Small Scale Life Podcast

In this episode, I am on the road and talking about building community.  Humans are social creatures.  We are not meant to live in this world alone.  Sometimes we do need to “have a little help from our friends.” My questions to you are: Do you have some friends that have your back? Have you spent some time building community around you? Unfortunately in modern Western Civilization,...

Canning is a method of saving that nutritious food for later seasons. You fill your own jars and know what exactly you are eating. That is so critical these days where we seem to have a food advisory, recall notice or flat out parasite infestation (hello McDonald's, Trader Joe’s, Krogers and Walgreens) almost daily. By growing and preserving your own food, you will have the satisfaction of kn...

Today’s podcast, post and YouTube videos are particularly timely.  In the Small Scale Life Facebook Group, our friend and new gardener Alex has a great question: “My tomatoes are so out of control and are completely shading my peppers. I have at least 10 peppers that have stopped growing and those are my favorite.  Can I cut back the tomatoes? Can I attempt transplanting the peppers? At...

It has been a while since I have been on the Small Scale Life Podcast. I have been a busy boy doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, traveling around the country taking care of business. I look forward to staying home and getting some of my own projects done. I want to have a level of success getting those projects done too! One thing that I have been finding is that a lot of us (mys...

We have hit Mid-July, and we are well beyond that old farm saying “knee high by the 4th of July” for corn.  We are on the back half of Stage 2 of the 2018 Garden Season, and it is time for another Garden Update.  There is a lot happening in the garden, and I can really see a difference in my plants due to soil treatments and plants I grew in 2017.  There is a lot to see in this Mid-...

I find myself traveling more and more these days for work and for life.  As I travel, I see things that capture my eye and interest as I roll over the back roads and explore towns of all shapes and sizes.  In an effort to capture some of my thoughts, observations and adventures on the road, I am going to start recording and posting "On the Road" podcasts.  This podcast is focused on...

Last week during the garden update, I discussed my new vertical garden planters made from two vinyl gutters.  After I posted the article and podcast, I realized that it had been a while since I discussed this topic, and I have never discussed how to build vertical gardens on fences before. In this post and episode, I will discuss the following topics: What is a vertical garden? Benefits and c...

We are rapidly rolling through June, and by now your plants should be really starting to grow.  In this episode, it is time for another Garden Update, and while our gardens might be growing, our plants are under siege from common garden pests of all shapes and sizes.  I am dealing with some common garden pests here in my small raised beds, and I wanted to give you a head’s up about some...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is on the road in Central Wisconsin and up to his neck in cranberry bogs. In this episode, Tommy discusses his busy life on the road and how he is trying to adjust to it. For more information about this episode, please read more on [Small Scale Life]( www.smallscalelife.com ).

June is moving right along, and I hope you are doing well! A while back, I had a great conversation about Homesteading in Ohio with Daniel Bokros. Daniel is one of the Ohio Get Stuff Done Crew, and he has his own homestead called the Red Dog Ranch. In this podcast, we discuss his journey from the Marine Corps to the homestead in the Ohio countryside including real community, land, Joel Salatin, bu...

In this episode of [Small Scale Life](smallscalelife.com), Michael Bell and Scott Hebert return to discuss urban farming advice and best practices. Topics discussed during this podcast includes their farms, their markets, typical yields, watering crops, harvesting product, successfully marketing products and potentially expanding their operations. For those of you don’t know who these gentlemen ar...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is back and broadcasting outside a lounge somewhere in the Minneapolis, Minnesota.  In this episode, Tommy discusses feeling overwhelmed and how to eat an elephant. In case you are having trouble understanding the audio file, the following is a translation of the audio file from host...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week, Tommy is on the road and is broadcasting from somewhere near the Front Range in Colorado.  In this episode, Tommy is going to discuss how you should always stop distractions and focus on the people and places around you. Consider this a little public service/community service on Tommy Cakes...

This past month has been ridiculously busy, but Julie and I took some time last week to work in the garden. This podcast is all about starting my 2018 vegetable gardening season, and if you think that everything is rainbows and unicorns, you are wrong. I had immediate trouble including rotting raised beds, dead plants and rabbits. Can anyone relate to this? Even when there are troubles and challen...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about taking a break by turning off social media and getting away from the noise.  Gary Vee recently said that the cell phone is the remote control of today’s society, and your activity on Social Media is nothing more than the reality shows of our current year.  Why not turn o...

Welcome to Spring 2018, everyone!  I hope your plants are growing and things are greening up in your neck of the woods.  It is almost time to get into the garden!  Before we start talking about that, I want to revisit Earth Day 2018, which occurred on April 22, 2018. That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?  During the week leading up to Earth Day, students hear a lot about...

Are you stressed out about money? On a given Sunday night, do you dread going into the work the next day? If you are, you are not alone. A recent study created by mobile-banking company Varo Money reported that out of 1000 Americans polled, “a whopping 85 percent say they "sometimes" feel stressed about money, and a full 30 percent say they're "constantly" stressed about their finances.” That is r...

This morning I received a message on Instagram from Scott Hebert asking me when Michael Bell from Half Acre Farm was going to be back on the podcast.  It has been a while since the first BellCast (Season 3 Episode 5) in January, and a lot has happened!  Fortunately for all of us, Micheal Bell returns to the Small Scale Life Podcast to discuss progress at his urban farm in Dallas, Texas....

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. Here is a question for you to ponder: would you be ready to drop everything and go if opportunity knocks?  If you are, you might have an opportunity of a lifetime.  This episode is all about the lessons learned from a local accountant turned Superman for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Those lesson...

In Season 3, Episode 14, we had a very special guest for our 80th episode: my wife Julie. We had a great discussion about the 5 Steps to Developing a Simple and Intentional Life, and you, the listeners, responded!  We had 1000 downloads of this podcast, and we had a lot of engagement from the audience.  Julie wanted to come back to build on that podcast, and in this episode, we are comin...

Houston, we have a problem! We have spindly, weak leggy seedlings that are barely strong enough to hold themselves up! This will result in fragile plants that are susceptible to disease. Luckily, Houston Control has a simple solution. The cure for leggy seedlings is direct, long and low light, and the best way to achieve those conditions are introducing grow lights for indoor plants. This week I h...

Welcome to Spring 2018!  Believe it or not considering it was snowing on the first day of Spring. It is only a matter of time before we can get into the yard and get into the garden.  Before you can do that, you need to plant seeds and grow some seedlings!  In this post and episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I am going to discuss setting up an indoor gardening area and startin...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This week however, I will be completing the Midweek Motivation due to the seriousness of the topic and story. In case you are new to Small Scale Life, I am your normal host of the Small Scale Life Podcast: Tom Domres. I am doing this episode by request from Daniel from Ohio.  He is a Marine with time...

Midweek Motivation is a weekly episode featuring the wisdom and stories of host Tommy Cakes. This episode is all about adding fun to get stuff done (fun to done).  Many of us set goals and resolutions, only to fall apart or abandon them on Day 2.  Why is that?  Maybe the problem is that you relate your goals to dreadful toil and bloodletting instead of enjoying the process and havin...

This is our 80th Episode!  Whoo hooo!  For this episode, we are shifting gears a bit on this episode, and you are going to get to learn a lot more about our story.  My guest and I (and other celebrities who stop by) are going to talk about going from high paying, fast-paced lifestyles to slower-paced, more simple lives with less stuff.  How does one achieve that? Where does one...