The Prepper Broadcasting Network - NPM 29: Follow the Phoenix

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

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Welcome, folks. Day 29, hard to believe. Why is Instagram not putting the link up when I put the link in? Oh, now I don't have the link. Great, perfect. Anyhow, I'll fix that as we chat. Look to the link over there on Instagram. To follow the Phoenix, who is our guest today, hopefully she can throw something up there in comments

so everybody who shows up in the live can follow her. because she has been alongside the prepper broadcasting network since it's as far back as I can remember. And she adds an element to PBN that we basically cannot replace. She is an irreplaceable part of what we do here at PBN. And probably the best person to round out this month, you know what I mean, this national preparedness month. Jay Firk, thanks so much for joining us today. Man, what a month it has been. That it has been

It's been a busy one It's been a busy one And I'm noticing As I mentioned before we got started Like a lot of people Over there in the Instagram world I went on a little tear last night That are talking prepping

That you wouldn't expect to be talking prepping Scared I think A little nervous about the world And rightfully so I mean if you're looking at just on the natural disaster in. Look what's happening to all the coasts. New Jersey's flooded.

And then on top of that, someone I know mentioned in Gran Elanino, we actually, knock on wood, this is the first year in what, several hundreds of years that we haven't had hurricanes at all this season. We didn't have anything. And then on top of it,

but like right now, it's September. And it's beautiful. But it is unnaturally cool right now for us. I think we got to a high of 50 one day last week. And so it's one of those things that did not be this cool in September. We should see it towards the end of September to the end of October. Does this make you nervous about a nasty winter in the mountains? Yes. It really does. Well, it's not just that as I grew up in the deep south. So extreme cold works before extreme heat.

It's usually perfect tornado weather or something. But also, if we're already hitting 40 degrees at night, then that means I have to really pay attention because we could just drop down to a frost one night and I could lose every little bit of plant. Yeah, that is a good point. You get close there. The mountains are like that too. You get them weird nights that go down real low.

So we've been down in the 40s quite a bit. It's bundled up. It's, it hints the show. It's too cool to still now. Hey, that's cool, though. I like the show. I like the cup. I love the phrase.

Oh, yeah, that's phenomenal. I have several mugs, tears of my enemies. I'm not responsible for what my face does when you speak. Well, I've got a whole tree of mugs thanks to you, J. Ferg. And in fact, they're usually seasonal. You know what I mean? It's usually a seasonal offering. Yeah, I love it.

That thing was a great gift. Thank you for that. I never even knew those things existed. I don't know how you didn't know. I know. I'm kind of up with a tree mug. Yeah. I just never saw it before because, like, the parents drank out of a, like, a mug.

You know what I mean? Yeah. It's one of those things. I guess I just didn't pay attention. So you think, I mean, I think it's a good thing. at the very least to have this sort of, I don't know. Prepping mindset? Yeah, I don't know if it's an acceptance of the prepping mindset or if it's a trend again or what.

I don't think it's a trend. I think it's more or less maybe a self-realization. We, you know, we were survivalists before we were preppers. And then being preppers, we were anarchists. And then now we, then we were crazy people waiting for the world to end. And now it's more or less a realization is prepping does not make you insane. It makes you ready for anything that's going to be thrown at you. Now, do we sometimes go to insane levels on certain things?

Sure. But who doesn't? I mean, how many crafters do we know out there, which I'm a crusader and a soist. We don't talk about the stash. I mean, it's kind of one of those things. But I think it's, I think it's. it's a mixture. Honestly, it's a mixture of both. It's self-realization and a little bit of a trend because people are realizing there's so much of it out there. And then realizing, oh, I do this.

Maybe I can put my two cents in and I can monetize, which we've been podcasting and prepping for how long and no monetization really there. No, I'm not on it for the monetary value. Yeah, almost 14. I'd say about 14 years I've been at it on the on the podcasting side. You know what I mean? Which is crazy. That is absolutely crazy to say out loud, Jordan. I know. I was over here saying, it's been 12 years.

I'm like, oh, my God, it's been 12 years. Oh, yeah, yeah. I always do it based on my son because he was like right out of the womb, right out of the oven when I got the tough and bug. So that's how I always measure it. And then about a year after that, I was on PBN doing a show. Oh, God. It's just mind-boggling. But I think it's real, though, for people to realize with the economy, gas is never going to be 90 cents again.

