.

00:36:59.540 Just look at the lion's share of content that you can scroll through on TikTok or Instagram.

00:37:04.800 It's absolute.

00:37:06.220 It's just a slot machine.

00:37:07.480 Yeah.

00:37:07.580 And it's sort of, I was talking to a friend of mine who's actually very, probably making content in the homesteading space as long as I have, Justin Rhodes.

00:37:16.320 He's out there.

00:37:17.820 And we were talking about this a few weeks ago, just sort of the death of the follower.

00:37:21.840 That's how he worded it to me is that the algorithm just incentivizes viral content now.

00:37:28.680 It doesn't actually allow you to build an audience in the same way.

00:37:33.480 So it's all about straight up views.

00:37:35.840 It's not about building an audience.

00:37:36.980 And it's obvious why the platforms have done that because the platforms want the following.

00:37:42.280 They don't want you to have the following.

00:37:45.120 And so that's why they incentivize viral content.

00:37:49.720 And so when you have that type of incentive, people are going to follow that incentive and they're going to curate their content based on what's viral, not based on what's valuable for an individual to better themselves or, you know, do something great.

00:38:06.180 It's just about getting the clicks.

00:38:08.500 And so, yeah, that's unfortunate.

00:38:11.140 Yeah.

00:38:11.300 It's the world we're in.

00:38:13.800 And, you know, yeah, I don't fault people for saying, hey, you know, you want to make some videos and supplement your income and that's going to help you get off grid.

00:38:21.020 Well, then all the power to you.

00:38:22.360 Yeah.

00:38:22.540 But, yeah, what it's done to women is is a real tragedy. 0.98

00:38:27.420 The skewed economics of the sort of the sexual marketplace that have really hurt the family and hurt people's ability to be faithful to one another and stick it out because this is not an easy life to do this.

00:38:42.760 No, it is romantic in many ways.

00:38:45.480 And, you know, I would say overall the positives outweigh the the negatives, but it it has its challenges.

00:38:54.920 And if you don't have a partner who is really rooted and grounded in reality, they're not going to last if they're just on their phone all day hoping for clicks like the work has to get done.

00:39:07.900 Yeah.

00:39:08.020 And it requires all hands on deck.

00:39:10.080 Yeah, that's true.

00:39:11.100 Yeah.

00:39:11.280 No, it is a struggle, too, though.

00:39:12.620 And you don't you don't want it to be too comfortable.

00:39:15.700 You need you need comfort within the struggle.

00:39:18.080 But, you know, that's part of it.

00:39:20.540 And in fact, you could argue that one of the reasons why we're in the situation we're in is because people are getting too comfortable and they don't have any struggle.

00:39:28.280 You know, I mean, exactly.

00:39:30.200 But, yeah, the attention span and just shorter and shorter and more extreme. 1.00

00:39:35.820 And as you monetize, it's literally like they're just the dumbest, dumbest, stupid, most outrageous shit is what you want. 1.00

00:39:43.360 You know, what goes viral. 1.00

00:39:44.200 It's funny because you thought it was like this great place we can share information and everyone will learn more and stuff.

00:39:49.320 And I was like, you know, just down the down the slope we went.

00:39:53.280 Yep.

00:39:53.680 So, okay, so subsistence farming, what would you I mean, it's very that's very hard, right, obviously.

00:40:00.460 But, again, you just want to pick your brain here and see what thoughts you have on this.

00:40:03.500 But, like, what would you begin growing if you were seeking to like I want to go completely off grid.

00:40:09.740 I want to just basically be as independent as possible and do as much of it as I can on my homestead.

00:40:15.940 Where would you begin there?

00:40:16.960 Well, I'd probably begin with an analyzation of what that individual's diet is.

00:40:26.620 You know, a lot of people are carnivore these days, keto.

00:40:30.460 I am a lot more of that.

00:40:32.440 You know, as a guy who's been growing vegetables and fruits for as long as I have,

00:40:36.020 my diet is very, very leaning more towards meat and fat and things like that, which are things that I do not produce.

00:40:46.020 And that's probably why I haven't gone the whole way with that.

00:40:50.440 So, I would say looking at that, you know, yeah, what do you want to eat?

00:40:57.520 What's your primary diet?

