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Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous.

Mom and Isaac from Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age of 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

We’re praising the Lord. That ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Welcome back to the Courageous Parenting Podcast.

Hey guys. Thanks for joining us.

So good. We’re so glad you’re here. Wow. Last week was a little rough if you got that. But actually in title I’d say rough and title. But once people listen to it, they’re like, wow, that helped me to not fear about a nationwide blackout.

Yes, that’s true. That’s what it’s kind of funny how when you are limited to 2 to 6 words, potentially for a title for something, you’re like, okay, well what’s the most important words to put in there? It can leave people thinking that it’s something that it’s not and vice versa. Right. And so we obviously if you guys have been listening for any length of time, we’ve got over 285 podcast episodes. And, you know, we’re staying true to who we are, um, here at Courageous Parenting and Be Courageous Ministry. And we’re just so thankful that you guys are here, that you’re supporting us, whether that’s through sharing, commenting on that, the podcast areas or even on our YouTube channel, which, you know, that’s kind of fun today if you’re, uh, watching the YouTube video, you might be wondering about Isaac’s eye.

I got an extreme sports injury.

It’s true. What were you doing, babe? Spikeball with the teenage boys?

Yeah. I got punched in the face by one of my sons on accident. You know, we play intensely. I mean, they are so good. They’re getting trained by the experts in the area and just trying to keep up with them. It takes all of me. I was pretty sore today. Not only the the partial black eye, puffy eye, the.

Brain fog and headache that goes with it.

Hey, uh, you can check it out on YouTube if you want, but, uh, one of them just subscribe. I mean, my eyes naturally droop a little bit puffy up here, but now it’s a little extreme.

It’s like you have purple or pink.

It’s not. This isn’t about me. Let’s keep going. No, no. So. But, uh. But. Yeah, excited to do this. We’re talking about food supply crisis, but not in, uh, a fear based way. Instead a practical way like, hey, you know, this is obvious. This is not a conspiracy theory. They are saying that they don’t want people eating meat. They are saying that they want to restrict things there. They are putting things in the food supply on purpose. There are goals written down by powerful people that want to depopulate the Earth because they idolize, um, this climate crisis theory.

You just said something super controversial that there’s people purposefully trying to depopulate, but they’re unapologetic about it. It’s everywhere.

Whether they’re doing it or not. They’re saying that that’s a goal.

I mean, anyone who is like, I’m just going to be really honest. We are super unapologetically pro-life here. So anybody who is for abortion in our mind there is they are depopulating the earth, right? There’s murder is occurring. I’m just being very blunt. But the reality is, is you’ve got tons of lawmakers and people who are are not elected leaders. That that is their mentality is a less of a population. Of course, they, you know, claim that it affects climate control. There’s all kinds of things interesting enough that carbon dioxide is needed in order to produce good lush plants and food and so forth.

You know, some people think on that even though that’s not well, this is relevant. Yeah, there’s there’s scientists that are coming out really reputable ones and thinking that, you know, in the times of the Garden of Eden, there was way more carbon dioxide because there would have to be to have such lush vegetation.

The tropical rainforest type of environment, what we all envision. But it was perfect. Then Earth was perfect. We live in a fallen world now, and part of that fallen world is that there’s chemicals, there’s pollution in the air, which I’m sure that you guys agree. Yeah, there’s pollution in the air. That’s an obvious right. And so that affects the food that’s being grown. It affects the food that you buy at the grocery store. But then when you add in extra pollutants or teratogenic, if you will, like, when they’re doing genetically modified substances and trying to make things they’re basically doing like growth therapy on produce to make it bigger so they can sell it to you for more and so that it can go farther. And the truth is, is it’s not better for us. I mean, if we think about, you know, the fortified processed foods and the GMO and the processed. Yeah, in the produce. And then you think, now we’ve got the potential for lab grown meat.

Hey, you know what’s interesting?

That could equal health issues.

We’ll get into this in a sec. But what’s interesting is I love to play chess. I don’t very often, but the the children get a bounty if they beat me and they.

Don’t beat him very.

Often. I think to have two to the oldest two are the ones that have tied or beat me. Oh yeah.

There’s a challenge for the other.

Seven. Yeah, the ones at home haven’t yet, I don’t think. But anyways, you know, in business it’s a lot like playing a chess. The more moves you think ahead, the better you are in business. But you know what? Maybe it didn’t used to be the case. But now parenting is the same way. Parenting is like playing chess. You actually have to be thoughtful. You have to be thinking about what’s ahead. The more moves ahead you can think, the better decisions you can make today. Uh, parenting today takes courage because. And it takes foresight. And it takes vision more than ever, more than any previous generation. So no matter what you’ve experienced, you’ve got to be, let’s face it, you’ve got to be a little better. You got to be a little more resilient. You got to be a little more in tune with the Bible than previous generations.

Well, I think that previous generations needed it just as much, actually. I just think that they were fighting different challenges and they were, you know, because we’re in the situation we are now with. I’m just going to be I’m going to throw out a whole generation, millennials and their belief system alone. Right. So think of how like our parents.

Generation labeling all people.

No no no no no no no I’m not.

I just want to make sure because I love the millennials.

But I’m saying statistically, how many of them are okay with a communist society? Statistically, how many of them vote for those kinds of laws? Statistically, how many are pro-choice versus pro-life? Statistically, how many are I could go on and on and on with all of these statistics.

There’s any every generation has an increasing, uh, uh, lack of morality and increasing, um, uh, un appreciation of capitalism and these kinds of things.

Yeah, but but when you look at Scripture, which was thousands of years ago, you had churches like the Corinth Church that were completely morally depraved.

Go back and read the first and second Corinthians. You’re going to see or even one of the worst churches, uh, environments that ever existed. And Paul still loved them. And so I just really appreciated that.

