226 Readiness Trumps Resolutions - Setting Realistic Goals for 2026

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So, Tonight, Let’s talk about goals for 2026. Every New Year's day, historically, we all get a sense of renewal. Wind in our sales, so to speak. Excitement for the year to come. We close the door to last year, but not before Last Year puts its big’ol foot in the door and whispers… “Not so fast. 

Ya see, we all hope for this grand change to happen when the clock turns over at midnight. That’s why we have New Year’s Eve parties, and fireworks, and The Ball Drop at Times Square in NYC.

But if there was no party… no sparkles… no ball.

Would we even know there was a change?  

Years turn over, in the same way that seasons change…
Quietly, and without ceremony. Unimpressed by intentions, or by hope.

2026 will be a year of change. It’s almost a foregone conclusion. The Trump Administration, whether you like it or not… has seen to that.

The question is… what changed for you at 12:01am on January the 1st…? My guess is, very little.

At 12:01am on January 1st…

Out there, farm fields and gardens rest beneath cold soil.
Pantries… hold what they hold.
Our hands remember only the work they’ve done before.

Those of us who prepare live closer to this truth.
We read the land, the weather, the cracks in the system.
We know how thin the line can be between order and chaos.

This coming year calls for intention and planning..
It calls for steady hands and minds that will shape reality into a path forward.

Maybe less noise, more focus. Instead of a dramatic entrance, maybe a strategic retreat.

Tonight, we talk about what must be strengthened.
We do that by setting goals…

Reasonable. Realistic. Achievable… Goals

Every goal is as unique as the Prepper who sets it.

We’ll tell you some of our goals, in hopes that it helps you start working on yours.

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Transcript

Preppers, Survivalists, Off-Gridders, Homesteaders, and the Like, welcome to Tops Bunker, a Podcast for Preppers.

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Also, please VISIT and JOIN - Tops Bunker Facebook Group. You’ll Love the interaction with other Preppers and Like-Minded Folks.

I want to thank you all for joining us…

We've got a great show for ya.

Let’s talk about goals for 2026. Every New Year's day, historically, we all get a sense of renewal. Wind in our sales, so to speak. Excitement for the year to come. We close the door to last year, but not before Last Year puts its big’ol foot in the door and whispers… “Not so fast… 

Ya see, we all hope for this grand change to happen when the clock turns over at midnight. That’s why we have New Year’s Eve parties, and fireworks, and The Ball Drop at Times Square in NYC.

But if there was no party… no sparkles… no ball.

Would we even know there was a change?  

Years turn over, in the same way that seasons change…
Quietly, and without ceremony. Unimpressed by intentions, or by hope.

2026 will be a year of change. It’s almost a foregone conclusion. The Trump Administration, whether you like it or not… has seen to that.

The question is… what changed for you at 12:01am on January the 1st…? My guess is, very little.

At 12:01am on January 1st…

Out there, farm fields and gardens rest beneath cold soil.
Pantries… hold what they hold.
Our hands remember only the work they’ve done before.

Those of us who prepare live closer to this truth.
We read the land, the weather, the cracks in the system.
We know how thin the line can be between order and chaos.

This coming year calls for intention and planning..
It calls for steady hands and minds that will shape reality into a path forward.

Maybe less noise, more focus. Instead of a dramatic entrance, maybe a strategic retreat.

Tonight, we talk about what must be strengthened.
We do that by setting goals…

Reasonable. Realistic. Achievable… Goals

Every goal is as unique as the Prepper who sets it.

We’ll tell you some of our goals, in hopes that it helps you start working on yours.

So, let’s get to it.

Jeremy
Wouldn't that be weird? Would they be like a crazy message?

00:00:18.44
Buddy
No, it was Yeah, it was true.

00:00:20.47
Jeremy
You remember?

00:00:20.98
Buddy
then

00:00:22.20
Keith
Be like... xnha zhurop zn ji jajuju

00:00:24.60
Jeremy
Yeah. Do you remember like in the 70s, 80s, and ninety s they were trying to convince people that if you played like certain like hardcore metal or metal back from back then backwards, it had satanic messages and stuff.

00:00:36.70
Buddy
that was true

00:00:38.20
Jeremy
Oh, was it?

00:00:39.38
Buddy
yeah i was sure

00:00:39.45
Jeremy
i If I ever played Megadeth backwards, I would be like, what in the hell is going on here? I don't understand this. It sounds like Swahili. Yeah.

00:00:48.89
Keith
I know that they were experimenting with stuff like that. I don't know it was an actual music, but if if that was true, but you heard these people that do the, the backwards speech thing.

00:00:59.26
Keith
It is freaky, man.

00:01:00.65
Buddy
Oh, like pig Latin.

00:01:02.26
Keith
No, no, no, no, no. It's these people that that you can take somebody's recorded voice and, you know, so a speech, let's say, like so let's let's say Trump does speech, take it recorded, then you play it backwards. And the true meaning of what they're feeling in their brain, those, those inner words sometimes come out in the reversed playback. And I thought it was complete and total bullshit. And it probably is. I don't know, but it's,

00:01:29.76
Keith
freaky how often you hear stuff. Like, like I might say, I love to eat chicken sandwiches. They're just like my favorite thing in the world to eat. And backwards, it'll be like, hate chicken, chicken, chicken, hate. And it's like, it's like weird, man. It's like, it's very strange.

00:01:46.07
Keith
Yeah. ah you gotta I'm telling you guys, go go to YouTube and look it up.

00:01:48.43
Buddy
We got to try that, man.

00:01:51.16
Keith
There are hundreds and hundreds of videos. And there are theyre like people that have had whole careers doing this, where they've gone around and and done this with different you know different people. It's crazy.

00:02:02.21
Jeremy
That's interesting.

00:02:02.20
Keith
Serious.

00:02:04.15
Jeremy
very That's very interesting.

00:02:04.20
Keith
Mm-hmm.

00:02:06.71
Jeremy
um it Yeah. I don't know. um I think if anybody told me in backwards that they hate chicken, I would go ahead and just assume that they were a communist and start shooting.

00:02:19.93
Keith
I agree.

00:02:19.96
Buddy
yeah

00:02:20.16
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:02:22.33
Keith
i do agree.

00:02:22.71
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:24.92
Keith
So what are the rules about um other, what if if you find livestock on your property that's not yours, do you get to keep it.

00:02:35.34
Buddy
that's per state but oklahoma has a very interesting one yeah yeah uh it i would look it up per state but like in oklahoma if if it's on there like

00:02:37.42
Keith
Oh, is it? Oh, Really?

00:02:47.67
Buddy
I don't know the exact timeframe, but there's a timeframe less than 30 days, I believe. Shit, I can look it up real quick. but

00:02:53.53
Keith
where where like we like it but it becomes their new home or something.

00:02:56.81
Buddy
Oh, yeah. if it's if it's If it's on your land and it's been there and they don't come get it, it's yours. So, for instance, I know a guy who has a whole herd now that he actually got into the cow business because his neighbor,

00:03:14.22
Buddy
won't fix the fence, you know, he'll go out and fix it, but i guess he's had bulls that come in and and do whatever. But every time he calls him, he goes, eh, it's yours now. You can have them.

00:03:24.06
Keith
No shit. Wow.

00:03:25.50
Buddy
So he actually has two, he just got two longhorns out of the deal. So um they, they, the guy bought some longhorns to start a longhorn herd.

00:03:30.42
Keith
Nice. Wow.

00:03:35.65
Buddy
Cause that's the bougie thing to do. And so, yeah, he's got two longhorns now.

00:03:42.23
Keith
They are cool ah beasts, those Longhorn.

00:03:45.86
Buddy
Man, they are.

00:03:46.42
Keith
They are so cool looking.

00:03:46.62
Buddy
They're they're they're massive.

00:03:48.15
Jeremy
Well, the the the longhorns that you see now um versus if you went back,

00:04:00.12
Keith
Are you going to kill my love for for Longhorns, man?

00:04:00.31
Jeremy
say, No, no, no, no, no.

00:04:02.52
Keith
You're about to do that shit, aren't you?

00:04:04.38
Jeremy
no the The, the, the, the, the longhorns that you see now are descendants of an extinct, the original extinct, um, longhorn, the longhorn cow itself actually went extinct quite a while back.

00:04:21.88
Jeremy
Um,

00:04:23.10
Keith
Oh, you're talking about gigantic, massive, like, they had their horns were like 25 feet across or whatever?

00:04:28.89
Jeremy
Well, I don't know about that, you know, that, uh, big, but, um, they, the ones that you see now, while they are huge and they do have a very large set of horns, um, what they used to be is, you know, ill completely, not completely, but very, very different. That's, that's the the whole thing.

00:04:50.23
Jeremy
So it's like a, a diluted strand, um, from what,

00:04:55.00
Buddy
Yeah, not. They're not. I don't know a little bit about that. It's not. They're not. They weren't as big as bison, but yet almost, you know what I mean?

00:05:02.83
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:05:03.89
Buddy
They and.

00:05:04.22
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:05:05.98
Keith
So they're smaller than they used to be?

00:05:08.52
Buddy
Yeah.

00:05:08.70
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:05:09.06
Keith
They're smaller now than they used to be.

00:05:09.54
Jeremy
Significantly. Even if you go back to some of the pictures, like say a hundred years ago, some of the ones from back then are enormous as compared to what you see now.

00:05:19.10
Keith
Have you seen that those those giant ah cows? i don't know what they're called. They're they're real, like right now. There's a video of people are having and There's a guy who like you know raises them. um They're bigger than a garage. They're massive.

00:05:33.02
Keith
I mean, have you seen these things?

00:05:35.58
Jeremy
I believe.

00:05:35.86
Keith
What are they called? They're called something. I'm going to look it up. I really am. Let me see here. Let's see. Giant. Cow.

00:05:46.36
Keith
that's That's exactly how fast I type.

00:05:47.47
Buddy
You talking Brahmas?

00:05:49.02
Keith
Brahmas. That's it. Brahmas.

00:05:50.14
Buddy
Yeah.

00:05:50.36
Jeremy
Oh, yeah.

00:05:50.58
Buddy
Yeah.

00:05:51.00
Jeremy
Brahma bulls. Yeah.

00:05:52.50
Buddy
Yeah.

00:05:52.58
Keith
They're massive, man.

00:05:52.70
Buddy
well

00:05:52.74
Jeremy
Dude, those things look like they work out all the time.

00:05:54.55
Buddy
As a kid.

00:05:58.29
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:05:59.16
Buddy
Yeah, we we raised we were east Angus as a kid, and I always wanted a Brahma.

00:05:59.22
Keith
They, I mean, if I, go ahead.

00:06:04.01
Buddy
I was like, Grandpa, buy a Brahma, buy a Brahma. And he's like, no, they're crazy.

00:06:08.48
Keith
They're like, I mean, I'm legitimately like three times larger, larger than and of the biggest cows out there.

00:06:08.54
Buddy
Yeah,

00:06:14.30
Buddy
yeah they're huge. Now the bulls, the bulls are, ah I mean, yeah, you can, but the bulls were kind of cool looking, but the cows, they don't look as, they're not as big and they kind of, they don't feel out as much.

00:06:16.60
Keith
And are they for meat?

00:06:30.78
Buddy
So they're not as impressive looking, but

00:06:33.82
Keith
Oh, it's the bulls that are really, I mean, the other ones are big too, but the bull, I mean, that thing can't, that bull can't ride a regular cow.

00:06:36.19
Buddy
yeah.

00:06:40.66
Keith
If you know what i'm talking about.

00:06:40.98
Buddy
Yeah.

