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Welcome. Welcome. Well, welcome, everybody. We're starting out. Show in unusual ways is unusual. It's strange. It's a little different We've never started. The show was just a welcome A software woke. It's different. But Spicer's still here. Something's unusual going on. What? What could do we like Strange. We like different. Yes, the unconventional can offer new opportunities. So, yeah. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the little show. The smallest least listened to suggest it is recorded in our car just destroys our usual opening, in fact, because through you see well, only that bastard that recorded in our car. Okay, welcome to the show. Today we're gonna talk about something, someone unusual, unconventional, something that's just not spoken of very much, especially in proper world, where it's kind of Ah, frankly, it's kind of a quick as a lot of people hold. The similar kinds of ideas come from vaguely similar kinds of backgrounds. I have somewhat similar sets of skill sets and attitudes, and resource is very, um, very, very closed world in many cases. Now, one of the things that we have set as one of our prime objectives that three b y is to be inclusive way. Try to be inclusive. We want to be inclusive across the board and one of the things we do as being inclusive. As we look around and we see what people are doing, we see who's living the lifestyle and who isn't, who's making things, growing things. And, frankly, who isn't good news knows how to get things done without the usual apparatus of society to help get it done in what we're seeing with our eyes in our neighborhood, in our part of North Missouri, Southern Iowa, because we're up near the border is a bunch of really different and unusual groups of people who anybody in their right mind would want with them. If the world as we know it fell apart because they know how to do stuff without all the fancy stuff that we have, they're already living the life. Now it's not going to surprise you that one of the first groups that comes to mind to us is the Amish because, well, I've been, to a lesser extent, midnight into a lesser extent, the minutes, although they're much more. They used tractors and things, but they still know how to do a whole lot of things. And there's a lot of very capable people. Yeah, they can make things by hand. The Amish basically live like our ancestors did in the 18 hundreds. My choice, they are. You know, except on Friday nights, when the Amish courting couples will take the horse and buggy out and meet at a predetermined place with the non Amish couples in their car and they'll switch rides for the rest of the evening. Not that doesn't, actually, is there, uh, ride of the other one? Right in the farm boys from the outside community, they know how to drive a buggy. They're not gonna tear the horse and buggy up. The Amish people know how to drive a car, and I'm not going

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to say it's gonna tear that car. I've seen a

