Keepin it Real - The Gorham Homestead Podcast
This is where we talk about real life on the homestead, real food and real natural medicine. We talk about homesteading, building community, prepping and survival from a homemaker's perspective. We do our best to provide real and practical, old-fashioned solutions to modern everyday problems with a positive outlook on the future.
Keepin it Real - The Gorham Homestead Podcast
Ep. 20 Resilient Living - Preparing for the Unpredictable
Have you ever wondered what it takes to ensure the safety of raw milk on a homestead? Join me on Keepin' it Real as I share my journey of learning to draw blood from our cows for regular disease testing, and our excitement as we await the A2 status results. You'll also get a close look at the challenges of managing maturing turkeys and a tough encounter with a steer and a permanent weaning ring. This episode is packed with valuable insights on resilient living and the practical steps you can take to prepare for unpredictable times.
Building a new farm community can be daunting, but I've discovered the importance of a strong support network and financial resilience. I recount my personal experience of moving to a new area and the immediate need to connect with neighbors. Together, we formed a tight-knit community with diverse skills that offer emotional and practical support. Additionally, I delve into the necessity of having an emergency fund, diversifying income streams, and possessing barterable goods. By fostering these relationships and financial strategies, we create a more secure environment for ourselves and our loved ones.
Our health and preparedness become even more crucial as we age. In this episode, I explore how strength training and daily stretching can prevent muscle loss and injuries, especially for those over 50. Drawing from my experience managing thoracic outlet syndrome, I offer stretching and stress management techniques. We also discuss the importance of emergency planning, food security through a well-stocked pantry, and the peace of mind that comes from being prepared. Finally, I share a heartfelt story about my southern upbringing, emphasizing the values of love, faith, and pride that shape a resilient and grateful lifestyle.
TheGorhamHomestead.com
Hey y'all, welcome to Keepin' it Real, the Gorham Homestead podcast, where we talk about real food, real natural living, the real art of natural healing and real life out here in our Tennessee homestead the real art of natural healing and real life out here in our Tennessee homestead. I'm your host, dawn Gorham, and today is Thursday. Gosh, I got to look at the date it is August the 8th, 2024, and you are listening to episode number 20. I finally hit it, number 20. Our topic today is just an update about what's going on around here, some new things that I have learned, and then we're going to talk about some current events, not necessarily getting into one side or the other of it, but kind of what you can do in uncertain times. That's what we're going to talk about. Resilient living, you know, preparing for the unpredictable, just practical, everyday things that you can do whether the world goes to pot or it doesn't. So that's what we'll do. Um, first of all, I just want to say a big shout out to our sponsor of the day, a bees closet. They are located in Bon Aqua, tennessee, and they are your local place to go in and get all of your beekeeping supplies. Joe Ellis, the owner, is a friend of the podcast and he is a wonderful human being, so knowledgeable, so great. He's been great for me every step of the way, learning about bees as well as my local bee club and my friend, john Witherspoon, comes over and helps me Bees boy. There's a lot to learn with that, but I'm really enjoying it. So if you get a chance, stop by and tell Joe that you heard about him on the podcast. I think he would really appreciate that, so that we're going to hop right into what's going on around here.
Speaker 1:Well, I have learned a new skill since I have been on here last and it was a couple of weeks ago, I think about 10 days ago now my AI guy came over and helped me draw blood work on my cows, and that's something that I'd, you know, previously relied on a vet to do, or relied on him to do, and I just decided this year that, you know, in the interest of doing regular testing, now that I have more customers, you know it's real, it's a commitment for me. I want to make the most safe, clean, raw milk possible available to the people that are in my herd share, so just decided to learn how to do it. So, sure enough I'm a natural Didn't realize it. I had tried to do it by myself a couple of times and just wasn't able to get blood to flow at all. And literally what he showed me was that I was just a half inch, maybe even a quarter inch, too far to the right. So once I brought that back, I was able to hit it every single time. And so now I've got it down and I'm real, I can pregnancy test my cows. We pregnancy tested all of them, um, and then I was able to send off blood work and thank you Jesus, hallelujah, all of my cows came back um, clean, no BLV, no, um, no BVD, no Yonis, nothing. Everything was nice and clean.