Food is at a ungodly high. Yeah. And it's not going down. Unfortunately, our economy on the pay wage end is not meeting it. So you have to prep where you can. You have to bargain shop. You have to save your pennies. You have to raise what you can because there's no way you can be the sheep will are slowly dying.

That's a good way. I hate to say, yeah, if the people are going through fine, strain and strife, and the people who are realizing that they have to have at least somewhere of their own structure or an independence are going to realize, oh, okay, I don't have to solely rely on what Big Brother is feeding me. Yeah. And it's important for everybody to remember, like, this supermarket, on-grid, electricity, everywhere, hot water lifestyle is like, you know, 100 years, 150 years old. That's it. You know, it seems like it's the way, but it's not really the way, you know? You can prep with modern convenience is not trying to tell everyone they have to turn in their own butter. But that's like we make sure we have gas cans full in case power goes out and we have to use the generator or. Like right now, gas is so expensive.

Guess what? If our paycheck's a little lean from one week to another, we've got at least 15 gallons we can put in the car. Yeah, yeah. Propane. It all works. When the power goes out, you know, kerosene for the heaters, you have to think about the fact that,

especially with where I live, power is not a constant. So having a backup source, but I also have a UPS for my internet and my security cameras. So for those don't know UPS is an uninterrupted power source

It is essentially a giant search protector with a backup battery And I use that Yeah well it's a small one But you got to start where you can afford And it gives me an extra 45 minutes of internet And sometimes that might be enough time To get out an SOS or a message

Or even if something's going on As security cameras to be able to still see What's going on in my surrounding Yeah Yeah, no doubt about it. Yeah, I think that I think people should wrap their head around the eye. It's not, for a long time, it felt like throw everything out the window and just move into the sticks and get off grid completely. And to your point, prepping with modern conveniences, well, there's really no point of, like, in my opinion.

I'm going to use my modern conveniences till they're zilch. And I do have alternate means when they're not, because I'm on a way. Well, if the power goes out, we have no water. Right. So, I mean, I have to keep in mind, I have modern conveniences, but at some point in time, and usually about four times a year, they all stop, whether it be weather, natural disaster, you know, usually weather. But we separate brownouts out here where sometimes the power just goes down. We probably all will.

Yeah. It seems like that's the direction we may be headed, right? It does. Yeah. And I think being able to, I think the goal for the average person, particularly if they're scared, should be to be comfortable going on and off grid to some degree. Exactly what you're talking about. Exactly the concept of saying, well, the heater's not working or the power went out in winter, but we got kerosene heaters so we got a backup. Right.

And then having wool blankets or something that's going to keep you warm and insulated, knowing in the winter to close down your window units and to create a barrier. people don't think about, and here's the thing is, there's simple things that people do day to day and then fail to realize, oh, this is a part of prepping too, is I'm preparing my house for the winter months, or I'm preparing for, but it just brings into a fact that I don't think people really think about it until they have to think about it. And then by then, you might be a few steps behind. Yeah, I think you're right. that makes perfect sense to me. And like I said, if we're talking about what people can really benefit from, you know,

the likelihood that you're going to cast away all your modern conveniences and get off grid is about as likely as you becoming a master of ham radio, right? Unless you're really dedicated to it. So you just want to get more comfortable understanding that the grid itself could be interrupted. And how can you set your home up so that that, affects you the least. And that's really sort of what our journey in prepping has been here. You know what I mean? We're in a suburb and basically one of my biggest goals is just that. Power goes out. What does that look like? How can we make it look, you know, the least different than when the power was on and, you know, in calamity, that kind of stuff? How do we make it seem like

things are just kind of normal or normalish, right? And give us the ability to react to that. People are pushing for, go ahead. Keeping things normal is great, but you've also got to consider in the fact that keeping things normal or your modern conveniences is only acceptable in a grid down situation for a short period of time. If we're looking at long term, you just put a bullseye on your back. Right, light on and generator humming. Or you're not losing weight like everybody else. You know, you can't be fat during the apocalypse. It's just...

