Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / Reclaiming The Traditional Skills Families Can’t Afford To Lose | Josh Thomas

Transcript

Reclaiming The Traditional Skills Families Can’t Afford To Lose | Josh Thomas · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

• 0:00
  As humans were bent towards convenience, our disconnect from where the food comes from,
• 0:04
  which I would say is our disconnect from the land, is just a disconnect from basic human
• 0:09
  experience. More and more people think they're owed something. It's me, me, me. You were made
• 0:14
  to be productive, not just consumptive. How about we start with just explaining what are traditional
• 0:19
  skills? Sure. You know, I think let's look at it this way and talk about around food, which is
• 0:26
  the core of how we've got founded and where we're at. We're going to go into other skills eventually,
• 0:32
  but people have a problem today, procuring good, healthy food, whether that is because they're in
• 0:40
  a food desert. We can talk about that if you want. There's different types of food deserts,
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  or because the food's really expensive. That's another barrier. So we're creating classes working with,
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  you know, all kinds of different people that teach different skills to make that healthy,
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  reliable food more accessible. Whether that is growing it and raising it yourself, like kind of
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  the whole food chain, you grow it, you raise it, you preserve it, and you learn how to prepare and
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  cook it and serve it to your family. Whether that's working with, you know, maybe more local people
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  that are growing in, you're doing the preserving cooking part. There's a lot of places to enter and
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  engage with these skills when it comes to healthy food, but really that's the heart of it. It's
• 1:25
  helping people have some transformation, get closer to their food, and just cultivate health
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  both physically and even relationally as it relates to couples, community, families, engaging
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  in their food from wherever it comes out of the ground, all the way to the table and the conversations
• 1:48
  that happened around the table. Yeah, the disconnect between consumers and really farmers
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  has gotten very wide. The gap is widened extremely. I mean, to the point where I think some kids
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  I've run into, they don't even realize that pork comes from a pig, you know, things like that. No.
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  And you know what, our content director here at the school that helps get the classes
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  produced, she got on this journey long before we met her because her daughter at one point,
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  they were in Southern California and her daughter, they realized how to disconnect when she saw
• 2:29
  a real chicken and it hit her that that was what they were eating and she had no idea and she
• 2:35
  was seven, eight years old and that was a huge mindset for them. They packed it up, they moved
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  to the country and they started raising their own food and so for them, I mean, they were already
• 2:45
  into healthy food, but they realized the disconnect of what you're talking about. I mean, deeper than
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  just farmers are disconnect with our food and all that comes with that from whether it's the farmer,
• 2:59
  whether it's your own relationship to the land, to preparing the food, to what happens around the
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  table when people actually sit and eat together food that's been prepared, raised grown prepared,
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  either on their own land or in their own community, you know, it's huge and it's really
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  fundamental, it's something we've lost, you know, I mean, I think we can trace the beginning
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  back to the industrial age, but particularly in the last, you know, 50 to 60 years, we might even
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  say 70 years now where that disconnect has just grown larger and larger.
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  Yeah, now a lot of people, when they think of traditional skills, they think of like, you know,
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  starting a fire, you know, with Flint, Iraq, or they think of bows and arrows, you know, they
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  think of potentially even like, waddling a stick to an arrow to potentially even dressing an
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  animal, you know, like in the wild that you've killed, are these some of the skills you learn,
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  or what are some examples of, you know, the breadth of skills that someone would learn should they
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  go down this course, and I imagine are there many stages to the courses, or is it like, you go
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  down one path and you kind of learn it all, and then you, how does that work?
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  Well, I think you're right, that would be one perspective on traditional skills, and I think
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  that would be correct, it's kind of where do you, where do you want to land in time, and I think
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  to, before I get into like the school and where it's at, again, just connecting with our food, with
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  our environment, you know, it's an agrarian mindset, we've just gotten very digitized, very
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  disconnected, everything's the push of a button, flip of a switch, and so there's a lot of places
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  you can go, we are starting, and we have started, you know, we started in 2022, centered around food,
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  eventually yeah, we'll go into survival skills and hunting skills, and we're actually getting ready
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  to start picking up more homeic and shop skills right now, so carpentry, metal working, sewing,
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  soap making, that's kind of the next step that we're seeing people want, but we started
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  around food, and that just is out of Carolyn and I's own journey, own desire in providing healthy
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  food for our families, and then seeing the benefits over time as we started working together,
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  growing food together, preserving it, sitting around the table, talking about that journey, what
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  that was doing for our family, and I mean there's just so many benefits that come, besides we know
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  the value of the family table, right, I was just reading article about this, and epic times,
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  you know, they had a lot of articles about Thanksgiving, we're coming back to that, just
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  the studies they now know of just the family sitting together at the dinner table once a day,
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  what that does for relationships, what that does for personal security and value, so for us it
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  started that, so the school is starting in that place, we've got a long, long journey as far as
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  tackling traditional skills, but for us right now it's classes on gardening, on raising a variety
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  of animals, you know, from chickens to pigs to the dairy cow, and more, on to food preservation,
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  different food preservation methods, so we can meet people where they're at, whether you're in a,
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  you know, a suburban lot, or even an apartment, or whether you're on 40 acres, there are skills that
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  all of us can embrace that connect us with our food, that connect us with each other, and
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  ultimately again, help us get healthy and nutritious food on the table. Yeah, that's really powerful,
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  and I so agree, you know, I feel like the dinner table is really becoming more and more of the
