Live Interviews from MWPP - EP 1164

0:00The place to be is living free, living free and Tennessee. Welcome to the Living Free and Tennessee Podcast where we talk about building the life you choose on your terms. Today is Friday, September 11th, September 11th. Yep. September, 2026, 11th? So I'm significant about that day down. Is there anything significant about that day into the mic? I do some airplanes. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I had to do some airplanes. Something, something, something. Anyway, in 2026, and this is episode 1,100 and 64 of Living Free and Tennessee, and it's apparently September 11th. And I'm doing what any happy September 11th non-loving person would do on a day like today. What are you doing? I'm hanging out with the coolest people in the world. We've got, we're here at the Midwest Preparedness Project Fall Festival.

1:01It's Fall right now. And we are learning from people, getting to know folks, making decisions to make changes in our lives. And I thought it would be fun to do a live podcast from the stage at the Midwest Preparedness Project Fall Festival. And I'd like to thank two sponsors today. The first sponsor is the Midwest Preparedness Project. Let's give... These guys have the best team. Everybody is super gracious, even if they're gritting at their teeth in the background where we could never see it. I'm sure that doesn't happen because you're all such nice people. Very gracious hosts. We arrived here and they handed us a happy beverage while we got set up, but brought out a bunch of lights after dark and we got our tent set up. And it's just great to be hosted at the Midwest Preparedness Project. The second sponsor I want to thank today doesn't know she's a sponsor, but it's Red Flyer Media. She's the reason you are hearing me right now. Live on the Internet, Rebecca.

2:02Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to interview some speakers who have talked at the Midwest Preparedness Project today. And Dawn didn't speak at their festival. What? That's because Silver Lines Festival took over yesterday. But Dawn kicked us off yesterday with an interesting topic. But before we jump into that, Dawn Gorham from the Gorham Home said, who are you and why the heck have you gone from working in the court systems to sitting on a stage with your friends rocking in the chairs that you got at track your supply? Yeah, I'm enjoying rocking in the chair. It's great. Well, if you'd asked me 10 years ago, I would have laughed in your face because I thought I was going to ride out my time in the courthouse and retire. I mean, I did retire, but I had to defer my retirement. But I thought I was going to be there for the duration until I started going down toward the preparedness, the rabbit hole, and then I started listening in a coal and listening to Jack Spirco. And all these things sort of opened up my eyes to a lot of things that were going on in

3:06the world, which led me to during COVID, I went to my first Silver Lines Festival. And I don't know if Nicole knows this or not, but that first one that I went to, like I was really sort of fan-gurling. Like I really wanted to meet Nicole, or she rolling her eyes at me, really wanted to meet Nicole. I had her book, cooking with what you have, and I've got her chicken process in book. And I went up to Lonnie, and Lonnie was standing there sort of man in her booth, and I said, do you think that I could meet Nicole? Because I was not walking up to Nicole and introducing myself. That's just not my personality, but I will go through a third party. And Lonnie was like, yes, let's go. And I was like, oh god, okay, here we go. So walked up to Nicole and introduced myself and got to talk and tour. And my talk was very quick, because I was very shy, very embarrassed. But next thing I knew, I sort of volunteered to help with anything that I could help with

4:11at Self-Rollant Festival. So the next one that rolled around, I was A-volunteer. I was volunteering to help with whatever that I could help with. And then by the next Self-Rollant Festival, I was the volunteer coordinator. And so that just kept growing and kept growing. And eventually, just being a part of this community gave me the strength and the ability to look inside myself to see what I really wanted to do. Because that by that time I had bought a farm, my dairy was growing. But at that time I was doing both. I was working full-time and milk in the cows and doing those things, selling a little bit of milk, not a whole lot. And eventually, I kept hearing that little voice. And Nicole saying, Nicole did, I don't think even really knew at that time that I was contemplating leaving my job. But just the little things of encouragement that she said to me along the way.

5:12And the community said to me along the way, made me realize, I could do this. Like I don't have to live this way. I don't have to live in work for another person where I'm never going to go beyond where I'm at. I'm always going to be doing what I'm doing. Always going to be treated like I'm in junior high. You know, I've only had so many sick days. I'm not ever going to call the shots for myself. And so eventually I did. I announced that I was retiring from Metro Courts. And I did that. And I have been running my dairy now for three years. And counter to what I actually believed at first, I have not gone bankrupt. I have made it. She didn't die. I didn't die. And the courthouse did not fall in without me. So there's a couple of lessons I'm hearing in there. One is, if you're at an event like this and you're afraid to walk up to somebody and introduce yourself, they're literally here to meet you.

