9th DAY OF CHRISTMAS

Recent update on how many people we have on the member— not the member, the, uh, Homestead Directory. You're seeing this, you're waiting on folks. We're promoting a Homestead Directory. If you're in that Homestead Directory, you can be found and find others. We're going to do giveaways, uh, today and in 3 days, the next 3 days. For people who are listed, they are randomly selected. And the prizes are getting bigger, y'all. Prizes are getting bigger. We got Upstate New York, Mama Bear. I'm not trying to be rude as I get on my phone here, but while we wait on people, I am going to ask how many are in the mem— how many are in the map. Um, hello from all over. Uh, yeah, we got people from all over the world. We got Graham in the house yet? Not yet. Graham, where you be? The man behind the curtain. One of the men behind the curtain. So, oh, I should tease this. Let me show you what we're going to give away today. Well, we're not going to give away this particular one. This is well used, dirty, heavy, durable. This is an aerator, hydrator. This is a broad fork.

How much does that weigh?

This is probably— that's a good question. I bet you that weighs 35 pounds, 40 pounds. So a lot of the weight, just the weight of it, helps you drive it into the ground, you know. Maybe I'll try to demo it here in a little bit for you guys. But let's get a few people on. Why don't you guys say, oh, it's New Year's. So what did you do? Well, we talked about that live yesterday. Well, what are you doing this New Year's Day? Are you back to work? Work, work. We got Maine in the house. I know it's too bad we don't do Canada. I'm so sorry, cost prohibitive. England in the house. We do have gifts for you though, Canada, and, and everybody in the world can list themselves. We have, um, I should probably pull that map up. Let's look at the map while we wait, and I'm going to talk about the Meadow Creatures Broadfork here in a second and give it away. So if you want a chance to win that, you definitely want to go to a bunch where, uh, you could show my screen. Um, yeah, uh, we'll go to abundantpermaculture.com/map, get you to the Homestead Directory, and I want you to see all those people on there. So that's my gift to you. Yeah, you might not be able to win the broadfork, but if you're in the world, even Africa, Middle Africa, South Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, Europe is getting highly populated. North America, Canada, Graham's in the house now. Graham, put some peeps on the screen, Graham. Okay, and then we have some Alaska and Hawaii. Lot of people on here. Oh, I wanna say this. I wanna say this story, okay? So I'm going to visit our editor. His wife has just had a baby. It's her first baby, cute little baby. And it's about 2.5 hours from here. Okay. And let's, let's, and I started to wonder, you know, is there anybody out here? It's kind of rural. So type where you live and do a search. And then I did 50 miles and I thought, does he have any community out here? Spoiler alert, I was tickled. Look at that, within an hour range. I think there's more than there was yesterday. So there's 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. 25-something-odd. I might not even have counted right. So, uh, 25 people. Now that's just east of Charlotte. But isn't that incredible? And it's like that in very many places. Hey, Graham, let's have people tell stories if they've, if they've been contacted or if they've contacted, because we can have the goal all day long. Let's get to 10,000 people on this map. But that doesn't mean anything unless the people actually get together. So reach out and say, hey, you want to come for a tour? You want to do a tour for tour? You want to come over for dinner? If you're this case, if I were Austin, I don't think he's plugged into the homestead community yet. I would click on each one of these and I would email or text and say, hey, we're going to get together the end of the month on Sunday, 2 PM. We're going to have snacks. We're going to tour my place. Just hang out. Everybody bring their favorite New Year's snack. And there you go. You have a reason to get together. And people right now, this is the time to do it too, 'cause everybody's, this is on their mind. People are excited. And I too am thinking, I mean, I couldn't go to sleep last night. I was thinking, how do we leverage this into something bigger? And I got some ideas, and it's coming from us getting on here every day and seeing how popular this is being. And you know, how can we, mobilize and ensure that this community actually lives, that it's not just people on this map, that people are actually connecting with each other and having parties. So keep an eye out. I might be looking for some people who are willing to host some events, and we might help, we might help see what we can do to help make that happen and get some programming going for some things to make it easier for everybody to meet and get up, get up with each other. So, yeah. It's about all I can tell you right now. I don't want to say too much because it's so early on in the brainstorming session.

You read my mind with the screen. It was like casting a glare on your face. It looked like you had a ghost joining you.

So what do I need to do? You're good now.

Okay.