Yeah, but you guys, like, this is the thing is that no, no, sin is new. We’re not saying that like, there’s new sin or worse, like the sin is sin. And it’s been around for as long as, you know, Adam, since Adam and Eve. So, so. But we’ve got the ramifications of that affecting food.

So let’s talk about some of these realities and we’ll dive in. Uh, you know, FDA approved lab grown meat. Uh, you never know where that might start existing. My understanding right now is it’s still too expensive. It costs more to do that. And so the cheap foods out there probably aren’t doing it yet because it’s it’s so expensive. But I’m not sure I don’t know. I’m not an expert on this. Hold on, hold.

On, hold on. So for the people that are listening for a second who maybe don’t know how lab grown meat is, can you describe that?

I mean, very basic, right. So, uh, they take cells from chicken. This is specifically what was approved as taking approved by the FDA and taking cells from chicken and then growing it in a lab versus chickens being grown through eggs in the normal God given process.

Perfect. So it’s not like they’re like growing a goat inside a incubator.

I don’t know what their process is, but they’re taking cells and doing that. There’s a lot of theories that the danger of this, I mean, I don’t think I just just a simple look at it. I don’t think humans can ever do things to the level. God can do things. So because of that premise, in my belief, I think anytime you take something away from God’s design and plan, it’s just going to be corrupted. When humans get involved trying to replicate what only God used to be able to do. Amen. It’s going to. Something’s going to happen. It’s going to cause cancer. Something that’s some of the thoughts out there.

That’s really what only God can do in a sense too. It’s not. Yeah. I just think that there’s an there’s an element where people need to realize that this is something that they’re unapologetically putting out, you know, um, materials saying, oh, yeah, FDA approved for chicken, for example, and things like that. And so what is that as a consumer, as a parent who is like, okay, well, if they’re doing this in a lab, I don’t really trust anybody in a lab. What are they going to potentially put in that meat is also a question in mom’s mind. Something else.

Is interesting. I don’t know. You never know what’s true on the internet. But there’s a lot of reels and things going around of the population in Russia. Uh, just people walking on the street. I don’t know if it’s real or not. Could be propaganda, but, uh, there’s everybody’s pretty fit, you know, there’s there’s people that are, you know, skinny everywhere. And, um, you also look at the videos from people walking on the streets, uh, back in the, you know, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. Right. And everybody’s pretty skinny, pretty fit. And so what’s changed? You know, you can say a lot of things changed, but one of them is GMO, right. And that’s that’s kind of what people are talking about.

Yeah. And I think that’s a there’s a lot of different elements in Russia.

And Russia outlawed GMO, by the way, which makes which makes that point. But I don’t know if it’s real.

Yeah. Well we also know that, you know, 40s 50s. That’s when you see technology starting to come about. I remember my dad talking about when the first TV was invented, and he was a kid and watching TV for the first time. And. You know. And so that obviously becomes like a form of entertainment. Whereas kids used to be running around the backyard playing with sticks and rocks and, and playing baseball and so forth.

And so we got to do a whole episode on video games, by the way, that’s coming soon. Yeah. But anyways, let’s dive in.

Okay. So you guys today, you know, we get that there is a a need for this conversation because think back to 2020, what happened when Covid hit during that US election in 2020. Um, and in 2021 there was a shortage of eggs. We were limited to one carton of eggs per family, and there was nine of us living at home.

I don’t know about you. Do you have pivotal points? You listening? This is so. I’m glad you brought it up, Angie, because pivotal points make action. And one of the pivotal points was eggs for me, weirdly, the thing for us, it was the thing. It was like, I remember going to the store to get a dozen eggs, a major department store, and there was very few left. There was people kind of starting to huddle around the eggs and it said one dozen per family. And I remember thinking, yeah, that’s going to be half of one breakfast for our large family, right. And of course, a lot of people in the world will go, well, you shouldn’t have so many kids, right, in that kind of situation. And I would go, well, actually, the efficiency per person in our household is higher than other households because.

Like carbon footprint.

Well yeah, that but also, you know, when you make eggs there’s less waste because you’re making you’re making in a group and less fuel to cook it all. I could go into this. But anyways, on a per person level we’re very efficient. But we do need 24 eggs to eat breakfast. No it’s true. And I’m like, whoa, wait, hold the horses here. We got to create change. We’re living in a neighborhood at the time. We got to create change and we were living also where you couldn’t grow things.

Yeah.

So those so that was a big wake up call. It’s like, ah, I don’t want to be controlled like this. I got a big family. Yeah.

It was a big deal. And then there were other things that went out of stock. If you remember, I’m going to make you laugh. Toilet paper and paper towels. Right. But there were other things too, like vitamin C and ibuprofen. And people were getting sick and they were doing shelter in place. And you’re like, really? Vitamin C’s out of stock everywhere online. It’s not deliverable. Are you joking me? Like, that’s just the reality of what we experienced, right? And so it could happen again in the future. And what are we going to learn from what we experienced the first time, or are we just going to continue living the way we were? And I think that a lot of people who are listening today are remembering that and going, yeah, you know what, maybe it is wise. And I’m not saying hoard toilet paper. That’s not what I’m saying. But what I am saying is we need to we there is an element of like trying to be wise and not be so completely dependent upon the government or society or, um, or grocery outlets or, you know what I’m saying, like, so today I think that, you know, the first topic we want to talk to you guys about regarding this food supply is the importance of networking and bringing value yourself to your network. It’s not just who you know. So you can get the bacon from who you want and you know it’s going to be organic. No, no, no. It’s also like developing relationships with people where you can either barter or trade or be able to buy from one another, and you can trust where it’s coming from.

