There was a time when most of us were self reliant. It was because we did not have a choice. However, with modern technology these days we are more about ease and convenience. We can get online and order anything we want and have it on our doorstep by the next day. At this point I think the average person’s concept of self reliance is the ability to go to the supermarket by themselves. But have you ever stopped to think what would happen if things just stopped working the way they do. What if th...
Aug 20, 2025•31 min•Ep. 245
Welcome folks to part four of my on-going series on the health benefits of sustainable living. Hopefully by now you have an appreciation for the fact that a sustainable lifestyle is about so much more than recycling, reducing your use of plastics and ditching the plastic bags. So far I have discussed the health benefits of changing how we eat, how to reduce your exposure to toxins, and how sustainable living improves your mental health and emotional well being. In this episode I am going to give...
Aug 13, 2025•34 min•Ep. 244
As you have likely heard me say before, I truly think the world would be a better place if everyone could live like I do. No matter how stressful my day becomes I still get to go home to a nice quiet peaceful place and live on my terms. Yes I do have chores to do on a regular basis that makes it possible for me to live off grid. However, those chores give me some physical activity which tends to keep me healthy. But this is all part of me living a lifestyle that is in line with my personal value...
Aug 06, 2025•28 min•Ep. 243
There is a long list of benefits for living sustainably. As you can likely imagine, such a lifestyle is easier on the environment and as such is healthy for our planet as a whole. We use resources more conservatively, we reduce our personal environmental impact, we eat a more planet friendly diet, and we reduce our carbon emissions. But what most people do not realize is that such a lifestyle is one of the best ways to improve your personal health. Living sustainably changes so many of our daily...
Jul 30, 2025•24 min•Ep. 242
I have often said that the world just might be a better place if everyone could live like I do. When I go home it is quiet and peaceful with no traffic noise. I sort of have neighbors but I may only see them every couple of weeks if that. Much of my time is spent outside even in the winter. I often have chores to do that requires some sort of physical labor which of course gives me regular exercise Many people do not understand why I choose to live the way I do. Albeit different from a more conv...
Jul 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 241
Did you know that on average we now spend almost $12K per year on food. This includes money spent on take out and delivery as well as cooking at home. The average person in our culture only eats 8 meals per week at home which means we are spending far more money on restaurant and take out food. Unfortunately, in our modern society fewer and fewer people have the desire or skill to cook at home. Cultural shifts, changes in priorities, and lack of cooking skills compel us to take advantage of conv...
Jul 16, 2025•28 min•Ep. 240
I often say that it’s the little things that make the difference. But whenever you say that, no one thinks that you are actually taking about bumble bees, or for that matter, any of the other tens of thousands of small creatures that pollinate our plants. Unfortunately we are now seeing a global decline in all of our pollinators and it is happening for a variety of reasons. If this continues, it will have devastating effects on our economy, our food production and global ecosystems. But there ar...
Jul 09, 2025•32 min•Ep. 239
One of the first things you learn when going through a medical based education and something that forms the very foundation of medical ethics is the concept “Above all do no harm.” But you kind of have to wonder why this does not seem to apply to the rest of the world. For example, eventually you have to ask who established so-called “safe levels” of known toxic substances in our food. The list of potential diseases linked to these chemicals is quite long and yet these substances are still widel...
Jul 02, 2025•22 min•Ep. 238
To say that our society is toxic would be a gross understatement. It is truly impossible to avoid exposure to some sort of toxic substance. We have pesticides in our foods. We clean our homes with toxic compounds. We routinely place toxic chemicals on our lawns. We breath in microplastics and even eat them. Even our health care products contain synthetic compounds. Based on this it should not be any great surprise that chronic disease are on the rise. While the toxic products mentioned above may...
Jun 25, 2025•22 min•Ep. 237
I have often said that self sufficiency is the best security blanket. But I see fewer and fewer people that truly appreciate the value in being able to take care of yourself with little or no outside help. I think this attitude prevails in our current culture because the average person no longer sees the need to have such skills. However, our world is constantly changing, sometimes over night. Consequently, I think self sufficiency is more important than ever before. The problem is that most peo...
