What happens when life throws you a devastating curveball? For Kody and her family, her husband's end-stage liver disease diagnosis with just one year to live became the catalyst for a complete lifestyle transformation. They sold everything, bought a farm, and began growing their own food—a decision that ultimately led to his liver fully healing eight years later.
This conversation takes us deep into the intersection of homesteading and homeschooling, revealing how one family found purpose, health, and a thriving business by reconnecting with traditional skills. Kody shares candidly about their journey from thinking "we don't want to spend all day with our children" to creating an integrated life where education happens naturally through meaningful work. Her story of watching her once-struggling son thrive outside traditional education—eventually becoming a $50/hour foreman at age 20—challenges conventional thinking about learning and success.
As founder of Homestead Education, Kody created curriculum that's now used in five countries after discovering a surprising gap in agricultural education resources. "Food is literally humanity's most driving force, and yet nobody knows how to do it," she explains, describing how her materials blend agriculture, science, and home economics for all ages. From raising heritage pigs to managing a micro-dairy, her family demonstrates how developing self-sufficiency skills creates resilience and purpose beyond what conventional systems offer.
Whether you're curious about homesteading, considering homeschooling, or simply interested in more sustainable living, this episode offers practical wisdom and inspiration. Visit thehomesteadeducation.com to explore Kody's curriculum and resources for starting your own journey toward greater self-sufficiency and purposeful living.
Check out Kody's work at: Homestead Education
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region?
And should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
I have a super cool guesttonight.
Her name is Cody and she iswith Homestead Education, so
welcome.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you Good?
Good, the reason that Iactually I reached out to you to
(00:46):
come on, which doesn't happen alot, because people are always
messaging me like I homeschool.
I want to tell my story.
oh, that's really cool, she hascurriculum about homesteading
and like I want to know how tohomestead, like I fake it.
(01:09):
Right now I have a couple ofchickens and I'm surprised
they're still alive.
But that's my homestead.
That's the extent of it.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You know what?
We had three sows going tolabor last night.
I'm faking it most of the timetoo.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Three what went into labor.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Three sows.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I don't know, what that means.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Pigs.
We had three pigs in labor lastnight, oh my goodness, I'm from
the city.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm from the city.
It's so really true.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah.
So this morning we had 26piglets and two of them farrowed
in pasture, and so me and mykids are like have them in a
wagon, and we're like taking thebabies up the hill.
So mommy will follow and, oh mygoodness.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So do you help with the delivery?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
if they need it.
A lot of times they don't.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
We raise um heritage pigs so they have better
mothering instincts you'retelling me you don't have to
give them pitocin and epiduralsand then a c-section at the end
no, well, you know what?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I did have one pig that I was afraid she wasn't
done yet and she was up andmoving around, so I gave her
some oxytocin to make sure shewas healthy and got her placenta
oh, um, that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So, okay, you homeschool as well, right, okay,
how long have you been firsthomesteading and then we'll get
into the homeschooling?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's kind of like one of those like loaded questions,
because I grew up on a cattleranch.
Okay, I did not, but we werealways really modern.
You know, I grew up inCalifornia, but I mean in the
mountains cattle ranch.
My dad was a hunting guide, sorural life was really natural
for me.
But I was an ag major andworked in commercial ag for 10
(02:50):
years and then my husband gotdiagnosed with end stage liver
disease and was told he had ayear to live, and we were only
in our early 30s.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah.
And after a sobbing call to theVA doctor, he finally probably
just to get me off the phonetold me that if we lived a
healthier lifestyle it mightimprove his quality of life.
So we sold everything andbought a farm and started
growing all of our own food.
(03:20):
And it's been eight years andhe has a fully healed liver.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Oh my gosh, isn't that amazing.
How do you even?
Get well, yes, the liverregenerates, right.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So, like his his was in stage with the like scarring
and everything.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So they were like good luck, lady, like just get
off the phone with me, wow andand I mean just that wasn't the
first thing that they said toyou hey, change what you're
eating, Look at what chemicalsor what hormones, what's
injected into the food you'reeating.
That wasn't even part of theprocess.
It was just like have fun thelast year you're alive here.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
And then they even told him to go on like a low fat
diet and stuff which you know.
Over the years we have learnedthat that's the exact opposite
of what we should have done andwe're to the point now where we
eat home.
You know, we cook everything inhome rendered lard and our
cholesterol is down 250 points apiece.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, so you grew up kind of rurally, but how long
ago was that now?
Eight, eight years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So eight years ago is when we said well, let's figure
out how to do all of this.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
How did homeschooling blend in with all that?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, right around that same time we had a couple
of kids who were having problemsin school.
And we have six kids, so thecouple older ones were in junior
high.
We have some younger ones thatwere struggling too and it was
such a stress trying to learn awhole new lifestyle while
dealing with issues at theschool.
So we're like we had a friendwho was homeschooling.
(04:55):
She's like why don't you justtry it?
You can do it through a charter.
If you don't like it, you cango back in the fall.
And my husband and I were likewe don't want to spend all day
with our children.
We were like we don't want tospend all day with our children.
We were like those people.
Now I look back on it and gohow would I feel if my husband
said he didn't want to spend allday with me?
Yes, so true, yeah.
(05:15):
So we pulled them out and westarted muddling through it and
of course, we did it all wrongfor the first few years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And trying to replicate school at home and
everyone's fighting yeah I getit, I'm still guilty.
We thought we were going.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We thought they were going back.
We thought this was just tospend some extra time together
if my husband didn't make it,and so we're like, okay, we'll
just do school at home or we'redoing it together.
And we tried to replicateschool and one of our children
has like severe adhd and odd,and that was a nightmare.
(05:50):
So we've learned what is odd.
I know I've ocd I'm familiarwith odd is oppositional
defiance disorder, oh, whichmeans he will go against like
authority figures in any socialnorms.
Like I can't get the guy towear tennis shoes.
(06:12):
Like I can't get the guy towear tennis shoes, he wears
cowboy boots all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So does my son, and I live in New York.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you're're in upstate, so you know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Oh my gosh.
But it's so funny because, yes,I used to say that too.
Like one, I don't even know ifI want kids.
Two, if I have them, I'm noteven going to send them to
private school, let alone.
Homeschool was never on thetable.
But yeah, it was like who wantsto spend that much time with
your kids?
And then, now that I am homewith them all day, I'm like, oh
my God, this is what I you know,and my daughter I've been home
(06:49):
with her since she was born I'mlike this is what I missed when
he was in daycare at her age andit's kind of it's cool because
I got to see both sides, but atthe same time it makes me sad
because there's people thatdon't ever realize it and it's
not their fault.
Society literally tells you youshould be in a job if you want
to make any, if you want tocontribute to society or, you
(07:12):
know, pay more taxes.
Um, but yeah, it's uh, that'sreally sad.
So you had.
I'm actually writing an ebookright now and I have a chapter
on like homeschooling childrenwith special needs and how
wonderful homeschooling is forthat.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh my gosh yes.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Can you get into that a little bit?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, I mean learning on the homestead.
Everything is hands on andthat's been the best way for us
when we really like, went all in, we are growing all of our own
food.
I had to base all of ourlessons around what we were
doing on the farm becauseotherwise I wouldn't have time
for both.
And my one with ODD which Iactually have, some younger ones
with autism and dyslexia andstuff like my husband or yours,
(07:57):
mine and ours and that's kind ofwhat drew us to each other is
we were both struggling assingle parents raising
neurodivergent kids.
So we're doing everythinghands-on.
The kids are really getting it,but our one with ODD oh man, he
hates school, hated school.
I don't know what you want tosay.
He's 20 now but he would sit atthe table and pretend to do his
(08:18):
lessons and like, at the end ofthe day, hand them all to us
and we're like there's nothingwritten down and he's like, oh,
you must have erased it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
So at this point he's like almost a teenager.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, he's like 15.
We're like, oh my gosh, likethis is.
Do you really think that I tookthe time to erase all your work
?
That's not how I want to spendmy afternoons.
So he asked if he could get ajob.
And my husband and I we had thisrule that you can't get your
driver's license and stuff likethat if you don't have at least
a B average.
Because we figure, if you'rehomeschooled, if you're not
(08:51):
getting at least Bs there's, youknow, like we're trying to
build a foundation.
And so he started working forour neighbor and when it was
time to start school in the fall, he's like I don't want to come
back.
And when it was time to startschool in the fall, he's like I
don't want to come back, like Idon't want to do school anymore.
And my husband and I talkedabout it and we're like well, I
mean, in Idaho we don't have alot of homeschool laws, so why
(09:14):
don't you take a semester off?
We'll call it work experienceand see how it goes.
And he goes well with that.
If I save up all my own moneyto take driver's ed, to get my
you know insurance, pay for myown phone, get a car, do I have
to still get good grades andwe're like prove us, you know,
prove it to us.
This kid not only like, hestarted working full time, he
(09:37):
saved up the money and boughthimself like his dream truck.
He got his driver's license.
He, I mean, did all the stepsand then was so good at his job,
somebody else, like, hired himto be an electrician's
apprentice, and now, at 20 yearsold, he makes 50 something
dollars an hour and is theforeman on the job site.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Wow, I mean, that's like.
That gives me chills becausethat just goes to show you, yes,
like how much you can give yourchild, how many opportunities
if they get outside the system.
And I think just people don'trealize it.
Like, oh, are you going to sitthere with them when they're 16,
17, you know, 18, reading froma curriculum book to them, Like
(10:19):
no, it doesn't have to be likethat.
And yeah, and you're not theonly person I talked to actually
in my ebook.
I was just writing becauseelijah stanfield was on my
podcast.
He illustrated for the titletwins or illustrates for the
title.
Yeah and he actually interviewedus for the magazine, did you,
yeah, and he was like yeah, myson at 16 was like, yeah, I want
(10:39):
to get into music.
I, I, I want to, you know, kindof step away from the
schoolwork and get into themusic.
And he was like okay, but howare you going to afford the
instruments, the recording timeand all that?
And so he started.
You know, his son starteddrawing some illustrations,
making some money, paying foreverything himself, and it's
like that's teaching you realworld stuff that I didn't get in
(11:01):
school.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh yeah, and you know we still I knew, you know, 15,
16 years old he's still.
He's still our kid and we stillneed to make sure that he's
getting what he needs.
And so I would kind ofconstruct scenarios where we had
to do a little extra learning.
Some call it strewing, butbasically I would.
I got a book on how to buildhomestead projects and I was
(11:25):
like, hey, wyatt, I need sometrellises built and I don't have
time for it.
So next thing I know he's outthere like how many do you want?
Oh, I want three.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And so he's having to do the math and read through
the book and he's in the kitchenwith me, leaning over the
counter working it all out withme, and I'm like, yeah, we just
did a math lesson and you didn'teven know it and that's how it
(11:57):
should be, honestly, becausewhen you're teaching a kid
something you know, you've gotmath and then reading a separate
block, writing a separate block, history, a separate block, and
it's like they can allintertwine and they can all
center around something thatyour kid actually loves, like
trucks or dinosaurs or buildingof how electricity works, and
you can work so much into thatand I understand like it.
It is hard to conceptualizelike, okay, that sounds
wonderful, how does thatactually get implemented?
(12:18):
Because that's like so muchresearch right there.
But I feel like it does kind ofnaturally flow once you're in
it and you know you can, andjust nowadays with the internet
and AI and all that stuff outthere, you're never alone you're
not.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, you know, I tell a lot of people they'll even
with recipes or something likethat, and they're like well, how
do I cook like you?
I'm like, you don't need me towalk you all the way through it,
you can google everything andjust do it, just jump in and do
it.
