Small Scale Life Podcast

In this episode, I am on the road and talking about building community. Humans are social creatures. We are not meant to live in this world alone. Sometimes we do need to “have a little help from our friends.” My questions to you are: Do you have some friends that have your back? Have you spent some time building community around you? Unfortunately in modern Western Civilization, the answer is probably no. I have to admit: I need to work on this as well. We are going to make some changes to Small Scale Life to help you build community around you, where ever you are. For more on that, please head over to Small Scale Life to read the post that has more thoughts, information and links.

Canning is a method of saving that nutritious food for later seasons. You fill your own jars and know what exactly you are eating. That is so critical these days where we seem to have a food advisory, recall notice or flat out parasite infestation (hello McDonald's, Trader Joe’s, Krogers and Walgreens) almost daily. By growing and preserving your own food, you will have the satisfaction of knowing just what hands have handled your food and what is in your jars. To learn more about canning, go to [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com) for more.

Today’s podcast, post and YouTube videos are particularly timely. In the Small Scale Life Facebook Group, our friend and new gardener Alex has a great question: “My tomatoes are so out of control and are completely shading my peppers. I have at least 10 peppers that have stopped growing and those are my favorite. Can I cut back the tomatoes? Can I attempt transplanting the peppers? At this rate the peppers are not going to grow so these are my only two options besides just pulling them.” – Alex from Illinois. There is no need to pull the peppers! I think we can figure out a way to aggressively prune tomatoes and get more sunlight to those peppers. Be advised: by aggressively pruning, you will get more tomatoes from your plants! I think you can handle it though. For more information about How to Prune Tomatoes, head over to Small Scale Life ([smallscalelife.com](www.smallscalelife.com)) for the post, videos, pictures and more!

It has been a while since I have been on the Small Scale Life Podcast. I have been a busy boy doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, traveling around the country taking care of business. I look forward to staying home and getting some of my own projects done. I want to have a level of success getting those projects done too! One thing that I have been finding is that a lot of us (myself included) can get bogged down and struggle to get things done. It can just be overwhelming at times with a long to do list. I don’t know about you, but when my list gets too long, none of it gets done. I punt on the whole list and just shut down, and then nothing gets done. This creates conflict with others including your boss, your partner, your spouse and all the other people who depend on you? How do you get through that shut down mindset, get things done and achieve some level of success? To read more, please go to the article on [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com) titled Midweek Motivation Lesson – 3P’s of Success

We have hit Mid-July, and we are well beyond that old farm saying “knee high by the 4th of July” for corn. We are on the back half of Stage 2 of the 2018 Garden Season, and it is time for another Garden Update. There is a lot happening in the garden, and I can really see a difference in my plants due to soil treatments and plants I grew in 2017. There is a lot to see in this Mid-July Garden Update including a discussion about the main garden, new fence, vertical garden, the patio herb garden, and perennial plants. Keep in mind that August is just around the corner, and it is going to get very busy as we start preserving our harvest! For more on this podcast and lots of pictures and videos of the garden, head over the [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com) and see more!

I find myself traveling more and more these days for work and for life. As I travel, I see things that capture my eye and interest as I roll over the back roads and explore towns of all shapes and sizes. In an effort to capture some of my thoughts, observations and adventures on the road, I am going to start recording and posting "On the Road" podcasts. This podcast is focused on my observations and thoughts as I explored in the areas around Tomah, Wisconsin. Recently, I went to Tomah, Wisconsin, and spent a few days in the area. I had the opportunity to explore a number of towns in Monroe County. I had such a great trip to that part of Wisconsin that just recharged my batteries and took me back to my roots. Driving home, I had time to reflect about the trip, our house in Minneapolis and the future. For pictures and thougths about my trip to Tomah, please go to the article at Small Scale Life!

Last week during the garden update, I discussed my new vertical garden planters made from two vinyl gutters. After I posted the article and podcast, I realized that it had been a while since I discussed this topic, and I have never discussed how to build vertical gardens on fences before. In this post and episode, I will discuss the following topics: What is a vertical garden? Benefits and challenges of a vertical garden planters Materials needed to build a vertical garden planters Step-by-step guide for building vertical garden planters What is a Vertical Garden? Vertical gardens are growing techniques that take advantage of unused vertical space to grow vegetables, herbs or flowers. There are several types of vertical gardening techniques that can be used effectively in any garden: Trellises - Making use of trellises for certain plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, sugar snap peas, grapes, squashes and gourds, etc. Hanging Planters – Using elevated planters that put plants in the air and specifically grow in used vertical space. I have used both techniques effectively over the years. I am a huge fan of trellis gardening, and I use trellises exclusively for a number of plants in my garden. I will have another article that discusses my trellis and technique. Hanging planters are another way to let plants grow in the air and maximize unused space. I discussed vertical gardens before in the following articles and podcasts here on [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com): Vertical Garden 101: Introduction to Vertical Gardening Vertical Garden 102: How to Build a Vertical Garden Vertical Gardening with the Plant Charmer Part 1 Vertical Gardening with the Plant Charmer Part 2_ There has been a lot of change since those articles and podcasts! The Plant Charmer has expanded his farming operation using vertical gardening techniques exclusively, and I have relocated from St. Louis Park to the current homestead in Minneapolis. For more about How to Build Vertical Garden Planters on Fences including a step-by-step guide and material list for building a vertical garden, check out Small Scale Life!

We are rapidly rolling through June, and by now your plants should be really starting to grow. In this episode, it is time for another Garden Update, and while our gardens might be growing, our plants are under siege from common garden pests of all shapes and sizes. I am dealing with some common garden pests here in my small raised beds, and I wanted to give you a head’s up about some common, and one unusual, pest before too many of you lose productive plants. In addition, I expanded my garden space by adding two vinyl gutters two weeks ago! I have discussed these kind of gardens before in the Vertical Garden 101: Introduction to Vertical Gardening and Vertical Garden 102: How to Build a Vertical Garden posts. I provide some thoughts about these type of gardens in this podcast in this environment. Introduction: Common Garden Pests How are your plants doing so far this season? We are moving into a point of no return for the 2018 season. What do I mean? With us getting into late June, there is a point where plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash or zucchini cannot be replaced and still generate a decent harvest this season. The bottom line is that if you lose a plant any later in the season, it will be difficult to replace it. This is why pests are so difficult when they show up in the garden. I am sure pests have their place in the world; however, they do not have a place in my gardens where I have been working hard to create healthy and happy plants and produce to feed my family. Without much ado, I am going to discuss how the garden is doing and some of the common garden pests I am dealing with this season. Some of these pests have been more destructive than others, but regardless, you have to check your garden daily and make sure that you address and dispatch each pest quickly. For more information, please see the article on Small Scale Life.

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is on the road in Central Wisconsin and up to his neck in cranberry bogs. In this episode, Tommy discusses his busy life on the road and how he is trying to adjust to it. For more information about this episode, please read more on [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com).

June is moving right along, and I hope you are doing well! A while back, I had a great conversation about Homesteading in Ohio with Daniel Bokros. Daniel is one of the Ohio Get Stuff Done Crew, and he has his own homestead called the Red Dog Ranch. In this podcast, we discuss his journey from the Marine Corps to the homestead in the Ohio countryside including real community, land, Joel Salatin, building soil, bees, pressure canning, chicken pigs and cows. That is a lot to pack into an hour! Check out more and get more detail on [Small Scale Life](www.smallscalelife.com)e!

In this episode of [Small Scale Life](smallscalelife.com), Michael Bell and Scott Hebert return to discuss urban farming advice and best practices. Topics discussed during this podcast includes their farms, their markets, typical yields, watering crops, harvesting product, successfully marketing products and potentially expanding their operations. For those of you don’t know who these gentlemen are, Scott Hebert owns and operates Flavourful Farm in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Michael Bell owns and operates Half Acre Farm in Dallas, Texas. Both have uniquely different operations, but they are facing some of the same issues. Both have been great guests on Small Scale Life, and I am thrilled to have them back on the show. If you are currently an urban farmer or are considering starting a small business, you might want to grab a drink, a pad of paper and a writing utensil. There is a lot of good information and advice in this podcast. Michael and Scott have tried a lot of things and found out what does and does not work on their farms and in their markets. As part of the discussion, Michael Bell, Scott Hebert and I provided some thoughts about a new type of urban farming and marketing recently discussed on Larry Hall's YouTube Channel. Each of us had some comments (pros and cons) about this kind of small business, and there are some logistical and price point questions that will need to be explored. As Michael Bell puts it, "It hasn't been done like this before, so why not give it a try?" You can view the video and get all the show notes on [Small Scale Life](smallscalelife.com)

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is back and broadcasting outside a lounge somewhere in the Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this episode, Tommy discusses feeling overwhelmed and how to eat an elephant. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Introduction – Feeling Overwhelmed As many of you know, I have been on the road a lot recently. When you are gone from your home and family, things start to pile up. Sure, you might be meeting excellent people and doing great things on the road, but life feels out of control. Things break, the lawn grows, and business needs attention. These things start to weigh on your mind and bog you down. Returning home, you suddenly have a lot to do before you reload and head out again. As that to do list grows and the tasks get more complex, so does that feeling of panic and dread. You can easily feel overwhelmed by the demands of family, work and life. That feeling can wash over you, and if you are not careful, you will get nothing done because you feel paralyzed by the amount of work on your plate. That is how I am feeling as we roll into this weekend. How are you doing? To read more about how to Remedy Feeling Overwhelmed, head on over to read the rest of the story on Small Scale Life!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is on the road and is broadcasting from somewhere near the Front Range in Colorado. In this episode, Tommy is going to discuss how you should always stop distractions and focus on the people and places around you. Consider this a little public service/community service on Tommy Cakes' part, if you know what I mean! In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Story Time If you look at modern Western Civilization today, and we have never been more distracted in our lives. Don’t believe me? Look around you: there are people who are tuning out of reality around them and completely tuning into the computer in their hands. A great example of our distracted lives plays out every day on our nation’s roadways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,450 people died in 2016 due to distracted driving. 391,000 were injured in motor vehicles crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015. Many of those injuries and deaths are from talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, or fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system. On a given day during daylight hours, the NHTSA states that more than 481,000 people are using their cell phones while driving. You have seen these people, haven’t you? They weave and bob in their lanes, correcting radically when they realize they are drifting into other lanes. The sad reality is: at 55 mph, texting on your cell phone for 5 seconds is like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. That is alarming! Midweek Motivation Lesson - Stop Distractions: Focus! Compared to our parents and grandparents, we live our lives at an incredibly hectic pace. We are constantly on the go between work, school, activities, and kids’ activities (especially 24/7/365 sports). Western Civilization has embraced and promoted multitasking and “on-the-go” hectic lifestyles in this modern age. We push the limits to find one extra minute to send a text or make a phone call. How often are you eating a meal in the car “on-the-go” to another event or obligation? What are we really accomplishing and are we really happy with this lifestyle? There is no reason we need to live like this. We can take some time, feel the sunshine, walk in the hills and mountains and breathe some fresh air. Stop distractions by slowing down and focusing on the people and things in your surroundings. Make the time by taking the time. You cannot change Western Civilization, but you can change how you act and behave in it! Source Sources for today’s Midweek Motivation include: Statistics and cover photo courtesy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing! Dat's how we do it!

This past month has been ridiculously busy, but Julie and I took some time last week to work in the garden. This podcast is all about starting my 2018 vegetable gardening season, and if you think that everything is rainbows and unicorns, you are wrong. I had immediate trouble including rotting raised beds, dead plants and rabbits. Can anyone relate to this? Even when there are troubles and challenges, there is no place I would rather be. Digging in the dirt and planting new seedlings is therapeutic and relaxing, and these small setbacks are easily overcome. A rabbit eating a zucchini and some peppers are easily replaced with new seedlings or geraniums, and fences and raised beds can and will be replaced. To read more, please see smallscalelife.com.

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about taking a break by turning off social media and getting away from the noise. Gary Vee recently said that the cell phone is the remote control of today’s society, and your activity on Social Media is nothing more than the reality shows of our current year. Why not turn off social media, put the cell phone away and enjoy people and nature instead? Please go to Small Scale Life for links, more information and the text of the podcast,

Welcome to Spring 2018, everyone! I hope your plants are growing and things are greening up in your neck of the woods. It is almost time to get into the garden! Before we start talking about that, I want to revisit Earth Day 2018, which occurred on April 22, 2018. That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? During the week leading up to Earth Day, students hear a lot about recycling and green technology and love for the planet. A few years ago, I started going to schools to teach students about plants and gardening during Earth Day Week and Arbor Day Week. I wanted students to see gardening in a different light and get excited about growing their own plants! This podcast is quite a bit different than other podcasts because you get to be part of the crowd of kindergarten students as I teach them about gardening! As part of Earth Day Week, I wanted to make a real impact on students' lives. A few years ago, I decided the best thing to do is to teach gardening and let students get their hands dirty and grow some plants. This year, I went to a local elementary school and presented about the three basic elements needed for gardening: light, water and soil. For those of you who want to make a difference in a student’s life while helping the planet, my Earth Day Tip: Teach Gardening. To find out more or get a copy of the presentation, please visit Small Scale Life.