6:12I know if there's anybody here who hasn't talked to me. I mean, the people I'm looking at have talked to me. But if you haven't talked to me because I'm scary, because I look you in the eyes sometimes and say words, just come up and talk to me. That's why I don't just come up, speak and leave. So I'm saying that because there are going to be other people here this week here. You're like, I'm not sure if I can talk to William, the nicest man in the entire universe. Yes. So that's one lesson. But the other lesson is a hidden lesson. Have you ever heard somebody tell you what they want to do? And it's the stupidest darn thing you ever heard in your entire life. Never had that happen. I'm very much. Yes. Never tell them. Like literally if they're going to do something, like throw all their money down a pit and burn it, maybe talk to them then. But if they're like, my idea is to get six chimpanzees and dress them up like ballerinas.

7:12And I'm going to take them to festivals. And I'm going to have them show people how to make alcohol stoves while cooking vegan tofu over a spit. And I think I can do that and make money. Instead of saying that's the stupidest darn thing I ever heard, ask questions, right? Right. You can ask questions. Okay, why and who's your target audience and do you want to do some trial runs of the tofu to see if it tastes good? They may end up doing it and making more money than you ever made and creating freedom in their life. And just taking that step and starting having those thoughts gets them set up to do the thing they're going to do. And sometimes the first thing you do fails. So if you ever had anything fail that you decided, you know what I started this and it's a total terrible idea. I don't even like doing it and I just lost my butt and tell us what it was and what you did. She's nodding. So I already know what her answer is.

8:13I love you, do you? Goats. I wanted to milk goats one before I had ever had milk cows. And so I got this little herd of Nigerian dwarfs and the babies. So it's just started out with the babies and everybody loves the babies. The problem is the babies grow up to be adult goats and I learned that I do not like adult goats. So pretty quickly into that before I ever even tried to milk my first goat ended up because they kept getting out like there's no fence that I could create that would hold the goats. And I got tired of chasing them and it was eating my day, eating my time, making me mad. So I ended up selling my goat herd because that was for me a stupid idea. Just didn't work. But had you not started that? Would you have gotten a cow? Yes, because my dream was always to have a milk cow. Did you get the goats because you thought you could handle the smaller animals?

9:13I did, I was scared of the big cows. I knew I wanted one. I just hadn't gotten there yet. I think the goats got her over her fear of cows because after you chased a goat off your roof a few times, you start realizing that the cows can't jump that high. And while you don't want them to lean on you, cows can be tricked into being sweet animals. I've been knocked out by a cow. Oh, completely just out cold. Anything else would be great for people to learn about if you're homesteading with livestock is all the creative injuries we can get. Now that's a stupid, like what's the weirdest injury you ever had? Weirdest? Weirdest from your livestock. I'll put a stipulation on it. I mean, probably the time I got knocked out was like the... Okay, how did it happen, Dom? We all want to know. Okay, so I was in the barn. I had Tara tied up to a post because my AI guy was going to come and AI her.

10:13And I didn't have a stanchion to put her in yet. So she's kind of dancing around. And I leaned down... She was kind of over this way and the posters right here and the rope was going that way. I don't remember even what I was leaning down for, but I leaned down to either pick up something or do something. And at the same time I did when I raised back up, she took that weapon of mass destruction that is a cow's head and she whacked me and when she did... You know, because I just throw their head back and forth. When she did, she knocked me into the corner of that pole and it hit me right here and knocked me out cold. Did the AI take that day? They did... Well, I can't remember because I did try to have to try her several times. So I can't remember if that particular day took or not, but when he got there, I was awake and I was on my butt and he was like, what happened? The cow got me. So ever since then I've been very mindful of where her head is or the cow's head is in relation to my head.

11:15Yes. So if you're going to be around live, large livestock, it's a good idea to think about or learn about all the ways they can hurt you. Horses are another one walking behind that horse and doing a dance is not a good idea. It's not an ask me how I know because I learned how to walk behind a horse. I go to those stables where they rent out rides and the things. I'm surprised more people are not just laid out at those rental stables because the things even the people who work there do, I'm going to have 15 feet between a horse's head and it's in my hand on a lead and walk it through a bunch of people who've never been around a horse. What could possibly go wrong? It's true. That's one of two times I was bitten by a horse with somebody who was doing that and bitten by a horse? I reached over and bit my boob because that's where they always bite me. Of course. It was because it was mad at another horse and they didn't have control of its head. So that's the other thing. I took a really cool class learning how to keep sheep from being a problem by how you hold

12:19their head. After three years of literally body wrestling sheep to the ground to do hoof trimming and stuff and it was a real simple, if you hold the head up and it's head into you, it can't wiggle away. Nice. So guys, get help and that's why we come to festivals like this one, right? It's because somebody knows how to handle a sheep here or a you. I'm using this plural word. The sheep is plural and singular, I think, grammatically speaking. I think so. I think so. Anyway, you can learn all sorts of things. You didn't even realize while you're here and some of them will keep you from being dragged all the way down the pastor role, hanging on to a really upset you who does not want you to trim her hooves, for example. So okay, what's your favorite part about the transition you've made from working in the court system to the life you've built for yourself now? My favorite part for me is like realizing like my whole life had always been an employee.

