The Ministry Of Prepping?

We explore how a messy backyard garden, township rules, and a few hard winters pushed us from lone-wolf prepping toward a service-first vision: a practical “ministry of prepping” that blends safety, community, and real skills. Strawberries, wood stoves, and one pastor’s nudge turn setbacks into a plan to help families and veterans build something resilient together.

• shifting from SEO to podcasting as a business tool
• failures and small wins in backyard gardening
• wildlife pressure and local zoning blocking self-reliance
• the true cost and timeline of preparedness
• parenting outdoors and making time count
• why community beats bunker thinking
• a pastor’s prompt toward service and leadership
• early vision for a “ministry of prepping”
• concepts for tiny cabins, greenhouse systems, and a village layout
• funding, constraints, and next-step experiments

Transcript

Backyard Garden Wins And Losses

Wildlife Battles And Township Pushback

Cost, ROI, And Realistic Preparedness

Parenting, Time, And Outdoor Rhythm

Community Over Lone-Wolf Survival

A Pastor’s Nudge And Global Tensions

From Defense To Service Mindset

The Ministry Idea Takes Shape

Homesteading Hurdles And Zoning Limits

Alternative Housing And Village Vision

Big Spaces, Big Dreams, Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where we unlock the secrets of business-to-business trade, dive into powerful networking strategies, and share my exciting journey of using a podcast to market my business instead of relying on SEO. I'm your host, Traders Dew. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Trading Post podcast with your host, Traders Dew. I have been slacking, I guess, two weeks and a day since I've recorded and uploaded an episode. Perhaps that's what I go back to. I'm not sure. Maybe I do it every other week thing because the time goes by so dang fast, and so much has happened since I last uploaded an episode. So catching you up here real quick. The last episode I was talking about starting, you know, a prepping season four, so to speak, on the on the uh channel here. And it's funny how things happen because I've been in the the kind of the prepping journeys for years, decades now. And you know, just because I lived in a hurricane area in Florida and I was in the war and all that good stuff, right? So I've seen what can and could happen, and nobody's special and nobody gets away for free. So and but it's uh a turn has kind of happened to where I was kind of thinking about getting rid of my like a back, my had my backyard garden, because it I just it seems like always something happens to where it doesn't finish, right? So either a couple of years ago, of course, you know, my son was born, and I it I let that go because you know, of course, obviously that was more important, and so we didn't get much off of it. Maybe some beans, a couple theaters of corn, no big deal. And then last year, the last summer or whatever, we started just the strawberry patch kind of took off, and and and then once the strawberries were kind of weaned out, then the grass took over. And I was like just staring at you know, six-foot-tall decorative grass, essentially at that point, and took over the uh elevated garden, started the Hegel Culture garden, and then I made it a raised bed garden with cinder blocks, and then it just kind of like you know, you you you you just lose. I started other projects and I just lost motivation. However, the kids loved it. I mean, you know, my son Lincoln, he just loved the the fresh strawberries, and as a matter of fact, he wouldn't eat store-bought strawberries for a little while because he just they just don't compare, you know. So nothing's as sweet and as rich as a a backyard strawberry. So so that kind of kept me going, but and you know, and now I'm like, I don't know, like the animals keep taking over. So we got a lot of wildlife, we're only a couple yards, like literally like big backyards, people's yards, you know, away from a golf course, which is also the Clinton River. And man, the the amount of creatures that come through and just harvest their own. I don't know how anybody does gardens. So then I was like, Do I do a greenhouse? Do I do do I fence it in? Do I, you know, like what do we do here? Because the woodchucks and the birds are just and the deer are just savages. We got rabbits, all of it, right? So here I am, you know, getting excited for pumpkins or whatever and watermelon, and then you go out the next day, and there's a big old chunk taken out of it, and it just chewed up. You're like, man, you know, I don't know, it's just kind of like deflating. So you're just like, screw it. So I'll just do like, I don't know, maybe potatoes, stuff underground that grows underground. But even then, you got your own other problems with that crap too, right? So then you're like elevated gardens, whatever. And anyway, you know, then you got the neighbors calling me on me. They called a township for having rabbits, and then I had to get rid of the rabbits, and then they the one neighbor talked to the other neighbor and they turned down my uh chicken permit. So we can't have chickens, you know. There goes that, the eggs or whatever, like that. Don't get me wrong, the chicken coop I have to build is thousands of dollars because it has to have a two-foot deep rat wall, it's gotta be, you know, whatever, all kinds of crap, right? So for the regs, not worth it. Not it's not cost effective, that's for sure. And by the way, I don't think any it takes a long time to get an ROI back, I think, on our on any kind of backyard gardening. By the time you pay for equipment, if