And I think that's actually thebiggest disconnect as to why I
started teaching the way I do isbecause we weren't taught all
(12:56):
these things, and I say we likeour generation, and so not only
are we afraid to learn them,we're definitely afraid to teach
them.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So how important is it that we know how to not just
homestead, but how to grow ourown food, how to find clean
water.
You know, I mean, many peoplein school today probably don't
even know that their food insome way, shape or form, came
from someone's farm, um, letalone how to find water if they
(13:28):
needed to well, like, how fardown the conspiracy rabbit hole
do you want me to go?
But I mean, I go pretty far,but I don't want to get banned
on instagram either.
Still on instagram's happy side.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You know, I think just kind of you have to look at
the fact that even five yearsago we couldn't get some of
these things, that literally oursupply chain shut down.
This can happen.
This isn't a conspiracytheorist thing.
This isn't a crazy prepperthing or a crunchy mom or
(14:04):
whatever label you want to puton it.
This is a real thing that couldhappen and it's even just as
simple as where we live in NorthIdaho and you may even deal
with some of this in upstate NewYork is we get several feet of
snow and sometimes can losepower for days on end.
So just understanding thosebasics, right?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yes, the Maui fires, the hurricane in North.
Carolina.
I mean any of that could happento any of us, or even another
country invading, or you knowour own country.
You know the aliens coming down, they could say anything
literally and you know we wouldjust be at their fema's mercy.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
so I think that's been like my new thing, like I
just don't want my kidsdependent on fema if they don't
have to be and it's so importanttoo, to teach our kids because
actually who's saving you islike the hillbillies on horses
coming in from behind, becausethey're the ones that have been
doing this stuff their wholelives.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yes, and and we saw that during the you know
hurricanes in north carolinafrom what people were showing um
, you know on instagram andwhatnot.
But yeah, and not only is it,it's like okay, even if my child
doesn't need it in his lifetimeor her lifetime, okay, how do I
know that their kids and theirkids and their kids won't need
to know some sort of survivalinformation.
(15:30):
Survival just how to find food,how to like, hunt, like,
process an animal that they'vehunted or grow something.
I mean that's huge.
We are we in one generation.
We've just thrown up our handsand said, oh, the government's
going to handle it, I don't haveto worry about it.
We are we in one generation.
We've just thrown up our handsand said, oh, the government's
going to handle it, I don't haveto worry about it.
It we're pretty ignorant tothink that that's okay.
(15:51):
You know, we've got kids andgrandkids and great grandkids to
think about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I tell people that a lot we need to opt out of
relying on the systems, becausewe have this like a severed cord
of generational sustainabilitythat was just passed down from
years and years and years andsuddenly I don't know what 75
years ago our grandmothers werelike.
I would rather have an electricvacuum than learn how to cook.
(16:15):
And our children, I mean and Isay our children co-healy, like
they, they don't know how to doanything.
And I mean, and I say ourchildren co-oculally, like they
don't know how to do anything.
And I mean that same anxietythat we are feeling about that
they're feeling it too.
So I mean, like, just start.
If you don't know it, learn it,and learn it in front of them,
(16:37):
because they're going to see you.
I don't know how to do that.
Let's figure it out.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, right, because I don't know any of it.
I got Joel Salatin's book.
So you know, we're kind of likeI'm not that there yet, like my
husband keeps telling me, likeyou can't, you can't handle
taking care of the chickens thatwe have, so we're not adding
like sheep and goats and cows tothis mix.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yet Joel Salatin is a great one because he gets you
like all he like.
He's the fire and brimstone ofthe homesteading world.
You're like I'm going to dothis because this is all messed
up and yeah, and it gets intolike we know nothing about the
soil or anything.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I never learned about that stuff in school.
I worked for the government for16 years and I had this one
crazy.
I had many crazy bosses, but Ihad this one crazy.
I had many crazy bosses, but Ihad this one crazy boss.
And then now that I look backon it I'm like, oh my gosh, she
was right about so many things.
She was senile as all hell.
Nobody liked this lady.
But I look back and she Iremember her saying to me well,
(17:40):
the soil has no nutrients in it,so it doesn't even matter if
you're eating, you know yourapples or whatever you grow.
This sort of has no nutrientsin it.
So it doesn't even matter ifyou're eating, you know your
apples or whatever you grow, thesoil has no nutrients.
And I'm like I at that time Iwas like all right, but now that
I'm like watching documentarieson it.
I attended a conference a coupleweeks ago with dell.
Big tree was at it and I'm like, wow, I didn't even know about
(18:01):
any of this, about how we shouldbe.
You know what we should beputting in our soil, composting
and stuff I never composted Ididn't know that was a thing we
compost now and we get thelittle steps that I've taken
over the last couple of years.
We get, um, I don't have a cowor pig myself, but I'll get them
butchered from the local farmsor local butchers.
(18:22):
So you know, it's at leastlocal and it had a decent life.
It wasn't, you know, bred for?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Oh, you know what?
I raise 300 hogs a year andthey all get head scratches in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
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It's a conversation weshouldn't put off and it's a
conversation we should haveoften.
That's why I wrote let's TalkEmergencies, a book that covers
everything from dialing 911 on alocked cell phone to staying
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The most important lessons wecan teach our kids are not
reading, writing and math.
(18:55):
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Grab a copy today.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description.
And that makes a differenceactually in the end product of
the bacon that you eat.
Can you talk about that at all?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Pigs are really yeah, pigs are really sustainable to
stress and there's actually agene that is in some commercial
lines of pigs that if they gettoo stressed they either die or
all of the water will come outof their meat after they're
butchered.
So you know, there's a lot ofpeople that are, just like you
know, happier, pigs arehealthier.
But I'm like there's a wholelike physiological thing
(19:38):
happening with pigs that ifthey're too stressed it actually
changes the meat that's on yourplate.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And probably like cortisol levels too, and then
what you're consuming, as youknow the consumer.
You're getting that right.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Absolutely.
And you know the pigs that areraised in confinement operations
their meat is lower in vitaminD because they're not converting
it through their skin like wedo.
So pigs that are raised out inthe sun, their meat has higher
levels of vitamin D in it.
If you're doing heritage meats,it's still marbled.
It doesn't have all the fatbred out of it, so you're
(20:15):
getting more nutritious withyour linoleic acids and things
like that.
Marbled is better Marbled whenyou get a beef steak and there's
the lines of fat through it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's what marbled is, and so most pork.
Because when they lied toeverybody and told us that fat
was bad for us back in the 50s,all the pork had the fat bred
out of it over several years.
But the heritage breeds of porknever went into that commercial
line of breeding.
So they still have all the fatin their meat.
(20:50):
And I mean you can just you cantaste the difference, let alone
the health benefits of it.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Interesting.
So can you give me a rundown ofwhat your day looks like?
You've got six kids, but someof them have graduated.
How many you have left in yourhomeschooling, like you know
world, and what your day lookslike on average?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, so we have four still at home two 16-year-olds,
a seven-year-old and afive-year-old.
I had to think for a second.
The five-year-old's a littleferal, so I think our animals
are a little bit moredomesticated than he is, but
this kid is like he's a fulltime job.
But yeah, we get up in themorning and our teenage son gets
(21:32):
up and goes and feeds the pigsand milks the cows for our micro
dairy and we sell our raw milkhere in Idaho and we also, oh,
we have like 12 breeding animalsright now and on our pig herd.
So I mean we have like breedinganimals right now and on our
pig herd.
So I mean we have, like I said,26 piglets were born last night
.
While he's up doing that, mydaughter gets up and she kind of
(21:53):
starts the morning routine inthe house and so she's like
helping getting the little boysup and starting coffee.
My son comes in with the milk.
We all kind of jump in at thatpoint because as a business
owner, I have to get up and, youknow, start answering emails
right away.
So I get up and I'm doing thatand I'm, you know, working with
her, helping with the littles.
My son comes in and we all hopin and start processing the milk
(22:20):
for the store or, um, you know,cleaning out jars to me and
getting the cream for makingbutter and making cheese and
whatever it is we're going to dofor the day, and then from that
point my husband's afirefighter and he has PTSD, so
his sleep schedule is a littleoff.
So when he gets up we all headout and start doing whatever
farm chores need to be done.
So that's rotating pastures,fixing things, doctoring
(22:41):
somebody, whatever it is.
We need to do, not just theregular everyday feeding,
because that kind of falls onthe teenager.
Our eight or seven-year-oldgoes with him a lot because he's
old enough to be doing a lot ofthat and we kind of say like if
they're old enough to walk andtalk, they're old enough to
follow instructions and help.
So our kids start young, soimportant and I mean huh, so
(23:05):
important, yeah, it is yeah.
And they're so self-sufficient.
We can leave for conferencesand the teenagers can completely
run our farm without us and Itrust them.
I know that everybody's safebecause they make good choices
and they're handling what theyneed to do, because we have a
trust from being partners inworking on the farm together.
(23:27):
And they're on the firedepartment with my husband and
just everything we do istogether.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I love that.
You know, what I love aboutthis is they all have a purpose
in their day Cause.
I think that that's beenstripped from us.
I don't think I know thatthat's been stripped from us
Just like we were talking aboutthe.
We don't have to find food,water or shelter anymore.
We just are kind of at least inthe US fairly comfortable here
and you can get Uber to whatever, bring food to your door,
(23:55):
amazon to bring you a new outfittomorrow, or whatever.
There's really no like survivalpurpose in our bodies.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I would say there's like teenagers have anxiety
because they have zero purpose.
I think that's and that, I mean, I'm sure, is going into
probably even all the way up toour generation just not knowing
what we're supposed to be doingwith our time and with our day.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Oh, you hit the nail on the head right there, because
I never, I always, felt thatway.
Like you know, they tell youwhen you have to be in school,
when you have to switch classes,when you can go home, what you
know.
Okay, I want to do thisextracurricular.
Okay, well, it's five days aweek, three hours a day.
It's like, geez, all right,well, I just wanted to enjoy a
(24:41):
little bit.
But you know, and then yourweekends are filled with
whatever else you're into, orthis birthday party, or that
family event, and it's like, howmuch time do you really get to
just be by yourself and think,like, what do I like to do?
And even as an adult, you know,I went to college.
It's like, I don't know, I'lljust keep switching my major
until something fits.
(25:04):
And uh, then I got a job workingfor government, because that's
what my parents did.
And even in government work Iwas like, okay, well, this is
nice, because, even if I don'tlike the job I'm doing, I could.
I could transfer to a differentunit or a different department,
different agency, and find thatthing.
And I found, after 16 years andfour different agencies,
there's never any work to do andnever purposeful.
(25:26):
And people like I'm sure mycoworkers hate me for that.
Yeah, you might have a job thatyou're busy in, but if you left
tomorrow, nobody's life wouldchange.
So how important is the workthat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Exactly, and I mean just what we do with our hands,
and I mean just it's such a likewhen you're just sitting there
doing busy work, just the samething over and over again until
it's five o'clock and you clockout, how do you go home and feel
like you've accomplishedanything?
Yeah where the amount of work wedo with our hands and when we
(26:03):
have a finished product at theend of the day, a finished
product at the end of season orwhatever it is that we're doing
and we live with the seasons andwe eat with the seasons and
like our bodies, are just morein tune to how we were meant to
live on this earth.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yes, that's so important and, again, it's just
so overlooked and I really think, like knowing that I can get up
, like right now, I get up at 430 in the morning because I want
to work on my podcast and workon the Instagram, and so it's
like, okay, what can I do now?
Can I work on an ebook?
Yeah, I can do that.
Oh, can I make a curriculum?
(26:41):
Oh, let's do that.
So, let's get into that,because that's initially how I
found you, so you not only havea homestead and have a store,
but you also created thecurriculum about how to have a
homestead and like live survivalskills, that's so awesome.
