Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #108: Joel Wrote A New Book: Hear the EXCLUSIVE interview!

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Episode #108: Joel Wrote A New Book: Hear the EXCLUSIVE interview! · Beyond Labels Premium

0:00
SPEAKER_00: I think a homesteader is um is anyone who mentally, intentionally moves toward a less dependent or shall we say disentangled uh lifestyle uh from from from the system.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: And so uh, you know, you don't have to, you know, have a goat or a cow to be a homesteader.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh you have a homestead mentality.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And that means, for example, uh maybe you you go to farmer's market and you buy a bushel of green beans, take them home and can them, for example, for your family.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: That that's a homesteader mentality.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: You may not, um, you may not, you know, it it means that you you might be on a in a herd share, uh, getting um, you know, getting raw milk in a herd share, and you make your own yogurt, okay, from the from the raw milk that you get in the herd share.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: That's a homesteader mentality.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome to Beyond Labels.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Cena McCullough, and I'm here with our favorite farmer, Joel Salatin.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: And Joel has a new book that you can purchase right now.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: It's called Homestead Tsunami, good for our country, critters, and kids.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Joel, this is amazing.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Another book.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: What number is this?
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Is this like 999,000?
1:21
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not number 16.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: Number 16, yeah.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: Number 16.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Sweet, sweet 16.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: This is fantastic.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited because Joel has told me he is sending me a copy.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: So I made the list.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: I'll get mine soon.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, I have not read the book yet.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm eager to do it, but Joel has read me the table of contents, and I'm telling you, I'm like biting at the chom to get this one.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: This sounds fabulous.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: What I want to do first, though, is I want to ask Joel about who is a homesteader.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: Like, what is the definition of a homesteader, in his opinion?
1:58
SPEAKER_01: Because I think many of us hear the word homesteader, and we tend to tune it out, right?
2:03
SPEAKER_01: We tend to think, well, that's not me.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: Like unless you're in it, unless you're out there on the farm, you're raising pigs, you're growing your own vegetables.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: We tend to think we're not actually homesteaders, but you have a much broader definition of it that I think might surprise quite a few people.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: So let's start there.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: What is your definition of a homesteader?
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think a homesteader is um is anyone who mentally, intentionally moves toward a less dependent or shall we say, disentangled uh lifestyle uh from from the system.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And so uh, you know, you don't have to, you know, have a goat or a cow to be a homesteader.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh you have a homestead mentality.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: And that means, for example, uh maybe you you go to farmer's market and you buy a bushel of green beans, take them home and can them, for example, for your family.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: That that's a homesteader mentality.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: You may not, um, you may not, you know, it means that you you might be on a in a herd share, uh, getting um, you know, getting raw milk in a herd share, and you make your own yogurt, okay, from the from the raw milk that you get in the herd share.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: That's a homesteader mentality.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: It's it, you know, think of it as a as a human pack rat, you know, that that that kind of um, you know, uh get your own stuff, find your own stuff, uh, get your own stuff.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: And and indeed, I would even suggest um takes an interest in vocational skills to learn how to fix a small engine, to learn how to do some woodworking, to to learn a barterable, a barterable skill.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Um so that if you know if the wheels fall off and and and you are in a position, so you have a skill, you you have an actual practical visceral skill that you can that you can barter for things, though that is all wrapped up in kind of the homestead mentality.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's interesting because this is beyond labels, right?
4:11
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as you mention homestead, that's a label, and that's why I want to kind of um I want to kind of break free and help people break free of that label because I would consider myself, I guess, a homesteader if you have to label it, um, because I homeschool.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: So for me, it's kind of a mentality that you have.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: It's like it's it's coming from the heart, it's a heart space.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: So it's like if you're if you're focusing your heart, your intention on the home, that to me, that is a homesteader.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: So if I'm homeschooling, right, then I'm a homesteader.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: If I'm going out and I'm providing my, I'm I'm going to a local farmer and I'm supporting them by, you know, getting the food from there and then bringing it home, even if I'm not canning it, but I bought it from the local farmer, bringing it home, and I'm preparing this nice home cooked meal for my kids.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: My heart is in the home, and so I am home studying.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: But what do you think?