Speaker 1:I'm still waiting on the results of their A2 status so that we I mean we're breeding for A2. Every sire that we use is all A2, a2. So hopefully, going forward, that is what we will. You know that's what we will breed. But I'm interested in knowing what my adult cows are. One of them I know she's A1, a2, because that's I mean. Her owner that I got her from told me that. So just really interested in that. So I called them today. Turns out that test got lost at Central Star and they're going to call me back. It's supposed to take 10 days for you to get your A2 status back, so I suspect I may be waiting another 10 days, because she said she did not have any record of me requesting their A2 status. So maybe another 10 days before I know that, but I'm really excited to have that. I mean, that was it was Tommy was so sweet to come and walk me through all that.
Speaker 1:I've learned that the blood test is much more accurate than the urine test, what was called the P test that I had previously been using, and it's a lot more. It's a lot more like a human pregnancy test. Like you get two lines. It's either is or it isn't, and the ones before you kind of had to interpret the color. Was it blue, was it purple, was it amber? And that meant they weren't pregnant at all. So I like this. Two lines yes, one line no is much better for me. So that's what we're doing with the cows.
Speaker 1:The turkeys are growing. Oh my gosh, they're growing. I'm kind of ready to get to the point where we're processing them because they're kind of aggressive Not like aggressive hurting me, but you know I try to go out to feed them and they're just all over me. So I'm kind of looking forward to the end of that season, and that's how it always goes around here. By the time the meat birds are ready to process, I'm ready for them to be done. By the time the turkeys are ready to process, I'm ready for them to be done.
Speaker 1:I have a little steer that I've been trying to sell. He needs to go before the end of this month and because we installed a permanent weaning ring in his nose, it was like a bull ring, it's a crown one and it was supposed to work better than some of the other ones. Because you can't get it out Like the other weaning rings, I would put it in 24 hours later, I would go in and go out there and he would have it out. Well, this one he hasn't been able to get out, but it's not slowing him down at all. He just turns his head and works around it. Even though it's spiky, it pokes her. She doesn't care and she is due to calve October the 30th. So by August the 30th is time to dry her off, and if he is still trying to nurse on her, I won't be able to do that and I don't have a way to separate them.
Speaker 1:So either one, I've got to sell him, or two, he's going to have to just go to the freezer and get what very little bit of meat that I can get out of his tiny little body, cause he's not. He's not very big, he's nine months old, but he's a Jersey, so he's not he's not real big. So that's kind of where we are on that. There's um. We'll see. If I don't sell him in the next week and I've got him priced right, y'all, I'm priced him to move. I priced him at $500. Come get him, um, but if he doesn't, then I will. I'll just pay the $200 to process him and put him in the freezer and that'll be the end of that.
Speaker 1:So, things that are going on, we're going to move right into our main topic. I don't want to be like doom and gloom and super political one way or another, but we're in really scary times and I think that, either way that things go in November, that it's going to be a very volatile situation. And with things heating up in the Middle East, things continuing to be ongoing between Russia and Ukraine, stock market acting crazy, you know, the attempted assassination on Trump, the Kamala, I mean, everything is just like, oh my God, what else can happen? And with that chaos? Because I feel like that's what it is it's just a lot of chaos and I don't know if the time has come that it's going to come to a head. We all know it's going to come to a head eventually. I don't know if this is it. I don't have any idea.
Speaker 1:But what I do want to talk about is there's nothing you can do about it, like there's nothing we can do to stop the what's going on in Washington or in the Middle East, or between Russia and Ukraine or in Venezuela or anything else. There's nothing we can do about it. The only thing that you have any control over is your inner circle, like the whole permaculture idea. You know your circle is your is your main focus. You know your circle is your is your main focus, and that's really where we should be spending our energy, not really freaking out and panicking about things that are going on out there, but just what we can do here.
Speaker 1:And the things that I'm going to talk about are just like my personal opinion and again you take it with a grain of salt Um, what I? The things that I believe in the opinions that I have are mine and um, it's what works for me and what I believe will work going forward, and what you know the greater community of self-reliant people. Um, kind of all practice the same things, um. Um, kind of all practice the same things, um. But the number one thing is to just develop a strong support network and that's really important. When I moved here to this farm and I've talked about this before, but the very first thing that I did was reach out to my neighbors, like I wanted to know who my neighbors were and I wanted them to know who I am, and that has been very advantageous for us, because our neighbors now have become a very strong support network for us. Like if things were to go down, I'm pretty confident that the people on this road will do everything that we can do to survive together, and I love the people on my road.
Speaker 1:Everybody has an amazing amount of skills. Some of them are so far ahead of me it's ridiculous, but it's a great way to build a sense of security and when you build those relationships, you can build them with your family, you can build them with friends, you can build them with your neighbors, you can build them with friends. You can build them with your neighbors. You can have what they call a team. Like you can get all into this, you know, and plug in people, for you know each thing. If you've got a dentist and you've got somebody that's in the military and you've got a paramedic and you've got I mean that's kind of pushing it. It's like everybody's dream but it's pushing it. It's like everybody's dream but it's pushing it.
