Small Scale Life Podcast

Welcome to the Small Scale Life Podcast! I like to call it the “Half Hour Happy Hour,” and today is no different! I am usually selling Good Vibes to the audience, and I hope this episode inspires you to make a difference in your neighborhood and community. After all, our time on this earth is limited. It’s your life; do something positive with it! I am going to talk about some people doing positiv...

As promised earlier this week, I am following up on my last podcast episode covering How to Extend My Garden Season. If you can tell from the title of this episode, I had some big failures and learned some valuable gardening lessons last Friday night and Saturday morning. In this episode, I am going to talk about the 6 Lessons Learned from the End of My 2019 Garden Season, and hopefully you will p...

Well, my gardening friends, they say "all good things must come to an end."  My question is: do they have to come to an end this early?  Frost is coming this weekend, and I don’t want the party to end.  I am wondering how to extend my garden season?  Should I try to push the limits and test my luck a bit longer? I know what you hardened and veteran gardeners are saying: “Don’t...

Successful events and failed events do not just happen.  The success or complete failure is set in motion long before the actual event.  This past weekend, my family, Julie and I experienced both.  I am going to tell a tale of those two events and give you 10 Tips to Successfully Plan and Host an Event.  By following these tips, I think you will be well equipped to success...

In this episode, I discuss a great Fall Equinox weekend including: Danny and David's Toughest Mudder Race in Dallas, TX; Exploring River Falls, WI; Canning and preserving the harvest from my garden; A very special and powerful lantern lighting ceremony at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN; Celebrating the Fall Equinox with a "Domres Special" Dinner; Happy Half Hour - Being Positive and Inspirin...

How does a company grow 1 million meals in a place with incredibly high temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter? On top of that, this company has no tillable soil, no heavy farm equipment (i.e., traditional tractors or combines) and only asphalt and concrete to grow food. In addition, this company needs to move garden beds for new attractions and exhibits, so these raised be...

In last week's News from Around the Bend on smallscalelife.com , I opened the article by talking about kids going back to school. In some cases, our friends are taking their young adults to college for the first time. Julie and I have been there and done that. After all, both of our boys left our house and went to the US Army (Danny) or college (Ryan). We just took Ryan back to Winona, Minnesota,...

In this episode, I am trying something new! This is the pilot episode of the new Small Scale Gardening Podcast. In this podcast, I am focusing on gardening and food preservation, which are my passions. As I learned from my good friend Greg Burns, I need to "Start with the Why" as I begin this effort. I talk about the following topics in this podcast including: Why I started blogging, podcasting an...

July was a great month full of time spent with family and friends. We need to be part of our community and strengthening existing relationships while making new ones. It isn't always about the money; it's about building social capital! This is a Just Tom Show while I am on the road from Duluth, MN, to Minneapolis, MN. As I worked on the shores of the great Lake Giche Gume (Lake Superior for everyo...

In this podcast, Julie and I talk about How to Budget Your Way to Financial Freedom. We unpack the 9 Steps to Creating Your First Budget (with an additional bonus step at the end). This is the podcast you have been waiting for! After recording this podcast, Julie and I realized that there was a lot to this topic. Budgeting so important to your future success, but creating your first budget can be...

"Your goal is your destination; your budget is your roadmap." - Julie Domres Do you have dreams and goals? Are you making progress towards achieving those goals? For some people, it is difficult to dream. Others have big plans and goals, but they do not execute and take steps towards making those dreams a future reality. In this podcast, Julie and I discuss How to Dream Big, Set Goals and Take Ste...

Have you ever thought you were climbing a mountain? Huge obstacles in life take on different forms and shapes. They can be finances, health issues, clutter, relationships, work or just life in general! Those obstacles have a tendency to start as molehills and become mountains. Many times, we do not put those mountains in our lives on purpose; they just seem to happen. What happens when we do put t...

