Prepping For Long Term Survival

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[00:00:57] All right. Welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck.

[00:01:12] Today, well, we're going to talk about prepping for the long term, right?

[00:01:18] Like, how is it really sustainable?

[00:01:20] You know, a lot of us are like, yeah, I have three months of food or whatever, but okay, then what?

[00:01:26] You know, you have to have like a bigger play.

[00:01:30] I do want to kind of narrow it down and focus into the nitty gritty, the meat of like actionable steps.

[00:01:41] But, you know, I know we, I end up kind of doing like a broad overview because I'm like, don't forget this.

[00:01:48] Don't forget that. Don't forget that.

[00:01:50] And that's so important.

[00:01:51] But I think there's things that we could be doing that really would be a plan that's focused directly on long term.

[00:02:00] But kind of, I want to talk a little bit of kind of even how to get into it, how to, how to start it, how to approach it, I guess, is where I want to go with that.

[00:02:11] And how we can really have a plan that's going to last.

[00:02:15] And I think a lot of it really comes down to homesteading.

[00:02:18] I don't know if there's any guaranteed place you could flee to or run.

[00:02:23] You know, people are like, oh, I'll go to Belize or I'll go to whatever.

[00:02:28] Well, that may be, but it's like Belize or if Belize turns bad, I'll go to the Philippines.

[00:02:33] Or if that turns bad, I'll go to, you know, it could be anywhere.

[00:02:37] Right.

[00:02:38] And so you kind of have to make a stand at some point, I think.

[00:02:43] I think it comes down to that.

[00:02:44] I know the Americans in the late 1700s kind of came to a conclusion like that of how long do we keep running?

[00:02:53] You know, America was kind of founded with that.

[00:02:56] Hey, Puritans.

[00:02:57] Hey, let's escape all this oppressive stuff.

[00:03:00] We'll go completely to the other side of the world.

[00:03:03] Yeah.

[00:03:05] And then it's like, oh, maybe we should do something bigger, you know?

[00:03:11] Maybe we should take a stand.

[00:03:15] And to me, that's always my thing in my heart.

[00:03:18] But I know that we have let this country we live in get a little bit corrupted.

[00:03:26] People have let it go for a little while without maintenance.

[00:03:30] You know, you'd mentioned last week about, you know, hard times create hard men and soft times create soft men, you know?

[00:03:38] But so that's the thing.

[00:03:41] I think creating a homestead is really what it gets down to.

[00:03:45] So that's where I want to jump in and really talk about is how do we lay out a property?

[00:03:52] You know, I think the first thing that comes to mind is people are like, well, I can't just uproot and move to the country, right?

[00:03:59] I mean, that's the argument you always get.

[00:04:01] Or at least if you're in the city talking to your city friends, that's the argument.

[00:04:05] Yeah, I'll agree with you.

[00:04:06] I live out in the sticks.

[00:04:07] Everyone's like, yeah, I can get a country house.

[00:04:09] Yeah.

[00:04:10] I see.

[00:04:13] But one, is getting property even affordable?

[00:04:17] Is it attainable?

[00:04:18] You know, that's part of it.

[00:04:21] But I was always, when I was young, very big and young.

[00:04:25] I mean, you know, 18, 20, 25, you know, in those younger years, very into rich dad, poor dad, Robert Kiyosaki or Think and Grow Rich with Napoleon Hill.

[00:04:37] And, you know, more so, like, I think Napoleon Hill with Think and Grow Rich is more the mindset.

[00:04:47] But Robert Kiyosaki and a lot of his stuff would talk about, hey, you know, if you, there are ways to get property without having a lot of money.

[00:04:58] There, there's creative ways.

[00:05:00] And it's funny because back in the day, it used to be really easy for, for you to go into a lender.

[00:05:10] And, and it was weird.

[00:05:12] You just had to know the right guy to ask.

[00:05:14] If you found a mortgage broker, they'd get anybody financing for anything.

[00:05:19] And they could write it up and they'd be like, you don't have a down payment.

[00:05:22] Don't worry about it.

[00:05:23] We'll figure it out.

[00:05:24] Like, because they would just write it up in a sketchy way.

[00:05:28] Like, say you wanted a hundred thousand dollar piece of property.

[00:05:31] They'd basically find a way to write it up that it was a hundred and twenty five thousand dollar piece of property.

[00:05:37] But you're putting twenty five down, you know, on paper.

[00:05:41] And it would just kind of work out.

[00:05:44] There was always creative ways to do it.

[00:05:46] Then after the big scandal of, and that's a whole other episode of how 2009 collapse happened when they were giving mortgages to anybody who couldn't afford it.

[00:05:58] Which, by the way, we're about to do the same exact thing.

[00:06:01] This is our new plan of we're going to make it so that everybody gets a mortgage.

[00:06:05] Right.

[00:06:06] You know, you know, that's the big thing.

[00:06:07] I mean, maybe this is the perfect time to buy your homestead is if Kamala wins, she's going to be giving you twenty five thousand.

[00:06:18] Which I think is very weird, because how is she giving you twenty five thousand?

[00:06:24] When like, does she have that much money, Kevin?

[00:06:26] Is she that rich, man?

[00:06:30] She's like, Trump is really rich, but she's given everybody twenty five thousand.

[00:06:35] She said, I will give you.

[00:06:36] And I'm like, where are you getting that money?

[00:06:40] So, I mean, that's exciting.

[00:06:42] These are exciting times when politicians are just giving away money.