Speaker 1:But those people can provide emotional and practical support for you, like they're the people that are going to be there for you. You know if you need food, they've got food. If they need food, you've got food. You know if you need something moved and you need strong hands, and that you know those are the people that'll come and help you out in times of need and when push comes to shove. If the world were to go, you know, south, and God forbid, we hope that it don't and we plan that it won't. But those are the people who are that you're stuck with, like the people in your house and the people in your neighborhood or on your road or in your community, in your little area. Those are the people that you are going to have to rely on. So, everything that you can do and anything that you can do to team up with those people and build community with those people, the more better off you're going to be and the further out that you get building community, the less likely those people are to actually be able to help you if things actually went bad, because they won't be able to get to you. So try to build up with the people who are right around your house.
Speaker 1:Another thing that you can do is build financial resistance, and what I mean by that is, you know, have that emergency fund, have some money, cash, have silver, have things that are of value, that you can barter, whether that's bullets, or whether that's food or toothbrushes or tampons, or, you know, diapers, baby food, whatever but have some sort of emergency fund and diversify that and you can also have, you know, maximize your income streams. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. You know I sell milk, but I also sell eggs, and I also teach workshops and I also work with my husband at his law office, and you know I have a lot of different things going on, because if one thing dries up, then I can focus my energy somewhere else. So that's kind of a smart thing to do if you have the ability to do it, even if you're selling plant starts or you're making tinctures or medicinals or whatever. Just have more than one thing, more than one way to make money with skills and products or whatever that is.
Speaker 1:And then the big big thing and this is a thing that took me a long time to wrap my head around was minimizing debt, and that should have been obvious. It should have been common sense for me. But I grew up in a family where debt was just anticipated, like you graduate and you get a car payment and you have a house payment and then you have credit cards and you have a retail store credit card and gas cards and all that stuff, and that really got me in a lot of trouble in my 20s. And so, you know, as I got older and I became a big fan of Dave Ramsey, I learned that you know a lot of people hate Dave Ramsey because he's so anti-debt.
Speaker 1:But you have to understand that spending is an addiction and for me, I am not a person who can have a credit card. I can't, because I have a tendency to see it and want it and buy it, even if I don't have the money and then I think, oh, I'll pay that back. Well then I don't, or I pay little payments on it and then the interest piles up, and so I'm just I can't, I am a junkie, and I know that I'm a junkie and I know that there's things that I want, and I always have more wants than I have money. So that's just one of those things. And if you're one of those people, you know, the same way, an alcoholic can't be hanging out in a bar If you are a person who has previously been addicted to debt, then you can't have a credit card, you can't buy, you know, have put things on payments, you can't go out and have tons of debt because you're just going to spend more than you make. So, that being said, minimizing your debt is a huge security asset. It's a good feeling, because the less that you have to spend, the less that it takes to live. So trying to minimize your debt is a huge thing and I'm still working on it. It still happens to me. I still have impulse buys and I'm growing out of it. I'm 50, but I'm growing out of it.
Speaker 1:So minimize the debt, enhancing your skill set. The more that you can learn, the better off that you will be. And you know I've always jokingly said I want to be more valuable alive than I am dead. So you know, if people ever come to try to overtake me, at least know how to do things and I'm not useless. So you know, enhance those skill sets. Learn how to do things. Learn how to preserve your food, learn how to do your. You know regular household maintenance. Learn how to run a chainsaw, gardening self-defense. Self-defense is a really great skill to have, especially for us women. You know, the more that we can train and the more that we can learn, the more we are able to defend ourselves and protect ourselves when our husbands or our sons or whatever, whenever someone you know with more strength and power than you is not around to protect you. So that's a really good skill to enhance.
Speaker 1:And staying informed. I hate this part. I don't like the news, like I don't turn on the news if I can help it. I actually go to Twitter most of the time for my information and that seems to have become the norm, because you can get information faster on Twitter than what the mainstream news will come out with it. You do have to kind of sort through what you think is real and what's not, because, just like the legacy media, there's as much baloney on Twitter as there is on TV. So you just kind of got to be able to sort through that. But you can get a feel for things like, you can get the general gist of, like, what's going on, and I've recently just started following their Israeli government because I feel like I get more information about what's actually going on over there by following, you know, people that are actually in Israel than I do turning on the TV, people that are actually in Israel than I do turning on the TV, and sort of the same thing with the riots in England. You can kind of see more of what's going on from Twitter than you can, because they're really not even talking about it on TV at all. But you can see all the fires and all the people rioting and people attacking cars and all the people rioting and people attacking cars. And a man got arrested for making an offensive post on Facebook. They literally came and arrested him because they didn't like what he said, and that was in England, and the guy's got his little TV or his little phone running the whole time and so you see the whole thing.