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  center, I think back in the day, you might have seen it as like the living room, you know,
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  of where people would connect, but it's very much, and then I think and then it moved to the kitchen,
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  but now it's even more specific to, no, it's the dinner table, like it's sitting down, being in
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  that parasympathetic state together, like interacting, talking, sharing, loving, you know, whatever it is,
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  what do you think though, we are losing, like do you think the loss of some of these skills that
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  you're teaching has kind of created fragility within the modern families? Yeah, I mean, on multiple
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  levels, our disconnect from where the food comes from, which I would say is our disconnect from
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  the land is just a disconnect from basic human experience. You know, I'm a creationist, I believe
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  we were created and I believe we were created to be close to the land. That's the original picture
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  we have, and when we get disconnected from nature and from the land in general, I think everything
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  starts to unravel. And so it's not just food production, but food production is just the thing
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  that brings humanity together, going back to that table for a second. It's not just the family,
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  so much of history, so many major decisions, so much happens around the table and for human interaction
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  and connection, food is obviously one of the things that sustains us, and it's one of the things
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  that everybody can commonly enjoy, and it's just that place where we come together. So, you know,
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  as we've gotten disconnected from food, I think we've gotten disconnected from eating together,
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  and so relationships become more fragment. And of course, there's all kinds of other polls on
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  relationship devices today, the technology that we have, but even amidst that, coming back to
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  the table is that place where we can put all that stuff down, because you don't, I don't know,
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  even the mechanics of eating, right? You're not going to have the phone in your hand or you shouldn't.
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  And you're eating and hopefully you're talking. And so I think it's just a very basic human
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  experience that binds us and that brings us together. And, you know, we've lost that experience
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  as we've lost our connection to food, food production, to the land. That's just a thread,
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  or maybe many threads that have kind of unraveled. You know, something occurs to me like, when I
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  when I was first learning to cook, when I went to culinary school, I was taught to make hummus,
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  for example. That was just one of many things, right? And I remember, because back in the day,
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  you know, hummus was a new product. It wasn't something most Americans grew up eating.
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  New to Americans, right? Yes, specifically Americans, yeah. But it sort of had this
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  international, you know, glamorous kind of don't understand it kind of feel to it. And then when
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  I learned it, and I was like, wait a minute, it's just three ingredients like what? Like,
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  and how simple it was to make two degree, I felt so empowered. Like I was just like, oh, this
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  thing that's felt so impossible is suddenly possible. Do you think that in a sense that
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  most Americans are kind of carrying around that like myth or that that kind of disempowered feeling
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  around these traditional skills? Like do you think they're easier than people are led to believe,
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  or is it all really know this is challenging and you got to give it time to learn, or is it just,
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  is it like the disconnect? Is the disconnect what's making it seem so impossible for some people?
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  Um, I think it's, I think it's a mix of both, you know, I mean as humans were bent towards convenience.
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  And so, you know, we'll give up a lot of value for convenience, you know, and I think that's
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  something we just have to reckon with our nature. And so, you know, modern industrial food system
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  is convenient, you know, you can go grab it up, barely unpeel a wrapper and, and you know, you're
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  good to go. So, uh, there's that convenience that makes a disconnect as far as learning the skills.
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  You know, it, yeah, it takes time. I mean, that's why we're here to help, help speed that, that
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  gap up because so many people are wanting to get reconnected with their food and learn some of
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  these skills, but the generational pass down, the generational knowledge is broken. And, and so,
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  yes, it's an extra effort than if you just grew up learning a lot of these things that have been
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  natural until the last 70, 80 years, um, and passed down and just kind of part of your, your human
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  experience. And so, we're trying to reclaim that. So, that, that has worked to it. That has some,
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  some failure, some challenge. Um, and you know, that's why the school exists is to help, you know,
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  overcome that barrier as people are trying to, uh, learn. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a journey for sure.
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  Yeah, what, what are some of the things you're saying, you know, the changes in, in when someone
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  joins the, the school, the traditional school, the skill school, like what, what kind of changes
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  are you seeing in some, particularly the kids? Are you seeing, are you seeing people kind of step
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  into their power around these things? Are they, do you see them get healthier? Like what kind of,
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  what kind of changes do you see? Yeah, you see all of that. I think empowerment is, is huge, you
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  know, when, when we realize that like, if the grocery store stops, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's
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  in, you know, I forget what they call it, right? There's a name for that cycle of, you know, they,
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  they've got three days on the shelf. And so we've all realized in the last few years and people
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  have realized in different pockets of society, what, what happens when that faucet gets turned
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  off for a little bit. And, and so to know where your food's coming from, know that you have the
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  ability to raise some of that food is very, very empowering. It's very confidence building when
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  you start getting successes. And again, it doesn't have to be the whole food chain. You, you may start
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  just, you know, learning to make broth and bread. I mean, you know, Sally Fallon,
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  Moralshi teaches broth at the school. And, but she also teaches cooking, you know,
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  traditional cooking. And, and so you can start there. Somebody might start with food preservation.