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Am I stretching the balance of that?
5:17
SPEAKER_00: You might you might be stretching a little bit.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to, you know, make it make it sound like anything goes, but um, but but I I think I think the basic concept is we we live in a very um um outside the home mentality uh lifestyle.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh uh the the modern home has essentially become uh a pit stop between everything that's meaningful in life that that takes place outside the home.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: And so so to me, um uh while while the actual idea of homesteading uh obviously it was developed by Abraham Lincoln in the Homestead Act, and I I have a chapter on on that whole, you know, how that developed and what came of the the eight the 1862 Homestead Act where where the the act the word was actually coined and used.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Um and and and um and and so I I think that the the notion that the home becomes that that our life becomes home centric as opposed to outside home centric.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So this includes you know making your own entertainment.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean think about Laura Engels-Wilder and how you know uh people people wrote poetry, they they made little plays in their house.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, our our kids did marionette shows, you know, that they invented themselves and then they'd call Teresa and I up and they'd put on this little marionette show with their little you know uh uh stuff.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: We didn't even know that they were doing it, you know.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: This but why could they do it?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, because our life was not was not taken up by being outside the home all the time.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And and so there was time to actually develop uh develop entertainment, skills, uh uh competency, uh, proficiency at tasks.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: This was all part of of home of a home centric lifestyle.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think this book is so timely because we are seeing this in our culture, that there's kind of an erosion, right?
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Erosion of the family unit, right?
7:27
SPEAKER_01: There's an erosion of a feeling of self-worth, um, an erosion of even like self-love, right?
7:36
SPEAKER_01: And um feeling like we have accomplished something, right?
7:41
SPEAKER_01: There these things are all kind of eroding in our culture, and you have chapters in this book where you are specifically addressing this, in particular for children, right?
7:53
SPEAKER_01: So um, and one of them that caught my eye was a chapter titled I Like Me.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I mean that's fantastic.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is so I think I have really affected you, Joel.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: I know you have, of course you have.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, Cena, can can I read a couple a couple paragraphs from this?
8:14
SPEAKER_00: I would love that.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Um the chapters, the chapter is titled I Like Me.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: So here it goes.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Here it goes.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Am I valuable?
8:22
SPEAKER_00: If so, where is my value best actualized?
8:25
SPEAKER_00: What can I contribute to society, to family, to the world?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: These are heady questions with profound practical implications.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Affirming individual worth and feeling needed are primal requirements for emotional and physical functionality.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Nearly every school shooting involves a person who feels worthless or unworthy.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's bullying, poor grades, not fitting in, or socio-political prejudice, these violent people, by and large, feel unable to contribute positively.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: In vengeance, retribution, or a final effort to be noticed, they commit horrendous violence against others.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: That's how that chapter starts.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, uh uh next page.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: At any rate, the two things that constantly seem to bubble to the surface when dealing with unhappy young people are affirmation and expectations.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And so the chapter goes on to talk about um is is you know, um here so here is my completely unscientific, anecdotal, old geezer observational hypothesis.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: All right, here it is.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Accomplishment drives worthiness.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Accomplishment drives worthiness.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: The rest of this chapter builds on this idea.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Um and and you know, I I I go on in that.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: So, so yes, um it's a it's a the this book is about is about why uh and and uh the and the societal and familial ramifications that happen when we actually have things like chores to do, uh meaningful tasks.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Self-worth comes from successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come from patting your children on the head saying you're a good little boy, good little girl.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Um no, self-worth develops from successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And and and unfortunately, in many homes today, uh children don't actually have any meaningful tasks to do.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, food comes from the grocery store.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, mom cleans the toilets, uh you know, uh somebody else does the laundry.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when our daughter went to college, she was in a suite.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: She was off campus with in a suite with there were four girls per suite.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and she was the only one of the of the four who knew how to run a vacuum cleaner.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: She was the only one of the four who knew how to take the trash out to the to the sidewalk.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: She was the only one of the four who brought any food.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: We we I'm sure she's the only student that actually took more food than than than clothing.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Um when we took her to school.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: We uh we we you we canned all this meat and different things, you know, and she had these and and we come take it in boxes of of of pint jars of canned chicken, you know, and all this stuff.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And girls, what in the world is that?
11:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, she was the only one who knew how to cook.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh um, you know, and and so uh and and guess what?
11:46
SPEAKER_00: That means when the other three got drunk, who did they call to bring them home?
11:51
SPEAKER_00: They called her.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: And so so this is this is the um uh feeling your feeling your your own affirmation and worth comes from actually practically and viscerally accomplishing meaningful tasks.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And a whole and a homestead offers that, you know, there's chores to do, there's you know, there's um there's eggs to put away, there's uh there's canning to do, there's um, you know, all these other things.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: And so you mentioned cooking.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: So cooking would be considered, in your definition, as part of homesteading, right?
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yeah.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Then I am a homesteader.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: I again, again, the homestead, the homestead mentality is uh that you're not buying a bunch of jars and cans uh of processed stuff from the supermarket where you're you're putting yourself on the nefarious agendas of the World Economic Forum and Bill Gates.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh rather, you're you're actually um again, I like the pack rad idea.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're you're out, you're finding your vetting and you're sleuthing, you're finding uh uh provenance and and and doing and using your kitchen to prepare, package, process, preserve.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, and and you're doing that yourself and laying and laying by for yourself in your own larder.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: That gives lots and lots of meaningful tasks for children to do.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Hey, screw on those lids, wash those jars, uh, snap those beans, uh, cut that corn off the cob, um, um, measure, measure out the, you know, get a quarter cup of salt, whatever, you know, and and and all of that, you know, so you've got fractions, you've got math, you've got, you've got uh dexterity, um uh all these things.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: And when you're done, you have this wonderful food, you sit down and you eat it, and you know, hey, I did that.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: I did that.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, I helped, yes, I helped with that.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And and that is successfully accomplishing a meaningful task, and that creates identity.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh Cena, we have we have a youth identity crisis in this country uh right now.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And you talk to any school counselor, read the news.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is a it is an equad uh it is an epidemic um of of of um of identity problems uh in our young people.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And part of that, I'm I'm can I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but uh from what I read, I'm convinced that much of it is that that we have abdicated our youth, our children, um from their from their meaningful tasks.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't even have we don't even we don't even have paper paper boys anymore.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, think of the children.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I ran into a lady, she grew up in Washington State when the apples were first uh were first coming into the state, uh, all the big apple orchards, and she said, you know, um uh the the in the summer during apple picking season, the the the orchard orchards would contract with the school division to use the school buses, they'd publish their schedule, um, you know, so all the kids knew uh if they wanted a few dollars, uh they could look at the schedule.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And if they just showed up at the bus stop at, you know, eight o'clock on Thursday morning, and and they had a they had a um a height rule, you know, you had to be so tall.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So you know, you had to stand up against the little thing, you had to be this tall.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And if you were that tall, then you jumped on the bus.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: You jumped on the bus, you went out to the orchard, and you you picked apples all day, you got paid cash on the spot, um, and and you got and and you had money to go to the matinee movie or buy mom and dad a Christmas present, that sort of thing.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, that that whole that whole concept now is just is just so foreign to the average person to even think that you mean you mean the public schools collaborated with local businesses?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, you know, that's that's aiding and abetting businesses, you know, from the public largesse and and and and kids uh all you know going out to work and exploiting children and uh you know, I mean, we've got it it's crazy.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And and and the result of all this is that we have a youth identity crisis in our culture.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: No, that's so true that we have uh like suicides, you know, that have been reported.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: That uh when we were living in Virginia right before we moved here to Georgia, we had uh one of my kids had a friend in a private school, and just in their class, it was like 30 people in there that year, two of them had committed suicide.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: Two of them in that one class that year.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, this was unheard of when I was a child going to school, you know.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and I had speaking of paper routes, I had a paper route, and it it was empowering because I had my own money.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: Like I did that.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: I went out and worked, I had the money and I could, you know, spend it how I please, you know.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is it's this culture of um, like you said, an identity crisis where some of us, you know, we look for like to self-help books, right?
17:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what oh my gosh, how many like millions are spent a year on self-help books and programs and whatnot.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, and really they're all just um, you know, for for me, it's kind of like this pattern that we see in a consumer society where that's happening here, where it's like you need to do the next thing.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Like you need here, here's this newest supplement.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: Take this newest supplement, right?
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Or like here's the next iPhone or iPad or the newest car and whatever, newest video game.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: And it is this culture of um like what I have or what I'm doing isn't enough, right?
17:55
SPEAKER_01: I have to do more, I have to want more, um, or I should be doing more, right?
18:01
SPEAKER_01: And there's like a shame component that goes with that, with that, you know, subtle shame.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: Um and and so what I'm saying is I think that I think that when you're not grounded, right, when you don't have that identity, like what you're talking about, where you don't have this feeling of self-worth, then you're you're easy to conform with wherever society is moving.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And right now we're having this pattern of it's just all this information dumping.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, you know, you're not good enough.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: You need to do this, you need to do that.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, even the self-help books, if you really think about it, what are what's the premise of it is that you're not good enough.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: You need to change yourself, right?
18:49
SPEAKER_01: Like it in order to be good enough.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and so I think there's really a connection between that and what you're saying, with this whole feeling of self-worth coming from um successfully accomplishing meaningful tasks.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Because why, when you mentioned the example of your daughter going to college, all the other girls were going out and getting drunk, you said, and she was the one, she was the designated driver.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: So what um, and as a parent, I'm fascinated by this and really intrigued because I have young kids and it is a concern.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want them to go off and do what mainstream is doing, like the mainstream kids.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: So, what is it that grounded her, that rooted her into herself that she didn't feel the need to go off and escape through drinking alcohol, right?
19:36
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of these things are actually escape mechanisms when you're on Facebook uh for the teens and stuff, a lot of times it's it's an escape, the social media thing, they're trying to escape from the reality of their whole life and hence the identity crisis.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: So why is it that we're trying to, they're trying to escape.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, and even some adults are trying to escape.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I I think I I think a lot of it is is because she she knew who she was.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: We we we don't place how do you how do you learn who you are?
20:09
SPEAKER_00: You learn who you are by um by by solving problems, by getting down in the you know, in the nitty-gritty of life and accomplishing that's how you learn who you are.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: You learn what you're good at, you learn what you're not good at.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: You you you you you develop your own your own passions through eclectic through eclect eclectic practical experimentation in life.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And and uh man, have you ever seen this book?
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh um I'm holding it up, uh Dare Daring Greatly.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read that Daring Greatly?
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Is that Brene Brown?
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes, plus I haven't read a book, but um I have her poem hanging up.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you you were channeling her.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Listen, on on page 24 of this book, she says, Scarcity, the never enough problem.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: She says, she says, um um a critical aspect of my work is finding a language that accurately represents the data and deeply resonates with the participants.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Um uh given the topics I study, I know that I'm onto something when folks look away, quickly cover their faces with their hands, or respond without shut up or get out of my head.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: The last is normally how people respond when they hear or see the phrase never blank enough.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: It only takes a few seconds before people fill in the blanks with their own tapes.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Never good enough, never perfect enough, never thin enough, never powerful enough, never successful enough, never smart enough, never certain enough, never safe enough, never extraordinary enough.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: We get scarcity because we we live it.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Um for many for me and for many of us, uh, this is from uh the soul of money.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: From Lynn Twist.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: For me and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is I didn't get enough sleep.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: The next one is I don't have enough time.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn't get or didn't get done that day.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: We go to sleep burdened by these thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: This internal condition of scarcity, this mindset of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: Boy, is that not powerful?