Speaker 1:So just kind of stay in abreast without going overboard, like without becoming obsessed with it, but you still kind of got to know. You can't bury your head in the sand, which is what I would love to do. I would love to be so Amish that I didn't know anything was going on. But at the same time, if I don't know anything's going on, then I can't sort of prepare or be you know, be ready for it. Um, just kind of knowing that the things that may happen. In preparing realistically or reasonably and not going just like crazy overboard In uncertain times, one of the most important things that you can do is to prioritize your own physical health.
Speaker 1:So try to be as healthy as you can and try to stay away from you know the doctors as much as you can and do as much as you can at home and learn herbal remedies for certain things, just because at some point it may be to where we can't get the medications that we need and want. So just trying to be as healthy as you can Certain things like you know, if you're diabetic, and you're type 1 diabetic, and you're on insulin and your pancreas literally stopped working, there's nothing you can do other than just, you know, try to maintain your weight and take your insulin, that's it. But a type 2 diabetic can you know? Cut out the sugar, cut out the carbs, do some exercise and you know you can improve that situation. So just do the best that you can Try to.
Speaker 1:You know, as we get older women, we lose our muscle mass. So one of the best things that we can do is start doing some strength training. And men I guess men are the same way as their testosterone levels drop, but same way for us. You know, over 50, we really start losing that muscle mass fast. So, doing some strength training to stay strong, keep your back strong and stretching, you know, limberness is really, really important. It's what keeps you from being injured. Stretching is one of the best and I do it every day. It's part of my daily routine because I had an injury about 10 years ago. They call it thoracic outlet syndrome. I think I've talked about it before, but if I don't do those stretches then I'm hurting. So, you know, just prioritizing your health, maintain a healthy diet, do the best you can and, you know, maintain your stress level. Try to keep that down. Learn how to breathe, learn how to relax.
Speaker 1:Don't get all caught up in all of the chaos that is happening around us. If you can stay grounded and you can keep your center, then all of the chaos out there does not affect you as much. Having an emergency plan, knowing what you will do in a situation, is always a great thing to do. We do certain drills throughout the year, same way kids do at school, same way they do a fire drill, same way they do a tornado drills. We do certain things so that we know what we will do in certain situations and we used to do them at the courthouse, like we would have fire drills, we would have active shooter drills, we would have you know things that that way everybody knew and it wasn't chaos if something bad happened. So that's not silly and it's not out there and it's not crazy for people to do things like that, because it's muscle memory and you know. You're much better off in a situation when everybody knows what to expect and everybody knows what everyone else is going to do in a situation Keeping your deep pantry.
Speaker 1:I preach this so much because I love canning, I love food preservation and so if I could tell you as a listener, one of the most important things that you can do to avoid major stress in a situation is to know that you have food and whether that is canned goods that you go buy or whether it's home canned goods that you preserve yourself or whether it's home canned goods that you preserve yourself If you're going to, you know, one of the great places that you can go to is like a restaurant food supply Gordon Food Supply and Franklin has, you know, tons of huge cans of tomatoes and green beans and you know you can stack those to the ceiling if you wanted to. Costco that's another great place. You can get organic versions of that stuff at Costco. You can go to the Mormons, the Latter-day Saints, and they will sell you number 10 cans of freeze-dried stuff in boxes. You can buy it by the case and just stack those cases up and put your date that you got them and the date that they expire.
Speaker 1:And you know it's just some insurance to know that you have something if you can't get out of your house, even if it's, you know something. You know a weather related event or something more catastrophic. That way you know that you're covered and it's a huge sense of security to know that you have that and, like all winter long, if I don't want to get out, I really don't have to Now. It might get boring some of the stuff that we would have to eat, but I don't have to. So that's just a. That would be my number one. Number one have as deep a pantry as you can possibly get and just start with, you know, a couple of extra weeks. You don't have to go out and spend $5,000 on, you know, enough stuff to last your family for a year all at one time. Just keep buying a little extra and putting the extra back every time you go to the grocery store.
