Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #152: Homesteading Hacks with Joel Salatin: Embracing Imperfection & the Self-Sufficiency Myth

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Episode #152: Homesteading Hacks with Joel Salatin: Embracing Imperfection & the Self-Sufficiency Myth · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our dreams and fantasies become completely stifled and intimidated over this perfection standard that we that we feed ourselves and we don't actually try.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't start and we don't try.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm you know, I'm gonna get teary.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I I hate it when when people are so obsessed with it's gotta be perfect, they don't even try.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we've we've gotta try.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Beyond Labels.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Cena McCullough, and I'm here with our favorite farmer, Joel Salatin.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Today we actually have a very special episode.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is Joel's time to talk to us about homesteading hacks.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And today he's going to address two things that he's seen that are causing great consternation.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is the idea of being perfect, right?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to embrace imperfection today, and he's going to expose the self-sufficiency myth.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I would just like to say, even if you're not a homesteader yet, this episode is really for anybody who is feeling overwhelmed, right?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe even unappreciated or unheard or just not worthy, right?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we can all actually tap in and relate to this.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so you know, my definition of homesteading is pretty, pretty broad.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I consider a homesteader uh anyone, anyone who strategically tries to disentangle from the system in any area of their life.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of my so you don't have to own land, you don't have to be in the country.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what we normally think about, but I want us to think, you know, broadly in this um of anyone who is strategically, strategically trying to disentangle or extricate themselves from the from from dependency on the system, uh, on uh I could even say on the label system, uh, you know, and and take and take control of a pot spot in your life.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we talk about everything from you know from court cases to you know uh pharmaceuticals to herbology.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I I've I I've been um if anybody keeps up with my travel and speaking schedule uh that's on our website at polyfacefarms.com.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've been all over the place for the last couple of months at these homestead conferences, and they're springing up all over the world.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, all over the all over the world, and certainly all over all over the US.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're they're they're really well attended.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, um, it just seems like all of them have you know 500 to 2,000 attendees, and they're they're every place.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm talking to a lot of people.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have actually left the city and are moving to the country.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, you know, small acreage, small acreages in the country are are going up.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um in fact, yesterday I just uh was on the phone with an outfit that's actually buying up 200 acre properties and dividing them up into 20, 10 acre lots to do share farming, uh, where you know, like everybody shares one tract or everybody shares, you know, and and and they share equipment, poultry processing equipment, um, seed, seed planting equipment.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about that.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so so some of these are known as agrihoods.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's there's they're called agri tunities.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, it's it's amazing.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So so this whole idea of um kind of taking more control of of your life is is a big deal.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent a lot of time in this space, and I've actually felt like there's a you know, so as as is usual, you you hear people's problems.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: People come up to you and they they've got they've got their they got their questions, they got their problems.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And of course the problems run the run the scope, but but I want to drill down on two today that I think are are kind of critical that I seem to hear all the time.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: One is this need to feel like I've got to do it perfectly.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've got a good story, Cena.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a really good story.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So right now, as we're taping this uh podcast, my young people, my crew are out there at the barn, uh, our our big hay feeding shed barn thing.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And 25 years ago, we built a because we wanted to do the large-scale composting, the carbonaceous diaper, and all that stuff.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to feed hay under roof to protect the manure from winter leaching and and uh vaporization and do the carbonaceous diaper, the compost, the piggerating, and all those kind of things.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and we didn't have a sawmill, we didn't have money, we didn't have expertise uh uh uh really well.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so, but I was I was absolutely committed to leveraging all of our you know, our hay feeding manure and waste generated through the cows, leveraging that into compost.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I needed a cover.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I needed a cover.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we went and we got some locust poles and we put them in the ground and we went and got some as as straight uh little you know um trees, cut some fairly straight trees, of course, you know, they're not but so straight, but we used those for rafters and built a very poor boy um awning.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this thing was this this thing is huge.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because we've got a lot of cows, and so this awning was uh was 32 feet by about 150 feet.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this is this is big, okay, huge, but we built it, so you know, we built it for 50 cents a square foot because the only thing we had to buy was the roofing and bolts and nails.