[00:06:46] Like, I wish I had enough money that I could run for office and then just give it to everybody.

[00:06:52] Like, I love you guys and I'm going to help out.

[00:06:56] You know, I'm going to lower prices.

[00:06:59] Let me just get my checkbook right now.

[00:07:01] I got money.

[00:07:02] I got my purse in the car.

[00:07:04] It's going to be great.

[00:07:05] Yeah.

[00:07:06] I don't know.

[00:07:07] Sorry, I didn't want to get lost in the weeds, but you know, that stuff just excites me.

[00:07:11] But actually, I mean, in a way, that is a good thing.

[00:07:15] Right.

[00:07:15] So there's your down payment money.

[00:07:16] So you could buy something.

[00:07:19] Now you're like, well, Chuck, Kamala Harris isn't really going to win.

[00:07:23] Trump's going to win.

[00:07:24] Well, but you know that if Trump wins, they're just going to overturn it and throw him out for some reason or another.

[00:07:31] And she'll be back in.

[00:07:33] You don't even need to worry about it.

[00:07:35] She got you.

[00:07:36] She's going to get that 25 grand into your pocket.

[00:07:39] She's got you covered.

[00:07:40] So if we're going to buy a homestead, say I live in the city, whatever city it is, and I'm like, you know, I really want to get into homesteading, get out of this rat race.

[00:07:51] I need to find a piece of property.

[00:07:54] You know, I've got X amount of money.

[00:07:55] I could sell my house and I'll have X amount of money.

[00:07:58] And let's see what I could get.

[00:08:01] What do I want to find when I'm looking for a piece of land?

[00:08:05] There you go.

[00:08:06] That's what I'm talking about.

[00:08:07] So to be honest, right, one, I think the number one thing that I look at is do they have an HOA?

[00:08:18] Do they have building coats in that community?

[00:08:22] Do they have favorable laws that are going to allow me to live the best life I can live?

[00:08:28] Now, it's almost impossible in America to now find a place where you're not going to pay stupid taxes, right?

[00:08:35] And I mean some kind of high amount of property taxes, right?

[00:08:40] But maybe they have high vehicle taxes, but maybe I only have one crappy car on the road and that doesn't even matter.

[00:08:46] Like I'm not even planning on going into town hardly ever because I'm going to be crazy mountain man and grow a beard, right?

[00:08:52] Right.

[00:08:53] Maybe you want to go to the places that have a higher state income tax or a higher sales tax and low property taxes.

[00:09:02] Right.

[00:09:03] Because maybe I'm not buying stuff because I'm growing everything on my homestead, right?

[00:09:07] I mean that's an option.

[00:09:09] So anyway, think about it like that.

[00:09:11] But all right.

[00:09:12] So first is like do I have like HOA restrictions?

[00:09:15] You know, I live – there's a town.

[00:09:18] I live outside of the big town and the town is like 200 people.

[00:09:23] And the town, you're like, oh, it's country.

[00:09:26] Everybody's got like a half acre lot in town in the main city strip.

[00:09:30] It's only got a post office, a hardware store, and a car garage.

[00:09:36] Those are our three things.

[00:09:37] And then on the way out, there's a gas station and then like $5 generals because, you know, I mean –

[00:09:44] You've been putting those things everywhere lately.

[00:09:46] Those things, you can't go a mile because they're like, well, these people walk.

[00:09:50] I can tell.

[00:09:50] So like for every five people, we have a Dollar General.

[00:09:54] I mean it might be Dollar General, Dollar Tree or whatever the other one is.

[00:09:59] Yeah, they got – there's a couple of them.

[00:10:01] I know what you're talking about though.

[00:10:02] There's about five of those dollar things.

[00:10:04] But I do have a Dollar General – I have $2 General choices, specifically Dollar General within three miles in either direction.

[00:10:14] So it's like six miles apart.

[00:10:16] Now is it me – maybe I'm in a weird spot, but is it me or does it seem like everybody that works in the Dollar General stores is like serious white trash?

[00:10:27] Kevin, you're not supposed to say that about my friend.

[00:10:30] Maybe it's in my area.

[00:10:31] I mean I shop there.

[00:10:32] I'm white trash.

[00:10:33] Kevin, these are my friends.

[00:10:34] But it definitely seems like that's the situation.

[00:10:38] There is a lack of dental care if you work in NLV.

[00:10:43] That's all I'm saying.

[00:10:44] Kevin, you're a horrible person.

[00:10:48] I'm just saying that right now.

[00:10:51] Anyway, so you want to think about – all right, what I was going to get at is even in the tiny town, you can't have chickens.

[00:10:59] You can't have – like all these things are like – so my point is you want to actually – Kevin, I think we just lost three listeners while you gave that Dollar General tea thing.

[00:11:10] So I'm just saying people are worried.

[00:11:12] But anyway, the – you want to check into what restrictions you might have.

[00:11:19] And like I said, some things may not be a problem.

[00:11:23] Obviously, the more government control of anything will mean that they're going to be quicker to adapt new government restrictions in the future.

[00:11:34] Right?

[00:11:34] Somebody who's more about freedom, you know, you're more likely to get more – not more freedom, but it's more likely that freedom is going to maintain.

[00:11:45] Right?

[00:11:45] So we'll go with that.

[00:11:47] So definitely you want to think of that.

[00:11:49] I know that there's the Cato Institute actually does an economic freedom of the world, and they actually have a state map of the United States where you can look at different states and restrictions and things you might want to choose.