13:24Like I had never managed other people. I had never been in a position like that and I didn't think I had it in me. I didn't think that I had the capability of managing a store or a business or anything like that. I thought I was always going to work for someone else. And the growth that I've had in myself and the realization that I am perfectly capable of running a business. I am perfectly capable of managing other people and managing them well has been a huge revelation for me and a huge like, I don't want to say an ego boost but a confidence booster. Like it's made me feel good about myself. And I have enjoyed the fact that it's something that I own. It's something that I've built. It's something that I have created and it was a vision that I had that I have now seen

14:25all the way through. And I know I'm still evolving and I know there's still places for me to go but I actually I did the thing. I did the thing that I wanted to do even though there was that little voice in the back of my head saying, you can't do that. That's not you. That's not who you are. And I have, I'm really thankful and blessed. But I also do think that all of those years that I spent working for other people and seeing how other people, because oddly enough, I run my farm exactly like the courthouse. My desk is set up exactly like my desk was at the courthouse. All my book key suing systems are exactly like we kept the books at the courthouse. All of my personal records is exactly how we kept courthouse records. So all of that stuff translated and it did help me. But I'm very thankful that I now see that I am much more capable than I ever thought it was. And you were always that capable and you're more capable than you even know right now.

15:31Maybe. But I'm still learning that. I'm still trying new things. You're going through a little reset right now, aren't you? Very much so. What advice? This is my last question before we bring our next one up. For other advice, you have people here, four people here who are going through a little reset right now. We'll just call it that. To navigate it happily. Because I think a lot of times when we're going to reset, it freaks us out. A reset, my reset did freak me out at first because I almost approached it like I was failing at something and like I had to, I had to pull back all my workshops and my girls' camps and all of those things this summer. Because I just, like I spoke about in my talk, I was at maximum capacity on the things that I could handle. And I do have somebody come that works on my farm now that lives on the farm to help me and I'm so thankful for that. And my husband and my son helps me. But I had no margin in my life to do anything fun.

16:33And when my kids were younger, before I started having grandkids, that didn't matter to me as much. But now that I've got these little bitty grandkids that I want to see, having some time margin in my life matters. So I would just say that if you are feeling what I was feeling, if you're waking up in the morning, not sure how you're going to keep all your plate spinning, that might be a time to back up and just bring it back to the basics and know what your purpose is and what you're trying to do. Because I know for me, my purpose is that I want to feed families. I want people to have access to good local food. I'm like Nicole, I want to build a food network where people can buy from each other and everybody knows who produces what within my radius of my house. And so that is what I'm focusing. My lens now for when I make decisions is does it serve that purpose? And I think that would help anybody who is doing that is just to think about why are

17:40you doing this in the first place. Awesome. Well, if you want to link up with Dawn, go to thegorumhomeshed.com. That's her website. And sometimes she puts out podcast episodes. And sometimes she puts out fun Facebook posts and sometimes she gets rated by the Department of Ag and pushes back. And it's just kind of fun to watch her stand up for herself and build her dream. Because building your dream is why you're here. Building, like living to your purpose is why we're here. And I think that's been the central theme in a lot of the talks today. So let's give Dawn a round of applause and we're going to bring Brit up next. Thank you Dawn so much for sharing with us. Are you Brit or Brit need today? No, either one. Okay. Brit. Mission Brit. We're just going to call you Brit. Okay. Yeah. So Brit's here from Oklahoma. Yep. Yep. And I haven't seen her talk yet. You know why? Because it's next.

18:40Because it's later. So before we get into some more fun, introspective questions. Okay. Tell us who's Brit Baker and how did you get here and why are you even talking to a bunch of pepper peppers anyway? Oh man. I mean, you've got dreadlocks. You're clearly a hippie who smokes pot. So, you know, let's talk about that. Okay. So let's see how short I can make this long story. I am Brit. I am a mom of four kiddos. I have had all of them home water births. One of them sent my off grid. Super fun. Learned a lot. I was homeschooled. My entire life growing up, aside second and third grade. I'm also the oldest of six. And my mom and I were actually pregnant at the same time. So baby number six for her was three weeks after baby number one for me. So the aunt is younger than the niece and our family. We are that close knit homeschool grew up in the homeschool coops.

19:41I lived in that world, but we didn't know about the pepper space. It was just what my parents did. We bought number 10 food cans. We one year for Thanksgiving, my parents took us to a farm to pick out the turrets. Turkey. And watch exactly how that turkey was processed so that we could bring it home and have Thanksgiving dinner. That was traumatizing a little bit for my age, but it taught me a lot. And it taught me that food, things are food, you know, food is food. What else? Gosh, how I ended up here was I worked for refuge medical for a few years. So that was my intro into the pepper space was through bear and bear and dependent. The privilege to be able to learn from him for years and listening to him talk yesterday, he actually covered a few of the same things that are going to be in my talk and there because there are things I learned from him. So I thought that was really cool to see full circle how far it has come.