00:40:58.600 And so, because whether you're going to go towards animals or towards, you know, vegetables and fruit or maybe something in between.

00:41:07.740 If myself, we're very diversified.

00:41:10.200 I don't have any ruminant animals up here.

00:41:12.600 I don't know, my property, it doesn't have grass, but I will be having fish in my pond soon.

00:41:17.580 I raise my own birds.

00:41:18.780 I raise chickens and turkeys for meat and I have egg laying hens for eggs.

00:41:24.620 And I don't really want to do it all, to be honest.

00:41:27.380 To try to do it all is a real struggle and it takes a long time to get there.

00:41:34.900 And so, you want to do things incrementally.

00:41:36.820 So, to your question, I would say pick some things that are going to supplement your diet in the appropriate way.

00:41:45.660 And then start with some of the low-hanging fruit.

00:41:49.100 So, you know, growing just, you know, kitchen, a kitchen garden.

00:41:55.520 You know, having a garden that's, you know, maybe you just do three or four months of the year depending on the season or the places you're in.

00:42:02.020 You might just start with growing your own greens and herbs and cherry tomatoes.

00:42:05.880 And then you might say, okay, well, I want to do more crops for storage.

00:42:11.060 So, let's do a 500 square foot or a 50 square meter area of potatoes.

00:42:16.700 Let's do the same for cabbage.

00:42:19.840 Now, and you could start with egg layers too.

00:42:22.840 Like, everybody can start with chickens for eggs.

00:42:25.120 Like, that's probably the lowest hanging fruit because they'll just eat all your kitchen scraps.

00:42:29.560 You know, chickens really only need three things.

00:42:31.320 They need greens, grains, and grubs. 0.63

00:42:33.980 And you can, they can do, they can do well on either two.

00:42:38.000 So, that's a great place to start is with that, with some chickens and then a small kitchen garden.

00:42:43.720 And then get up to a larger subsistence type garden where you're doing commodity type crops.

00:42:51.200 You know, you're doing crops for storage.

00:42:53.660 You're doing tomatoes for canning and freezing.

00:42:58.880 You're doing more stuff like that.

00:43:01.360 And then, and then get into, okay, now we're going to raise our own chickens for meat.

00:43:05.500 Let's start with 10 chickens. 0.93

00:43:07.020 Let's do those chickens. 1.00

00:43:08.840 Okay, let's do 20 next year.

00:43:10.320 Let's do 30.

00:43:10.920 Let's do 40. 0.81

00:43:11.640 And then maybe you're doing 100.

00:43:12.920 Maybe you're selling some of those.

00:43:14.320 And then getting into ruminant animals.

00:43:18.600 You know, if you have the pasture, if you have the space, getting a milk cow or a few beef cows isn't that hard.

00:43:27.080 I mean, people who have a few acres of pasture can do that.

00:43:30.260 So, there's all kinds of different ways you can go.

00:43:32.580 It just really depends on what the capacity of your land is and what the capacity of your interest is and how much you want to, how much time you want to put into it.

00:43:41.420 Because, you know, homesteading takes time.

00:43:43.800 I mean, I've got it pretty dialed now.

00:43:46.040 I mean, because I've been doing this for so long, I can probably manage my entire homestead.

00:43:51.960 Which is, I have a quarter acre orchard food forest.

00:43:56.120 I have a quarter acre in vegetables.

00:43:58.340 I've got, I do 30 meat birds.

00:44:00.900 I've got 10 egg laying hens. 1.00

00:44:02.620 I do a few turkeys every year.

00:44:04.080 I've got three greenhouses.

00:44:05.640 I can manage all of that on about 10 hours a week.

00:44:09.580 Oh, that's not bad.

00:44:10.200 So that I have, it's not bad, but I'm a guy who's very experienced.

00:44:13.840 I would say, you know, you would never start with what I have.

00:44:17.620 Right.

00:44:18.200 You would incrementally do it.

00:44:19.580 And then as you become more and more successful, like if the garden looks good and it's not overwhelmed with weeds and you're getting a crop, that's a successful garden.

00:44:29.100 And so then you might want to say, well, let's, let's do a little bit more.

00:44:32.380 Yeah.

00:44:32.900 You know, so, but you have to make time for work.

00:44:35.880 You have to make time for family.

00:44:37.260 Um, but the nice thing is on a homestead is both those things can integrate.