All right.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Cause I want to.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I want to get it all.
I want to do it all with mykids.
My son's in a wilderness classright now.
He loves it.
So, yeah, how did you comeabout with all your free time
creating curriculum?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, when I actually started writing, I was working
in real estate and I was reallybored in my office all the time,
and then I had a baby thatstayed up all night so I never
slept.
Anyways, might as well use mytime wisely.
But yeah, we, when we startedhomeschooling, my first thought
was kind of I have no clue whatI'm doing, but there's a
homeschool curriculum foreverything.
(27:36):
So I'll get one on umagriculture and we will learn
agriculture together, andthat'll be a really great way
for me to be able to like learnto homeschool while teaching a
subject that I like deeplyunderstand.
And there wasn't one, and I wasso disappointed, like how is
there not a homeschoolcurriculum on agriculture?
(27:58):
Food is literally humanity'smost driving force, and yet
nobody knows how to do it, norare there ways to teach it,
unless you go through publicschool ag program.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
And they're probably not teaching you what you really
need to know there either.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I mean they're teaching, you know, commercial
agriculture as a vocation whichhas its place, but that's not
those true skills and nobodywants to take home ec because
they think it's just learninghow to be a housewife and that's
not the case either.
So that's why I mean I'll getthere.
So I started just buildinglessons for my kids at all ages
(28:36):
and like make it work for eachof them.
You know, I learned aboutcanvas.
I was making little worksheetsfor the kids and stuff.
And I was driving to work oneday and I was listening to
another podcast and she had agal on who was talking about she
lived on a farm but she wastrying to be like a fashion
blogger and wasn't reallygetting a lot of people and she
ended up designing a stamp fortheir wedding that she started
(28:59):
selling on Etsy and it blew upso much and she was in like
Southern Living Magazine andthat right then it like clicked
for me.
I don't know what it was, youknow like I'm not talking about
stamps or Southern LivingMagazine, but it clicked.
You need to write thiscurriculum because other people
want this information and,considering I worked in food
safety and like qualityassurance for years, literally
(29:21):
my job was to write like how-toson how to do everything in the
food plants.
So I was like I can just takethat skill and my love for
agriculture and I mean, I havemy bachelor's in animal science,
so it's not that I don't knowthese things and I had to like
relearn when we startedhomesteading because there were
so many things that I was like Iknow I'm supposed to worm cows,
(29:44):
but can I worm a dairy cow?
And I don't even know where tostart.
So I had to relearn a lot ofstuff.
And yeah, it just.
And I came home and I'm likehoney, I have an amazing idea.
And usually he's like, oh, Idon't think we need to know
about it.
And I told him and he's likethat's a great idea, get in your
chair.
He brought me my laptop and aglass of iced tea and I wrote my
(30:06):
first curriculum like just alittle kid's book that weekend,
just to see if I could do it.
And I was.
It turned out so good that Iwrote the next part and then I
launched it.
And then people started askinglike, do you have something for
high school?
And I was like, well, I meanthat's what I've got to do next,
because that's where I get intothat, really like brass tacks,
(30:26):
science and the homesteadingpart together, and I had a blast
writing it.
It was probably my it's like mymost favorite thing I've
probably ever done in my entirelife Because it was being able
to teach something that mattersso much to me and know that
other, it was a value to otherpeople and I mean it has blown
(30:49):
up, it is, and I call ithomestead science because my
thought with it is it'sagriculture, science and like
home economics together, likelearning on a like in a small
scale way with self-sufficiency,and I mean I have sold it in
five countries.
It is in public schools, it'sin private schools, charter
(31:10):
schools, co-ops, families,everywhere.
I mean I have been so blessedto be able to like be a part of
this community and share what Ihave in a way that even people
who understand what they'redoing don't always know how to
teach it in that same way, andthat's been where we've gone
(31:31):
over the last few years.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Wow, I love that.
So okay, give me a just brief.
Like my son's six and I have atwo-year-old, what would a
curriculum for him look like?
Like how, how much of the yearwould it take off, how much of
the day and what types of stuffwould he be learning?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So my homestead science for six-year-olds is
called Build your Own Homesteadand it comes with a poster.
That's kind of a little bit ofa story to it.
But I was so tired of likekids' science curriculums just
being art projects for busy work.
But with that age, kid, youdon't really want them outside,
(32:10):
like giving shots to theneighbor's bowl, so you kind of
have to balance that.
So it comes with a huge poster,a two by three poster, with the
outlines of a farm on it andevery day they learn about
something on the homestead.
And once they learn about itthey have a cutout or they get
to go find something to add totheir homestead and so it takes
all year for them to build it.
(32:31):
So they have that long-termlike satisfaction and they're
learning quality of character.
They're learning animalhusbandry, how food and the
world kind of like fits together.
And then I have one that goeswith that for slightly older
kids that gives a whole bunch ofscience and sociology behind
each thing that they're doing.
(32:51):
So, instead of you know.
Yeah, so like a you know a fiveor six year old, they're just
excited to put a homestead, liketo put a barn on their
homestead, like homesteads havebarns and I'm so excited that I
got to learn about barns.
But the older kids will learnwhy there's cross pieces for
structural integrity, why barnswere historically red.
They make their own homemadered paint Like.
(33:13):
So it's kind of they get alittle history like why things
are like that in their world.
You learn a little bit ofchemistry because of the
oxidation of the iron and thepaint back in the days is what
made the paint red and it justit just makes their whole worlds
kind of like come together,love that.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And I love that part about homeschooling.
That's been kind of a recentrealization for me.
Everything blends.
It does not have to be like.
This is our reading section,this is our writing.
It all blends in together overa topic or a theme that
interests your child and oncethey realize, like anybody, like
we all eat food, we all have toeat food.
(33:52):
So once you realize that thisis all I mean even I had I was
talking yesterday, uh, or onMonday I interviewed a woman.
She owned a chain of veganrestaurants in LA and is now a
cattle rancher.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
You would not believe how many people like that that
I meet.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Have you tried the Tuttle Twins books with your
kids yet?
We love them.
In our home, my son plays theaudiobook and follows along in
his book.
It lets me get things donewhile we're homeschooling
without missing a beat in hiseducation.
The stories bring history,economics and freedom alive in a
way kids really connect with.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description and use
code Cheryl15 to get 15% offyour order.
(34:36):
Teach your kids about whyindependence matters, why
freedom is worth protecting, andto always stay curious.
But yeah, you know, she wastalking all about like how you
know basically what's ineverything that we have to be.
I forgot why we even went intothat, but I I do just love this,
this concept like we have tounderstand where our food comes
(34:58):
from and why.
I mean even my sister's family.
It's like they're like eatingthe ritz crackers and the
goldfish off and I'm like Idon't know what's in there.
I did, I used to do that too.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Now I try to be better at you know, okay we kind
of have like if we're on a roadtrip we can have fruit snacks.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
If we're home, like that's not something we're
buying at the grocery store andbringing home, you know well
it's funny because, yes, we'regoing to mystic connecticut
tomorrow and so we went toaldi's and I let them pick out
like bags of snacks so like, ohmy God, we get snacks,
vacation's awesome Causenormally I'm like just eat some
(35:38):
cashews or here's some cheese.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, you know, I went to my doctor recently and
she was like I'm so thankful forwhat you're doing, cody.
She's like cause I have so manyyoung moms coming in just like
just having like anxiety, sayingI don't even know what to feed
my kids, like, what am I?
What is safe for them anymore?
I mean, when they're literallyevery day on the news, every day
on social media, they'retelling us something else is
(36:05):
basically poisoning us from theground up, and so you know it's.
It's really it's all aboutmoderation.
There's good, better and bestwhich.
So you know it's.
It's really it's all aboutmoderation.
There's good, better and bestwhich is.
You know good is fed, best islike straight off the farm and
don't try to recreate commercialfoods at home.
Like I have so many people thatare like, well, how do I make a
(36:26):
fruit snack?
I'm like I don't know, I don'tfeed them to my kids and they
don't get them at home either.
Right, like my kids are superexcited to take some like a
scoop of homemade jam and put itover their cottage cheese or
their, you know, and it's rawcottage cheese, so that's just
what it's.
You have to, like.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Change your way of looking at food, you know have
to, like, change your way oflooking at food, you know, and
that's it, um, it's like youhave to learn how to eat to live
, not live to eat.
And, yes, because we're sobored in life, it's like, oh,
let's just grab the doritos.
Let's grab it, you know, butit's like, no, how does this
nourish me and in what way?
(37:09):
And if I have this, and I'mgonna feel sluggish tomorrow and
I'm gonna, you know, um, yourwhole microbiome and all that
jazz and none of us are perfectlike it's taking years for me
and we still have, you know,they've never had mcdonald's but
, um, you know, we still wentout to the pizza place yesterday
and had lunch there, mydaughter, daughter was so funny,
(37:29):
every bite.
This is so good.
This is so good Like you'relike an ad for this place right
now.
But you know, yeah, like yousaid, the moderation too, I mean
, so that you're not becausehere's another realization I
have you can send your kid toschool with all the organic food
that you want, and most schoolsnow have free lunches and
(37:52):
breakfast that they offer toevery child so that nobody feels
discriminated against.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
And while that, which is like straight sugar
kellogg's for breakfast and wellthat's lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Your child can throw away their organic food that you
made for them and spent allthis money on, and have the
nachos, the bagels, the creamcheese, everything's loaded with
red dye, 40 and everything elseunder the sun.
And like I get it, like I'm soglad that rfk jr is banning some
of this stuff.
(38:23):
But we have to realize we don'tneed a politician to ban it.
We just have to stop buying itbecause they'll go out of
business if we all realize whatthey've been poisoning us with
yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
I mean, what are they replacing it with?
I mean, I just kind of look atit that way, you know, I kind of
I always say, like, don't eatsomething that is like more than
five steps away from God, likeyou know.
So that's you can.
You know, just looking at likea burger, like you have to
butcher the cow, you have to,you know, process the meat, you
(38:55):
have to grind it and then youhave to freeze it and then you
have to cook it.
There's five steps right there,you know.
So if you kind of like use thatas a really like, as you're
like, at the end of the day Iwant that to be my average Then
you're eating a lot cleaner.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah Well, but a lot, of, a lot of kids today, I
would think, and some people myage wouldn't even know those
steps to getting meat Like whatdo you mean?
Where does it come from what?
Because there are still timesthat I will say, like the wrong
animal, that the food I'm eatingis from, and my husband's like,
oh my god well, you can.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One good way is, if there's ingredients on the back
and it's more than you know,things that you could go buy
individually in the store, then,like I, there's so many things
like I can't go buy likeSorbitol in the store, you know
so very true, yeah, they.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
they put yes.
If you can't pronounce it andyou don't know what it means,
you probably shouldn't be takingit.
Um, but that's hard because itdoesn't leave you with much.
So it's like, okay, what do weeat?
Can you kids eat?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
nuts, fruits, berries .
That's where you have to lookat it differently, because
everybody always talks aboutlike healthy food is more
expensive.
It's really not, it's just morework.
So the same amount of moneythat you could spend by going
into the store and buying awhole chicken and herbs and
vegetables and, you know, a bagof flour and that type of stuff,
(40:24):
yeah, you could buy somechicken strips or whatever for
less than that.
But if you take that home, awhole chicken can feed my family
for a couple of meals plus twogallons of broth.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I love that you said that because, yes, I just bought
like 20 whole chickens from thefarmer on the corner which I
didn't know you could do.
Yeah, but yes, he called me.
Then he's like I'm butcheringthem Sunday.
Can you come pick them up?
I was like sure like they fitin my car, I don't even know.