[00:12:06] So anyway, with that, we now found the right state, the right community.

[00:12:11] Now, like you said, how about the property?

[00:12:14] What are we looking for?

[00:12:16] The big thing, if you're thinking about farming, livestock, and self-sufficiency, you're probably thinking, I need water.

[00:12:25] Water, foundational life, right?

[00:12:28] Well, maybe that's carbon.

[00:12:29] I don't know.

[00:12:30] Anyway, water is crucial.

[00:12:32] And so I'm going to look for, do I have a cool stream?

[00:12:36] Is it on the ocean?

[00:12:38] Is it something?

[00:12:40] What kind of water do I have access to?

[00:12:42] But the big thing, it can just be a good well.

[00:12:45] And it could be cheap municipal water if that's how close you want to be.

[00:12:51] Obviously, you're not self-sufficient if it's community.

[00:12:55] You're relying on community water, right?

[00:12:57] But again, you decide the line that you're willing to draw.

[00:13:02] I would think I want a quality well on my property.

[00:13:05] Now, these can be drilled and dealt with, but it's a whole lot better if it's already there.

[00:13:10] And it's a whole lot better if you know that it's going to be available, right?

[00:13:14] Now, I mean, if you find that it has a magic spring on it that's just flowing up water from the earth, even better, you know?

[00:13:23] But again, you're going to weigh your price and your budget and look for something like that.

[00:13:28] So I think the minimum, as I mentioned, is about an acre.

[00:13:32] An acre seems like what you could grow.

[00:13:35] Obviously, the more land, the better, right?

[00:13:37] The more privacy I can build between me and my neighbors and whatever is kind of cooler to me, you know?

[00:13:45] So now, Kevin had mentioned, you know, you could find like a lot in town, kind of, you know, in the city or whatever.

[00:13:51] You might be able to find somewhere that you can have a garden and set up things.

[00:13:55] Now, you do have to worry about municipal governments and restrictions and things like that.

[00:14:01] The more, you know, the closer you are in town, but you have options.

[00:14:04] Um, I actually went and tilled a field for a lady in town yesterday and she's in a bigger town.

[00:14:12] Um, and I went down there and she has an acre lot.

[00:14:18] Her son, I think, has like some big 18 wheelers or something like that on there that, you know, they use for storage and whatever.

[00:14:25] So she fenced out a big garden plot for herself.

[00:14:29] It might be two acres.

[00:14:31] I don't know.

[00:14:31] And, uh, she came up with a big, um, a big garden plot and no joke.

[00:14:39] People are going in and stealing her vegetables when she's not there.

[00:14:44] And I'm like, really?

[00:14:45] That's like a thing.

[00:14:47] And people are like, oh, well, is there a fancy development next door?

[00:14:51] And I'm like, yeah, there is.

[00:14:52] And they're like, yeah, that makes sense.

[00:14:54] And I'm like, how, how is that make sense?

[00:14:57] It's like, who's like, well, you know, I'm down for stealing, but I really like quality foods.

[00:15:03] You know?

[00:15:04] Yeah.

[00:15:04] I only steal organic.

[00:15:06] Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:08] Right.

[00:15:08] So they went in, like wiped out all her green beans, all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:13] So that's something to be aware of.

[00:15:14] Right.

[00:15:14] And she's setting up cameras and whatever.

[00:15:17] I mean, it's going to work out.

[00:15:18] But the bottom line is you have to think of predators, right?

[00:15:23] What kind of predators are going to be getting into my yard?

[00:15:26] And most predators you can deal with, with a shotgun full of rock salt.

[00:15:30] I'm just, just saying.

[00:15:31] You're just saying?

[00:15:33] If your predator is a neighbor.

[00:15:36] Aye, aye, aye.

[00:15:38] So, all right.

[00:15:39] So something like that.

[00:15:40] So you need to think about security.

[00:15:43] You're going to think about, you know, your, your town municipal laws.

[00:15:47] You're going to think about water.

[00:15:48] Now, the next thing you're going to want to think about is the type of soil and sand.

[00:15:53] Now, obviously you can amend and treat soil and sand and, and clay and whatever it is

[00:16:00] kind of earth that you have there.

[00:16:02] But how much work is that going to be?

[00:16:05] And again, this is just going into what can you afford and what's the best option for you.

[00:16:12] When I bought my property, we were very focused on gardening and farming.

[00:16:16] And the wife had gotten some soil samples and actually taken tests, you know, sent them

[00:16:23] away to be checked out before we bought the property.

[00:16:27] That's something you might want to consider.

[00:16:29] Like you could really, and again, some things are like, oh, you know, this, this doesn't

[00:16:33] have good pH.

[00:16:34] This has whatever.

[00:16:35] Is that something I can easily amend and treat?

[00:16:39] Or is that something that's going to be a problem?

[00:16:42] Um, my wife watches, there's a YouTube channel.

[00:16:46] I mean, I've seen quite a few of them because we watch things together, but that roots and

[00:16:50] refuge.

[00:16:51] And this girl, uh, you know, she ended up buying a bunch of bad fertilizer.

[00:16:56] One of the years and it contaminated her soil.

[00:17:01] And she ended up like part of her thing is like recovering from that.

[00:17:05] And her whole focus is how we brought the soil back to good stuff.

[00:17:10] And you know, that kind of thing.

[00:17:12] But you may want to, uh, investigate all that beforehand.