00:44:43.660 Exactly.

00:44:44.440 Into a successful homestead because a successful homestead that's creating a surplus.

00:44:49.580 It can now be a farmstead.

00:44:51.560 A farmstead is a homestead that has some level of commercial enterprise into it.

00:44:55.680 So you might say, well, you know, the gardens have been going really well for the last couple of years.

00:45:00.240 Why don't we think about doing a quarter acre market garden and selling, you know, some salad mixes, some root crops and some cherry tomatoes at the local farmer's market?

00:45:09.620 Or maybe we start our own, our CSA box program or something like that, a buy-in program.

00:45:15.400 Uh, maybe we start to sell some of our eggs and then on the family side, a good homestead should be integrated into the family.

00:45:22.840 I mean, for, for, for myself, my kids are involved in most of the tasks that happen on the homestead, whether it's harvesting, planting, preparing beds.

00:45:32.780 Um, they do a bit of all of that.

00:45:34.980 They're getting older too.

00:45:36.120 So they're, they're getting more, they're getting better at it.

00:45:38.640 They're, they're learning more and more, but you know, that's the, that's the beauty of a homestead is that it stacks these functions of, you know, bringing the family together, educating the children, um, being grounded on the soil, you know, hands in the dirt, bare feet in the dirt.

00:45:55.000 You know, these are all things that benefit our health and our wellbeing.

00:45:58.800 And so, yeah, they should all integrate.

00:46:01.100 And, and if you're doing it right, they will.

00:46:03.620 Do you, uh, try to do it organic as much as possible, as natural as you can?

00:46:08.320 And yeah, absolutely.

00:46:09.540 Yeah.

00:46:09.880 Yeah.

00:46:10.200 Oh, a hundred percent.

00:46:11.540 Yeah.

00:46:11.760 Yeah.

00:46:11.980 Yeah.

00:46:12.380 That, that goes without saying, I assume everything I've ever done has always been organic.

00:46:16.520 Yeah.

00:46:17.220 Yeah.

00:46:17.740 You know, to, to me to not be organic is, is, is the, is kind of the outlier really.

00:46:23.840 I mean, um, all the old, you know, all, all the old traditional gardens were all organic.

00:46:28.840 All the, you know, the Amish today are still that way. 1.00

00:46:31.640 And so, yeah, absolutely.

00:46:33.240 I don't use any chemicals or pesticides or anything like that.

00:46:36.820 Yeah.

00:46:36.960 The only thing I would do that might seem somewhat conventional is I, I, I weed with

00:46:41.540 a torch.

00:46:42.260 Sometimes I'll use a, a propane torch and I'll go and burn off the little weeds on the top

00:46:47.880 of the soil before I seed my carrots.

00:46:49.520 But yeah, besides from that, everything I do is, is, is, is very organic.

00:46:53.980 Well, I mean, there's certain tools you have to use and yeah, I had a little more on that

00:46:56.860 later, but yeah, exactly.

00:46:57.860 When you get to a point of what kind of things you need or whatever, but what about the seeds

00:47:01.700 before we get into some of that, um, uh, do you buy them or are you in a position where

00:47:06.260 you try to produce your own?

00:47:07.700 What about the, the seed question?

00:47:09.300 Yeah.

00:47:10.360 Yeah.

00:47:10.680 I would say I buy, um, I do produce my own seed.

00:47:15.800 I mean, I save my, uh, I save carrot seed.

00:47:19.080 I save celery seed.

00:47:20.220 I save tomato seed.

00:47:21.640 I save pepper seeds.

00:47:23.360 I save my, um, what else did I save last year?

00:47:28.520 Dill is an easy one.

00:47:30.480 Uh, lettuce.

00:47:31.360 I can save radish is an easy seed to save.

00:47:33.960 Um, but I still do buy seed, but you know what, if you keep your seed in a cool, dark

00:47:39.180 and dry place, you can save seed for many, many years.

00:47:42.960 I've actually been using surplus of seed that I had from my farm.

00:47:46.620 I stopped commercially farming in 2018 and I'm still using seed that I had, um, saved

00:47:53.160 from then.

00:47:53.820 So I've heard some people say it's hard and I just buy them.

00:47:57.380 It's, is that true?

00:47:58.460 Um, well, it depends.