Are you stressed out about money? On a given Sunday night, do you dread going into the work the next day? If you are, you are not alone. A recent study created by mobile-banking company Varo Money reported that out of 1000 Americans polled, “a whopping 85 percent say they "sometimes" feel stressed about money, and a full 30 percent say they're "constantly" stressed about their finances.” That is really amazing! What can you do about this? How about generating some additional income through a lifestyle business online? It is May Day, and in a celebration of capitalism, I am thrilled to have Kevin Geary as my guest today for a second time on Small Scale Life. This time, Kevin Geary and I discuss how to start a lifestyle business that allows you to put some of that stress at ease by earning extra income while charting your own destiny from almost anywhere on this planet. Kevin has started various online businesses over the years, and he has learned some critical techniques to target your niche audience and ultimately sell more of your products and/or services. For more information, links and the show notes, please see Small Scale Life Kevin Geary can be found at Six Figure Grind and Rebooted Body If you would like to join the Make It Stick Master Class and support Small Scale Life, please use the following link: https://academy.rebootedbody.com/makeitstick/?affiliate=smallscalelife

This morning I received a message on Instagram from Scott Hebert asking me when Michael Bell from Half Acre Farm was going to be back on the podcast. It has been a while since the first BellCast (Season 3 Episode 5) in January, and a lot has happened! Fortunately for all of us, Micheal Bell returns to the Small Scale Life Podcast to discuss progress at his urban farm in Dallas, Texas. Michael and I discuss a number of topics including the great weather in Texas right now (and the crappy weather in Minnesota), what he has planted and some of his profitable urban farming strategies. Michael is using some really interesting and simple marketing techniques to develop business opportunities and increase his urban farming operation. As you will hear, he is employing techniques with great success! Michael feels that there are a lot of growth opportunities for profitable urban farming in the future, and he provides some positive encouragement to those who might be considering an urban farm as a side business. Topics Discussed on the BellCast: Profitable Urban Farming Micheal Bell and I discussed the following topics in this podcast: Welcome Back to the Show Texas weather Minnesota weather What’s Growing on the Farm? Tomato varieties Peppers Squash and zucchini Greens Onions Radish Beets Tomato Tips Septoria Leaf Spot Pruning Tomatoes Watering - low and slow Marketing and Customers for Profitable Urban Farming Instagram Strategy Telling the story How to sell a superior product Vegan Body Builder - YouTube Video Try to get restaurants for the Summer Start Profitable Urban Farming: 100 families = $100,000 Community Building Other farms are starting in the area, but there is a big market Rose Creek Farm Singing Frogs Farm Scott Hebert at Flavourful Farms Opportunities to collaborate and work together Diego Footer's Farm Small; Farm Smart Podcast Connect with Michael Bell on Instagram Putting It All Together As Michael stated, you can start profitable urban farming using simple techniques: connecting with people who are looking for great tasting, fresh produce in your area using Instagram. By starting small, you can focus on your client’s needs and share you story as you sell your produce. As Curtis Stone has said on many occasions, your customers want to share your story with others, and once you sell your produce, customers will share their experience with others. Michael experienced that very thing with the ladies who spent time at the farm and essentially sold his product to the whole office! You can do this, and there are people out there that can help! We will continue to explore these topics with Michael in future BellCasts!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. Here is a question for you to ponder: would you be ready to drop everything and go if opportunity knocks? If you are, you might have an opportunity of a lifetime. This episode is all about the lessons learned from a local accountant turned Superman for the Chicago Blackhawks. Those lessons are the following: Learn as much as you can. Get busy working on your passions. Grow your skills. Connect with others. Always be ready to jump on opportunities. When you get your shot, perform like you mean it and have some fun to get it done! In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Sorry for last week; I was called out on business and had to get some things done. The good thing is: we have a great story this week that should inspire you and push you forward. Before we begin, here is a question for you to ponder: Would you be ready to drop everything and go if opportunity knocks? Story Time – Be Ready Player One Somewhere in Middle America, an ordinary guy found himself under the lights of a big game in front of thousands of fans and the press. The pressure was on: the game seemed to be in hand since the home team was ahead by four points. However, the backup to the starting player had just developed cramps and had the leave the game. It was up to our hero to finish the game and help his time to a win. The hero of this story is an accountant by day; he is not a professional player at all. In fact, years ago he played college hockey, and now he plays as goalie in a recreation league at night. Like some other local backup goalies, our hero usually sat near the press box, eating free food and waiting “on-call” as an emergency backup in case the professionals couldn’t finish a game. It was unlikely that the accountant would be called in to play. It was an easy gig: eat food, watch the game, root for his home team. What’s not to love? As he was a block away from the arena, our hero was alerted that he might have to be ready to play. If something happened, it was up to our everyday accounting hero to come off the bench, put on his helmet and finish the game. On this night, however, the starts, sun and moon aligned. The starting goalie was out with an injury, and the backup left the game with cramps. The head coach leaned over and told accountant Scott Foster, “Put your helmet on; you’re in.” The accountant Scott Foster played fourteen and a half minutes as a Blackhawk goalie against the Jets. He blocked shots, and he won the love of Blackhawks fans. At the end of the game, he helped secure the victory, was celebrated by fan and player alike, and entered his name into the storied Chicago Blackhawk history and lore. Midweek Motivation Lesson: Be Ready Player One Life takes unforeseen twists and turns sometimes. If you aren’t ready, you can miss opportunities when they present yourself. Always remember: Learn as much as you can. Get busy working on your passions. Grow your skills. Connect with others. Always be ready to jump on opportunities. When you get your shot, perform like you mean it and have some fun to get it done! After all, you never know when someone will turn to you and say, “Ready Player One? Put on your helmet; you’re in!” Always be ready! That’s all I got this week. This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Bada boom, bada bing! Sources The source of this story was theathletic.com and the source of the cover art Dennis Wierzbiki and USA Today Sports. Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing! Dat's how we do it!

In Season 3, Episode 14, we had a very special guest for our 80th episode: my wife Julie. We had a great discussion about the 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life, and you, the listeners, responded! We had 1000 downloads of this podcast, and we had a lot of engagement from the audience. Julie wanted to come back to build on that podcast, and in this episode, we are coming back to discuss one of the 5 steps in more detail. We are going to discuss how to declutter to make a simple and intentional life. Topics Discussed on this Episode Julie and I discussed the following topics on this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast. Julie is back on the show! 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life Hey Mom and Dad, we don’t want your stuff Four generations are practicing Minimalism in the current year: Greatest Generation, Boomers, GenX and Millennials “Right-Sizing,” Trendies and Millennial Nomads Dave Ramsey and the 2008 Collapse “Working very hard to earn money to pay for houses we can’t afford and impress people we don’t like” Expectations, time preference and delayed satisfaction Learning from the Crash of 2008 Julie’s Work to Declutter the Basement Declutter the basement over the weekend Clear it out and start fresh before you begin more projects 5 Steps to Declutter Determine your timeline and formulate your strategy Create 4 bins to sort items as you purge For items in the “Give” bin, take them immediately to your car For items in the “Keep” bin, ask yourself two questions Does it serve a purpose? Does it bring you joy? For items in your “Undecided” bin, keep 1 month and revisit the bin. Make sure you keep the bin visible for the entire time. IF you haven’t used or thought of the items in the bin, get rid of it! Once Decluttering is Complete.... Restock the shelves and drawers in an organized manner. Julie’s tip; “USE LABELS!” Question from the Audience "What was the biggest benefit you saw from the Minimalist Lifestyle Change?" - Jay Dolan Members of the Small Scale Life Facebook Group had a number of great questions, but they came in after the show was recorded. We will record a new show where we answer these questions, so if you have questions, please add them to the thread in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group or add them as a comment to this show on smallscalelife.com. Friends of Small Scale Life Aussie Flame Weeders – My friend Mick at Aussie Flame Weeders is offering flame weeders to reduce your non-revenue producing workload. If you want to eliminate weeds from your garden beds, a flame weeder is an efficient way to do it. I mean, who doesn’t want to burn pesky weeds with fire? Mick’s flame weeders are perfect for 30 inch (80 cm) garden beds and feature five stainless steel burners, 16” wheels and an ergonomic design that carries a propane tank so you don’t have to. Even if you don’t purchase a flame weeder, sign up on the Aussie Flame Weeder e-mail list to get access to videos and information. Gnarled Knot Design - From the Land of Illinois, our good friends Phil and Jen love to create furniture and home décor items to make your house feel like a cozy home. Since they were running out of space in their own home, they decided to share our items with others. So, if you are looking for customized and personalized furniture, signs or other items, connect with Phil and Jen at Gnarled Knot Design on Facebook, Instragram or Etsy. Connect with Phil and Jen today!

Houston, we have a problem! We have spindly, weak leggy seedlings that are barely strong enough to hold themselves up! This will result in fragile plants that are susceptible to disease. Luckily, Houston Control has a simple solution. The cure for leggy seedlings is direct, long and low light, and the best way to achieve those conditions are introducing grow lights for indoor plants. This week I have been fielding some questions in various Facebook Groups about Starting Seeds Indoors, and some folks are having some trouble with leggy seedlings and wondering how to fix the problem. In this post, video and podcast, I will discuss how I set up grow lights for indoor plants and starting seeds indoors. The stand that supports my grow lights is simple, very stable and costs under $15. What are Leggy Seedlings? The picture above was from a failed experiment that I conducted in 2016. I germinated this group of tomato seedlings by putting a black tray on top of the tray with the soil, and after four days added light. While I had good initial germination, you can see how "leggy" these seedlings were on Day 4. Is is a problem because long, spindly ("leggy") seedlings are more fragile than their stocky counterparts. The do not hold up in windy conditions, and if you let them grow too tall, they will flop over under the weight of their own leaves. Leggy seedlings are created by a lack of light. The plants accelerate growth in order to reach the light, any light, in their growing area. This can occur when a gardener plants seedlings and sets the container near a window or if the container is too crowded, and the seedlings are competing for light. This is a common problem for gardeners who are trying to start seeds indoors. You can correct this problem by adding an oscillating fan (tricking the plant by simulating wind) or adding grow lights for indoors plants. Grow Lights for Indoor Plants I recommend gardeners use grow lights for indoor plants unless you have a greenhouse that gets fantastic sun for 14-16 hours a day (which is one of my goals)! As I mentioned in other articles, I use inexpensive grow lights from Menards. In Menards-speak, they call these T12's "aquarium lights," but technically they are Sylvania 40-watt T12 Gro-Lux Fluorescent Light Bulbs, and you can find them in the Electrical Department. The lights cost around $10 per bulb, and I put them in inexpensive shop lights (the lowest cost ones I can find). All in all, two bulbs and one shop light will cost you around $30, and that will be more than enough for two plug trays (or 188 plants if you use the plug trays I am using this year). Grow Light Stand In the past I used the brackets of the shelving units to hang the grow lights for indoor plants. Moving to the wider workbench eliminated that possibility. While I have used PVC pipes and fittings to build grow light stands in the past, I found that unless you cemented them together, they fell apart. It is not ideal when your grow lights crash down on your tender seedlings! I decided to use lessons learned from gardening in St. Louis Park when I hung the grow lights from the shelves. I fabricated brackets that plugged into the pre-drilled holes in the shelving units, and then used PVC pipes with eye hooks to hang the lights over the seedlings with chains. That simple system allowed me to adjust the height of the lights as the plants grew taller. I knew I had some wood in the garage, so I went foraging. I found the 1" PVC pipes with the eye hook holes from St. Louis Park (yay for not throwing these away)! That was a win. I also found a 4' long 2x4 and a 2' long 1x3. I decided to make the base out of these boards. Using these pieces of wood, I made the following parts using a skill saw and my trusty drill: 2 - 12" base boards made out of 1x3's 2 - 18" vertical boards made out of 2x4's 2 - 14" horizontal boards made out of 2x4's Using screws I had on had, I put the two "sideways goalposts" together. I added a "L" bracket to the 12" base to give the stand more stability. As you can see in the video, the grow light stand is very stable. I added the two PVC pipes to the stand by using metal strapping typically used in plumbing projects. I cut 4 6" pieces and screwed them to the top of the stand. Sliding the PVC pipes in, the whole stand got that much more stable. The beauty of this system is that it is easy to construct, is inexpensive and can easily be moved if we have a project that requires using the workbench. Putting It All Together - Grow Lights for Indoor Plants The final stand - March 2018Gardeners get excited to start planting seeds in the Spring, especially after a long winter. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and plant the seeds before we are ready. This can result in seeds popping through the soil and growing before we have adequate light for them. The result are leggy seedlings that could collaps