[00:17:18] All right, now moving on to step two.

[00:17:22] So what kind of things are step three, four, I don't know where we're at, but would you

[00:17:27] put into the, the homestead to actually make it, you know, sustainable?

[00:17:35] Right.

[00:17:35] So my big thing is like, if I was starting out young, I would kind of save up that money.

[00:17:42] It turns out kids now can like stay at home with their parents till they're like 27.

[00:17:47] And that's acceptable and normal for society.

[00:17:51] Like you just forever.

[00:17:53] Like, I don't even know, but I would save up a little nest egg to buy some property.

[00:17:58] Yeah.

[00:17:59] As soon as I could get property, I would buy some and I would one, even if you just buy

[00:18:05] it and hold it, then I would like, and again, you want to get a piece of property that's

[00:18:11] worth developing, right?

[00:18:12] It's okay to move and, and go later, but you don't want to put a lot of effort into

[00:18:17] something.

[00:18:18] Well, this is what I could afford.

[00:18:19] And I understand just wanting something, but make sure it's something like at least an

[00:18:24] acre and something that you can do stuff.

[00:18:27] Right.

[00:18:28] Next part two, I would just buy the property.

[00:18:30] And I mean, to me, if I'm young kid, I'd just live on it.

[00:18:34] I'm assuming if you're past young kid age and just starting out with money, I'm assuming

[00:18:40] if you're past that, you probably have enough.

[00:18:43] If you sold your house to have some equity, to go buy something with already a structure

[00:18:47] on it and some stuff going on.

[00:18:49] But if I was starting out from scratch, the little nest egg, and I'd be willing to live

[00:18:54] in a tent or a camper and I'd start out there and then I'd get a well put on it.

[00:18:59] And then I'd look at solar.

[00:19:01] How am I going to set that up?

[00:19:02] You know, then I'd work out a septic.

[00:19:05] Um, you know, ideally you find a property with like a crappy trailer on it.

[00:19:09] Cause then you got the well and septic and the electric hookup already there.

[00:19:13] Um, but you know, who knows?

[00:19:15] And you know, there's a lot of crappy trailers that, you know, you're starting to

[00:19:19] there, but you can expand with a lot of the heavy infrastructure already in place.

[00:19:25] Something to look for.

[00:19:26] You do you right.

[00:19:28] Um, next.

[00:19:29] And I would like build up, I would just start adding things.

[00:19:32] Hey, what do we need?

[00:19:33] You know, being able to go to the bathroom is huge, right?

[00:19:36] So you might start out with just an outhouse, but then, all right, now we have a shower

[00:19:41] and real plumbing metal buildings are like nothing.

[00:19:44] Um, you can buy a metal building for like 10 grand and then go to the next thing.

[00:19:50] You know, it might not be the size of the house that you want or whatever.

[00:19:54] And you're saying, Oh, 10 grand's a lot.

[00:19:56] Well, yeah, but remember Kamala Harris has given you 25.

[00:20:00] So you're already there, man.

[00:20:02] No, but they'll finance that.

[00:20:03] And again, I would try not to finance things.

[00:20:06] I'd try and do everything for cash.

[00:20:09] Again, that year or two of building up and saving when you're living with mom and dad,

[00:20:14] I'm just saying, or like I said, I think most people established in life probably have 25

[00:20:20] grand equity in their house that they could just sell it and start over.

[00:20:24] Right.

[00:20:24] Um, again, assuming you don't already have, I'm talking about from ground zero.

[00:20:29] Uh, then I would set up some kind of, I would set up electricity.

[00:20:34] So some kind of solar setup and something where I could be sustainable and completely self-sufficient

[00:20:40] with that.

[00:20:41] Um, I would be working on somewhere safe to store my supplies where they're not going to

[00:20:46] be overridden with mice and rodents and things like that.

[00:20:50] Right.

[00:20:50] Like a quality shed.

[00:20:52] That's not a big deal, right?

[00:20:53] It's not that hard.

[00:20:55] We can get there then.

[00:20:57] And I would keep going.

[00:20:59] So now assuming money's not an object, like what is the end goal?

[00:21:05] What kind of, what are things do I want on my homestead?

[00:21:09] Um, I'm going to probably want some kind of livestock, right?

[00:21:13] I'm going to want things like that.

[00:21:15] I'm going to want to be able to have a garden.

[00:21:18] Um, I'm going to need to be able to water this garden.

[00:21:21] Um, I'm going to want, uh, livestock.

[00:21:25] Let's talk about that.

[00:21:26] So we could do like pigs, goats.

[00:21:28] Those are reasonably easy.

[00:21:30] They're kind of more adventurous than people start out.

[00:21:33] I think people always start with chickens, right?

[00:21:35] You get eggs right away.

[00:21:36] That's always the, yeah, that's always the go-to.

[00:21:38] Start with the chicken.

[00:21:38] Butchering chickens is pretty easy.

[00:21:41] Kind of, you know, it can definitely be done.

[00:21:44] Um, if you're not willing to butcher a chicken, maybe homesteading isn't right for you.

[00:21:48] Okay.

[00:21:48] That's not, yeah, it's not the right move.

[00:21:50] Maybe get a good job.

[00:21:52] Um, all right.

[00:21:53] So next I got chickens.

[00:21:55] Then I think the next easiest thing, rabbits are pretty freaking easy.

[00:22:00] Um, rabbits are meat that keep reproducing.

[00:22:03] They are reasonably inexpensive.