Oh, was it this? Was it my laptop? Hope says, nothing yet. We are locked here. Burnsville, North Carolina. Meat rabbits, silkies, turkeys, and chicken eggs. Okay, let's pretend you're in Burnsville, North Carolina. Let's pretend you're Hope. So I bet you— how many people? Let's— what do you guys want to bet surrounding Burnsville? I have a little bit of an advantage because that's near me, and I kind of have an idea of how many will be here. I'm going to say it's going to be more than around the— I'll say it's about to be same Charlotte area. It's not nearly as populated, but I think it's a popular homestead place. Matt is saying 10. Uh, people, put in your guess how many people, uh, within 50-mile radius of Burnsville. Here we go. Boom. Oh, that, that's not the right Burnsville. That's— but look at that, we actually went— that's not where I meant to go, but we're in Burnsville, many, uh, Burnsville. Oh boy, I'm telling about bad geography. I don't know what state that— state that Minnesota? Yeah, Minnesota, I got it, okay. Okay, I feel better about myself. All you Minnesota nice people, you're being nice, you're giving me grace for messing that up, okay. Actually, I didn't mess it up, I guessed it right. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. 23. So my goodness, if you're there, hit these people up. Say, let's have a party. Now, maybe, that's funny. Who knew there was a Burnsville, Minnesota? Burnsville, North Carolina. Okay, let's see if we can beat 'em, North Carolina. Oh, oh, boom. Boom, go North Carolina. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 40, 50, 52, 54. 54 people around the Burnsville area. Come on. Those are my peeps. Okay. Which I'm on this map too somewhere. All right. So 54 people. Where do you think it would be more popular?

More popular?

Yeah, where would home, probably somewhere, maybe somewhere in Ohio. People are spread out in Ohio. The thing about Western North Carolina is we're not as spread out.

Yeah.

It's very condensed.

All right.

Isn't that fun? Okay. Graham, did you know this? Graham, are you on this? Graham, you better have listed yourself. Oh, you could take it off my thing. That's gonna put us in a Hyperloop.

Right.

We're entering space.

All right, you can take it off my screen sharing.

Yeah, for sure.

All right, shall we do this? Let's talk about the meadow creatures. Uh, let Graham highlight. Graham, can you highlight your own comment? Uh, you better have listed yourself.

Somebody, uh, Milk and Honey Heritage Farm says, uh, we need more West Coast.

Yeah, okay, let's try something. Yeah, we do. I don't know what the deal is, why so many are on the West Coast. Let's Search. Where are people on the West Coast? Okay, say you're my cousins. This is— there might not be so many. This is Bishop, California. Okay, that's a small town in Northern California. That's where my cousins are.

They're probably touring, dude.

Somebody's there. Is it my cousins? I need to tell them to get on here. I need to get them connected with you, Jackal Jackie. Yeah, I mean, look, it's kind of scarce out there. Come on. Come on, California, where are you at? Oh, it's not going to increase it. I was going to— okay, I need to clear the filter. Okay. Yeah. Come on. Look at that. Okay, there's people signing up as we go, I guess.

What if you just hover over—

Oh, look at Africa. Let me see if we got a number on how many people have signed up, and then we'll talk about this Meadow Creatures and we'll give a winner. Oh wow, 4,115 people. All right, we've got a Meadow Creatures broadfork, and the way you do this— I don't know, maybe go to the side camera— you put it in the can— you put it in the, the ground like this. Now, a lot of these broad forks, you go sideways. Don't do that. Go frontwards and backwards with this thing. It's the way that the prongs are designed. It's going to be more easy. A lot of times, depends on your soil, if it's a fluffy soil like ours after we've put in years of compost on it, you just do this and it basically falls in. You might put one leg on it. Oh, thanks, he's moving the camera. Look at that. Or you hop on it with two legs and do it. I don't want to demo that right now. Maybe I might fall down. And then if you need to, in extreme circumstances, sledgehammer this thing. You might want to put a board across it and then drive it in with a sledgehammer. Extreme. And then you, you go down all the way to the tube, and then you push down about midway, about right here, halfway, 45 degrees, and then back up. Then you move it back 6 inches. And you go backwards. You catch your toes. Yeah, I just cut my toe. You go backwards so you don't go step on the area you just did. So what does that do? Well, that, that— 3 things. It lets water down deep into the soil. It lets oxygen down deep into the soil. That's, that's resources for the microbes. And then I just realized the other day I'd been only listing those 2. There's another one. Roots can go easier in. And perhaps worms can get around more. I don't know about that one, but definitely roots can get around more. All right, let's pick a winner. Let's do a— you can put it on this screen if you would like, Matt. And I'm going to hit generate places. We're going to go to the United States. I hope it's West Coast today. Yeah, it's been heavy Ohio. Yeah, heavy Ohio. And if it goes to Ohio, I'm sorry, I'm not doing that again. New York. Okay. Central. Okay. Say you're in New York. Central. I, I lip. I lip. All right. Any New Yorkers in the house? Who tell us if you're from New York? Help me remember how to spell that, Matt.

