Carving a Farm out of the Woods with Guest Rylee - Ep22

Carving a farm out of the woods with passion and energy. Join this discussion with guest Rylee Faust. She is a 20-something homesteader, wife, & mom living in Northern MN. Today as we talk homesteading, prepping, making it work on one income, tips for new homesteaders, living this life with small children, and so much more!

Rylee can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/rylee_faust/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to this Prepared Life podcast where homestudying and the apocalypse meet. I'm Alison, your host. Welcome to This Prepared Life. Before we get started today, I wanted to just thank you for listening to this podcast. I want to thank everyone for all of the support they have given me. The goal of this podcast, you know, from the beginning, has been about reaching women and highlighting that preparedness is for everyone. And each and every one of us can prepare our families and our homes, and that that is going to look different for everyone. So I wanted to just thank you all for listening, for being supportive. If you have left me a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts, I would like to thank you for that. And if you haven't, I would like to ask you to head to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review or a comment or a rating because those reviews and ratings help get the word out about this podcast. So to those who already have, thank you so much. And today we are doing a homestead heavy episode. I love homesteading. I started my journey with homesteading over 15 years ago. And I know this is the opposite of what a lot of preppers do. In episode one and episode four, I shared a bit about my journey to becoming a prepper and my homesteading journey. And I really do believe that these things complement each other well. And this is what I mean when I say where homesteading and the apocalypse meet. I think that homesteaders were the original preppers. Most homesteaders are gardening or raising livestock. We're filling freezers and pantries with a large supply of food at one time because that's how it works on a farm. You're not butchering one chicken a week. You're butchering 40 chickens at once, and those are all going into your freezer. It's normal to put our supply of potatoes in the root cellar for the winter or to fill our pantry with applesauce during apple season. Whether we call ourselves a prepper or not, homesteading has layers of preparedness in it. And a large part of this podcast is highlighting others' journeys. When I started prepping, it was so hard to find information for women by women. And I want this podcast to showcase as many women from as many different stages of life and stages of prepping and homesteading as I could find. So today we have a guest for you, and I am so excited to hear her story. Riley is a 26-year-old wife and mom who lives in northern Minnesota. She calls herself an aspiring prepper and is definitely a homesteader. Welcome to the podcast, Riley. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to hear your story. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and about your family?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So I um just like you started with homesteading and then um thought, wow, we don't only have certain food groups that we are not producing, and those would be easy things to prep. Even further, I grew up with beef cattle, so we kind of started with large animals and have worked our way down to chickens. So my husband and I live on a small farm. I like to say we're carving a farm out of the woods because it was all mostly wooded land when my husband bought our property. And we have cows, beef cows, horses, ponies, pigs, sheep, chickens, a garden, and two little girls. You have a little bit of everything. Yes, definitely. Um, up until 2020, we did not have um pigs, sheep, or chickens. We read a book on regenerative agriculture, and that's what really sparked our interest in diversifying how many species we had, and that's also when I added the garden. So I definitely went backwards because I didn't start with a garden and chickens.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, most people do tend to start there and move their way up. Um, so you grew up with cattle and on a farm. How did that affect or impact you wanting to be a farmer?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Um, I definitely went through phases growing up uh with my interest level in farming. And honestly, meeting my husband, we knew each other for close to 10 years before we started dating, um, probably increased my interest because he did not grow up around farming and he was trying to learn everything he could, which made me realize, like, wow, I know how to do a lot of things around the farm. And once I realized that I was kind of good at that, that made me more interested in having livestock and pursuing that.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

In your, you know, emails to me, you called yourself an aspiring prepper. What does that mean for you? And what are you prepping for?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Uh, right now in northern Minnesota, we are prepping for winter, which is just an every year thing. So that is a big factor. Our first child was born in the middle of the winter, polar vortex, it was 50 below the week that she was born. And that fall leading up to welcoming her, I just really thought of like all the things that I could stock up on so that we didn't have to run to town if we ran out of something. Because we're close to 30 miles from any type of store, over 15 miles from a gas station. And so I stocked up on even just like household consumables, trash bags, you know, dish soap, all of those type of things, besides baby-related items. That was probably the first time where I thought where it actually crossed my mind to prepare and not have to worry about running to town. So she's two and a half now. That was obviously pre-COVID. And then um, when the spring of 2020 happened, we always have like full freezers, we raise almost all of our own meats now. And my husband was just like, you know, you should probably do a big grocery trip just in case, just in case this gets crazy. I did. My husband was still working at the time. They had not um like laid off yet because of COVID. So other than him just picking up like a jug of milk or a couple small things, we went five weeks without a big grocery trip in the beginning of COVID. And looking back, that's like a I'm really proud of that. I am proud that we had a really well-stocked home. So right now, going into winter, um, like a big one, and this is one that goes back to me growing up, is having enough hay and livestock feed for the winter already ready to go. And now for my husband and I, like making sure the propane tank is full and that we have firewood and all of that type of stuff, that just makes the winter less stressful, and you can just cozy up by the fire, not have to worry about going to town. For me now with two kids, I don't have to worry about dra dragging them out during cold and flu season to a store to pick up something that I could have easily had on the shelf.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