They'll eat you. Right? Well, yeah, I guess having done the self-reliance and stuff and the homesteading stuff for so many years, I guess I take that for granted because that's our life. Right. Well, I mean, Helene, I mean, two years later and there people were still recovering. So, like, in that instance, yes, everybody was running generators until they couldn't because gas, you know, being able to get in and out, try to. to find their loved ones, like two years later, and it's still recovering here. Like, it looks amazing.

Chimney Rock is open to public. I actually have recordings I took driving through there. I need to post on my page. Yeah, I want to say, for sure. It is, and I am in awe of nature itself. But that is a great example because if I were, even though we have food and raise food and do that kind of stuff, have backup water and all that, if you get hit with something like that, you're back to square one. You know what I mean? That's a square one disaster. That's like you did a

lot of prepping. Good job, bud. Now your house is floating downstream along with your chicken cooped in your mudslide just took out your entire exit route. Yeah. I'd rather have that than I'm taking away. So here, here is a big thing. It's a big concern. It was a wonder that the mudslides didn't hit here. Luckily, you know, not as bad as certain areas. But I mean, I'm still dealing with every day. struggles on a non-catastrophic situation. Like something killed two of my three turkeys, having to go back from the rapids in. I've got hens just disappearing out of a giant run. So it's like, you know, it's, I've got modern day problem, well, country problems and

a modern day. Yeah, well, it's good to bring those problems up, though, because there's a lot of people talking, homesteading and all that kind of stuff on the internet now, and I never see problems. I only see people smiling and chickens in the background and egg. I have always posted problems. I am not shy. Well, you were the originator of that. Yeah, you were the originator of that whole thing.

Because the bravest of them all. It's not, it's not pretty. And it's not all sunshine and cucumbers. I mean, I didn't get any, I didn't get any this year. No cucumbers. My lufa. I heard you're talking about it on your show. Yeah.

Nothing from my squawals. maybe three tomatoes. Like there are years where you think it's going to be great and then sits. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was, for us, that was the year before. The year before it was terrible. And I'm dealing with the end of dog fennel, which is toxic. Oh, it's toxic.

Oh, you showed me the dog fennel. Yeah, you showed me that. A lot of people mistake it for horsetail, which horse tail is good. That's what I thought it was. When I saw it, that's what I told you. I said, I think that's horsetail. You were like, not so. lucky, bud. Not so lucky. It's toxic. Yeah, there are all these little things that,

that, well, you do it. You are one of the few homestead content creators that does it, that gives the real deal on this thing. You know, before you sell your house and move to the country, you may run into a few problems once you get here and get the pigs out in the fields and the, you know, the chickens and clucking around. And that's, that's the reality of it, you know. If you're looking at the homesteading thing, it's sort of the answer to all your problems. It's not. No. But it's its own source of problems.

So Myrtle Beach had palmetto bugs. And they were ginormous. And I screamed like, yeah? When I saw them, I don't, I don't. But out here, I don't mind bugs. They're outside. But we have a bigger issue. We have Asian needle ants.

We have carpenter bees. We have yellow jackets. As we found out right. before prepper camp. We have murder hornets. You know, you found out. Yeah. And then, um, spiders.

If you, if you don't like spiders, maybe the woods aren't for you because you're going to wake up and there's going to be a giant orb weaver had just made a web in front of your door and the orb weaver is this big around. Like it's, yeah. There's spider web. We get them here, funny enough. But we are in the woods. Yeah.

Yeah. For a summer, we are in the woods a bit. But yeah, they'll be out there waiting. They'll be up there in the porch and you're like, oh, God, what did you eat? Yeah. My problem is when they're in the carport and I have to make sure I angle right so I don't catch it because the other day I walked down the hill. Wasn't paying attention because there's a reason why you see people doing this in the woods. It's not for chant and it's because we're trying to prevent any webs we're going to walk into.

And I walk straight through a web and I felt something heavy hit me in the air and I'm just like, oh, freaking out. Oh, I know. I used to be petrified. I mean, literally, arachnophobia. mind them. They're beautiful, but I don't want them on me. No, I get it. Nobody does. Nobody wants something. It's not much weight and it hit me in the ear.

I was just like, figure it or in your hair. Oh, God. I thought, but you know. I'm going to wreck while driving because if it's on me, I'm screaming. Oh, God. Oh, God. Yeah. That's it.