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  Wherever it is, it becomes very empowering to know that you can take care of this yourself. And
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  you're not just dependent on what's down the road. I, I think for kids, what we see as they're
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  involved in the process is they're empowered, but they're also valued. That's something we've
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  really worked on in our own household is that a lot of modern society doesn't really value children
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  as they're becoming adults. They're, they're, they're, they're just there to play and go to school
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  kind of. And I don't think inherently that we build the sense of like they're needed in society
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  today, the, the, the way the modern way raises kids, where when you're in a, like a family economy,
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  as my friend Rory Groves talks about, and those kids are helping and you're working together and
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  you're accomplishing things together as a family unit, there's a lot of self worth. There's a lot
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  of self value that gets built up in those kids. And, and we see that in our children over the years
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  now where they're, they're not wrestling with, you know, am I good enough because of all the
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  social media and all the, the things that they see, you know, they see out there. They've been,
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  they've grown up in a context where they're contributing to the good of the whole. And that gives
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  you confidence. That gives you self worth. And so I, I think when it comes to the kids learning
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  these things besides just like, you know, what seems odd for us to be, you know, have kids so
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  disconnected their food, they don't know where an egg comes from or what that chicken breast
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  does attach to or a steak, you know, there's bigger values here that are cultivating important
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  character traits. Yeah, you're, you're, you're reminding me of, God, many, many years ago, we were
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  sharing on socials about how we were trying to still, you know, chores and just trying to educate,
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  you know, people and showing them like how, you know, our young daughter, and I can't remember
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  what age she was, but she was pretty young, was like helping with the dishes and doing these
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  kind of things and just how, how important that felt to us and how many people responded of like,
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  you slave drivers, you should be putting that kind of emphasis on your kids, you should be to your
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  point, letting them play and just do, do flip around. You have a nice size family. It's like,
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  what are your thoughts on that? Like, like at what age should we, in your opinion, be kind of like
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  making kids, supporting kids and feeling as though they're part of this family, so they have to do
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  the things that help make the family run. Yeah, well, I mean, to address the deeper part and,
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  and people like telling you, which I've heard, you know, oh, you're making your kids work too hard,
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  and you know, all those things, well, I think look around society, look at where youth is at,
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  look at the demographics of young men, you know, in our culture who are starting life later,
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  they're often glued to the video games, they're, they're not very productive, they're overweight,
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  that is the fruit of, you know, I think catering to childhood in a way that's not healthy,
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  you know, yes, kids need play, they need a lot of play, that's how they learn, that's how they
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  develop is, but when that gets imbalanced and, you know, they're, they're, becomes this gimme
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  mentality, it's very disruptive, and I think we see that in our culture where when we're working
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  together, and I think it has to be done well, you know, you just can't have everybody just work and
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  see no end or no purpose to it, it's got to be done with purpose, you've got to communicate that
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  purpose, we have to build them up and encourage them and we have to walk alongside, like one of
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  things Carolyn, I did early on with the kids, and we just, we discovered this walking in the grocery
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  store one day, we were in a hurry and we kept just picking the kids up and going, and, but it was
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  right at a stage, one of our children was learning to walk, and it was like, well, no, if we want
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  them to learn to walk well, we need to put them down, we need to slow down and walk alongside them,
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  not just carry them everywhere, and that hit us at a very specific moment, and it became part
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  of our philosophy of raising kids is that we've got to slow down a little bit and walk alongside
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  them at their pace. I mean, that can't be 100% of the time, but, but that's part of bringing them
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  along. So as we get into this lifestyle, say, of raising our own food and preserving it and
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  cooking it, we're attempting to bring them along in that journey and explain the why to them,
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  not just the work, not just chores, but this is a common human experience, and they learn a good
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  work ethic, they learn how to problem solve, like I said a minute ago, they learn their own
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  self-worth and value, and they learn to appreciate good food, hopefully when they go out in the
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  world, whether they decide to pick up a homesteading lifestyle or a farming lifestyle like we live,
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  they at least, they're getting these character traits, but they're also understanding just
• 19:04
  common human health as well, right? And we're seeing that fruit in our kids, for sure.
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  I love how you're talking about this. Can you give, I don't know, a real-world example of how
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  you've approached this with one of your kids and how you did it and how you kind of met them
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  where they were, but also served the greater good of the family? Yeah, I mean, it's a million
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  little ways, right? One of the earliest memories I have was my oldest son, who's often married now,
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  he wanted to help bring in the firewood, I was bringing in firewood, you know, and he just wanted
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  to help, and so he'd go grab, he was like two, and he'd go grab a big old piece of wood that he couldn't
• 19:45
  even carry and try to drag it along, because he just wanted to be alongside dad, you know, and I could
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  have gone, oh, no, no, no, so no worry about that. I got it, you know, and instead what I did
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  is I got him a little Tonka truck and showed him how to put one piece of wood in it, and he'd trail
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  me with his Tonka truck and bring in the piece of wood, and then as he got older, he just started
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  doing that, but that was a place where it's easy to go fast, it's easy to go past them, they're
• 20:08
  gonna make a mess, they're gonna, you know, drop wood, they might break something, get wood
• 20:13
  shavings, whatever, but by allowing him to do that, and then praising him, and like, wow, you
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  don't bring in the wood, that's great, you're helping us stay warm, you know, and then we talk
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  about that somewhere when we're sitting by the fire, that would be a, you know, that would be a
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  description of a calm and experience that we try to replicate in different places throughout,
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  you know, throughout ages, same as they get older and they're doing bigger things, and you know,
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  I don't think we've necessarily done it well all the time, but the attempt is not to just give
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  them a job and a chore, but to then, you know, when we can come work alongside and talk about what
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  is the value of this that we're doing, you know, and what's the value of this meat? We've got
• 20:53
  animals, we raise all kinds of animals, and sometimes we're having conversations about, you know,
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  this animal and the reality of, yeah, it's messy to take care of this animal and the winter,
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  clean out the stalls in the spring, but, you know, look at what we get to eat, look at what we get
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  to steward, look at how we get to improve the land and work with creation, and, and then yes,
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  enjoy, I'm shared meal together that you contributed to, you helped make this happen. So it's that kind
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  of story over and over and over a million times over many, many years and at different age levels,
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  you know, appropriate conversations that it plays out. I mean, I guess the little kids tend to
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  stand now, silverware drawer is another big one, right? That's one that somebody can do super
• 21:39
  easily, and it's a mess, the silverware drawer is a mess, because they, you know, they just,
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  it takes them a long time, years to figure out how to get everything and they're just right, but just
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  by doing that, they're now, instead of in front of the TV, you're off in the room, they're now
• 21:54
  alongside mom and dad or brother and sister, and they're just participating, and it's completely
• 22:00
  normal to them. It's not a chore, it's just human experience, and everybody's doing it.