So I picked up the 20 chickensand bloods and all but um and I
(40:56):
was gonna ask my kid I don'tbutcher, so can I?
bring my six-year-old to comewatch.
She butchered them.
But then I was like we'll waittill next year.
Um, but yeah, so, so now.
So, okay, those, if you buythem in bulk, like anything over
10 at a time, I think it was$16 a chicken Okay, so now I've
got a $16 chicken, that's cheapyeah.
And so I'll make a chicken onceor twice a week.
(41:18):
My husband will take it forlunch.
We'll have the one meal with it, my husband will take it for
lunches, or if I make it justfor us, we'll have it for two
nights for dinner, and the nextnight you can have like put it
in oh sorry, the next night youcan put it in your burritos or
whatnot.
But and then so the chickenbroth.
So then I started making thingslike rice instead of with water
, make it with chicken broth ora mac and cheese instead of
(41:39):
using water.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
It's got collagen in it and electrolytes and like all
these things that your bodyneeds.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yes, so now I was buying organic chicken broth for
like $6 for you know four cups.
Now I can make it from the $16chicken and it gives me.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Basically, make it for free with your scraps.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yes, and so that's been so cool.
I actually I tried to drink ityesterday.
I was like, let me drink thisbroth and see if I could switch
coffee.
And I was like no, we stillneed coffee.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, you know what, though?
I do love warm broth.
Like I just put a little extrasalt in it and like I can, I can
sip on that.
Like I used to take it to workwith me sometimes, because
coffee makes me sick to mystomach and so I would take
broth sometimes and drink it atwork.
And I one time I walked out toa coworker I was like, does my
coffee smell weird to you?
And he's like, yeah, what'swrong with it?
(42:30):
I was like, oh, it's beef broth.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
But yeah, I love it that you know you're really not
spending.
So now I would have beenspending $6 times four, cause I
get four pints, I don't know.
That would have been $24 for mebefore to get.
You know, four cups times fourcontainers of that.
That's what I'll get from awhole chicken.
And so, yeah, you're right, itjust it takes more work.
(42:54):
But once I know, okay, everySunday is when I make the whole
chicken, you know, and then Ilet the broth sit overnight in
the Instapot.
So there's like you don't tocut.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So there's like well, and the important thing is
finding ways to make it like fitinto your day rather than
because, yeah, it can feel likeif I'm going to make all my own
food, I'm just all I'm going todo is farm and cook and that's.
We don't just farm and cook, um,but you know it's also our job
and we loved doing a lot ofthese things beforehand, so it's
our hobbies too, but we have itso down that it's just part of
(43:28):
life.
Our kids are involved in it.
You know my daughter's startinga loaf of bread, my son's
processing milk, I'm pulling thechicken carcass out from the
night before.
That's been, you know, cookingall night and I'm standing there
chatting with them and pullingoff the pieces we can eat,
taking the pieces we can't eatand all the like fat and veggies
and the in between that goes onanother plate, because then I
turn around and feed that tolike my dogs or my chickens, and
(43:49):
you know it's like every pieceof that is getting used.
And it's not even taking thatmuch out of our day, it's just
part of our morning where we'reall in the kitchen together
working and doing our thing.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I need to do that.
So I I do feed my dog a rawdiet.
And what I did with the carcassand vegetables, I like ground,
I pounded them all up and I gavethat to him and then he was
like throwing up all over theplace.
I was like, oh my god, I tookhim to the vet and I'm like I
can't tell them what I did.
Like everybody knows you don'tfeed cooked bone, but like in my
(44:26):
mind it mashed and I think itwas just so rich for them that
it was.
But I'm like, oh, my God.
I killed the dog.
Everybody calls me don't feedthem raw.
And now they're going to thinkit's because I feed them a raw
diet.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Oh no, we feed our dogs either raw or if we're
cooking it, it's like just muchbetter.
Cause we were a little likewe're one step further.
I, we're a little like we'reone step further.
I grew up with a dad who was ahunting guide and a mom who was
a taxidermist, so really nothingbothers me so, and my kids
either.
So we have a freezer on theproperty that we call the dog
(44:58):
food freezer, and we have a rulethat no protein goes off the
property.
So if the little kids shoot asquirrel, it goes in the dog
food freezer.
If we watch the person in frontof us hit a deer on the highway
, we grab squirrel, it goes inthe dog food freezer.
If we watch the person in frontof us hit a deer on the highway
, we grab it and it goes in thedog food freezer.
If we have a piglet get steppedon, it goes in the dog food
freezer, and I mean it's just.
(45:21):
And so then, like my daughterand her friend they're, you know
, these two 16 year old girlsare out there dragging a whole
deer.
She's her, her friends fromAlaska.
So she's a little touch too,like us, you know, and these two
teenage girls out there and,like you know, jean shorts and
bikini tops are skinning a wholedeer in the driveway and
chopping it up and putting it inour like mixer to make dog food
(45:43):
for our dogs.
And we have a whole freezer.
They take them and they like,roll them flat in gallon bags
and stack them, and that's howwe feed our dogs all year.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So it's uncooked, then right, You're just like
what are you putting in agrinder?
It's uncooked.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Sometimes she'll cook it, sometimes she won't Like.
They don't like organ meat.
They're really picky.
So my Instapot is now cannot beused for anything other than
deer heart, because once youcook deer heart in an instapot
it doesn't go back see, my dogloves the heart and and and
that's been a cool homeschoolinglesson for us too.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
So I get from the farm that I get the half cow and
half pig from.
I will buy beef scraps andorgans and, yeah, every month
when I put together my dog's rawdiet, I'm like the other day
colin and his friend were hereI'm like you guys want to see a
cow heart.
So we're like analyzing it,flipping it over looking at the
(46:40):
valves in it I'm like, wow, thisis the old.
Me would have been so creepedout.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
You know what?
Last weekend we had the firechief over for dinner.
My husband's on the firedepartment.
There's a new chief, so wewanted to have him over and get
to know his family a little bitbetter.
And we had a sow that wethought was in labor.
And so we told our son, youknow, like he's seven and they
had a 10 year old daughter andthey raise pigs too.
So we said, hey, do you guyswant to go up and check and see
(47:08):
how the sow is doing and let usknow?
And they come tromping backdown there playing and you know,
riding bikes and stuff, on theway back down the hill from the
barn.
And I'm expecting piglets or nopiglets, like that was what I
thought the answer was going tobe.
Oh no, he's like well, she'slaying down, she's breathing
really heavy, he goes.
I think I saw a contraction,but I couldn't count it out.
Real well, he goes, but hervulva is really loose and I got
(47:33):
in there and I checked her formilk, but there's no milk yet.
So I don't think we're going tohave any babies.
And I was just like completelyshocked that that's what he said
.
But then I realized that's howwe talk to each other, and one
day he's gonna have a job andhe's gonna know that his boss
wants though all the detailslike like, lined out like that,
(47:55):
not just nope, no piglets well,but either or he'll be the boss
and he'll be like you.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Gotta go, give me some more details right.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
But he knew that if he just said no piglets, I would
ask is there milk?
Is she showing milk yet?
So he climbed in the pen withour probably 700 pound sow to
check and see if she wasexpressing milk or not.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
That's awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
It was a pretty proud mama moment All right.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Where do you recommend that people start with
?
If they want to check out youknow your curriculums, or just
learn about homesteading ingeneral, if they're like I want
to live a healthy lifestyle.
I just have no idea how tobegin or where to begin.
What would you recommend?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
um, well, I mean, of course, come to my website,
because right at the top it saysI want to do the curriculum or
I want to start a homestead, andthat can walk you down, right
down, the steps of either, youknow, buying the curricula for
your family.
It breaks it down by age andsubject.
If you're wanting to start ahomestead, it talks about you
know which animals to start with, how to make plans, how to
(49:02):
start a homestead business.
I love teaching about thatbecause that's just fun.
I mean, our homestead businesssupports partially supports our
family, you know.
But one thing that people reallylove and I'm just going to have
it here is my introduction tohomestead science, and this is a
full year agriculture science,but the focus is the small scale
(49:23):
farming, the self-sufficiency,and it's comparable to my
college intro to ag class,except it actually teaches
things like herbalism and stuff.
So probably about 25% of thesethat I sell are to adults that
are wanting to start their ownhomesteads and just don't know
where to start, because it's areally clean overview of 18
different topics on starting ahomestead and how they all
connect together.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh, I love that.
That's so cool.
What about regenerative farming, like that seems to be good.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
It is yeah, it covers a little bit of everything in
there, because I feel likepeople need to make the right
decision for their families andI actually said that to Joel
Salatin one time he goes does itteach permaculture?
And I said, well, I think itneeds to teach all of it.
It's not my job to tell themhow to do it.
And then I was like, did I justsay that to Joel Salad?
But my thought was, is I wantedto teach common sense and
(50:14):
problem solving and not just onetopic?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
And so it does talk about what regenerative farming
is, and in each chapter it'llgive like little tips on, like
you know, this is a way to makethis work together for
permaculture and that type ofstuff.
But yeah, we, I mean even forus, like with our pastured pigs,
we're regenerative farmers.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
And so can you just break down real quick like what
that means.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of different aspects.
You know, using your animals towork the land, not using
pesticides or fungicides orthings like that, using natural
ones or natural fertilizers likecompost and bone meals and
other things like that.
You know, joel uses the methodwhere his meat birds and his
(51:07):
chicken tractors are followingthe cows through the pasture
when they want to break land.
You know, in the brush orsomething, the pastured pigs go
in first and they just cleanthat up and then the next year
grass grows and you can run yourcows on the same piece and the
chickens are coming in behind itand they're eating the bugs.
So then your cows aren'tgetting parasites and it's just
(51:29):
this whole process and like forus I mean our pig herd, because
we have a closed herd like ifnew animals come onto my
property they're quarantined andstuff.
I haven't had to worm my largepigs in like six years.
I do, however, worm everypiglet that goes off my property
(51:49):
because every animal hassomewhat of a worm load, because
they're on dirt and stuff, andwhen piglets are weaned and then
transported, their immunesystems just tank.
So then I tell people, you know, like the withdrawal period on
a wormer is about two weeks, andI would quarantine any animal
(52:10):
that came on my property for twoweeks anyways.
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
All right, awesome, yeah, and that is to also help
renew the soil and get nutrientsback in it.
So yeah, and it's confusing forme too is like I told my
husband like all right, can yougive me a spot for a garden?
But don't till.
And he's like what?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of and that's why I teach
all like aspects of it Because,like, if you go out there and
you have a hard pan piece ofground, you're not planting
anything in it until you tell it.
So you know you can reduce howmuch you till.
You can, like you know, justtill in one spot so you can get
the plants down.
Or if you want to wait to dothat spot over a couple of years
, you can be putting mulch overit and let it get even soft and
(52:55):
stuff.
But yeah, you're not going tojust start a garden without
tilling it, it's just yeah, he'slike it's not possible he's
crazy.
You know you got it, but nowlike our garden, our garden beds
.
I haven't put soil in them in afew years.
My husband just put leaves ontop of them and grass clippings
and all those things and I'lljust be kind of planting
(53:15):
straight into that withoutdisrupting anything, as I'm
putting my garden in North Idahomy garden is going in this
weekend.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Oh, okay, yeah, that's late, I mean everything's
like.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
everything's like a foot tall.
It's just been growing in myokay so oh, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Oh, cody, thank you so much for joining me today.
Why don't you tell everyonewhere they can find you?
And I will save this live toboth of our.
Well, I'll save it to mine, youcan save it to yours too, I
believe, and I will alsore-release this as a podcast
(53:52):
episode which can be listened toon Apple Podcasts, spotify all
those good places.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
Yeah, well, I really appreciate you having me on.