That's real life, right? It is. It is. It is. It is a life situation out there. And I think that's what we've been kind of, we've been kind of like, I don't know, coddled, but now things are getting real. And I think that's why people are so nervous. You know, they got used to this whole like work from home, get everything delivered.

Everything's maximum convenience and comfort. You know, the biggest question I have is, what's for dinner and what am I going to watch tonight, you know, that kind of thing. And now life's getting real again. You know, it's that same old cycle. I think people should do like we were doing and we're going to go back to do it. It was grid down Sundays. You don't have to do it on Sundays. You don't have to do it on Sunday. whatever works. Oh yeah, yeah. I forgot about that.

You know, we didn't do the power. We didn't do our cell phones. Like, yes, did I use the stove? Sure. You know, we were slowly stepping it up. But it made you as a family be outside together, do things together, read books in the evening by candlelight or what have your lantern in a certain time. And it kind of, it's refreshing and reset your brain and your body all at the same time.

Well, that is the exact kind of thing to do if you're scared because you build proficiency and confidence. And I think that's what people are most scared about. They know when the lights go out, they sit down and go, well, I hope the lights come back on. And that's their plan. You know what I mean? So you got to build that comfort. Say your nightly prayers together, you know. It's one of those things where read a book, read scripture, read whatever.

but it's people who sit around waiting to be saved are the people who fail to realize the amount of work it's going to take to save themselves. Yeah, or they never get saved because nobody's coming to save. They usually don't. Right, and that's just it is, yes, I hope for the lights to come back on, but at the same time, if they don't, I'm okay with that too. Yeah.

It's just going to have to change my style of living just a little bit. And that's freedom, man. That's what people don't get. You know, freedom is not in the rights you're given by your government. It's your capabilities, right? That's what freedom is all about. I mean, we're all glued to our phones, which, yes, it would suck to lose communication with our families. Oh, for sure.

But it would be nice to not be tied to it in a sense that prime weird example, Jim and I has been responding to things from. Christopher's phone and I've told him you have to disable Gemini off your phone. I haven't disabled off of my because we will be sitting there and out of nowhere his phone will start answering and Gemini is one of those programs where it's not it's not supposed to listen in. It's only if you put it into the little chat box but it keeps gaslighting us every time we ask why are you listening. No, you put all the information in the chat box. We weren't holding the phone. It's just sitting across the room and picking up conversations. So it's like you know it'd be nice that not be

under that constant watch state. Sure. Yeah, and that, you know, that's when you use the Faraday cages backwards, right? That's when you, instead of putting everything in there because you're worried about it dying, you put it in there to kill it off and get some silence. I want to get my hand on some of that material. I have some ideas that I'd like to bring force for Peebe. Oh, I'm sure you could whip up some amazing stuff.

Flock camera-shaped purse. Well, our big thing is because of the fact that, which I know this is way off, way off topic, but, you know, the whole monitoring smart tags in Walmart. Oh, yeah, yeah. At Target having trackers on all of their carts, even their handheld ones, and all of these places, whether your Bluetooth is off or not, they still connect to your phone. Yeah, that's true. It's like, it's one of those things where we are talking about to that point of carrying a Faraday bag with us to put our phone news. when we go into store or just leaving our phones in our car because at this point at this point it's like we we just don't like taking our phones in with us anywhere I'll go back to carrying an actual

freaking camera to take picture. That's the way to do it. I think a lot of people are going to do that. I think what you're talking about is a movement that is going to grow and grow and grow, which is the end of the tech. I think we have hit a point though where people, we're all for technology. We're all for the growth. And it's like, oh, it's the new age.

But as that new age develops, it doesn't mean that you need to give away, give away more and more of your personal rights. And I think people are realizing that they, we've been saying it for years. If you keep agreeing, you will end up giving away your fundamental rights as a human and as a person and as a citizen.

And we're watching it in live action. And for real time, that is happening. Look at the way. people talk on this platform with their modified vocabulary so they don't get demonetized or whatever. Right, because if they can't talk about death, they can't talk about guns. And I'm saying all the keywords that would demonetize this, but we're not monetized. We're not here for the money.