20:43And the first preprovent I went to was SRF October 2025. And I remember sitting in the back of that room and going, I can do that. I can be one of those people up on stage. You know, I feel like I have a passion and a mission that I can share with others. And that's always been my mission in life was to use my testimony and things I've learned to teach others throughout the years, which is how mission brick came about because I grew up being that church kid and I got to go on all the mission trips. So my first mission trip was to the Bahamas at 12 years old and then I went to Arizona and South Dakota to work on the Indian reservations. And then I spent two weeks in Africa building water wells out there and actually putting these concrete boxes that were layered with different sized rocks so that they could pour their water into it and drink it out and it actually wasn't going to kill them because of the way it was filtered. I actually got to install those into people's homes on my 18th birthday.

21:48And that was really cool but also going to Africa and then coming back to the States and seeing how materialistic and self centered we are. I was like, I just, the people in Africa had so much joy with how little that they had. And it aggravated me for a little bit. I came back a little annoyed with my friends because they were complaining about that their Wi-Fi didn't work and that, you know, their parents made them chilly for dinner and they didn't want to eat chilly and I had just spent two weeks in Africa and I ate a ant filled peanut butter sandwich because that was our lunch for the day and there was nothing else to eat. We were in the middle of the country and unfortunately ants got into our sandwiches and extra protein, I guess. Yeah, okay. So the number one question I'm sure we're all wondering right now is what to ants taste like? They're just crunchy. I mean, I guess the peanut butter overlaps the taste more than anything. I feel like they're a little sweet.

22:49I do know how ants take for accidental reasons. That's like out of all the insects you could accidentally eat because spiders are bitter. I'll tell you, yeah, I know. I don't do it on purpose but every so often you're like that was a fly. Yeah, that was a fly in my coffee. I just swallowed my fly in my coffee. Yeah, ants are a little sweet. So if you're going to have an insect you have to eat. Ants, that's the one you're going to pick. That's I mean, they're not they're not the end of the world but none of us like the thought of it, do we? No, no. And one of the things we were served in Africa was a fish with the eyeball still in and I got to taste the eyeball. Mmm, not something I ever want to taste again. But I'm always one of those people. I will try it one time. And if I make it to a second, that means it was at least good. So. Yeah, I feel like I might struggle with the mouth feel on the eyeball. Yeah, just don't recommend. No, no. There are some cheeks on the other hand. So good. Mmm. Fish cheeks. Yep, specifically the cheeks, specifically the cheeks.

23:50It's like a really good. It's a really good mouth feel. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, and it's fish. Yeah, I mean, so if you cook fish, well, Dawn's about to die in the chair right now. She's over the right. Well, I said local food network. I didn't realize Nicole was talking about that. Yeah, so that's my story and adjust. I'm sure there's more to it. How often have you gone on mission within five miles of your own home? Mmm. So the last few years, I have probably done that more than ever. I didn't leave home base for the last six years pretty much and working through refuge. That was that was my mission for those few years, even though it was. In our location, I do think our location, like the people closest to you are probably the ones you should pour into more than the people on the other side of the country. I mean, it taught me a lot, but also I want the people around me to be protected and to be self-sustaining too, you know, like our neighbors matter more than the people in

24:53Africa if something does happen. So yeah, it's kind of interesting because we talk about going on mission and every time somebody says that you think Africa, South America, another state, another place. And a lot of churches go on mission locally. Don't call it that. I don't know why we don't use that word. Mmm. You know, if you're if your mission is to help people who are homeless in your community, then isn't that the same thing? Yeah. Yeah. And that's how mission Brit, mission Brit actually came out of back then when I was on these mission trips. And then when I decided to do my own thing, I was like, what am I going to call it? And then the father was like, you already named this back in high school because like, this is your mission. So now I get to help other people achieve their mission. And that's kind of what I've gone through is like, what is holding you back from your mission, your business, your purpose in life, and let me help you create a problem solve getting there. Okay. So you've been to three preproper events now. This is your third one.