It sounds like so, maybe, you know, just you having your children and these the winters that you have in Minnesota, and then you know, the impacts of everything that went on in 2020 really may have been like the defining factor in your preparedness journey.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yes, definitely. Children definitely sparked it to begin with, and then yes, having children and then going right into 2020 just makes it seem like why why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I think ahead?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

You shared a little bit about you know, hay and your livestock and prepping for that for the winter, always having full freezers as a homestutter. What does prepping look like for your family?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

We added a second freezer last year. We had one uh just one chest freezer. Obviously, in the future, like a walk-in freezer would be a really worthwhile investment, but that's a little ways down the line. Right now, it looks like our yard is plump full of hay. We had a severe drought this year, so we actually had to buy a lot of hay, otherwise, we cut and bale our own hay. When I say that we're carving a farm out of the woods, we don't even have a barn. We have like a carport and a mobile pig hut and a mobile chicken coop. So feed storage is definitely a pain point for us right now, but we try to stock up as much as we can for that, and that just insulates you against some of the price variances too. Inside the house, right now, my house looks like ripening tomatoes all over, like boxes of them, because we're in zone three, so we've already had frost at least a half a dozen nights, so I just decided to pick everything so I didn't have to keep covering outside. I bought a bushel of apples to make applesauce because our baby will be starting solids pretty soon here, and our apple trees are not producing yet, so we're lucky to have local, they have their own greenhouse and market store with a little cafe and stuff too. So I ordered a bushel of apples from them, sourced food product there. Other than that, I don't think the rest of our life looks a whole lot different than other people, besides the fact that my mother-in-law asked if she could bake cookies, and my husband's like, Yeah, all the stuff's here. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, I think that is one of the uh, you know, just awesome things about being prepared and having a well-stocked kitchen. You know, I have two girls who really like to cook and try new recipes, and you know, they're always like, Hey mom, do we have this? I'm like, Yep, yep, we do. We do have that. So they're able to just experiment. And I think that's just a great bonus that maybe a lot of people don't think about because when we think about preparedness, we think about, oh, the zombie apocalypse, and that's so not what it's about. It's about preparing for winter and it's about having a well-stocked kitchen. Um, and those things are so important and so useful. How does your husband feel about prepping? You shared a little bit about, you know, that he's just really into farming, but does he have any specific thoughts about prepping? And are you guys doing this together?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

We're definitely doing it together, although just like any other part of marriage, we have different priorities. So for him, like he's like, I would love to have a manual well pump. Like, that's on his wish list, so that water is never an issue. It's just there if we need it. And for me, I'm like, I would like to make sure that our kids are clothed in more luxuries, probably in the grand scheme of things. He takes care of probably 95% of our livestock chores, which is crazy to some people since I'm a stay-at-home mom and he still works a full-time job, but that's just what has worked for us since we had kids. So a lot of his preparation is really just like the things he's doing every day, like building more fence so that we can graze cattle longer into the fall and not have to feed hay as early, and what can we do to store more feed and store more hay and things like we're still very much growing our farm, so his preparations look a lot like growth because we're always getting like trying to think bigger. We're hoping to breed our pigs and have our own piglets so that we don't have to look for piglets next year. So, one of his things is I need to make a pig pen that we can have piglets in in the spring, hopefully. And that was just a conversation we had this morning. That is pretty much what prepping looks like to him, just the continual growth of our farm.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, the self-sustainability and being able to, you know, like you said, have your own piglets, you know, means you're not having to rely on someone else to get those things. Yeah, I totally understand that. So you shared with me in an email just some of your goals for your farm and your homestead. And you aren't just, you know, your goal isn't just raising food for your family. You have some huge long-term goals. Would you like to share some of those with us?