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Everything else was we just you know scrounged off the farm, and um and we, you know, it has it has served us for 25 years, but because it was so poor, boy, we never could actually make the roof perfectly flat.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The roof was not perfect, the roof was very imperfect, it had little, you know, waves in it and dips because the tree rafters were not perfectly straight.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so over time, those dips and valleys in the roof um leaked, you know, and we had some leakage, and so things started to deteriorate.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: The you know, the the the rafters and the you know, the purlins and and gertz and things started to deteriorate.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So 25 years later, uh we decide, you know what, let's let's rebuild this.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're rebuilding it.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is perfect now.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've got bigger locust poles, we've got a sawmill, we can mill all of our rafters, we can mill our uh our girts, we can uh mill up everything.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh we did half of it last summer, and we're doing the other half this year.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, this is a big thing.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's like 32 feet by 150 feet, it's it's it's a big deal.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and and the thing that I'm emphasizing to my team is for those 25 years, if we had waited until we could either afford it or had a sawmill or had the expertise, if we had waited on all those things, we'd have gone 25 years without compost, without leveraging all the you know, the the goodies out of the back end of the cow and giving the cows incredible comfort up on that nice chip, you know, clean, warm, dry bedding.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the you know, when it's a blizzard outside, uh, they wouldn't have been comfortable.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: We got 25 years of this wonderful, wonderful uh use of a structure that a lot of folks, well, architects would call it an eyesore.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I said it had character, you know.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but but so many times, so many times people coming to this, and and uh Cena, I know you deal with it, people that you help uh show to make make tinctures or you know, uh uh things like this.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, you got your herbal first aid kit, uh salves and different things, and people are so scared they're gonna mess up that it's not gonna be exactly right.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because those of us who do the teaching, we're we're masters at it.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: We've been doing it a long time, and so we're not gonna put we can't go back 10 years and put all our our egregious mistakes on YouTube.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You you you can't.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did we not take videos of it, but you can't go back and you know and and and re you know, redo all those mistakes.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, who wants to?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so what you're seeing, this is kind of what I call the you know the the tick tock, the tick tock problem.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: The the tick tock problem is people aren't putting their worst stuff forward, they're putting their best stuff forward.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is part of the problem of social media.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go down a rabbit hole in a minute, but but so but you know, the whole the whole social media and and teen, you know, teen uh self-worth problems is is that these these young people, and now unfortunately, you know, 20s and 30s are measuring their self-worth based on this constant flow of of social perfection, the celebrity culture, the oh, you know, and so we start, I'm not beautiful enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not, I'm not capable enough, and whatever.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, so our our dreams and fantasies become completely stifled and intimidated over this perfection standard that we feed ourselves and we don't actually try.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We don't start and we don't try.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a I'm you know, I'm gonna get teary.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I I hate it when when people are so obsessed with it's gotta be perfect that they they don't even try.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we've we've gotta try.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: I yeah, I completely relate to this, you know, coming from a perfectionist family and you got praised when you were quote unquote perfect, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you got uh kind of scolded when you weren't, like if you got one B on your report card, then like that just discounted all the A's that you got, you know.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so this is entrenched in our culture, this this kind of perception that we have to be perfect, we have to be constantly striving, we have to be constantly doing more and more.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's different than chasing your dreams, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's a totally different thing.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think Joel and I are both in favor of let's have dreams, let's dream big, and let's let's work hard and go get it, right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's totally different than what we're talking about here.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is this feeling that you that nothing is ever good enough that you don't.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: You have to live up to these um images that are coming at you from all sides, right?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that that feeling never ends.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: So this is this is the uh very detrimental part, in my opinion, about living in this modern culture and having this constant message come to you that you're not good enough, is that you're constantly striving.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so then you achieve something, you know.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Say it's I'm gonna now have bees on my farm because I watched this YouTube video and this person now has bees, and along with all the other stuff, and they say it's easy, I should be able to do it, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So then you get the bees on your farm, right?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then so now you're even more overloaded on your plate, right?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's oh your plate is overflowing, but then you watch another video or you go to a conference and they talk about something else that they're doing.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm having a worm farm, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, everybody's gotta have the worm farm, right?