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few of those. Well, sort of the other teenagers Tosto stuff now, Seriously, you know, the whole we're not gonna use is not a show on the Amish, per se, but the Rumspringa thing is a really deal, and it can get pretty crazy. Let me tell you, we have some, uh that's when the late 18 0 yeah. The Amish go out into the English, as they say world for a while, decide whether whether their commitment lies with the Amish community or whether they wish to break with the Amish community and joined the larger society. They are supposed to make a free choice once they reach the age of consent. And in the course of that, that means they live outside the Amish bounds for a while, and it can get wild because their late teens and their living outside their rules for the first time ever. Yeah, And I'll tell you, you know, you're gonna We're about to see our friends, the cow we're driving through De Moines. In case you're wondering if you have a jackal, The Anderson Harrison have a giant cow, and a giant calf is Anderson Erickson. If you're in Iowa, by the way, have to remember to do that on the way home by their old fashion cottage. She's it is to die for if you like, cut us, she's and we can't get it at home anymore. Anderson Ericksen, old fashioned kind of. She's do not sponsor the show, but we like him anyway, and they have. These were drive past the dairy right now. They have these giant cows we're going to see in about 30 seconds or 20 seconds. So this is This is a big moment for us. Well, you'll hear they're still there. Talent gap. So you take a picture, gave me pause This. Now here's here's one of things. I know that you don't know. Well, you may know, but I know that I know it. Those cows are plastic, those big Anderson, your cows or plastic, But ah lot. And I mean ah lot of the milk that was milked for that Gary right back there comes off of Amish and midnight forms, mostly men. Tonight there's only a few Amish because they do have to. There's You do have to allow for a mechanic, eyes milking and stuff like that, but a few of them do because they're there. If it's part of their business, they are allowed, and some of them some of them, are low, More modern others, But a lot of Mennonites are dairy farmers, and the thing is, they know how to milk their cows with or without those machines. They know how to raise the cows with or without machines they often make their own cheese. Oh, yeah. Lots of good. Lots of your Oh, my goodness. Goodness, mate. Yeah, and they almost all have enormous gardens. Humongous roadside stands. But whether they do or don't, pretty much every household has an enormous garden. Salt ease rule. Here's a salty is rule. You ready for it? Don't buy goods from the Amish. Bye from where the Amish get their ingredients. Go to the place that they get their stuff from to turn around and make into the goods and sell to you. Because so much of the stuff that we get available to us in the normal normal stores they get his ingredients at their own supply system. Sold in bulk for very much cheaper. Lots of good kinds of equipment for doing things in unpowered ways. Lots of people who know how to do a lot of things. And they also tend to have a lot of little information booklets around in those. Yeah, they got amazing book how to milk a cow. You could buy a booklet out. It was not a chicken kid. Sure. You know, you're like, Oh, well, you know, maybe we should looked I could look that up on the Internet. What do I need? A book? Well, what happens is the Internet isn't working, and we're driving. Those people on the Internet haven't actually tried this stuff to Wells Fargo Green, a home of the Iowa wild hockey team. Go while while we're being out. While wild fans were not really big Minnesota while fans. But we're big Iowa wild fans go, I'll do anything. We've seen this part of town before pressing our luck. One of the things I've noticed is that I have actually gotten a lot of ah, good food garden tips from a Mennonite woman who comes to the farmer's market in my little town. She's very, very nice lady, very friendly, very nice, good family, good family, good people. Now I will tell you that these these groups and you know we don't do religion. But I will tell you that this is just This is the truth, These groups that we're talking about the Amish in the minute. They tend to deal with other people of their faith when they can't so and this is fine. You know, this is good because they know who's who are trustworthy, and they know or not, because so they're good people in every community, and they're bad people in every community, and they know they are. There are fewer bad people in communities where there's community pressure. The helps keep people toeing the line. Whether or not their natural inclinations would have them be quite that honest, right? That's how it is if you are nestled firmly in a community and your reputation in that community is an important to your business. You've got a lot more motivation to deal honestly and and gently with people, which makes them really great business people for everybody else to work with. Two. Because you know, that's that's how they do business. We bought our cabin from, uh, brought it from the company's owned and run by Mennonites, knew this going in, and we needed some information maybe, Ah, small carpentry job that we were looking at getting done. So I called the cabin builder, and I said, Hey, you know who would you recommend to do this? Is there anybody you go to church with? That you would hire to do this? If it were, you were hiring it for your own and he's like, Well, there are several carpenters, but the one I would recommend would be Bill. So I called a friend of mine up there who's also a midnight, and I asked him the same thing. I said, Hey, you know, we're looking for Is there anybody you is? All. Yeah, we have several. But the guy you really want is Boom, and it's the same guy Everybody knows. Everybody knows, and they're gonna recommend the best guy. Why? Because it's kind of on them. If they don't now, it's tied up with their reputation. That's right. They're putting their reputation out for you're and you may think this is like whatever, because, you know, frankly, city people are difference in country people, but

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this is a real deal in

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in a country. If you're in Princeton, Missouri, say, for example, you mess somebody over every gun. Everybody knows everybody else. You're gonna lose business, period. End of discussion. You can't do it and get away with it. You can't do it once and get away with it. It's not that they are probably inherently more honest. It's that they have better reasons to deal honestly with people. While true. I will tell you their Children are inherently better behaved than normal s a normal but non Mennonite and Amish Children. Well, that's true, but I don't believe it's because their genetics or different Oh, no. Oh, no. It's just not at all culture. They're raised in. That's the culture. There were up to our expectations in a lot of ways, and these guys know how to do a lot. And if you treat him like riel, people, not zoo exhibits have been embarrassed at the way I've seen. Some people treat Mennonite and Amish people that come into contact with when they don't do so often. You treat him like your neighbors. They make very good neighbors, and you can learn a lot from them. I've learned a lot from him. Just you know, I'd buy some stuff from the woman at the Farmers market, and she knows I have a garden myself, and I asked her about how to do things, get tips. She's happy to help, absolutely, and the stuff that she brings is good and fresh, and she'll tell you if it's not up to her normal standards, so price it accordingly and say Ask Yeah, it's gonna have. It's not as good as I would normally have to see you, though. Yep. The canning tomatoes come in a different price than the table tomatoes. All right, you know. Okay, So those

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those with communities that Wait a minute, wait a minute. There's more before. But wait, there's a weird for your 19. No way.