[00:22:06] Um, chickens, not so bad for me and they do reproduce on their own.

[00:22:11] There are some tricks to getting there on your own with getting, you know, self-sufficient

[00:22:16] where you're not buying chicks and tractors supply or whatever.

[00:22:19] Although they're not too expensive to do that either.

[00:22:23] You buy it at the right time, but, and, you know, talk to your neighbors, get to know your

[00:22:28] community and be reliant on your neighbors.

[00:22:31] That's, I think a big thing.

[00:22:33] Uh, I know, I know like just dealing with the people, you know, friends and family that

[00:22:40] there's a lot of people that are, I have too many chickens.

[00:22:43] You want to take a couple of chickens?

[00:22:44] You want to, you know what I mean?

[00:22:45] It's not, it's not a huge expense.

[00:22:48] The huge expense is getting prepared to have chickens, you know, the huge expenses, the

[00:22:54] coop, the, the setup, the chickens aren't, aren't the issue.

[00:22:57] And it doesn't have to be as pretty as some people, you know, make it out to be.

[00:23:02] You can go pretty simple.

[00:23:04] Um, one of the things I have, uh, some books that I really love from back in the day.

[00:23:10] Uh, one is, uh, the have more plan that I looked online on Amazon.

[00:23:15] It was like 12 bucks.

[00:23:17] It's from 1973.

[00:23:19] And they talk about how you can be self-sufficient on an acre and, you know, grow your own stuff

[00:23:24] and whatever.

[00:23:25] Uh, a book that's actually a lot more thorough, but a little more expensive is, uh, the self-sufficient

[00:23:34] life and how to live it.

[00:23:36] But this one, I looked, if you're just looking at the cover going, Oh, that's it.

[00:23:41] That one looked like it was like 75 bucks now, but there's a $25 option.

[00:23:46] It's by, uh, John Seymour, just anything by John Seymour, self-sufficient life and how

[00:23:52] to live it.

[00:23:53] That one cover takes you through the butchering process, how to lay out your property, how

[00:23:59] to, you know, cycle through crops.

[00:24:02] You know, you don't want to grow the same thing in the same spot every year, that kind of stuff.

[00:24:06] He takes you through that, how to build quality fencing, how to, you know, secure your livestock,

[00:24:12] how to deal with predators, how to, yes, all kinds of basics that just take you through.

[00:24:18] Um, I think we did an episode on like setting up a log cabin or building a log cabin, things

[00:24:24] like that.

[00:24:25] And I, there's a whole bunch of books on building your own structure too, that get me super excited

[00:24:31] and whatever.

[00:24:32] If you can get somewhere without building codes, um, you can do amazing things.

[00:24:39] But as far as setting up your homestead and building animal shelters and that kind of thing,

[00:24:45] and on the cheap using materials that you have around, um, that self-sufficient life book

[00:24:53] is excellent and can really, you know, help you out.

[00:24:56] Another one that's, I found super, super awesome and exciting is the secret garden of survival,

[00:25:04] uh, by, uh, Rick Austin there.

[00:25:07] He, uh, he, he's a guy who does prepper camp.

[00:25:10] And, uh, that was actually my introduction to him was the book, you know, I, and he was

[00:25:15] on like doomsday preppers or something, but I had seen the book and then checked him out

[00:25:19] on doomsday preppers.

[00:25:20] And I was like, Oh, that's pretty cool.

[00:25:22] You know, he, he had, uh, lots of ways to like integrate.

[00:25:26] He was kind of like that three sisters kind of thing where plants supporting plants and

[00:25:32] building together.

[00:25:33] He's got a lot of neat stuff in there.

[00:25:35] That book was a little expensive, like 29 bucks, but it's got the pictures and the detail.

[00:25:39] That it actually pretty helpful, you know, it gets you there.

[00:25:44] Um, I would kind of start to look and, and check out like fantasize with these books about

[00:25:51] what you want.

[00:25:52] It'll kind of give you a better feeling of before I picked out the property.

[00:25:57] Now, again, you already have a property.

[00:25:59] No problem.

[00:25:59] You just start to, how do I integrate it?

[00:26:02] But if you knew what you wanted to lay out and what was going to be important, like having

[00:26:08] water near the garden is a big thing, right?

[00:26:12] A lot of people who are like, Oh, I made the garden way back in the corner.

[00:26:15] So it'd be secret, but now I don't have water over there.

[00:26:19] You know, that's a, people don't think of these things sometimes.

[00:26:23] Um, is it going to be near the house where I can keep predators away?

[00:26:28] Right.

[00:26:28] Like that kind of thing.

[00:26:29] Uh, you know, the wife went out yesterday and was like, Oh, there was a giant deer standing

[00:26:33] in the middle of the garden and just hopped out like nothing.

[00:26:36] And I'm like, yeah, they do that.

[00:26:38] And we have a pretty high fence, but yeah, who knows?

[00:26:42] Right.

[00:26:42] But that, that's what predators do.

[00:26:45] Um, so you want to think about like, are you going to want to smoke house?

[00:26:50] Uh, we have a place like set up for like a butcher shop, right?

[00:26:54] Like you're still going to have to, even if it's multiple use spaces, you still need to

[00:27:01] think about how you're going to run your operation.

[00:27:04] Um, it doesn't mean you need a designated butcher shop and a designated, you know, whatever,

[00:27:10] but you may need a room that you use for, this is our kitchen.

[00:27:14] We use your canning.