00:06:41.62
Keith
I mean, that's not, that's, you know, you're, you're, you're getting into like, uh,

00:06:44.25
Buddy
Well,

00:06:47.45
Keith
you know porn movies, you know, type of, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying to say this without saying it properly, but, uh, BBC or something.

00:06:49.43
Jeremy
a Giggity, giggity, giggity.

00:06:57.53
Buddy
They used to raise them.

00:06:59.30
Keith
I mean, i don't know. I'm just saying, but

00:07:02.84
Buddy
They used to be really popular for the NFR, the people who raised the buck and bulls. They would, a lot of Brahmas were, I think, might have been 70s, 80s.

00:07:12.81
Buddy
When I was a kid, I was just infatuated with them.

00:07:14.78
Keith
they rode those things.

00:07:14.89
Buddy
you know Yeah, there's still there's still some out there.

00:07:18.17
Keith
Damn.

00:07:19.64
Buddy
And they cross them a little bit too. So um'm I'm kind of not, you know, I've been away from the the cattle game for a while.

00:07:22.97
Keith
Wow.

00:07:28.47
Buddy
So I don't have the latest and greatest on it, but I just go on memory.

00:07:34.30
Keith
Well, the, the, the reason why I'm asking is because I've got a small herd of sheep that keep coming through my property. Now they, they've been missing for a while. Did I mention that to on a different show or if I did.

00:07:47.99
Buddy
I don't know.

00:07:48.12
Jeremy
I'm not sure.

00:07:49.08
Keith
My neighbor called me and he's like, his fields are like two miles down. And he called me and said, Hey, who's raising sheep up there? I'm like, ah nobody I know. He's like, i got five, five sheep in my property ah right now. and I'm like, no, I have no idea who they were. Then like two weeks later, all of a sudden they come trampling through my property and they're small. They're not like, but you know, they're small, like, like a very, very large dog and super fluffy, uh, four light tan ones and one dark brown one.

00:08:19.06
Keith
And here they come again today, just trotting up through the driveway and then head on into the woods. I'm thinking, well, what if I caught them?

00:08:26.55
Buddy
Wow.

00:08:27.24
Keith
Would it be mine?

00:08:28.63
Buddy
You must not have a coyote problem.

00:08:32.05
Keith
I hear the coyotes at night, but I mean, i don't ever see any, we we don't have a, what's, which's ah Like rabbits, you can't find rabbits around here.

00:08:44.82
Keith
So I think the coyotes are eating them all because, you know, and in in the city, you got rabbits, you know, walking around down the block.

00:08:47.19
Buddy
Is.

00:08:52.02
Keith
They're walking down Main Street. Out here, I can't i can't find them.

00:08:53.57
Jeremy
Really?

00:08:55.51
Buddy
Is there a guy walking around with them with a big stick and and like a man dress and and sandals with a beard, maybe?

00:09:01.46
Keith
And i have I have not seen Jesus. No.

00:09:06.14
Keith
No. the He has cometh.

00:09:07.64
Jeremy
and If he didn't have a huffy bike with him. ah

00:09:09.75
Keith
ah second

00:09:10.49
Buddy
Are you picking mushrooms again?

00:09:11.35
Keith
i

00:09:12.28
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:12.34
Keith
second coming Second coming of the the Lord. ah I'm just thinking if I see them again and I catch them, can they be mine?

00:09:15.10
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:15.29
Buddy
no

00:09:19.78
Keith
Because they've been out here running around these woods for about a month now.

00:09:22.68
Buddy
Man, I would just research it and find out what, and i man, I wish I could remember the name of the law.

00:09:27.06
Jeremy
Is your, is your property fenced?

00:09:31.06
Keith
No, none none of the properties are i mean, some of the cattle farms are fenced, but they're fenced for cows. You know i mean, a a sheep, she walk right out under them, you know.

00:09:36.92
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:39.86
Jeremy
And you said it's cattle or it's sheep.

00:09:43.25
Keith
It's sheep. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:44.37
Jeremy
It's sheep.

00:09:45.36
Buddy
It's probably livestock

00:09:45.55
Keith
What I mean, but but

00:09:48.28
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:48.60
Keith
it would be under a livestock. Yeah, some kind of a relative.

00:09:51.13
Jeremy
I would call, i would call the livestock commission. That's what I would do. Maybe you could get the number through your county. um ah

00:09:59.65
Buddy
Extension agent.

00:10:00.60
Jeremy
Yeah. Extension agent be like, Hey, this is my issue. who would I need to contact? And they could probably give you the right info. But if they've wandered onto your property and and are, I assume they're consuming vegetation on your property.

00:10:15.32
Keith
Yeah. I mean, I would imagine they're doing that. ah They're just, I think they're on some sort of a circuit, you know, like a circle of some sort, because it it seems like they're coming through every two weeks. They'll, they'll come through our area, you know?

00:10:26.23
Jeremy
Yeah. They might not be, they might not belong to anyone. if they're If they're coming through on that that regular of a basis, they may have gotten out. So...

00:10:36.98
Buddy
I just can't imagine that. I can't imagine that coyotes hadn't got them already because they're not, you know, they don't run fast.

00:10:43.70
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:10:47.06
Buddy
They're not strong.

00:10:47.35
Keith
No, no, they got small little short legs and yeah.

00:10:47.82
Buddy
They can't defend themselves.

00:10:50.63
Jeremy
They're not very smart either.

00:10:52.60
Buddy
No.

00:10:52.86
Jeremy
No.

00:10:53.24
Buddy
So somebody might, I don't know, man, look at your law.

00:10:53.81
Keith
But.

00:10:57.27
Buddy
and you I mean, might even pin them up for a while and and just see what, if they come through again, see if you can pin them up and, and yeah.

00:10:58.58
Keith
Yeah.

00:11:01.59
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:11:04.50
Jeremy
See if they've got tags. You see if they have tags or see if they have a brand.

00:11:06.33
Buddy
yeah

00:11:09.11
Keith
Oh, first I have to learn how to pin them up.

00:11:09.30
Jeremy
If they.

00:11:11.23
Keith
I mean, how do you catch a sheep? yeah don't know how that works. I guess food.

00:11:14.62
Buddy
Sweet feed.

00:11:15.10
Jeremy
So you could probably and make a game of this. Get you a monster energy just for make sure you got good cardio going. And then literally Rhonda gets on one side and like you got a circle around them and then you get on the other.

00:11:31.64
Jeremy
And they're starting to look both directions like, all right, who am I going to ram? Like, who am I going to go after? And then you literally just bear hug that thing. Just tackle it and bear hug it.

00:11:42.78
Jeremy
Pick it up. Probably going to piss all over you. And then maybe give it a Judy chop or just bring it to an enclosure.

00:11:48.54
Buddy
ah Judy chop.

00:11:52.34
Buddy
Yeah. Go to the feed. Next time you go to the feed store and buy, you know, if you buy your chicken feed or or whatever feed there, just get some, uh, sheep feed, some sweet feed that, uh, and try to buckle up.

00:11:57.75
Jeremy
Oh, yeah.

00:12:01.46
Jeremy
Oh, yeah, yeah, they like the sweet feed.

00:12:03.51
Keith
I had a completely different, I had a completely different view of it.

00:12:05.91
Buddy
Yeah.

00:12:07.66
Keith
i was I was thinking about sitting in a rocking chair with a rifle is more, more, you know, and not, not penning them up, but freezing them up, you know, cold storage.

00:12:11.08
Jeremy
Mm. I like it.

00:12:18.11
Buddy
Um, Well, yeah, or, you know...

00:12:20.61
Jeremy
Oh, you mean, like, just go ahead and take care of them and...

00:12:22.46
Keith
I mean, you can, you can eat one, right?

00:12:24.92
Jeremy
Sheep, yeah.

00:12:25.02
Buddy
Yeah, you can eat them.

00:12:26.14
Keith
Yeah.

00:12:26.23
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:12:26.28
Keith
Yeah.

00:12:26.33
Buddy
But I would rather fatten them up, though, and then eat

00:12:28.95
Jeremy
I would fatten them up, but I would also... If you can keep them, they have more value alive long-term than they do just as meat. But you can eat them, yeah.

00:12:40.57
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:12:40.82
Buddy
them. But, ah I mean, are they all females, males? If you have...

00:12:44.38
Keith
Good question. Yeah.

00:12:46.04
Buddy
If you have the ability, I mean, to start a herd, you know, you got meat on the hoof there.

00:12:50.44
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:12:52.49
Buddy
I mean, it's always going to be out there. So, you know, shit hits the fan.

00:12:55.16
Keith
Mm-hmm.

00:12:56.82
Jeremy
But yeah, the but the wool...

00:12:58.26
Buddy
That's a, yeah, the wool you can sell.

00:12:59.61
Jeremy
the the The shearing of the wool, the shearing of the wool, it's a whole process though, but the shearing of the wool really does bring in a a lot of money.

00:13:02.33
Buddy
yeah

00:13:09.42
Jeremy
It's a lot more people, money than people think it is, but it's a lot more work than most people are willing to do. That's. Hmm.

00:13:15.38
Buddy
My brother, he raises show sheep. So he's, I've learned a little bit from him, but he's not eating them. You know, I'm like, Hey, that looks like a be pretty good eating. He's like, I'm not eating these.

00:13:26.52
Buddy
I make more money on them the other way, you know?

00:13:27.36
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:13:28.52
Buddy
So, um, he rents them out to kids to go to, you know, little Tommy gets, uh, twice a year.

00:13:29.62
Jeremy
yeah

00:13:36.42
Buddy
He gets to go, his parents rent, uh, pays a phenomenal fee. To go out there and and take a sheep he's never seen before to the FAA thing and win money.

00:13:48.79
Buddy
And then he takes it back, you know.

00:13:50.57
Jeremy
Nice.

00:13:51.86
Buddy
So, yeah. It's a racket, but whatever.

00:13:53.46
Jeremy
and Interesting. Yeah. I wouldn't want to be the one who's in charge of like the breeding process. Cause I don't think anybody wants to do that.

00:14:01.98
Buddy
Oh, he loves it.

00:14:04.79
Jeremy
Have you ever seen how they artificially inseminate? Well, of course you've seen it. You were involved with cattle, but, uh, that's not something that I would ever want to do for a living.

00:14:11.28
Buddy
Yeah.

00:14:15.39
Jeremy
That's just not something I would want to be involved with. Yeah.

00:14:19.32
Keith
I seen it on the movie Yellow, the Chibi show Yellowstone.

00:14:22.07
Jeremy
o Yeah, well, ah my brother-in-law and his wife are involved with cattle, and I've seen the birthing process, and it involved ah

00:14:25.58
Buddy
Oh, man.

00:14:31.81
Keith
Oh.

00:14:34.30
Jeremy
a small woman's arm, shoulder deep, and a cow. And I was like, hmm, that's not my industry. That's...

00:14:44.55
Buddy
A story for another time, but...

00:14:47.93
Jeremy
And what are we doing today?

00:14:48.28
Buddy
i

00:14:49.41
Jeremy
yeah

00:14:49.88
Buddy
ah Yeah, a story for another time. My brother or my dad will tell us. We used to tell a story about how he was in high school. He worked for a guy that raised racing horses.

00:15:00.79
Buddy
And I'll if we ever get on that subject again or you remind me and I'll tell you the story. But holy crap.

00:15:07.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:15:08.48
Keith
I've seen it a million times on the incredible Dr. Poe. Great show.

00:15:11.29
Buddy
Yeah.

00:15:12.34
Keith
ah Lots of births that have gone wrong and they've had to like put clamps in there and all kinds of stuff to pull those animals out. It's nasty looking.