What was it?

You ain't even paying attention. The man behind the curtain is not even paying attention.

Central Island.

Central Island.

Yeah, there it is.

Do you see it? Yeah, there it is. New York. Okay, let's see how many are New York. I don't know if that's near New York City or anything, but let's see if it's 50 miles. Okay, not too many, but we're gonna have to narrow that down. So if you're in Central Iowa, which I— it doesn't— is that close to the city? Okay, let's do 25 miles. 50 miles is a good one because it's, uh, you know, that's about an hour.

All right, so the westernmost—

is that where we are? Let's look at this perspective. Yeah. Okay. So it's between these two. Whoops. I got to learn how to— okay. Do you see this? Do you see the city, Central Island?

Looks like—

okay, let's just narrow it down. To 10 miles. I'm gonna, let's just find one. These two people, you guys need to be connecting. You're very close to each other.

Who's closer to 5 Central Island?

There's nobody within 5 miles. So we're gonna have to pick between these two. Okay, that means we're gonna flip a coin. M, M, this drawing is the top one. And if it lands on the other side without the drawing, it's the bottom one, okay? So, drawing is the top. That's not a very good coin.

I don't have any coins.

There you go, we got a lid. We got a mason jar lid. We don't have any coins, but we got lids. Okay, ready? So, top of the lid, we'll pick the top person. Bottom, we'll pick the bottom one.

Top!

Oh, and they have a phone number. You ready to do this, Tracy? You ready for a surprise phone call from Uncle Justin? All right, Tracy, congratulations, you won a brand new Broadfork. You don't even have to use my used one. I'm going to give you a brand new one. Okay, you ready for me to pull up the text now? So we're not sharing screen, we're just gonna— but you figured out how to get me on the mic so everybody can hear the phone call direct. This is funny calling people because— uh-oh, I got echo like crazy.

Can you call them on the regular phone?

Oh yeah, all right, we're just gonna go regular phone, folks. We don't want a repeat of what we had the other day, Echo City. Yeah, that would be a complicated feat. If you could have pulled that off, Matt.

I've done it and can do it. It's just that the thing is open, so it's okay. Do it next time.

I'm sorry.

I'll blame an adapter or something.

I would think it would be difficult to do that. Okay, Tracy, maybe you're on live. I doubt it. And it's always wondered if these people think this is AI calling them or something, some kind of scam. How are we going to assure them it's really me? Here we go. Everybody cross your fingers. We'll leave her a message.

She might be doing chores.

Matt says she might be doing chores. Yeah, my boys are doing afternoon chores right now, putting the calf up. You never know.

Okay. Please leave your message for 631-398-8910.

Hey Tracy, Justin Rhodes from the Justin Rhodes YouTube channel. I got your number from the member directory. We did a random location selector this week as a Christmas gift to all, and we are giving away a Meadow Creatures Broad Fork. Uh, it aerates and hydrates your garden, and you have won that. It's my favorite broadfork. It's the people's fork. We're going to have my— I'm going to have my people get in touch with you. Look for a message. I believe it'll be Heather reaching out, and we are going to get— send you that broadfork. Congratulations. It's open to talk with you, but oh well. Thank you for putting yourself on the member directory. That's how I found you. That's how we did a random location selector, and your place in New York came up. We noticed you have a neighbor within 10 miles and what, a dozen or two within 50 miles. So I encourage you to get on there and be in touch with them and maybe throw a party or a potluck or reach out to a few people and just trade tours or something. So anyway, thanks for getting listed. Hate I missed you. Enjoy that Broad Fork. All right. Let's try one more while we have a few minutes. Let's get a phone call, right? So here's how we're going to do it. I think when you go to the map, I don't think it's showing you the recent signups. I think it's just random. What do you think, Matt? Graham, you might know. Is it just random? Has Graham popped up any interesting comments or questions? So if we scroll down here, we can see the kind— I'm not going to call anybody without a picture, guys. List your picture, come on. You don't have to list your number to be contacted. You do have to list your email, I'm pretty sure. Because how else are they going to get a hold of you? Spain, shall we call Spain?