[00:27:15] We use your butchering.

[00:27:16] We use your whatever.

[00:27:17] I don't know that I'd want canning and butchering in the same place.

[00:27:21] Cause one, you're trying to keep super clean one.

[00:27:24] You're trying to, you know, get a little messy in, but what I'm saying is you need to

[00:27:30] kind of integrate things and, and work together, uh, five acres and independence.

[00:27:36] Another book that I actually have, and, uh, it's pretty good.

[00:27:40] Slow burn recommended that one.

[00:27:41] Um, there is, uh, a lot of good information out there.

[00:27:47] But the thing is you need to think about all the practical things.

[00:27:51] Now, one of the cool things about the modern world is after COVID, so many people are able

[00:27:57] to work from home and take their lifestyle back a little bit.

[00:28:03] Uh, there was a book, uh, Tim Ferriss.

[00:28:07] Uh, what, what's his book?

[00:28:09] He has, uh, four hour work week.

[00:28:12] He has a book there and it's kind of about how you can get more efficient and more,

[00:28:17] you know, sustainable and, and with your job where you can free up time.

[00:28:22] Now I'm not trying to get you into the whole self-help thing and whatever.

[00:28:26] That's not my point.

[00:28:27] My point is there are ways, there are tools out there to help you string, stream down your

[00:28:35] life where you can thin it out into something where it's a little more easy.

[00:28:40] I'm not saying you have to be laptop billionaire or something.

[00:28:44] I'm just saying there are ways.

[00:28:46] Now there are also ways to make money in the country, right?

[00:28:49] You can buy a tractor and cut firewood for people.

[00:28:53] You can get a sawmill for three grand that you could cut boards.

[00:28:57] You know, there's things you can do on your property, but you're not going to live your

[00:29:03] $150,000 lifestyle while you're work living off the land.

[00:29:08] But if you're willing to focus on, Hey, we bought a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.

[00:29:13] So it was super cheap and we just need to put clothes on everybody and stay warm and whatever

[00:29:20] it's doable.

[00:29:22] It's just maybe not doable with a new iPhone every three years and a leased car.

[00:29:27] Right.

[00:29:28] Now, again, you could set up the job that's remote and streamlined that you could do the

[00:29:33] car, but it's how much time you want to focus on family and off-grid living and sustainable

[00:29:41] and nutrition and value, not feeding your family poison.

[00:29:46] As much as you want to focus on that versus the other, you need to decide what's right for you and

[00:29:52] how much time and effort you're willing to work.

[00:29:55] Right.

[00:29:56] I mean, is that your take on it, Kevin?

[00:29:57] Or how are you?

[00:29:58] I mean, it really, uh, you know, running a homestead or, or, you know, just keeping animals in a garden.

[00:30:07] It's a lot of work.

[00:30:08] Like you've got chores in the morning before you go to work and you got chores when you

[00:30:11] get home.

[00:30:12] So you want to streamline as much as possible.

[00:30:14] My recommendation would be throw your TV in the garbage, but I mean, different strokes

[00:30:19] for different folks, I guess.

[00:30:20] I just watched a movie.

[00:30:22] I think it was called great hands and it was the Ben Carson story.

[00:30:26] Oh yeah.

[00:30:27] And it was funny.

[00:30:28] Cause I had seen a clip on, you know, how we watched scroll through Facebook or Tik TOK

[00:30:33] or whatever it's with videos.

[00:30:35] Right.

[00:30:36] And a video came up and it was a picture of his mom, like working as a cleaning lady.

[00:30:42] And she sees a guy who's super successful, who she's cleaning for.

[00:30:46] And she's like, well, you have this huge library.

[00:30:51] How many books of these have you read?

[00:30:53] And he's like, Oh, probably like 80% of them.

[00:30:56] And she just goes home and looks at her kids.

[00:30:59] And it's like, you know what?

[00:31:01] You can each watch one show a week and that's it.

[00:31:05] And you're going to spend the time at the library and start writing book reports.

[00:31:10] And they're like, no.

[00:31:13] And she, yeah, this is how it's going to be.

[00:31:16] And she starts out with like two shows a week and they're like, that sounds horrible.

[00:31:20] What, how would we even do that?

[00:31:22] And then when they start reading, they're like, Oh, it's awesome.

[00:31:25] And both become very successful people coming from struggling in school.

[00:31:31] And it was that decision to stop watching TV.

[00:31:35] Now, again, I'm not telling you how to live.

[00:31:37] I don't really care what you do.

[00:31:39] You make you happy, right?

[00:31:40] You know, I want you to listen to at least one podcast a week.

[00:31:43] I mean, that's right.

[00:31:44] That's where I would draw the line, right?

[00:31:46] One podcast a week and, you know, get all your information right there.

[00:31:51] That's the key.

[00:31:52] You don't worry about it.

[00:31:53] Me and Kevin will do the research.

[00:31:55] So you don't have to.

[00:31:57] No, I don't know.

[00:31:58] You guys do you, right?

[00:32:00] That's not my point.

[00:32:01] I'm not telling anybody how to live.

[00:32:02] But I do know that in my personal life, I waste a lot of time that I could be devoting

[00:32:09] to other stuff and staring at TV and screens is a big part of it.

[00:32:14] However, the upside, I will say almost 99% of all TV or podcast listening.

[00:32:25] I do is while I'm at work and getting paid for it.

[00:32:30] So, you know, hey, you do you, right?

[00:32:32] I mean, you got to fill the time somehow, right?