00:15:22.50
Jeremy
Mm-mm-mm.

00:15:22.57
Buddy
Yeah. Yeah, we, yeah.

00:15:24.66
Keith
So the thing is, I, all of my, ah all of my livestock. And I use the quotes when I say that I have wings, they're all winged creatures from bees to, to, you know, chickens to turkeys.

00:15:35.92
Keith
But if I was to start doing, you four legged, uh, livestock as well, uh, then we're talking, you know, then we're talking fences, you know, and structures. It's, there's a lot more money into that.

00:15:46.10
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:15:47.26
Keith
So, you it's a whole nother thing.

00:15:48.15
Jeremy
Yeah. yeah and

00:15:49.75
Buddy
But you always have you always have meat there, and a lot of people, you know, that's their that's their plan. They do goats and they do, you know, goats and sheep.

00:16:02.36
Buddy
You know, they'll eat they'll eat the sheep. You know, it's it's not a bad protein source. And then you have the goats for the milk, and they can do, you know, butter and the things with the milk, so.

00:16:15.06
Keith
Well, sheep are this i mean i'mm sounding ignorant here but sheep are the same as lamb, right? yeah lamb is expensive

00:16:20.70
Jeremy
A lamb. I ah thought lamb was a young sheep. Or am I wrong on that?

00:16:24.34
Buddy
Well, yeah, it's like it's like venison, you know?

00:16:26.30
Jeremy
Or no, that's a U. Is it U? Hugh? U? I think that's how you pronounce it.

00:16:29.78
Buddy
You is somebody that is a derogatory term in Pennsylvania.

00:16:34.76
Jeremy
What?

00:16:35.58
Buddy
Like a Ewan's in you. I'm kidding.

00:16:37.56
Jeremy
Oh, the Utes, huh?

00:16:39.51
Buddy
You just get out of here!

00:16:39.66
Jeremy
used two Utes.

00:16:41.28
Jeremy
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

00:16:42.94
Buddy
I never heard U-ins and Utes and all that stuff before until I got up to you know New York and Pennsylvania area. and I'm like, what?

00:16:49.14
Keith
Ewins.

00:16:49.26
Buddy
What's a Ute?

00:16:49.31
Keith
ens

00:16:50.38
Buddy
Are you talking about sheep? What are you talking about?

00:16:52.69
Jeremy
Huh.

00:16:53.40
Buddy
You dumb redneck.

00:16:53.78
Jeremy
Interesting.

00:16:54.58
Buddy
ah

00:16:55.00
Jeremy
A light. Yeah. Lamb is a young sheep.

00:16:57.88
Buddy
Yeah.

00:16:58.64
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:16:59.50
Buddy
Twinkle, twinkle. No, that's another nursery rhyme.

00:17:01.14
Jeremy
Now meat-wise, and I know a lot of people don't actually like like them, but goat meat, I like goat meat. I like goat. It's good. They're little assholes, but they're good.

00:17:10.22
Buddy
It's not bad. Not bad.

00:17:11.94
Jeremy
I mean, as far as meat and survivability and the sheer comedy of watching goats faint, um I think goats over sheep for me, but yeah.

00:17:27.64
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:17:28.09
Buddy
yeah if you have the guy...

00:17:28.31
Keith
Well, also with sheep, you have to, you have to shear them every year, right? Because they get so, so much on there.

00:17:33.86
Jeremy
They'll get, yeah.

00:17:34.27
Keith
It gets matted.

00:17:35.35
Jeremy
Yeah. They're, can actually affect their health if you don't shear them regularly.

00:17:37.28
Keith
It's sick.

00:17:38.42
Buddy
And that was that was the other question, Keith. well how How would they look? Is there... Are they overgrown in fur? course, they need they need it for now for the for the you know the weather, but is it matted?

00:17:50.42
Keith
Well, they look smaller than they look smaller than I would think a ah sheep would be, and like I've seen on TV and stuff. They're they're smaller. they're only They're probably only two feet tall. So they're pretty small, but they're very fluffy, like big old fluffiness them.

00:18:06.94
Jeremy
yeah

00:18:08.25
Buddy
Yeah, we're to have to get an update on this. I say, I mean, if I have a vote here, I say, you know, you pin them up, build a little pin, little lean-to over the top. They don't need much.

00:18:18.77
Buddy
Just keep them out of the wind and keep, you know, a little bit something on top and get some feed, get them caught, and, you know, have an experiment.

00:18:27.86
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:18:27.93
Keith
get some Get some sweet feed, put it in there, and and you know kind of coax him in.

00:18:30.42
Buddy
Yeah.

00:18:31.46
Keith
I don't think so.

00:18:32.66
Buddy
They came from somewhere.

00:18:32.85
Jeremy
I would like I would like to invest a lot of money in a mangalica pig herd.

00:18:35.29
Buddy
so

00:18:40.42
Jeremy
That's what I would like to do. Have you ever seen them?

00:18:44.57
Keith
and i don't think so

00:18:45.82
Buddy
They sound bougie.

00:18:45.88
Jeremy
Mangalicas, they look like a sheep and I want to buy about 5,000 of them and drive them all up into Michigan, ah

00:18:54.52
Buddy
a

00:18:55.93
Jeremy
right through Dearborn.

00:18:56.15
Keith
ah

00:18:58.71
Jeremy
And then kind of just kind of let them go from there, you know, and just kind of let them proliferate up and cause pigs will go absolutely bonkers. If you just let them be, i would like to do that very much.

00:19:10.55
Keith
And and put little put little necklaces on them or around their necks that with a sign that says for Allah.

00:19:16.97
Jeremy
Salami bacon.

00:19:19.54
Buddy
And bacon salami.

00:19:19.58
Jeremy
Oh goodness. Yeah. well So what are we doing today?

00:19:25.33
Keith
Well, before we get to the the whole thing, ah just something that's crossed my mind, I want to ask you, ah Jeremy, didn't you say that you guys get some kind of an ag, ah what do you call that, money or something? You get some kind of a benefit?

00:19:42.57
Keith
I thought you get some kind of an agricultural benefit on your property or your your house or something.

00:19:46.46
Jeremy
Oh, if you own acreage, you can enter into what is called a land usage agreement with the county. And what that is, is that you provide them a plan for the reduction of trees on your acreage.

00:20:04.63
Jeremy
And it's how you dictate percentage wise how much you will reduce ah the population of your trees. And Because there's some areas here that are still very, very wooded. And what it is, is it's it's a couple different things. You can opt in to sell said lumber, at a but it's you're not going to get top rate because you're entering into that land agreement.

00:20:29.46
Jeremy
Or you can just reduce the percentage of trees for your own usage. um But they will discount up to, i i think it's 80% of your property tax that covers that amount of acreage on your land.

00:20:47.19
Jeremy
So let's say you have 50 acres and say 38 acres of that is wooded. And you say every, I don't know, 10 years, you will reduce the tree population by 5%.

00:21:03.58
Jeremy
um You will get a up to 80% tax rate deduction on that 38 acres. So your overall your your overall property taxes goes down significantly.

00:21:12.02
Keith
Hmm.

00:21:16.75
Jeremy
But let's say in year 10, they come out and I don't know how they measure, you know, how do you measure 10% of, of, woods?

00:21:26.86
Jeremy
I don't know. Um, but you, they'll come out and they'll take a look and be like, yeah, cool. Um, this is how much I reduced it and this is where I cut them. And there's the wood sitting over there, you know, whatever you show a receipt where you sold it.

00:21:40.82
Jeremy
um If they come out and you've maintained that, that plan, everything's good. But if you don't maintain that plan, they'll give you like a warning timeframe and you have to do the work.

00:21:53.24
Jeremy
And if they come back out and you haven't done it, then you actually owe back tax for the years that you um did not, you know, for, for the years that you entered into the agreement up to the time where you failed your inspection.

00:22:07.26
Jeremy
So, oh yeah.

00:22:07.96
Keith
Hell with that. That doesn't sound like a good deal at all.

00:22:10.43
Buddy
Well, you can go.

00:22:11.35
Jeremy
But it's literally, I mean, all it's, all you're doing is let's just say let's say it's 38 acres and you agreed to 5%.

00:22:13.40
Buddy
Yeah, go ahead.

00:22:19.70
Jeremy
And then your initial inspection, you came out and you identified with the guy, this tree, this tree, this tree, whatever. And you guys determine what that percentage looks like. you've got 10 years to get it done.

00:22:32.22
Jeremy
So, I mean, if if, if you go out there and be like, yeah, look, this tree is now down, you can see, i don't know how they measure, you know, that, that I don't know what the measure of success is on that, but, um,

00:22:46.01
Jeremy
I assume there's some kind of science, weird math that goes along with it. And you just have to adhere to that. And some people, most people do it. Some people, they just get lax because they know that they have years to do it. And then all of a sudden they come out and its inspect and they're like, yeah, you owe taxes now. Sorry, homie.

00:23:02.26
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:23:02.85
Keith
That's not good.

00:23:02.94
Jeremy
I would do it personally because we utilize the wood, you know, especially the pine. Pine's great firewood and all that. So I would definitely do that. Yeah.

00:23:13.17
Buddy
Well, you can use you can go to your extension agent and there's all kinds of grants to USDA

00:23:19.43
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. Yep.

00:23:21.02
Buddy
The water, you know, there's state grants out there. There's federal grants out there. You know, your homesteadings, your state might have a homestead startup.

00:23:33.69
Buddy
Our water department has through the USDA and the state puts money into it for wells. You know, there's like a well lottery now. They just won't do it for everybody. But um so, yeah, it's. ah there's a lot of money out there that could be had it's competitive and a lot of red tape involved in it with through the USDA and, and all these other things that are, but the, you're the play, the first place to go as a state or your local extension agent for your County and then have them direct you.

00:24:09.22
Buddy
Um,

00:24:09.66
Keith
Well, I've just let you guys go, you know, go off on a little tangent there. That that was completely not what I was asking. um I've already went to

00:24:18.14
Jeremy
Damn you, Keith. Damn it.

00:24:19.90
Keith
i've heard went to the extension extension office and I've already had the forester out here and they've already gone through all the programs with me and all that stuff. um and And I would love to talk about that.

00:24:26.10
Buddy
Okay.

00:24:26.17
Jeremy
You did that. You did that on purpose.

00:24:28.22
Keith
on No, i just fell into it that way. Anyway, I was enjoying it. So, ah no, um what I was asking was i i had always heard and I'm looking into it probably you know i'm two over two years now, this property, I shouldn't know this by now.

00:24:40.65
Keith
But I always heard that if you got a specific type of livestock, like a cow or a certain you know five sheep or five goats, that you are now ag exempt and you pay less taxes or something like that.

00:24:54.80
Jeremy
Mm.

00:24:54.84
Buddy
Oh, okay.

00:24:55.38
Keith
That's what I was asking about.

00:24:55.58
Buddy
see

00:24:56.50
Keith
And I thought that you, Jeremy, said that you and you and Missy have something like that on your property because of you growing tomatoes and giving them sit and giving them out to people or something like that.

00:24:56.86
Jeremy
oh

00:24:57.03
Buddy
Hey,

00:25:06.31
Keith
know. I thought you said something like that.

00:25:08.15
Jeremy
Oh, um so yeah. Oh, that's that's where you're going with it.

00:25:10.45
Keith
Make it short. Make it short.

00:25:12.90
Jeremy
Okay. So yeah, if you have, and i don't quote me on the size of the garden, but if you have a garden in which you are producing your own food and or you are selling that like would eat like so tomatoes, let's just say for instance, you can be considered part-time farmers.