One of the reasons that’s so important when Angie just said, is because when challenge really happens, those people who grow the pigs and grow the cows and you get your milk from and these kinds of things, they’re going to ration down to the list that of people that are most devoted, closest to them, easiest to work with in their inner circle kind of people when they have difficulty getting feed or whatever it is in their situation. So if you want to be on the inner circle, you really do need to build that relationship. It can’t just be a transaction with these people and the better. What Angie said is, I just want to reiterate is what value can you bring? So you stay on their inner circle as a supply, uh, as someone that supplies to your family because you can also supply to their family, it might not even be in food. Maybe you’re supplying in other ways.

You know, it’s interesting when you’re talking about that. It kind of reminded me of my relationship with the farm that we get our raw milk from. Um, and one of the things that I have, I have tried to bring to that relationship with that farmer is to bring her more customers. And so I’ve referred so many people to start getting milk from her. And I know that like that matters hugely to local farmers. Is the personal reference, the personal recommendation of people who are going to follow through, that are going to pay, that are going to be there. And I think that that that is an easy way to bring value. If you can’t bring, you know, anything that’s physical, like a physical product. Being a something that helps them to make profit, helps them is I mean, I know this just as a business owner, right? Like there’s this element of like camaraderie and you really do. To give preference to the people who have helped you. And so that’s just the reality. So be wise. And if you don’t know your neighbors again, I mean, that was something we talked about in last week’s podcast in regards to like, what if a blackout happens, but know your neighbors, talk to them and and and share about like what kind of tools you have. And this isn’t for like if something happens, we do this now and borrow and help other people loan, um, different equipment to one another.

Generous. And that fosters generosity with the people around you. Yeah. If if there’s a record of you loaning things to people when you need something, they’re probably going to loan you things. And it’s cultivating a trust that when things are loaned, they come back good. And these kinds of things. And you want to build. So build your network. If you’re in a neighborhood, apartment complex, condo somewhere, um, you know, house in a neighborhood farm, whatever the situation is, you can do these things we’re talking about.

Yeah. So clearly networking is going to be huge for you, especially if you’re in an apartment or a townhouse or in a suburb area where you have a tiny yard. And I just want to encourage you guys, if you’re listening today and that’s you and you don’t live on land, you guys, we’re going to talk about a lot of different, um, projects and, and opportunities where you can actually grow and becoming more independent, um, than you were previously, which is a good thing to practice. But also these are like domestic skills that honestly are kind of like lost arts in a way. Um, canning, for example, is one of those things that I viewed as a lost art among women today, trying to find someone who knows how to can and who can pass down their wisdom and do it with you, because it’s kind of a hands on thing, is a hard thing.

You know, I just had a thought. As we go into this, I imagine there’s thoughts. How do you have time to can it feel like I’m so busy with my littles right now, or I’m so busy with my middles that are going to sports, or I’m so busy with this that I can’t imagine adding canning to my list. Not to mention growing what you’re canning and these kinds of things. And my challenge to you is you really need to be in the heart of the home in the app, because Angie is talking about concepts of how do you navigate this? And maybe we’re busy doing some of the things that are inferior to what’s best for the future right now. Like maybe there’s too much time driving in a car, and we need to start to be aware of decisions we make that cause us to constantly be driving. Or maybe it’s not decisions, but just a lack of desire in being in our home that we never want to admit those kinds of things and so much more. Angie is talking about in the mom, uh, group that’s private in the Be Courageous app, and all the recordings of those are there. And she’s live every Friday. So yeah, I encourage you to join me.

I think we’re starting the the this Friday is going to be building together the heart of the home. It’s talking about how to run a household and manage a household when you’re married. And I think that this is going to be a really helpful session. And they’re usually about an hour, and this is the 10th week in a row that we’ve done that or ten sessions that we’ve had so far. So there’s quite a lot of content there for you to binge watch. If you want to try the app out for for a week, I think you can get it for free for a week, right? App store. So go look in the App Store. I want to share something with you guys because obviously we try to keep our podcast, um, biblical. And one of the first verses that when we were talking about this, because a lot of what what we’re talking about today, like Isaac, has done a lot of the networking with the, the neighborhood guys, um, more so and I’d say you’ve done a lot too, and I’m, I’m, I feel like I’m trying to more with the women. Um, and but but the truth is like in our dynamics and our marriage. And it may be different in your marriage, and that’s totally fine. It’s not like a gender role thing. I tend to do more of the growing of the food, but I love gardening like it’s I, I think there’s like farmer in me or something. I just love being in the dirt and growing. When you were gone.

For a few days, I was in charge of the garden. Uh, by the way, I did a fantastic job. He did a great job. You know, the one thing that I failed at and is just a knack that she has, is finding these grubs. Finding bugs. Oh. The hornworms. Okay, it’s on my list to find these grubs. And I look around. I saw hardly any grubs while I was watching. The garden will.

Camouflage themselves on the leaf, and.

She goes in there and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I’m just like, feed.

Em to the chickens.

We all have different gifts.

That’s true. Um, so anyway, you know, a lot of what we’re talking about today is that. But you brought up a really important, um, topic which goes along with this Proverbs 3125 that I want to share with the women. So Proverbs um, 31 I was actually going through a huge portion of this in the very first, um, live that I did in the heart of the home. But verse 25 says, strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. So obviously this is talking about character, strength, dignity, spiritual maturity. Um, are what are helping her to have a confidence about what is coming in the future or what potentially could come in the future. Here’s the reality we know from scriptures like. The wise man who builds his house on the rock, and the foolish man who doesn’t write, which is actually about hearing what the Word of God says and doing it, applying it to your life versus hearing and not applying it. But we know from that scripture that hard times, winds, rains, floods, um, snow, sleet, all those things are potentially good. They are going to hit regardless of if you’re a wise man or you’re a foolish man. What happens is your house either stands or it falls based upon if you’re wise or foolish. And isn’t that true about life? Like hard times will potentially hit at any given time? It’s not necessarily dependent upon a world crisis happening.