[00:32:35] So if you could work out a job like that, I'd recommend it.

[00:32:40] I'm just saying, like actually all my podcast editing and my happens while I'm at work.

[00:32:47] I mean, my boss probably shouldn't hear about this, but I'm just saying that's when it happens.

[00:32:52] Like when I go to work today, the computer that I'm recording this on right now is going

[00:32:57] with me and the editing will happen while I'm there and, you know, all that'll get done.

[00:33:03] So you may want to find a way to work that into your lifestyle.

[00:33:06] I do, however, work way too much that keeps me away from my property and doing the stuff

[00:33:11] that I want to do.

[00:33:14] So again, there is always things, new projects you could be doing on the homestead.

[00:33:19] So we talked about farm animals, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks.

[00:33:26] You can do, they're kind of messy.

[00:33:28] I did turkeys this year.

[00:33:30] Turkeys were a big pain in the butt.

[00:33:33] They smelled and they were expensive for me to raise.

[00:33:37] Even my buddies who did them for like the fourth year in a row and tried to do them efficient.

[00:33:43] They're still over $75 a piece to raise is what he experienced.

[00:33:48] It's, I'm sure there's a way with scraps that you can figure out how to do it, whatever you

[00:33:54] get them on a natural diet that you're growing and whatever.

[00:33:57] But I know what, if you're doing it with store-bought feed, you're really not raising a turkey to

[00:34:03] 25 pounds without 22 pounds, whatever, without like 75 bucks in feed.

[00:34:09] Now you might be able to get 40 bucks in feed and raise it to 17 pounds or something.

[00:34:14] I don't know, but you get the idea, right?

[00:34:16] It's all relative.

[00:34:19] So think about that.

[00:34:20] I know pigs, it's a lot easier to feed scraps, that kind of stuff.

[00:34:24] Goats, it's a lot easier to get away with them eating off the land kind of thing.

[00:34:30] Rabbits, pretty good if you're efficient on actually butchering them as soon as they're ready.

[00:34:36] Um, and you're willing to collect some greens around the yard and stuff like that.

[00:34:41] You can get pretty cheap rabbit meat and pretty cost efficient.

[00:34:45] But if you're just going to be store-bought hay and store-bought, um, feed, then it gets a little

[00:34:52] hairy, like probably $6 a pound or something.

[00:34:55] If you're, you know, not, not that much, maybe four bucks a pound, but there's still a little bit

[00:35:01] of work.

[00:35:01] So something good there, Kevin, any crops?

[00:35:04] Like, I mean, I didn't want to get too in the weeds on what you should grow because like

[00:35:11] I said, these books just lay it out.

[00:35:13] Like the Habibur plan, it has an exact year planning schedule.

[00:35:18] And it's like for a family of four, you need to do exactly this.

[00:35:23] You need so many carrots.

[00:35:24] You need so many turnips.

[00:35:25] You need to, now obviously you pick and choose what your family likes to eat or whatever,

[00:35:31] but there's a lot of, you know, root vegetables and, and seasonal planting that you can do.

[00:35:37] Um, and that would be something that I would, uh, prioritize is, is something that you can,

[00:35:42] um, you're harvesting at different times.

[00:35:44] You know, greens are good for that spinach and lettuces cause they, they grow fast and,

[00:35:49] and you can replant, you know, two or three times a year, uh, cucumbers, same way, but

[00:35:55] also don't, don't grow stuff that you're not going to eat because my neighbor, my neighbor

[00:36:01] sends over, you know, two or three eggplants a week and I don't need the eggplants and

[00:36:07] they don't need eggplants.

[00:36:08] Why are you growing eggplants?

[00:36:09] Nobody likes egg.

[00:36:10] They taste terrible.

[00:36:11] They're awful.

[00:36:12] They're the worst vegetable.

[00:36:13] My wife, dude, we have had eggplant in like every meal.

[00:36:17] Now, luckily I work at dinner time, so I'm not home eating.

[00:36:21] You don't have to deal with it.

[00:36:22] But I would say four out of seven days a week, there is some kind of secret eggplant mixed

[00:36:27] in, uh, whatever they're cooking.

[00:36:30] Um, there's a lot of, uh, secret eggplant.

[00:36:34] There's a lot of zucchini.

[00:36:35] Now there are fun things with zucchini, but basically it's like, Oh, if you fry it, then it

[00:36:42] doesn't taste so bad.

[00:36:43] There's a lot of things where you're like, if you fry it, it doesn't taste so bad.

[00:36:48] You know, if I was going to eat worms, that would be, I would fry them.

[00:36:52] You know?

[00:36:53] Now I had a chicken piece.

[00:36:54] Exactly.

[00:36:55] Long-term, uh, fruit trees, bees, you know, these are the things, nut trees.

[00:37:01] Uh, now that I'm down in the South, nut trees are a big thing.

[00:37:05] Now, the big thing with trees is the, they take time to start producing.

[00:37:10] You know, it's going to be like three, four years before you're getting a significant

[00:37:17] harvest, depending on the trees that you buy.

[00:37:19] Right.

[00:37:19] I mean, you can buy pretty established trees.

[00:37:22] Uh, if you can find a property that's already got trees, you're way ahead of the game, you

[00:37:27] know, established trees, that was like, one of the things I hated about leaving New York

[00:37:31] was I had finally gotten my trees to where they're starting to produce, you know, sure.