Welcome to Spring 2018! Believe it or not considering it was snowing on the first day of Spring. It is only a matter of time before we can get into the yard and get into the garden. Before you can do that, you need to plant seeds and grow some seedlings! In this post and episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss setting up an indoor gardening area and starting seeds indoors for spring gardens. Have you planted seeds yet? I did on St. Patrick’s Day, and I have some great news to share with you about that! Introduction – How to Start Seeds Indoors for Spring Gardens If you have been following along over the past few weeks, we have been going through the general process for preparing for the 2018 Gardening Season. We have done the following steps so far: Developed a garden plan – Developed a list of plants we want to grow) Ordered your seeds – Selected a reputable seed vendor and purchased seeds for our garden. While there are many seed vendors out there, I focused on four big vendors that members of the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Group use most often. Finally! It is the moment of truth! It is time to stop thinking and start doing! I grabbed my seeds and some soil and got ready to get down to business…. Not so fast! Before I could start planting seeds, I had to some additional planning and prep work. Setting up the Indoor Growing Area Part of my planning and preparation work was to select an area in the house to grow seedlings. In our previous house in St. Louis Park, I grew seedlings on two shelves in a cold and dark basement. I discussed how I started seeds and some lessons learned after have some failures over the past few years in the following articles (on smallscalelife.com): How to Garden Indoores 8 Steps to Starting Plants Indoors Lessons Learned from Growing Indoors Four Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds For the 2018 Gardening Season, I had to find a new space to plant seeds and grow seedlings. While I knew I would be regulated to the basement, it was a much different situation in this house in Minneapolis. The basement is not as warm as the upper level, but it isn’t as brutally cold and dark as the St. Louis Park house. I attribute that to the fact that half of the basement is insulated and finished, and that does help retain the heat! Having more heat retained in the basement should help with germination, and I am hoping that having a warmer basement reduces the potential for damping off disease! I had to select my indoor growing area, and it really came down to three choices: the built-in near the television, the bar area or the workbench near the furnace. I would not be able to use a shelf in this house simply because we have gear and things on all of our shelves. We just do not have the extra shelf space! The biggest concern I had as I was evaluating each location was the availability of power (for grow lights, heating pads and a timer) and the impact on other basement users (like my son and wife Julie). Each spot had power, so really it came down to finding a spot that would be out of the way and not bother anyone. The best spot was the workbench near the furnace. While losing the workbench for potential projects is not ideal, it is important to remember that I would only need part of the workbench until mid-May. What could possibly go wrong? Besides, if we needed to use the workbench, everything can be moved quickly. Of course, that might mean that the trays go on top of the freezer, but I would only use it temporarily (I promise, Jules). The workbench is 27 inches wide, and that easily beats the narrow 18-1/2 inches on the St. Louis Park shelves. In case you are wondering: yes, in this case, size does matter! The extra width easily accommodates both seed trays in a side-by-side configuration on the workbench. On the shelves, I had to use scrap pieces of plywood to get over the lip of the shelf to get the trays to sit side-by-side. This is much, much better! Equipment Needed Part of getting your equipment might include buying soil and seeds - March 2018 With seeds in my hand and a growing area selected, it was time to get my “equipment” out of storage in order to start seeds indoors. My equipment consistec of the following: Seed trays 9x9 plug flats (or cells, as I like to call them) 5 gallon bucket or kitty litter bin (to hold the soil) Pro-Mix soil Heating pads Grow lights Timer Surge Protector Jumbo popsicle sticks or other labels for your seeds Most of these materials had been in storage for the winter. I had to rummage around the garage to find what I needed, and then I realized that I had thrown away my 9x9 plug flats last season! I had used these plug flats for a three seasons, and they were showing some age, wear and literal tears. I wanted to get new plug flats, so I got rid of them. I went to the big box store and found that they did not have the 9x9 plug flats anymore. I decided to pick up two McKenzie Pro-Hex Plug Flats

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week however, I will be completing the Midweek Motivation due to the seriousness of the topic and story. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, I am your normal host of the Small Scale Life Podcast: Tom Domres. I am doing this episode by request from Daniel from Ohio. He is a Marine with time in Afghanistan under his belt. Thank you for your service, Daniel. He asked me to read this story for Midweek Motivation, and after reading the article, I wanted to move forward with it. In this day and age, we see a lot of people who are elevated to “hero status” for strange reasons and to fulfill agendas and narratives. What does real sacrifice look like? Two Marines who gave all in defense of their Band of Brothers in Iraq in 2008 show us what real sacrifice is, even in this modern era. While you might not make the ultimate sacrifice for others, what can you do to help your family, neighbors and community around you? Story Time Daniel sent me a link to a story written by Geoffrey Ingersoll from the Business Insider in 2013. The title for this piece is “Everybody should read General John Kelly’s Speech about Two Marines in the Path of a Truck Bomb.” As a dad to a combat veteran, this story hits home. My son could have been one of these young men when he was deployed to Afghanistan. I am going to read selected portions of this story for you, and I will provide a link to the original story in the show notes. The link to the original story is here: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-kellys-speech-about-marines-in-ramadi-2013-6 Midweek Motivation Lesson: Sacrifice for Others Many of us will never find ourselves in a similar situation as Corporal Jonathon Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter. These men gave the ultimate sacrifice for men they knew, and some they did not know. How can you apply this story to your own life? We live in a fast-paced and isolated world. We are connected by apps and screens, but we really don’t know each other. It is time to stop connecting on screens and start connecting in real life. Reach out, meet face-to-face and develop those relationships. Help your friends and neighbors with a project, or invite them over to your house for dinner. Lend them some support and give them encouragement. Sometimes some folks just need a smile and some time to talk. While you might not make the ultimate sacrifice to stop a truck bomb for your family, neighbors and friends, you might be able to help them when times are tough, or even when they aren’t (to quote Jack Spirko). Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing! Dat's how we do it!

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about adding fun to get stuff done (fun to done). Many of us set goals and resolutions, only to fall apart or abandon them on Day 2. Why is that? Maybe the problem is that you relate your goals to dreadful toil and bloodletting instead of enjoying the process and having some fun! In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life Introduction – Fun to Done This is a Late Week Motivation this week. What can I say? Business has been good and keeping Tommy Cakes on the run. This is a good thing: it means more stuff is happening and Tommy is getting paid! Fortunately, I have some time to relax before I go to the lounge, so I am going to get this done for you! Many of us set lofty goals and resolutions with the best intentions. We dream big and then make grand announcements to all of our family and friends. We say things like, “This time is different; I am ready. This is my chance to change! My goal is X!” We see this all the time at the start of a new year. As we talked about in Episode 13, we concoct all kinds of goals and resolutions, and by the end of January, 64% of us have stopped trying. By March 1st, 80% of us have dropped off. Haven’t you noticed it at the gym, pool or in the sauna recently? There are a lot less waiting for a machine, a lane or bench space for the gun show to begin. Why is that? Goals and Resolutions Don’t Work We have the best intentions when we start with our big goal and resolutions. We don’t intend to fail. We want change, but then something happens. Psychologically, we associate goals and resolutions with pain, misery and drudgery. Who wants to be miserable eating kale when you can have some fantastic lasagna, red wine and cannoli? We see this with people trying to lose weight. They set a goal, and then they think the quickest way to get to done is to start running, yet they can hardly walk around the block. After two days of jogging, they are so sore they can’t even move! This destroys motivation, and then the poor person gives up. Kevin Geary talked about this in an interview here on Small Scale Life. Michael Bell also talked about this during his discussion about fitness and weight lifting in Season 2, Episode 25. Midweek Motivation: Fun to Done Instead of pushing a massive bolder up a steep hill, we all need to rethink our goals and resolutions and inject the fun to done mentality into our everyday lives. Why not? The project or work needs to get done somehow! Instead of hating to eating kale or broccoli, why not add a little butter to it? Instead of running or jogging, why not go for a hike in a beautiful place or walk with your spouse or the dog? Notice I did not equate the two! Instead of swimming laps in a pool, why not swim with your kids or in a lake? Instead of working out in a stale, sweaty gym, why not work in the garden or yard? Inject the fun to done mentality into your goals and resolutions. Make it an adventure or a journey. Stop making it a miserable marathon of sweat, blood and tears. Identify something you like to do and incorporate your goals into that activity. You might find that you get things done AND have some fun while doing it. After all, how do you think Tommy Cakes got on the air in the first place? That’s all I got this week. Add some fun into your lives! This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Bada boom, bada bing! “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done” This episode was inspired by author Jon Acuff in his book “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.” As a person who has “squirrel syndrome,” which is a trait of ENFP personality types, I have found that adding some fun into my work and my goals has helped me accomplish so many more things. Why? Because those fun things are so much more enjoyable to do and complete! Not everything is going to be fun. Taxes are boring, painting a room is tedious and filing reports is downright dull. However, you can overcome that and get things done. In the book (particularly Chapter 4), Jon Acuff has some great techniques for getting projects done and goals achieved. I recommend you listen or read his book today! It is actually a fun read! Get after it, and add fun to done to your life! Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to d

This is our 80th Episode! Whoo hooo! For this episode, we are shifting gears a bit on this episode, and you are going to get to learn a lot more about our story. My guest and I (and other celebrities who stop by) are going to talk about going from high paying, fast-paced lifestyles to slower-paced, more simple lives with less stuff. How does one achieve that? Where does one begin? My guest and I have some ideas, and in this episode, we are going to discuss the 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life. In this episode, my wife Julie Domres is my special guest, and we discuss some of Before we get to that, let me ask you a couple questions: does your stuff stress you out? Do all the materials, goods, and things in you house and garage give you a sense of dread or anxiety? My guest and I are going to take you on a journey. Show Notes for 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life In this podcast, Julie and I discussed the following topics and links: Friends of Small Scale Life (see below) Gnarled Knot Design Nature's Image Farms Introductions Who is Julie? What has been happening the past couple weeks? Weekend to Remember Marriage Retreat - Family Life Moving Our Stuff Home Our Story Moving Out and Storing Stuff Planting Our Flag in North Minneapolis Schemes and Ideas Decision Process and Finalizing "The Plan" Our Journey to Develop a Simple and Intentional and Life Survival Mode and Chasing Dollars Jobs, Kids and Life Minimalism - Learn, Do and Grow in Motion How did we find Minimalism? Tom - Local Author and Blogger Aaron Clarey - Captain Capitalism Website Julie - The Minimalism Documentary Going to see the Minimalists in Minneapolis (link to podcast of the event) Other Minimalists Josh Becker - Becoming Minimalist Colin Write - Exile Lifestyle Patrick Rhone - Minneapolis Author of "Enough" What does it mean to us? 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life Eliminating Clutter Reducing Time Commitments Reducing and Eliminating Debt Replacing Screens with Reality and People Defining What's Truly Important in Your Life Putting It All Together Key Topics, Thank You's and What's Coming Up

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. How many of you set your New Year’s Resolutions and gave it up already? You need to keep going. Results are not guaranteed, but you will be better off in the long run for trying. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life Introduction A lot of us get to the end of the year and we are excited to get a new slate and a new chance to do things different. Many of us want to change something in our lives: Lose weight Get healthy Stop drinking Stop smoking Travel more Get ride of clutter Get organized Start a new business Others - yada yada yada How many of us set goals and resolutions for the New Year? How many of us have already dropped by the wayside and punted on those goals? Statistically speaking, research has shown that 31 days after the first of the year, 64 percent of you have dropped your New Years Resolutions. By March 1st, more than 80 percent of you have dropped those New Year’s Resolutions and goals. You can see this at the gyms: the crowds that created standing room only and long wait times for equipment has eased up or evaporated completely. How many of you are like that? Does one of these questions describe your state of mind: Do you get frustrated with your progress and results? Did you fall back into your same old patterns? Do you lack the time to put into this resolution? Do you lack a game plan for success? Did you forget the reason why you started? There are ways to break the chains of failure and defeat. You can accomplish your goal successfully! 4 Tips to Keep Going It is tough to keep going, especially when times are tough. Here are some ideas on how to keep motivated and making progress: Get a coach or accountability partner – Working with someone can help push and motivate you when you lose motivation. A good coach or accountability partner has your back and will keep you on task, even when times are hard. After all, you don’t want to let that coach or accountability partner down! Start small; go low and slow – Too many of us go all out after we haven’t been doing something for a long time. Then we get really, really frustrated when change doesn’t happen or when you are sore. Go low and slow, but do it consistently. It will help with your recovery and motivation. Make it part of your daily routine – Block off some time every day to devote to your goal. Focus on that doing activities that get you closer to that goal during that time. Do not get distracted by people or screens! Track your progress – Take notes and document your progress. It might not seem like you are moving a mountain initially, but when you look back after a month or a year, you will see how far you have come! Midweek Motivation Lesson: Keep Going Change is hard. We are impatient creatures, and when results aren’t immediately seen, we throw up our hands and stop doing what we are doing. Keep going. Keep pushing yourself. You might be on the verge of a breakthrough, but you will never know if you give up. Do the following things to keep going: Get a coach or accountability partner Start small; go low and slow Make it part of your daily routine Track your progress That’s all I got this week. This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Bada boom, bada bing! Sources Sources for today’s Midweek Motivation include: New Study Reveals How Long New Year’s Resolutions Usually Last 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by February — here's how to keep yours How long do people keep their New Year resolutions? Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing! Dat's how we do it!