Right? And so for the wise woman who’s building her home to understand the importance of being able to be somewhat of a visionary and go, you know what? Like, here’s a real basic one. Being more frugal, you see that mustard is on sale, like massively on sale, and you could buy six of them and it would last you six months. One mustard per month, and you could spend the same amount as you would if you were to just buy one mustard on a month when it’s not on sale. What do you do? Do you just take the discount and have a smaller bill? Or do you stock up on those mustards and have five in your pantry and not buy mustard and end up saving yourself? You know, six times the amount you would have spent in in the course of six months. For me, I would buy six mustards because I know it’s going to save me. Right. And so there are things that you can do regarding what you’re practically doing that would, in my mind, follow under being wise, having vision. Well, is the price going to potentially go up next year or on certain things based upon what’s happening in the world? We’ve had so much inflation the last three years regarding food.

So when you see things on sale, taking advantage of them versus not as good. But here’s the thing. Proverbs 3125 is just one verse in an entire chapter and an entire book, and that entire chapter actually gives accolades over and over and over again, making a point to show how hard the Proverbs 31 woman is working at growing her food, having food for she provides food for her household. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. Verse 15. She opens the her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. Verse 20. There’s I mean you could go through for all of her household is clothed and scarlet. She’s not afraid of the snow for her household. You guys, she is thinking about what is the next season that’s coming. And I’m going to make sure that we have warm mittens, because snow is a right around the corner. That is something that we need to do. So in regards to what is happened in the past, what could happen in the future, the reality that life gets hit sometimes we should be trying to become more independent and teach our children how to do these things, because these are going to be skills that are even more of a lost art in their generation. Well, let’s.

Dive into how to grow food. Uh, you may know how to grow food, but this might just be reminders. It might be encouragement since right now is the beginning of this process. And, um, you can go ahead and keep it, honey. Okay. Thank you. Um, beginning of the process and growing seeds, you know, and having seeds the next year you didn’t have to pay for and these kinds of things. And then what to grow and how to understand your soil and these kinds of things are really, really important. We just want to take a second to share the Parenting Mentor program with you. Over 3000 parents have had their legacies forever impacted. I mean, it is incredible what God’s doing with the Parenting Mentor Program, the self-paced program at Courageous Parenting.com. Let’s just listen for a moment, and then we’ll get back to the podcast episode.

Steve and I realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our children.

What Angie and Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world.

It has given me the vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents who are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart.

We now have a game plan to how we want to raise our children. We have so many answers to the questions that have been in our mind.

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in Scripture this is.

Do your legacy a favor and yourself a favor and just do it.

One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year. And I could not recommend it more.

We’re no longer fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next generation.

So I think Angie’s going to talk about a little bit about the foundation of growing things for optimal success.

And hey, don’t get scared as I’m talking about growing things. We’re going to give you some, um, if you are just starting off, my perspective is to start small. Wherever you are, start small. And then over the years you can add a little bit and grow a little more. So it’s doable. Um, so we’re going to start super basic, but for those of you who maybe have already been growing your own seeds, that’s the first part of this growing your food, right. Um, you can go to places and purchase starter starts, right. Vegetable starts. And they’re, you know, between, uh, two inches tall. And I mean, you can get really big ones that are, you know, 12in tall. Um, but a lot of times people will go to Home Depot or they’ll go to these local garden centers and they’ll buy starts of different things, and they may not use an entire package. Right. Which can I just say, if that’s you and, you know, a neighbor that wants to also garden, I would recommend going to the garden center together and discussing and trying to make a plan to where it’s like, hey, I’ll buy this package and I’ll split it in half with you, and you buy that package and we’ll split that one in half. And you know, there are ways to make it cheaper so that you’re not wasting food and wasting money. Okay, that’s one little tip. Another tip is that if you really want to save, really starting your own seeds is not that hard and it’ll save you a lot of money.

A package of seeds is typically between 2 and $6, depending on how many seeds you’re buying. You can also buy bigger quantities, which makes the seeds per seed cheaper, but they’re more expensive for more, right? Um, and this is the deal. You could even divide up seeds among neighbors, which is something that I’ve just recently been talking to with. One of our neighbors is going, hey, I have this. Do you have this? And being able to share and trade seeds because the seed packets are typically around $3.69 for 100 seeds. So it’s like, hey, I’ll give you some tomatoes if you give me some peppers. And so there’s a way that you can go around this to where it doesn’t have to be hundreds of dollars in seeds. Um, this is the other thing. When you’re growing your seeds, one thing that is super important to know when you buy a package of seeds, it’s very few vegetables where the seeds are only going to last one year, meaning you need to plant them that year. I don’t know if you knew this, but the majority of seeds will on average last you three years, so like for me, I think I bought two tiny packages of seeds this year. That’s like $6, you guys. $6 is what I’m going to be spending on my garden, Lord willing.

And last year she got over £3,000 of vegetables from the gardens.

That’s right. But last year I did spend probably $90 on seeds because I hadn’t bought any yet. Right. However, what’s interesting is for those of you who have been following along for a while, you know, we harvested about £900 of potatoes. And, you know, it’s funny, I only bought $15 worth of seed potato because I had organic potatoes from the year before that we had cured and been using. And then some of them started to go to seed, and I saved them and kept them in a way that you can keep them with straw or sand. And then I planted those, and that was our entire seed potatoes for two 61ft by four foot rows. And we were able to harvest £900. And the majority, I would say 95% of that was just from the the potatoes that went to seed. So if you buy organic in the grocery store and you have your potatoes long enough, you’ll start seeing them have little eyes coming on, that’s them going to seed. And you could actually plant that potato, and it will give you between 7 and 20 little potatoes off of that potato. Isn’t that incredible? And so don’t ever throw a potato away. All you need is like a little, um, a even a put it in a hole, a basket. You don’t even. Yeah, you can do it in your ground, but you can also do it in any planter that you want, as long as it’s deep enough. And really, they only need to have like 12 to 16in deep. And so imagine if you weren’t buying potatoes, that was us this year. We didn’t have to buy any potatoes.