you do raise beds and soil and yeah, whatever. So it's like to me, it's more of like self-sufficiency or just like not even in not even that. Because I mean, if if the grid goes down and SHTF happens in April, March, whatever, right? You don't get food until two months later, so you're screwed, like you're gonna starve. So, you know, by the time stuff, you know, you gotta you gotta you gotta have it, you gotta be rocking it and have supply back like from last year for you to be self-sufficient. Everyone thinks, oh, I'm gonna grow, you know, a backyard garden, you know, a victory garden for when it all goes down this year, you know, 2026 this year at all. It's we're all gonna get blown up, right? You should have already had a garden two years ago, because you need to have the potatoes in the basement or the winter squash in the basement or in the carrots already uh in your backstock that you can't eat off of a garden as it grows. That doesn't make any sense. You've already had to have canned the tomatoes from last year's garden in the basement in the canning jars for 26 when it all goes down. So you gotta think one or two years back to be prep for the current year, right? So anyway, it's just got you know, with my son, and I thought about it. You go back and forth, you're like, Do I do I do this, keep going, because it takes time away. But really, it doesn't because my the littlest one he loves being outside. He's only two and a half, and he just he's going stir crazy right now. In fact, we put him in like a daycare for a few hours, a couple of days a week, just for him to like socialize and burn off some energy because we just can't do it. Like you can't go to you know, jungle java enough or whatever to like get him, you know, the energy burned out, right? So at least for the winter, he's in this like transitions program, they call it like a preschool. And and but if I'm outside, once he's now he's getting to the point to where I ain't gotta watch him like a hawk no more. I can just, you know, the the the yard is fenced in. So as long as I'm out there, he can rock it, right? I don't gotta be with him all the time. So now I can maybe like do something constructive than just sitting in a yard chair and trying not to drink a beer because there's nothing else to do. So maybe now I do the gardening thing while he's out there and then we're all outside, and then he's happy, I'm happy because I'm being constructive and also enjoying time with him and watching him, and he can come over and help too, you know, with the garden. So you and but you know, you go back and forth in your head about these things, right? So now it's just like I I got I got kind of prophesized, you know. I'm not really too big into religion. I'm like, I'm like a you know, a believer of the higher order, but I don't know how much like into it. Anyway, I kind of mistakenly made friends with the pastor or in the process of becoming friends. And uh because my son goes to his preschool and we're members of the church, and he ended up just living in the same neighborhood I do, who he's actually on this on the walking where my family we all when we all walk in the summer, he's on the path, like he's in the turn of we pass his house every time we take a walk, right? So he's that close. So we're just like kind of becoming friends because it's like it we're into the same things. We're you know, he was military and whatever, right? We're close, and it's just like when you're an adult, as you know, unless you're close and convenient, you're not gonna become friends or stay friends very long because it's just if you got kids, it's just inconvenient, right? So anyway, so he said, you know, I think you're supposed to have like a I think you're like I think you might be like a kind of like a go-to guy when everything goes awry. Because he believes too, like, I mean, if you don't believe something's gonna happen, dude, gold is almost six thousand dollars an ounce. I think silver isn't like 90 some bucks an ounce. You know, we got tensions everywhere and Taiwan and China screwing around, you know, whatever with them, and you got Iran and you got Israel and Palestine, you got South America, we're down there, and the Venezuela thing, and it's just like, dude, something's gotta pop off eventually. It's just too much built up to not go anywhere with it. So we're already in World War III, I think. I mean, we're already doing it, it's just a different we're just war is different now than you know, yesteryear, right? So I think we're already in it. Anyway, the pastor was like, dude, I think that you might be a go-to guy. Now, for me, my you know, in my head, prepping to me was always like, all right, when it all goes down, you know, I can't afford a bunker. Bunkers are like, you know, half a million dollars for one that I want, you know, for more than just a basement, you know, secure doors, and you got the air filtration system and water and sewer and maybe even like a garden and you know, like hydroponics, whatever. So, you know, the one I want is is way out of my league. So, but I still always kind of think about like hunkering down and like shooting anybody that comes onto my property when you know we're in martial law or whatever, right? So for me, I was always like protecting my family, protecting my food source, and we're gonna go as long as we can without any help. Well, I've learned over the years you need community. So if you don't have community, you're screwed. And I learned that the hard way by last year I had no job, you know, a year and a half ago now. No, geez, it's been two Januaries. Two Januaries ago, I got laid