00:48:00.780 I mean, yes, some, some are harder to save than others.

00:48:03.820 Probably the easiest seeds to save would be squash and tomato seeds.

00:48:08.460 You just got to make sure they don't cross pollinate. 0.64

00:48:10.740 That's easy with tomatoes because tomatoes actually have to physically touch other flowers.

00:48:15.920 They don't, they don't pollinate that their pollen from other ins from insects doesn't

00:48:21.400 pollinate as easy to cross the plant as say a squash does.

00:48:25.340 But yeah, you know, seed saving is pretty simple, really.

00:48:30.680 I mean, you just got to, um, there's lots of videos out there.

00:48:35.980 There's some fundamentals that are really simple.

00:48:38.680 Um, but yeah, I mean, I wouldn't, if I was just starting in a homestead, I would not be

00:48:43.460 prioritizing seed saving right out the gate.

00:48:45.700 Right.

00:48:46.300 Yeah.

00:48:46.800 Figure that out later.

00:48:47.920 You know, seeds are still relatively cheap available.

00:48:51.360 Um, I would, I would stick with that for as long as I could make sure you always have

00:48:55.040 a surplus, you know, make sure you're always sitting on a few years of seed and that's

00:48:58.860 not hard to do.

00:49:00.100 Um, and so yeah, prioritize growing first and seed saving next.

00:49:05.760 Yeah.

00:49:06.180 I remember a lot of people that were for good reason, obviously, right.

00:49:09.000 Like the, the genetically engineering, we even heard those stories about how it actually

00:49:12.660 affects the biosphere cores that corn is a classic one where like, there's some people

00:49:17.480 that don't even need to, if it's organic corn, because they believe it's still the genetically

00:49:20.920 modified ones and you know, things like this, right.

00:49:23.340 It was, in fact, in fact, you're well aware of the case in Canada, right.

00:49:26.180 The farmer that was sued by Monsanto because like they've discovered essentially that like

00:49:31.120 the corn is growing Percy exactly.

00:49:33.860 Um, had, we're like, that's ours.

00:49:35.880 You know, we, we need license money for, for, you know, your corn.

00:49:38.600 We're like, what?

00:49:39.400 So people were like, and they were looking, you know, yeah, go ahead.

00:49:44.280 Well, I was just going to say, you know, for, for, for subsistence farming, that's just

00:49:48.180 not really an issue.

00:49:50.260 Um, you know, Percy, that whole thing, he was a commercial farmer and so his, his, his crop

00:49:56.980 was pollinated by a neighbor's GMO crop.

00:50:01.360 So that's not really going to be an issue that you have to deal with on the homestead.

00:50:06.580 Um, and this is too, actually why I encourage people to homestead in areas that are not

00:50:13.160 agricultural.

00:50:13.800 Right.

00:50:14.740 Yeah.

00:50:15.100 I typically encourage people to homestead in areas that are considered recreational and

00:50:19.720 recreational properties.

00:50:20.980 You're more in the trees, mountains.

00:50:23.720 You're not in the low line valleys where all the commercial farms are because being in

00:50:28.780 those areas, uh, for me, I look at it as an industrial threat.

00:50:33.240 You're surrounded by petrochemicals.

00:50:35.260 Yeah.

00:50:35.380 They're spraying. 1.00

00:50:36.220 They're doing all kinds of nasty shit. 1.00

00:50:36.840 Yeah. 0.99

00:50:37.120 How, how organic is your homestead going to be when on all four sides of your quarter

00:50:42.220 section of land, your neighbors are spraying glyphosate.

00:50:45.140 Yeah.

00:50:45.580 You know, that's getting into your groundwater.

00:50:48.300 Uh, it's in the spring runoff.

00:50:50.040 It's just don't, don't homestead in those places.

00:50:52.680 Homestead in the, in the non agricultural areas.

00:50:55.940 Yeah.

00:50:56.380 Good, good tip.

00:50:57.140 Exactly.

00:50:57.960 So what do you do in terms of, um, obviously animals try to eat it.

00:51:02.300 You have pests and there's slugs.

00:51:03.840 There's, uh, what else did I have?

00:51:05.220 My notes.

00:51:06.060 Insects, all kinds of things, right?

00:51:08.060 Do you find this to be a big problem?