Oh, yeah, I ain't worried about Instagram. Yeah, but I'm not worried about any of them. The fact that I see it on YouTube now and everywhere else, if I have to muffle the way I speak to help to someone's sensitive continuity, then what is the... Might as well stop. Yeah. Clutch your pearls. You are going to clutch your pearls when you listen to me.

Yeah. That's why you're going to listen to because it's real, right? I just, I can't sugarcoat. And it's like death happens. Suicide happens. Guns are there. And it's like at what point are we codolin. our mass population for sensitive speak.

Yeah. Well, it even seems more malicious than that to me because it seems like the ones who are doing the quieting down are the ones who are creating the technologies that are kind of making all this terrible stuff possible. So, of course, they don't want you uttering those forgotten words. They want you to forget they exist. Oh, everything that is wonderful.

And, you know, it's like communism 101. Can't speak bad about the state. Nobody's dying. No one's getting raped. Nothing bad ever happens. Right, right. Yeah. But, you know, one of the cornerstones, well, actually, the, though we are prepping network,

though the prepper broadcasting network is what it, you know, sounds like. The cornerstone of PBN has always been that from the beginning, has been, say what you want on your show. And we'll deal with the consequences down the road. Elsewise, we're in a George Orwell book, 1984. Yes. And you've got truth speak and altering the past and change in history. For what?

Yeah. For why? And I mean, I've said it on previous shows when I bought old books, historical books, you know, published in the 18 and 1900s. And in those school books, the things that were taught that are no longer taught. Now, though, I'm proud to say my children go to a school where. it wasn't Christopher Columbus who founded Americas. He founded South America and knew it as the Americas. And the Vikings found America first.

It was like to hear that my children are being taught that made me as a mother very happy because I mean, we weren't taught that. We learned it as time goes on. And there's so much that has been changed and displaced. And history is written by the victors. So they get to twist the story however they'd like. So it's just one. of those things where my kids will call me or will sit down and be like, hey, mom, so can you tell me about this? Oh, and God forbid, we go down a rabbit hole.

Oh, with mama? Yeah, you're going. Yeah, I just, it's just one of those things, though, where I would love to get my hands. So if anyone who's listening has them, the old encyclopedias, like the full set, please let me know. I would love to purchase them or get my hands on them. I have been wanting a full encyclopedia set for. ages now because there's something about having that there. I mean, when we did papers, we did research. Oh, I used to love them. We went through those. Yes. I used to love them. I'd be in them encyclopedias at the library. Yes. My bonus child, he

told me that his teacher told him to get used to AI for his homework. It will be his best friend. And I'm like, what? So no individual thought, no comprehension of your math or your English. It's just going to be a, I can type this into AI and

to-da, I have my answer, no, no need. It's like, so we're sheepling down our people twice as much. Oh, cool. Down the population, then you have outright control. So it's just. Yeah, but no, I do want the encyclopedias. I have been wanting this for a long time and I have been looking for. That's a big one.

I look at yard sales too. That's a big one. Yeah, we're reaching the point with encyclopedias where they're going to be antique soon. They're going to be expensive, you know. But yeah, I felt like every house had a set. You know, we were even kind of poor, and we still had a set. We didn't, but my friends did. So I always got to go over.

And it was like, as a poor child, you know, seeing an encyclopedia set showed that, oh, these people had some class. They had the entire set. They got everything, A through Z. Holy. They didn't just have a section. They had the entire set. Yeah.

That was the internet, folks, for you youngans out there. That was our internet. It was like, what do we want to? learn about okay let's go see airplanes and air force and all that through the encyclopedia tornadoes i always studied those in encyclopedias for sure i did a lot of clouds of cloud patterns yeah yeah that's a good one too yeah what a what a world it has been j ferg and it's going to change ten times more in the future but you know this is why i think this is why i think people like you are so valuable because you know those old skills and that old

mentality, maybe it's the wrong word because it's just the human mentality. You know, I think it's more of a traditional mentality. It is more traditional. And whether people want to say, oh, it's this term or that term, I would say this was just a traditional way of living where you provide it for your family. I grew up very country, very poor, and you provided for your family. You made sure there was food on the table. You made sure there was clothes on their back.