Now that you developed your garden plan, it is time to start planting seeds for our gardens! Yes! It is time! Before you plant, you need to buy your seeds (unless you saved some from last season), and there are a lot of options out there. It can be confusing and overwhelming. In this post and episode, I am reviewing top seed sources for your 2018 garden. The best part about this: I am using feedback from the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and Minnesota-Wisconsin Regenerative Agriculture Group about seed vendors you use! You, my dear friends, your story are part of the show! In case you are new to our podcast and blog, Small Scale Life is all about removing stress from our lives by living simply through: • Gardening, • Healthy living, and • Having adventures along the way We are thrilled you are here and listening to our show or reading our blog. That means a lot to us, and frankly we wouldn’t do this if you weren’t part of our Small Scale Life. Thank you so much! Before we begin this episode, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life: Friends of Small Scale Life • Aussie Flame Weeders – My friend Mick at Aussie Flame Weeders is offering flame weeders to reduce your non-revenue producing workload. If you want to eliminate weeds from your garden beds, a flame weeder is an efficient way to do it. I mean, who doesn’t want to burn pesky weeds with fire? Mick’s flame weeders are perfect for 30 inch (80 cm) garden beds and feature five stainless steel burners, 16” wheels and an ergonomic design that carries a propane tank so you don’t have to. Even if you don’t purchase a flame weeder, sign up on the Aussie Flame Weeder e-mail list to get access to videos and information. • Tommy Cakes – Midweek Mindset and the Small Scale Life Facebook Group Thank you to our friends of Small Scale Life. Remember: if you have a product or a service that you would like to be discussed on Small Scale Life, contact me at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com or use the contact us page on smallscalelife.com. Introduction – Seed Vendors As we roll through February, it is time to get planting seeds and getting our seedlings started. As you have been finishing up your Garden Plans, I am sure you are finding that you need some seeds! If you type “seed vendors” into Google, you will be overwhelmed with companies and vendors selling all kinds of heirloom and genetically modified seeds. Where do you buy your seeds? This was the exact question I asked the two groups I manage on Facebook: • Small Scale Life Facebook Group • MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Facebook Group I wanted to get the perspectives of urban farmers, homesteaders and gardeners. The great thing is that this is input from across the country (Small Scale Life Group) and locally in Minnesota and Wisconsin (MN-WI Group). I wanted to see if there might be differences in how small scale gardeners buy their seeds versus more commercial operations like Michael Bell’s Half Acre Farms or Scott Hebert’s Flavourful Farms. The results in each group are summarized below and will serve as the basis for reviewing top seed sources. Small Scale Life Facebook Group We had some good participation from group members, and I appreciate your thoughts and feedback in the poll and on my direct messages. Here is what the results are telling us: • Johnny Seeds is the clear leader for growers in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group. • Baker Creek is in second place with Seed Savers in a distant third place. • A few of our Small Scale Life members were very interested in saving their own seeds. Homesteader Greg Burns told me that his goal is to plant using saved seeds and not purchase any. New to gardening, Jacob Heinberg is starting his garden this year, and he is very interested in seed saving. While I won’t get into specifics in this post, I will have some posts about it in the near future. MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Group The MN-WI Regenerative Agriculture Facebook Group is a smaller group composed of farmers, homesteaders and gardeners in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I wanted to set up a local network of people to replicate the Ohio Get Stuff Done Group, and there is a great group of people there. I plan to start meeting people in this group, but that is for another time. From the people that participated in this poll, we have the following results: • Seed Savers Exchange was the leader. • Burpee is second. • Saving your own seeds is in third place. Top Seed Vendors In order to help reviewing top seed sources, your humble correspondent went a little above and beyond and ordered seed catalogs from Johnny Selected Seeds, Baker Seed Company, Seed Saver Exchange and Burpee. I wanted to briefly review top seed sources from our polls and show the differences between their seed catalogs. While you can get a lot of information off each vendor’s website, seed catalogs provide a wealth of information about the seeds, produce or herbs, time to maturity, yield and some history about the origin of that parti

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about the lessons learned from the life of PT Barnum and the movie “The Greatest Showman.” There are some great lessons learned about friends, creativity and unstoppable drive from the life of PT Barnum, and Tommy Cakes tells you some of those lessons in his own unique way. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life Introduction – The Greatest Showman In case you haven’t noticed, Midweek Motivation is a little different than your typical Small Scale Life post. We get into some social and cultural commentary while I try to motivate you with some of that knowledge. In this show, we are going to focus on a movie that everyone is talking about. The movie is good entertainment with some life lessons buried inside it. As you know, movies have depicted some interesting and uplifting characters that have done some truly remarkable things beyond wearing fancy clothes and impressive hats! Story Time The hero of this story started from humble beginnings as the son of a son of innkeeper, tailor and store-keeper. Our hero was excellent at math but didn’t like physical work! From his first job as a shopkeeper, he moved up and eventually purchased a museum. He added new attractions and transformed it to include: A lighthouse lamp that shown light down Broadway A strolling garden on the roof with a view of the city Giant animal paintings from the windows and Hot-air balloon rides that launched from the showplace daily. Over time and by adding exotic acts to his show, our hero met with the Queen of England, Czar of Russia and royalty across Europe. In just a few years, he owned several museums and had a draw of 400,000 people a year! Our hero lost his wealth in some bad business and real estate deals, and he spent four long years in litigation and public humiliation. His friends stood by his side and supported him, and eventually he gained momentum and created the US’ first aquarium and met with the President of the United States. Even after his museums burned down, our hero once again connected with friends and started a circus in Delevan, Wisconsin. He had the first circus to move from town to town and across the country by train (and the first circus to own a train). It was billed as the Greatest Show on Earth! After leaving the circus, our hero wrote books and became a politician, serving as a State Representative for four terms and later served the mayor of his town. Midweek Motivation Lesson: Friends, Creativity and Drive So what is the point of all this? Life is hard, and it knocks you down. Things happen that don’t seem fair, and the odds can be stacked against you. We can learn from Phineas Taylor Barnum, the hero of our story and a distant relative of Julie Taylor Domres. When times were tough, PT Barnum's friends supported and helped him. Even when the chips were down, PT Barnum used his creativity and relentless drive to push himself to new limits and new successes. What’s holding you back? Get started making good friends and using your creativity and drive today. We are waiting to help you, friend. Reach out and take my hand. That’s all I got this week. This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Bada boom, bada bing! "The Greatest Showman" Recently Hollywood released a movie about PT Barnum called “The Greatest Showman.” While there are a lot of things that are Hollywood fiction and narratives, it is an uplifting movie. Tommy Cakes gives it two thumbs up, so go see it. After all, it takes an Upcoming Showman to know the Greatest Showman! For a taste of the energy of this movie, watch this pre-production video from "The Greatest Showman." Throughout the movie and this clip, I kept waiting for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine moment, but we got something completely different and inspiring! I have to give my wife Julie credit, it was a good movie and had great energy (even though it did not match historical accounts). By the way, my wife Julie IS a distant relative of PT Barnum (that is true), so you can see why she puts up with an amateur showman like yours truly. Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to t

We have hit mid-February! It is time to get planting seeds for our 2018 garden! As many of you know, I have been starting seeds in my basement for a few years now. I learn something new each year, and last year was no different. Like everything in life, you learn the most from your failures, and I had a couple last year. I am not afraid to admit it! In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss Four Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds in my basement last year. Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope you had a great day yesterday and had some fun. Julie and I went to a winery in Waconia, Minnesota, for some wine and jazz with our good friends. It was a lot of fun to catch up and enjoy some really good wine and food! We even made some new friends who just purchased 20 acres north of the winery and are making a really cool place out of the wetlands and woods on their land. I am taking Tommy Cakes’ advice from last week’s Midweek Motivation: enjoy local events and make real, authentic memories with friends, family and your community. Update: Developing Your 2018 Garden Plan In the last show, I discussed Developing a 2018 Garden Plan. Your garden plan will serve as your foundation for gardening success this year. I did get some feedback from folks about that show, and I wanted to add two points for narrowing down your “Pie in the Sky Plan” to a feasible, realistic plan: Climate - Consider your climate and what grows there. If you live in Minnesota like me, you do not want oranges, avocados and lemons in your plan if you don’t have special climate controlled facilities to grow them. Actual Layout - To help with planning your garden, it might help to actually plan out where everything will go using a piece of graph paper, wipe board or computer. The key is to get realistic sizes for plants and your garden (to scale). I will have another post on how to do that in the near future. Those are great suggestions, and I have added them to the show notes from the last episode. 4 Lessons Learned from Seed Starting I have been starting plants from seed in my basement for a few years now. I learn something new each year, and last year was no different. Like everything in life, you learn the most from your failures, and I had a couple last year. I am not afraid to admit it! Let's discuss four lessons learned from starting seeds in 2017. Why start seeds yourself? I started planting my own seeds in 2014 or so. Back then, I was buying plants from big box home improvements stores, but I found that I was getting frustrated with the following: Quality – Plants at the local big box home improvement stores were just not healthy. Some were wilting or had blight, others were terribly stunted and looked “bad.” I usually could nurse them back to health but it always took some work to get them growing in the right direction. Selection – Big box home improvement stores just did not seem to offer a wide enough selection of plants. Some had a couple of varieties of tomatoes, but I didn’t want to grow that particular type of cherry tomato, big beefsteak tomato or “summer salsa” tomato. I wanted something a little different. I found the same applied to peppers as well. When I started growing my own, I had control and picked the type of plant I wanted to grow. Cost – The final reason I started growing my own plants from seed was that the cost was simply too high. Typically, you are paying at least a dollar for each inch of height of seedling, and some of the more mature plants can be six to ten dollars a piece. If you have a big garden bed or several beds, gardening gets very expensive very quickly! I had a 12-foot long bed with 16 tomato plants in it, the cost for these 3-inch tall plants could be $48 (plus tax)! I decided to start growing my own seeds, and I found that the materials to start growing were fairly inexpensive. I had articles and a podcast about that last year in the following articles: How to Garden Indoors 8 Steps to Starting Seeds Indoors 9 Lessons Learned from Starting Seeds Indoors - Season 2, Episode 6 4 Lessons Learned from Seed Starting That said, I am going to need to set up a new growing area since moving to this new house. Regardless, I need to keep the following four lessons learned from last year in mind as I begin growing plants this year. 1. Label, label, label Make sure to label everything as you plant seeds and later transplant your seedlings. One of the problems I ran into last year was how I labeled seedlings when I started growing them. I was trying to be clever with the Potting Soil Challenge by using masking tape on the seed trays. It worked great initially when I had the grow lights a few inches above the soil, but as time went by and the seedlings grew, I needed to put some kind of marker/label in the seedling cell. Over the course of growing, I move cells around to check the plants, take off the first leaves and eventually transplant them. If I take

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about the Super Bowl Spectacular that was held here in Minnesota. Did you watch the Super Bowl? Here are some thoughts and observations from Tommy Cakes. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Introduction – Super Bowl Spectacular This is a little different Midweek Motivation. In the past three episodes (which have done really well, so that tells me you like this stuff), we have talked about: Keeping Our Eyes on the Target Preparedness and Overcoming Dread This show, however, is a little different. We are going to talk about something else, ripped right from the headlines, if you will. In case you somehow missed it, the big game, the big dance, the Super Bowl was last weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is only the second time Minnesota hosted the Big Game: the first time was in the Metrodome and now it was in that fancy billion dollar stadium. People in Minnesota are just not used to having big games like this in their town. This game featured the New England Patriots against the Philadelphia Eagles. As you probably know, the Patriots have been in and won the Super Bowl a bunch of times, and the Eagles have been in the Big Game, but they have never won the actual Super Bowl. Obviously I am giving some credit to the early Eagles teams that won championships in the 1960’s before the merger. Story Time Let’s talk about what happened BEFORE the Super Bowl here in the Twin Cities. It really is a tale of two cities, and the contrast is interesting to discuss. Let me paint two pictures for you. St. Paul There is a lot happening in Minnesota even without the Big Game. This time of year, St. Paul hosts The Winter Carnival, which is a festival that includes all kinds of activities to celebrate winter. The Winter Carnival started in 1886, and this year it goes from January 25th to February 10th. There is a whole mythology and pageantry surrounding the rise of King Boreas, Queen Aurora their court and Klondike Kate. At the same time, there is a story about the rise and shenanigans of King Boreas’ arch nemesis Vulcanus Rex and his Vulcan Crew. There is a hunt for the medallion (sponsored by the St. Paul Pioneer Press), ice sculpture competition, snow slides, parades, concerts with local talent and sometimes a massive ice castle. It is quite a celebration of winter and distinctly Minnesotan! For more on that, go to this link: https://www.wintercarnival.com/ Minneapolis While the Winter Carnival is a St. Paul event, the Super Bowl is a Minneapolis show. The stadium is in Minneapolis, and a lot of the activities were focused around the US Bank Stadium and around Minneapolis. On this note, the NFL and their corporate sponsors rolled into town and set up shop. This included a whole “Minnesota Experience presented by Verizon” in downtown Minneapolis, where Nicollet Avenue (which is a transit-only roadway), that included booths for sponsors and a patch of snow for doing “winter stuff.” There were corporate events, zip line, and concerts. Oh yeah, they finally held a game and dropped some paper all over the field when it was done and over. Did I mention the celebrities that we here for the Super Bowl? Oh yes, they were all over Minneapolis in the fresh snow and cold! There was Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Pink, JLo, Bradley Cooper, Joe Biden, Stephan Curry, Alex Rodriquez, Donnie Wahlberg, Gary Vaynerchuk, JJ Watt, Floyd Mayweather in his coat, and Diddy in his bigger fur coat with his entourage. That is quite a cast of characters zipping around the Twin Cities showing up here and there, doing their celebrity things! Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of all this? I know what some of you are thinking. This is sportsball and celebrity stuff, and I know a lot of you don’t really care. That’s where you are absolutely wrong, my friends. The point of this story and your Midweek Motivation is the following: In today’s crazy world, we are all looking for something in our lives that are real, have meaning and are pure. Stop looking for that in mass media, sports and Hollywood. It isn’t there. Look for that kind of authenticity and reality in local events, festivals and gatherings in your community, with your neighbors, friends and family. Events and gatherings like the

