lystn

https://smalltownhomestead.com/modern-homesteading-podcast/ (Modern Homesteading Podcast) Tell us a little about yourself. East Central Indiana nice and cold here https://smalltownhomestead.com/modern-homesteading-podcast/ () married to my wife Mary for a little over 26 years 3 daughters couple of grandkids running around Most of my life I was a truck driver Had my own trucking company led to me being gone a lot led to some bad eating habits  Sure! It’s tough when you’re on the road. It lets you listen to a lot of podcasts but it definitely makes being healthy a challenge. Tell me about your first gardening experience? Kind of I grew up on a homestead really, we didn’t call it that but we had animals large garden more property did all those things always grew up working in the garden in garden never thought about it being my garden first time it was about 3rd or 4th grade Really got the bug for growing something on your own! in school believe it or not bean plants styrofoam cup gardens at home I remember that vividly, growing that bean cup grow and replanted it in the yard! gave me a bug Like I said, we worked in the garden all the time always loved That Green Freak in school! loved growing stuff gardening animals teenage years got more into cars and girls stayed away from it in my mind always assume I’d be living that lifestyle I always wanted to be Caroline Ingalls in the mountains, I knew the minute I walked into Mike’s house this is what I have been dreaming about all my life, it’s a little bit bigger. How did you learn how to garden organically? it never seemed important to me then in my ind I thought I guess I thought about sustainable practices But my dad he would dump any chemical fertilizers on the lawns dealing with the animals we would pump em full of antibiotics whatever would keep them alive so we could survive. wanted the most productive garden what we thought would be our best garden doesn’t seem right old ways people have always done it that always worked time period in the late 70s and 80s Everyone was doing it! It’s what people did to have a great garden!  miracle grow then dump all kinds of liquid fertilizers pesticides When I got cancer didn’t because of all my bad decisions eating out 2-3 times a day every day for years I did that stage 3 colon cancer at 39 years old At my 40th birthday I was doing a chemo treatment back in 2012 things are really good now opened up my eyes Even the doctors said You can’t eat like that!  that stuff is horrible highly processed preservatives handle quite a bit but it was just too much! opened my eyes to important of eating healthy nutritious organic grown food THAT stuff is expensive! I was off of work for a couple of months chemo and surgery ate up our savings organic food we can’t afford that What are you supposed to do, is grow your own? for a lot of people that wouldn’t be a big deal live in town on a 10th of an acre I was discouraged  run across a video not doing a lot http://urbanhomestead.org/homegrown-revolution/ (Homegrown Revolution) Dervaes family they were on a 10th of an acre and they were growing 6-7000 pounds in their backyard It’s so inspiring! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGmS6Jv6L3U (Go watch that!) solid raised beds I could do that in my backyard They’re in Southern CA they’re growing season a lot more food I took a lot of those practices never weighted what kind of food we generate some other practices took on increased the amount of food growing here way to grow healthy food inexpensive way built my first beds out of scrap wood laying around old fence friend who had an excavating business filling up my raised beds cheap as I could worked out We still grow a lot of food 2...