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It's free. You also get now. I don't know how it is in other parts of the country. Northern Missouri adjusted. More diverse than you would expect. Frantically, it really is. We have some of the way have Amish multiple groups of Amish. You were come follow kind of different different organizations. We got a man tonight. We have a lot of Mennonites. Almost most of them are the same. You know, basically what happened is this. This was a generation of people who moved out of Pennsylvania because Mennonites tend to have a really big families, and land only goes so far all the lane in their area, Pennsylvania was full. So as a group, they started looking as a church has a particular church group. They started looking throughout north Missouri, where the lane was readily available and fit their needs. So just pick a name just that ran on. Mr. Horst came out to Missouri and count to Missouri 50 years ago. And Mr Horst had six sons and this six sons, three of them went into farming and one of them went into auto repair. One of them started a feed mill and one of them started a a tractor repair company. This is just example. I'm all right now. Those were anywhere from 20 to 30 years ago. Now they each had six cents. This is not an exaggeration, by the way. I know one man in the county I live, who has 13 sons and six daughters. Yeah, I'm not even joking. So what I'm saying is all of these it's kind of hard to explain. All of all of these people spread out and start filling Maur and Maur off the niches of the economy. But they keep the same sense of dealing honestly. And they keep the old ways they still so their clothing themselves, they built their own community. Basically, they build their own houses. They know their their their own electrician's. They're their own. Plumbers are plumbers, a Mennonite and he's related to the guy who fixed the deer hit on my car. It's his brother and you know, it's just This is our at least second cousins with the woman who get the vegetables from that is she is their aunt. I would work it back because she is Raymond Seniors, sister. Okay, You know, it's a small community, but on the other end of the scale,

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But on the other end of the

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scale, we also have tree huggers, hippies, commune dwellers, intentional living green activists living in their own communities, which are not communes, by the way. They're just Some of them aren't, you know? Yeah, we have communes. And then we have intentional living communities that are set up to run along sustainable agricultural ones. Okay. And are nevertheless not the least bit Communistic. We do