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  I just, we've just seen a remarkable fruit in that, and, and others as well that we know that
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  are trying to live this way with this intentionality. What, what happens? Because you even mentioned,
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  you know, you're doing the best you can, and of course it doesn't always, you know, it always
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  goes smooth as you hope, and obviously you're learning as you go, just like any parent.
• 22:31
  You're, you're such a, for my experience of a year, you're, you're, you're even killed, you know,
• 22:36
  very gentle energy at least when I've seen you, but what is Josh like when that's not, like when,
• 22:43
  when the, the need is like, hey, I can't go at your pace, we got to, we got to go at this pace,
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  or, or what does discipline look like within your school of thought?
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  Who, those feel like two different questions? Well, let's focus on the first one then. So,
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  what is it look like for you in this scenario of like, well, when you can't go the kids pace,
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  you know, is that just going to end them, you stay in the moment, and then later kind of
• 23:09
  talk them through it, or what does that look like? Well, I think, and this is where, you know,
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  I got to deal with my own failing, and that my big tendency is to push harder, and to push too hard,
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  and, you know, my own growing up experience was pretty rough, and I was latchy kid,
• 23:29
  and around adults, and I was just expected to be able to come along at their pace. And so,
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  I default to that at times, you know, with the older kids, especially where I feel like,
• 23:39
  you should have this down, and so, you know, that would be a weakness in my own shepherding is
• 23:46
  just a tendency to, you know, push too hard, and like, come on, why don't you have this? Let's go,
• 23:51
  let's go, let's go, you know, we're at a time, and increase pressure. And I mean, we all
• 23:55
  got to deal with pressure sometimes, and you do have to know, like, hey, I got to pick this up,
• 24:00
  I got to get down, I got to pay attention. And so, you know, there's an appropriateness to that,
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  but that would be one of my struggles in trying to shepherd well on that pace, is being patient
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  when the pressure is on, and not pushing too hard, which you can certainly do. And how do you
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  react to that different from how you were taught? Like, do you find that you have a little bit more
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  mindfulness about it? Because I know with my own self, like, I also have a different upbringing
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  than what I'm bringing to my daughters. And one of the big differences is similar, like, I was
• 24:34
  kind of pushed into someone else's pace. And what I find is when I'm kind of in a state,
• 24:42
  due to my own doing, you know, my own kind of perspective, I'm able, even in that state,
• 24:49
  to say, this isn't about you, like, I'm feeling upset right now, you don't need to take this on,
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  but I need to be upset. You know what I mean? So I'm able to separate my feelings from
• 25:00
  projection on to my kids or my family. My parent, my father, particularly, was never able to do that.
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  And so I'm just curious, because you're a smart, sensitive person, it's like, how are you doing it
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  differently, or are you? Well, that's a long journey, because you can be smart and sensitive, but,
• 25:20
  you know, emotional habits and patterns are strong. And so, you know, what I try to do, I have to be
• 25:28
  attuned to the kids. And a lot of this is with the guys, particularly, and realize when something's
• 25:36
  off, it's, you know, it's often me, I've caused it, I've pushed too hard. And it might be over weeks
• 25:41
  or something, or a period of time where it's coming out. And so you see it. And, you know, I've
• 25:47
  got to be able to say, hey, what's what's going on? And invite and sometimes coax the story that
• 25:55
  comes into their not feeling appreciated, they're feeling over pressured or they're not feeling valued,
• 26:00
  because I've been in that mode, whether it's once, but I think usually it's like this growing,
• 26:05
  this growing thing. And so I think willing to be humble and willing to hear that and understand
• 26:11
  that experience and acknowledge it. And then hearing that, though, helps me go, oh, yeah, okay,
• 26:15
  I'm defaulting into this place. And, you know, hey, thank you for sharing. You know, I'm a human
• 26:22
  like you growing. And I know I'm dad, Papa, but I make mistakes too. And I'm sorry. Which is
• 26:28
  very different, right? Different from how our parents' generation taught us, right? It's like,
• 26:34
  no, yeah. Even that humbleness of like, hey, I'm human, because I always saw my dad in mom to
• 26:40
  a degree, like as super humans, like they could do no wrong. And they they may have
• 26:45
  much filled that role, you know what I mean? Like they they treated it as though they were super
• 26:49
  human. And yeah. So that's really powerful that you are bringing that perspective, because I think
• 26:56
  that is a new perspective. Well, and I think as humans, that's the best we can do is when we realize
• 27:02
  where off track is quickly as we can look to get back on track, try to restore relationship,
• 27:07
  be willing to listen and hear, because we're all going to do it wrong. We're we're we're human.