Jun 18, 2025•31 min•Ep. 236
There is so much talk these days about going plastic free. Plastics are everywhere and in every part of our lives. It is nearly impossible to get through an entire day without utilizing something made of plastic. But the challenge we now have is that plastic is becoming the bane of our existence.Because plastic production continues to increase and degradation is long-term, microplastics are virtually everywhere. Furthermore, no one really knows the long-term health affects of exposure because th...
Jun 11, 2025•24 min•Ep. 235
Many years ago when I decided to live off the grid, everyone around me thought I was crazy. Fast forward 25 years and now everyone wants to know how it is that I do what I do. Living off the grid is now becoming an increasingly common choice for a long-term lifestyle. Just like anything else, it has it’s pros and cons but so does living in suburbia. One of the questions I most commonly encounter is whether or not it is legal to do so. I’ve certainly heard a read about a number of people that hav...
Jun 04, 2025•31 min•Ep. 234
Humanity has not always been the best at looking into the future. We tend to do whatever we are going to do and never give a lot of thought to the consequences. But as I always like to say, everything we do has a price. Over time we have always favored development over conservation. We have always framed those two choices as an either/or situation. Because of that we are now paying the price of climate change, environmental degradation and widespread pollution. We are now faced with a choice. Co...
May 28, 2025•30 min•Ep. 233
No matter what you do, some day something is going to come along and change your world without your permission. No one is immune to such things. This of course can create a tremendous amount of stress. But this is where our personal resilience comes into play. Our resilience allow us to adapt to change and deal with the unexpected in a healthy way. But resilience is also directly tied to sustainability. Both concepts are interconnected and often reinforce one another. Both are crucial concepts n...
May 21, 2025•28 min•Ep. 232
Just the other day I was sitting on the hillside in the sun enjoying a cup of coffee and thinking about all the time I’d lived at the cabin. My thoughts were centered around all that I had accomplished and the amount of time it had taken. And of course there is always that lingering question of whether or not it had been worth it. Furthermore, after all this time had all my efforts produced a lifestyle that was truly sustainable and environmentally friendly or would it have been better if I had ...
May 14, 2025•25 min•Ep. 231
The condition of our planet is slowly but surely becoming a daily headline. This is both good and bad. But being what it is, at least this type of daily news is getting everyone’s attention. It is perhaps pressuring people and businesses to take a more serious stance toward our sustainability efforts. However, there is no one thing, no magic bullet that will save our planet. It is going to require a complete cultural shift, a complete overhaul of our daily habits right down to what we eat. The c...
May 07, 2025•27 min•Ep. 230
An amazing thing happens when you truly focus on zero food waste. Creativity and ingenuity takes over when you focus on using every little thing. You start making new dishes, trying new sauces and creating flavors you never thought possible. It is unfortunate that more often than not we throw away certain food items as a matter of habit, never realizing we may have been able to repurpose it into something else. By doing so, we are not only missing out on flavorful dishes we are also just being w...
Apr 30, 2025•27 min•Ep. 229
The challenges we face in our world today are truly unnerving. All we hear about is one bad news story after another. Big governments and big business are still arguing about climate change instead of focusing on actions needed to build a greener future. All the while, the average person sits back day to day and feels as if our future is uncertain and is completely out of our control. Younger generations in our society also feel the pressure of an unknown future and even experience a certain lev...
Apr 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 228
Chores, chores, chores. Some days on the homestead it seems as if the chores will never end. At times I get discouraged and ask myself if it would not be easier just to skip this whole process. Sometimes simplicity seems difficult. Would it not be easier to do what most other people do and just take full advantage of our modern conveniences and live a life of ease. But in many respects this is exactly the attitude that most people have today and that is one of the reasons that the skills require...
Apr 16, 2025•32 min•Ep. 227
There was a time whenever someone mentioned vegetarian or vegan diet that I would just roll my eyes and walk away. But now that seems to have transitioned into something else we hear more frequently and that is “plant-based diet.” For most of us we may think of this as a boring diet with few options and perhaps it even conjures up visions of eating a salad every night. While this is far from the truth, a plant based diet is certainly much different from what most of us focus on eating. But what ...