off, right? So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna like try and be like a homesteader and I'm gonna just burn wood only and keep the house heated with just the fireplace insert that we have. We have a wood stove, and not use the boiler. Just experiment, see if I can do it. I don't think I lasted a month. I got sick as a dog, dude. I mean, I'm talking about like I couldn't even go upstairs. My wife brought down a mattress, I think, from my son, my two and a half year old. I slept on a twin, I mean a baby mattress, just so I could be on the ground and not fall off anything. And I had disoriented and dizzy and puking, and it was just like miserable. Of course, I couldn't split wood or I couldn't haul wood, and I sure as hell didn't want to go outside and grab wood when it was cold out and I'm freezing, or I didn't I didn't have the energy or the strength to carry wood in and tend the fire every few hours, right? And I have a fireplace insert, so it's every few hours, not every 45 minutes. It's like you can go four or five hours and not to reload it because just the way it's so efficient. But even then, it's just brutal. And I'm just like, okay, you know what? I can't do it. This is why the mountain men, when they were out, like look, panning for gold, you know, in the wild west, they all died. Because you bring you got your donkey and your bag of coffee and bag of sugar and a bag of potatoes, and you something happens to you, you get sick, you're done. Like you're just dead. Sorry, like, and I would have died. Like, if I was up in the mountains, I would have frozen to death for sure, dude. I would have been dead. So I was like, all right, community is all right. So he when he said that immediately though, you know, you're the go-to guy, you're gonna you're gonna be like a source, a hub, or whatever. I'm like, eh, I immediately got kind of defensive, but I let it go, I didn't say nothing. I'm like, all right, well, okay. And then what else happened? Oh, then I was at a networking event, and it's um Christian-based networking event place. And this one lady was like, hmm, I think that you need to start your ministry. I'm like, I don't know what that means. Like, well, I'm not like a pastor, you know, and she goes, No, no, no, it's it's not like that. A ministry is like you do something for like the greater good, but not for yourself, so to speak. I was like, You mean like could I do like with prepping or whatever? And she was like, Yep, you could be like ministry of prepping, whatever. Like you just have like men or women or whatever, you know, like that are in need looking for a place to go do something, and need or looking for community is basically what I think a ministry is. I think it's just a bunch of people that are looking for community that might not want to go to church. I don't know, maybe I have no idea. I I'd look more into this, but I kind of got teary eye, dude. I got I got my eye, like I my eyes welded up with tears. I'm like, I don't I don't want to do that. I don't want to take that on. Are you crazy right now? Like I, you know, but at the same time, I kind of knew I had to because for some reason I keep thinking about like a combo of maybe like women that are looking to like escape, like battered women or whatever, you know, like abusive or like the or husbands or dudes are beating the kids up or beating the the chickup and they have nowhere to go. And and or and then combine that with possibly like veterans that are looking for something higher than them. That that the reason why they get depressed when you go to the military is because you lose that camaraderie and something that's bigger than you. That's why vets get depressed. That's why I was, anyways. And perhaps they're just like called to like protect the the women, women and kids. I don't know. And we're like kind of like I don't say a compound, but like, you know, maybe a commune. Commune sounds kind of like what do you call it? A little culty, but you don't say in like a secure location or secure area where nobody knows where the girls are and the kids, and perhaps it's fenced in, and I don't know, the veterans can maybe just all hang out and farm and take care of animals and sell it at a farmers markets or side of the road. I jeez, I don't know. Like, you know, I'm I'm even not even sure what this looks like yet, you know. In my head, it looks kind of like like that, or like there's this like a mansion that's for sale in Detroit that I would love to buy. It was for sale for like six million bucks, but I think it's down to a million now. And it was built for a cardinal or a bishop, I think it was a bishop, and then a bunch of cardinals end up living into it, but it has its own private chapel, it's all stained glass, it's a huge, huge house. But the problem is it's in an hoa. Probably definitely could not do what I wanted to do with it. I mean, you know, you can get all the approvals and with the hoas, but it's not a great area, it's in a bad area of Detroit, and from what I've been told, anyways, I never I haven't drove to it yet. But I think it's called the Bishop Mansion or something like that, anyway. And, you know, to have a garden and to have animals, I'm definitely sure the HOA isn't allowing farm animals. I mean, I can't even do it in Clinton Township. I keep getting in so much trouble with these guys. They must think I'm a freak. Like, because I am like so eccentric to be living where I'm at, and I keep getting in trouble with the township for firewood and rabbits, and I had ducks at one point. I was gonna do duck eggs. What else? I was trying to do chickens. I asked if I could do, if I can't