00:25:13.34
Keith
That's where I was going with it, yeah.

00:25:30.42
Jeremy
You're considered by the state of North Carolina, at least, a part-time farmer. as a part-time farmer, then you have the ability to look into actual farm land for purchase.

00:25:42.23
Jeremy
And one of the main companies here is called Ag North Carolina. they primarily sell farms um and you like, you know, even not just for growing, but also cattle and that kind of thing. But you, if are, if you are a gardener and you are consuming what you grow, you are considered a part-time farmer.

00:26:03.42
Jeremy
So the ability to do grants and stuff like that becomes a little bit easier, if that makes sense. Because you,

00:26:10.84
Keith
Yeah, they they listed us as a hobby hobby farm, so that must be a term that's used you know ah and under a certain size, like I of guess.

00:26:15.80
Jeremy
for your state, maybe, Yeah.

00:26:18.38
Keith
I don't know.

00:26:19.16
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. I mean...

00:26:20.15
Buddy
Yeah, ever every place is different. um Like here, if you have three chickens, you can get be tax exempt. you know I'm um'm exaggerating a little bit, but it's like that.

00:26:32.09
Keith
Yeah, yeah.

00:26:32.86
Buddy
But if you have 20 horses, you're not. I mean, overnight, I think they've changed that since. But my dad had been, i mean, we've had a homestead for our whole life.

00:26:44.18
Buddy
And he was tax exempt in one year. They took his tax exemption away because he was raised he quit raising cattle and he started raising just horses. and

00:26:53.69
Keith
oh Oh, I see what you're saying, right?

00:26:55.45
Buddy
And so all of a sudden, yeah, so he found out that they go, well, just go get, you know, he's he's just, you know, ranting about it.

00:26:55.82
Keith
Because you don't eat horses or anything like that. So, yeah, okay.

00:27:05.36
Buddy
And the lady's like, just go buy three chickens and you you'll be exempt again. He's I don't want chickens. He goes, how come, you know, well, they kept saying that horses are pets.

00:27:14.42
Keith
I don't want them damn chickens. Hmm.

00:27:16.09
Buddy
He goes, it's my business. And yeah, so, which opened up a whole nother thing. So anyways, so yeah.

00:27:23.06
Keith
Well, and, you know, and to segue, we're talking tonight about goals and that is, that's legitimately, that is our goal for 26 is to work on this. And I'm working with a, with a forester right now, professional forester came out and um, and walk the entire property.

00:27:41.23
Keith
he spent hours out here, uh, spent about at two hours with me, but then a couple hours was just on his own. And he was inventorying the the entire property, of the whole thing. And he's, he's there. They work very slowly.

00:27:52.27
Keith
So if you're going work with these people, you've got to be willing to take time.

00:27:55.61
Buddy
Patience.

00:27:55.87
Keith
Nothing, nothing happens. Yeah. Nothing happens overnight, very slow, but they're putting together a, a plan and there is money, a lot of money.

00:27:57.40
Buddy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:28:04.95
Keith
And not only that, um we are also in a very unique location because we're in a, a very specialized, I don't want to say exactly what area it is. I'm not giving you my location away too much, but um we have a ah preserve that we're, we're in a sort of a preserve.

00:28:23.10
Keith
Okay. And it's ah it's, it even gives us more money that could be utilized. um The pro the only problem with it is you have to come up with upfront costs first, then they give you 80% it back.

00:28:36.87
Buddy
Oh, okay. Yeah.

00:28:38.23
Keith
that you know So like they're they're willing to put in fire bricks on the property, stuff like that, um and they'll pay for it.

00:28:43.29
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:28:44.84
Keith
They'll pay 80% of it, but you had to you have to pay for it first, and then they write your check once it's done. That's how it works. So you know things things like that, but that is our goal, is to timber out some of the property because- Timbering is is cleaning your forest. It's making the the forest healthier. a lot of people say, why are you cutting down trees? Well, they're rotting and they're falling down anyway. And there's also a habitat within that for creatures and and you know all that sort of thing, the health of the of the forest that helps by taking down certain trees and letting other trees grow up and killing off certain trees that are are you know not beneficial to the to the health of the forest and and nature and all that. So they're working out a plan to work that out. And that is our goal. And to make some scratch off it's my, my plan is to make some money off the timber, then use that money to do some of the programs that they're willing to do for us.

00:29:38.68
Keith
So like one of them is there, they offer to completely seed a wildflower seed, my entire B yard, which is three and a half acres and seed flower, the whole entire thing.

00:29:39.69
Buddy
Tonight. Oh.

00:29:48.78
Jeremy
Wow.

00:29:52.06
Keith
that's one That's one of the programs. And they'll give me 80% of that cost of what it costs to do that, which up front, that cost right around $3,000. You know, that's for a farmer or something. $3,000 might be like, oh, you know, okay, I'll write you a check. For me, I can't just write a check for $3,000.

00:30:08.14
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:30:08.11
Keith
There's other things I need $3,000 for, you know.

00:30:10.46
Jeremy
Right.

00:30:11.21
Keith
So I'm gonna try and use the timber to to do that. But that's one of my goals for 2026, since that's what we're talking about tonight, That's one of my goals is for 2026 is to get that whole program going in the timber and make it make it profitable.

00:30:23.90
Keith
So there's my first goal.

00:30:24.79
Jeremy
Yeah. I would say you will go ahead.

00:30:26.65
Buddy
You're going to um just say you don't have to keep us updated on that.

00:30:31.45
Jeremy
Yeah. um ive I have had some friends that had land timbered around here and the majority of the companies were good.

00:30:41.85
Jeremy
um Some of them though, however, like a buddy mine, that land that I hunt, um they they went ahead and timbered the whole thing. And they the problem is, is that they take what they want.

00:30:53.78
Jeremy
And a lot of companies, they just leave all the trash behind, like all the the stuff that they don't want. They just leave it there and on the ground. um And he they he told them, I want you to reseed for future forest.

00:31:07.83
Jeremy
And what they told him was, okay, we're going to come through once the ground is bare, which they didn't leave the ground bare. um And they have this great big machine basically and it tills its planting in their fast growing pines.

00:31:23.64
Jeremy
I can't remember how long ago he did that, but his land looks like absolute crap um because they didn't plant on regular intervals. Some trees are growing sporadically.

00:31:35.77
Jeremy
ah Some are small, some are taller now. There's a scrub all over the place because they didn't actually get all of the crap out of there after they took the trees that they wanted.

00:31:45.85
Keith
Yeah, they probably should have did a prescribed burn is what they should have done.

00:31:49.88
Jeremy
problem that And they should have come through with like a plow and like pushed all of the stuff, you know, out of the way.

00:31:50.38
Keith
Mm-hmm.

00:31:57.21
Jeremy
um But they didn't.

00:31:58.58
Keith
Well, when they when they timber the property, and they'll do this to mine when they do, they'll the forester will be actually be marking all the trees, and and he'll mark them high and low so the markings will still be on the stumps.

00:32:10.04
Keith
But they won't take the stumps, that's the first thing, and they won't take the tree tops because they're selling the timber. They're not taking the tops, right?

00:32:15.93
Jeremy
yeah

00:32:16.12
Keith
They'll all they'll leave all that laying out there in the forest. A couple of things. One, that I'm okay with that because that's firewood. That's free firewood for me. Now I have to do the work.

00:32:24.70
Jeremy
right

00:32:25.51
Keith
I got to cut it up, collect it, just like I'm doing now this week with, when last week with firewood. um You know, I chop a tree down and then you got to work it. Then it takes a couple, you know, for one person takes a couple of days to work that, that entire tree down to a pile of logs, you know, to use.

00:32:40.18
Keith
So yeah, that's what they'll do. And I'll use that, those toppers, the tops.

00:32:44.42
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:32:44.44
Keith
um I'm not a problem with that, but you're right about the, the different people. I've heard horror stories about some of these um timber companies that go out and you know and you give them, you know, you're working with them directly.

00:32:55.82
Keith
You don't have a forest or somebody in between. And they'll cut trees down that you didn't tell them to cut down. They'll, they'll see, they'll see, ah um they might see like a but black wall, what do they call black, black wall, what's that one?

00:33:10.16
Buddy
Black Walnut.

00:33:10.84
Jeremy
Black walnut, yeah.

00:33:11.80
Keith
Yeah, they'll take, they'll see like a black walnut, which is worth a ton of money.

00:33:14.41
Buddy
Oh yeah.

00:33:15.24
Keith
And I've got a lot of them on my property and they'll cut it down, put it on the truck without you knowing.

00:33:19.69
Jeremy
Yep.

00:33:20.57
Keith
You know, they do stuff like that.

00:33:20.80
Jeremy
Yep.

00:33:21.73
Keith
You got to be careful with some of these people.

00:33:23.82
Jeremy
Yep. It would be really good to go through and really look at your land before they start cutting and start putting like red X's on stuff that you don't want them to do.

00:33:34.45
Keith
Mm-hmm. Because you've got clear cut, which is they go in there and cut whatever they want, or you got, what's the other There's another one another one.

00:33:37.21
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:33:46.17
Keith
I forget the wording of it. Oh, select cut. you got clear cut and you select cut. Select cut is where you're selecting the specific trees that you want gone and to make money from, and you'll get less money overall board wise, because, because it's, it's harder for them, you know, to go in and do just one or two trees rather than just go through and knock them all down.

00:34:08.02
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah.

00:34:09.62
Keith
But they also leave a mess. They have to, they have to make a road to get in there. First of all, they, they leave behind trash oil. You know, ah that's why when you're out in the woods and you see like a giant tire out there from a machine, that's probably because somebody was out there foresting and they, they busted a tire, changed it on the spot and left it out there.

00:34:22.65
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:34:27.44
Keith
They do stuff like that.

00:34:28.06
Jeremy
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that even goes for regular homes. We found a car hood in the yard once. It's like, what the hell is this doing here? Why is there always glass coming up after a rainstorm? It's like the craziest, just the craziest stuff that comes up out of the grass.

00:34:45.98
Jeremy
So, yeah. Yeah. So, buddy, what...

00:34:48.79
Keith
Yeah, so that's that's my goal. what What kind of goals you guys got? Oh, you want to you want to do it Jeremy?

00:34:52.31
Jeremy
Well, yeah, i was going to ask Buddy what you got.

00:34:53.12
Keith
Go for it. Oh, buddy, go for it.

00:34:55.85
Buddy
Oh, well, here we go. um you know, I have many goals because I'm just that kind of guy. I'm always trying to improve, but, uh, no, I've got five of the main ones and and and a lot of them kind of intertwine.

00:35:03.78
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:35:11.77
Buddy
Um, one of the big ones I have is fitness. Um, I want to be able and we talked a little bit about it in the last show. I'm going to be able to, you know, I know I'm not 18 again, but I sure would like to climb, you know, do some pull-ups again, you know, do climb a wall, you know, if I need to, I just feel like I can't, I'm not as mobile as I used to be in a strong upper body wise.

00:35:35.26
Buddy
So that's a big thing for me this year is you know, a functional fitness type routine.

00:35:40.12
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:35:41.30
Buddy
So ruck run and then a lot of strength training, which in all, and then another one of them is, uh, of my goals for this year is my training, which I have that every year.

00:35:55.83
Buddy
And at the, about November or so, I, I kind of look back at what training I did that year, what I learned, you know, as far as my professional and personal development, and then I'll go in and, uh, go out and start looking for where I want to go next to, to train and who I want to train with and and what skills I would like to learn. And then,

00:36:18.70
Buddy
Budgeted into my budget. So, you know, have it actually.