00:51:09.460 What do you do to protect your plants?

00:51:11.020 No.

00:51:11.480 I mean, well, I mean, fencing number one, the mammal pests are the biggest one.

00:51:17.380 Um, and then, you know, things like rabbits, um, smaller type of vermin skunks are an issue

00:51:26.200 for us here.

00:51:27.760 I find two things you can do to eliminate most of your problems is a good fence and a good

00:51:32.540 dog.

00:51:33.900 Those, those will eliminate most of your problems.

00:51:36.920 Uh, in regards to insects and pests, I mean, just manage them by hand.

00:51:41.420 You know, I get, I, uh, my soil steer still here isn't exactly where I want it to be because

00:51:47.040 that mountain soil isn't, isn't very good.

00:51:49.060 So it's taken me years to build it up to what it is now.

00:51:51.840 So I still get some pests and does not really disease, but I do get pest problems.

00:51:55.760 I get aphids in my peppers every year.

00:51:57.820 I manage them.

00:51:58.700 I actually spray them out with water.

00:52:00.700 I've had done videos on this in the past, but I just, I just get a little on and off sprayer

00:52:06.220 and I, you know, just spray a little high pressure, you know, fine spray of water.

00:52:12.540 And I knocked the aphids out of the center of the plant.

00:52:14.760 And then I just do that a few times and then they just can't establish themselves.

00:52:19.460 And so, you know, pests are always going to be there.

00:52:22.180 They're just part of the ebb and flow of nature.

00:52:24.700 And so, you know, they have to eat too.

00:52:26.700 So you always plant more than you need.

00:52:29.740 Plant at least 25 to 50% more than you need.

00:52:32.080 And if you stay on top of the pest problems, you know, pick out the potato bugs, you know,

00:52:37.460 pick out the aphids, uh, watch out for the, uh, the, uh, cabbage white moths, you know,

00:52:43.140 things like this.

00:52:44.640 Um, as long as you stay on top and the old, as the saying goes, the best fertilizer is the

00:52:50.800 farmer's shadow.

00:52:52.900 And so if the farmer guarding the farmer's looking over, yeah, paying attention to the

00:52:57.540 crops and observing and interacting with what's going on and reacting to it, you know, it's,

00:53:04.500 it's not that difficult.

00:53:05.740 It really is.

00:53:06.500 And, and, and I find most, you know, it's such a cliche for people to say, oh, I don't

00:53:10.260 have a green thumb, but it's like, well, how much have you tried?

00:53:12.680 Right.

00:53:12.860 How much have you tried to grow and how much attention and care have you put into it?

00:53:16.140 I mean, I looked at it and he died, you know?

00:53:18.820 Yeah.

00:53:19.140 It's just like, do the work, you know, do the work and pay attention and, and you'll figure

00:53:24.860 it out, you know, I, I think, I think human beings, uh, especially us, you know, kind

00:53:29.740 of Western, what white, you know, Northern Western Europeans, uh, we created agriculture.

00:53:36.360 It's, it's in our, it's in our heritage, you know, people that come from sub-Saharan

00:53:42.340 Africa, agriculture was not part of their, um, and, and same with sort of the native populations

00:53:49.880 of South America, even North America, they were all nomadic.

00:53:53.920 And so agriculture was just not really part of their, their, their way of life.

00:53:58.740 It was to some degree with the native Americans.

00:54:00.400 They had the three sisters gardens and things like that.

00:54:02.620 Certainly examples of agriculture, but not the way that Northern Europeans did, because

00:54:07.180 you know, you, you know, people in Sweden know more than anybody, uh, you have to prepare

00:54:13.040 for the cold and so where, where does that work ethic of the Northern European come from?

00:54:19.960 It comes from the fact that we had six months to prepare for six months of scarcity.

00:54:25.760 So that, that is in our heritage.

00:54:28.680 And I, and I think people, if they just get into it, they kind of wake up to it in a way.

00:54:33.420 And I, I've, I've always been inspired to see how people who come from a city, but have

00:54:39.260 a heritage in that it wakes up, it wakes up something in you.

00:54:43.860 And, and you, if you just do it and you pay attention and you like it, you enjoy doing

00:54:48.640 it, it, it, it doesn't take long to figure out.

00:54:51.040 It's probably instinctual.