Now, was it of the best quality? No, but we may do. Yeah, and I'm sure you had pride in that, you know, and that's what people are lacking nowadays because, well, everything's so easy and cheap and, you know, not necessarily cheap, but everything's so easy and quick, right, that you don't have that sort of pride built into providing like you used to in some ways. But, yeah, the traditional ways, I think what you were about to say before I started, what I think you're about to say is maybe things won't change so much. And maybe we are already headed back to those traditional ways.

I think there is going to be changed with everything. But I think I am seeing more and more of our generation holding on to a way of living and actually incorporating it with our own children. I have a friend who we went and hung out with. And his child, his son's probably about 14, and is learning to whittle and is making wooden silverware and spoons and stuff. And I said, I told him, I said, I understood this is his first one, but he did such a beautiful job that I'm like, sign me up for the next one.

I will pay you for it. There you go. And to see that, like my own children, my youngest, helping me process chickens, like, there is still hope that with our generation that we are trying to maintain or even preserve some of that living. Because truthfully, in my opinion with our generation, our whole life was trauma. But have you noticed that our life, we really don't have the midlife crisis thing as much as the generation before us. Yeah, that is weird, huh?

What is that about? We went straight from partying in our teens to being a little wild in our 20s to all of a sudden now we're living a 90-year-old's lifestyle before we're freaking... Is that what it is, you think? The chaos of the times of just, you know, forget about the little. Lamborghini and put it into chickens and silver. Is that what it is? Yeah. That's always been something for me is I don't want the fast or fancy cars.

I want an acreage in a tiny home. I mean, not tiny, but, you know, just a home of my own. Give me the simple life. That's it, right? I'm a low-maintenance woman with high-end hobbies. Yeah, but it's, you know, I think to your point, though, we look at the chasm, between traditional life and this new modern age. And it feels like it's so big.

I don't want the modern age. I don't want it. Well, that's what I'm saying. I think it's not that far removed. It feels like it's far removed because everything's so exciting and new and high tech. But, you know, it's been only 100, 150 years since everybody was doing it. I mean, look at, we had floppies. We had, you know, 8 tracks, then cassettes, then floppies, to CDs, to what we thought were going to be

micro disk and then mcrowdisc yeah remember that about microdisc but it's trying to explain to my children that i'm from an age where i saw the change of these to the new technology and this is what your world that you were born into yeah yeah and it's understanding that there's a bit of preservation that we just want to hold that you know smart cities are everywhere and then i don't think people realize you are giving sacrifice in so much of your own rights and wills with these smart cities, with these tech states. And it's like, I wouldn't be surprised over time if we find just communities or cities that are almost anti-tech over time.

You know, something from a book where it's, you know, no tech here. And it's not, it would be beautiful to see. I would be okay with that. Just the value of every. everything has diminished exponentially because of technology, I think, in my opinion. There's less value in what you do. So, for example, you understand crochet goods. I understand the market of handmade goods and hand-spun wool.

They cost. But in a world of modern convenience and technology, oh, I can go to Walmart and buy a crocheted beanie for two bucks. I say, okay, well, that's not a piece. Right, right, right. And that's another thing is we are all surrounded by plastic and pollies and fakes. And it's like we are actually trying to get away from all the synthetics because there's not been a, there's been a little bit of a study, but not a long-term study of the human body and exposure to these constant plastics and synthetics. Oh, yeah.

I mean, plastic is what? Another thing that's only about 100, 120 years old or something like that, right? So we don't know shit about that. We know nothing. You know, if you think you, like we don't know enough about things that are a thousand years old that we do. Right. I mean, at least you know your tires came from a natural product because rubber comes from the rubber tree. That's true, yeah.

And then people like, oh, you made that. No. Open a book. Google it. Google it at this point. I don't know if people Google anymore. I think they go right to Claude. They go right to chat, GPT.

I've had so many people tell me they love chat pt chat gpt i won't use it no i won't use it yeah well i mean hey and that's just a lot of people in i think there's a lot of people in in that fight right now trying to figure out like what is my relationship with a i going to be am i going to hate this thing and and when it killed off or what you know the younger kids like probably your son's age and my son's age them kids hate ai i mean i mean They hate it. It's just one of those weird things. They just really hate until homework,

but they do hate it. I think they see it as an adversary. My kids don't use it for homework at all. My kids have to sit there. When we do math, we will sit there and they write out the problem and write out the equation. They're not allowed to even actually have their phones

other than if they're at their dads to call me when they're doing homework. That's good. There is no tech allowed other than for communication for problems. You got to have it. You got to test that brain, right? Or else it'll get lazy just like anything else. I think you have to set limitations, even for yourself. It's not just the children. It's You have to be able to disconnect or the brain rot is real. You'll just sit there. Right? The game is right. But mind rot is a real thing. You'll just sit there and just, you know, dooms scroll.