It has been an incredible two weeks. Julie and I moved all of our gear out of a storage locker and into this little house in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am glad to be back on track with a Tuesday Gardening Show, and I think I have a good show for you today. After a couple weeks of short posts and podcasts, including the introduction of a new regular show called Midweek Motivation by the Coastal Cosmopolitan Tommy Cakes, we are gearing up for Garden Season 2018! In this post and podcast episode, I am going to discuss How to Develop A 2018 Garden Plan: what I am going to grow and how I am going to grow it. I am making some adjustments to my planting strategy based on conversations with Michael Bell, Scott Hebert, Doneil Freeman, Drew Sample, Greg Burns and other market farmers. While I am not going to grow commercially, I am going to adopt some of their concepts and principles to make my garden very productive in 2018. That is the plan, anyway! In case you are new to our podcast, blog and social media platforms, Small Scale Life is all about removing stress from our lives by living simply through: Gardening, Healthy living, and Having adventures along the way We are thrilled you are here and listening to our show or reading our blog. That means a lot to us, and frankly we wouldn’t do this if you weren’t part of our Small Scale Life. Before we begin this episode, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life! Friends of Small Scale Life A Bee Friendly Compamy - Michael Jordan Are you interested in bees, beekeeping, honey or mead? If you are, you need to check out A Bee Friendly Company out of Cheyenne, Wyoming! Michael Jordan, who is on The Survival Podcast Panel of experts and has been on the Small Scale Life Podcast, is an actual bee whisperer. I am constantly amazed by the work that Michael is doing to improve apiaries and communities in his backyard, at the local school and across the country. Michael is broadcasting information on Facebook Live every Wednesday at 5:00 PM Mountain (5 minutes at 5 PM), so check him out. If you are interested in bees, beekeeping, honey or mead, check out Michael Jordan’s A Bee Friendly Company on Facebook! Nature’s Image Farm – Greg Burns Great news, everyone! It is time to start planning for spring. Are you looking for comfrey, bees or trees? Greg Burns from Nature’s Image Farm has what you need. Nature’s Image Farm has Comfrey Bocking 4 and Comfrey Bocking 14 cuttings available for you today. Looking to start beekeeping and are looking for bees? Natures Image Farm has 5 frame nucs available now! Keep in mind that there is a deadline of February 10, 2018, so contact Nature’s Image Farm today. If you want to add trees to your property, Greg will also be updating tree bundles next week. Nature’s Image Farm will once again have exciting bundles availavle soon for urban homesteaders and farmsteaders including pawpaw, seaberry, rugusa rose, apple, pear, American chestnut, butternut, elderberry, mulberry, service berry and more. They have everything you need to start your own food forest or family orchard, which is pretty cool! Remember: Use code “SSL” for Small Scale Life for 10% off and free shipping, and let a real American hero Captain Lumbersquatch Greg Burns know that you heard about Natures Image Farms on Small Scale Life. Check out naturesimagefarm.com today! Tommy Cakes – Midweek Mindset and the Small Scale Life Facebook Group Thank you to our friends of Small Scale Life. Remember: if you have a product or a service that you would like to be discussed on Small Scale Life, contact me at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com or use the “Contact Us” page on smallscalelife.com. News Before we begin, I want to go through some news items. First off, I am working on things behind the scenes to improve the Small Scale Life experience. It feels like we are getting momentum and starting to focus in on the message and direction of the blog and podcast. As part of that, we are going to start digging into Wicking Beds and launching Wicking Bed Nation, so stay tuned for that. Next, I get excited when I can connect groups of people. A great example of this was connecting Michael Bell with Michael Hingston from Aussie Flame Weeders, and I think these connections are happening in our Small Scale Life Community (on the blog, Facebook, and Instagram). To help connect people through Small Scale Life, a number of us are running or starting small businesses, and it is great to connect with folks and get your name out there. To help with that, I am working on developing a business directory on smallscalelife.com. We want to connect people. We want to connect our audience to your quality businesses and products. If you want to be included in our business directory, let me know. If you want to be included, contact us at realsmallscalelife at gmail dot com or use the “Contact Us” page on smallscalelife.com. Finally, I do have some exciting news! A company that makes the Coir product for Burpee hea

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is focused on overcoming dread. Are you spending all your time and energy worrying about something? Are you afraid to tackle tasks? Perhaps you need to change your perspective and mindset, and Tommy Cakes is here to help overcome your dread. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Introduction – Overcoming Dread At one time or another, everybody has that nasty feeling in the pit of your stomach. Maybe that feeling comes from one of these examples: Going into work at a job you don’t like, Talking to an authority figure after making a mistake, Meeting new people, Taking care of tasks Delivering a project or service to a client or Speaking in front of the public (like on a podcast…doh)! Over time, that nasty feeling in your stomach grows, and you feel exhausted or have little motivation to complete tasks and take care of business. You procrastinate and, in some cases, that small task mushrooms into a massive problem that takes a lot of time and energy to resolve. Have you experienced that? Story Time Let’s tell a little story outlining this. Our hero hurried and scrambled last summer as he packed up all his belongings and prepared to move from his house. His lovely wife made arrangements with a local storage facility. Our hero, his boys and a few friends loaded the belongings into the storage locker. After a couple trips with a big truck, pickup truck, SUV and other vehicles, the house was empty and the storage locker was loaded. Other belongings and furniture were taken to the new house, and our hero settled into his new place. This winter, the time came when our hero had to clear out the storage locker. Our hero started to be concerned. Who was going to help empty the storage locker and load the truck? Where was all of this stuff going to go? Could our hero even move that much material? As the date came closer, our hero’s thought about it more and more. Slowly bur surely, his concern turned into dread. It seemed that this was too big a task to handle and too much material to move to a small house and small garage. The day came, and our hero and his lovely wife picked up the moving truck and drove it to the locker. They opened the locker, and after taking a deep breath, they began to load the truck. They loaded quickly, and as they worked, the hero’s feeling of dread began to diminish. Dread slowly turned to confidence, and confidence slowly turned to euphoria. As they closed the door of the truck, the hero said triumphantly, “I have been dreading this day, and that wasn’t as bad as I thought. Let’s try to get it all loaded tonight…..!” The hero’s lovely wife reminded him that night was coming, and that the dynamic duo had extra help the next day. Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of this story? The point of this story and your Midweek Motivation is the following: [tweetthis]Overcome dread by focusing your mind and completing one task at a time. Start easy tasks to get momentum! #mindset #overcomingdread[/tweetthis] [tweetthis]Stop letting your fear and imagination rule your life. #overcomingdread[/tweetthis] You don’t have a lot of time on this earth. Use your time wisely. Worrying and dreading about something is wasting your time and energy. Whatever that source of dread is, it is going to be over after you engage and finish the task, and chances are, you’ll feel a lot better once it is done. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and pull the trigger. BOOM! This is Tommy Cakes, and I’ll see you next week! Special Thanks from Tommy Cakes I would like to thank Greg Burns from Natures Image Farm and Doneil Freeman from Freeman Family Farms for the INSPIRATION to do this Midweek Motivation Podcast. You two ARE the wind beneath my wings! Also I would like to thank Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for the "Kool Kats" theme music. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Badda boom, badda bing! Dat's how we do it!

Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it is Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly on Small Scale Life. Story Time Let me tell you about the very short-lived government shutdown. Did you even know it happened? Since we don’t do the political thing on Small Scale Life, I will tell you a story instead. On Friday last week, a lone Federal employee got a phone call from his boss in a far off regional office. The boss told him that the shutdown was most likely going to happen. Since this guy was classified as a “non-essential employee,” the employee would be on furlough (unpaid leave). The boss provided instructions about what to do if the shutdown occurred and hung up. As the employee completed his work, his mind drifted to what this shutdown meant and could do to his family’s budget. No work meant no pay. This could hurt since his paycheck went to pay a lot of the bills. If this was a long shutdown, the loss of this source of income could hurt in the long run, and the rhetoric out of Washington was not good (meaning this could be a long shutdown). The employee started to think about what he had been doing over the past couple years and how he had not followed through on some ideas and plans. His side hustle was merely a hobby, and the work he had done to prepare for a major disaster was not enough. He and his family were not ready to outlast a major event, even after everything he had read and researched on the topic. The employee stewed and resolved to take care of those things once the shutdown occurred. There were a lot of details to be worked out, but it just needed his undivided attention and focus. He planned his Monday, knowing that the shutdown was inevitable. Sure enough, the politicians could not agree, and the shutdown happened. The non-essential Federal employees were on furlough, and that included the hero in our story. Our hero was ready to act. Even though this would hurt in the short run, he would begin the process to develop that side hustle into something. As he sat down at the computer to implement his plan, the phone rang. The boss called and informed him that he was no longer non-essential, and that he had to report to work (without pay)! Our hero, thrown for a loop, made some phone calls and got rolling with his regular work day. Later that day, the government re-opened for business for another couple weeks. He resolved to implement his plan and start preparing for the next disaster right away. Midweek Motivation Lesson So what is the point of all of this? The point of this Midweek Motivation is this: [tweetthis]Be vigiliant. Be ready. Be prepared. Life comes at you fast, and if you prepare, you are set up to adapt and overcome life’s challenges. [/tweetthis] How do you do get prepared? Save some money, get out of debt, store some food and water, and get healthy. Stop dreaming and researching. Start doing and executing. Prepare for the worst. Boom! If you want to learn more about HOW to prepare, stay tuned to Small Scale Life. More to come on that. This is Tommy Cakes, and I see you next week!

In this episode, Micheal Bell returns to the Small Scale Life Podcast to discuss progress at Half Acre Farm. There have been a few changes and improvements since our interview in October 2017! Michael and I discuss urban farming in cold weather and high winds, and we will discuss the effect on his crops and his plan moving forward. We discuss some future projects and building soil using Regenerative Agriculture techniques discussed in a recent seminar by Gabe Brown. We also discuss the NFL games last weekend including the Minneapolis Miracle. As a programming note, this is the first episode of the BellCast: a monthly podcast on Small Scale Life focused on the ups and downs of urban farming on Michael’s Half Acre Farm. Michael has been farming at this location since purchasing the land in 2016, and he sells produce locally to friends, colleagues and others. Topics In this podcast, Michael Bell and I discussed the following: Minneapolis Miracle and Football Games New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Patriots Super Bowl and Dynasties Introductions Who is Michael Bell? Half Acre Farm - Humble Beginnings 2000 square feet to 15,000 square 30 inch wide garden beds that are 25 feet long Urban Farming Winter Conditions: Wind Storm and Cold Weather this Year Crops: Damage and Destruction Low Tunnels: Success or Failure? Long Term Weather Outlook in Texas Bouncing Back: Planting New Crops Salinova Zucchini 5 Tomato Varieties 50 Large Cherry 25 Super Sweet 100's 10 Glacier (will blossom in 38 degree F temps) Marigolds 25 Black Cherry Tomatoes - they get big! Aggressive pruning and blight control - how to control blight Selecting crops based on vegetable and profit potential Customer Service and Sales Breaking Bad News Getting New Customers - Developing the "Waiting List" Grocery Store Clients Instagram connecting People and Customers Eating Real Food - Michael's Salad Mix creates a Unique Taste which Sells Itself Regenerative Agriculture Rebuilding Soil using Regenerative Agriculture Techniques - Gabe Brown Rancher and Soil Expert from North Dakota Regenerated Soil in 3 or 4 Years on His Ranch Five Laws to Regenerate Soil Urban Farm Backyard Gardens Micheal's West Texas Project Tom's Central Wisconsin Project Philosophy and Continuous Learning Time waits for no one Getting things figured out; having a successful life Why Michael and I REALLY do chores Farm Expansion and Logistics Greenhouse Purchased! How to transport? Future Greenhouses of Half Acre Farm Keeping the Greenhouses Warm Putting It All Together Key topics discussed and next steps

Midweek Motivation is a new weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is focused on the big lesson learned from the Viking's Minneapolis Miracle in their game against the Saints. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host Tommy Cakes. Who is Tommy Cakes? Live on the Small Scale Life Podcast, it's Midweek Motivation featuring Tommy Cakes. Hey, how are you? I am Tommy Cakes. Who am I? I'm a guy from someplace, friends with some people and doing some things. Don't worry about it! What I can tell you is that I am in the import and export business. I import knowledge I export that information at premium prices! I will give you a little coastal cosmopolitan insight and motivation weekly. Story Time This story is about a man named Marcus. He has been playing football all his life. Marcus did all the drills, participated in all the practices, played in all the games and finally made it to the NFL. Marcus is a rookie playing in his first big game. The game has come down to the final minutes in the fourth quarter. Marcus' team has a slim lead, and all his team has to do to win is to stop the opponent on their final drive. At this point it looks like Marcus' team will win the game. Victory is in the bag! All Marcus had to do is stop the opponent from scoring a touchdown. With ten seconds left on the clock and third and ten, the opponent's quarterback steps up to the line of scrimmage. He gets the ball and scans the field. He throws the ball downfield to a receiver, who makes an incredible jump and grabs the ball. This is Marcus' big moment. All he has to do is tackle the receiver and the game is over. However, Marcus puts his head down and completely misses the tackle. The receiver sprints to the end zone, winning the game! Marcus' team loses, and the "Minneapolis Miracle" is born. Marcus is Marcus Williams from the New Orleans Saints. A rookie who put his head down and missed an easy tackle. This play inspired this post, and it inspired a whole nation of Vikings fans who are looking forward to "bringing it home." Midweek Motivation Lesson The point of this story and your first Midweek Motivation is this: [tweetthis]Keep your head up; finish strong! Keep your eyes on the target. If you don't, you will miss every time.[/tweetthis] Stay on target and succeed!