These issues are never the tech guy's fault. It's true. That's actually true. That's not sarcasm.

Whose fault are they if they're not the tech guy's fault? I'm going to say Fate. I'm going to say fate. Variables.

Variables. Unforeseen variables.

Wanock. Where's that? Well, let's educate ourselves. Wisconsin? Is that W-I? Oh, they didn't leave a number. Natasha, but they did get an email, so somebody could reach out to them. Here we go. We are a family of— these are the kind of people signing up for this, guys. Stephen. We are a family of 3 with 5 acres in Alcorn County. We've been here for a year and a half, starting the process of homesteading. We only have 2 dogs at the moment, but we intend to have chickens and pigs to start this. We'll be doing our first veggie garden on this property in spring. I want to say something to that. I feel like when I'm encouraging you guys to do a tour for tour, I feel like I'm having the sense that you're having this hesitation that, oh, I don't have anything to show. And you know, you're looking at the Justin Rhodes Old MacDonald Farm, the thing that's been going 15 years, okay? With the cows and the sheep, and we're always doing something. But actually, most of you, many of you are like Steven. And props, everybody's gotta start somewhere. And doesn't matter if you only have 2 dogs and a balcony, and it's in your heart. Okay, when do you become a homesteader? You know, you can put it in your heart, you can start cooking from scratch, you can start preserving even before you grow anything. You can learn how to cook a whole bird. I mean, when Rebecca and I first cooked our— when we first harvested our first chickens, it was the first time we had ever cooked a whole bird. Before that, we bought it in parts, boneless, skinless breasts, ah. Then we had to— I forget if we asked Mr. Google Pants or something and figured out how to cook that whole bird. There's so much you can do. And even if you're just— your heart is there as just a supporter, that's not— get together. And we are so much more than just homesteaders as well. You could have a lifelong friend here, a soulmate, and have more in common outside of homesteading than inside of homesteading. You might like the same movies, or you like the same books, or kids are the same age. Or you're retired and you both just have two dogs. Get together. Don't feel like you have to have something to show for it, okay? You are enough. Just in and of yourself, just have an interest. I'm going to call Steven and just tell him thanks for the directory.

Hello?

Hey, is this Steven?

Yeah.

Hey Steven, this is Justin Rhodes from the YouTube channel Justin Rhodes.

Hey, how you doing?

Hey, my man, how are you doing?

I'm doing good.

The reason you're probably wondering why in the world I'm calling you, well, you put yourself on the directory and we're just doing random location selection and just this one, we're just calling people and saying thanks for getting on the directory.

Oh yeah, sure. This is definitely a surprise.

Yeah, so you are in Walnut. MS. That's not Missouri, that's— what is that? Mississippi. What's it like down there in Mississippi?

Oh, that's just great. Um, we just bought this, uh, 5 acres not this past June, but June before. Yeah, there was not— there was an old trailer out there. We moved it down and we found two septic tanks on the property. And now we've got mobile home— or not mobile home, uh, fifth wheel trailers on it, and we're staying in those and just building, building some tracks basically.

That's neat. And you have two dogs?

Yeah, we have two dogs. I got a— I saw on the, the map that there's a couple that's in Walnut, and that's the reason I put it on there. I was gonna eventually get in touch with them and see, you know, maybe get with them and see how they're doing their thing. And yeah, maybe, maybe help each other out or, you know, whatever.

That would be amazing. That would make my day. That'd make it all worth it right there.

Yeah, they're in the same, same town. It was, it was crazy.

Isn't that crazy?

I expect anybody to be that close.

Well, dude, I just did a search while you're telling me that story. Within 50 miles of you, which would be an hour, uh, you've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. You got a dozen people.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So I think—

awesome to me anyway.

I think you should have a party. Uh, we got, uh, I think you should have a party and invite all those. I'll tell you what, if you tell me you'll invite all 12 of those people for a, I don't know, a snack potluck or something, let's, I'll give you $150, throw the party.