• 27:15
  We're going to air, right? As a Christian, I would say we're going to sin. We and we got to be
• 27:23
  willing to be humble. And sometimes, you know, I'm a hard hard head takes a while sometimes. And
• 27:29
  but hopefully, you know, the kids see on this journey is they're learning these other values
• 27:34
  around traditional skills and homesteading land and food. We're growing as human beings and
• 27:39
  they're seeing that their parents are also growing as human beings. They're they're not just
• 27:44
  parents that are the king and the queen or whatever, you know, and this is just how it is. I mean,
• 27:49
  there's, you know, got to be authority and structured all of that. But we're also all humans,
• 27:53
  we're all God's children, I would say, you know, growing and learning who it is that we are to be.
• 27:59
  And we've got to try to be humble about that and walk the road together, even though we're
• 28:07
  the parents shepherding the children and you know, through this life. Yeah. Now, do you see a difference
• 28:16
  in teaching these traditional skills to a male or a female? Is it different? How you teach them?
• 28:24
  And and is it a different skill? I mean, yeah, we're different. So, you know, I'm I mean,
• 28:36
  obviously as a parent, you're working with both, but you know, it's not 100% even like the guys do
• 28:42
  all the outside work and the girls do all the inside work. And so guys are usually with dad,
• 28:47
  girls usually and that usually would be the case, but not all the time. We try to cross it over,
• 28:53
  but there also just has to be efficiency in life. So, um, I think you have to take each person when
• 28:59
  it comes to working with somebody, male, female's part of it, but each person has their personality
• 29:04
  and character and that's something we've had to learn in a large family is, you know, we've got
• 29:08
  our say general general parenting philosophy, but each individual is unique. And so we have to
• 29:14
  learn how to approach them over time, whether they're a male or a female. And yes, of course,
• 29:19
  the girls can be more sensitive and, um, and the boys more rough and the boys more rough,
• 29:26
  but it's easy to forget. Sometimes it's easy to lose the fact that the boys still have feelings,
• 29:32
  right? And they can get hurt and you don't see it. And honestly, same with the girls, sometimes
• 29:38
  some of the girls are are pretty, you know, put together and you don't always see that they're
• 29:42
  emotionally sensitive because we're all different. I think that's part of the part of our
• 29:47
  responsibility is trying to see each person and understand them for who they are and how we're
• 29:53
  impacting them as parents and, you know, how the world's impacting them. But I think, you know,
• 29:59
  what come these these skills of living this life this way provides a lot of good ground for those
• 30:06
  experiences. I think that's, you know, it's easy to talk about the food and the health and all
• 30:13
  of those benefits that so many people are after today and kind of where this conversation started.
• 30:18
  But this life, what I would, what I would, what I would wrap up in the word like this agrarian
• 30:24
  life and that doesn't mean everybody's farming, but just that we're more connected to the land,
• 30:28
  we're more connected locally, which means our families are more connected. It, it, the human
• 30:35
  experience has a lot more opportunity for us to know each other and experience each other and
• 30:40
  grow together in this context that, that is the antithesis to the modern life that's getting us
• 30:45
  all sucked in more and more into our individual lanes and less connectivity individually,
• 30:52
  or, or where we can escape that where we do got to connect. Well, I can go, you know, all right,
• 30:56
  you're not feeding enemies. I don't even need to deal with you. I'll just, you know, go find what I
• 31:00
  want to look at on Facebook or Pinterest or whatever and, and find my worth or my something there.
• 31:06
  And then you're not dealing with the relationships, even though you have them. The agrarian life
• 31:10
  is just, is just something else. Yeah, I like, I like that perspective that is you're, you're,
• 31:15
  you're really, you're facing the relationships head on like you're, you're kind of
• 31:23
  not only instilling, but, but, but modeling how to do that when you stay engaged with each other,
• 31:28
  you're listening, you're curious, and you have the greater good in mind.
• 31:34
  Well, and you have to like, like, just come back to like raising your own food or preserving it.
• 31:38
  There's a, all these people, you know, and we can talk about the family, but, you know, community,
• 31:43
  it happens in community too, where, you know, your food's coming from here and it's got to get from
• 31:48
  this person, and there's a couple people maybe responsible for the garden or, or this over here,
• 31:53
  but then it's got its make its way to the kitchen. I mean, the dairy cows are a great example.