25:53Yep. Of a different variety. Yes. And how is the Midwest preparedness festival different than the other two you've been to? And why do you love that about it? Hmm. So they are all very different. This is the one that I actually like roughed it and camped out. I put up my hammock and my tart semi by myself. There was a nice gentleman who helped me a little bit, but they're very different. I do enjoy this one because I love that the kids have a little bit of structure. There is actually activities for them to do. Whereas other events I've been to, they're just kind of like feral 24 seven. And then you find like a, you know, a six year old in someone else's tent on the other side of the campground. I do like that there is a little bit of like, you know, the big youth teens are in charge of, you know, the kiddos first select times out here and they're learning things. Watching those kiddos try to start a fire last night and the dads were like, just rub

26:53two sticks together. You'll figure it out. And those kids got real creative because they started finding other adults with lighters and things. The whole point was the dads were like, no, you need to make this fire yourself. And those kids got real creative and the dads kept having to turn other really nice polite adults away. But like, nope, we're letting them figure this one out. So I do think the events are widely different, but I think the mindset and the overarching theme and beliefs do overlap. And that's definitely what I like about it is that there are like-minded people here, you know, we do all agree on at least a baseline of the same thing, whether there is homeschoolers or, you know, public school, but we still believe in not the system, I guess, not the big guys at the top. So. Okay, so if you had a million dollars dropped into your lap that was not going to be taxed as a windfall, so you got to keep the whole million dollars, what one or two things

27:59would you do with it if you had to get rid of it within a month? So you couldn't keep it a million dollars, you have a month to get rid of it, what would you do? By land would be my first priority. And then I have learned that running water in a flushing toilet are the two most important things in life after living without them for two years. All of our water came from the river into our burky system. And while I love buckets, not as enjoyable for bathrooms, I think I would prefer an outhouse if anything. But yeah, I would say bland and then just resources, like I'd put a well in, I'd start building a house, I would just get as self-sustaining and owning all of the stuff that I could while building the resources and hopefully bring friends along. Okay, then this is going to be your last question so that Lindsey and Craig can know that they're about to be called up. And they're right over there, right? Yes. Okay, great. What two pieces of advice after watching this event for a full day, what two pieces of advice

29:02would you give to attendees to make the most out of what's happening here? Talk to the people around you. I would say like get out of your comfort zone and just start talking, walk up to somebody and introduce yourself and start talking. I think there are sometimes people who hide in the corners and are too nervous to talk to others, but I have really learned that your fellowship and your network matters more than 99% of the other things. We all have our strengths and if we all work together, but you never know who you're sitting next to. You might perceive somebody as one way or that they are one, no, how to do one thing, but you really don't know until you get around that campfire and start chatting about life and getting to know them. One, I would say start talking to your neighbor and just be real with them, get to know them. And then two, hmm, I would say actually be present and like put up a tent, put up a campground

30:03and like start using the skills now and start testing them because you don't want to, you don't want to start using all the things when you need them most. I used my pocket stove for the first time yesterday by myself and almost started a fire because I twisted the knob way too far and then when I lit it, it was shooting flames, you know, a foot away from the pocket stove and I was like, ah, but I figured it out and nothing got set on fire. So life lesson. That's really funny. Something I tell people to do who are new to preparedness is to go on a camping trip, car camping first and then a backpack single overnight somewhere where you can get out of it if you've really made a terrible mistake because the confidence you get in being able to pitch your own tent and troubleshoot a tent that's failing because it needs like all of the things you figure out how to do with whatever is there or whatever you can get shows you a how little you need.

31:04Like we all think we need all the things and it is really nice to come somewhere like this and stay at an Airbnb with air conditioning and running water and all of those things when it's a hundred and ten degrees outside. But also I can I now know I can sleep in the back of my truck at a hundred and two. Thank you Bobby. Not that I want to do that all the time. But also pleasant things happen. You know last night's was like the breeze of the cool air because the weather has changed. We discovered that a lot of my gear is at the end of its life on this trip. We've called this year the year of the failed sleeping pads and they have to be rotated at some point. It's fine. I mean you're 15 years old I don't know why. But if you never if you just have that stuff in the back back then it will wear out and that will be the end of it. And if you really need to need it to use it you don't want it to be in that state. Yeah. Yeah you don't want to be in that state and you don't want to have to open your radio

32:04and then decide oh now I need to know how to use this and how to program it and what is this program. Yeah. Yeah. So that's your gear. So Britt from Mission Britt thank you for being up here. Of course. We're going to call up Sydney and Craig I called her Lindsey didn't I. Sydney I renamed you. I mean what you know what's fun about a new name is you get to take different pieces of your personality and let them come out. So Sydney. I'm like who is Lynn. I'm sorry I move the letters around in my head and that is exactly what happened. So my apologies. That's okay. So what in the world took you from wherever you were about five years ago to this stage today. Oh that's a good question. Kids. We have friends that don't have kids yet and we're like you don't even know yourself yeah. You have no idea.