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: For X, Y, and Z purposes.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, now let me try to add the worm farm so that I can be good enough.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so you get a temporary dopamine hit when you have these things uh that you accomplish, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then it fades, and then you have that feeling again that you're not good enough, that you have to keep chasing that carrot, right?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and part of this goes into that whole concept of um needing external validation, right?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's a whole nother big topic in itself, but we keep chasing that carrot because we want the external validation.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: So when we when we have not um when we have not gotten to the point where we love and accept ourselves exactly the way we are, we will keep looking for external validation.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what that means is when you're watching those videos, for instance, or attending those conferences and all these workshops and they're telling you all these great things that you know every homesteader should have, for instance, then it's basically set you up for this situation where you're gonna keep falling into this trap that nothing to ever do is is actually good enough.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, if you because you still are looking for them to give you kind of like the attaboy, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like mine looks like that too.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I did it, whatever.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of friends that I'll come over to their homestead and they'll be apologizing.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't get this up or this isn't taking off or whatever.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it it's the whole conversation is apologizing as I'm looking around and I'm like, wow, look what you created.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And they're in a state of apology because it doesn't look like X, Y, or Z, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm like, and I I go ahead.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, almost like they're embarrassed.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they're embarrassed, they're ashamed of what they've done instead of being like, hey, look at what I created here.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, period, that's the end of it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not these little caveats for, oh, I didn't have time to do this or whatever, whatever.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: I look at it and I'm just like, wow, wow, like we are such, we are made in God's image.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: We are like, we can create all these things, you know?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's no judgment there.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: But until we get to that point where we are completely okay with who we are, right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And and what we are capable of doing, we're gonna keep looking at what others are doing and keep coming from a state of lack, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of from a state of of fullness, that instead of I should do that, it's oh, I could do that.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's a huge shift.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: If we can even just start looking at that when you watch other homesteaders, when you're at the conferences, when you're talking to even in the branching out from homesteaders, when you're talking to other homeschoolers or just anybody, you know, if if you can just shift and be like, you know what, that's awesome that they're doing that.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited for them.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: I could do that if I choose to do that, but not this constant idea that we should.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have to keep growing and growing and growing because it will become at some point overwhelming.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of homesteaders who are actually chronically inflamed and on their way to an autoimmune disease.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when when you become when when ex when others' expectations and others' standards become your obsession.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is really, you know, um uh timely and and personal for me.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was, I was just uh two weeks ago, I spoke at the Ohio Food Independence Summit up in uh Sugar Creek, Ohio.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I always like to go around and you know, if I can get free from you know, book signing and stuff, I like to go around and see all the vendors.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, say, what's here?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Who's got a new, you know, a new thing?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um last year, you know, I met an Amish guy that that had built these wonderful, great big wooden um track uh um um excavator hose for kids, you know, sit, you know, sit sit on it and and we have them in our in our uh gravel pit now, our gravel box for kids to play with.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're fantastic for you know kids under like you know, eight years old.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so so I'm going around looking and I I come upon this guy.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's got he's got worms, uh, red wiggler worms.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and I walk up to him, of course he knows who I am, and he's and he just looks at me just as quick as anything, and he says, I guarantee you I can double tomorrow.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and my first thought was, I'm not good enough.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, I um this guy has something I clearly, I clearly haven't haven't achieved, you know, what he thinks I can achieve.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I had that little moment, you know, little moment where and I, you know, I I took a breath, you know, and I okay, show show me your stuff.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and so I and it was good.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was, it was, it was my style.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was just simple barrels, it was, it was, it was pretty slick.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't, you know, I thanked him and I didn't pick up anything, but I I slept on it overnight because I was there for two days, slept on it overnight, and the next day I went and I I bought his book on um here it is.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's it's a it's a you know a quick read.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a simple little book.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he's you know, he's he's he's a good guy.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and anyway, I it's amazing how fast, how fast those those tear down negative thoughts of I'm not performing good enough.