• 31:56
  One person's, you know, often milk in the cow, another person's often feeding the cow,
• 32:01
  that milks them getting in and it's got to get processed in the kitchen. And so there's all this
• 32:06
  relationship that happens just in that process, say of taking care of a dairy cow in our, in our
• 32:12
  scenario, and different people that by the time you sit down and you enjoy homemade butter or
• 32:18
  homemade cheese or, or whatever it is to just leave it in the, in that particular, you know,
• 32:24
  context, there's a lot of relationship that has happened and a lot of interaction, you know,
• 32:31
  to just get to that point at the table. And sometimes you're talking about that because you're
• 32:35
  talking about your experience out there today. Man, it was cold or it was this or that or,
• 32:40
  hey, I got this problem or, or on top of, wow, but the butter is so good. We love it. You know,
• 32:46
  and thanks, you know, and so it's just this beautiful web that happens where so much life happens.
• 32:53
  I love that though, because to your point, like when you're a part of the system that brings the
• 32:57
  nourishment to the family and you're savoring the texture or the flavor of what you've all co-created,
• 33:06
  you have more of an agency or kind of more kind of like investment in like, oh, wow,
• 33:12
  like this is good and I supported this process. Yeah, well, and I helped. And so, you know,
• 33:18
  the eight-year-old, even the five-year-old is learning that they're contributing to the family
• 33:23
  table. You know, everybody says, dad brings home the bacon or whatever, right? But in this context,
• 33:29
  everybody's contributing somehow. And hopefully everybody's seen that or especially us as
• 33:33
  parents is helping everybody see that. Here's a whole other vein if I can go down a little bit
• 33:38
  of a different trail. And this is being producers, not just consumers. No, no society, no nation,
• 33:49
  no town, no no family, no person can survive long-term, consuming more than they produce.
• 33:58
  Right. It's a limitation. We're in a point in civilization right now where we're faking that
• 34:06
  to a degree where we can. We've got some crutches that are allowing us and debt is a big one of them.
• 34:12
  You know, but we're also depleting the landscape. And you know, we've got fertilizers and
• 34:17
  synthetics that, you know, are having to get, we don't see it, but they're having to get applied
• 34:21
  heavier and heavier because we're degrading the landscape. We're pulling more out of it and we're
• 34:25
  not putting enough back into it. And so, this is happening in different places. And, you know, we
• 34:30
  can't fix all of that, but we can start in the home and teach our children that you were made to
• 34:35
  be productive, not just consumptive. And you're going to feel better about yourself when you are
• 34:42
  a producer in this world. And you're also just contributing the greater good when we learn that
• 34:49
  we have got to produce more than we consume just to survive. That's a principle we can't get
• 34:56
  around. We can fake it. We got a lot of technology that's helping us stretch it out, but I think we
• 35:00
  also, I don't want to go doom and gloom, but we've got consequences to face eventually because we
• 35:05
  are such a consumerist people today. And, you know, our goal is to turn that around both with a
• 35:12
  family, but even when we're teaching this skills. And, you know, what happens when you go to learn
• 35:17
  these skills? Well, if you're going to learn these, you've got to spend time and you do have to
• 35:22
  spend a little bit of money. Ultimately, the rewards, you know, people are finding are greater than,
• 35:28
  you know, and they're worth that time and money, but you're also not consuming somewhere. You're
• 35:33
  saying, I'm not going to go buy those Starbucks this week or I'm, you know, not going to buy the
• 35:39
  candy or I'm going to go to a few less movies, you know, whatever it is for you. If you're going to
• 35:45
  tackle this, well, you're going to consume a little less because you're investing over here.
• 35:49
  That creates a really, really cool cycle in somebody's life, whether it's individual or a household.
• 35:55
  Yeah, I love this because there's so much of a modern tech to degree is about consumption.
• 36:02
  And it's not, you know, we call about consumption. Yeah, we're constantly saying that to our kids
• 36:06
  of like, when they're like, well, I want to screen time and like, look, we give you screen time
• 36:11
  if you were actually producing something, but you're just consuming. Like it's, you're not actually
• 36:16
  doing anything with your time. You're not researching. You're not learning something new. You're
• 36:22
  literally just watching some pain, you know, pay very painful in my judgment, like a short,
• 36:29
  stupid video, you know, in my judgment. But do you think that this, what you said, and you
• 36:36
  start out kind of talking about the convenience, you know, so this convenience culture. Do you think it's
• 36:44
  creating dependence, you know, on this kind of creating dependence on what exactly you guys are
• 36:53
  trying to counteract like the dependence on the current system? Oh, absolutely. It's creating
• 37:01
  dependence on the current system. I mean, again, go back to the, you know, talking about the kids
• 37:06
  that are raised like, oh, no, you shouldn't be having them doing chores. They need more playtime.
• 37:11
  They need more of this. It's me, me, me. And I, and I, you know, I mean, there's a whole
• 37:16
  another conversation we can have. I think this has been done intentionally. I think it's,
• 37:19
  it's engineered to a degree, but regardless of whether it's engineered or just what we've
• 37:24
  defaulted to in, in, in our human experience, it's absolutely called it cultivating dependence
• 37:31
  on large systems and on government systems. More and more people think they're owed something,
• 37:36
  whether it's from the government, as myself as an entrepreneur that's employed many, many people,
• 37:43
  you know, a lot of the younger people, particularly, and I used to build custom homes and
• 37:47
  construction. And I even 25 years ago, I was seeing it. I was watching the young men shift and
• 37:53
  getting this higher expectation instead of like just the normal expectation that, yeah, I'm
• 37:58
  going to start on the shovel. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to sweat. I'm not going to get paid
• 38:01
  a lot. And, and as I show myself, you work your way up, right? And more and more people,
• 38:08
  you know, expect to just be lifted up. And that's not healthy and paid for, oh, and paid for it.