33:05I mean I guess that was more than five years ago but I would say that's the main thing for me. I looked at the world so differently how I was going to interact with it what I wanted to engage with and didn't want to be brought into our home and it really just made us redefine a lot of who we were going to be and what life we were going to live. I'd say the JFK assassination. I was like there's something wrong there. Wait were you even a lot then. Oh okay. I was going to say you're aging well my friends. Snake blood. Snake blood. Snake blood. Yeah I would say the JFK assassination that took me down some rabbit holes and once I went down those enough I was like all right I got to start thinking now instead of just living off a whim and then I'd say kids kids was more of a kick in the butt to like really okay what do I actually want and now that I'm teaching and being an example we'll kind of example I'm like wow I'm really not the best so what do I do to start trying to be one even

34:10though I'm going to fail but I mean look around like just I love what what's your name. Brittany. I love what she said about like something about here the kids aren't just like all feral and like everybody like the older kids kind of watch the medium kids the medium kids watch the little ones and it's just kind of yeah it's a really cool sense of community here so I think with I'm rabbit trailing but you're fine. Finding community looking for community and knowing that okay it's not just all on me because I am flawed or something like that. Okay so I've heard that your your DNA slash the way you're neurologically wired changes when you have kids. There's actually an entire word that I've read and it's called matrescence so like the root of that is matriarch right and your entire like when it's this entire like multi-year

35:11process of when you become a mom and I'm sure there's probably a puttressant and I couldn't even be saying the word wrong really. I'm sure we'll have people on the internet correct you helpfully. Thank you people. With love in their heart. Yeah but it's like it's literally this multi-year process that like everything inside you actually physically changes to the point where they can like test and see producible results and the things that have actually altered like your way of being your actual physical being it's crazy. So you're the first two who have ever told me what changed you or what brought you somewhere with having kids. So that's that is a new answer for me. So well done. Well done on that one. So as you've gotten into your your journey in raising children and realizing that somehow you have to turn a child into a future adult who is independent.

36:14What are like two of the biggest challenges you faced within yourself or how you see the world that maybe weren't the way you thought they were or you can just choose one but I always say one or two because usually people are like I can't choose the best one so you can feel free to free flow with that. Do you have an answer right now? You look okay. You look like yeah microphone. I would say realizing that I can't have what I want when I want it now because I need to their first. I kind of forget the second. What was a quick version of both of those questions? Basically I'm asking you as you've been going through the journey of raising your kids and teaching your kids like what are some of the things that your perspectives that have changed from what you thought before specifically to what you now realize about the real world

37:22and really raising kids and all of this. I thought it would be kind of more like TV like a friends episode or sign felt how they all got to just have fun and do everything they wanted to do. Then they raised the kids in the background. You didn't get to really see all that and then you see when they're doing the fun stuff and the family trips or Malcolm in the middle and all those shows I grew up with. I was raised on TV I guess and I did a program itself out of that a little bit but it I realized oh wow it takes a lot more intentionality because I can do that and I have the proclivity towards doing that because it is the easier choice instead of being as present as I possibly can even though I fail at that a lot but I'm aware of it. I know that kind of earlier like what we said about parenthoods and investment so I realized like oh wow if you understand money if you understand hobbies or diligence the more you put time to something the better you'll get at it and the more you put time to being a parent the better you get at it. So if you neglect it you're going to start to notice it very quickly. I didn't need notice.

38:23I didn't think that would be so apparent before having kids I was like oh wow it's all on me it's all on us kind of thing. Okay Sydney have one. For me like we actually made this joke to Craig last night I was standing in the closet and I was hanging up my t-shirt from a church disciple group that I'm in next to my other discipleship other group that I'm in and then we're sitting down to do this class and I was like 10 the version of me 10 years ago would meet me now and be like I hate you who are you like did a 180 as a human being I like I thought that the way I was going to raise my children was going to be so 180 from where I am now like we are pretty much we try to be like minimalist in our parenting right like minimal extra input because the world has enough for us to do like I always thought when I had kids I was going to

39:29be strict and they were going to go to school and they were going to excel at school and that was what was important and they were going to have all their vaccines and all of these things and I was like my kids are going to be a part of this world and they're going to be darn good at it I didn't foresee that I was like going to remove them entirely from everything that I knew and grew up with. We're going to need opposite ways. Yeah like we joke we grew up the TV might have done a lot of raising of us. Our kids are as screen free as we possibly can be. So on that note what advice do you have for folks who know or see the world and see how fast it's changing and the impact of the dramatic technological advances we're having right now and the culture shift that is tied to some of that to bridge the balance between

40:30kid may need to make some money somehow someday versus preserving their capacity to think creatively independently and maintain a healthy mental state. I don't ask hard questions at all with no warning by the way so what I like to do is talk a lot while you're like panic thinking is that working for you guys? We're good with it. Yeah I had an answer and then I started dropping it. You have one? I would say it's the hardest option but the only thing you can do is like one of the things we thought was okay we're going to try as hard as we can to not do screens and I kind of thought she was crazy because I was like but there's so much value in TV I've learned so much from it and all this stuff but we really we went we went hardcore in the beginning like we just found a tablet like they know what the phone is and they we put on YouTube

