Libsyn Directory

Opt In To Nature To Opt Out Of The System(s) ~Epi-078

Release Date: 04/15/2024

The Sovereign Homestead

If you're seeing this in your podcast feed it means our first child has either arrived or is very nearly earthside! Sammy and I greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes in this time. The podcast will be on an indefinite (though hopefully relatively short) break, while we welcome our first child into the world and find our feet as new parents. Thank you all for listening and keep shining your light. -Casey & Sammy (and Tater) ____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Create Resilient Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive...

Floating Wetland Gardens In Pantry Ponds For Resilience, Function and Yield Stacking ~Epi-079

The Sovereign Homestead

Floating wetlands are a "new" old technology that is well worth looking into if you are doing aquaculture at just about any scale - from small backyard tanks a few hundred gallons in size, on up to multi-acre ponds and lakes. Floating wetlands take the essential functions provided by wetlands and concentrated them into a smaller and more mobile footprint. Wetlands are the kidneys of the landscape, and floating wetlands amplify many of those beneficial functions, such as: Integrated wetland (edge) functionality into an open water body = excess nutrient removal and water clarification Increased...

Opt In To Nature To Opt Out Of The System(s) ~Epi-078

The Sovereign Homestead

What do we mean when we say we want to "opt out" of the system? Firstly, it's the system(s) - the means of production, transport, communication, value transmission etc that we have to interface with to acquire the things we need to live in the modern world. In general, the further the distance a product or service must travel and the more technology involved means you will have less control over how to source it, how much you pay for it, when (and if) it is available etc. If it is produced or provided closer to home you have more agency in how you obtain that product or service and it is more...

Designing For LIGHT At Every Level - Patterns For Incorporating Natural Light Into The Built Environment ~Epi-077

The Sovereign Homestead

Light is an essential human nutrient. So much of our modern built environment is built without regard to orienting and integrating natural light, and our health - physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and communal - suffers for it. The good news is that you can design your structures (or retrofit them) to bring natural light back into them and create buildings and places within them that support human thriving because they are well integrated with natural light. Join me for a dive into the patterns of human habitation design that enhance our relationship with light from Christopher...

Zone 0 Pattern Language Fundamentals - Designing Your Permaculture Kitchen ~Epi-076

The Sovereign Homestead

Join me today as we discuss designing functional kitchen spaces that people want to be in. Lots of people are inheriting kitchens designed more for magazine covers than for function - and where there is a lack of function there is a concommitant increase in friction, which means more stress and less joy. Kitchens are the Zone 1 of Zone 0 - Zone 0 referring to the space inside the home. Kitchens are the heart of human life - communion over shared food, shared work, a space for being together, conversing, and generally connecting over the daily activities that make up life. Poorly designed...

Building Freedom And Community In The REAL Private Sector - Real World Applications For Private Membership Associations with Joshua Longbrook ~Epi-075

The Sovereign Homestead

Today I interview Joshua Longbrook on real world applications of Private Membership Associations for creating systems of support - i.e. the parallel society - outside the jurisdiction of the public (State dominated) sphere. We'll cover what PMAs are, what protections they do and do not offer, how they are best utilized as extensions of a larger unincorporated Church, and the types of voluntary interactions they enable within and between local communities. We'll also get into Josh's personal experience with running the Agora Food Club and how the structure has enabled many home-scale producers...

Sovereign Water - Spring Development Basics ~Epi-074

The Sovereign Homestead

Today's show is for those of you lucky enough to have a spring on your property. We will cover the basics of spring morphology and function - including the way I really think they work vs. what the textbooks say - and then we'll go over basic spring assessment criteria, and the main components of spring water collection and distribution systems. Show Resources Past Spring Projects YouTube - Technical Manuals Springs - Their Origin, Development And Protection, Taylor, G.H., U.S. Dept. Of Interior Geological Survey. [PDF]: Basic Ground Water Hydrology - Water Supply Paper...

Debt, Wealth & Counter-Economics As A Means To Create A World Worth Inheriting ~Epi-073

The Sovereign Homestead

How do we create a regenerative economy and all that entails when that work is arbitrarily outlawed, suppressed or actively disincentivized by the value systems that dominate our current culture? HINT: We have to step outside of the current imposed power structure - no permission required. My presupposition for this episode is this: Mainstream, state sponsored and enforced economic theory and practice has herded humanity as a whole onto a degenerative trajectory with respect to environmental integrity, social cohesion and individual well-being. We are living in a debt-driven world - stealing...

Grow Food, Fodder, Fences And Forts For Cheap With Livestaking ~Epi-072

The Sovereign Homestead

Today's episode is a short primer on live staking - what it is, how it works, what its good for, what types of species you can use to do it, and how to harvest, prepare and plant your live stakes. If you have perennially moist soils in need of stabilization, or are able to irrigate certain areas to ensure adequate soil moisture for establishment, you can plant hundreds of trees for pennies per stem and create living structures that provide many layers of function while getting stronger over time! Livestaking is a great way to establish living fences, plant and grow living structures, stabilize...

As Within So Without ~Epi-071

The Sovereign Homestead

As within so without. If we want to see changes in our external world (i.e. regenerating landscapes and ecosystems), we have to first address our internal state. The older I get and the more I learn, the less I can say I know for sure. This, though, is one of those things that I've arrived at as being one of those "indivisible kernels of truth" - something solid and constant upon which I can build a foundation for regeneration. The external state of our landscapes is a direct reflection of our own internal states. This has always been true in every consultancy I have ever done. This is...

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What do we mean when we say we want to "opt out" of the system?

Firstly, it's the system(s) - the means of production, transport, communication, value transmission etc that we have to interface with to acquire the things we need to live in the modern world. In general, the further the distance a product or service must travel and the more technology involved means you will have less control over how to source it, how much you pay for it, when (and if) it is available etc. If it is produced or provided closer to home you have more agency in how you obtain that product or service and it is more resilient to "disruptions"

Why are so many of us drawn to opting out?
We have no agency over the direction of the system(s) - they are by and large completely hijacked by parasites - the political technocratic oligo-corporate controlling class. If we want to have more agency, and thus freedom to live life on our own terms - in alignment with our innate intelligence - the solutions are found in living in closer connection with Nature and other decentralized/distributed systems based on Nature.

Fundamentally, this is about designing your life to create freedom from the system(s) via interdependence with Nature. We all have an ecological umbilical cord - we are completely and utterly dependent upon functioning ecosystems to provide us with ALL of the things we need and want to live well. The sooner we acknowledge this the sooner we can be FREE from pretending we don’t have an ecological umbilical and all resulting pathology that follows.

What We Can Do To Opt Out By Opting In To Nature Connection

Create freedom from the system(s) by leveraging your interdependence with Nature - choose to ally your life with Nature - Nature is what "they" fear and cannot ever control.
Harvest and use Nature’s gifts - everywhere nature gives us gifts for free
Become ecosystem literate where you live - every place has something that wants to grow there - use analogs to find productive species to meet your needs
Embrace Cyclical vs. Linear
- Cyclical = biology-based - slower, but infinitely more resilient and powerful - where how you grow & harvest can enrich the whole ecosystem.
Trust in Distributed wisdom vs. Centralized “intelligence”
- centralization of decision-making authority and technical know-how is a hallmark of the technocratic system being pushed upon us
- the opposite of this is Nature - wisdom in every cell
  - YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE CELLS - composed of trillions of other cells - each with it’s own innate wisdom
Find your place and commit to it and it’s people - so much of the control system is commodification of the things that used to be provided via reciprocity by close human relationships.