When you started your podcast Idon't even know a while back,
but I was like man, I love whatshe's doing and the conversation
that she's having.
That I think just like needs tobe had, and so I really I was
very honored when you invited meon, thank you.
So, yeah, you can find me atthe homestead education dot com.
(54:18):
I have my own podcast where,you know, I teach about
homesteading, homeschooling,personal growth, business.
I have guests on all the time.
I spend most of my time onInstagram, but I'm on all the
social medias and, yeah, you canfind me there and find all my
products or one of my speakingevents Awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Thank you, cody, thank you for all the work
you're putting in.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
I really appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
Homeschool How-To.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
(55:07):
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region?
And should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
I have a super cool guesttonight.
Her name is Cody and she iswith Homestead Education, so
welcome.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you Good?
Good, the reason that Iactually I reached out to you to
(00:46):
come on, which doesn't happen alot, because people are always
messaging me like I homeschool.
I want to tell my story.
oh, that's really cool, she hascurriculum about homesteading
and like I want to know how tohomestead, like I fake it.
(01:09):
Right now I have a couple ofchickens and I'm surprised
they're still alive.
But that's my homestead.
That's the extent of it.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You know what?
We had three sows going tolabor last night.
I'm faking it most of the timetoo.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Three what went into labor.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Three sows.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I don't know, what that means.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Pigs.
We had three pigs in labor lastnight, oh my goodness, I'm from
the city.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm from the city.
It's so really true.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah.
So this morning we had 26piglets and two of them farrowed
in pasture, and so me and mykids are like have them in a
wagon, and we're like taking thebabies up the hill.
So mommy will follow and, oh mygoodness.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So do you help with the delivery?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
if they need it.
A lot of times they don't.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
We raise um heritage pigs so they have better
mothering instincts you'retelling me you don't have to
give them pitocin and epiduralsand then a c-section at the end
no, well, you know what?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I did have one pig that I was afraid she wasn't
done yet and she was up andmoving around, so I gave her
some oxytocin to make sure shewas healthy and got her placenta
oh, um, that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So, okay, you homeschool as well, right, okay,
how long have you been firsthomesteading and then we'll get
into the homeschooling?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's kind of like one of those like loaded questions,
because I grew up on a cattleranch.
Okay, I did not, but we werealways really modern.
You know, I grew up inCalifornia, but I mean in the
mountains cattle ranch.
My dad was a hunting guide, sorural life was really natural
for me.
But I was an ag major andworked in commercial ag for 10
(02:50):
years and then my husband gotdiagnosed with end stage liver
disease and was told he had ayear to live, and we were only
in our early 30s.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah.
And after a sobbing call to theVA doctor, he finally probably
just to get me off the phonetold me that if we lived a
healthier lifestyle it mightimprove his quality of life.
So we sold everything andbought a farm and started
growing all of our own food.
(03:20):
And it's been eight years andhe has a fully healed liver.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Oh my gosh, isn't that amazing.
How do you even?
Get well, yes, the liverregenerates, right.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So, like his his was in stage with the like scarring
and everything.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So they were like good luck, lady, like just get
off the phone with me, wow andand I mean just that wasn't the
first thing that they said toyou hey, change what you're
eating, Look at what chemicalsor what hormones, what's
injected into the food you'reeating.
That wasn't even part of theprocess.
It was just like have fun thelast year you're alive here.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
And then they even told him to go on like a low fat
diet and stuff which you know.
Over the years we have learnedthat that's the exact opposite
of what we should have done andwe're to the point now where we
eat home.
You know, we cook everything inhome rendered lard and our
cholesterol is down 250 points apiece.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, so you grew up kind of rurally, but how long
ago was that now?
Eight, eight years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So eight years ago is when we said well, let's figure
out how to do all of this.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
How did homeschooling blend in with all that?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, right around that same time we had a couple
of kids who were having problemsin school.
And we have six kids, so thecouple older ones were in junior
high.
We have some younger ones thatwere struggling too and it was
such a stress trying to learn awhole new lifestyle while
dealing with issues at theschool.
So we're like we had a friendwho was homeschooling.
(04:55):
She's like why don't you justtry it?
You can do it through a charter.
If you don't like it, you cango back in the fall.
And my husband and I were likewe don't want to spend all day
with our children.
We were like we don't want tospend all day with our children.
We were like those people.
Now I look back on it and gohow would I feel if my husband
said he didn't want to spend allday with me?
Yes, so true, yeah.
(05:15):
So we pulled them out and westarted muddling through it and
of course, we did it all wrongfor the first few years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And trying to replicate school at home and
everyone's fighting yeah I getit, I'm still guilty.
We thought we were going.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We thought they were going back.
We thought this was just tospend some extra time together
if my husband didn't make it,and so we're like, okay, we'll
just do school at home or we'redoing it together.
And we tried to replicateschool and one of our children
has like severe adhd and odd,and that was a nightmare.
(05:50):
So we've learned what is odd.
I know I've ocd I'm familiarwith odd is oppositional
defiance disorder, oh, whichmeans he will go against like
authority figures in any socialnorms.
Like I can't get the guy towear tennis shoes.
(06:12):
Like I can't get the guy towear tennis shoes, he wears
cowboy boots all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So does my son, and I live in New York.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you're're in upstate, so you know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Oh my gosh.
But it's so funny because, yes,I used to say that too.
Like one, I don't even know ifI want kids.
Two, if I have them, I'm noteven going to send them to
private school, let alone.
Homeschool was never on thetable.
But yeah, it was like who wantsto spend that much time with
your kids?
And then, now that I am homewith them all day, I'm like, oh
my God, this is what I you know,and my daughter I've been home
(06:49):
with her since she was born I'mlike this is what I missed when
he was in daycare at her age andit's kind of it's cool because
I got to see both sides, but atthe same time it makes me sad
because there's people thatdon't ever realize it and it's
not their fault.
Society literally tells you youshould be in a job if you want
to make any, if you want tocontribute to society or, you
(07:12):
know, pay more taxes.
Um, but yeah, it's uh, that'sreally sad.
So you had.
I'm actually writing an ebookright now and I have a chapter
on like homeschooling childrenwith special needs and how
wonderful homeschooling is forthat.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh my gosh yes.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Can you get into that a little bit?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, I mean learning on the homestead.
Everything is hands on andthat's been the best way for us
when we really like, went all in, we are growing all of our own
food.
I had to base all of ourlessons around what we were
doing on the farm becauseotherwise I wouldn't have time
for both.
And my one with ODD which Iactually have, some younger ones
with autism and dyslexia andstuff like my husband or yours,
(07:57):
mine and ours and that's kind ofwhat drew us to each other is
we were both struggling assingle parents raising
neurodivergent kids.
So we're doing everythinghands-on.
The kids are really getting it,but our one with ODD oh man, he
hates school, hated school.
I don't know what you want tosay.
He's 20 now but he would sit atthe table and pretend to do his
(08:18):
lessons and like, at the end ofthe day, hand them all to us
and we're like there's nothingwritten down and he's like, oh,
you must have erased it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
So at this point he's like almost a teenager.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, he's like 15.
We're like, oh my gosh, likethis is.
Do you really think that I tookthe time to erase all your work
?
That's not how I want to spendmy afternoons.
So he asked if he could get ajob.
And my husband and I we had thisrule that you can't get your
driver's license and stuff likethat if you don't have at least
a B average.
Because we figure, if you'rehomeschooled, if you're not
(08:51):
getting at least Bs there's, youknow, like we're trying to
build a foundation.
And so he started working forour neighbor and when it was
time to start school in the fall, he's like I don't want to come
back.
And when it was time to startschool in the fall, he's like I
don't want to come back, like Idon't want to do school anymore.
And my husband and I talkedabout it and we're like well, I
mean, in Idaho we don't have alot of homeschool laws, so why
(09:14):
don't you take a semester off?
We'll call it work experienceand see how it goes.
And he goes well with that.
If I save up all my own moneyto take driver's ed, to get my
you know insurance, pay for myown phone, get a car, do I have
to still get good grades andwe're like prove us, you know,
prove it to us.
This kid not only like, hestarted working full time, he
(09:37):
saved up the money and boughthimself like his dream truck.
He got his driver's license.
He, I mean, did all the stepsand then was so good at his job,
somebody else, like, hired himto be an electrician's
apprentice, and now, at 20 yearsold, he makes 50 something
dollars an hour and is theforeman on the job site.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Wow, I mean, that's like.
That gives me chills becausethat just goes to show you, yes,
like how much you can give yourchild, how many opportunities
if they get outside the system.
And I think just people don'trealize it.
Like, oh, are you going to sitthere with them when they're 16,
17, you know, 18, reading froma curriculum book to them, Like
(10:19):
no, it doesn't have to be likethat.
And yeah, and you're not theonly person I talked to actually
in my ebook.
I was just writing becauseelijah stanfield was on my
podcast.
He illustrated for the titletwins or illustrates for the
title.
Yeah and he actually interviewedus for the magazine, did you,
yeah, and he was like yeah, myson at 16 was like, yeah, I want
(10:39):
to get into music.
I, I, I want to, you know, kindof step away from the
schoolwork and get into themusic.
And he was like okay, but howare you going to afford the
instruments, the recording timeand all that?
And so he started.
You know, his son starteddrawing some illustrations,
making some money, paying foreverything himself, and it's
like that's teaching you realworld stuff that I didn't get in
(11:01):
school.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh yeah, and you know we still I knew, you know, 15,
16 years old he's still.
He's still our kid and we stillneed to make sure that he's
getting what he needs.
And so I would kind ofconstruct scenarios where we had
to do a little extra learning.
Some call it strewing, butbasically I would.
I got a book on how to buildhomestead projects and I was
(11:25):
like, hey, wyatt, I need sometrellises built and I don't have
time for it.
So next thing I know he's outthere like how many do you want?
Oh, I want three.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And so he's having to do the math and read through
the book and he's in the kitchenwith me, leaning over the
counter working it all out withme, and I'm like, yeah, we just
did a math lesson and you didn'teven know it and that's how it
(11:57):
should be, honestly, becausewhen you're teaching a kid
something you know, you've gotmath and then reading a separate
block, writing a separate block, history, a separate block, and
it's like they can allintertwine and they can all
center around something thatyour kid actually loves, like
trucks or dinosaurs or buildingof how electricity works, and
you can work so much into thatand I understand like it.
It is hard to conceptualizelike, okay, that sounds
wonderful, how does thatactually get implemented?
(12:18):
Because that's like so muchresearch right there.
But I feel like it does kind ofnaturally flow once you're in
it and you know you can, andjust nowadays with the internet
and AI and all that stuff outthere, you're never alone you're
not.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, you know, I tell a lot of people they'll even
with recipes or something likethat, and they're like well, how
do I cook like you?
I'm like, you don't need me towalk you all the way through it,
you can google everything andjust do it, just jump in and do
it.
And I think that's actually thebiggest disconnect as to why I
started teaching the way I do isbecause we weren't taught all
(12:56):
these things, and I say we likeour generation, and so not only
are we afraid to learn them,we're definitely afraid to teach
them.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So how important is it that we know how to not just
homestead, but how to grow ourown food, how to find clean
water.
You know, I mean, many peoplein school today probably don't
even know that their food insome way, shape or form, came
from someone's farm, um, letalone how to find water if they
(13:28):
needed to well, like, how fardown the conspiracy rabbit hole
do you want me to go?
But I mean, I go pretty far,but I don't want to get banned
on instagram either.
Still on instagram's happy side.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You know, I think just kind of you have to look at
the fact that even five yearsago we couldn't get some of
these things, that literally oursupply chain shut down.