41:35for learning stuff or some kids shows like they they they know of things and we use it need be you know but we started very young but it was so hard but because we kind of went back in time a bit and decided to live a little bit more mechanically and on our land biblically and and shoot some of that stuff out it was very hard at first but then it came a little bit easier and easier but it was worth it because like even now we I found an old iPad of years from college or something in the closet my kid was like daddy what is this they never I was like wow I can't believe they've never actually seen a tablet they know what a phone is and they might might not even know how to use Spotify because she'll put her kids songs on spoofie but let's one thing I'm really glad we I can pat ourselves on the back a bit because there was times when I said just give it up with the screens like but no like it's worth it now and then now they they don't depend on it we can use it if we need to so it's like with this impending it's all in our faces

42:35in AI and TV you know stuff it's it's it's it's consumes as no matter what but if you try to start it young you can kind of it doesn't they don't depend on it so much even though they look up to it it's an ideal for them rather than a habitable like thing that's bringing them down or taking up so much of their time or something Sydney you got something to add to that yeah I feel like for every one thing you take away you have to replace with something else if you're gonna be like we're a screen free family then you got to lean in and be present with them if you're gonna like we don't really do a lot of like dies or candies okay well they see other kids eating them let's replace it with something maybe they my kids will only eat eggs if they cook them sounds crazy I don't there is no difference but there are adamant that they only eat eggs if they cook right and it's like okay yeah just made

43:36my day easier yeah right but it's like okay maybe you're not gonna have this candy but I've got this thing aside for when we get home right you can't just remove and remove and remove and live totally blank you know fill it in and sometimes that filling in is just being present like sometimes you're filling it in with literally just yourself and it doesn't even mean there has to be words there sometimes it's just sitting next to each other reading a book and you're both reading separate books but it means that the TV maybe is an honor yeah it's just for every one thing I would say that you decide to remove or live differently with replace it with something that points you more in the direction you want them to go oh one more thing and something you also enjoy yes as a parent has to be fun right yeah like they'll say all that work about the read books and they're like let's read this one I'm like I'm out in the mood to read that one make up come on I want to say yes I want to say yes everything for them I'm like but I'm not all in on that I'm like I want to read one I want to read it because then we're all still gonna enjoy it they're gonna like it anyway because I'm gonna have fun with it but so it's kind of a good analogy for

44:41almost anything like you want them to I mean you got to have fun too so you could stay as engaged as possible or something yep okay so is this your first time at the Midwest prepared in this project now I think we've camped out twice and this would be our third time here at this festival okay have you been to other types of festivals to check them out yet not preparedness festivals now what kind of festivals have you gone to um before before before Christ sir ad BC or AD BC or AD I mean I have a big music guy so I grew up going to music festivals and stuff and uh I mean all kinds of different stuff home um but nothing like this nothing like this at all how how is this different than those from a community standpoint because community's build around fish and some of the other have been any of those like big crazy ball of pizza things yeah

45:47abroger bird she said it somehow she made it out of there uh-huh uh-huh it's your past it's fine um I would say when I grew up with music and a lot of kind of partying really the community was great and it taught it made me who I am but it was a lot of surface level it was like and I'm a pretty fun person I like that I like to I like when people have fun so I like to make jokes like having a good time um but it's like for what sometimes it's like it felt like what are we actually doing yeah we're all partying yeah we're all gonna probably sleep in the next day or yeah we had a good time but it's like you can't do that forever and I think it's okay and doses you know it's all great to go to a concert but um something like this the multitude of things you're gaining uh exponentially it's just unmatched to in my opinion like um

46:51just just the witnessing if you're if you're if you're a quiet person not very talkative great come with the things you're gonna witness they're gonna you know introvert expert you're gonna see things community ideas and find out that you're actually a lot more like people in your community than you thought and you probably have a lot more to share than you thought and you've so much to learn you don't you can't know enough so one of my favorite things to do is talk to somebody who completely is the polar opposite of my belief system and see what we agree on sometimes it makes them mad um a lot of times we are shocked to discover we basically care about the same things yeah yeah and I think it's very good to get that extra exposure so send me what we're gonna say um oh like a lot of a lot of other festivals too that aren't in this um like the preparedness space whether it's music or some sort of art festival or something in that nature like

47:53a lot of that is about consumption because you're just listening you're taking in everything but here there's there's a level and this is just something that's been in our family conversation a lot this year this past year is consumption versus creation right and like here it feels like you get that creative element you know you really get to actually camp and set up your space you get to really engage right creation a mechanism of creation being engagement you get to learn and develop and go deep and have these conversations so you're not just there to be performed to you get to be a part of the actual like full ecosystem that's happening here and I love that great okay so what one or two pieces of advice do you have for somebody who's totally new here this year to get the most out of the experience don't go too hard too fast that's generally good advice we're on the scale back bit of year at this point because I would say like don't go too hard too fast and