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, our probably number one long-term goal is for the farm to be financially sustainable where my husband does not have to work a nine to five job. And that is a big goal, but I'm 26, he's 34. We feel like we have plenty of years ahead of us to accomplish that. He started his off-farm job young in his 20s, so he's got uh quite a few years of seniority built up there, where even if he stayed 30 years, he'd still be retiring young from his off-farm job. So we'd still have many years of farming ahead of us. We like to joke that when he retires from his off-farm job, I can go back to work and still put in 20 years, which means I have like 18 more years to figure out how I don't have to go back to work. We are really pushing for to have the whole life cycle of an animal. So to raise a calf and raise it all the way to butcher to where that meat is going directly to the consumer, and just eliminating all of the middle people between us and the consumer. So kind of like homestead meets uh small scale direct-to-consumer meets.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

You know, we we talk a lot uh just online and in prepping and on Instagram about shortening our supply chain. And I think that is just vitally important because so many people can't, you know, if you live in the city, you're not gonna be able to put a beef cow on your in your backyard. There's just you can't do it. So having local farmers who are producing that food and people are able to, you know, like you said, cut that middleman out is so, so important.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I agree. And even in our very small rural community, which I would say is like our neighbors, everybody within a mile or two, last year we were able to have the neighbor who owns a logging company, he came and cut all the marketable timber off of our property, and then this last spring he bought a quarter of beef from us. So even just keeping all of that, all the money, which isn't really the goal, but keeping all the business so close to home was like, wow, you know, this is like you can directly see how you're helping your neighbor, and they can directly see how they're helping you.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah, that's awesome. That community that everything creates is just great. What is the most exciting thing that you have learned in your homestead journey?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

That I am more capable than I give myself credit for. I my mom growing up was very involved outdoors, outside, farming, running equipment. She's still works as a truck driver, and my mother-in-law is like basically Betty Crocker. So I have a really good balance of women influencing my life, and the ability to like cook from scratch and things like that, and to to learn canning when I had never done it before. I just started canning a little bit this year really surprises me. Like I thought it was more of a daunting skill to learn than what it really is. If you just get in the kitchen and try, most likely you'll make something that's edible. So my husband is pretty forgiving that way too. And with having two kids now, I am surprised how much that I can take them along with me. And that's not every day, and I'm definitely not taking them with me to do everything or everything I see other women doing with their small children. But my two-year-old loves being in the garden with me. The amount of knowledge that she absorbs by that is surprising to me. The amount that like projects we thought would never end around our farm, just how much progress there is when you just start something. I look around, we used to have trees coming right up to our driveway all the way around our house. I I would say that it was claustrophobic because I grew up in a field and I moved into a house that I couldn't see out of in any direction. And now we have like corrals for livestock and room to park equipment in the yard and room to stack hay. And our entire garden was all trees less than five years ago. So the progress is very surprising to me. And when you look back, not when you look forward, when you look forward, it's a big job, just tons of big jobs. But when you look back, the progress you see is really, really remarkable. And just bringing kids along with it, that's the hardest part and the most rewarding part.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

I just got all the questions that I want to ask you. Some of the things you just said. So you talked about looking, you know, looking back and seeing your progress and how proud you are. And then you talked about looking forward, and I just heard a bit of overwhelm in your voice. How do you combat that? Because that is something so many of us struggle with, and no matter where we are in our journey, we all feel overwhelmed. How do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Different seasons I've handled it better than others. Right now, I get easily overwhelmed by even just the amount of produce in the house. In the past, especially after having my first, I dealt with overwhelm by minimizing a lot. I decluttered a lot, I simplified our house a lot. And now I feel like it's creeping back up and I need to declutter again. So that has been a huge one, just streamlining our day-to-day activities and our day-to-day household, even though I'm terrible at meal planning. So that's one thing that I could work on to improve and streamline our house better. Um, but minimizing has really helped a lot. And it's helped to allow my husband and I to like look forward without all the day-to-day stuff interfering. Like we could look at long-term goals without worrying about the produce in the kitchen because that's a season. It a month from now, I won't have produce all over fresh produce all over my kitchen. It will all be preserved, it will all be put away. I am definitely looking forward to that part of winter where there's less of these type of projects. But yes, I would say I went through a minimalism phase before I really kicked off homesteading, and I think that has helped a lot because when you minimize how much stuff you have in your house to manage, your schedule, how many different cleaning products you use, there's less to prep then. And that makes it way more attainable, I think, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