00:54:52.200 We have, you know, uh, you know, selection processes for that essentially.

00:54:55.020 That's right.

00:54:55.280 Yeah.

00:54:55.820 Um, exactly.

00:54:57.480 So, um, we're going to take a break in a little bit here.

00:55:00.620 There's so much more I want to ask you about, obviously.

00:55:02.060 Right.

00:55:02.500 Um, and a lot more to get into very, very interesting to learn about this.

00:55:06.600 And, you know, we, we, we're talking about how to best approach the topic.

00:55:09.740 And I know a lot of, some people out there listening, they're very well versed of it.

00:55:13.200 I was talking to people, some local here, they love your work and they're like, ask me about

00:55:16.340 the water and, you know, things like this and some other, some other questions.

00:55:18.820 So we're going to get into that later, uh, as well, but before we do it, let me just take

00:55:23.180 a couple of these, uh, well, Albert here with a very generous donation.

00:55:27.500 Thank you so much, Albert, as always, we are, we appreciate your tremendously.

00:55:31.280 He's keeping the lights on here at red eyes.

00:55:32.920 One of our angel investors.

00:55:34.260 Thank you, Albert.

00:55:34.660 He says, hi, Henrik, looking forward to today's show with Curtis Stone.

00:55:37.360 I really loved his last interview with you.

00:55:39.540 I'll watch later on replay.

00:55:40.580 I'm still at work.

00:55:41.220 Take care.

00:55:41.980 Uh, have a, have a good one, brother.

00:55:43.400 Thank you so much for your support.

00:55:44.360 We appreciate it greatly.

00:55:46.020 Um, Curtis, before we fire off a plug or two here, I want you to plug your stuff, freedomfarmers.com.

00:55:53.600 That's the website we have up right there.

00:55:55.440 And of course the kind of the main thing here we've been talking about really is the homestead

00:55:59.180 accelerator to get in there.

00:56:00.620 And, um, I, I'm not sure if you even have a number, but like, uh, off the top of your

00:56:04.960 head, how many do you know how many you're monitoring or looking at, or like have available

00:56:08.560 for people there?

00:56:09.940 Uh, properties?

00:56:10.880 Yeah.

00:56:11.020 Um, and well, we update the list every single week.

00:56:14.000 So there's usually a couple hundred live.

00:56:18.400 Um, and so we take properties down as they've been sold.

00:56:21.540 So, I mean, if you, if you're in the U S you can go on our, on our list and find good properties

00:56:28.160 all over.

00:56:29.020 There's some States we just don't list properties in that are just not good for homesteading.

00:56:33.100 Like Nevada and Utah are terrible.

00:56:36.780 Um, generally speaking, Arizona, isn't that great.

00:56:39.940 Generally speaking, the dry, arid climates like Wyoming, isn't that great.

00:56:44.960 Colorado for a lot of it, isn't that great.

00:56:48.040 Um, new Mexico is not great.

00:56:50.280 We feature a lot of properties in the Eastern seaboard primarily because that's where the

00:56:55.220 inventory is.

00:56:56.040 And that's where the people are.

00:56:57.140 I mean, 80% of the U S live East of Mississippi.

00:56:59.100 Um, but there are other places that, you know, are sort of underappreciated gems like Northern

00:57:06.320 California, you know, politics aside of California, you can find properties in the, the, in the

00:57:14.340 old marijuana, um, places like Mendoncino County and Humboldt County.

00:57:19.740 And you can find unreal homesteads that even just five years ago were double or triple the

00:57:25.880 value they are now because there's been a mass exodus in California.

00:57:29.100 Yeah, that's true.

00:57:29.800 And so it is the same thing for me too.

00:57:31.560 They got people say, why do you live in BC?

00:57:34.400 It's so left-wing and I'm just sitting here and going, man, I live on the end of a dirt

00:57:38.160 road.

00:57:39.020 Like I don't, I don't see the politics.

00:57:41.520 There aren't any bureaucrats walking around here. 1.00

00:57:44.440 Um, this is the advantage to being in sort of mountainous climates.

00:57:48.040 Just so I say, forget the politics, just look at the geography, look at the resources,

00:57:53.320 look at the water.

00:57:54.240 There's so many more important things that outweigh the politics of the day, uh, and politics

00:58:00.060 change, uh, whether for better or worse, doesn't really matter.