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um how fast they can, you know, they can come to us.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in an instant, we can be just sailing, and then man, somebody intersects us, because you know what?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's always going to be somebody who does something better than you.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that plays a musical instrument better than you, that that whatever, uh, that knows more about herbs, that you know, can can get cows in better than you, whatever.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh there's all there's there's always somebody who if you you you pick your thing and they can do it better than you.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just it just is.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there's always gonna be more that you could do, right?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's always more.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so, but it's hard to see that in the moment when you're coming from that space of lack, which and it's really actually kind of um affirming to hear that even you, the famous Joel Salatin, felt like you weren't enough in the farming space.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm sure our listeners alongside me will uh are like jumping for joy, like, oh, even he has those moments, right?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: But but my point is there's always more that you could do.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think where for me, what I have really um tried to narrow it down here and keep myself grounded and focused is I say to myself, don't let them write your story, right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Write your own story, right?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and to be able to write your own story, you need to know what your intention is.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, we will just glom on to what other people are doing, looking, seeking for that external validation.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I create specific intentions like for myself and my kids and for our family in general.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We have intentions for you know the next few years, for the next year, for the next few months, for the day.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: We set daily intentions so that if you know what direction you want to go in, then you can still like ooh and ah and praise the other people for what they're doing.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can think it's interesting.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you want to do it at some point, you could add it to your list of things that you may or may not, things that you could look into in the future, but you already are on your own path writing your own story.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you won't feel as inclined to just start jumping from one project to the next and sometimes not even finishing a project, which was which is one of the worst things that you can do for your nervous system, is to uh start too many projects without completing the projects.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: You need to complete what you've actually set your intention out to.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and Joel, in our last five minutes, I mean, we could talk about this forever, right?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in our last five minutes, what I'd love for you to do is tie this in to this myth of self sufficiency.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I was I was heading that direction, but uh yeah, this.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: is this is the whole perfection thing is such a it's it's it's an addiction it's almost an addiction and and and and i see i see so many people unable to be uh unable to be creative as creative as i know they can be because they're stigmatized well what will it look like what will it shape up like well just start just do it who who cares you know everybody's had cookies flop everybody's had salves flop i mean i mean um um you know we make we when we ever have when our team anybody has a birthday around here we make homemade ice cream and we had one last week we make ice cream here all the time and and and it flopped it it it didn't work and I think that's the first time we've had a failure on ice cream we made ice cream for years but for whatever reason something about that particular batch didn't work so you know sometimes it doesn't all right the self-sufficiency myth that's that's another big one and that is people that want to that want to to that that want to overextend their independence so I I am a big believer in mutual hear me now mutual interdependence and at these homestead conferences I can tell you a tremendous amount of effort goes in to the organizers about developing community developing relationships uh uh you know time for finding friends social interaction and and I think that this this uh I'm I'm I'm stimulated to talk about this because uh at the last one I was just at it in Idaho last week uh a guy asked we had you know Q ⁇ A time and a guy asked about making all of his own chicken feed and look it is is it nice to make chicken feed?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah it is but don't not get chickens because you haven't figured out how to make all your own chicken feed if you want good if you want good backyard eggs get the freaking chickens and and and and if you have to get feed from you know from a feed store even if it's not organic even if it's GMO whatever but go ahead and start as and and and let somebody else do some of these other things so that you can at least start and and I know the the sufficiency and imperfection kind of go they're they're they're kissing cousins I I I get that um but but there are things there are things that you can't do very well yourself.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean um people who've read my books know um that I that one of the biggest days in my life was when I looked at Teresa and I said you know what we have enough money that I'm gonna go have Jiffy lube change the oil and lube the car and and and you know I used to do that we didn't have money to you know to pay for that so I'd you know get the car jacked up I'd crawl under there and do all I hated that I'm not I'm not a grease monkey I mean you know I I fix things you know some but I'm not a grease monkey and so man was that a big day when I went down there and paid them 30 bucks to change the oil and or whatever it was change the oil and lube the car because it freed me I was able to read a couple magazine articles write a letter you know do a couple things that I'm good at um while somebody else you know uh did this and I think that that greatly enriches our lives my mentor Alan Nation used to say that a goal in life should be that as you age you finally arrive at a day where you get up and you realize you don't have to do anything that you don't like to do.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and I I've I've really taken that to heart and I think I think I'm pretty close.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are very few things now that I do I've delegated out you know uh stuff of course I enjoy doing a lot of things so it's it's not like I never didn't like to I didn't like changing oil I'll I'll fess up to that in a heartbeat.