We did verify that Idaho has incredible potatoes.

It is true. Um, but you know, it’s the same thing with like, onions. You can cure them and have them all throughout the year. We had £266 of onions. But you guys, you know what that came from? That was from going to the local DMV, which is similar to a Tractor Supply Co and seen for $6.75. They had a bag of 100 onion bulbs, and I just put them in the ground and they all just grew great. I think I lost two total.

How do you make sure, uh, the they didn’t come from GMO? I guess they all do, don’t they.

Well, no they don’t all um, and when you go to places that are like D and B, for example, they’re much more conscientious about organic and not doing GMO. And so they’ll oftentimes carry only seed packets from companies that have heirloom varieties. And they’re really careful about that. But you’ve got to find your place that’s in your place. I think that that’s just in our place. That’s just in Idaho. But you can ask and you can look around. But hey, ordering online, online, there’s Eden Seeds. I love theirs territorial seeds. I’ve bought from them for probably 15, 16 years that I’ve gardened. Um, there’s so many online that are popping up. But here’s the really cool part. You can save money in the future by taking your fruit and harvesting the seeds out of them and drying them, letting them dry on paper towels. And after about a week, they’re dry, and then you just put them in a little plastic bag or a mason jar. If you have a whole bunch and you plant those seeds the next year and you’re good to go.

But there’s something really unique that Angie taught me that I think is fascinating, which is that that next year when you have your own seeds, they’re actually better seeds than the seeds you bought because they were grown in your soil within your environment. And so they have adapted a little bit to be even better for your environment because they came from your environment.

Well, what’s really cool about it is when you start gardening. I’m right. Right. I think so, yeah. I mean, I think that there’s an element of a hardiness depending on your zone. So, you know, I think that maybe I skipped a really important thing. So depending on where you live, the first step would be to find out what zone you live in. Um. Where five be six a um, and so we have snow, we have a bipolar march. And so I have to watch this one mountain and once it doesn’t have snow on it, then I know I can put my. Well, that.

Was another tip right there. Ask your local people what to watch for.

Network, because.

Multiple people told us people do it wrong. They just follow what’s online. But you got to follow the civic place. You’ve got to look at this mountain.

And once the snow is completely.

Gone, it seems to be.

Right. It’s interesting because I followed it the last two years and we’ve had phenomenal gardens. Now you learn every year, depending, like even within our property, there’s different areas that have different types of soil. So the second thing, after finding out your zone would be to test your soil, you can get a super simple $6 pH kit. In fact, this would be really interesting to teach your kids. Have your kids do. They could take a little kitchen spoon outside or if you don’t want them using your nice silverware, get them on a thrift store for $0.25. Have them go outside, dig up a tiny little soil and come in and do the pH and acidity test and see what minerals are in the soil. Send them out to a different part. Find out what part of your garden has the best or part of your property, has the best kind of soil for planting. And what’s really cool about this is it’s like homeschool science slash agriculture. This is a very essential part that I think a lot of people skip. Um, because most soil, um, especially if it’s been farmed before or if you live in a neighborhood, you’re going to need to amend your soil a little bit.

Um, but, you know, the the truth is, is that you can get a, um, a food for your soil for your starters and your seeds. That’s literally called starter seed soil amendment. And you’re going to be just fine. Um, it’s going to be good for your seeds. It’s super simple. Here’s the other thing. A lot of times people think about, um, planting seeds and they’re like, oh, what about all the equipment? That’s an investment. I don’t have a lot of money. Hey, why don’t you pick your 2 or 3 vegetables that you know you and your kids are going to love? Just pick 2 or 3. Maybe it’s green beans. Um, what’s another easy one? Peas. Well, carrots can be easy for some people. Depending on where they live. They can be harder. They can be harder. I’ve had a hard time with them. Last year was our first real good year. But I’m learning. Even though I’ve been gardening for 23 years.

Cucumbers are easy.

For you. Um, yeah, but they weren’t when we lived in Oregon, so it’s just it’s interesting where you live. So pick your three favorite vegetables, look up your zone and evaluate. You know what would be the the best three seeds to buy. And then just start simple. Just start with three things. And for those of you who have an apartment complex, um, or you’re in a townhouse or in a house that doesn’t have a backyard, I have the best solution for you ever. It’s called the Green Stalk Garter Gardener, and we have used this tiered planter for years and years and years. Um, I think we’ve had it for three years now. But before that I did like strawberry pots, which was very similar to that, and I had a different one, but this one is my favorite. Um, you can get them with five tiers or seven tiers, and then the very top, you just put water in the top, and then it trickles down through all the tiers and waters them all. So it’s an easy way to water many plants. Um, one year I think I had 37 different, um, vegetables or plants in my green stock.

Gardener took up like, you know, two square feet or three.

And then it just went up. And what was great about it is that I ended up getting the frost covering, um, insulator bag that you can put over it. So I was able to start my seeds early, put it outside, put this cover over it, and then on hot days take remove the cover. And it it made a huge difference before we had our big garden.

Just think about this too, from a parenting perspective too is we’re feeling the urge to do this right? Because what’s happening in the world? How much more important is it likely for your children to be good at doing this in their futures? That’s true. And so no matter how much space you have, you can learn with the garden stock. There’s a way to get that cheaper, right?