What a GREAT weekend! We are really excited and are celebrating here in Minnesota. Of course, most of the people are celebrating the Minneapolis Miracle where the Vikings vanquished the New Orleans Saints and are heading to the NFC Championships. As a life-long Packer fan, I could grumble, but I won't. It isn't the real reason we are celebrating. The real reason we are celebrating is that we have achieved another great milestone here at Small Scale Life. As announced in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group this weekend, we are celebrating because we hit another 10,000 downloads of the Small Scale Life Podcast! That is pretty exciting news, and we wanted to say thank you for hitting 20,000 downloads since starting this podcast a couple years ago. I know some of you are new to our podcast, blog and social media platforms. In case you are new, Small Scale Life is all about living simply by focusing on: Growing, Exploring and Living healthy. That is pretty general, and we typically focus on: Gardening, Healthy living, and Having adventures along the way We are thrilled you are here and listening to our show or reading our blog. That means a lot to us, and frankly we wouldn’t do this if you weren’t part of our Small Scale Life. Thank you! Learning, Doing and Growing in 2017 I really didn’t know what to expect when blog in November 2015 and I started this podcast in January 2016, and I am truly grateful and blessed that you are spending your time with my guests and me on the podcast, on the blog, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Gab and YouTube. This has been a learning process. We are, in fact, learning, doing and growing in real time, before your eyes. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at the numbers from Wordpress for Small Scale Life and compare 2016 to 2017: 2016 6,590 views 3,389 visitors 75 published posts 30 podcasts 5,000 downloads 2017 10,922 views 6,862 visitors 53 published posts 35 podcasts 15,000 downloads By listening and engaging with us each week, you are pushing me to improve my processes and the quality of the blog, podcast and social media platforms. This is not an easy job, so I am calling in some support to help in this effort. I will provide more detail about that in the next post! Putting It All Together Thank you again for your time and your attention in previous years. I am looking forward to 2018! We are going to focus on developing our urban homesteads and farms, small businesses, tribes, and healthy lifestyles. At the same time, we will continue to seek and find adventures, where ever they take us. We should have a lot of fun together and hopefully bring some great content to you. My call to action for this post and podcast is to connect with us. Become part of the Small Scale Life story. Engage with us and share you comments with us. Ask questions and let us know you are out there. If you are inspired to try gardening, urban farming, getting healthy or taking the road less traveled, let us know! I am but a humble pirate. The wind is blowing at our backs, and the tide is rising. There are empires to plunder and rum to drink. Hoist the sails; man the mizzen mast! Bring me that horizon, yo ho!

Welcome to 2018, everyone! Back in 2016, one of my first interviews was with a guy who was kicking off his small market farming operation in Chilliwak, British Columbia. That guy is Scott Hebert, and his farm is called Flavourful Farms. Since that interview, Scott has been working hard on his farm, landing new clients, and starting a new podcast and Vlog! He is a busy guy. I am thrilled to Scott back on Small Scale Life to kick off the new year. In this podcast, we discuss a number of topics including farming, stoicism, his podcast Stoic Mettle, launching his Vlog, developing a tribe and growing and maintaining his beard. I had a lot of fun on this episode, even with a minor technical glitch and some background noise (on my end) that will be addressed in future shows. One cool thing that happened during this interview was that Scott announced starting a weekly Vlog on his YouTube Channel. Scott Hebert and I discussed the following topics in this interview: Who is Scott Hebert? - Flavourful Farms and Farming - Starting the Farm - Mindset - Cost of Entry for Farming - Case for Being Debt Free - Pricing and Customers - Plan for 2018 - Physical Requirements for Farming - Bees and Chickens - What would Scott do differently? Stoic Mettle, Stoicism and Tribalism - Why stoicism? How does this relate to farming? - Starting and revising the Stoic Mettle Podcast - Stoicism, Tribe, and Friend Gap - Future of Stoic Mettle Growing and Maintaining a Beard Key Take-Aways from the Interview

Happy birthday, Small Scale Life! Happy birthday to me! We made it one more time around the sun, and January 2nd was our collective birthday. Small Scale Life is two years old, and I am just a little older than that (really). The purpose of this post is to thank you all for all the love and kind word's yesterday on my and Small Scale Life's birthdays. Please note: I originally posted a much longer post about where this platform is going in 2018, but I am re-writing this post to thank you all for all the well-wishes I received yesterday. The longer article will be published in a separate post. Just in case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on: • Gardening, • Healthy living, and • Having adventures along the way Happy Birthday On my and Small Scale Life’s birthday, I wanted to thank everyone for being a part of our story and being a part of our Small Scale Life. I had so many good conversations and well wishes on my birthday! It was a little overwhelming, and I really am thankful for your comments. I am totally serious: if I could throw a big party and invite you all, I would! Maybe I'll have to think about organizing something like that.... All in all, I had a very busy year at Small Scale Life and in my personal life, but through it all, I think I have gotten a little wiser and a little better at this blogging and podcasting stuff this year. I know there is a lot to learn and I am constantly improving, and I appreciate new friends who have helped me over the past year. I really want to thank all the people who were guests on the Small Scale Life Podcast this year including Greg Burns, Jay Dolan, Travis Swanson, Todd Ehrhardt, Micheal Jordan, Michael Bell, and Doneil Freeman. What a great group of people! I really do appreciate the support and your time. If you haven't listened to those shows, you are missing out. Go to the Podcast tab and start listening today (or just click the text)! Just Getting Started We will use the lessons learned this year to improve Small Scale Life, the podcast, our urban homestead and ourselves this year. We have some ambitious goals in 2018. I am working hard to put a team into place that will allow us to grow and improve this platform. We will have regular guests and a more regular schedule for posts and content. More on all that in upcoming posts and podcasts, and the proof will be the quality of our work. The bottom line is that I think we are going to have a great year! Thank you for everything in the past two years. Thank you for the engagement and taking your time to follow us. We would not be doing this if it wasn't for you. We are just getting started. 2018 is going to take your breath away, and I can't wait! Stay tuned and continue to live simply, grow, explore and be healthy with us in 2018!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you are spending lots of quality time with your family and friends this season. We certainly will be doing just that over the next week! In this post and podcast, I wanted to establish a tradition here on Small Scale Life by rebroadcasting my reading of the poem “Twas the Night before Christmas.” My dad used to read it to my family when we were young, so in that fine tradition, I am posting it for you and your family to enjoy. Reading this poem brought so many memories back from when I was young. This time of year was always a lot of fun for us: we would go sledding, make snow forts, have snowball fights, cross country ski and spend all day out in the snow. We would come home wet and cold, and warm up in the living room near the wood burning stove while drinking hot chocolate. Our wet boots, hats, gloves, and snow suits hanging in the basement laundry room (or wadded up in a ball near the laundry room - our boys come by it naturally). Nothing says the holidays more than some of the classic songs from bygone eras. I have added three of my favorite songs to the end of the podcast. These songs are "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Frank Sinatra and "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. In this age of techno-modified singers, it is excellent to listen to these songs from the Golden Age of our country: when times and living were a little more simple. In this day and age when we are so caught up with shopping, presents, dinners, parties and technology like our phones and social media, it is important to take a little time to stop and enjoy the people around us and the moments we share with them. That is my hope for you this season. Show Topics During this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discuss the following topics and play the following songs: list text hereIntroduction list text hereHistory list text hereTwas the Night before Christmas Poem list text hereA Visit from St. Nicholas Wikipedia list text hereTwas the Night before Christmas – UK Carols Blog list text hereReading the Poem list text hereClosing Remarks list text hereTraditional Holiday Songs: list text here"White Christmas" by Bing Crosby list text here"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Frank Sinatra list text here"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole list text hereClosing Song Putting It All Together From my family to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Always continue to strive to live simply: grow, explore and be healthy! May your 2018 surpass your expectations!

This time of year, we gather and celebrate the holidays with family and friends. For members of our family, this is a particularly meaningful Christmas: this is the first Christmas without Barb Taylor and without Mary Cicero. Two great ladies that made our world a brighter and better place. While these wonderful women left us too soon, we continue to practice Holiday and Christmas Traditions that bring family and friends together. We will build on these Christmas Traditions in the future as we celebrate each other, our lives, our history and our heritage. In this post, I will discuss Five Christmas Traditions that we practice, and if you don't have your own Christmas Traditions, maybe that will inspire you to give some of them a try! Just to be completely honest with you, I am late with this post. I originally wanted to post it earlier this week. Given the mix of emotions this year, I found that this was a particularly difficult post for me to write. I struggled with how to frame and write it as I have been working on it all week. I want to thank my sister-in-law Kelly Domres for helping me "get over the hump" on this post. As she said eloquently, "Do not dwell on the negative; you have a lot to be thankful for this year." She is absolutely correct. This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law, Kelly. 1. Decorating the Christmas Tree We moved from our house in St. Louis Park in July, and most of our stuff is still in a storage locker. This is by design because we moved into a furnished house, and we were planning to move our gear when we finally purchased our house. The drawback to this strategy, however, is that all of our holiday decorations (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) is buried deep in the storage locker somewhere. Fortunately for us, Julie's parents had an artificial tree, lights and ornaments stored in the basement of this house. Christmas was Julie's mom Barb's favorite holiday, and she always tried to make it special for the family. Using her tree, lights and decorations is comforting and special for all of us. Julie and I set up the tree and the lights, and then we all took turns adding ornaments to the tree. There are some special ornaments from the past, some that are funny and some from relatives long since passed. Inspired, I even decorated the outside of the house with lights and ornaments. Barb might not be with us in body this year, but her spirit and her memory lives on for all of us. Her decorations, lights and trees remind us of what a great and generous woman she was. 2. Favorite Christmas and Holiday Movies https://youtu.be/4fyS5CLBgyM I have really made a conscious effort to NOT watch much television and movies in 2017. Sure, I watched Taboo (and even did some podcasts about the show Taboo earlier this year), Game of Thrones and The Punisher, but overall, I have done a pretty good job limiting my time in front of a television or movie screen. This time of year, however, I make an exception. With Ryan home from college, we gathered together as a family to watch some classic Christmas and Holiday movies. There have been some great ones over the years, and the following movies are our family favorites: • Planes, Trains and Automobiles (I seriously know almost every line of this movie) • Christmas Vacation • Elf • A Christmas Story We have watched two of the four movies so far this season, and we will have to find the time to watch the last two. It is easy to forget how funny these movies actually are, so if you need a break and want a good belly laugh this time of year, check out these classics. You won't even shoot your eye out, kid! https://youtu.be/9jyCfRHumHU 3. Wooddale Church Christmas Program For the past few years, we have gone to Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. This year, Julie, Danny, Ryan, David and Jenny (brother and sister-in-law) went to Wooddale's Christmas Program. The church is massive, and they had a full orchestra, choir, organ and even interpretive dancers. The program consisted of the following songs: • Overture "Canticle of Glorias" • Gloria in Excelsis Deo • O Come, All Ye Faithful • White Christmas • How Great Our Joy • Pat a Pan • Noe! Noe! • Fum, Fum, Fum • The First Noel • Angels We Have Heard on High • The Christmas Story • Ecolgue for Piano and Strings Opus 10 • No Eye Had Seen/All is Well • Amazing Grace It was very profession and extremely inspirational. Some of the songs had a Celtic feel to them, and the grand finale included a Scottish man playing bagpipes in traditional dress. It was amazing to hear, especially since it was my dad's and Barb's favorite hymn. If you have a chance to go to a church program, you should. It is a chance to decompress, tune out the commercialism of the season, sing carols and hymns, and share in the Christmas message with family and friends. https://youtu.be/euWfTiYwRB0 4. Decorating Christmas Cookies When Julie and I were in high school

Today’s episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast is actually the second part of my interview with Doneil Freeman. Who is Doneil Freeman? He is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, regenerative farmer, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster. He operates the Freeman Family Farm in Calhan, Colorado. Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures. He also has extensive experience with Wicking Bed Gardens to grow all kinds of vegetables! This is the second part of my interview with Doneil. If you want to catch the first, listen to Episode 30 of the Small Scale Life Podcast. In this episode, we discuss Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast. I am pretty excited about this podcast because it is launching a new series at Small Scale Life about wicking beds and how awesome they are! Topics - Wicking Beds and Regenerative Dads Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 2 of our two part interview: Wicking Beds in Arid Environments - list text hereSecond-hand watering troughs - list text hereLiners - Pond liner and 6mm liner - list text hereCompost - Mulch - list text hereCharging the system Regenerative Dads Podcast - What is the subject? - Why is this important? - Where is it going? Putting It All Together - Wicking Bed Nation - Upcoming shows - Thank you!