Woo!

How about that, buddy? You can spend the money on whatever you want. A cleaner or somebody to clean up after or some good snacks or, I don't know, homestead tool you can show off, whatever you want to spend the money on. Just, just invite those people and let's get together.

Yeah, yeah, that sounds awesome. Okay, so I know I travel for work, so I'm actually heading back to Kansas at the moment, and, uh, but I'm going to be working close to home for the next year in about 2 weeks. All right, back to the homestead in about 2 weeks.

Okay, yeah, get, get back, get settled. I don't care when you have it, just have it. We'll, um, I'll have my assistant reach out and be in touch.

Okay, yeah, that's when we're really gonna start probably trying to start moving forward. I get all this stuff you know, maybe some, some egg layers, and then, you know, move towards, you know, meat chickens and all that stuff.

Man, good for you. I think that's a good start.

Yeah, yeah. I actually saw— found out about you, I don't know, it was probably, uh, 13 years ago, I guess, maybe right when you started.

Wow.

But I was, uh, because I, I watched, uh, Food Inc. And at the time we were living in the neighborhood and I had no idea I could do any of this in the neighborhood.

Wow.

Or I would have started, or I would have started then, you know.

I know, right? I, I was telling people before.

Yeah, yeah, we just, we had a garden there and I planted like 50 tomato plants. We had all kinds of tomatoes. It was crazy. We couldn't give it away, right?

It's abundant.

Yeah, which I know— I know I got the green stuff, so I know I can do that here. Yeah, yeah.

Well, you can grow 36 plants in that GreenStalk. That's what you said, that GreenStalk?

Yeah.

Which is like, for those listening, they don't there, it's a vertical, it's a vertical garden. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. All right, man. Well, I'll pass that information on to Heather. She'll be reaching out with $150 party money.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

All right.

Thanks for reaching out and getting in touch with me.

Yes, sir. Thanks for answering your phone. Strange number calling. All right.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, text me sometime if you ever have any questions or hiccups.

Okay, have a good day.

All right, man, have a good one.

All right, you too.

All right, bye-bye. All right, how fun. Okay, we've got salt to give away, brining salt, pocket salt, uh, electrolytes. Do we have any comments or questions real quick? Just one. And, um, somebody had a— Josephine has 8 green stalks. And we've got a chick, $600 towards— I guess let's give Homestead Builds, uh, book number 1 on how to build, step-by-steps on how to build Homestead Builds. Uh, we'll, we'll get you in on that. And we're dripping out those digital copies of the plans as we go and as we make them. And we're shooting for a print release by Christmas next year. So this year, so now it's already upon us this year. This time next year, uh, every February we host a shearing day event. We provide lunch and get everyone who shows up some help herd the sheep and organize the skirt, the fleeces. Anyone near Buckeye is welcome to come. Okay, well, where's Buckeye? Um, okay, so it sounds like Ohio, he said. Yeah, so whoever this— so go on there and, and go to Buckeye and search and start a high— start, start inviting them. Anyway, uh, we'll give you $600 towards a homestead build. We'll give you all the— we'll get you in on the plans. And, uh, that's not even available. Hey, look, Scott Burton in the house! Two quacks and five clucks. Where you been, Scott? All right, well, glad you're here now, buddy. Miss you. Okay, we're gonna, um So then— oh, and then a lifetime membership to Abundance Plus, which is worth several hundred dollars. That's premium membership. So you can text me, you can get in on the premium stuff, and then as long as Abundance Plus exists, you can get in there and get that educational content and inspirational content, uh, whatever you like. If any of you want to know more about Abundance Plus, when you go to that Homestead Directory, there's a link to it up in the right-hand corner. Says Abundance Plus, and now would be a good time to get in. We got a lot of stuff coming in the new year to help, help you folks. Our heart is that we would get more and more people growing more and more of their own food, and that's what we're doing. Rebecca and I are sitting on this journey this year, growing more ourselves, quitting the grocery store by the end of 100 Days of Growing Food this coming summer, and we're going to be teaching how we're doing that as we go so you could follow along with us. We got some treats, I'm sure, for all of you. Oh, we got some encore gifts coming up. I think I might start talking about those maybe tomorrow. And just a lot of good things coming. Tune in, 2 PM on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. All right, see you guys later tomorrow.