Charque, or charqui, is an ancient Andean preservation technique where thin strips of lean meat are deeply salted to mummify the muscle fibers before it is air-dried into a shelf-stable, protein-dense staple. westonaprice.org/charque-sou… This month we are focused on our recommendation to use unrefined salt liberally in your diet. It is the ninth of our 11 Wise Traditions Dietary Principles: bit.ly/ninthprinciple. Salt recommendations via the recipe linked to: westonaprice.org/charque-sou…

Too many people today don't realize that a well-cut wood on joint is more secure than modern metal fasteners. Nails and screws have their place, and they certainly are convenient, but when you need something sturdy that will last, you need wood joinery. appalachianwoodhome.etsy.com…

All the papers are now signed. It’s done 😭😭😭 We officially own a home. There is so much more behind those words than simply buying a house. We’ve been together almost 15 years, and we’ve lived a whole lot of life in those years. About 10 years ago, we went through a financial crisis that left us buried in debt and trapped in the interest system. Big payments, including a huge car payment on a vehicle that barely made it past warranty. We were caught in that cycle so many people know well. In 2019, we consciously decided we didn’t want to live that way anymore. We started questioning what we actually needed. We changed habits, made sacrifices and paid off all of our debt. Then we saved. And saved. In about three years, between eliminating debt and building our down payment, we changed our financial position considerably. No windfall. Just two ordinary people deciding we wanted something different and consistently working toward it. Eventually, we started house shopping. We tried. But with the way the market had climbed, the little rural property we dreamed about always seemed just out of reach. So we stopped chasing it. We bought our trailer instead. Our first summer, we spent a lot of money just for somewhere to park it. But that trailer gave us something we had been desperately missing. It allowed us to spend our summers outside the city, garden, live closer to nature and slowly figure out what kind of life we actually wanted. Then came this year and our first truly off-grid experience at the farm. And something strange happened there. Almost every morning on the drive to work, I’d look out at the countryside and smile. I had this deep feeling I couldn’t explain that our own place wasn’t far away. We weren’t looking. There was no house. I could just feel it. Then the farm stay ended much sooner and much differently than expected. We packed up again and moved our little home to Mom’s. Thankfully, there was no pressure. Mom was prepared to have us there for the next couple summers if that’s what we needed. So we settled in. Planted more gardens. Rested. And got back into our own little routine. Two opportunities to own a home have since presented themselves. The first was the old century home. We really thought that might be it. But the deeper we got into it, especially with the uncertainty surrounding the septic and lack if help from the homeowners, the more stressful it became. And then this opportunity appeared. A newer home. Same amount of acres. Way more country. Way more privacy. So much space for gardens, food, projects and whatever else this Healthy-ish life grows into. Today, every last paper is signed. We’re homeowners. 🥹🏡 We didn’t get here because everything went right. We got here because we kept going when it didn’t. Somewhere along the way, the goal stopped being simply owning a house. We just wanted a simple life. More time outside. More food grown by our own hands. More skills. More freedom. More gratitude. Less chasing and less believing we had to live the way everyone else did. And maybe that’s why this means so much. We didn’t just buy a house. We found a place for the life we’ve already been building. After almost 15 years together and one hell of a road getting here... We finally have a little piece of this world to call our own. Time to put down some roots 🌱

Got the Middle TN Highland Games this week. Hope you all are having a good Saturday.

Thousands of chemicals in your food were never tested for disease. They got rubber stamped "safe." The woman feeding her kids meat gets more grief than the woman feeding them donuts. Baker: "Does it cause inflammatory bowel disease? Does it cause IBS? No idea because it's never been tested for." That is the FDA's GRAS system: a manufacturer says a chemical is safe, and it gets approved on minimal evidence, never tested for what it does to a child. Whole food becomes the scandal. Processed junk becomes the default. The system is backwards. @SBakerMD