00:36:21.85
Keith
I remember you saying something about going up to like Wyoming or something for some training. Are you still doing that?

00:36:26.68
Buddy
this Yes or no, i I don't have my calendar yet. It's something I'm doing this week is a lot of I start looking at most of the people that I have my eye on training with or have trained with in the past.

00:36:41.30
Buddy
They have calendars and they start putting them up about this time of year because people are are kind of like me. they're looking at their year training and a lot of these people who take the training also train people. So they need to get their training calendar up or find, you know, trainings that they can do ah and fill in the holes and stuff. So anyhow, so you know, the fitness thing is in there but it also kind of ties into the training. You know, you get out there. I've been humbled a couple of different trainings I went on last summer.

00:37:15.73
Buddy
And at in the fall, I was humbled tremendously. Just my my overall level of fitness. But, yeah, I um want to go up to Wyoming and do some things.

00:37:29.43
Buddy
Just, you know, I can't do it now.

00:37:30.30
Keith
you and Do you know people up there or do you know specific trainers up there?

00:37:33.98
Buddy
I know specific trainers up there that I have my eye on. And there's and there's different things. Like, there's kind of the people up there teach communication stuff. I want to, you know...

00:37:45.46
Buddy
Learn different, you know, I live in kind of a flat, not really a flat area, a rolling hill, like plains area. And so, you know, in mountains, it's different than what it is in my area, which is different than urban.

00:37:59.67
Buddy
And so, you know, those are the kind of things I want to, you know, crack the nut and and find out what these people know. You know, you you can sit back and watch it.

00:38:06.94
Keith
yeah you're you're in ah You're in Oklahoma. you know Most people can envision what Oklahoma's like.

00:38:09.34
Buddy
Yeah, yeah.

00:38:12.02
Keith
When you say something like Oklahoma has mountains, people are like, what? Are you kidding me? Oklahoma does not have mountains. They actually do.

00:38:18.49
Buddy
Yeah. And, and

00:38:18.71
Keith
eastern Eastern Oklahoma's got some of the beautiful most beautiful forests I've been in.

00:38:22.33
Buddy
exactly Southeast Oklahoma, uh, very mountainous, uh, very old mountains in the Southern part of the state. And, but, ah I just need to get back to, to getting in better shape.

00:38:35.11
Buddy
I'm, I need to lose some weight, which, uh, I've been working out about three weeks again. i took about a six month, uh, I will call it a hiatus, you know, uh, just got lazy and, and, uh,

00:38:46.04
Keith
You going to a gym or is this all home?

00:38:48.28
Buddy
going to a gym now, uh, you know, weather gets a little better. Uh, some days we're outside, some days we're inside, but right now it's gym work. Uh, it's working out pretty good. I'm sore shit, uh, all the time.

00:39:02.36
Buddy
watching my, I I'm actually dieting now and I'm watching it, the calories and a protein, uh, doing all the things that,

00:39:09.61
Keith
Shit, I'm on two diets, man. One diet's not enough food.

00:39:12.92
Buddy
yeah, well, and, and, I won't get too far in the weeds in it, but i I eat like five or six meals a day. And when I say meals, one of them might be ah a meal replacement.

00:39:24.69
Buddy
Like you call it a lot of people call them protein bars. Well, if you get a meal replacement, and it it'll basically replace your meal. It's not just, a you know, 11 gram of protein you got from, ah you know, the convenience store.

00:39:39.19
Buddy
I do shakes with that. I try to eat as much, you know, protein and and balance it out. So, but you know, eating better and fitness is definitely, you know, on the, on the agenda and high up on my priority list.

00:39:53.65
Buddy
Um, that's, that's one of the goals.

00:39:56.81
Keith
That's one of my, i can't say it's a goal for me, but that's what I am considering my health and my fitness because I'm definitely way overweight. And doing the the work that I do is I suffer. And honestly, the work suffers. The work gets done, but I suffer doing the work.

00:40:14.62
Keith
Uh, and I just feel like the older I get, the harder it is.

00:40:14.94
Buddy
Yeah.

00:40:17.70
Keith
um You know, I thought easily, cause in the in the past I could gain weight and then I can just lose it in a month. And I can build my arms up in a month's time and have just rock hard, massive arms. No problem at all.

00:40:28.46
Keith
Easy. Uh, but now it doesn't work like that. It's just not happening. You know, and I thought that being a living on a, on a homestead, i would be working all the time and I would be losing weight.

00:40:33.02
Buddy
Yeah, I wouldn't.

00:40:38.06
Keith
That's not the, that's not the case. Your body adjusts to the work. It's weird. I can't explain it.

00:40:44.09
Buddy
And you said on this last episode, every day is a different day for you. So, you know, one day you might be out there, uh, with chainsaw, you know, and you started looking like Popeye for, you know, a few days and then you're out doing, you know, other things, you know, you might be with a hoe in the garden, you know, there's, you might be working on the, you know, your, your zero turn brush hog or something.

00:40:47.90
Keith
yeah

00:41:05.03
Buddy
So, um, that farm life is great for fitness wise, you know, um, but you need to add in a little, uh,

00:41:12.27
Keith
It's not exercise. It's physical work. It's two different things.

00:41:14.71
Buddy
Yes, but I mean, functional fitness, and that's that's what I was about to talk about.

00:41:15.73
Jeremy
But that's that's functional fitness.

00:41:20.82
Buddy
help Thanks for the segue there.

00:41:23.98
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:41:23.99
Buddy
So, yeah, the functional fitness is what is what I'm really focusing on, is is more functional. You know, think bug out, you know, and and Joe talked about it on his episode, did a real good job with it, you know.

00:41:39.93
Buddy
And we've, you know, Jeremy has talked about it. I've talked about it. You know, you're going to get, you know, 15 pounds of, or 115 pounds of shit in your rucksack, and you got to be able to carry it.

00:41:53.04
Buddy
So, um you know, and just adding, well, I ruck and then run.

00:41:54.90
Keith
is that Is that what a ruck run is? You said something about a ruck run.

00:42:02.20
Buddy
I don't want to run.

00:42:02.54
Keith
You're talking about filling up a rucksack and running with it?

00:42:04.60
Buddy
Yeah, I have a rucksack.

00:42:05.50
Keith
Oh, hell no. That ain't happening.

00:42:07.45
Buddy
Well, what you And think about this, right?

00:42:10.27
Jeremy
Bye.

00:42:12.47
Buddy
If you have a plate carrier, start out with the plate carrier. And just in the morning, you know, you get up, you got your coffee and stuff, just make a lap around. And I actually have done this before with some property I was on.

00:42:24.20
Buddy
it was about 20 acres. And we we did brush hog track around the perimeter. where I'm used to, you know, growing up on ah on the homestead, on the farm and stuff and going and checking fence. You know, that's something you almost do every day.

00:42:38.40
Buddy
uh it's just part of your your daily routine

00:42:40.18
Keith
Yeah, I do. I do. I do property line walks constantly and the walk is very good for me.

00:42:44.95
Buddy
throw on your plate carrier go out and do that you know uh take your rifle with you you got the weights on get out there and make it happen and then you know one day a week throw on your rucksack and then throw you know start out with 35 pound rug um and then go

00:42:53.28
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:43:03.26
Buddy
you know, go heavier, you know, just get used to carrying that stuff and, and maybe little walk at night, you know, before you go to bed, you know, when the weather gets a little better or whatever.

00:43:13.66
Buddy
So, but yeah, just the functional fitness is what Jeremy said is, is what I'm getting at and what.

00:43:19.61
Keith
Explain it.

00:43:21.29
Buddy
It's basically being able to do your job or do the things you need to do fitness-wise and you train. So I'm not in there doing curls for the girls. I'm not in there just doing bicep.

00:43:34.97
Buddy
you know, curls and push downs.

00:43:35.13
Keith
Girls for the girls. I never heard that one before. That's good.

00:43:38.25
Buddy
Uh, I'm not in there to, to train for a bodybuilding contest.

00:43:39.19
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:43:41.85
Buddy
I'm, I'm training like today, for instance, we did, uh, Oh man, we did like a CrossFit workout. Basically one of us is carrying 45 pound plates with each hand walking down the gym, which is very big gym.

00:43:56.48
Buddy
Uh, and why the other one's doing a kettlebell swings. And, uh, you know, just doing different things while you're like, well, okay, kettlebell swings. What does that do for you? Well, you're working your shoulders. You're, you're working on your upper body strength. You're working on your core. You're working on your lower part of your body and stuff. So I'm doing a lot of leg work, a lot of deadlifts, lot of things with my legs. We work legs, something with legs damn near every day. if I was a bodybuilder, I'd kill my legs on one day and then, um, wouldn't touch it again for a week.

00:44:30.63
Buddy
Uh, um'm I guess what I'm getting at is you have to tailor your your functional fitness to what your goals are. You know, I want to be stronger upper body. I want to be able to go up to the mountains for a week and do what I need to do up there, you know, whether it's a class or a hike, you know, through a veteran program that I'm looking at, actually working for.

00:44:56.82
Buddy
And, you know, there's just... You don't want it to suck when you get up there, you know, because that brings your enjoyment. So functional fitness and and Jeremy, might you might help me out, too, is is basically your your training for what you do either every day, like as a soldier, a policeman, fireman, or to do the things you want to be able to do when you need to do them.

00:45:21.75
Jeremy
Yeah, that's that's actually a pretty good, I mean, that's a good description. Functional fitness is movements and training specifically targeted for what you're already doing.

00:45:34.46
Jeremy
So a lot of older people, um they do certain exercises because within that facet of their life, that's what they're trying to maintain.

00:45:46.30
Jeremy
Right. Um, a lot of guys that are in the military, they throw on, you know, great big ruck and they go for a walk. Now I personally never allowed my soldiers. If we were out actually doing a ruck, I would not allow them to run.

00:46:00.89
Jeremy
And the reason being is if you, if you're running and hauling ass and I know people who can do, say for instance, the, um, the, the, the,

00:46:01.56
Buddy
Oh, yeah.

00:46:12.26
Jeremy
It's a 26.2 mile ruck and it's in the desert up in New Mexico. The Baton Death March.

00:46:17.06
Buddy
Oh, that's the Bataan Death March. Yeah, I've done it a few times.

00:46:18.86
Jeremy
Baton Death March.

00:46:20.02
Buddy
That sucks.

00:46:20.28
Jeremy
I know guys who can run the whole thing.

00:46:22.66
Buddy
I've seen people do it, and I'm like, dude, are some crazy motherfuckers, man.

00:46:23.97
Jeremy
Yeah. so There's only one problem.

00:46:26.36
Buddy
Hell no.

00:46:27.11
Jeremy
I mean, even if, you know, say collapse and all that kind of stuff happens, if you blow your wad before you get to the objective and you can't fight, what good are you?

00:46:36.60
Buddy
Yeah.

00:46:36.66
Jeremy
So I never allowed my soldiers to, to actually run.

00:46:37.91
Keith
Good point.

00:46:40.30
Jeremy
We would walk. And for as short as I am, the one good thing that I could do really good in the army is I could ruck. And I just learned, and you have to learn how to do it. and I learned how to step hard and fast and had, I actually have long strides.

00:46:56.22
Jeremy
Um, but functional fitness is really, it's, well, that was tragic. Um, no, my function didn't.

00:47:02.95
Keith
What in the world just happened?

00:47:04.25
Buddy
He fell out of his chair.

00:47:07.38
Keith
I think you got a functional fitness sitting.