22:53
SPEAKER_01: That's so powerful.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: And so many things came to mind.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, as you know, I work with people trying to help them reverse chronic and autoimmune diseases.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: And at the root of all of those diseases is always a fear.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: It's a fear that you're not enough, that you're not good enough, that you're not loved.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: So this resonates deeply with me.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm seeing is um echoing upon your statements here, is that that's starting in childhood, like more and more and more in our culture, um, they are not feeling loved.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: They are not feeling worthy, even though there's so many parents, and I know a lot of these parents that are doing that thing, like like you said, patting them on the head, like you're good enough.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: I love you, and whatever, but they're still not having that sense of identity.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think part of this too is because like the parents, right?
23:48
SPEAKER_01: We are coming from this place of lack, from this place of scarcity, right?
23:53
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you actually love, if you don't love yourself, how are you actually going to model love to anybody else?
24:01
SPEAKER_01: And there is a point that so from that lack of scarcity, another thing that comes from that is disease, right?
24:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh dis ease is um on the emotional level, it is um inability to love and accept yourself.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: So we wonder how we're having this huge epidemic of disease, right?
24:20
SPEAKER_01: It it stems from exactly what you're talking about.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: And there is a point when I work with clients where I tell them, you've got to, you know, you you want it's a it's a kind of a dance with yourself because you do need to focus on yourself in order to get yourself healthy again, right?
24:36
SPEAKER_01: To learn to love yourself.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: But what I'm seeing is, and it's matching with what you're saying, is that there's too much of a focus on self in most of the day-to-day.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: That if we can get outside of ourselves and start helping others, start showing that love to others, right?
24:55
SPEAKER_01: That it takes you out of your problem.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: So you're not sitting there in this constant loop of this isn't enough, I'm not enough.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, that's bad, that's bad, right?
25:04
SPEAKER_01: It it shifts your entire energy if you can, you know, make sure that your fundamental needs are met, right?
25:11
SPEAKER_01: I have food, I have water, right?
25:14
SPEAKER_01: And and then go outside yourself and start doing something for a neighbor, for your friend, for for your children, your spouse, for your neighborhood.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: And it and it piggybacks on what you're saying, because you're seeing that same pattern in the homesteading families.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and and and I would say this that I I have a I have a a chapter in here um about about developing connections.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we know about about intimate human relationships uh and and and close friendships is that they always develop in hardship.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: They they they don't develop when good times roll.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's why we see such incredible um friendships from military experiences, soldiers that have been in battle together.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mean, you know, the the these World War II vets that that they're they're 90 and toddling around in their wheelchairs, and they still get together because they went through that battle of midway on the, you know, on the Navy cruise or whatever.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And and you know, they you know, three of them died and and two of them, you know what I'm saying?
26:25
SPEAKER_00: It it it is it it is in the crucible of life that you actually learn, you you actually get your deepest connections.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: Your deepest connections don't come when everything is great.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: You don't get your closest friends at at the at the at the bar uh when everybody's having a great time.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: No, you get your deepest connections when you're down, you know, uh I'm thinking for me, you know, um with somebody and you're struggling to get a rock out of a post hole you're digging, or you're you're you're trying to, you know, get that last bale of hay in the barn before the thunderstorm hits and and and or you're you know you're you're weeding you're weeding the green beans together, and you're and and you you know you're you're trying to um save the green beans from being overpowered by weeds, all right?