• 38:17
  Yeah. And paid for it without having earned it. Yeah. It's, it's very troubling.
• 38:22
  The entitlement, you know, I think that's the word I would probably use as that entitlement.
• 38:28
  You know, I have, I have this theory that basically like self-driving cars, for example,
• 38:34
  I think they're inevitable. I think they're coming. And I suspect that the skill of driving
• 38:40
  will one day be obsolete for most people. Like you just won't need to know how to drive because
• 38:44
  you are always taking a self-driving car. Just like, in a sense, riding a horse, you don't really
• 38:52
  need to know how to ride a horse to, to, you know, be a part of society. Anymore, whereas back in
• 38:58
  the day, you had to know how to ride a horse, right? Right. So what skills do you predict will
• 39:04
  matter most in the next 10 or 20 years? I guess matter most from which perspective, if it's,
• 39:13
  if it's human health, I think we've got to stay grounded and connected to the land,
• 39:20
  to our food production. And I think we can use technology to do that. I agree with you that,
• 39:28
  you know, the technology is inevitable. Some of these things are coming. And, you know,
• 39:32
  even the phone, the devices, you know, there, there's a lot of destructive qualities to them.
• 39:36
  There's also a lot of productive and powerful qualities to them. And that's, that's our
• 39:41
  challenges to use these things well. But they don't have to replace some, what I think are fundamental
• 39:50
  human experiences that are just good for us in that naturally help bind us together, right? Like,
• 39:56
  like, like the meal table, the culmination of us, you know, this journey of us working together,
• 40:01
  or, or, you know, and we're talking a lot family, but in an ideal sense, there's a community picture
• 40:06
  of this too, right? Because not everybody's going to raise their own food. And so there are local
• 40:10
  producers. I got a friend of mine that's sitting right here next to me working who, you know,
• 40:16
  they've done dairy for a lot of time and they provide high quality dairy products for the community.
• 40:20
  And, and that, that creates interrelationships and, and understandings. And so,
• 40:27
  the more we can move towards that and use technology where it's appropriate to do that, well,
• 40:34
  I think it's great, but it's, it's, we need to stay close to each other and close to the land. And
• 40:39
  then I, and I think that's the, these skills and this, and I'll just go back to that word agrarian.
• 40:45
  Nism helps us do that. Helps us stay together and glue together, even in the, even in the midst of
• 40:53
  technology that some of it we're not going to like and some of it's going to help us, you know,
• 40:58
  along the way. Well, someone listening just chooses one skill to learn this month.
• 41:07
  And there are newbie. What do you think it should be?
• 41:14
  Well, I'm, I'm, I don't know if you're familiar with permaculture, but I'm a permaculture guy. And
• 41:18
  so the, the answer is often it depends, right? Because we want to look at the specific situation.
• 41:23
  Who are you? Where are you? I mean, some of the easier skills to pick up or something like
• 41:27
  learning bone broth, right? I mean, you and I care a lot about quality food and health. And so
• 41:32
  bone broth, you don't have to grow anything. You don't have to raise anything. You can go and buy
• 41:37
  some chicken and make a high quality bone broth and, and begin to improve your health and you're
• 41:45
  learning some just a little bit of traditional cooking. So I think that's one of the most
• 41:50
  common places that can start people can start is because everybody can cook food. You may not
• 41:56
  be ready to grow it. You may not be ready to preserve it, but you can obtain some good quality
• 42:02
  food and learn to cook it and put it into a form that's enjoyable and healthy for you. And,
• 42:09
  I mean, bone broth is a great one because you can cook a chicken, you get dinner, but then you get
• 42:13
  a really nutrient dense broth that you can then either drink for your own health. It's been
• 42:19
  extremely helpful to me and my digestion. So that's one that's really easy making your own bread.
• 42:25
  I mean, bread's a great one. You don't have to learn how to grind wheat to make good quality bread.
• 42:30
  You just got to get good quality flour and you can make bread that is way, way better tasting
• 42:38
  and better for you than the best bread you can buy in the store pretty much anywhere. Unless
• 42:44
  you've got somebody locally, again, and of course, I'd want to support them. You've got somebody
• 42:47
  locally making it the way you would make it. And, you know, we're seeing that a little bit more.
• 42:52
  But so bread making is another great one. That nice thing about bread making is, again, you know,
• 42:58
  we all appreciate good bread and we can actually produce something for ourselves with a minimal
• 43:04
  time investment that costs less and gives more. You know, you can make a phenomenal loaf of bread
• 43:12
  for under two dollars where, you know, and it's going to be better than devs or whatever the
• 43:19
  best bread on the shelf is at the store, you know, better quality. So, so cooking is a good place.
• 43:24
  Cooking's a great place, but it depends on where you're at, you know. I see a lot of people get
• 43:29
  in the home setting and they're very focused on growing their own food and then they get to the
• 43:32
  problem that all of a sudden they start to get good at growing it and also they get a bumper harvest
• 43:37
  and they haven't really learned how to preserve it well, right? Or even how to bring it into the
• 43:42
  kitchen and utilize it well, you know, over time. So, it all kind of depends on where you're at,
• 43:48
  but cooking is certainly a common thread that anybody can pick up and do anywhere that they are.