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: But but there are a few things on the farm that I I don't like but the the the the point is that you you give other people then the opportunity to serve you while you're serving them and and um and and just appreciate that other people have skills.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean people want to go goodness we didn't see we didn't have a a a front end loader on our farm for 30 years.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: We farmed for 30 years without a front end loader.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now most people I know would oh I mean I just oh I can't imagine that well we had a neighbor with a front end loader and when we needed a front end loader I'd call Jim you know and and uh I'd either pay him in eggs or cash or whatever you know and and you don't have to own and buy everything let what's in your community what do your neighbors have and and and just enjoy enjoy giving them the chance to bless you and you the chance to build a relationship with them and so self-sufficiency is a myth nobody can do everything you can't do everything and and you shouldn't do everything and and there's no there's no reason to do everything because the reason to practice mutual interdependence is to build relationships and and and and and build and and and build out your your social your social safety net um you know for yourself.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that th those are the two things this perfection thing the self-sufficiency they they they're um they're two into the minds of people that are trying to be independent and we can be independent we can we can do so many things forcing ourselves to be independent in in phases in spheres that we're not good at that we end up unable to leverage our passions and our skills and our talents because we're frittering our time away trying to be completely self-sufficient.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes yeah allowing others to create our story for us and I would gather um you know when we're watching let's say homesteaders like some I'm thinking of some really famous homesteaders on YouTube we're watching them and they're adding all these new things to their homestead and it looks super cool and beautiful don't you think they have help like they're not doing that all by themselves right yeah uh a lot of them do I mean the the really good ones and and again a a youtuber that's that's got a green thumb okay uh a gardener that's got a green thumb and I mean you go out and it's just a profusion okay a profusion of things now doesn't mean you can't learn from them and and and and I'm I'm not about none of this discussion Cena is is to give people license to make excuses for being negligent lazy or or you know apathetic all right uh no what what what I'm what I'm trying to do is give people the the empowerment to move forward with what you've got where you are with what you can and and and don't don't sit back and and and and refuse refuse to start refuse to jump because you don't have Nike shoes on you know uh you can jump barefoot if you have to but but go ahead and start into something and that that will get you that will get you farther than thinking than thinking you can buy or create everything yourself as perfectly as you see it on social media ain't gonna happen so just so just enjoy the enjoy the story enjoy the journey we never arrive I haven't arrived obviously I just bought a ver you know a a worm book to do you know um but you know I I love this stuff I mean man if if we if we quit if we quit wanting to hear new ideas we might as well quit you know um I I've got to I've got to be able to enjoy to embrace somebody telling me I can make you better that's good that's good it is good I can make you better I constantly um am learning more and more in my field too right even though I have a doctoral degree I constantly learn we do like a Thomas Jefferson education style in our family and so it's actually part of the quote unquote curriculum that the children see me being a scholar in in Jefferson's terms.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that means every day they see me um furthering my own education right because you set the role model for your children and so they they make a big to-do in that teaching style that the children must see you like don't shove yourself away in a room you know like oh this is my my adult time kids get away you know you actually let them see you like uh like this year I brought my kids to our Two Days of Truth summit right and they took a leadership role in the kids program.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: You engage them in it they watch me watching online health summits like all the time I'm reading books I have people now that send me books for me to read and review them right I'm constantly pushing the envelope and learning more and more in my field but it's not out of a space of lack.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's not because I don't feel like I'm not good enough like or I don't have anything to share the way that I am right now.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's because I love it.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that that is an intention that I set for myself is I want to carve out time every week that I can actually explore deeper and deeper into this field of health and nutrition because it's what I love.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: So so it's like what you're saying just in a in a non non-homesteading way.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well I guess that is homesteading because I am trying to get out of the system and that right I actually based on your definition Joel I am like a master homesteader right trying to get out of the system off the treadmill.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Listen I I would I would argue that anybody yes indeed I would argue that anybody listen if you've got a if you've got a a homemade apothecary kit and and you've got a pantry full of homemade food and you're cooking from scratch and you know where your food comes from I mean that's yeah that's that's uh that a quintessential um so Tina I got a I've got a question question for our for our for our listeners okay here's my question in the last year what have you created that you're proud of in the last year what have you created now this could created built made learned in the last year what have you what have you created or contributed into your life space that you're proud of oh I love that I know you're not supposed to end a sentence in a preposition I just did you taught me well well okay if we want to be chromatically correct we will say of which you are proud oh I love that okay of which you are proud oh man you know what I'm even gonna do this one with my kids I don't think we reflect enough on the positive things right because we're this trap of oh never good enough so we're constantly moving forward trying to do more but this is a really great way to end the show Joel to reflect on something that that we have created built learned contributed to the space of which you are proud all right everybody thanks for thanks for joining us on another Beyond Labels episode be sure to tell your friends about us and uh let us grow this space if you think this is helpful for you.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: We greatly um respect honor and appreciate you allowing us into your space and into your life each week thank you very much we look forward to seeing you next week on Beyond Labels.