This can happen.
This isn't a conspiracytheorist thing.
This isn't a crazy prepperthing or a crunchy mom or
(14:04):
whatever label you want to puton it.
This is a real thing that couldhappen and it's even just as
simple as where we live in NorthIdaho and you may even deal
with some of this in upstate NewYork is we get several feet of
snow and sometimes can losepower for days on end.
So just understanding thosebasics, right?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yes, the Maui fires, the hurricane in North.
Carolina.
I mean any of that could happento any of us, or even another
country invading, or you knowour own country.
You know the aliens coming down, they could say anything
literally and you know we wouldjust be at their fema's mercy.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
so I think that's been like my new thing, like I
just don't want my kidsdependent on fema if they don't
have to be and it's so importanttoo, to teach our kids because
actually who's saving you islike the hillbillies on horses
coming in from behind, becausethey're the ones that have been
doing this stuff their wholelives.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yes, and and we saw that during the you know
hurricanes in north carolinafrom what people were showing um
, you know on instagram andwhatnot.
But yeah, and not only is it,it's like okay, even if my child
doesn't need it in his lifetimeor her lifetime, okay, how do I
know that their kids and theirkids and their kids won't need
to know some sort of survivalinformation.
(15:30):
Survival just how to find food,how to like, hunt, like,
process an animal that they'vehunted or grow something.
I mean that's huge.
We are we in one generation.
We've just thrown up our handsand said, oh, the government's
going to handle it, I don't haveto worry about it.
We are we in one generation.
We've just thrown up our handsand said, oh, the government's
going to handle it, I don't haveto worry about it.
It we're pretty ignorant tothink that that's okay.
(15:51):
You know, we've got kids andgrandkids and great grandkids to
think about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I tell people that a lot we need to opt out of
relying on the systems, becausewe have this like a severed cord
of generational sustainabilitythat was just passed down from
years and years and years andsuddenly I don't know what 75
years ago our grandmothers werelike.
I would rather have an electricvacuum than learn how to cook.
(16:15):
And our children, I mean and Isay our children co-healy, like
they, they don't know how to doanything.
And I mean, and I say ourchildren co-oculally, like they
don't know how to do anything.
And I mean that same anxietythat we are feeling about that
they're feeling it too.
So I mean, like, just start.
If you don't know it, learn it,and learn it in front of them,
(16:37):
because they're going to see you.
I don't know how to do that.
Let's figure it out.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, right, because I don't know any of it.
I got Joel Salatin's book.
So you know, we're kind of likeI'm not that there yet, like my
husband keeps telling me, likeyou can't, you can't handle
taking care of the chickens thatwe have, so we're not adding
like sheep and goats and cows tothis mix.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yet Joel Salatin is a great one because he gets you
like all he like.
He's the fire and brimstone ofthe homesteading world.
You're like I'm going to dothis because this is all messed
up and yeah, and it gets intolike we know nothing about the
soil or anything.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I never learned about that stuff in school.
I worked for the government for16 years and I had this one
crazy.
I had many crazy bosses, but Ihad this one crazy.
I had many crazy bosses, but Ihad this one crazy boss.
And then now that I look backon it I'm like, oh my gosh, she
was right about so many things.
She was senile as all hell.
Nobody liked this lady.
But I look back and she Iremember her saying to me well,
(17:40):
the soil has no nutrients in it,so it doesn't even matter if
you're eating, you know yourapples or whatever you grow.
This sort of has no nutrientsin it.
So it doesn't even matter ifyou're eating, you know your
apples or whatever you grow, thesoil has no nutrients.
And I'm like I at that time Iwas like all right, but now that
I'm like watching documentarieson it.
I attended a conference a coupleweeks ago with dell.
Big tree was at it and I'm like, wow, I didn't even know about
(18:01):
any of this, about how we shouldbe.
You know what we should beputting in our soil, composting
and stuff I never composted Ididn't know that was a thing we
compost now and we get thelittle steps that I've taken
over the last couple of years.
We get, um, I don't have a cowor pig myself, but I'll get them
butchered from the local farmsor local butchers.
(18:22):
So you know, it's at leastlocal and it had a decent life.
It wasn't, you know, bred for?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Oh, you know what?
I raise 300 hogs a year andthey all get head scratches in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
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It's a conversation weshouldn't put off and it's a
conversation we should haveoften.
That's why I wrote let's TalkEmergencies, a book that covers
everything from dialing 911 on alocked cell phone to staying
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The most important lessons wecan teach our kids are not
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(18:55):
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Give them the tools they need.
Grab a copy today.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description.
And that makes a differenceactually in the end product of
the bacon that you eat.
Can you talk about that at all?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Pigs are really yeah, pigs are really sustainable to
stress and there's actually agene that is in some commercial
lines of pigs that if they gettoo stressed they either die or
all of the water will come outof their meat after they're
butchered.
So you know, there's a lot ofpeople that are, just like you
know, happier, pigs arehealthier.
But I'm like there's a wholelike physiological thing
(19:38):
happening with pigs that ifthey're too stressed it actually
changes the meat that's on yourplate.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And probably like cortisol levels too, and then
what you're consuming, as youknow the consumer.
You're getting that right.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Absolutely.
And you know the pigs that areraised in confinement operations
their meat is lower in vitaminD because they're not converting
it through their skin like wedo.
So pigs that are raised out inthe sun, their meat has higher
levels of vitamin D in it.
If you're doing heritage meats,it's still marbled.
It doesn't have all the fatbred out of it, so you're
(20:15):
getting more nutritious withyour linoleic acids and things
like that.
Marbled is better Marbled whenyou get a beef steak and there's
the lines of fat through it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's what marbled is, and so most pork.
Because when they lied toeverybody and told us that fat
was bad for us back in the 50s,all the pork had the fat bred
out of it over several years.
But the heritage breeds of porknever went into that commercial
line of breeding.
So they still have all the fatin their meat.
(20:50):
And I mean you can just you cantaste the difference, let alone
the health benefits of it.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Interesting.
So can you give me a rundown ofwhat your day looks like?
You've got six kids, but someof them have graduated.
How many you have left in yourhomeschooling, like you know
world, and what your day lookslike on average?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, so we have four still at home two 16-year-olds,
a seven-year-old and afive-year-old.
I had to think for a second.
The five-year-old's a littleferal, so I think our animals
are a little bit moredomesticated than he is, but
this kid is like he's a fulltime job.
But yeah, we get up in themorning and our teenage son gets
(21:32):
up and goes and feeds the pigsand milks the cows for our micro
dairy and we sell our raw milkhere in Idaho and we also, oh,
we have like 12 breeding animalsright now and on our pig herd.
So I mean we have like breedinganimals right now and on our
pig herd.
So I mean we have, like I said,26 piglets were born last night
.
While he's up doing that, mydaughter gets up and she kind of
(21:53):
starts the morning routine inthe house and so she's like
helping getting the little boysup and starting coffee.
My son comes in with the milk.
We all kind of jump in at thatpoint because as a business
owner, I have to get up and, youknow, start answering emails
right away.
So I get up and I'm doing thatand I'm, you know, working with
her, helping with the littles.
My son comes in and we all hopin and start processing the milk
(22:20):
for the store or, um, you know,cleaning out jars to me and
getting the cream for makingbutter and making cheese and
whatever it is we're going to dofor the day, and then from that
point my husband's afirefighter and he has PTSD, so
his sleep schedule is a littleoff.
So when he gets up we all headout and start doing whatever
farm chores need to be done.
So that's rotating pastures,fixing things, doctoring
(22:41):
somebody, whatever it is.
We need to do, not just theregular everyday feeding,
because that kind of falls onthe teenager.
Our eight or seven-year-oldgoes with him a lot because he's
old enough to be doing a lot ofthat and we kind of say like if
they're old enough to walk andtalk, they're old enough to
follow instructions and help.
So our kids start young, soimportant and I mean huh, so
(23:05):
important, yeah, it is yeah.
And they're so self-sufficient.
We can leave for conferencesand the teenagers can completely
run our farm without us and Itrust them.
I know that everybody's safebecause they make good choices
and they're handling what theyneed to do, because we have a
trust from being partners inworking on the farm together.
(23:27):
And they're on the firedepartment with my husband and
just everything we do istogether.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I love that.
You know, what I love aboutthis is they all have a purpose
in their day Cause.
I think that that's beenstripped from us.
I don't think I know thatthat's been stripped from us
Just like we were talking aboutthe.
We don't have to find food,water or shelter anymore.
We just are kind of at least inthe US fairly comfortable here
and you can get Uber to whatever, bring food to your door,
(23:55):
amazon to bring you a new outfittomorrow, or whatever.
There's really no like survivalpurpose in our bodies.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I would say there's like teenagers have anxiety
because they have zero purpose.
I think that's and that, I mean, I'm sure, is going into
probably even all the way up toour generation just not knowing
what we're supposed to be doingwith our time and with our day.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Oh, you hit the nail on the head right there, because
I never, I always, felt thatway.
Like you know, they tell youwhen you have to be in school,
when you have to switch classes,when you can go home, what you
know.
Okay, I want to do thisextracurricular.
Okay, well, it's five days aweek, three hours a day.
It's like, geez, all right,well, I just wanted to enjoy a
(24:41):
little bit.
But you know, and then yourweekends are filled with
whatever else you're into, orthis birthday party, or that
family event, and it's like, howmuch time do you really get to
just be by yourself and think,like, what do I like to do?
And even as an adult, you know,I went to college.
It's like, I don't know, I'lljust keep switching my major
until something fits.
(25:04):
And uh, then I got a job workingfor government, because that's
what my parents did.
And even in government work Iwas like, okay, well, this is
nice, because, even if I don'tlike the job I'm doing, I could.
I could transfer to a differentunit or a different department,
different agency, and find thatthing.
And I found, after 16 years andfour different agencies,
there's never any work to do andnever purposeful.
(25:26):
And people like I'm sure mycoworkers hate me for that.
Yeah, you might have a job thatyou're busy in, but if you left
tomorrow, nobody's life wouldchange.
So how important is the workthat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Exactly, and I mean just what we do with our hands,
and I mean just it's such a likewhen you're just sitting there
doing busy work, just the samething over and over again until
it's five o'clock and you clockout, how do you go home and feel
like you've accomplishedanything?
Yeah where the amount of work wedo with our hands and when we
(26:03):
have a finished product at theend of the day, a finished
product at the end of season orwhatever it is that we're doing
and we live with the seasons andwe eat with the seasons and
like our bodies, are just morein tune to how we were meant to
live on this earth.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yes, that's so important and, again, it's just
so overlooked and I really think, like knowing that I can get up
, like right now, I get up at 430 in the morning because I want
to work on my podcast and workon the Instagram, and so it's
like, okay, what can I do now?
Can I work on an ebook?
Yeah, I can do that.
Oh, can I make a curriculum?
(26:41):
Oh, let's do that.
So, let's get into that,because that's initially how I
found you, so you not only havea homestead and have a store,
but you also created thecurriculum about how to have a
homestead and like live survivalskills, that's so awesome.
All right.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Cause I want to.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I want to get it all.
I want to do it all with mykids.
My son's in a wilderness classright now.
He loves it.
So, yeah, how did you comeabout with all your free time
creating curriculum?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, when I actually started writing, I was working
in real estate and I was reallybored in my office all the time,
and then I had a baby thatstayed up all night so I never
slept.
Anyways, might as well use mytime wisely.
But yeah, we, when we startedhomeschooling, my first thought
was kind of I have no clue whatI'm doing, but there's a
homeschool curriculum foreverything.
(27:36):
So I'll get one on umagriculture and we will learn
agriculture together, andthat'll be a really great way
for me to be able to like learnto homeschool while teaching a
subject that I like deeplyunderstand.