00:47:09.53
Jeremy
Yeah. My, my function didn't fitness just then. Um, yeah. Sorry about that guys. Let me, uh, let me fix it.

00:47:17.72
Keith
Well, we must, we must be made. We must be built differently because I hear you guys get, you know, get excited about doing ruck runs and stuff like that. I'm thinking that's just got to be the worst thing in the world. Why would I want to do that?

00:47:28.22
Buddy
I don't think anybody gets excited.

00:47:28.41
Keith
I mean, I don't want to, i don't want to run with something on 80 pounds on my back. No.

00:47:33.35
Buddy
Don't get me wrong.

00:47:33.69
Keith
No.

00:47:34.03
Buddy
I'm bitching the whole time I'm doing this, Jay and I, you know, training with Jay and, uh,

00:47:39.10
Keith
Yeah, but Jay's like a skinny guy.

00:47:41.05
Buddy
Yeah, but he's like, and he's, he's got, I don't know if he's 10, 12 years younger than me.

00:47:42.29
Keith
I've seen pictures, man. He's very fit.

00:47:46.73
Buddy
So there's that too.

00:47:47.80
Keith
Oh, well, there you go

00:47:49.18
Buddy
And then I'm bitching the whole time, but afterwards I'm like, Hey, thanks. You know, I don't know, but getting back to Jeremy's thing is I don't think anybody runs with a rug. You know, I've never like stepped it out.

00:48:00.94
Buddy
You know, it's more of a shuffle thing. You know, uh, you're going to kill your knees and ankles and everything in your lower bodies is going to go to shit.

00:48:04.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:48:09.75
Buddy
And,

00:48:10.01
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:11.03
Buddy
it It happens.

00:48:11.35
Jeremy
But it's, it's basically fitness for your everyday life. And by say, for instance, increasing the weight that you're doing on a ruck and you've got to move a log.

00:48:24.31
Jeremy
and you have no equipment, and you can pick up that log, squat down, pick it up, carry it back to where it needs to go That's part of the function of what you're doing. So it's increasing your strength for everyday stuff is basically a generic way of saying it.

00:48:39.91
Keith
Okay.

00:48:40.06
Jeremy
So.

00:48:40.15
Buddy
Yeah, and once upon a time, I was a master fitness instructor through the military, through the Army.

00:48:40.34
Keith
okay

00:48:45.53
Buddy
And they send you to school, so you're going to learn how to train your troops, right? You go back and and you get the certification. You go back and and you do your things and train your people. And one of the things that I took away from that was progression. You know, you don't you don't throw on that, you know, 110 pound rug that you would use when you go to war, when everybody's, you know, taking the mortar rounds that weigh, I don't even remember what a mortar round weighs, but you you start dispersing them through the platoon. And so you've got your 65 pound rucksack

00:49:22.10
Buddy
full of all your stuff. Now you're getting extra medical gear, extra, you know, ammo for the mortar team. You're carrying extra ammo for the platoon sergeant. Cause he doesn't like you. And then.

00:49:31.80
Keith
Yeah, i thought I was wondering what you're talking about because you started at 60 pounds and went to 80. Now you're talking 110.

00:49:36.44
Buddy
Yeah. But it's all about progression as far as ah the, as far as a functional fitness thing.

00:49:38.49
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:49:41.29
Buddy
And and the key to the, the key is progression. and And we're going off on a tangent on something that's probably best, you know, done by somebody else later on. But, uh,

00:49:51.58
Keith
but Well, we'll try and get Joe on and and talk to him more because I love his fitness is great.

00:49:51.93
Buddy
you know

00:49:54.68
Buddy
Yeah, and and I have – I've had to talk to him.

00:49:57.06
Keith
He's doing really, I mean, we talked to him. He lost like 60 pounds, man.

00:50:00.71
Buddy
I've talked to him, and he's – we're talking about coming on. He's got – still has some things going on.

00:50:04.72
Keith
Cool.

00:50:06.27
Buddy
but And Jeremy, he can talk intelligently about it because he's he lives it.

00:50:11.72
Jeremy
What?

00:50:13.37
Buddy
you know um He works out all the time.

00:50:16.10
Jeremy
Skies out, thighs out.

00:50:17.66
Buddy
Yeah, sky's out, thighs out.

00:50:17.98
Jeremy
Hell

00:50:18.68
Buddy
you got it But, you know, the difference between Jeremy and Joe, Joe probably wears regular shorts, and Jeremy's going wear Ranger.

00:50:24.02
Jeremy
um

00:50:24.80
Buddy
He's going to put on those Ranger panties and get after it. But I digress, all right. So, me...

00:50:31.03
Jeremy
yeah.

00:50:31.34
Keith
I'm wearing basketball. I'm wearing basketball shorts right now. They go past my knees.

00:50:33.69
Jeremy
Oh my god, I hate those. I hate those things so much.

00:50:35.19
Buddy
Yeah.

00:50:37.02
Jeremy
Ugh, no. No, no, no, no, no.

00:50:38.62
Keith
Comfy.

00:50:38.74
Buddy
But the other...

00:50:39.69
Jeremy
You gotta to have are

00:50:40.17
Keith
It's 78 degrees today, man.

00:50:42.90
Jeremy
you gotta to have You got to have the creases in the right places.

00:50:42.90
Buddy
Yeah, it's hot as...

00:50:45.62
Jeremy
And I do not get that from basketball shorts.

00:50:46.36
Buddy
Yeah. Socks up to your knees.

00:50:49.27
Keith
ah

00:50:49.85
Buddy
hit the

00:50:50.16
Jeremy
ah Yeah.

00:50:52.73
Buddy
So, uh, I guess I'll land on, I got, you the fitness thing, the training and and I'll touch on training. I, you know, for this year, my goal is just to do a lot of different training that I haven't done. Uh, I want to learn some bushcraft, uh, or go back to it. I know quite a bit.

00:51:08.60
Buddy
Um, and, uh, yeah, and it's a lost art.

00:51:10.30
Keith
It's a matter of practicing it, though.

00:51:12.27
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:51:14.26
Buddy
Um, I need to get back to it. And another thing I want to get back to this year is tracking. I've got my eye on a tracking. and I've had some track. I have a tracking background through, you know, some of the things I used to do back in the day.

00:51:29.11
Buddy
But I want to get back in there and learn some, you know, tracking, you know, animal and human tracking stuff. So I'll on.

00:51:36.99
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:51:37.74
Keith
Jeremy's got me on a tracking thing right now. He's got my blood flowing on him because now I'm going out in the woods and I'm like, I'm really just walking through paying attention to things I'm seeing and looking at.

00:51:45.64
Buddy
Yeah.

00:51:48.89
Buddy
Yeah. And you're, don't you, don't you just like, it's like, holy shit, I've been walking by this all the time.

00:51:49.28
Jeremy
It's awesome.

00:51:49.87
Keith
It's fun. fun

00:51:50.76
Jeremy
It's really cool.

00:51:55.62
Buddy
You know, I might notice a little scratch on the tree or something, you know, or, or.

00:51:59.22
Jeremy
Yeah. how many How many people walk by a rub?

00:51:59.93
Buddy
Yes.

00:52:03.42
Jeremy
And never even knew it was a rub.

00:52:03.80
Buddy
yes

00:52:05.91
Jeremy
You know?

00:52:05.98
Buddy
It just looked like something rubbed up against the, you know, well, I guess it's color rub, you know, or a tree break that's shoulder high, you know, and when you're walking through, you know, some, or a path through, you know, wait a minute vines or what do you call them?

00:52:08.50
Jeremy
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:52:14.62
Jeremy
Yep.

00:52:20.77
Buddy
ah We call them wait a minute vines.

00:52:24.50
Jeremy
Like sticker vines?

00:52:24.82
Buddy
Briar patch. Yeah.

00:52:25.82
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:52:26.22
Buddy
Briar patch.

00:52:26.20
Keith
Oh, about Briars. Oh, we got some we got some Briar Pedgers in my fours.

00:52:28.09
Buddy
Yeah.

00:52:29.56
Keith
They suck, dude.

00:52:30.71
Jeremy
You gotta do...

00:52:30.87
Buddy
Yeah. But if there's a trail through them or there's a hole in them, then that's a trail.

00:52:31.92
Jeremy
soof

00:52:34.97
Buddy
You know what i mean?

00:52:35.02
Jeremy
That's a game trail. Yeah.

00:52:36.28
Buddy
So, and then we go digressing again, but, but yeah, the, the, I'll finish out on, on this thing.

00:52:36.48
Keith
Hmm.

00:52:38.62
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:52:40.22
Keith
Finish it up.

00:52:44.38
Buddy
You know, food, food and water is another thing that, you know, I, I need to tackle and, and do better with a little bit more food. i'm I'm good on the, you know, I've got, I could, man, I don't want say I could probably go three weeks or three months actually of food in two different locations because I've been buying, i and I go to Costco every month for about 60, and it fluctuates.

00:53:13.56
Keith
What do you mean by two different locations? What are you talking about?

00:53:15.93
Buddy
I got two locations that i operate out of. um um I'm like Jethro Bodine, man.

00:53:18.58
Keith
Oh, oh, oh, I gotcha, gotcha.

00:53:21.53
Buddy
I'm like an international playboy, right?

00:53:24.82
Keith
ah

00:53:27.24
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:53:27.71
Buddy
No, my bug out location is stocked up, so I don't have to carry, but, you know, um if I'm bugging in, I can go three months to the place with food.

00:53:40.09
Buddy
Water, not so good, but I want to diversify the food this year, doing some other things, and then water, you know, I'm working on some things on water, you know, catchment systems, barrels, you know, different techniques on, you know, filtration. i want to get one of those big Berkeys for the countertop,

00:54:04.06
Buddy
It's going to cost me an arm and an ass to buy, but...

00:54:07.83
Keith
use the yeah Use the link when you do. It's on one it's on one of our shows.

00:54:11.19
Buddy
Okay, yeah.

00:54:11.35
Keith
but i think Yeah.

00:54:12.70
Buddy
And now that we're talking about that link, I want to do a shameless plug since I'm done with my 2026 goals.

00:54:12.79
Keith
You know.

00:54:22.90
Buddy
That Topps Bunker, Topps 10 code for Refuge Medical, if you need any medical information,

00:54:25.48
Keith
Tops 10? Yeah. No, it's not Tops 10. It's Tops Bunker 10, isn't it?

00:54:32.42
Jeremy
Dun-da-da-dun.

00:54:32.45
Buddy
Well, we'll put it in the show notes.

00:54:34.15
Keith
um've been putting it on the I've been putting on the show notes that way.

00:54:37.00
Buddy
I'll send it to you. So, it yeah.

00:54:38.52
Keith
okay

00:54:40.87
Buddy
i Anyways, going back to you probably need take that out. So, our – I don't even know what it is, but I'm telling you all about it, right? So, yeah, we have a discount code for Refuge Medical. Use that thing. Get out there, and it's going to help us.

00:54:57.91
Buddy
buy some things that we need for the show to make it more professional, to make our sound better, to maybe, you know, do some things that we need to do that, you know, cause we're all independent, uh, funded through our own selves here. So help support the show a little bit by buying a little bit from, uh, refuge, uh, if you need some medical gear, um, we'll go from there.

00:55:21.56
Buddy
And that's, that's my goals for 2026. I want to wish everybody uh, you know, happy new year and hopefully,

00:55:25.83
Keith
Nice.

00:55:27.93
Buddy
Everybody will get out there and, you know, I want to hear your goals. So put them on, go online. You know, let's hear them either. Instant message me if you don't want to put it out there for everybody. But I'd like to hear what other people's goals are for 2026.