Oh yeah. I mean, we we’ve collaborated with them for years now. Um, I think the code is courageous. Mom, if you just put Courageous Mom in your checkout, it’s Greenstalk gardener. Com and you can find they have multiple different colors. They have all these different tools and things like that. But you could start small if you only have a patio. This is a way for you to grow some vegetables. Let’s say you just like strawberries and you get strawberry starts and you fill the whole thing with strawberries. Or you just want to start with an herb garden so that you’re not buying herbs at the grocery store, and you put herbs all throughout it. There are so many different ways that you can use it. You use lettuce, you can put broccoli in it, green beans, all kinds of things. Um, but the point of why I’m bringing it up is that there are easier ways. It doesn’t have to be like what we’re doing on our six acres where we have a quarter acre that we’re doing a huge pasture, um, area. Um, and it doesn’t have to be 1000 square foot garden or any size. You can use pots to start learning how to grow vegetables. And I guarantee you as you do it, it’s one of those things where once you try home grown veggies, you just have a hard time going back. It’s really a wonderful thing. And when you figure out what is good for you to grow in your area, then you can become that can be your thing, that can be your crop, that you then can share with other people or trade with if you need to in the future.

Angela say they pick the right soil. They understand their zone, they plant their seeds, they start watering it and these kinds of things. Still, even when they get those things right, there’s a lot of people out there that get discouraged because it doesn’t work out for them. And so what are the habits that you have that are lending towards success that you want to make sure they know about?

That’s a I’m really glad you asked that question, because I wouldn’t have thought to share that in today’s podcast. But you and I have had conversations about this and really, I think the biggest thing is, uh, being diligent and dedicated. Um, it takes daily time with your garden, actually, when your seeds are first planted, you don’t want the soil to dry out. You need to keep them moist but not soaked. Um, and so that takes daily going in and spritzing your seeds. Right. Um, it takes paying attention to the soil, maybe using a water thermometer to see if you’re not able to because you’re not able to put your finger in or whatever. Um, because maybe the pocket that you planted the seed in is too small for you to put your finger in. Um, for us, some of the plants that we plant are that way. Um, another thing that is really, um, important is that you are keeping your eye out for pests. You’re you’re you’re looking for the bugs, the beneficial ones. You’re look, taking time to look up the bugs and not just getting rid of every bug you see, because some are beneficial. I love seeing ladybugs. I love seeing praying mantis worms. I love seeing certain bugs. But now when I see a hornworm, that’s like enemy number one to me. I love seeing the spiders. I love like there’s certain bugs that you want to have in your garden, but there’s certain ones that will literally kill every tomato plant in a matter of like, well, if you have two tomato plants, they’d be gone in maybe two days.

So you’re a you’re tending daily. Yeah. So the you can.

See what’s happening.

That’s a gardener. Not just a.

Person who’s gardening interested. Interested.

You can’t just be interested. It’s just like anything. An interested gardener doesn’t usually follow through, but a gardener follows through.

So you have to you need to become. You just need to own that. And, um, it becomes part of your daily routine. And it’s if you have children, you do it with them. It’s not that you need to find more time away from them to do this. No, you bring them with you. You teach them how to be careful with weeding. You teach them the importance of watering and making sure you’re not over watering things. And, you know, it’s it’s really, you.

Know, there’s so much to this. We got some other things to talk about. And we have we have limited time. So one of the things I noticed you started doing in the homesteading group in the app is starting to literally because people asked you to do this, literally showing them through video while you’re doing your steps this year. Right?

So I just made soil for my seeds because stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s will sell a tiny £5 bag of this seed starter soil, and they’ll sell it for ten bucks. But if you buy ingredients like coconut coir, um, vermiculite and, um, perlite and and sphagnum peat moss, you can make your own in bulk quantities and it can last you years upon years, actually. And it’s way better. And it doesn’t have chemicals in it. And so it’s you’re organically gardening. So I taught that recipe.

And so she’s going to be doing that. By the way just a thought. Why the app. You know it’s 8.99 a month obviously a week free. But why do you guys do that when you could just create a Facebook group. Or you could just share this on Instagram and everybody free could enjoy this? Well, there’s lots of reasons, but one I want to share with you is there’s no promise. In fact, there’s a big warning on whether we’ll even be allowed to stay on Instagram in the future or Facebook in these different platforms. And so from a production standpoint and time and energy standpoint, it takes a massive amount of effort actually to put this stuff out on a consistent basis. So we it would be so devastating. Imagine you build libraries of content and all these things, and your heart is to just give it to people. It’s absolutely our heart. But then it’s just in a click of a button. Someone that doesn’t agree with us on something wipes it away.

I mean, that could happen to our podcast.

That could that could happen.

300 episodes would disappear, except.

They’re all in the app. So we created something where we know that our our investment of time, resource and energy and for the for the impact of it is secure. And so we’re doing a lot of special things in the Be Courageous app. Um, like the.

Homesteading also.

Helps support the ministry. Yeah. And we need that. We need the support. We can’t just do free things because it takes it’s way more than full time effort. Now we’re having other people help and so forth, and that’s expensive. So if you want to support the ministry and you want to learn along with Angie and you want to be part of heart of the home, all these things, join that.

So there’s another Bible verse that comes to mind is we’re talking about seeds. It’s Genesis 129 And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with a seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and just continues on. And you know, this is a verse that reminds us that we are tenders of what God has created here on earth, and teaching our kids some of the skills that go along with that are incredibly valuable. Yes, but it’s also part of God’s call for all mankind to be able to take care of the earth. And this is not being a environmentalist, it’s being a creationist, actually, and believing what God’s Word says. Here’s another one that comes to mind in Psalm 104 14. It says, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and the plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man. And then just continues on, and it talks about oil and bread and other trees of the Lord. And anyway, it’s just really cool to see multiple areas of Scripture where God is talking about his creation and and why he created it was for us to use, but also to take care of so that it can keep growing.