Thanksgiving seems to be a distant memory now, but I did want to circle around and talk about cooking a turkey using the tips discussed in Episode 29 and also talk about making turkey noodle soup with the leftover carcass and meat. This goes beyond Thanksgiving, and I hope you use this episode and the recipes/tips discussed when you cook a turkey in the future. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on: list text hereGardening, list text hereHealthy living, and list text hereHaving adventures along the way. Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life. For this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Drew Sample at TheSampleHour.com. He recently released Episode 171, which is all about Hogtoberfest 2017. I listened to this podcast, and this podcast put me there in the middle of it all. The stories and experiences told around the microphone reminded me of the stories and experiences shared around the barrel stove this past weekend in Central Wisconsin at Domres Deer Camp 2017. This is how community is built, traditions established and bonds between people developed. If you are missing that in your life, listen to this podcast. You will hear something special. I have to give Greg and Susan Burns and the Burns family a huge thank you for the invitation this year. Also, I would like to thank Drew Sample for recording this, and the Bee Whisperer Michael Jordan, Doneil Freeman and others for participating. It was special, and I will be attending next year. While we are on the subject of Greg Burns, I would like to remind you that Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at naturesimagefarms.com. As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping! So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today! Finally, I would like to remind you that our friends at Aussie Flame Weeders are still selling flame weeder kits to gardeners, market farmers and urban gardeners. These are stainless steel, five burner manifolds designed for a standard 30-inch garden bed. The kits also include 16-inch tires and the ability to carry propane tanks (so you don’t have to. Check them out at https://www.aussieflameweeders.com/ Welcome back to the show. As I mentioned in Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie, the boys and I went to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We got to enjoy the day with family, and they handled all of the elements of the meal. It was a lot of fun to talk and hang out, and the food was fantastic! Unlike last year, there was no snow on the ground, and I got some good pictures of the sunset. With the boys home for the long weekend, we decided to cook a turkey on Sunday. I wanted to try Jack Spirko’s cooking advice, so I started to thaw the bird for Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get it thawed out in time to quarter and brine the bird for 24-hours, but I did try quartering the bird! Learning to Quarter a Turkey In Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 (http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/thanksgiving-2017-jack), he made a case for quartering a turkey before cooking it. Jack resorted to this when he had to cook a 38-pound turkey. No conventional smoker, roaster or oven can handle a 38-pound turkey. His solution was to quarter the turkey, which means you: list text hereRemove the wings list text hereRemove the thighs and legs list text hereRemove the breast cutlets from the skeleton Cook these pieces of meat together, but you can remove the various pieces as they hit the right temperature. That means you can remove the wings (which usually cook first), then the breast meat, and finally the legs and thighs as they hit 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Using this method, you won’t have shriveled wings and Sahara-like breast meat! I have to admit, I was a little intimated by quartering a turkey. I had never done it before, even when I cooked the whole bird in a roaster. When I carved a turkey, I usually sliced a bunch of breast meat off, and then I would remove the legs and slice some thigh meat (dark meat). It was not intentional or planned; I just did it. At Julie’s cousin’s house, I watched as Julie’s uncle carved the turkey. He essentially quartered the bird after it came out of their roaster. It did not look too complicated, but I still was unsure. I even asked her uncle if he ever quartered a turkey before cooking it, and he had never done that method before. Still a little unsure, I went to everyone’s favorite go-to for do it yourself-type videos: YouTube. I watched two very good videos on quartering and deboning a turkey: The first is from Jack Burton from stellaculinary.com (http://StellaCulinary.com/CKS44) https://youtu.be/Z-sMdmCDXJ4 The second is from Matt Proft, who was a turkey farmer for se

We have a great podcast for you today. Today’s show is an interview with Doneil Freeman, who is a husband, father (a Regenerative Dad), permaculturist, farmer based on regenerative agriculture principles, beekeeper, teacher and a fellow podcaster. Doneil Freeman operates Freeman Family Farms located in Calhan, Colorado. Doneil has experience beekeeping, rebuilding soil in arid places and regenerating overgrazed pastures using principles from regenerative agriculture and permaculture. He has run a successful CSA program, and he has a lot of advice for those of us who are starting small businesses which includes market gardens, urban farms CSA programs and even a blogs and podcasts. This will be a two part interview. In this podcast, we cover a lot of topics including attending Hogtoberfest, beekeeping, starting and running a CSA program, and regenerative agriculture including rebuilding soils in arid environments. Part 2 will include a discussion about Doneil’s wicking beds and the Regenerative Dad’s podcast. Topics - Regenerative Agriculture with Doneil Freeman Doneil and I discussed the following topics in Part 1 of our two part interview: Hogtoberfest 2017 with Greg Burns, Drew Sample and Michael Jordan Origin Stories My Story Doneil's Story Doneil's Bees Regenerative Agriculture, Restoring the Land and Farming Boom to Bust CSA Program Freeman Family Farm Links Doneil and I covered a lot of ground in this podcast including the following links: Doneil Freeman on Facebook Freeman Family Farms Regenerative Dads Podcast Website Regenerative Dads on iTunes The Sample Hour Episode 171 - Hogtoberfest 2017

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you are well on your way to enjoying the holiday with family and friends. In this post and podcast, we are going to talk about cooking for Thanksgiving. I’ll talk about turkey, trimmings, funny failures and other ways to prepare your turkey, stuffing and appetizers. While you are probably already hustling preparing for your Thanksgiving feast and have a plan in motion, this post might spur a few ideas for future meals and give you a few chuckles about some of our past failures. After all, people will sleep off their turkey coma at some point, football is only so interesting, and those dishes aren’t going to do themselves! I wanted to start this podcast by wishing you all a great Thanksgiving and safe travels in your way. AAA is reporting that over 51 million Americans will be traveling over 50 miles for this holiday, and that is a 3.3 percent increase over last year. That translates to more than 1.6 million more people traveling this year than last year, so be careful out there on the roads, at the airports, at the bus stations and at train stations! Thanksgiving 2017 Like last year, we will be on the road and will be traveling more than 50 miles from our home. We will be heading to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We will watch some football, socialize, play some games and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. We had a great time last year, and I wrote an article about it called Thanksgiving Reflections. Of course, the bulk of that article was talking about the blog and podcast, particularly after a busy harvest season in 2016. My have times changed! I’ll have more on comparing 2016 to 2017 in a future podcast. Turkey and Trimmings Because I am not cooking a turkey and all the side dishes this year, I did not post an articles, podcasts and videos about how we make our Thanksgiving feast. HOWEVER, if you are like us and will be guests at someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, you should still cash in on great prices for turkeys! This is a fantastic time to buy a couple of birds at a low price and save them in the freezer for the future. Save some money; buy them on sale now! I am really excited that Julie bought one last night, and with the two Domres’ boys here this weekend, I will be making a turkey! I am in charge of the bird, and I typically make them in a roaster. I bought a 22-quart Hamilton Beach roaster from Walmart several years ago, and it works like a champ! I have cooked many birds and other meals in this roaster, and it is really good to have during the holidays or for parties. One of the real advantages of the roaster is that the oven is free for other dishes and tasks (i.e., cooking other dishes and keeping other dishes warm while the bird finishes). You can usually find one for under $50 at Walmart or other stores, and they will last a long time. Of course, I am kicking myself that I don’t have an Amazon affiliate right now! How I Cook the Turkey Following my normal steps, the turkey is prepped and in the roaster! As I mentioned, I have cooked several birds in the roaster over the years. I have used a pretty straightforward method for cooking my birds: Defrost the turkey (usually overnight process, so you might be in trouble if this isn’t done yet). Remove the package of organs and neck (throw them away – like those worthless tomato cages) Line the roaster with tinfoil (it makes for easier clean-up) Put the turkey into the tinfoil-lined roaster Brush the turkey with olive oil Brush the turkey with honey Sprinkle on garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, pepper and seasoning salt Cook the turkey at 325 degrees F until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F Remove the turkey, carve it and serve it to the family and guests Note: I do not put stuffing in the bird. That is reserved for the oven to be cooked separately Save the leftovers for sandwiches and other meals (if there is anything left) This system has worked well for me for a number of years, and I usually have a moist turkey at the end of this process. Funny Food Failures Fortunately, we have not had too many failures (that I can’t remember or easily correct). Don’t let me fool you though: we aren’t culinary geniuses over here. I shouldn’t toot our horn too loudly; we have had a few funny food failures over the years: Paste Mashed Potatoes – We made mashed potatoes that had the consistency of paste. This was the result of overcooking the potatoes. Try not to do that because the glue mashed potatoes are just not good! Mushy Stuffing – When we were first married, I used to make stuffing from scratch from breadcrumbs, celery, broth and other odds and ends. Unfortunately, Julie informed me that the stuffing was “mushy and slimy” and that she preferred Stove Top Stuffing. Since then, we have been making and eating Stove Top Stuffing. I might have to make a homemade batch to see how much better of a cook I have become (or not). Special Package – When Julie’s mom made her first Thanksgiv

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the joining of two souls in holy matrimony: Jay and Andrea. Congratulations, my friends! Your friends from the frozen tundra in Minnesota celebrate this glorious event with you! As I woke up this morning, I was thinking about this event and your wedding. I woke up thinking about what I would say to you both as you begin this phase of your lives together. I have been married for almost 24 years, and I have learned some things along the way that I would be happy to pass along to you both. This is the same advice from the same philosophers I gave to my brother when I was his Best Man at his wedding some years ago. It is the same advice I will give my two boys when they wed some day in the distant future. Go with the Flow The first piece of advice comes from a great philosopher of the modern age. This man hails from the far north as well. In his case, he comes from Canada and is one of their most cherished treasures. In the timeless words of John Candy: [tweetthis]"Go with the flow like a twig on the shoulders of a massive stream!" John Candy[/tweetthis] Marriage and life can be compared to going down a river. Sometimes, marriage and life is good and easy. The waters are calm, and things take little effort. Other times, there are rapids, and it takes a lot of effort to avoid getting hung up on the rocks. In the worst of times, the river rushes over a waterfall. You need to hold on to each other tight and go over to uncertain depths below or figure out a safe way around the impending disaster. The key through all of this is to be together and work like a team. By doing that, you will be equipped and able to take on whatever is around the next bend in the river. Laughter is the Best Medicine The second piece of advice comes from another great mind and talent of our current year and current age. This is truly an exquisite mind and talent: one that is unparalleled in all the land. I, I mean this talent, firmly believes that you should, no matter what, always try to laugh. Life comes at you fast, and sometimes the only way to cope with it is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, make a joke and laugh. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Live, laugh and love. Truly is more than a cheesy slogan on an Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest page. It is the truth. It is how I try to approach life, although sometimes I am better at it than others. You have to laugh together to make sense of this mad, mad world. Even when Jay leaves his nasty workout socks on the floor or the toilet seat up. You just have to laugh. Congratulations! Start Your World Julie and I wish you two the best. We wished we could be there with you to celebrate this event, but we will make efforts to celebrate sometime and in some place in the future. Congratulations! Good luck, good fortune, and may God smile upon you. Start your world; it begins….now!

It is time for another exciting episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast! This is a long overdue Healthy Lifestyle Update, and I am checking back in to with you as my accountability partners. So for this episode, treat is like a warm-up for Thanksgiving: prepare yourself to hear all about my ailments and knee pain and problems, just like you are listening to your dad around the dinner table. No, not really…well, maybe a little. Seriously though, I am going to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly in regards to my journey towards improving my health and fitness. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on: list text hereGardening, list text hereHealthy living, and list text hereHaving adventures along the way. Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life. Friends of Small Scale Life Lumbersquatches Greg Burns and Drew Sample - Good Men and Good Friends! For this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Drew Sample at The Sample Hour. He just released Episode 171, which is all about Hogtoberfest 2017. In case you missed it, Drew Sample and I talked about Hogtoberfest 2016 last year. I have not had a chance to listen to this podcast yet, but given the people and personalities that attended this year, I am positive that this podcast will be simply awesome. Special shouts out to all the attendees for showing us how small communities of like minded people can come together to do some really cool stuff. Thanks for recording and posting this Drew! I would also like to remind you that the Hogtoberfest host Greg Burns from Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at Nature's Image Farm. As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping! So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today! Healthy Lifestyle Update: Good, Bad and Ugly So. Many. Patterns. Icing my knee this afternoon. Starting PT tomorrow. Thanks @mbell971 and @jdoms91 for keeping my spirits up. Sucks to hobble around. You don’t realize how much you rely on your knees until they don’t work right (pain free). A post shared by Small Scale Life (@smallscalelife) on Nov 7, 2017 at 3:42pm PST Today on Small Scale Life, I am going to discuss some of the good, the bad and the ugly related to jump-starting this journey. As you start to move, you might find out that some things need some attention and some work. You might even find out that you are not a 2 on the healthy lifestyle scale from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the fittest person in your dreams), you might be a 1. Right now, I am a 1. What will it take to get to a 2? The last time I talked about this topic was back at the end of September. I have had a whole month, so what progress did I make? In a way, it is like showing your homework, a project or a speech in front of the class. Some of it might be good. Some of it might be bad, and in some cases, just plain ugly. The good news is that I am still here, still working on it and still moving forward. I am working through the pain, and it has given me a serious appreciation for people like Todd Ehrhardt that are living and making progress on their dreams in spite of their physical pain. We’ll start from the worst case and work backwards, so we end on a positive note. What can I say? I am a positive guy and want to end on a positive note and looking forward. The Ugly Let’s start with the ugly. If you follow Small Scale Life on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you have seen a lot of pictures and posts of my knee under various ice packs. I have been nursing a bad knee since the end of August when I worked at the Minnesota State Fair. So, what is going on? To answer that question, we have to go back in a time machine. Back in my youth, I played football in high school and in college. As a defensive lineman and linebacker, I had my share of sprained ankles and fingers. I also had two knee injuries. As a Senior in high school, I strained my Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) on my left knee against Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (my son Ryan’s nemesis from high school basketball). That healed fairly quickly. The bigger, more serious injury occurred in college. I was chasing down a running back on a broken play in a game against Hamline College, and a guy who was subbing in for our injured safety dove right into my left leg, bending it backward. I partially tore my Posterior Collateral Ligament (PCL) and once again strained my MCL. I also taught the Hamline sideline a new vocabulary and language that would make Salty Seaman proud. I was out for the year, and I decided to end my football career. Flash forward 26 years from 1991 to 2017. I went from endless hours behind desks and in meetings to working on my feet a lot. In my current role, I am inspecting railroad crossings, wo