Apr 09, 2025•31 min•Ep. 226
The internet is truly a powerful tool. We have access to thousands of years of information in a matter of seconds. In combination with digital technology this has literally changed how we live and function. It saves us time, work, money, gasoline, and in many ways reduces our impact on the environment. While this all sounds wonderful, what most people do not know is that using the internet actually have a significant impact on the environment. However, for the average consumer, this impact is ou...
Apr 02, 2025•27 min•Ep. 225
New things, the unexpected, circumstances out of our control and any sort of change are all things than can make us a bit uneasy. Perhaps it is nothing more than fear of the unknown. We feel as if we will lose something or maybe we will lose our present lifestyle all together. One thing is certain. Change is always scary. World politics, the climate, price of energy, price of food are all things that change constantly. Advances in technology are also constant. What was top of the line today is o...
Mar 26, 2025•29 min•Ep. 224
When we sit in a beautiful, quiet place to watch the sunrise most people are taking in the beauty and perhaps having a meditative moment and appreciating nature. Then we go about our day never really thinking much about the power of the sun. Maybe we’re just thankful it comes up everyday. What we never stop to realize is that the sun provides a constant steady stream of energy that is not likely to burn out for the next 5 billion years. What that means is that this incredible source of energy is...
Mar 19, 2025•30 min•Ep. 223
In today’s world most people want everything fast and convenient. That includes the food we eat and especially how we prepare it. Such a desire for convenience is exactly what gave rise to prepackaged and microwave foods. Unfortunately, most of these foods are highly processed and not exactly healthy. However there are multiple healthy homemade alternatives for all of the convenience foods we so frequently consume. With a little practice, you can always have healthy meals with very little prep t...
Mar 12, 2025•26 min•Ep. 222
More and more frequently these days we are reaching for ways to reduce and reverse the effects of climate change. Perhaps this is because talks of climate change are becoming increasingly serious. Although we have known about this for over 100 years, the inevitable is finally getting our attention. As citizen action becomes more frequent, I start to question whether or not we are actually focusing on the right things. While recycling, reducing the use of plastic and planting trees all have their...
Mar 05, 2025•29 min•Ep. 221
Certainly most of us have looked back on specific accomplishments in our lives and asked the question “If I had to do this all over again, how would I do it differently?, or Knowing what I know today, how would I have done this differently? Having the personality that I do, I am always questioning everything even if I keep it all to myself? But that is my process of re-evaluation, meaning checking in with myself to make sure I am on the right track. That said, I look at what I have done on the h...
Feb 26, 2025•34 min•Ep. 220
Self sufficiency, tiny homes, sustainability, renewable energy, or simple self reliance, are all things we hear about more and more these days. Personally I am happy to see this level of interest in self reliant living because it is the focus of so much of my life. While its exciting to talk about theses things, for so many people that is exactly where it stops. Nearly 80% of our population now lives in urban areas, and that percentage is increasing every year. If you are one of those people tha...
Feb 19, 2025•30 min•Ep. 219
Certainly we all remember the time in our lives when we were kids and told our parents how we couldn’t wait until we were all grown up. We thought all about being independent, making our own decisions, going where we wanted when we wanted. We just couldn’t wait to be independent, self reliant, and make our own decisions. But at that time we were not old enough to even know what we didn’t know. And once we were “all grown up” it doesn’t take long to realize it’s not exactly all it’s cracked up to...
Feb 12, 2025•37 min•Ep. 218
Given the world we live in today, you may be having thoughts of living in some remote place to get away from it all. But as romantic as it may sound, running off into the wilderness and living off the land may not be the best option. You simply may not be able to sustain yourself long-term unless you are extremely creative. But, if that is not an option where could you live and do the same thing? As it turns out, you could actually stay in an urban area. Not only that, it may be easier to have a...
Feb 05, 2025•31 min•Ep. 217
How and where we live are some of the biggest and most important choices that we all have to make in our adult lives. When choosing a place to live we have to consider availability of amenities, how far we have to travel for work and school, entertainment options and even the availability of medical care. While location is important for many reasons we also have to consider the impact of our choices on the environment and the planet. Is it better to live in the city or in a more rural area. Whic...
Jan 29, 2025•32 min•Ep. 216