Right? When God sent the flood, he had animals go on the ark so that they could produce and fill the earth again later. And and that is important to the Lord. And so when we’re taking care of livestock, when we’re taking care of the garden, we’re taking care of the earth, and we’re helping and we’re we’re harvesting seeds out of the fruit that we grow and saving them and planting them again, that is God’s work, actually. And there’s so much beauty to be learned from the Lord in that process, and so many opportunities to teach your kids more about biblical principles. Um, here’s one of them. Actually, Proverbs six six through eight says, go to the ant, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest, which is the next topic. You know, preserving food can be a big topic. We’re not going to dive into too much, but when I say preserve food, people get go. Oh well, I could maybe put things in the freezer, but beyond that, that’s like way too hard to learn all of that. Um, and I’m not talking about just canning. There are other ways, and I want to share those other ways with you. Um, and so, yeah, do take advantage of the Be Courageous app because there’s things like you can freeze dry.

That’s not something that I’ve tried yet. I’ve also not tried smoking. Those are the two things I’m excited to try in the next year or two. But dehydrating. I love dehydrating. And guess what? Yes, I have a machine that I’ve had for like 16 years, but you can do this in your oven. You can get your cookie sheet out and use your oven and you can dehydrate things. Not only that, but you can make bulk foods like granola. You don’t have to buy granola at the grocery store. You can grow herbs that are perennials that you plant once, and they come back year after year after year, which might be one of the easiest ways to get started with gardening is picking a few things that you know are going to come back, like strawberries, rhubarb. Maybe you do peppermint. If you have kids that get stomach bugs in the wintertime and you do something that’s super simple, you use a hanger and you cut some peppermint in the summer, and you hang it with some twine in your closet and you let it dry. Or maybe you get out your clothes drying rack like I did, and you have peppermint and chamomile and echinacea and all these different tea, you know, leafy herbs drying. And you put them in mason jars and use them for tea, and then you don’t buy tea.

I love the industrious look in our house sometimes, because right now we lived in we’ve got these racks, metal racks in where a little nook is our kitchenette with grow lights and so forth. Because we don’t have a, um.

We have a greenhouse.

Greenhouse yet, you know, we haven’t been able to afford that yet. And, um, but, you know, it’s just great. It’s great. What does it show the kids that we’re not putting aesthetics ahead of industriousness and ahead of productiveness instead of ahead of provision? You know, it. I think it looks great. But, you know, some people might walk in and go, wow, I’m so really surprised you have that out in your main area. Well, well.

It’s the best place for it. It’s the best.

Place. We got good windows right there and it’s teaching the kids that, well, we’re using.

It every day.

Let’s not put aesthetics ahead of responsibility and provision and preparing and.

Well, and I do think, you know, one tip for the people who are having a hard time finding time to do it, here is the biggest tip. Have your seeds where you are going to be. When we did the seeds out here in the studio, I had to come out here every day to water those things. So it did take time of like, hey, can you watch your siblings for about 20 minutes so I can go water everything? And I’d bring another kid and we or sometimes there were three of us out here, and it would still take us 20 minutes just to water everything because we had so many seeds growing. But now that they’re in the house, it’s like, I can do it right there with the littles, and they’re doing it with me. And it’s really fun to start seeing stuff sprouting up. They get excited about their learning. Um, but you know, what is really kind of cool about that whole thing is that, you know, I’ve had to change and choose to look at my home differently. It’s a tool to be used for God’s glory, for providing for my family, nurturing their their minds and their tummies and all the things. And it is for hospitality. But guess what? Having that out has actually caused more conversations with people who’ve come over where they’ve been. Like curious. Oh, I didn’t know you did that. Can you teach me about that? And then I’m investing in that relationship. And then later I learn about something they’re into, and that’s part of building your community and your network, in a sense, in pouring into each other, which is super important during this time. And, you know, the last thing, as far as what we’re going to talk about today is livestock hunting, fishing, that sort of thing. That’s a food supply thing. Um, we don’t know how to hunt yet.

Yeah, we I just did hunting class with my boys, my older boys, and it was great. It was simple, but it was good to know. And we did it together. And it was a great experience. And we did it locally. And, you know, there’s another gentleman that has said that they would take us out. I’m hoping that works out, uh, because, you know, having never done it, I really want to go with another guy that’s really experienced at first with my boys. So I’m excited about that. So humility is part of it. If you weren’t raised in. In understanding some of things. I feel like I’m learning most things in my adult life. Then, you know, it’s then it’s about humbling yourself and going with somebody else that does know. And I don’t have to look like the answer to my boys for them to love and respect me in every way. Um, and I’m okay with that. You know.

I think it’s also good for them to see, to try new things even when you are older, without knowing for sure if you’re going to succeed at something or not. Right? Like, imagine a world where you’re not wanting to do something because you’re afraid of failure, and then you think it’s a waste of time. Well, aren’t the best lessons learned through failure. I mean, I’ve been gardening for 24 years. I remember when we had our apartment and I had our tiny little, um, strawberry pot, and I put herbs in it, and I had my little seed thing and I failed miserably. All those seeds did not come up at all. And I was I was really scared to continue doing seeds. And so for years I bought starts thinking I’m just not. I’m not diligent enough. I don’t remember to go out there every day. And it was a complicated thing. But then a year came along where I had a kid that was really interested in gardening, and we had that tiny greenhouse in the vineyard. Remember that? And we went out there every day together, and it became a really sweet time that drew and I had together. And now he’s 17 and he’s still the one that I asked him the other day. I was like, yeah, I’m so thankful to have you helping me. And he was like, well, it’s the best way to spend time with you, mom. Like. And it was just really sweet that, like, he has fond memories of us gardening together and that that’s part of why he enjoys it. And that just really, like, melted my heart. And so I share that with you because it can be something that is a deeper relationship building experience. It doesn’t have to be this busy work that pulls you away from the heart things. Um, so try to go about it with an eternal perspective. Have grace with yourself, and when you fail, it’s a lesson learned.