Last week, the gardening world and I got some sad news that made me think about leaving a legacy. Larry Hall passed away. For those of you who do not know who Larry Hall is, he is the creator of the Rain Gutter Grow System that I have experimented with in the past (and will be experimenting with this year). Larry was from Brainerd, Minnesota, and he created a low-cost way for people to successfull...

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie and I discuss taking the first steps towards Financial Freedom. To do this, you need to start by Taking Inventory and Tracking Expenses. In previous episodes of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie and I have told our story about making mistakes and doing stupid with zeros on it. In order to break out of the box and go from Survive to Thrive, w...

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discuss a great Mother's Day Weekend with a full house. There was a lot of family and community building last week, and there is a big garden update as well. It's another action-packed episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast! I discuss the following topics in this episode: Happy Mother's Day 2019! Great Mother's Day Meal About Last Week....Communi...

When a day starts out wrong and poorly, you might need to call in the experts to help out! In this Bonus Episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I talk about how my Friday started off wrong and went sideways in a hurry. When your YouTube University experience turns out to be a Pinterest Fail, you need to call in the experts to put it all back together again. It almost set the tone for the whole w...

Julie and I are on vacation and podcasting on location! In this episode, Julie and I discuss our journey towards financial freedom. We talk about the good, the bad and the ugly, and we hope to inspire you as you begin or continue on your own journey! For show notes and more resources, check out the article titled Our Journey towards Financial Freedom on Small Scale Life!

In today's podcast, I talk about a number of subjects including the following: Wishing listeners and the Lifer community a Happy Easter! Weekend 3 Things on the Small Scale Life Facebook Group Working through our busy week Gardening and Demo Day of the old raised beds Starting to build community online and in person! Remember: Start small where you are and start with a couple people. Over time, de...

Even with the snow falling and wind howling today, it is Gardening Season! What did the story at the start of the podcast have to do with today's topic? Well, in today's podcast, I am circling back around to a discussion I had with Michael Bell about a new garden planting concept that some of us are experimenting with this year. We call Soup Gardening! What is Soup Gardening? That is the topic of...

In this 136th voyage of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie and I hit the road and record a podcast. We are kicking off the Quarter 2 Renew You: Introction to Financial Freedom! Money is a tool, and having enough money can help you develop that life you love. Not having that enough money tends to lead to poor decisions, stress and relationship problems with your significant other. Americans have h...

As a content creator, there are times when we are on a crazy race to put up the next piece of content for our friend, followers and fans. We are in a mad dash to keep the dopamine hits coming and the fans liking our photos, blog posts, podcasts, videos, tweets and pins. At times, we are doing things to just DO things, and we are completely missing out on what is happening around us. Terrance Layhe...

Welcome to Spring, friends! Hallelujah and pass the Dombucha Kombucha; the snow is melting! We have a great podcast lined up for you today, and we are kicking off Spring right by talking urban farming and gardening. I had a chance to talk with my good friend Michael Bell from Dallas Half Acre Farms about what is happening on the farm. While he has been very busy selling and buying a house, moving,...

For this 133rd Small Scale Life podcast, Julie and I talked about the Health and Fitness Renew You Kickstart with Karen Mangieri. Karen is Julie's sister living in Georgia. For those of you not in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group, Karen was our most active member during the Health and Fitness Renew You Kickstart. In fact, Karen had the title of "Uncrustable Queen" prior to the kickstart, and sh...

In this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, we are talking about Tipping Points with Nicole Sauce. I had an opportunity to catch up with Nicole and talk about her journey from leaving the city in the Pacific Northwest to rural living. At the same time, we talk about breaking free of the corporate cube world to starting small businesses and becoming self-sufficient. What were the tipping point...

Are you keeping your New Year's Resolutions? Remember those? How are you doing on them? If you are like many Americans that make New Year's Resolutions, the answer is probably a resounding "no." Statistically speaking, research has shown the following: By the end of January, approximately 64 percent of us have dropped our New Years Resolutions. By March 1st, more than 80 percent of us have dropped...