And there wasn't one, and I wasso disappointed, like how is
there not a homeschoolcurriculum on agriculture?
(27:58):
Food is literally humanity'smost driving force, and yet
nobody knows how to do it, norare there ways to teach it,
unless you go through publicschool ag program.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
And they're probably not teaching you what you really
need to know there either.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I mean they're teaching, you know, commercial
agriculture as a vocation whichhas its place, but that's not
those true skills and nobodywants to take home ec because
they think it's just learninghow to be a housewife and that's
not the case either.
So that's why I mean I'll getthere.
So I started just buildinglessons for my kids at all ages
(28:36):
and like make it work for eachof them.
You know, I learned aboutcanvas.
I was making little worksheetsfor the kids and stuff.
And I was driving to work oneday and I was listening to
another podcast and she had agal on who was talking about she
lived on a farm but she wastrying to be like a fashion
blogger and wasn't reallygetting a lot of people and she
ended up designing a stamp fortheir wedding that she started
(28:59):
selling on Etsy and it blew upso much and she was in like
Southern Living Magazine andthat right then it like clicked
for me.
I don't know what it was, youknow like I'm not talking about
stamps or Southern LivingMagazine, but it clicked.
You need to write thiscurriculum because other people
want this information and,considering I worked in food
safety and like qualityassurance for years, literally
(29:21):
my job was to write like how-toson how to do everything in the
food plants.
So I was like I can just takethat skill and my love for
agriculture and I mean, I havemy bachelor's in animal science,
so it's not that I don't knowthese things and I had to like
relearn when we startedhomesteading because there were
so many things that I was like Iknow I'm supposed to worm cows,
(29:44):
but can I worm a dairy cow?
And I don't even know where tostart.
So I had to relearn a lot ofstuff.
And yeah, it just.
And I came home and I'm likehoney, I have an amazing idea.
And usually he's like, oh, Idon't think we need to know
about it.
And I told him and he's likethat's a great idea, get in your
chair.
He brought me my laptop and aglass of iced tea and I wrote my
(30:06):
first curriculum like just alittle kid's book that weekend,
just to see if I could do it.
And I was.
It turned out so good that Iwrote the next part and then I
launched it.
And then people started askinglike, do you have something for
high school?
And I was like, well, I meanthat's what I've got to do next,
because that's where I get intothat, really like brass tacks,
(30:26):
science and the homesteadingpart together, and I had a blast
writing it.
It was probably my it's like mymost favorite thing I've
probably ever done in my entirelife Because it was being able
to teach something that mattersso much to me and know that
other, it was a value to otherpeople and I mean it has blown
(30:49):
up, it is, and I call ithomestead science because my
thought with it is it'sagriculture, science and like
home economics together, likelearning on a like in a small
scale way with self-sufficiency,and I mean I have sold it in
five countries.
It is in public schools, it'sin private schools, charter
(31:10):
schools, co-ops, families,everywhere.
I mean I have been so blessedto be able to like be a part of
this community and share what Ihave in a way that even people
who understand what they'redoing don't always know how to
teach it in that same way, andthat's been where we've gone
(31:31):
over the last few years.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Wow, I love that.
So okay, give me a just brief.
Like my son's six and I have atwo-year-old, what would a
curriculum for him look like?
Like how, how much of the yearwould it take off, how much of
the day and what types of stuffwould he be learning?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So my homestead science for six-year-olds is
called Build your Own Homesteadand it comes with a poster.
That's kind of a little bit ofa story to it.
But I was so tired of likekids' science curriculums just
being art projects for busy work.
But with that age, kid, youdon't really want them outside,
(32:10):
like giving shots to theneighbor's bowl, so you kind of
have to balance that.
So it comes with a huge poster,a two by three poster, with the
outlines of a farm on it andevery day they learn about
something on the homestead.
And once they learn about itthey have a cutout or they get
to go find something to add totheir homestead and so it takes
all year for them to build it.
(32:31):
So they have that long-termlike satisfaction and they're
learning quality of character.
They're learning animalhusbandry, how food and the
world kind of like fits together.
And then I have one that goeswith that for slightly older
kids that gives a whole bunch ofscience and sociology behind
each thing that they're doing.
(32:51):
So, instead of you know.
Yeah, so like a you know a fiveor six year old, they're just
excited to put a homestead, liketo put a barn on their
homestead, like homesteads havebarns and I'm so excited that I
got to learn about barns.
But the older kids will learnwhy there's cross pieces for
structural integrity, why barnswere historically red.
They make their own homemadered paint Like.
(33:13):
So it's kind of they get alittle history like why things
are like that in their world.
You learn a little bit ofchemistry because of the
oxidation of the iron and thepaint back in the days is what
made the paint red and it justit just makes their whole worlds
kind of like come together,love that.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And I love that part about homeschooling.
That's been kind of a recentrealization for me.
Everything blends.
It does not have to be like.
This is our reading section,this is our writing.
It all blends in together overa topic or a theme that
interests your child and oncethey realize, like anybody, like
we all eat food, we all have toeat food.
(33:52):
So once you realize that thisis all I mean even I had I was
talking yesterday, uh, or onMonday I interviewed a woman.
She owned a chain of veganrestaurants in LA and is now a
cattle rancher.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
You would not believe how many people like that that
I meet.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Have you tried the Tuttle Twins books with your
kids yet?
We love them.
In our home, my son plays theaudiobook and follows along in
his book.
It lets me get things donewhile we're homeschooling
without missing a beat in hiseducation.
The stories bring history,economics and freedom alive in a
way kids really connect with.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description and use
code Cheryl15 to get 15% offyour order.
(34:36):
Teach your kids about whyindependence matters, why
freedom is worth protecting, andto always stay curious.
But yeah, you know, she wastalking all about like how you
know basically what's ineverything that we have to be.
I forgot why we even went intothat, but I I do just love this,
this concept like we have tounderstand where our food comes
(34:58):
from and why.
I mean even my sister's family.
It's like they're like eatingthe ritz crackers and the
goldfish off and I'm like Idon't know what's in there.
I did, I used to do that too.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Now I try to be better at you know, okay we kind
of have like if we're on a roadtrip we can have fruit snacks.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
If we're home, like that's not something we're
buying at the grocery store andbringing home, you know well
it's funny because, yes, we'regoing to mystic connecticut
tomorrow and so we went toaldi's and I let them pick out
like bags of snacks so like, ohmy God, we get snacks,
vacation's awesome Causenormally I'm like just eat some
(35:38):
cashews or here's some cheese.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, you know, I went to my doctor recently and
she was like I'm so thankful forwhat you're doing, cody.
She's like cause I have so manyyoung moms coming in just like
just having like anxiety, sayingI don't even know what to feed
my kids, like, what am I?
What is safe for them anymore?
I mean, when they're literallyevery day on the news, every day
on social media, they'retelling us something else is
(36:05):
basically poisoning us from theground up, and so you know it's.
It's really it's all aboutmoderation.
There's good, better and bestwhich.
So you know it's.
It's really it's all aboutmoderation.
There's good, better and bestwhich is.
You know good is fed, best islike straight off the farm and
don't try to recreate commercialfoods at home.
Like I have so many people thatare like, well, how do I make a
(36:26):
fruit snack?
I'm like I don't know, I don'tfeed them to my kids and they
don't get them at home either.
Right, like my kids are superexcited to take some like a
scoop of homemade jam and put itover their cottage cheese or
their, you know, and it's rawcottage cheese, so that's just
what it's.
You have to, like.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Change your way of looking at food, you know have
to, like, change your way oflooking at food, you know, and
that's it, um, it's like youhave to learn how to eat to live
, not live to eat.
And, yes, because we're sobored in life, it's like, oh,
let's just grab the doritos.
Let's grab it, you know, butit's like, no, how does this
nourish me and in what way?
(37:09):
And if I have this, and I'mgonna feel sluggish tomorrow and
I'm gonna, you know, um, yourwhole microbiome and all that
jazz and none of us are perfectlike it's taking years for me
and we still have, you know,they've never had mcdonald's but
, um, you know, we still wentout to the pizza place yesterday
and had lunch there, mydaughter, daughter was so funny,
(37:29):
every bite.
This is so good.
This is so good Like you'relike an ad for this place right
now.
But you know, yeah, like yousaid, the moderation too, I mean
, so that you're not becausehere's another realization I
have you can send your kid toschool with all the organic food
that you want, and most schoolsnow have free lunches and
(37:52):
breakfast that they offer toevery child so that nobody feels
discriminated against.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
And while that, which is like straight sugar
kellogg's for breakfast and wellthat's lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Your child can throw away their organic food that you
made for them and spent allthis money on, and have the
nachos, the bagels, the creamcheese, everything's loaded with
red dye, 40 and everything elseunder the sun.
And like I get it, like I'm soglad that rfk jr is banning some
of this stuff.
(38:23):
But we have to realize we don'tneed a politician to ban it.
We just have to stop buying itbecause they'll go out of
business if we all realize whatthey've been poisoning us with
yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
I mean, what are they replacing it with?
I mean, I just kind of look atit that way, you know, I kind of
I always say, like, don't eatsomething that is like more than
five steps away from God, likeyou know.
So that's you can.
You know, just looking at likea burger, like you have to
butcher the cow, you have to,you know, process the meat, you
(38:55):
have to grind it and then youhave to freeze it and then you
have to cook it.
There's five steps right there,you know.
So if you kind of like use thatas a really like, as you're
like, at the end of the day Iwant that to be my average Then
you're eating a lot cleaner.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah Well, but a lot, of, a lot of kids today, I
would think, and some people myage wouldn't even know those
steps to getting meat Like whatdo you mean?
Where does it come from what?
Because there are still timesthat I will say, like the wrong
animal, that the food I'm eatingis from, and my husband's like,
oh my god well, you can.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One good way is, if there's ingredients on the back
and it's more than you know,things that you could go buy
individually in the store, then,like I, there's so many things
like I can't go buy likeSorbitol in the store, you know
so very true, yeah, they.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
they put yes.
If you can't pronounce it andyou don't know what it means,
you probably shouldn't be takingit.
Um, but that's hard because itdoesn't leave you with much.
So it's like, okay, what do weeat?
Can you kids eat?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
nuts, fruits, berries .
That's where you have to lookat it differently, because
everybody always talks aboutlike healthy food is more
expensive.
It's really not, it's just morework.
So the same amount of moneythat you could spend by going
into the store and buying awhole chicken and herbs and
vegetables and, you know, a bagof flour and that type of stuff,
(40:24):
yeah, you could buy somechicken strips or whatever for
less than that.
But if you take that home, awhole chicken can feed my family
for a couple of meals plus twogallons of broth.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I love that you said that because, yes, I just bought
like 20 whole chickens from thefarmer on the corner which I
didn't know you could do.
Yeah, but yes, he called me.
Then he's like I'm butcheringthem Sunday.
Can you come pick them up?
I was like sure like they fitin my car, I don't even know.
So I picked up the 20 chickensand bloods and all but um and I
(40:56):
was gonna ask my kid I don'tbutcher, so can I?
bring my six-year-old to comewatch.
She butchered them.
But then I was like we'll waittill next year.
Um, but yeah, so, so now.
So, okay, those, if you buythem in bulk, like anything over
10 at a time, I think it was$16 a chicken Okay, so now I've
got a $16 chicken, that's cheapyeah.
And so I'll make a chicken onceor twice a week.
(41:18):
My husband will take it forlunch.
We'll have the one meal with it, my husband will take it for
lunches, or if I make it justfor us, we'll have it for two
nights for dinner, and the nextnight you can have like put it
in oh sorry, the next night youcan put it in your burritos or
whatnot.