00:58:03.660 If you understand the system, you know how to navigate it.

00:58:07.380 I mean, we can be free wherever we are.

00:58:09.820 It's just, you know, information and understanding of how the system works and how you fit into

00:58:15.400 it is very important.

00:58:16.160 I mean, another, another big gem in the United States is Northeastern, uh, Washington.

00:58:21.360 Everybody wants to move to Idaho because that's the trendy place to go, but good luck finding

00:58:26.100 a property there at a reasonable price.

00:58:27.720 At this point.

00:58:28.180 Yeah, exactly.

00:58:29.340 You can go just across the border, like sometimes 10, 20 miles as the crow flies and you can find

00:58:36.140 a property for twice the size of what you would get in Idaho.

00:58:39.460 So that's the same type of property for half the price.

00:58:44.060 And so I, I, I say to people, don't get too hung up on the politics of these places because

00:58:51.720 in rural areas, generally speaking, it's a lot more conservative culturally, and it's

00:58:57.000 a lot more free.

00:58:58.440 So pay attention to those things because you'll find that in Washington state for sure.

00:59:03.100 Everybody on the, on the, on the West coast is very left wing.

00:59:06.660 It's all woke, but you go out to the Eastern side of the country and it's good old farm

00:59:12.000 boys, churches everywhere.

00:59:14.140 It's just as conservative as can be very white. 0.68

00:59:18.180 Um, you can find nice community out there.

00:59:20.700 You can find nice properties.

00:59:22.460 And so, yeah, yeah, that, there you go.

00:59:25.200 Yeah.

00:59:25.380 The Palouse I learned about this recently.

00:59:27.160 Apparently it's a very, again, I don't know how much is available there specifically, but it

00:59:30.660 is like, there's one of the most, it looks incredible, uh, even the farmland there, but

00:59:35.100 even just like the, the, what they're able to grow there, the richness of the soil and

00:59:39.060 stuff like that too.

00:59:39.640 But yeah, Eastern Washington, um, they are part of that though.

00:59:42.360 They do want to join the greater Idaho project.

00:59:44.800 So maybe politically, look, most of the people there are actually very conservative.

00:59:49.940 They don't like what's going on in Seattle.

00:59:51.780 Like this is, this is, yeah, well, this is close to where I am.

00:59:54.260 I'm just across the border.

00:59:55.300 Yeah.

00:59:55.700 And, um, yeah, it's the same thing out here.

00:59:57.860 It's very conservative.

00:59:59.020 Yeah.

00:59:59.180 But you know, I think, I don't know if I said this in the last show we did, but, um,

01:00:03.560 there's a direct correlation that I've identified between concrete and tyranny.

01:00:09.080 So generally speaking, the closer you are to masses amounts of concrete, which is infrastructure,

01:00:15.040 money, copper wire, bureaucrats, you're going to be closer to government.

01:00:21.680 Whereas when you get out in the country, dirt roads, wide open spaces, there's just less

01:00:26.280 government.

01:00:26.680 And so there's less regulation.

01:00:28.980 There's less people that care about what you do on your property.

01:00:32.360 And I would say that that's actually far more important than the electoral politics of the

01:00:37.460 day.

01:00:38.020 I would be paying more attention to that.

01:00:40.420 Yeah.

01:00:41.220 Interesting.

01:00:42.440 Uh, all right, Curtis, uh, was again here then guys check out freedom farms, uh, farmers,

01:00:47.500 sorry, freedomfarmers.com obviously.

01:00:49.040 And that's where the homestead accelerator is as well, right there on the page.

01:00:52.620 Uh, then you have your, uh, your ex, your YouTube channel, uh, something specific you

01:00:57.120 want to plug about those.

01:00:57.880 Um, yeah, I mean, I'm just kind of getting back into the rhythm of, of making videos.

01:01:05.520 I have a whole series that I spent many months on that I stopped, uh, a number of months ago

01:01:12.100 that I will be bringing back where I review every single state and province in Canada and

01:01:16.420 the U S, um, for homesteading.

01:01:19.140 So we will be getting back to that on YouTube.

01:01:21.480 So there is more content coming there.

01:01:23.760 Um, my days of daily vlogging are done.

01:01:26.800 It's just, it's just not me anymore.