A chill is in the air. The winds have blown the leaves off the trees, and the nights are getting short. Here in Minnesota, we are getting our first snowfall today! The garden season is over, and it is time to prepare for winter. In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss how I will winterize the garden, tools and other gardening gear for winter. Fall in Minnesota We have been having a gorgeous fall here in Minnesota. The temperatures have been perfect, and the leaves on the trees have been fantastic. One comment on the leaves before we jump into the main topic: the progression of fall colors seems to have been sporadic this year. If there was a stand of trees, we would get one tree changing, and then another. It wasn’t like other years where they all changed at once. I would say that the peak colors in the Twin Cities happened around October 15th, and I took a lot of pictures of trees this fall. Julie and I will be traveling down the Mississippi River this weekend, so hopefully we will find some good views and fall color downstream! First Snow in Minnesota We are getting our first snow in Minnesota - 10/27/17 As I mentioned at the start of the podcast, the local news media has been sounding the alarms all week that we would be getting our first snowfall today (Friday). While the local weather forecasters are usually wrong about the size of these events, they were right: it started snowing last night and it is snowing as I speak. The 2017 garden season is over. It is time to get ready for the inevitable: winter is here! This podcast and corresponding post are essential a To Do Checklist for me (and perhaps for you as well) before we get an accumulation of white stuff and the ground freezes. Once the ground freezes, it is all over here in Minnesota. It really does turn into permafrost, and if you have any dead plants in the ground, they will be stuck there until the spring thaw. Trust me: it has happened to me before with my wicking beds. As I look at the current state of my garden and garden area, I realize I have a lot to do before that happens! As of today, I have not pulled any of my plants. I had tomatoes and peppers on the plants last night. In fact, the basil is still sprouting new leaves and there are buds on the tomatoes and peppers, even though we got our first frost on October 10, which was exactly on the National Weather Service’s average frost date for this area. So, let’s get down to what needs to be done, shall we? 7 Steps to Winterize Your Garden Harvest remaining vegetables and herbs You worked hard to grow those plants, so you should reap the rewards! Don’t let frost, snow and the deep freeze take that from you! I was looking at the forecast yesterday as the front moved in, and I saw that temperatures were going to plummet. Last night I got home and started harvesting tomatoes and peppers by flashlight. Yeah, that isn’t too sexy, especially when I dumped the container and had tomatoes all over the ground, but it worked. I am glad I harvested those last night! Now, what to do with a pile of green tomatoes? Remove Plants from the Garden If any plants have signs of blight, remove plants and dispose of them. Do not throw them into your compost pile! If you throw infected plants into your compost pile, you could be infecting your compost with blight spores. Get rid of the plants with blight! If there are no signs of blight, throw the plants into your compost pile. Remove Trellis String and Tomato Cages Unwrap and untie trellis string from the around the plants and conduit. If any of the trellis string wrapped around plants with signs of blight, dispose of the string. You don’t want to infect next year’s plants with blight. Otherwise, coil up the strings and use twisty ties to keep them organized. That way you won’t have a Christmas Vacation-like snarl of strings in the spring. Organization goes a long way, and it does help. Remove any tomato cages and throw them away. I am serious. I am still not a fan of tomato cages. Prepare your Beds for the Spring If it was earlier in the fall, I would recommend planting an over-winter crop such as garlic, onions or carrots. These plants can get a start growing in the warm soil and fading fall sun and will start growing during the spring thaw. As a gardener, there is something magical about seeing a green onion shoot or garlic shoot popping up in April after a long, hard winter. I am not planting any over-winter crops this year due to changes I am going to make next spring. If it was earlier in the season, planting a cover crop is a great way to add nutrients to your soil. I purposely planted sugar snap peas and bush beans because we eat both vegetables and they add nitrogen to the soil. That is why farmers have a planting cycle between corn (which takes a ton of nutrients to grow) and beans. The beans naturally replace nutrients to the soil! For other ideas about cover crops, check out Old World Garden Farms articles on the subjec

Welcome to Small Scale Life! This is Season 2 Episode 25, and in this episode, I am completing my interview with Michael Bell from Dallas, Texas. Michael is a husband, dad, teacher, small business owner, body builder, trainer, and urban farmer. In Season 2 Episode 24, Michael and I discussed his urban farm called Half Acre Farm, but that is only one of Michael's businesses. Michael is also a body builder and fitness trainer, and I had to get his Healthy Lifestyle Advice for those of us just starting out on our journey. What is interesting is that Michael's advice is similar to what he heard from Kevin Michael Geary in HELP Episode 7. That tells me that these two guys are ON to something.... For all of my homesteader, market gardener and urban farmer friends, you will want to hang through this podcast. In fine Tomres' fashion (that isn't a spelling error, by the way...I guess I have a nickname), I swerve the discussion back to his urban farming operation and talk about lessons learned and the future of the Half Acre Farm. Thank you Michael Bell for spending the time with me and our listeners at Small Scale Life! You are always welcome back to our show, and I am sure we will be talking with you in the near future. Topics Hammered quads this morning! Heaviest Ive gone in leg press in a few weeks, I've been doing supersets and rest pause so it was nice to get that heavy weight feeling back in the quads. This was the 5th and final set so I went to failure and got 24 reps. Now I have 6 meals to get in to complete a successful day! #gamedaypreworkout A post shared by Michael Bell (@mbell971) on May 24, 2017 at 5:27am PDT In this podcast, Michael Bell and I discussed the following: Body Building How did Michael get into Body Building? What is your story? Training others (developing a practice and using technology) As a body builder, what do you eat? What is Michael's healthy lifestyle advice for people just starting on their journey? Urban Farming Lessons Learned in Body Building that translate to Urban Farming Future projects and ideas; expansion? In Part 1 of this interview, we discussed his experience starting and developing his urban farm. Check it out! Links for Michael Bell Had a freaking awesome bi's and calves training session at home this morning! Hoping to train tri's for the first time in 6 week next week. A post shared by Michael Bell (@mbell971) on Mar 24, 2017 at 8:01am PDT You can find Michael Bell with the following links: Michael Bell on Instagram Dallas Half Acre Farm on Instagram Michael Bell on Facebook Small Scale Life Podcast - Urban Farming in Dallas with Michael Bell - S2E24 Small Scale Life Facebook Group Friends of Small Scale Life Photo courtesy of Aussie Flame Weeder Introducing Aussie Flame Weeders, a new friend of Small Scale Life! Aussie Flame Weeders makes stainless steel flame weeder manifolds. They are making manifold set available this month, and they expect to start shipping them all by the start of November. The manifold set up will contain: Custom manifold to suit 30-inch bed list text hereFive stainless steel German made burners that can removed to be cleaned, changed or replaced list text hereLPG equipment to suit a standard propane bottle list text hereFlint lighter To help promote this deal, Aussie Flame Weeders are offering all customers who purchase a custom manifold the chance to win Coolbot! These are perfect tools for your urban farm! To be in the competition all you have to do is: Order a manifold before the October 31, 2017 Like the Aussie Flame Weeders Facebook page or share the page with fellow urban farming friends. Help by providing feedback in a short survey they will email to you if you agree to participating To find out more: Check Aussie Flame Weeder out using the following links: Aussie Flame Weeder website is www.aussieflameweeders.com Aussie Flame Weeder on Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/aussieflameweeders/?ref=bookmarks A FREE short e-book about flame weeding is available at the website if you sign up to the email list! Small Scale Life Facebook Group – This group will get you a backstage pass and access to other members of the Small Scale Life Community. We will discuss gardening, healthy lifestyle, frugal living and having adventures along the way! This is also your chance to see what is coming up on Small Scale Life, see some content not shared on the blog, and ask questions of future guests. Join the Small Scale Life Facebook Community today! Ways to Listen We have several options for you to listen to the Small Scale Life Podcast. You may listen in the following locations: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Player FM Subscribe and Rate on iTunes Please subscribe to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel! If you are a subscriber to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel, please provide a review for the podcast, consider giving a few stars (not going to lie: I want five stars) for the Podcast. I really appreciate you as a listener a

This is Season 2, Episode 24 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and I have a great interview lined up for you today. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you will have a break from my monologues with this podcast. I am SURE there is much rejoicing with that news. In this episode, I am interviewing a husband, dad, teacher, small business owner, body builder, trainer, and urban farmer! This gentleman’s name is Michael Bell. He is a fellow kindred spirit from down in Texas, and in Part 1 of our two part interview, we are talking urban farming! He is not only a mountain of muscle, but he also owns and operates Half Acre Farm. Inspired by some of my heroes including Gary Vee, Curtis Stone and JM Fortier, Michael is carving out his organic footprint in a quiet spot six miles from down Downtown Dallas. It is pretty cool talking with Michael, and I learned a lot from him. Whether it is starting your own small business (not necessarily urban farming) or getting fit, I think there is something for everyone in these next two podcasts! Topics In this podcast, Michael Bell and I discussed the following: Introductions Who is Michael Bell? What was your first gardening experience? Urban Farming Why urban farming? Influences and inspiration Property Crops Business model and clients Challenges and solutions Future projects In Part 2 of this interview, we discuss body building and the journey to develop a healthy lifestyle. Links for Michael Bell https://www.instagram.com/p/BZpYPKuBQLq/?taken-by=dallashalfacrefarms You can find Michael Bell with the following links: Michael Bell on Instagram Dallas Half Acre Farm on Instagram Michael Bell on Facebook Small Scale Life Facebook Group - Yes, folks, I added him....shhhhhh! *Friends of Small Scale Life * Introducing Aussie Flame Weeders, a new friend of Small Scale Life! Aussie Flame Weeders makes stainless steel flame weeder manifolds. They are making manifold set available this month, and they expect to start shipping them all by the start of November. The manifold set up will contain: Custom manifold to suit 30-inch bed Five stainless steel German made burners that can removed to be cleaned, changed or replaced LPG equipment to suit a standard propane bottle Flint lighter To help promote this deal, Aussie Flame Weeders are offering all customers who purchase a custom manifold the chance to win Coolbot! These are perfect tools for your urban farm! To be in the competition all you have to do is: Order a manifold before the October 31, 2017 Like the Aussie Flame Weeders Facebook page or share the page with fellow urban farming friends. Help by providing feedback in a short survey they will email to you if you agree to participating To find out more: Check Aussie Flame Weeder out using the following links: Aussie Flame Weeder website is www.aussieflameweeders.com Aussie Flame Weeder on Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/aussieflameweeders/?ref=bookmarks

This is Season 2, Episode 23 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and today we are going to talk about the Fall Garden. How are things going? What is happening with the new seedlings? If you follow Small Scale Life on Instagram or Facebook, you already have a clue on what has been going on in the garden. As a gardener, I have to tell you: it isn’t always smooth sailing. In this episode, I will be talk about the new seedlings and some serious garden pests who have made a mess of the Fall Garden. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are dedicated to intentional living through learning, doing and growing. We are focused on: • Gardening, • Healthy living, and • Having adventures along the way. Welcome to October! We have gotten over two inches of rain here. The rain barrel is completely full, and the garden has absorbed the water. Beyond this rain, I have also been fighting pests in the garden as well (as a spoiler alert: I just picked off two dozen slugs off plants and from the garden beds). Even with these challenges, plants are still growing and producing. So, as the harvest moon rises in the east, I thought that it was time for another Fall Garden Update! In this episode, I am going to talk about going on Pest Patrol. Grab your rubber boots, your flashlights and follow me out into the garden. Fall Crops Two weeks ago (and as I discussed in Season 2 Episode 21), I took the seedlings growing in the trays and planted them into the Square Foot Garden Beds. I planted almost all of the sugar snap peas into the Western Bed. I put the seedlings in two rows across the entire length of the bed. I figured I would install a simple trellis system consisting of two 2"x4" posts, two 3/4" conduits, some fencing and zip ties. Once the sugar snap peas got a little taller and sent out more tendrils, I would install the trellis. Unfortunately, that plan has been delayed a bit due to some unwelcome visitors to the garden. More on that in a minute. Like the sugar snap peas, I took the green bush beans and planted them into the Eastern Bed. They completely filled out the open area in front of the compost tomatoes. Two weeks later, they are look pretty good; however, there is some leaf damage from some pests. Finally, I do have some reserve Fall Crops that have not been planted in the garden beds yet. I have lettuce, spinach and a few sugar snap peas growing happily in the seed trays. In addition, I pre-soaked some sugar snap pea seeds (soak them in water overnight), and I planted 3/4 of a tray this week. I figure if we have a mild Fall, I might get some new seedlings down in the beds and perhaps can get some sugar snap peas before the hard freeze. Time will tell if it works out or not. Rabbit Terminators In previous garden updates, I mentioned that there are a number of rabbits in this neighborhood. These furry terminators seem to have an insatiable hunger. So much so that they chewed through the flimsy plastic Walmart fencing that ring each of the garden beds. Seriously. They ate through the plastic fencing! Earlier in the season, I repaired the holes by using chicken wire and zip ties. These rabbits would not be denied: they chewed new holes and got into the beds. While it really wasn't a big deal to lose a couple pepper leaves, it WAS a big deal for the rabbits eating down the sugar snap peas. In a course of a week, they grazed over the peas every night, and my two healthy rows of peas turned into a few plants on the edges of the West Garden Bed. I had peas every 2"-3", and now I don't have many plants in the middle of the bed. I now have pea stubble, and I had to do something. I wanted to salvage some peas this fall, so I went ahead and pulled out the flimsy plastic fencing on Garden Bed West. I was going to beef up the stakes that support the fencing, but I needed to get the new fencing up before nightfall. I replaced the flimsy fencing with good old fashioned chicken wire, and I affixed the fence to the stakes with zip ties. The chicken wire is taller than the cheap plastic fencing, and it should provide some protection from the furry menace. Sluggish Menace The light was fading as I was working on the fencing. I slowly unrolled the fencing around the garden and attached the fencing to the wooden stakes. As the sun started to set, I began to notice creatures slowly slinking out from dark areas near the stakes. I actually bent down and looked closely, and then it hit me. I had a slug problem! Slugs will feed on leaves of plants and ripening fruit. I had noticed some damage on the basil leaves, tomatoes and a couple of the peppers, but I just kept doing my thing. Having DEALT with slugs in my gardens before, I should have known the signs and done something earlier. When I finished with the fence project, I threw the plastic fencing away and went back to the garden. I drabbed a red solo cup and began picking off the slugs one at a time. Once I had collected about 20 slugs, I drowned them (an