spk_1:   17:20
not do politics on three b y. And we make no judgments about people because of their political beliefs. Yeah, I was a description. Not okay, but I have to throw a caveat in here. This is why we don't do this because we believe that people who are extremely conservative religiously and you don't get much more conservative than Mennonites. These were very, very Christian, God fearing people, they build their entire lives around their church. Okay, They're living right next door to some of the most left wing liberal. The word is hippie. Okay? They're not 18 sixties hippies, but their money. They're people who are building houses out of straw because they don't want to be apart of the global warming, just doing what they feel they can to combat things like global warming and pollution and resource depletion and overpopulation and Dave overpopulation instead of having 19 Children e chiming, you know. So they have very different political beliefs, and they're both good sets of neighbors. They are, they're great. And they both know Harrow do things that most of us don't know how to do because they do it by hand and modeling that. But because both are inclusive, you can walk in the Mennonites grocery store and find fresh tofu and said to prospects essential oils, the whole shebang because they live in the same community and they cross pollinate, apparently comfortably, absolutely, that get along. They like each other. And the reason they do this is because they see each other strengths and they don't concentrate on the differences, and neither side is trying to jerk the other side around. They're both attempting to deal fairly with the other side, and they're just trying to live their lives. Now there are some some. There are some limitations. For example, it's common to go to a midnight business and see a sign. Ladies, when you enter, please dress modestly. They don't want people walking in and be keys and halter times because it's not. They don't want that in their store, and that's fair. That's fine, because it's a private business. That's fine. Please dress miles, you walk. You're not talking about long skirts, either. They don't give you a hairy eyeball if you walk in and a T shirt and a normal pair of shorts. But I wouldn't walk in there and hot pants or a bikini, either. No, please. Dressed modestly, and I think that's fair and, you know it may sound seconds. Um, why? They just said the late Well, guys don't trust anyone. Guys don't. They just don't trust that way and go into a store. But I wouldn't be surprised if some of the intentional living colonies around here were at least partially nudist. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. I know for a fact I don't hang around with him in the evening when they're not working. Working in the nude, by the way, is not really very much fun. When you're out gardening and stuff like that, a CZ much poison ivy is we got the area, you know, you know that. That's a matter of practicality. You know, I don't hang out with him socially a lot, so I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. I really don't care. I want to do some some interviews and some talk. Okay, you're gonna hear a lot more roid noise here because we're driving between Des Moines. Omaha on this road is horrible for oh, noise. It's got wine. It's just strange service. It's been this way since they put it in 20 years ago. It's better that way. It's ruled war down. Um, I'm hoping to get onto the show and get some interviews done with some of the intentional community people in our area because it's really fascinating. Some of the stuff and again there are There are is politically out there as anybody and more so than most. But it doesn't matter, because what for? For what we're talking about, because they know how to do the things that is we need to do. You want to know how to produce suit without artificial chemical inputs or makes us make housing that you can make without a Lowe's department store or actually make useful remedies out of these herbal plants, that everybody's happy to point out our natural remedies? Well, knowing a plant's natural remedy didn't get you to actually using it properly or finding it out there t use and getting the right stuff. They're good at all that stuff. They're gonna get a lot of things. So they're good people to know and to deal with. And they are usually very happy to teach as well, because that's part of what they do. They want to. They want to encourage people to be more self sufficient. You know, there's times when I look a part of the propping community and I just want to ask, what's your goal? Here is your goal to make you feel satisfied inside that you are politically and whatever else superior, where is your goal to actually learn how to prosper no matter what the economic situation is, no matter what the weather situation is, no matter what the pandemic situation is, what's your goal? It's a very natural human drive to be comfortable around, people who are like you and therefore to seek out people who are like you and to think that their views are better than everybody else's views. It's a very natural human trade. But what we're trying to do here is just point out that there are some places that are outside the traditional, proper community that have a lot of the resource is and knowledge that are valuable to preppers. Open your commute lines of communication with him. You can learn a lot and they're valuable neighbors. Do you know how to dig a Well, not just Anybody can take a hole in the ground and get water out of. But do you know I don't do well? One that will actually draw fresh water that's good to drink on Our part of the country is not very good because we don't have good ground water, but a lot of most of country does. Do you know how to build a clay stove so that you can bake a clay oven so you could bake your food and have it actually draw. Smoke goes out the top, the air comes in the bottom and it breathes. Do you know how to do it? Well, these people do because they got one in their front room because they made it themselves. Do you know howto build a shelter out of non typical materials? Can you take Ah, big clay bank, which we have tons off and several 100 bales of straw and end up with a house worth living in? Can you do that? People can warn Knox a candle over and that won't be turned into a rat infested, um, mess mold home. You know, back in the day, a lot of people didn't know how to insulate with straw and what you ended up with. Warehouses that were insulated with straw that were just nothing more than giant mouse houses group in ones. There you go. There's the right way to do it. Do you know that way? I don't know that way, but these people do. Do you know how to keep cool in the summer without electricity? They'll be happy to show you because they'd rather have you do that using the electricity. So Oh, there. There's one more group for specialized kinds of skills. The re enactors, the reenactors. I think we are. Just as we've got all this stuff we got all the people we have the communes. We have the intention of living communities. We got the Mennonites, we got the Amish. You know, we'll have the Vikings. The Vikings can buy enough. We have in North Missouri, the only Viking long fort. You know nothing. And it's awesome. And it's cool. And I'm gonna tell you, if you were in a chat walkie situation, that's where you'd want to be. Yes, I got it. It's a four. Yeah, it is an actual workable, for they have never been attacked by anything in my knowledge. But it was workable for those sheep. Look a little sketchy. Yeah, they've got a long port with a working. Ah, he didn't heating and Cooking Wharf. They've got a clase firing pit. They have a bunch of people who know how to do a whole lot of Viking craft because that's part of the reenactment deal. Yeah, they, uh they put on the armor

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and get the swords and the axes and things and the wooden shields and go