But and then so the chickenbroth.
So then I started making thingslike rice instead of with water
, make it with chicken broth ora mac and cheese instead of
(41:39):
using water.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
It's got collagen in it and electrolytes and like all
these things that your bodyneeds.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yes, so now I was buying organic chicken broth for
like $6 for you know four cups.
Now I can make it from the $16chicken and it gives me.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Basically, make it for free with your scraps.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yes, and so that's been so cool.
I actually I tried to drink ityesterday.
I was like, let me drink thisbroth and see if I could switch
coffee.
And I was like no, we stillneed coffee.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, you know what, though?
I do love warm broth.
Like I just put a little extrasalt in it and like I can, I can
sip on that.
Like I used to take it to workwith me sometimes, because
coffee makes me sick to mystomach and so I would take
broth sometimes and drink it atwork.
And I one time I walked out toa coworker I was like, does my
coffee smell weird to you?
And he's like, yeah, what'swrong with it?
(42:30):
I was like, oh, it's beef broth.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
But yeah, I love it that you know you're really not
spending.
So now I would have beenspending $6 times four, cause I
get four pints, I don't know.
That would have been $24 for mebefore to get.
You know, four cups times fourcontainers of that.
That's what I'll get from awhole chicken.
And so, yeah, you're right, itjust it takes more work.
(42:54):
But once I know, okay, everySunday is when I make the whole
chicken, you know, and then Ilet the broth sit overnight in
the Instapot.
So there's like you don't tocut.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So there's like well, and the important thing is
finding ways to make it like fitinto your day rather than
because, yeah, it can feel likeif I'm going to make all my own
food, I'm just all I'm going todo is farm and cook and that's.
We don't just farm and cook, um,but you know it's also our job
and we loved doing a lot ofthese things beforehand, so it's
our hobbies too, but we have itso down that it's just part of
(43:28):
life.
Our kids are involved in it.
You know my daughter's startinga loaf of bread, my son's
processing milk, I'm pulling thechicken carcass out from the
night before.
That's been, you know, cookingall night and I'm standing there
chatting with them and pullingoff the pieces we can eat,
taking the pieces we can't eatand all the like fat and veggies
and the in between that goes onanother plate, because then I
turn around and feed that tolike my dogs or my chickens, and
(43:49):
you know it's like every pieceof that is getting used.
And it's not even taking thatmuch out of our day, it's just
part of our morning where we'reall in the kitchen together
working and doing our thing.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I need to do that.
So I I do feed my dog a rawdiet.
And what I did with the carcassand vegetables, I like ground,
I pounded them all up and I gavethat to him and then he was
like throwing up all over theplace.
I was like, oh my god, I tookhim to the vet and I'm like I
can't tell them what I did.
Like everybody knows you don'tfeed cooked bone, but like in my
(44:26):
mind it mashed and I think itwas just so rich for them that
it was.
But I'm like, oh, my God.
I killed the dog.
Everybody calls me don't feedthem raw.
And now they're going to thinkit's because I feed them a raw
diet.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Oh no, we feed our dogs either raw or if we're
cooking it, it's like just muchbetter.
Cause we were a little likewe're one step further.
I, we're a little like we'reone step further.
I grew up with a dad who was ahunting guide and a mom who was
a taxidermist, so really nothingbothers me so, and my kids
either.
So we have a freezer on theproperty that we call the dog
(44:58):
food freezer, and we have a rulethat no protein goes off the
property.
So if the little kids shoot asquirrel, it goes in the dog
food freezer.
If we watch the person in frontof us hit a deer on the highway
, we grab squirrel, it goes inthe dog food freezer.
If we watch the person in frontof us hit a deer on the highway
, we grab it and it goes in thedog food freezer.
If we have a piglet get steppedon, it goes in the dog food
freezer, and I mean it's just.
(45:21):
And so then, like my daughterand her friend they're, you know
, these two 16 year old girlsare out there dragging a whole
deer.
She's her, her friends fromAlaska.
So she's a little touch too,like us, you know, and these two
teenage girls out there and,like you know, jean shorts and
bikini tops are skinning a wholedeer in the driveway and
chopping it up and putting it inour like mixer to make dog food
(45:43):
for our dogs.
And we have a whole freezer.
They take them and they like,roll them flat in gallon bags
and stack them, and that's howwe feed our dogs all year.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So it's uncooked, then right, You're just like
what are you putting in agrinder?
It's uncooked.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Sometimes she'll cook it, sometimes she won't Like.
They don't like organ meat.
They're really picky.
So my Instapot is now cannot beused for anything other than
deer heart, because once youcook deer heart in an instapot
it doesn't go back see, my dogloves the heart and and and
that's been a cool homeschoolinglesson for us too.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
So I get from the farm that I get the half cow and
half pig from.
I will buy beef scraps andorgans and, yeah, every month
when I put together my dog's rawdiet, I'm like the other day
colin and his friend were hereI'm like you guys want to see a
cow heart.
So we're like analyzing it,flipping it over looking at the
(46:40):
valves in it I'm like, wow, thisis the old.
Me would have been so creepedout.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
You know what?
Last weekend we had the firechief over for dinner.
My husband's on the firedepartment.
There's a new chief, so wewanted to have him over and get
to know his family a little bitbetter.
And we had a sow that wethought was in labor.
And so we told our son, youknow, like he's seven and they
had a 10 year old daughter andthey raise pigs too.
So we said, hey, do you guyswant to go up and check and see
(47:08):
how the sow is doing and let usknow?
And they come tromping backdown there playing and you know,
riding bikes and stuff, on theway back down the hill from the
barn.
And I'm expecting piglets or nopiglets, like that was what I
thought the answer was going tobe.
Oh no, he's like well, she'slaying down, she's breathing
really heavy, he goes.
I think I saw a contraction,but I couldn't count it out.
Real well, he goes, but hervulva is really loose and I got
(47:33):
in there and I checked her formilk, but there's no milk yet.
So I don't think we're going tohave any babies.
And I was just like completelyshocked that that's what he said
.
But then I realized that's howwe talk to each other, and one
day he's gonna have a job andhe's gonna know that his boss
wants though all the detailslike like, lined out like that,
(47:55):
not just nope, no piglets well,but either or he'll be the boss
and he'll be like you.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Gotta go, give me some more details right.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
But he knew that if he just said no piglets, I would
ask is there milk?
Is she showing milk yet?
So he climbed in the pen withour probably 700 pound sow to
check and see if she wasexpressing milk or not.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
That's awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
It was a pretty proud mama moment All right.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Where do you recommend that people start with
?
If they want to check out youknow your curriculums, or just
learn about homesteading ingeneral, if they're like I want
to live a healthy lifestyle.
I just have no idea how tobegin or where to begin.
What would you recommend?
Speaker 2 (48:41):
um, well, I mean, of course, come to my website,
because right at the top it saysI want to do the curriculum or
I want to start a homestead, andthat can walk you down, right
down, the steps of either, youknow, buying the curricula for
your family.
It breaks it down by age andsubject.
If you're wanting to start ahomestead, it talks about you
know which animals to start with, how to make plans, how to
(49:02):
start a homestead business.
I love teaching about thatbecause that's just fun.
I mean, our homestead businesssupports partially supports our
family, you know.
But one thing that people reallylove and I'm just going to have
it here is my introduction tohomestead science, and this is a
full year agriculture science,but the focus is the small scale
(49:23):
farming, the self-sufficiency,and it's comparable to my
college intro to ag class,except it actually teaches
things like herbalism and stuff.
So probably about 25% of thesethat I sell are to adults that
are wanting to start their ownhomesteads and just don't know
where to start, because it's areally clean overview of 18
different topics on starting ahomestead and how they all
connect together.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh, I love that.
That's so cool.
What about regenerative farming, like that seems to be good.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
It is yeah, it covers a little bit of everything in
there, because I feel likepeople need to make the right
decision for their families andI actually said that to Joel
Salatin one time he goes does itteach permaculture?
And I said, well, I think itneeds to teach all of it.
It's not my job to tell themhow to do it.
And then I was like, did I justsay that to Joel Salad?
But my thought was, is I wantedto teach common sense and
(50:14):
problem solving and not just onetopic?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
And so it does talk about what regenerative farming
is, and in each chapter it'llgive like little tips on, like
you know, this is a way to makethis work together for
permaculture and that type ofstuff.
But yeah, we, I mean even forus, like with our pastured pigs,
we're regenerative farmers.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
And so can you just break down real quick like what
that means.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of different aspects.
You know, using your animals towork the land, not using
pesticides or fungicides orthings like that, using natural
ones or natural fertilizers likecompost and bone meals and
other things like that.
You know, joel uses the methodwhere his meat birds and his
(51:07):
chicken tractors are followingthe cows through the pasture
when they want to break land.
You know, in the brush orsomething, the pastured pigs go
in first and they just cleanthat up and then the next year
grass grows and you can run yourcows on the same piece and the
chickens are coming in behind itand they're eating the bugs.
So then your cows aren'tgetting parasites and it's just
(51:29):
this whole process and like forus I mean our pig herd, because
we have a closed herd like ifnew animals come onto my
property they're quarantined andstuff.
I haven't had to worm my largepigs in like six years.
I do, however, worm everypiglet that goes off my property
(51:49):
because every animal hassomewhat of a worm load, because
they're on dirt and stuff, andwhen piglets are weaned and then
transported, their immunesystems just tank.
So then I tell people, you know, like the withdrawal period on
a wormer is about two weeks, andI would quarantine any animal
(52:10):
that came on my property for twoweeks anyways.
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
All right, awesome, yeah, and that is to also help
renew the soil and get nutrientsback in it.
So yeah, and it's confusing forme too is like I told my
husband like all right, can yougive me a spot for a garden?
But don't till.
And he's like what?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of and that's why I teach
all like aspects of it Because,like, if you go out there and
you have a hard pan piece ofground, you're not planting
anything in it until you tell it.
So you know you can reduce howmuch you till.
You can, like you know, justtill in one spot so you can get
the plants down.
Or if you want to wait to dothat spot over a couple of years
, you can be putting mulch overit and let it get even soft and
(52:55):
stuff.
But yeah, you're not going tojust start a garden without
tilling it, it's just yeah, he'slike it's not possible he's
crazy.
You know you got it, but nowlike our garden, our garden beds
.
I haven't put soil in them in afew years.
My husband just put leaves ontop of them and grass clippings
and all those things and I'lljust be kind of planting
(53:15):
straight into that withoutdisrupting anything, as I'm
putting my garden in North Idahomy garden is going in this
weekend.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Oh, okay, yeah, that's late, I mean everything's
like.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
everything's like a foot tall.
It's just been growing in myokay so oh, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Oh, cody, thank you so much for joining me today.
Why don't you tell everyonewhere they can find you?
And I will save this live toboth of our.
Well, I'll save it to mine, youcan save it to yours too, I
believe, and I will alsore-release this as a podcast
(53:52):
episode which can be listened toon Apple Podcasts, spotify all
those good places.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
Yeah, well, I really appreciate you having me on.
When you started your podcast Idon't even know a while back,
but I was like man, I love whatshe's doing and the conversation
that she's having.
That I think just like needs tobe had, and so I really I was
very honored when you invited meon, thank you.
So, yeah, you can find me atthe homestead education dot com.
(54:18):
I have my own podcast where,you know, I teach about
homesteading, homeschooling,personal growth, business.
I have guests on all the time.
I spend most of my time onInstagram, but I'm on all the
social medias and, yeah, you canfind me there and find all my
products or one of my speakingevents Awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Thank you, cody, thank you for all the work
you're putting in.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
I really appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
Homeschool How-To.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
(55:07):
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
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