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh those kind those kinds of of again, we're back to these meaningful tasks, those kinds of things where you're problem solving together, you're sweating together, you're you're you're in the crucible of life together, that is what creates intimacy.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: And if there's one thing we humans uh are built for, uh, you know, psychologically, spiritually, we're built for connection.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: We yearn for connection.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: We we want to be connected to somebody else.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Even people who act like they don't want to be are actually uh are actually uh uh going through the the pangs of of uh of a withdrawal that militates against their own psychos their own psychology.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Um that they don't even they don't even realize consciously that subconsciously they're looking for a connection.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: And so the the idea of of chores working together, working together as a family is is the building block of a functional, uh deeply intimate family relationship unit, which is of course the foundation of society.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: And so a homestead mentality where it's not all just about tick tick tock, it's not all just about who has the Michael Coors uh Michael Coors um you know fashion.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, where where we're actually you know um um you know stirring stirring the tomatoes in the you know in the um the food mill, you know, uh taking out the tomato juice, you know.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: That that is in that crucible of life is where the deepest connections are made.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: And so the homestead provides that kind of of platform.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: It provides that platform to actually have these happen.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to make them happen, you don't have to look for them to happen, they just happen because that's the way you live.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And um and and and so that's another aspect uh that I talk about in the book uh at length of of how you develop those intimate, those, those close connections.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and as you said, that you develop those close connections when you go through like a difficult time together.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: And that's also I think how you learn to identify who you are as well as an individual, right?
29:54
SPEAKER_01: When you go through really difficult times.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: Like I tell my kids, like you will be knocked down, right?
29:59
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have quote unquote what society calls failures.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: Like that will happen.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: And your character is right, like that old well, that old saying, it's basically how you get back up.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: It's not if you're gonna be knocked down because you will be, right?
30:14
SPEAKER_01: It's how you get back up.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: And so I think in our culture too, we've shied away from from even giving our kids an opportunity to fail, right?
30:24
SPEAKER_01: And I say an opportunity to fail because they do learn a lot from it, and you're preparing them for adulthood where there will be failures, right?
30:32
SPEAKER_01: And you have to keep going.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: So in our family, we don't even call them failures, they're just part of life.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: Like that is an expectation that that's actually just gonna happen.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: Life ebbs and flows that way.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: And so we encourage situations where they will fail at some like science experiments.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: I'll do stuff like that, you know, with them all the time.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: And and they will fail.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: And then what do you do?
30:53
SPEAKER_01: You tweak it and you figure out how to do it and to make it work.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: Same, we'll do kitchen experiments with you know, trying um to create different recipes on our own.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes they fail, quote unquote, fail, and they taste gross, right?
31:08
SPEAKER_01: But but you know, and we're like, oh man, like you know, but what do you do?
31:13
SPEAKER_01: Do you oh did I ever tell you, real quick, um, the story of when I for my first chocolate cake by myself as a child?
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Did I tell you that?
31:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't think I've heard that story.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I think I must have been like six or seven.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: And my mom put me in the kitchen, she was a home economics major.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: She said, Here, you're gonna make this chocolate cake from scratch by yourself.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: So I I was so excited because you know, I love chocolate cake, and um, and it was empowering that I could do it by myself, and no one was there to see me lick the bowl and lick too much out of it.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I misread the recipe and it it called for like a half a teaspoon of baking soda and I added a half a cup.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: So the cake comes out and we taste it, and it was disgusting, right?
32:04
SPEAKER_01: I was so upset because you know, here I am.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: It takes a long time, right?
32:08
SPEAKER_01: From scratch and baking it, you're waiting.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: That's a long time to wait.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: As a six-year-old, I was so upset.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: I was like devastated.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: And my mom just matter of fact, you know, even keel tone, she says, Oh, well, that's unfortunate.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: Do it again.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, and I was like, Yeah, like I did.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: She made me yeah, get get back get back on the horse.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, I don't know that I would have if she didn't stand firm and say, No, get back in that kitchen, you're doing it again.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: I probably may have actually walked away, but it built my character.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, now I've shared this.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: So my friends will call me bulldog because I don't give up, I keep going on.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: And it and I think it largely stemmed from even that one critical moment in the kitchen that started it, and then obviously it expanded from there.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: But it it's exactly what you're talking about.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: My kids do the same thing when um I'm making like herbal remedies in the kitchen with them, which that's also a homesteading thing.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: So anyone out there that makes herbal remedies, you're already a homesteader, you didn't know it.
33:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so they'll make those with me.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's amazing to see the level of appreciation change, right?
33:22
SPEAKER_01: And even the level of appreciation within myself, if I've had to grow it or if I've had to go get it from a farmer and then I'm cooking it from scratch, I pre- I waste a lot less when I'm doing myself.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: And so do my kids.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: And then for them to learn how easy it is to make the herbal remedies and how effective they are, they're they're now growing up in this mindset that all they need is God's medicine.
33:47
SPEAKER_01: They don't need any of these store-bought, you know, synthetic drugs to heal them.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: God's medicine is better.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: So they've already seen it and appreciated it firsthand.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: So I think you're really on like spot on with especially timing of this book and just how many people it can help every single member of the family.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: Like we've talked a lot about kids today, but this is for kids, this is for adults, right?
34:12
SPEAKER_01: This is for everybody in the family.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: And um, I know we're out of time, but I want to just ask you um one more quick question, if I could.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: If if somebody say isn't already quote unquote homesteading, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, in in the vast definition of now what that is, um, and they're they're interested in in um starting.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, or somebody is homesteading, and this is another pattern that I have found where it's the feeling of not good enough, where they feel like, oh, now I have to do more.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: I gotta expand my, I'm constantly trying to expand my homestead.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think as a side note, some of this comes from we have a lot of great homesteaders that have like YouTube channels, for instance.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: And for them, there's a financial incentive to constantly put out new um videos, right?
35:05
SPEAKER_01: So they are constantly expanding, right?
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, but we'll see that, and it's more of the mentality of I'm not enough.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: I am not doing enough.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: Like it's kind of this subtle subconscious thing.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: That person keeps expanding.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: I quote unquote should be able to keep expanding as well.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: So you you get into this cycle, and I see this.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying every homesteader does this.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: I've I've seen this with a lot of my homesteader friends, that they get into the cycle of, oh, and I gotta do more, I gotta do more, and then it becomes overwhelming.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: And so there is a point, you have to find a balance.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: There is a point where something that's totally healthy, like homesteading, we I think we would agree is a healthy thing to do for the individual, family, country, every, you know.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: But with all good things, you can cross the line and go out of balance, and then it becomes unhealthy.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: So, like I've done gardening before, and it I did a garden was way too big, and I had little kids at that time, and I was sick, and it was way too much, and I swung the pendulum too far, and it became very stressful for me, and it contributed to getting sick, right?
36:15
SPEAKER_01: So, what would you say to anybody who's thinking about homesteading or is already homesteading?
36:22
SPEAKER_01: How does the individual know how to find that balance, how to keep it so that homesteading is a healthy thing for them to do, a healthy path for them and their family, and it doesn't swing into becoming detrimental.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think uh, well, I mean, shoot, if if I I don't have I don't have a recipe for that, but but I do think that it revolves around gratitude.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I I think that that if if whenever you feel frustrated, frustrated with yourself or whatever, just take a moment.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: And and I and I talk in the book, uh Cena, about the the the the gratif the gratification, the satisfaction that comes from um looking at the stars at night, uh, you know, being able to listen to bullfrogs.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about actually, you know, living on a on a on a lot where you can actually have a garden and and and do some some homesteading things.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Um but but you know what stops a lot of people is is uh oh I don't know that I can live you know where Papa John's doesn't deliver pizza.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And and and so what you do is you find your satisfaction, you find your your points of gratitude in completely other things.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and so when you when you find yourself heading down that that um inadequacy uh role or that um almost that that covetous you're you're coveting what somebody else wants role.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Um just back up and and be be um be thankful and and grateful for well, I know how to do this, I know how to do that, we've actually accomplished this, we've accomplished that.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need to you need to have, you know, we we have our to-do list.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to do a we did this list, and and and and and that we did this list um gives you a sense of fulfillment and gratification.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, life is incremental, life is a journey, it's not a destination.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: You don't you you I mean you always want to uh make progress, but you don't want to beat yourself up um and and lose lose the joy of uh lose the joy of dreams by um disappreciating um the accomplishments you've already done.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And so that balance gives you a you know a heart of uh of gratitude and gratefulness.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Um as as we as we finish, um I I did a poem.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Can I read the poem?