So you're 26, you're young. Do you feel like people your age, friends your age who are, you know, maybe in a different life stage than you, or just do they think you're crazy? You are totally going against the grain of what most people your age are doing.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yes and no. I uh like I shared with some friends that I went to high school with not that long ago. I shared with them that I'm just aiming for stability. Like I don't need the high highs of life, I'm trying to avoid the low lows. I just want to raise my kids as stable, like middle of the road as I can. And they really respected that, but that yes, is not where they are at in their lives at this point. The flip side of that is the people my age that are into local food, like green spaces and altern I would say like alternative lifestyles like tiny house living and RVing and things like that. The amount of people my age that are interested in that type of thing is uh is high. I would say way more than I ever expected. You know, the day I graduated high school, I wouldn't expect eight years later that me and my high school friends would be interested. In lots of facets of the same type of thing. It's all against the grain, just in different ways. And it makes for really unique conversations and really unique social media feeds when you see people that are even just a little bit like trying to make a little bit more sustainable life choices or lifestyle choices. And that is probably a more driving factor for people my age is the eco sustainability, minimalism, more like more intentional lifestyles. And for that reason, I don't think they think homesteading is crazy. I don't think they think I'm crazy. I could be wrong. Maybe they do think I'm crazy, but I have no I have not gotten the vibe that people people my age think I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Um, have you, you know, I mean, I'm 40. I don't have a lot of 20-year-old friends. Um, so I don't have a lot of, I don't know where you guys are at. Um do you see a shift in the mentality of people your age in regards to, you know, homesteading and prepping and that these things are needed. Are they not needed? What what are you hearing in your circles?

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Oh, definitely homesteading, you know, the jumping off points of gardens and chickens where I didn't start. I see a lot of people my age jumping into that now. I have lots of friends in their 20s that have a garden of some size in their backyard. Lots of friends that have either had chickens, still have chickens, are working towards having chickens. I have a brother-in-law and his wife, they have tons of chickens in their backyard. They're in their 30s, but they have a ton of chickens because they have so many people in their lives that are like, we love fresh eggs, but we do not have chickens of our own. So they have like 30 chickens or something, laying hens in their backyard. I think the tide is shifting to people, younger people are thinking it's cool to be able, there's the nostalgia factor of being able to produce your own food. It's becoming like a hobby, more or less, like a trendy hobby. And a lot of that I think is driven by younger people trying to be more ego-friendly. Even people my age, the amount of people I know that go thrifting now. When I was a kid, that was not cool. And it is cool in your 20s nowadays to buy secondhand. That is a huge shift in mentality from what it was 15 years ago. I hope that answered your question.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

It did. Totally an opinion, and you may or may not have one. Where do you think that is coming from?

SPEAKER_01 24:52

I think there's a lot of parts to where it's coming from. Part of it being where what we were raised in. Uh, I would say I don't think right now is the height of consumer culture. I think it seems like it is, but I think a lot of it stems in my generation, how we were raised. Like there was just a lot of I heard the term microwave mentality the other day. Like, we want it quick and easy and fast. And then like nothing was made to luck to be long lasting. And I think now as adults, we're realizing, like, now that we're spending our own money on things, how foolish that is. And kind of going against the grain of like how our parents raised us, not that it was bad, it was just of the times. I think a lot of it is just learning that our values as people, as young adults, you know, people my age now are all out of college for the most part. They're realizing like this spoon we've been fed on our whole lives isn't really what we want for ourselves. And more so than ever, if you want to make a lifestyle change, you can just go on the internet and learn about it and find some find other people that are doing it and just jump off that, just whatever direction you want to jump off to. Make a lifestyle change, and I feel like that level of empowerment resonates a lot with people my age. Like, I don't want to go down the path that I'm being told I'm supposed to go down. I can make that switch myself.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