48:58even more so learn to prioritize like yes come soak in all of the information you're interested in but like the ones that you're really like I'm gonna do this this year can make sure you make the extra effort to like connect with those people and go that next level is that an ask me how I know question we call them ask me how I know quest ask me how I know what do you have I would say when it comes to the festival itself um socialized even if you're not a social butterfly believe me there's plenty people here the prior social butterflies too and I remember my first time coming I think I was either just getting over being sick or super tired and I kind of was hoping I could breeze through without being so high energy me that I always am and then just I noticed people would come up to me and just start talking to me and I found out myself in pretty long conversations and then some unassuming I didn't know what we were gonna talk about or I thought it would go one way then little

49:59I know we're totally different but we're into some of the same things or new some of the same places where this person was such a wealth of knowledge into something that I was just thinking about where I was a wealth of knowledge into the thing they were wondering about and I felt very blessed that I was at the right place right times and then I would go to that little sanford over there bring the kids and then I'd see another parent um actually I met a good friend and then what's that yeah can you do Lena um I could tell he's sitting there kind of looking around he's not the most social butterfly kind of guy and he's seen cool and I like the way he was talking to his kids I could tell he liked the way I was talking Mike I think that's what he said he sat down next to me he's like hey man I really like the way you're talking to your kids you just seem like a good dad and I was like I appreciate that thank you and we started talking we talked for like two hours and then I just saw him every time I see him here and we found out we should we live pretty darn close to each other and um saw each other a bunch of different things little did I know I wasn't even in the mood to talk but I'm so glad that I gave myself that little bit of extra energy I didn't have I think I was up late that night or something that I was like ah I almost missed out on a friend

51:04literally I know it's so much in common with the guy and yeah I would recommend I would recommend just yeah talk to the people next to you here yeah you totally can't judge a book by its cover can you now and one of the things I love about this festival is people do go deep here and you end up having uh break well I call them breakthrough conversations a lot at this festival it's because there's space so you know Dawn was talking about giving yourself a buffer zone there's buffer at this event so that if somebody wants to wander off and do a radio demo or catch up on some some struggles they might be having that they don't feel like they can talk to anybody about in their quote unquote real life which might be a fake life as it turns out um so anyway that's great um when are you launching your website or have you already launched your website for homeschooling you we had a big year last year we I'm pushing you now I I asked her what what your business name was

52:06and she said I don't know and um and then I looked at this which I can't focus on it's it's what's good class name yeah raised for resilience would be a really good interesting business name for a homestead focused just saying well we had a calling to to have a home school at our house within a micro school yeah and we went to a convention and learned the ins and outs of that and actually have an LLC just this past year we put it on hold we had a lot made her father come moving with us a lot of tests and trials there but also a beautiful thing got married year and a half ago I was late on that but finally got that done um move job changes a bunch of things were like okay we need to take we need to slow down just a little bit I went in on like yeah so it's it's a little bit on hold but we had a we have an LLC called homeschool on homestead

53:06and we just we want to um for people that don't have the ability to homeschool to uh have somewhere that they can believe in people they can believe in and other kids would be taught with um faith based and farm based and preparedness based okay so you had this calling to do this thing and in the calling you had a picture that was sent to you what what tell me what that picture is um like in your in your minds like what do you come to like um because you're kind of explaining it right now but what you're building is what so we just kept getting the same response every time we said we're homeschooling we got the same response I wish I could do that I wish I could do that I can't leave my job or I don't know how or for the myriad of reasons but we just kept getting the response I wish I could do that and you know when we went to this conference um the setup technically

54:11is for a micro school and what that looks like stays to say is very different um but in Missouri it operates as a private school so you would want to name something for compliance purposes you know within what it's supposed to look like so you don't get all the extra questions and we had talked about specifically naming it homeschool because I wanted it the vision that came with it was the actual feel of being homeschooled and feeling like home and feeling like family because that's such a huge part of it to us like like we said we're gosh we're in our 30s and recovering our nervous systems now from a lifetime and our oldest is on the spectrum so there's a lot of nervous system work that's involved with that and we just look at this ever changing fast-pacing world like you said and just the nervous systems of these kids need a chance to just breathe and it's like how do you even learn without that chance to breathe you know how do you intake more information so yeah okay so I'm gonna repeat back to you what I heard and then I'm gonna wrap because I'm getting the

55:14two-minute warning from Bobby um but uh so you've been called to create a space where families with children who they wish could have the homeschool school experience who are unable to provide that form for whatever reason they're working or there's other things going on they're able to have a similar small home school based experience for their children just come home school with us that is a beautiful calling and um and I'm excited for you it'll happen on its time one yep and I'm excited for you so keep in touch with that guys and uh when you is it home in homeschool or with homeschool on homestead homeschool on homestead yes we're not just super productive so homeschool on homestead we'll be looking for that in the next couple years when the time is right and things develop and um I'm really glad to have been able to sit here and talk to you at the Midwest preparedness festival we're gonna wrap up so Bobby can flow into his next session for my

56:21listeners if you like the show and want to support the work we're doing here you can get your coffee at hauler rose go out make it a great week Hey cool