00:55:40.33
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, and definitely start putting stuff, you know, going into the new year on the Facebook page or whatever. Start putting stuff on there and let's let's talk about it, you know.

00:55:51.31
Jeremy
Let's see what's on there and then let's talk about it on the show. That's that's the easiest way to do it. And speak pipe.

00:55:56.39
Keith
I've got a bunch of things.

00:55:56.94
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:55:57.69
Keith
Yeah. And speak pipe. When I just check speak pipe, there's nothing. Nobody's been on there in a couple weeks. So nobody's paying attention. I think we've got a lot of, of, uh, bunker members that are not really on a lot.

00:56:03.52
Jeremy
Oh, no.

00:56:09.85
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:56:11.00
Keith
So don't think we're reaching as many people on the bunkers as I would think.

00:56:11.10
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:56:14.85
Keith
grow But we're, but we're pushing, we're pushing people to get out there and do it.

00:56:16.57
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:56:17.53
Keith
And I got those, I got those things that come out like every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I've got a ah thing that pops up on the bunker. Like, uh, like Friday, what are you doing for the weekend?

00:56:24.60
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:56:26.97
Keith
Or, you know, Monday blues, whatever. Those are going to come up all the time. I got them set up to go on every, on one of those days.

00:56:33.26
Jeremy
Right.

00:56:33.75
Keith
So, you know, and it doesn't mean that every single person has to go on every single one of those, but one or two is great because it sparks up a conversation, you know, which I like.

00:56:41.43
Jeremy
Right.

00:56:43.04
Keith
So,

00:56:43.45
Jeremy
Yeah. Well, my goals, you know, I was going to do the typical, you know, water food, everybody needs to improve water food. That's, that's like across the board. That's every single person out there.

00:56:56.73
Jeremy
Um, so I went a little bit of a different route and my first one is, and I mentioned this before breaking habits. Um, I think 2026 is my year Um, to quit smoking um I just, I've got to sit down and actually put a date on it and be like, no shit.

00:57:14.62
Jeremy
I will be done by this time. And I have to suffer, just suffer through it.

00:57:16.64
Keith
And are you doing cold turkey?

00:57:19.04
Jeremy
No, no, I'm not going do cold turkey. Last time I turned, I did, I tried cold turkey. I almost turned violent. So, um,

00:57:25.30
Keith
Yeah.

00:57:26.74
Jeremy
Yeah, and I was still in the army, so I didn't want to, you know, do the whole prison route. um But that's my, like my number one thing. um Physical fitness, you know, Buddy already kind of took took a step on that direction. I think that's also something that...

00:57:42.90
Jeremy
is literally everybody. It's everybody's got to improve their physical fitness no matter what, and especially here in the United States. if you go to Europe and you walk around and you look and people just don't look like we do here.

00:57:57.39
Jeremy
Generally people here, it's super common to see people Somebody who's, you know, typically normally shaped right next to somebody who's super not in shape.

00:58:08.76
Jeremy
And if it's, it's become normal here. Um, our diet is based off of what our, for some reason our country allows, which in other countries they don't. So physical fitness is always something that everybody, um, can do.

00:58:26.01
Jeremy
Next one would be finances. Um, I've still got some bills and I want to eliminate those bills. That might mean i got to grow up and get a job, you know, um to help double down on what I'm already doing to get all of that done. um i want to I want to be done with a lot of stuff. And i have a feeling that I may end up selling my home in Texas, which will help out quite a bit.

00:58:52.41
Jeremy
um and you know sort of just wash everything else almost completely away in one swoop. But we'll see how that goes. And then networking.

00:59:04.34
Jeremy
um I have a group of friends who I believe they think that if anything was to happen, they're just going to come to my house and I don't want them to. So what I want to be able to do is to network with those individuals to get them to Start to improve their own, their own preps, their own lifestyle, their own way that they're going to do it. And one of the ways that I want to do that is I want us to all have a basically a communication ring route, you know, even if it involves balfangs and setting up some antennas or you know, different kind of communication that we can test.

00:59:41.43
Jeremy
And then kind of start getting those individuals on board and sort of extending that network from there. Because I'll go back to it. Like I did a video today that I'll post on the Facebook page about chickens, but I am taking care of a neighbor's chickens and we are allowed to keep the eggs in exchange.

01:00:02.17
Jeremy
Right. So that's part of that network. We also trade vegetables and fruit with this same neighbor. And I've talked about them before. um But networking, you know, and building a group and building a mag or whatever you want to call it. is is extremely important because we've talked about it a thousand times you can't be can't be a lone wolf in this thing you can't and it's just not going to work um and then next i have two more next is making sure that i practice what i preach in carrying my edc and i've also mentioned this um just just recently um making sure that if i leave the house if i can go to a place that i can carry i will carry

01:00:43.69
Jeremy
I'll always have this and yeah I'll always have these certain items with me every day. And I've gotten lackadaisical in some of it. I don't carry everywhere. And in 2025, there was a couple of situations which I wish I was.

01:00:56.47
Jeremy
So I've got to get better about every morning. I get up and I go to do the thing. my EDC is right there and I can start really reinforcing to myself um that that is, you know, every day I'm going to carry. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.

01:01:14.65
Jeremy
um And then lastly, and it's not this is not like the dead last, but For now, my next one is going to be working more towards independence.

01:01:27.86
Jeremy
um You know, we did a lot of different stuff with the garden. we had a lot of upsets with the garden this year. um You know, we want to move towards chickens. We're still looking for land. But self-sufficiency self- sufficiency and independence from the system itself is is a really big desire for me individually as a prepper. And somebody who believes in being prepared.

01:01:53.30
Jeremy
So, yeah, that's ah that's kind of some of my stuff that I've got looking forward to. i mean, there's a whole lot more. i don't know that we have. It would be probably four or five episodes. But um those are some of my immediates, you know.

01:02:08.76
Jeremy
And unfortunately, my very most important one, breaking habits, is like... Man, it's like, ah I don't know what it is, but every time I tell myself I'm going to quit, my brain is like, no the hell you're not. You're not going to do it. And this it's so easy to fall back into those habits.

01:02:31.77
Jeremy
So,

01:02:31.93
Buddy
Yeah, it's hard. It's definitely ah it's a thing, man.

01:02:35.06
Jeremy
yeah, yeah.

01:02:36.94
Keith
Don't beat yourself up over the quitting smoking thing. it's It's one of the hardest, nicotine is one of the hardest things to shake you know on the planet.

01:02:43.43
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:02:43.45
Keith
It really is one of those hardest things. And and I say this to everybody, I've quit smoking a few times and it's been very bad, very rough, and i and I've done it. And now I've done it. And I'm on, I vape. and But I have gone from The nicotine level in my vape, that would be like ah a normal cigarette, like let's say ah a marble red, which I think is around 18 to 20% in a vape of of nicotine.

01:03:05.30
Jeremy
Yeah. Hmm.

01:03:10.77
Keith
I'm guessing it's right around that area. That's what I was told. I've got i've dropped that all the way down to zero. no ni no nicotine. All it is is just vape. Now that I couldn't take.

01:03:21.72
Keith
it It just, it changes the way the vape feels and the enjoyment I get from it.

01:03:25.34
Jeremy
yeah

01:03:26.28
Keith
So I raised, I back up to the lowest amount, which is 3%. And that's where I'm sitting now. And I go back and forth between three and zero. It's a life-changing thing going to zero because basically it's just quitting.

01:03:38.10
Keith
And all it is just vape.

01:03:38.21
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:03:39.26
Keith
It's just, ah it's just essential oils is all it is turn into a vape, you know?

01:03:43.71
Jeremy
Mmm.

01:03:44.66
Keith
So that, and that's,

01:03:44.82
Jeremy
Probably smells delicious.

01:03:46.49
Keith
It really does. And, but you know, when you, when you smoke, one of the things that, that was hard for me to quit was when you, when you, when you take that drag and you get that, get the sort of hit on your throat, they call it hit on your throat.

01:03:58.14
Keith
know, you feel that hit.

01:03:58.56
Jeremy
Mmm.

01:03:59.17
Keith
It's kind of like drinking whiskey.

01:03:59.32
Jeremy
Mmm-hmm.

01:04:00.25
Keith
You feel that hit when you, when you drink it, you know?

01:04:02.42
Jeremy
Mmm-hmm.

01:04:03.35
Keith
it's You don't get that when you drop the nicotine. It comes from the nicotine. You don't get that when you drop down to zero.

01:04:08.86
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:08.99
Keith
It's just like ah it's like drinking alcohol that's or soda that's flat. you know it's it just doesn't It's not right.

01:04:12.97
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:14.39
Keith
So that's why that's why I bounce back. but I'll get like a 0% and I'll get a 3%. And sometimes I'll mix them and this and that. If one day I'm wanting little bit bit more. So that that's what I did on that. But the thing about quitting smoking is I've told lots of friends who have done and have tried to do it. I always tell them the same thing because I am somebody who has done it. My best advice is quit when you're ready to quit.

01:04:38.78
Keith
There is going to be a time. And if you if you try to quit when when you're not right there and ready, it ain't going work, man.

01:04:40.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:45.90
Keith
You're going to fail.

01:04:46.01
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:46.82
Keith
It's going to fail.

01:04:46.94
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:47.22
Keith
And you're going to feel bad about yourself. And it's going harder the next time because you don't want to fail again.

01:04:51.30
Jeremy
Yep.

01:04:51.30
Keith
There's going to be a point where you're like, I'm done. going to wake up one day. That's it. I'm done. i feel like today's a ready day.

01:04:58.20
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:04:58.74
Keith
That's when you do it. And it's not going to make it easier, but it's going to make you hopefully yeah successful at it.

01:04:59.61
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:05:04.18
Jeremy
Yeah, I think that's been i think that's been my my biggest thing because I actually like to you know blagged smoke. Yeah,

01:05:11.77
Keith
Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's a crutch and we all like our crutches, you know.

01:05:14.62
Jeremy
yeah yeah. I do have one alibi for my goals is organization.

01:05:19.38
Keith
What do you guys, you guys keep calling alibis. What what is that?

01:05:22.30
Jeremy
An alibi?

01:05:23.51
Keith
I know what an alibi is, but, but is an, a but is an alibi an add on?

01:05:23.60
Jeremy
It's... ah Yeah, it's kind of like, I didn't get this out, but I do need to get it out.

01:05:28.14
Keith
You're saying. Okay.

01:05:29.27
Buddy
Yeah, yeah.

01:05:32.22
Jeremy
So going to add it on to the end, basically.

01:05:34.49
Keith
okay I thought alibi was when you're trying to get out of like killing somebody, you know?

01:05:38.30
Jeremy
yeah I mean, that's also a technique, you know, um um or I'll call it a caveat.

01:05:40.89
Keith
Okay.

01:05:45.28
Jeremy
We well i like to use that that phrase in the military, too. ah

01:05:48.41
Keith
Oh, you sound so fancy, fancy

01:05:49.75
Jeremy
Yes, um because there's always some one when you're leaving a meeting and you're like, let's get the hell out of this meeting.

01:05:51.13
Buddy
ah

01:05:58.26
Jeremy
And they say, is there any questions? And somebody always says, i'm going to caveat off of what the commander just said. And it turns into this whole stupid thing. But. um my My last one that I need to add on is organization and cleanliness.

01:06:12.79
Jeremy
I have a really bad tendency to get into a thing and start doing something and I leave it out. And I don't get back to it to clean it up. I've got ah it's another habit and I've got to get, I got to get better about it.