I’m so excited about that. That experience of getting an elk and being able to haul that out and learning how to do that and then being able to, you know, process the meat, potentially maybe we’ll have someone do it. But just that whole process and then knowing our freezer is full and all we had to do is buy a tag and go take initiative. And I just that’s got to be a good feeling. I know a lot of you guys that are listening could probably relate to that already. That’s not something I can, but I’m excited about that. I think that to this last one is could be a whole episode because there really is an agenda to, to rid, uh, our ability to eat meat. And it’s so bizarre. It is like the, you know, the enemy tries to turn everything upside down, right? What’s good? He turns into bad. He wants to make people believe it’s bad. Right? It’s a counterfeit. It’s a counterfeit. He’s a he’s a schemer, a liar. And so you see these things regarding meat. Meat is a good source of protein. The Bible says that, you know, we are to steward the land and the animals well, but but it is okay for us to hunt them for food. And it’s so important that we we embrace that. I think now if you don’t eat meat, it’s okay. We still love you. No problem. Uh, there’s you have your reasons and so forth, but it is a really important thing. And where your meat comes from is going to be a compelling thing. Like, right now, it’s kind of important.

I mean, I pay attention at the grocery.

Store, but it’s.

I’m pretty careful.

At some point. There is the potentiality that you literally can’t go to any grocery store because it’s illegal to sell meat unless it’s been something’s been done to it, like.

Vaccinated or.

Something. It could be a future with their motivations and agenda down the road, where you can’t find real meat in the grocery store because they want meat to come from places where animals aren’t. Farting, basically. That’s the thing, right? It’s so that’s it.

Isn’t that it for cows? Yes. But you know, I you know, there’s a lot there’s a bigger agenda behind it, for sure. I think that when it comes to livestock, knowing people who have skills and and wanting to learn is a good thing. But as long as you’re not making that a huge hurdle that prevents you from actually doing something, because doing it is actually going to teach you more than a class ever will. Um, and so while classes can be good and reading books, I’m very much into reading books. Books are kind of a I think it’s a lost art. Also to want to read books. Everybody’s into watching a short reel to learn a hack or whatever, and there is some fun in that. But books are really full of rich wisdom from people who have gone before that have been doing it for for decades, some of them. And there is serious knowledge in some of these gardening books and homesteading books that can just really be an advocate. It’s a huge asset to have those on the shelf in your house, especially if something was to go down, like we talked about last week with a blackout. Right.

So so our approach has been chickens first because we want eggs. And the next approach is how do we get some meat chickens. And our new approach is our first cow. Angie and Drew went and picked out our cow. Now what we’re doing, though is we’re partnering with a neighbor who has his first cow of his own for the first time. He’s had some cows on his property for someone else, but and we’re going to partner together and take care of them together so it’s less of a load and we can learn together. And the cows like being. And there’s another wonderful neighbor in the neighborhood who is a expert on cows, and in fact, me and this, the neighbor that are learning had him come over and the three of us met in our studio here, right here actually, and had a cow meeting, and it was like two hours. And I have such good notes on all of these details. Yeah. And it’s kind of exciting to learn something new and, uh, yeah. So we’re going to have our own.

It’s a new adventure. And I hope that you guys are encouraged as we’re like, you know, we’re grandparents and we’re learning new things and we’re trying new things. And it’s really been an awesome journey because the first like 14 years that we were married, we’ve married almost 25 years, first 14 years we had chickens. But beyond that we would have connections for getting fish and connections for getting the hog or the heifer and, and and getting it butchered and putting it in the freezer. And we’ve done that for years and years and years. But now it’s like we actually really personally know the people that we get our meat from. The boys walk down the road and go fishing, and you’re going to hopefully be hunting soon. And so as far as like the protein goes, it’s a different it’s a game changer. We have 60 chickens you know. And so there’s there’s this element in my mind where yeah I’m growing in strength as I’m doing these chores. I was literally talking to my neighbor about this. We work out. We’ve been working out together in the mornings a couple times a week. Yeah.

Giving you a hand. She’s she is being diligent for me. So good.

Um, doing this at anyways. But we, we were just talking about how our lifestyles that we are living, they do keep us physically active and that how good that is for our health. And I just I want to share that with you that there is something that yeah, it might be a little bit more work, but look long terme, this is better for your health. Long terme. It’ll help you to have more energy. It’s going to give you confidence. It does empower you. And I think.

It’s essential to teach your children, because again, they’re launching into a different world than today. So we can look at the signs and trends of what’s happening and predict a little bit about what the future might be like. And we need to take the initiative to train them and equip them and experientially show them how to do these things so they’re ready for a different future. And if you want your grandkids to be eating meat down the road and their kids to be eating meat, you might want to instill some of these things today.

That’s right. Or have friends who do and are willing to let your kids come along and learn. Yes, that’s another way you can go about it. So thanks so much for joining us today. I hope today was encouraging, not overwhelming. Our heart was that you would feel like there are some simple steps that you can start working in to learn how to garden, to learn how to start fixing the food supply problem in the future. Um, and we just our prayer is that you guys would be encouraged, that you would be encouraged in the Lord through the Scripture that we’re sharing, but that you would not have fear that you would be walking in reality and be encouraged to start taking more steps towards godliness.

Amen.

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