[00:37:36] The guy went and cut them all down cause they were like in the middle of the yard, but you

[00:37:40] know, whatever, but I'm like, Oh, I'd gotten all these trees, you know, growing and that's

[00:37:46] how you end up.

[00:37:48] But yeah, trees are awesome.

[00:37:51] Cause they do work without any effort.

[00:37:52] Right.

[00:37:53] The first couple of years, you got to really be maybe on top of watering them or whatever,

[00:37:58] depending on your environment.

[00:37:59] You know, when things start to turn crappy and are hot too long, but so having, like I

[00:38:07] said, a good layout of your property, buy one of these books, go through it.

[00:38:12] Think about it.

[00:38:13] Uh, we did an episode a while back on laying out your homestead.

[00:38:18] It was something about the soil that I did the extra show.

[00:38:22] We had a guest on, uh, I'll try and put a link to it.

[00:38:26] I forgot about the name is, is eluding me at the moment, but, uh, if you want to get deep

[00:38:31] into soil and, and that kind of stuff, I'll put a link in the show notes to that one.

[00:38:36] Um, but lay out your property and plan ahead is what I would say, but fruit trees, nut trees,

[00:38:45] bees, cause you need some kind of sugar stuff.

[00:38:48] Um, but, and think about the food, think about what your family eats and what you can grow.

[00:38:55] Think about how you're going to rotate stuff.

[00:38:57] You know, you change crops each year.

[00:38:58] You don't grow the same thing in the same spot, but.

[00:39:03] You know, there's some things you can repetitively plant.

[00:39:06] Think about how you do cover crop in the winter.

[00:39:08] Think about, you know, getting the implements, but it can all be done in stages.

[00:39:13] You don't have to go from zero to a hundred in day one, but it's cool if you have the property

[00:39:19] and the plan at day one, and then you can just keep adding on by importance for your family.

[00:39:26] And then obviously the long-term prepping stuff of, you know, Hey, do I already have some kind

[00:39:32] of long-term food storage?

[00:39:33] Do I have a way to secure it?

[00:39:35] Did I pick out a property that's going to be overrun by gangs in two weeks?

[00:39:39] You know, all this depends on how close you are to the city, but it, it depends on your budget.

[00:39:46] You know what you're willing to give up to, you know, how remote you're willing to be.

[00:39:51] You're going to get cheaper and cheaper property and less restrictive government rules, the further

[00:39:57] outside the city you are.

[00:39:59] But, and you know, and it might free up your budget, but again, you're not able to earn money

[00:40:04] like you'd want to be, you know, we looked at a property in a, like Boone County, Tennessee,

[00:40:12] right.

[00:40:12] Or in the Boone national forest or something.

[00:40:15] And this thing wasn't near anything, but it was like an awesome hillside.

[00:40:20] I think they probably got hammered in the, in Helene here, to be honest, gotten it.

[00:40:26] But the way it was, this property had like 30, 40 fruit trees on it.

[00:40:32] It was like a trailer, but it was like 39 grand.

[00:40:35] It was totally private.

[00:40:37] The guy had the whole homestead going on and it would have been awesome.

[00:40:42] And I'm like, oh, I could go there, pay cash, be king.

[00:40:45] Just move right in.

[00:40:46] Yeah.

[00:40:47] Just move right in.

[00:40:47] But I'm like, but I'd never earn money again.

[00:40:50] And I still have to appease the whole family, the kids, the wife, everybody has to be,

[00:40:55] you know, you don't want to give up life if that's what you want.

[00:40:58] But if your family goal is, Hey, let's live like little house on the Prairie and have our

[00:41:04] own thing, then that would have been sweet.

[00:41:06] You know, it just, you have to decide the sacrifices you're willing to make as a family

[00:41:13] and go to it from there.

[00:41:15] So that's what I got.

[00:41:17] I think that's how the direction you'd want to move if you were looking for a sustainable

[00:41:21] life.

[00:41:22] And I would say when it comes time to vote, vote for freedom.

[00:41:26] That's all.

[00:41:27] You know, again, I know that freedom's not on the ballot.

[00:41:30] I've seen what's out there, but what I would tell you is way out.

[00:41:35] What's going to give me the most choices and the most free stuff.

[00:41:38] And I'm not sure that the answer is, well, if I had 25 grand, I could go buy freedom, but

[00:41:45] maybe, maybe it is.

[00:41:47] I don't know.

[00:41:47] Maybe it is.

[00:41:48] You decide what's right for you, right?

[00:41:50] I'm not here to tell you how to live your life.

[00:41:52] I'm here to give you options.

[00:41:54] And that's what it comes down to.

[00:41:56] And hopefully share some of my knowledge of things I've experienced along the way of making

[00:42:01] my own homestead.

[00:42:02] You know, because I do, I have a homestead of my own.

[00:42:06] Um, but you know, it, it isn't exactly little house on the prairie, you know, it's, and my

[00:42:16] neighbor apparently is going to be like an ATF agent.

[00:42:19] So, you know, we all make mistakes, right?

[00:42:21] You know, who knows about the property?

[00:42:23] You can only do what you're going to do.

[00:42:24] But with that, I would say you have questions, concerns, email us at preppingbadass at gmail.com.

[00:42:33] Make sure you like, and subscribe, leave comments, stay safe, and we will talk to you guys next

[00:42:40] week.

[00:42:40] Bye.

[00:42:43] Bye.

[00:42:48] Bye.

[00:42:49] Bye.

[00:42:49] Bye.