What is next for you? Like, what is the next skill that you want to learn? Your next goal.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Short-term goals, I really want a greenhouse because that would just extend my growing season so much. That, and I would like to do a back to eat in like completely covered garden with wood chips. So that is my short-term homesteading goal for the most part. Our greenhouse will also double as a place to raise chicks in the spring until they can go outside. So that's short-term goal. Long term, we have some big financial goals that we want to meet, and doing that on a single income while trying to build a farm is no easy feat. That is probably what makes people think we're crazy more than anything else, is that we look at the acreage we have now and we just want to do bigger. And I don't know that we have we have like an idea of how much farming we want to be able to do, but if we reach that, it's like the sky is the limit for us. If we can grow bigger than that, great. We would love for our children to take the farm we've created and make it bigger than what we're doing, or maybe not bigger, but more diverse and more income streams to the farm. So yeah, next for us is some big financial goals. Hopefully more babies. But my husband, he would be okay with two.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Um, you brought up uh, you know, that you guys are on one income that, you know, you stay home and your husband works. And my husband and I did that also. Um, so I know how hard that can be when you are trying to build things. Um, do you have any tips for families who are like, we really want to be one income, but I don't know if we can afford it. How do you guys make that work? Because I know it can be hard.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

I would say if you want to be a single-income family, be a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad, although it's just more common to be a stay-at-home mom, it's always possible. A lot of people don't like hearing that because it puts, I feel like it puts the ball in their court. And if they're not ready to make that jump, they don't want to hear you say that it's always possible. But I feel like it is. If you are willing to adjust your lifestyle expectations, it's totally possible. Like we don't have cable, we don't have any subscriptions except for Amazon Prime, because we live in the country and Prime is really convenient, although I'd like to get away from it. Um, we don't have a lot of the, I wouldn't even say they're like conveniences, they're really just time fillers that other people have. We don't our two-year-old is not in any activities that we pay for. And I feel like a lot of people think that's crazy. Like, why isn't your two-year-old in X, Y, and Z? Well, driving to town once or twice a week for a two-year-old's activities is expensive on top of the activity itself and any gear you might need to buy for that activity. So we say no to a lot of those things. To me, that's not, I don't look at that as a sacrifice. That's just problem solving. Like if we want to meet our financial goals, I'm not taking my two-year-old to gymnastics that she's never going to remember. So that would be my biggest advice is really look at what you're spending money on as a two-income household and what is a need and what is a want. There is a big difference from needing a vehicle and having something that's outside of your budget. I tend to get a lot of negative feedback when I talk about it that way. People will say, well, it's not that simple, or you don't understand. And we are not wealthy by any means, but we make it work. It's it's just the lifestyle that we've created.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Uh, when my kiddos were little, we made the choice to have one car. That meant sometimes I was stuck home. And that meant sometimes I had to drive him to work so that I could have the car. But for us, that meant less gas, not a second car payment. We didn't have to pay insurance for a second vehicle. And it was just one of those things that we sacrificed willingly. Like that was our choice. And people thought we were insane. You know, and friends are like, I don't know how you do it. I could never, you know, just stay home and not have the possibility of leaving whenever I want to. And I'm like, you just plan. Yes. Be organizing and you plan, you know, I'm I we're making that choice. And I loved everything you just said. So, what are your tips for a new homesteader or someone who is thinking about, you know, jumping into this just crazy wonderful thing that we do?

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I love the advice when people say, do what you can where you are with what you have. I definitely think that applies to anybody. You can raise, grow, or source food wherever you are. I was still learning how to make tomato sauce and waiting, waiting for my tomatoes to ripen. Aldi, there's a tip. I love shopping at Aldi. Total Aldi fanatic over here. I don't know if you have Aldi where you live. We don't. We don't. Okay, we did not have an Aldi until like 2018, where I live. And they claim they will cut your grocery bill in half, and I believe them. But um, yes, they had Roma tomatoes on sale for 99 cents a pound, and I was like, you know, that's maybe not like the best price, but for me to keep working on making sauce, that is worth it to me. And I think anybody can do that, it doesn't matter where you are or what you're growing. The opposite end of the spectrum, I think people should jump in. Like, I see a lot of people say, Oh, don't put too much on your plate at once, don't get overwhelmed, don't bite off more than you can chew. And I disagree with that. I think you know, I have a garden that's way bigger than what somebody should start with, and some of our produce goes to the chickens or goes to the pigs, and I think that's fine because you know what? Most Americans waste food that they grow that they got from the grocery store anyway. So if you're growing something and you're trying, and man, I didn't get all of that preserved and it went to waste, well, that's a learning experience too. So I I all four people just just go for it. I don't, I mean, uh, we didn't know a thing about pigs, and we went and picked up pigs. It was insanity. But um, I think there I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And maybe some people know themselves good enough to say that is not a good idea for me, and that's fine. But I think people, it's exciting to jump into things, it gives a little zest to life.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

How about tips for homesteading with small children?