01:06:28.15
Jeremy
You know, I have all these bins and they're all labeled and it has stuff. I'll go digging for stuff and then I don't, I don't put the bin away or I don't put all the other crap, you know, back in the bin and put it back where it's supposed to go. So I really do have to get better about that.

01:06:42.42
Keith
Wow, man. I'll tell you what, you know, that's one of them things, man, a beautiful organized like shop.

01:06:48.31
Jeremy
yeah

01:06:48.28
Keith
You ever seen those shops that are like just beautiful and everything everything is labeled and it's all great and perfect and beautiful.

01:06:49.56
Jeremy
Oh, dude. Yes.

01:06:55.57
Keith
That's not my shop.

01:06:56.50
Jeremy
yeah

01:06:58.25
Buddy
That's a dysfunctional shop. that's ah That's a shop that nobody uses if it's clean.

01:07:02.33
Jeremy
and

01:07:02.33
Keith
Man, I'm going to tell you right now, I got shit everywhere. Every time I start a project, and I just shift junk from this pile to that pile.

01:07:05.44
Jeremy
But

01:07:09.37
Jeremy
but i I'm willing to bet.

01:07:09.71
Buddy
Dude, I don't trust them.

01:07:11.09
Jeremy
I'm willing to bet you know where that junk is. If somebody said, hey, yeah.

01:07:15.35
Keith
Sometimes, yes. I know the general area of it.

01:07:18.17
Jeremy
Yeah. If they said, Hey, do you have this particular kind of saw? I'm like, yeah, go in there, lift up that tire, go to the right about six inches. They're going to be 14 pounds of stupid paperwork. Look up underneath there.

01:07:29.05
Jeremy
For some reason i can recall that, but when somebody goes in and it happened, you know, somewhat recently, Missy actually had our daughter and her husband come in and they came in and they did a bunch of work while I was gone.

01:07:29.24
Buddy
Yeah, i don't.

01:07:41.26
Jeremy
And I'm like, I don't know where anything is. Oh my gosh.

01:07:43.70
Keith
and They moved her shit.

01:07:44.05
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:07:45.21
Keith
ah

01:07:46.58
Jeremy
They moved my mess. But yeah, I do. I really do have to get better about that. So.

01:07:51.80
Buddy
Do you trust somebody's shop that's like. like speak I mean, it's just like spotless to to work on your car. I mean, it's like they don't know what the hell they're doing. They're spending all their time cleaning, right?

01:08:01.27
Jeremy
and I mean, spotless is one thing.

01:08:03.10
Buddy
and I mean, yeah.

01:08:05.60
Jeremy
Oil on the floor, but organized. Yes.

01:08:08.70
Buddy
Yeah, yeah.

01:08:08.79
Jeremy
I mean. That's, I mean, I, I know guys who, I know guys who detail cars and they make cars look just absolutely incredible.

01:08:10.95
Buddy
We'll draw the line there.

01:08:17.26
Jeremy
And you think to yourself, I wonder how good their car looks. And it literally looks like a, like a mobile taco stand that's never been cleaned. like

01:08:24.79
Keith
your Your caveat just cost us four and a half minutes.

01:08:30.16
Jeremy
I know, man, it's always, but I, I mean, we ended on tacos.

01:08:31.44
Buddy
It's awesome.

01:08:33.74
Jeremy
How can you not have a good show without having something about tacos? I mean, come on.

01:08:37.89
Buddy
Yeah.

01:08:38.62
Keith
I mean, I love tacos more than love burritos.

01:08:39.00
Buddy
It is Tuesday.

01:08:40.86
Keith
It's just the way I roll, but...

01:08:42.30
Buddy
it is Tuesday.

01:08:43.00
Keith
um So yeah, health for me and fitness is definitely on the agenda for 26. My forest is another one with the timber and all that working with the forester. It's another goal for 2026. My bees are definitely a huge goal for 2026. I've got to become, I've got to not master it because you never master anything, but really bees is is a lifelong thing. But i really need to improve the my honeybee part of my business. That's going to happen in 2026. The garden is the other thing I'm going to improve on. The planting schedule has got to be better. It's got to be bigger. It's 50 by 20 right now. I'm adding on an additional 50 25.

01:09:26.18
Keith
pitched by twenty five I'm an additional by onto

01:09:26.74
Buddy
nice nice

01:09:30.93
Keith
and it's gonna Yes, I know.

01:09:31.16
Buddy
whoa

01:09:33.01
Keith
And you're just thinking, why? Because the things that I really wanted more of, I didn't have room for. For instance, corn. I wanted way more corn. Corn, you need a lot of room. You need a lot of room for corn. you know What were some of the things that that just exploded?

01:09:46.21
Keith
Well, there would be cucumbers, cucumbers for pickling, things like that. i needed i I didn't realize that they would grow that fast and there would be that many coming out all over the place. I need more room for that.

01:09:56.66
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:09:56.73
Keith
you know So well we're going bigger and my compost is getting restructured. I got two bin compost are happening right now where one bin is this beautiful, dark, delicious compost. And the one next to it is, is growing into its next one. I want to build that into a three system, make a little bit nicer, bigger.

01:10:14.39
Keith
Thinking about putting up a sort of a top on the, ah not all the way across the whole thing, but there's going to be shaded parts. We've got some shade cloths that we're goingnna put in for certain types of you know crop. So yeah, the planning schedule is going to be different. I'm hoping to you know, to put more, you know, put, put more in our bellies from the, you know, from the garden.

01:10:35.17
Keith
So those are our goals for 26.

01:10:35.49
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

01:10:36.27
Buddy
So question for you, you going to succession plant where you're going to season plant or just more in for the summer garden?

01:10:47.22
Keith
It is going to definitely be succession planting. And that's something that is, is maybe it's easy for some people. We don't, we haven't wrapped our heads around it yet. you really got to dial in your, when you seed for each one, you really have, they have to, the the plants have to grow in and in a specific order because all of a sudden you've plants that are, you know, that are, you've already eaten and you should have your next line of, you know, whatever it is, let's say greens, but you're not, they're not ready yet.

01:11:11.39
Buddy
Yeah.

01:11:13.53
Keith
So somewhere along the line, you, you, you waited too long or something. The timing has to be right for succession growing.

01:11:20.06
Buddy
Yeah. and And you have the the space now to do that. if If you just build on, you know, leave, leave space is what I'm saying when you plant.

01:11:27.35
Keith
Leave space. Exactly.

01:11:28.38
Buddy
Yeah, leave a little space and and you know, come in in about two weeks, three weeks later, plant another row, maybe a half a row, I don't know.

01:11:28.47
Keith
Yes.

01:11:36.15
Buddy
When you take something out, then you look forward to and and we're we're going into another episode.

01:11:41.02
Keith
Yeah. No, but that's the thing, man. we We ended up with like, all of a sudden your refrigerator is filled with stuff that you now have to eat before it goes bad, you know, and whereas you should have just enough in your fridge to eat.

01:11:49.62
Buddy
Yeah.

01:11:53.14
Keith
And then, then your next line comes up, you know that sort of thing.

01:11:56.25
Buddy
With your space you have now, you're going to be able to, you know, open up that farm stand or maybe go to a farmer's market or, or even do a FSA or something do a,

01:11:56.52
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:07.70
Buddy
you know, something where you can do a subscription, you know, for people in town to come out, you know, things.

01:12:12.06
Keith
Yeah. Well, and that's the other part of the business is the the bees and the the the hobby farm because it's it's Honeycomb Holler Apiary and Farm is the name of the company.

01:12:22.68
Keith
And we want to have that stand you know at the farmer's market that has the honey, the honey products, and also the farm products, the the garden products.

01:12:23.35
Buddy
Oh, yeah.

01:12:30.97
Keith
So that's that's it.

01:12:31.12
Buddy
Yeah.

01:12:33.43
Buddy
Nice.

01:12:34.12
Jeremy
Nice. Very nice. I mean, that's a lot of that's a lot of space.

01:12:37.34
Keith
What else? It's a lot of space.

01:12:39.89
Jeremy
That's a that's a farm farm.

01:12:42.23
Keith
Yeah, it's a lot of space. But you know, when you're working it, you feel like it's not. You're like, maybe I'm not using it right or something.

01:12:45.94
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:47.36
Keith
You feel like, you know, just like, whoa, i need more, need more.

01:12:50.04
Jeremy
Right. Right. I do know, based off of what happened this year with the bugs... Um, our vined plants, like our squash and stuff that's, and a lot of our, um, lettuce type plants got to get plant planted later in the year to get towards the cool season. Because I mean, after what happened with the squash bugs this year, I was, it was terrible.

01:13:13.56
Jeremy
It was really bad. Yeah.

01:13:16.02
Keith
You know, we had them too, but we used that diatonicious earth on it and on them.

01:13:16.41
Jeremy
So.

01:13:22.09
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

01:13:22.93
Keith
And we did a lot of neem oil and they disappeared and we still kept getting crop. we we they were They were gone.

01:13:28.41
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:13:29.53
Keith
And maybe maybe the chickens helped because, you know, sometimes you know ah a chicken or two will get up in there and and next day their the bugs are gone.

01:13:33.13
Buddy
They will. yeah

01:13:37.40
Keith
You know, they just eat them.

01:13:38.81
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:13:40.17
Buddy
They're a big help. It's the guineas too. the guineas will eat a lot of that stuff.

01:13:43.77
Keith
Yeah. But you got to monitor them because they will eat your crop too.

01:13:44.83
Buddy
Ticks and oh yeah chick yeah yeah.

01:13:46.91
Keith
yeah Some stuff they won't eat, some stuff they will eat.

01:13:50.29
Buddy
Chickens are bad too. so Little pecker heads.

01:13:52.09
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:13:54.33
Buddy
yep

01:13:54.64
Jeremy
Yep.

01:13:56.78
Keith
All right, then. i'm gonna Should we just end it there?

01:13:59.52
Jeremy
Yep.

01:13:59.54
Buddy
Well I have a, I got that code. i don't know if you saw it. So it is tops bunker 10 is the code.

01:14:06.14
Keith
Okay, so so go ahead and give it so go ahead and give us from the beginning, you know from the start.

01:14:06.39
Buddy
So

01:14:11.51
Buddy
all right.

01:14:11.58
Keith
Refuge Medical.

01:14:11.70
Buddy
So, So we do have a refuge medical discount code. It's called, it it is tops bunker 10 and it's a capital T and capital B and 10. We'll have it in the show notes. and You'll get 10% off of all your purchases through, through refuge medical. Use it.

01:14:30.30
Buddy
You know, you're going to help us. You're going to help us a little bit with the show. Getting a, you know, some better things. We'll be able to improve our show with ah the little money we get out of it, but,

01:14:41.46
Buddy
You're also going to get all you know gear that's made in America by Americans, top quality stuff that you're going to be able to actually get out there and and not have to worry about it failing.

01:14:55.06
Buddy
So TopsBunker10 is the code to use. Go out there and get your stuff.

My Prepper brothers and sisters…

Preparation rarely looks heroic.
Mostly, it looks like repetition, and waiting, and patience.
Like, choosing the long road, when the shortcut is right there, within your reach.

As 2026 moves forward, there will be days that feel unchanged.
Those are the days when the real work is taking place.

Seeds will disappear into dirt before they rise.
Steel hardens under pressure.
People become capable long before they’re tested.

This path we’re on doesn’t chase certainty.
It builds something that endures without it.

So keep working while the world sleeps.
Keep learning while others scroll past the moment.
Keep tending what feeds, warms, and shelters those you love.

And when the year turns over again…
you won’t need to announce your readiness.

Stay Prepped…

Stay Happy…

Thanks for Listening…

And Goodnight…