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whack on each other in non fatal ways for fun and entertainment. But they also will spend their mornings sitting around chatting with each other. And some people are firing Cem Cem clay pots they made yesterday. And other people are sewing together really good pairs of boots, spending nothing but straight up leather spitting roll. Yeah, the old fashioned way looming, going all the way from sheep to looming final product and embroidery work. And and while I was meeting with their weapons, the whole you name it the whole entire in the re enactors. But they know how to do it. They live in the camp that have the traditional everything they don't do this year round. But it's a community of interested persons who gathers couple times a year, and these guys, they meet for a full weekend twice a year. They probably do some other stuff to you that I don't know about it. I'm not a member, but they meet for a full weekend every year and one of those days they open to the public where they let you wander around, watch him do their crafts and talk to him about what they're doing and stuff like that. And then they do some weapons. Demolition. Then they put on their armor. Their handmade. They know how to make hand, make armor. Okay. They put on their armor and they get out. They're sort of these aren't just play swords either, Riel. Actual Viking steel swords. Blunt the tips. They don't kill each other. But other than that, quality and build our traditional, I'd never forget. It was last time we were out there watching him. They were doing one battle line against another battle line. Some of these guys have big, long spears Now the spirit is wanted. Also, use a 68 £10 spear, whatever it is. And they're walking towards you, General. So this guy launches the spear. It throws the spirit of wham slams. It slams into the the shield on the holy cow. That could hurt somebody. That guy staggered back pretty good too. Who took the field? Holy holy moly. And were they okay? The S E a. People's society for creative anachronism hit each other on the heads with sticks. The Vikings hit each other on the head with steel swords. It's impressive. And okay, we got Vikings, all right? And they don't know how to do things that they know how to do things. We have a base camp in our area of mountain men. They come and they spend an entire weekend, one weekend a month. L weather 24 12 months a year in there, completely natural camps. No, The only thing that is non standard and they frown on it is eyeglasses. Other than that, it's authentic down to it. I mean, people who are who have ever been in the route of the world of like, Civil War re enactors know the phrase. He's a stitch counter. He's the kind of guy who's going to say, OK, yeah, that's not the right number of stitches in that particular in the period. Authentically, they didn't, you know, make the stitches that goes together, right? Call Mr Well, these folks that I'm talking about, the amount mint, they're stitched counters, every single one of them and they put their kids together and they live the lifestyle they live the lifestyle of. They literally hunt with their mountain men guns in season only in season. Um, where it's legal. And I know several of these people, and they're legit. These the kind of people you want to have around disease is the kind of people that make their own gunpowder. Can you make gunpowder? I can't make gunpowder. Zey know how I know, But have you ever actually made it? Only in small quantities? And I'll deny that if you ever my chemistry professors from the past ever ask today Go poof e, They might have gone proof it might have happened. Yeah, OK, but they know how to make gunpowder with readily available materials. So, you know, how do two turn pelts into clothing? The whole process of animal independents, which is harder and a dead animal in the pelts. Not everybody knows this stuff. These air, the kind of people that you don't think about prepping wise but of the kind of people Maybe you want to know Civil War re enactors. They have a lot of gear. They know how to do it. They know how what it takes to, you know, not as impressive, not disrupting point of view because they're not as into the yeah, big day living sport. They were more civil war worm or provided for then say the Vikings who had to just steal everything. They and the Vikings are basically the place that we're in. If you're in the long Ford and long for area, you're either totally nodding garb, which is fine if you're a civilian and you're working or urine garb. And if you're in garb again, eyeglasses are the only exception. And if you show up with a helmet that has horns on it and you're over the age of four, so help you Oh, they will mock you. They won't let you into seriously. They will not let

spk_0:   33:40
you in if you show up with the help of horns on it. But they did enjoy my Viking T shirt. So yeah, there's that I wasn't pretending to be liking. Okay, Have you wrapped it? That's the best of them. Yeah. There are other groups in other areas like Thea Ah, wind sailors in places with large bodies of water.

spk_1:   34:06
Yeah, you need to You go out and fish and you don't have. If you can't get gas motor to run, you better need you know, sailboats sailors appear in Iowa. You've got the old pressures. Steam power. Oh, yeah? Yeah. You want to talk about the MP proof machinery there? Ugo got some steam power going on. We could work with them. We live in our places in coal country. Yeah, we could, uh, so, yeah, there are a variety of people who are historically interested in some of that. Not They don't always know how to do useful things, but some of them do. And some of them also know some things about community models that work in the kinds of situations where you have much less connected much more internally self reliant communities. I'm also recording from time to think outside the old box. Besides, they're interesting people. Besides, they're darn interesting people. And who knows? You could learn from that stuff. So think outside the box, people and, um, don't wear a horned helmet. You know where l'm going along for? All right, We'll talk to later, but