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Uh know you who your helpers are because I have had great help from family members who have not not like come to take the kids and watch them while I do something, but come and watch the kids in my own house so I can run outside. This was me planting a garden with a newborn this year. My mom and my mother-in-law and my aunt on different days came and literally sat in the house with the baby and the toddler could run in and out and come to the garden with me or stay inside and play while I got stuff planted. And I had a friend who said, if you need any help getting your like getting your garden in or maintaining it, let me know. And finally, one day I was like, Could you bring your kids and come help me weed my garden? Because I need an extra set of hands to hold a baby, and your kids can entertain my toddler, and at least something will be getting done today. And she did, and it was great, and we had great conversations, and the kids ran in and out of the garden, and it was wonderful. So that would be my biggest tip is to know who your helpers are in your stage of life. And secondly, your kids will absorb so much from being with you. There have been so many times where it's not convenient to have our toddler around, but you know what? She learned how to herd the sheep back into their pen because they were out on the driveway for like the third day in a row, and you know, those things, kids are absorbing that. We have like one of the backpack style hiking baby carriers, and that's great. Like, you can take a small child with you and really do a lot of stuff outside in the kitchen as far as canning and preserving. I have lots of activities for my toddler to do. She sat one day and shelled black beans and just loved it. She asked two or three more times that day if she could work on that project, and you can see her little brain just going, working on that. Like she was focused and she wanted to accomplish all of what she was doing. So I think there's a lot of ways to incorporate kids that are totally safe and they are learning. It's it is good for them to be involved.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Um, you mentioned just a couple times in that last answer, just um, about community and not only friendship, but you know, you talked about your your mom and your mother-in-law, and I think you said an aunt. What are your thoughts on just the importance of community specifically for women and the older generations?

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Oh, I think American culture is really, especially women in American culture, is really missing out because we have done away with intergenerational living. I think when you look at other parts of the world, women benefit so much from having older women around, and kids are benefiting from having older generations around. The older generations are benefiting from having relationships with their grandkids or nieces, nephews, great nieces, nephews. I think it's there's so much to learn, but it's it's not even a one-way street of just learning from older people around you. I think there's so much to learn and so much to gain on both sides of living in community.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Is there anything else that you would like to share with us in regards to prepping and preparedness or just homesteading in general? Anything I don't know enough about you to ask that you feel you want to share?

SPEAKER_01 37:38

I think just like your episode that you did on taking back what is yours, I think we live in a time where we're really conditioned to think that things are out of control. And I don't think it has to be that way. And I think prepping and preparedness, homesteading, it really does empower you to have can have a say over what your family goes through on a day-to-day basis, and I think it will shift the culture, like homesteading as a movement will shift the culture to where we don't have to worry about what might be in our food or not knowing what all the ingredients are in our groceries, because educated consumers that know that you can raise food and preserve it in a healthy, safe manner aren't going to go choose to eat those things. That's something on our homestead that I push a lot. Like educating the consumer, like you want to know what your cuts of beef are, or how a cow was raised, or how a pig was raised. I I will tell you, like, whatever you want to know about how how we do things on our farm, because I'm just a firm believer that an educated consumer will always make the better choice. So that's a little passion of mine.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

That is so true. Well, I just want to thank you so much for joining us today and uh sharing your story. And I know, you know, you had to leave your home and go into town to get enough internet and quiet. And um, I just really appreciate your willingness to do that. So thank you so much. You're welcome. I really enjoyed it. And that's it for this episode, listeners. I hope you enjoyed hearing Riley's journey. Oh, wait, before we go, Riley, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

My Instagram is Riley underscore Faust. I am actively working on posting more homesteading content on there. And that's pretty much the main place you can find me right now.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Okay, and I will link that in um the show notes for everybody. So thank you so much for listening. Have a great day. Thanks so much for listening today. And until next time, remember every little thing matters, and a goal without a plan is just a wish. If you have questions, you can find me on Instagram at this prepared life. I'd love to connect you over there. You can also find me on the internet at www.thispreparedlife.com. And if you enjoyed today's podcast, I would love it if you would leave me a review on Apple Podcasts.