We have been doing a lot of podcasts dealing with alternative construction, and today we continue this trend by hosting one of the leaders in the strawbale building community. The Shepherd School is proud to get to talk to Andrew Morrison of strawbale.com.
Andrew Morrison has been a strawbale builder for more than a decade and has hands on experience building hundreds of homes using strawbales as the main building material.
Strawbale is cheap, provides awesome insulation, has great sound-deadening properties, and amazing fire and insect resistant properties – I know that sounds counter-intuitive – but listen to the show and here Andrew Morrison explain why.
You can learn more by visiting his blog and store at the links below:
We have also embedded a video below from Andrew Morrison talking about his workshops – it is a very good way to get manpower to build as well as help learning about the process.
I have long been interested in strawbale construction, I am very excited to talk to Andrew.
The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.
I have noticed that not everyone shares the same belief systems that cause people to be “preppers” or interested in DIY or self-reliance, and that sometimes people can even think that those that want to do things themselves and take responsibility for their own life are “weird” or “strange”.
Because of this, whenever I find others that share my belief systems and live nearby I embrace them and treasure finding those that are like minded.
Today I get to share with you one of those people – a brilliant mind that not only shares a lot of the same hobbies as I do, but has surpassed me in many of them…
I hope to have today’s guest on more in the future as Joe Hildreth is a leader in the Middle TN conservative movement, coordinates and teaches financial peace classes, and has built his own CNC machine –
But today, we are going to talk about casting metal. We will talk about the basic premise, how to get started, why its something preppers should consider learning and give some good tips and books to learn more if you are interested.
Of all my interviews, this one was one of the most enjoyable, and I found myself asking questions that I wanted to know…
I would recommend that if you enjoyed the show with Joe Hildreth today, you visit his website at:
Diane Teagarden is an author and soon after completing her first book, she opened her own self-help book publishing company. She named it “Firewalker Publications” to remind herself of how she had “come through the fire” by facing her worst fears.
She has several books dealing with divorce, domestic abuse, and fiction, but today David talks with her about her latest book, Budgeting on a Dime- 10 Steps to Financial Independence.
Diane Teagarden gives good advice on budgeting without feeling poor, on saving money, and making lifestyle changes to get control of family finances.
*In doing a broken link check I found that firewalker publications is no longer a valid website. I hope Diane Teagarden is still active in the publishing word because I really enjoyed her book and felt it was useful to all. It seems that a lot of self reliant advocacy buisnesses are failing lately. I hope that is not a trend.
This book is about personal responsibility, and has a lot in common with basic preparedness concepts.
You can learn more about her books at firewalker publications
The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.
If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.
Survival Punk is a blog created by James Burnette. James takes a rational, creative approach to self-reliance, applying a punk DIY ethic to survivalism without any of the fear mongering or “tinfoil hattery” found in some other areas of the survivalist movement.
The Survival Punk blog covers a huge range of his projects, both success and failures along with a healthy bit of myth busting. He also provides a ton of dirt cheap creative solutions to common prepping needs and does a great job of integrating the paleo lifestyle with the prepping lifestyle.
I respect Survival Punk, and we partnered together on Dual Homestead where he lived on my land and worked to homestead it. Unfortunately his anarchist tendencies and my need for plans clashed to the point where it just did not work. However, I still think he knows a lot and he has a great website.
The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.
If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.
For today’s show David is interviewing an real-life rocket scientist, innovator, and Hall of Fame athlete Dr. TomCannon.
Dr. Cannon holds 21 different patents – from things such as the fiber optic connectors on the Patriot Missile system, to a bubble level device to help you perfect your golf swing – but today we talk about his ThriftyVac® invention.
Thirftyvac is a device that allows for the non-electric vacuum sealing of food using ordinary zip-lock type bags.
As with all innovators, Tom started with a problem, defined it, and then came up with a cost effective and sturdy solution.
The second I saw his video I knew I would back his project – Not because it is worth it (I think it is), but because it solves problems I have experienced and therefore makes my life easier.
Dr, Cannon‘s invention is currently being funded through Kickstarter.com, and for those not familiar Kickstarter is a way for innovators and producers to receive funds from actual consumers instead of venture capitalists – this way products either fail or succeed based upon what people actually want rather than how good a salesman you are.
The kickstarter project for the Thirftyvac is already successful, and Tom has raised enough to ensure his product will be produced. So I am not having him on the show to help him, as much as to give you the opportunity to back the project so you can get the device and other backer rewards much sooner and at a lower cost than what will be available to the general public.
His project will close on July 10th at 10:56am CDT, after that you will have to wait for the Thirftyvac to be sold commercially – (early 2014) – backers are scheduled to get theirs before Christmas 2013.
Besides talking about the Thriftyvac, Tom also discusses his booklet “How to be an Innovator” which explains how to go from a problem to an idea, to a product – and then a business.
I approached Dr. Cannon because I believe that a non-electric vacuum sealer than is non-destructive to the bags (ziplock can be reused) is something the prepper community could use. I have not received anything in return for my endorsement.