• 43:55
  I love that. And when I hear you particularly talking about the bone broth, what I hear you saying
• 44:02
  is that instead of purchasing that boneless, skinless chicken breast,
• 44:10
  purchase a whole chicken that has bone in it and actually utilize, you know,
• 44:16
  making a broth with the whole chicken versus just a piece of it. And I think that alone might be
• 44:22
  very uncomfortable for some people and maybe a really good start. So, I really like that a lot.
• 44:28
  I wonder as well, we've talked a lot about in this episode, like a just about human connection
• 44:37
  and community and just sitting at the dinner table. And I have to wonder if maybe first the
• 44:45
  person watching or listening, maybe you're not actually eating with your family when you have dinner.
• 44:50
  Maybe that's the first thing you can do is just set the intention that tonight you guys are all
• 44:55
  going to eat together or you're not eating with your partner. And I'll, I mean, I'll,
• 44:59
  I'll take ownership of when I was a kid, there was one point when I think I was in high school
• 45:06
  that we all went to separate rooms and we were all sat in front of different TVs.
• 45:10
  So, my brother was in one room, I was in another, my dad was in his office, my mom was in one,
• 45:15
  we literally all at dinner time, we all sat separately and we were on at the time,
• 45:21
  obviously there were no devices other than these small TVs, but that's what we were doing.
• 45:26
  And, and if that's your life, then maybe, maybe your first step is just sitting together at the
• 45:32
  dinner table. Yeah, and learning to just make a simple meal, get a few things. And, and if you're
• 45:39
  alone, invite somebody over and share. That's great. You know, yes. You know, if you're on a
• 45:43
  journey and you're like, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to learn how to cook something or I'm
• 45:46
  going to learn how to take that whole chicken and cook it and get a couple meals and then turn it
• 45:52
  in a broth, which leads into a couple meals or which learn, you know, turns into a health program,
• 45:57
  all the collagen and the nutrient density of that broth and, but share it with somebody.
• 46:01
  And, because it's exciting, it's you get excited when you start to take real food and turn it into
• 46:09
  something that's enjoyable to consume. I think we can't help, but get excited to share that.
• 46:14
  Yeah, well, I'm very excited that you took the time today to share your gifts with everyone
• 46:19
  here. I have a final question for you that I've been asking everyone. So if you could wave a
• 46:26
  magic wand and give every household one traditional skill overnight, what would this be and why?
• 46:34
  Wow. I think it would be, I've never thought of those before, but in this way, but I think it
• 46:46
  would be the bone broth, like taking that skill of getting the whole chicken, cooking it,
• 46:51
  making the broth, and then I would say, say, like if you took Sally Fallon or else class with us,
• 46:55
  you would also learn how to cook some other meals in that as part of it. And I think what that
• 47:01
  would do to bring you into the fold of understanding what you can do with real whole food,
• 47:10
  the enjoyment of that. And then the coming together, sharing that with your family or with a friend,
• 47:20
  that's, it's just a very, it's a very doable first step. It's extremely easy.
• 47:26
  And it's extremely rewarding. So that's, that's where I'm going to tell you guys that are listening.
• 47:31
  Like if you haven't done it before, buy whole chicken, learn how to make bone broth,
• 47:35
  sit down, share it with your family or a friend, have a couple meals out of that whole chicken.
• 47:40
  It might just change your life.
• 47:42
  I love it. Well, and we're going to put to give you this gift. We'll make sure to put a link
• 47:48
  to a bone broth recipe with this episode so you can immediately start just incorporating this
• 47:55
  Josh's magic one gift immediately. All right. Thank you so much Josh. So if anyone listening
• 48:04
  wants to join the School of Traditional Skills, what do they do?
• 48:09
  Hey, go over to schoolatraditionalskills.com. We have both individual classes. So talking about
• 48:16
  bone broth, you want to hang out with Sally Fallon and learn bone broth from several animals.
• 48:21
  We all talk about chicken, but there's, you know, you can do this with any animal all the way down
• 48:24
  the fish. Or you can join our membership in community and getting get onto the journey.
• 48:31
  And there's a whole lot of people there besides the classes for gardening and, you know,
• 48:35
  we can help you figure out where's a good place for you to start, but you also have an amazing
• 48:40
  community as well there to share, to learn with and to grow with. So schoolatritionalskills.com.
• 48:48
  Thank you so much, Josh. And thank you all for joining us. I hope this has been helpful. I think
• 48:53
  the more that we can be reminded of these traditional and even ancestral skills that were
• 49:03
  basically the foundations of what got us to this point, if we can make sure that we remind ourselves
• 49:08
  of what those are and Josh is doing a fantastic job at School of Traditional Skills. They're
• 49:13
  really doing what they can to make we don't lose these skills and that we're carrying them with
• 49:18
  us into the future. So I hope you'll check them out and I appreciate you following and listening
• 49:22
  this podcast because that's what we're trying to do here. We just want to maintain this humanity
• 49:27
  as we enter these very inhuman modern times. Thank you all and stay curious.
• 49:36
  Thank you so much for joining me on every day ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode,
• 49:42
  hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You could find the show notes, links and resources
• 49:48
  mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's EATPLUCK.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out
• 49:59
  of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well and keep it ancestral.