38:54
SPEAKER_01: I would love that.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: The poem as as we uh as we conclude here.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: So the poem's in the book, correct?
39:02
SPEAKER_00: It's in the book.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: It's it's at the end of the book.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: And the title is gonna this just came to me.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: It's one of these things where you know, you know, in in country music songs, uh you you basically have a a little refrain that that hits you, and then you build this song around this little refrain, you know.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way that this little refrain hit me.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: I said, Man, I gotta build something around this.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna gonna homestead instead.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: All right.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: Here you go.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: Traffic lights, street lights.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, traffic lights, street fights, siren nights, gonna homestead instead.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Plant my garden, it's a bargain.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Good for me and family.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Too much drugs, lots of thugs.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Sure need hugs.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Gonna homestead instead.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Country friends, make amends, good for me and family.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: Don't see stars, too many cars.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Who needs bars?
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Gonna homestead instead.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Make my meals.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Wow, this feels good for me and family.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Traffic stops, too many cops spinning like tops, gonna homestead instead.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: Settle life down outside of town, good for me and family.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Where's the food?
40:06
SPEAKER_00: This ain't good here in the hood.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Gonna homestead instead.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: Plant my herbs outside burbs, good for me and family.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: Too much noise, artificial toys, hard to find joy.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: Gonna homestead instead.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: Out on the land, birds for band, good for me and family.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Too much junk, misfits and punks, going into funk.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Gonna homestead instead, room to run, that's more fun, good for me and family.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Work all day just for pay, have no say, gonna homestead instead, turn a new leaf, grow my own beef, good for me and family.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Too fast pace, leave no trace, need more grace, gonna homestead instead, scratch my pig, plant, and dig.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: Good for me and family.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: Watching TV, this ain't free, binds me.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: See, gonna homestead instead, working my hands on my own lands, good for me and family.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: A Joel Salatin exclusive here.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that too because it had a perfect amount of your humor added into it as well.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: That was so cool.
41:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, when you give me my book, I'm gonna print that off and put it on our fridge.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: So that's a reminder.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Great, Cena.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: Tell everybody where we can get the book and the special that you're offering right now.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: So the book is available right now.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh I don't uh uh Cena, when is this gonna air?
41:32
SPEAKER_00: When is this gonna be out?
41:33
SPEAKER_00: It we're we're running we're running a special till October one.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's just around just around the corner.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll get this one out next week then.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: So so you have a few days.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: Um so October one, until then, the the book is priced at$30.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: It's available only from us at the polyface, um, polyface uh gift shop on our website, polyfacefarms.com.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Just Google Polyface Farms.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: Our website will pop up and um look for the book there.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: And um, and it's it's five dollars off the cover price of 30 until October 1.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: We're running a kind of a uh you know an introductory sale, 25 bucks until October 1, then it'll go to 30.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: We won't release it to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or anything until January 1.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: So it's available through us through through the Christmas, uh, through the Christmas rush, and then we'll let it go to Amazon.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: So uh Polyface Farms, yeah, get it now.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm autographing the first thousand, but you're probably by the time this airs, it's probably already too late to get the the autographs, but uh uh I I can't autograph you know that many, but um yeah, uh looking forward to it.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're not trying to make money on this.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: What we're trying to do is encourage and empower um uh lots of people to um to see to see the why and embrace a um a homestead mentality and lifestyle.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: The book again is Homestead Tsunami, good for our country, critters and kids.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: And get your copy now.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Um like you said, on October 1st, the price is gonna go up.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: So buy it and you can get still get the discount by the time this get this podcast comes out.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: Joel, thank you so much for writing this book and for bringing this to our attention and for, as always, giving us practical solutions that can help our ourselves, our family, our neighbors, our country.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a it's always a privilege to read one of your books.
43:43
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: And we'll see you all next week.