01:01:28.540 I just, I'd rather discuss big issues and ideas with people than, Hey guys, here's what

01:01:34.220 I'm doing on the farm today.

01:01:35.140 I just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm too old for that stuff.

01:01:37.760 I guess now it's not, you gotta, you gotta do a variation too.

01:01:40.820 You get, if it gets too, uh, I get sick of it.

01:01:43.620 You know, I get sick of doing it.

01:01:44.500 I made videos on YouTube for 10 years, you know?

01:01:47.000 So, um, but, but really X, you know, I'm on X.

01:01:50.740 That's where I like to share a lot of my ideas.

01:01:52.800 Um, I just joined, um, Instagram again.

01:01:56.340 I'm barely on there, but if you search, what am I?

01:01:59.440 Let's go reels.

01:02:00.440 I think I'm at off grid reels with current stone coming up on Instagram.

01:02:03.560 I'm on Instagram there.

01:02:06.040 What was the handle again?

01:02:09.420 You sat on Instagram.

01:02:10.500 Sorry.

01:02:10.860 Yeah.

01:02:11.460 Cutting you off there.

01:02:14.500 On Instagram, it's at off grid Curtis stone.

01:02:17.700 Okay.

01:02:17.860 It's the same as on X.

01:02:18.760 Okay.

01:02:19.080 Perfect.

01:02:19.640 So you can follow me there.

01:02:21.140 And again, yeah, I'm not a massive content creator like I used to be, but I'm on there.

01:02:26.800 Very, very good.

01:02:28.100 Uh, okay.

01:02:29.040 Cool stuff.

01:02:30.080 So we got a little bit of latency between us here.

01:02:34.420 Sorry.

01:02:34.840 If you can, if you can hear me, okay.

01:02:36.400 Finish up there.

01:02:37.140 I won't cut you off this time.

01:02:40.440 That's okay.

01:02:43.640 Well, I just said, I just, on Instagram, it's at, it's at off grid Curtis stone on X.

01:02:49.300 It's at off grid stone.

01:02:50.840 There you go.

01:02:51.440 Okay.

01:02:51.800 We got it.

01:02:52.320 Perfect.

01:02:53.120 Uh, all right, guys, uh, stay with us here.

01:02:55.140 Curtis, stay with us.

01:02:55.840 We can take a short break here between the segments.

01:02:57.900 And of course, if you do want to, uh, join us for part two, you can do that over at reddicemembers.com.

01:03:02.080 Locals subscribe start that works fine right now.

01:03:04.740 Odyssey is currently demonetized.

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01:03:10.980 So if you, uh, if you guys want to join us there, that's a great way, uh, to support us as well.

01:03:15.820 Keep in mind, we don't, uh, interrupt our broadcasts with a bunch of sponsorships and ads and shit like this.

01:03:20.440 We only have a Lana's llama, which is red ice merch, by the way.

01:03:22.820 That's the only really, uh, other thing we plug at the end of the show.

01:03:26.220 Uh, so you can always pick something up there if you want to, but otherwise the best way is to get a membership,

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01:04:00.140 We appreciate you guys.

01:04:01.360 Uh, also, before we take the break here, I do want to say thanks to our executive producers as well.

01:04:06.440 That's a great way to support us.

01:04:07.800 I want to give a shout out as we do, uh, at the end of the show.

01:04:11.240 Where are my executive producers at?

01:04:12.620 They're, they're here somewhere.

01:04:14.280 We'll find you guys.

01:04:15.060 There you are.

01:04:15.440 All right, let's take care of you guys.

01:04:17.440 We appreciate all of you.

01:04:18.920 We got Arctic Wolf.

01:04:20.160 That's Albert.

01:04:20.940 Thank you so much, Albert.

01:04:22.080 We also have William Fox from America First Books.

01:04:25.960 Thank you so much for your support.

01:04:27.840 Angry White Sockermom, one of our executive producers, together with Purple Haze.

01:04:33.760 Thank you so much for your support as well.

01:04:36.000 We have Glenn.

01:04:37.300 If you want that update, Glenn, just let us know.

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01:04:41.760 Check out his odyssey down below right there.

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Red Ice TV - May 19, 2025

Homesteading, Subsistence Farming & How To Live Off The Land - Curtis Stone

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