Speaker 1:And I know that things are so expensive right now Inflation is killing all of us. But you know, when I don't have the money to go to the grocery store because the budget doesn't really allow it, it is very comforting to know that I have a freezer full of beef and a freezer full of chicken and a freezer full of fish and a freezer full of deer and a pig, and you know I can eat meat for months and be just fine. And I have all of the food that I canned from the garden and you know that's just that. That's a hedge against inflation in and of itself, if you have, because it's not going to be any cheaper tomorrow than it is today. So just know that I have a positive mindset.
Speaker 1:I do have hope, like I have hope that everything is going to be all right. I hope that our country comes to a sense of peace. I hope that all of this is going to work itself out eventually and, of course, I have faith in God and I have faith in God's plan, and so that kind of helps to keep me from freaking out, because some of the stuff when I see it on TV, my first impulse is to want to freak out. I do, I really really do, because just where I see things potentially going is scary, like it's really scary the thought of a potential, you know, civil war between people, the thought of maybe going to war here on our soil with some foreign countries or them. You know, we've never known anything like that here. We've never had to deal with war on our soil since you know, the Civil War for real. I mean, I understand there was Hawaii and there was, you know, 9-11 and whatever, but that was not like all-out war, that was an attack and it was terrible and it was horrible, but it's not soldiers marching across or planes flying across or anything like that, and so that scares me to think about that. I'm hoping that that would never happen, but I don't know if there's any way to prepare for that either. But I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that it's all going to be all right. It is really all going to be all right.
Speaker 1:The last thing that I want to talk about is engaging in community preparedness. Besides just your local, you know your next door neighbors or your street or whatever. You can do things like volunteering for your local fire department or participating in local preparedness initiatives or becoming part of Self-Reliance Festival, that community Start a alliance group within your community. We have the Dixon Homesteaders Alliance Group and we talk about that and we have different topics and we have people who work together to do things and that's just a really great way to be with like-minded people.
Speaker 1:And you know, a lot of people will tell you that it is not good to be with people who think like you, that you should be with people who challenge your thought, and to some extent that is true. I'm not opposed to that. Posing views are so polarizing and so polar opposite of what I believe I don't want to be with those people. I have no desire to hang out with somebody who is so polar opposite of me. It's just the same way. I wouldn't be friends with them. I don't need it. I don't need you. You lay with dogs, you pick up fleas, and I don't want that kind of mentality rubbing off on me. And I don't think that it would. I don't think anything can change my mentality. But you know you get my drift.
Speaker 1:So it's OK to be with like minded people, despite what the other side will tell you, because they don't like us to congregate. They don't like for like-minded people to come together and discuss things, because that's how the American Revolution happened. So the more that they can divide us and the more that they can tell us that we don't need to be with other people who are like us, the more we should do it. So that's what I got to say about that. And again, I understand it's good to have people to challenge your views, but if it's something so opposed to your core values, it's not necessary. You have your morals, values and principles and you can stick to those. So that's all I got to say for today. We're going to wrap it up. Next week I'm going to be joined by my friend, stephanie Talent, and we are going to be talking about why farmers hate homesteaders, the difference between traditional farming and the modern homesteading movement, and that should be a very interesting conversation. So hope you'll tune in next Thursday. We'll probably have it uploaded by around one or two o'clock. So thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you took a little bit.
Speaker 1:I didn't mean to be all doom and gloom today. I know kind of the tone, but it's just because of what's going on in the world. It does kind of scare me and that does come out in my tone a little bit. But I'm trying to be super positive. I'm really trying to focus on what I can do rather than what's being done to me. So that's what I would recommend that you do Just focus on your home, focus on your friends, focus on your family, you know, and just do what you can do to make yourself more resilient, to make yourself more safe and to make sure that your family, you know, can eat and you know that's that's it. That's all you can do. And pray and be, be good to your people, be good to your friends. So thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Um, if you like it, it'd be great if you could like and subscribe, leave a review and let me know what you think. Um, it helps other people to find my podcast. You can find me on the socials at the Gorm Homestead and on my website at the gormhomesteadcom. Whatever you're doing today y'all, just remember to keep it real. See y'all. My daddy was a guitar picker Playing all the local clubs and my mama was a waitress when they'd park M18 wheeler trucks. So we didn't have much money. Times were kind of hard, living in a trailer On the edge of grandpa's farm. Yeah, I may not come from much, but I've got just enough. As long as my baby's in my arms and the good Lord knows what's in my heart, I refuse to be ashamed. It's just a southern thing.