do any of that, can I do what's that not partridge, not doves? What do you call them? The little egg, quail. Quail, I heard, are great for homesteaders because they don't eat a lot of food. They produce a ton of eggs, and you can eat them like quickly, and you churn and burn them too. They go from like chick to egg layer, and I think it's like five or six weeks, where a chicken is like, I think five or six months. So, you know, you turn in and burn them a lot faster. And you're easier to hatch, I guess. They're just I heard that they're just the thing to have. Anyway, and they said, no, you can't do that. It's a farm animal. I'm like, dude, every every time I churn, see, that's the thing. I I get stuck and churned down everywhere I go to try and be like you know, self-sufficient. And and I definitely can't move out to the country right now unless I can pay cash for it. It's meant to win the lotto because I have golden handcuffs because I bought my house in 2020 when interest rates were crazy low, you know. And so I got the VA loan, and you know, no, I don't have PMI, you know, private mortgage insurance because that's VA loan. I got my my payment for my house is cheaper than most apartments, right? And I got a nice place. So I I can't move, can't sell it, because that's where do you go? I mean, I'm not gonna buy anything for what I can sell it for with acreage, that's for dang sure. So I'm just like, all right, so this lady was like, just just put the balls in motion and things will just start happening for you if it's meant to be like doors will open. I'm like, all right, well. So here I am again, another attempt at trying to be kind of like a homesteader. I guess. You know, you just fail your way to success, you know. I don't know what that looks like, like I said. I we have a greenhouse too, and I tried doing a hydroponic, aquaponics with it, you know, grow towers, the what the one, the hybrid, what do you call it, the ebb and flow system, the deep water culture. What's the other one? Wicking bed. I tried that. They produce a little bit, but not enough to like write home to mom about, you know, mostly it's failure. It's probably like 90% not successful, and you get just a couple of things here and there, you're like, oh, okay, cool. But yeah, so now I don't know. I don't know what what what's it, you know. I mean, I'm I'm I'm bloating this on the the prepping season because I'm talking about you know, about it, and it's it might be a business one day, and maybe we can sell some things and be self-sufficient in that aspect and maybe help some people along the way too. But and we kind of already are. My wife is, anyways. I mean, I guess I am funding it because I'm the breadwinner, but you know, we already out are helping a a lady out with ex issues and you know, with the kids and stuff. So but yeah, you know, they became friends, so it's cool. It's all it's all happening. But to combine that now with you know, prepping or homesteading or be I don't know. I always kind of thought too and so if I didn't do the mansion thing, you know, have a house or property kind of like on the river, and then and then have these like you can buy these houses. They're like trailers-ish. They look like log mini miniature log cabins. And you know, they got a loft and they have a bedroom on the main floor, a loft upstairs, like maybe where the kids could be, and then got full kitchen, full bathroom, small, tiny little living room, and then like a little screening porch. And I think even like maybe a little fireplace. You know, perfect, right? It's all you need for like temporary housing or whatever for you know people that are coming and going. And just kind of have a bunch of those kind of like a campground you know area or maybe even do something with like, you know, you ever been to the Renaissance Festival? How they have like a little village? I always thought that'd be dope too. Like build a little village, but like we all live there. I know the Michigan Renaissance Festival, they have campers, you know, the the people that that are performers there, I guess they uh you know they live there part-time they have in their campers. But make up make something like that, but permanent and then maybe have the little shops to where you know it's a it's a a draw like not tourist draw but you know people can come there and shop and like get like homemade you know insert whatever um the girls are making to raise money to go live on their own or whatever. I don't know or the vets, right? I mean there's just so much up in the air. So I'll hopefully maybe this ch this podcast turns into something like that. Like like to where I'll be up uploading you know updates about the progress of wherever this goes. I don't know if it's gonna be like I win the lotto or whatever and I'm and I get the mansion or I get property or I haven't thought about buying or leasing out old Kmart you know that are these old in the the malls they have the old Sears or the old Macy's and do like a hangout in there and you know and hire like one of those like a pond those with the liners and have like a hangout there for like kids to play in the creek or something. You know what I mean like a homemade creek. I don't know dude there's so but the moisture problem with that would be crazy and it would rot out there would be no way I'd get approved for that but yeah anyway that's where I'm at that's the update that's what we're doing now. Apparently starting a ministry in of prepping the ministry of prepping it's like Harry Potter. Anyway that's it don't have anything else to say about that. So whatever y'all do out there be good or be good at it.