It's a drug, man. It is. And it's changed people's attention span too, though. It's a drug. You got to look at it that way and understand. It's not a drug like heroin, right? You're not going to find somebody you love bent over the desk dead from an overdose of Instagram. Not yet. It's a drug like coffee, right?

It's a drug like pot. Like you smoke enough pot and you get used to smoking it all the time. You're going to be like, before I do what I need to do, I better smoke a joint. And I've seen people in real life hooked that way. hooked that way. And the technology's built the same way. You know what I mean? You just got to understand that. When you give it to your kids, when you use it, you're you're operating heavy machinery, baby. That's what this is. I have timer set on my kids' phones. I mean, that's good. That's good. A certain amount of watch time. If you've used up your watch time, you're kind of,

kind of out. Yeah, that's good. We take a very interesting approach with technology, which is probably something that requires more time than we have today. But it's, you know, it's our, it's our personal willpower sort of thing. Which I mean, I have a phone. I use my phone. Email isn't everything. But there hits a point where I have to set it down and walk away. Yeah. I think that's the default as an adult that you got to build. One of the things that I think is really important for all adults is because you'd want your kid, you demand your children to do it, but you really got to focus on doing it

because your kids see you. Is when they come up, the phone goes down. You know what I mean? No matter what it is. Yeah, okay, sure. It's like you're not, you need to show them that direct contact of,

I am listening to you. That's it. That's the biggest thing you can do for your kids because then it also shows them that there are priorities above the phone. Right? when dad talks to me or when dad talks to mom or whatever the situation is, he's putting the phone down. There's a priority that's bigger than otherwise. They're going to go, oh, I got a phone now.

That's the most important thing in the world, just like dad and mom. They're always on it. Yeah, that that's also a thing that, for example, Christopher and I do is if we have to have an in-depth conversation, and it's not like an argument, just a full-on conversation, we actually put our phones in the other room. So there's no distraction. So we can give each other a hundred, 100% of our attention. And it may be, it may not even be a serious conversation, but it's nice to have that disconnect where there's no interruptions, nothing to potentially pick up and get distracted by because we want to give each other 100% of our attention.

Yeah. And we're all capable of it because nothing that comes through on the phone, even though it feels like it demands immediate attention, is really going to change one way or another. The calls and text I've just ignored right now. and I'm okay with it. Yeah. Well, I think back to like pre-phone era. You know what I mean?

Pre-phone era when I would disappear all day and come back home after being gone all day and just go, same shit, same old house. I'm still a fan of a home phone. Yeah, I love the home phone. I am still fan. Unfortunately, when Helene happened, the phone lines just got completely ripped out.

Never repair those. No, and they offered, but at the time it wasn't feasible. And so it's like, yeah, so no home phone here. But eventually we will have another home phone. But I do enjoy having that because if cell phones don't work, landlines usually always still work for a little while longer. You know what I wonder, J. Ferg? Funny, like a real quick diversion, but just funny.

I didn't have a computer growing up, but we were all into hacking. So I got into like phone hacking to fit in, you know what I mean, with my group of buddies. And, you know, like hooking a phone up to a landline that's not your landline is just easy. It's like a really easy thing to do. And what you just made me think in my head was like. We had someone tap into our landline growing up. There you go.

And they caught themselves on our voice box or voice machine. Oh, the answer machine. Because they would click up after. And you could always hear them click so you knew someone was listening in. Well, this time it had picked up and someone had called and we weren't home and they went to leave a voice mail. Well, they hung up before the answering machine had clicked over. And all you catch on the answer machine is, oh, shit. And click.

So it was like, whoever it was, the person who had called had hung up. But the person who was listening in hadn't and didn't realize the answering machine caught him. And so we had his voice on our landline. Wow. I don't know who it was, but it was a weird one. It was like, I don't know why they'd want to listen into our conversations. a house full of teenage girls and a grumpy-ass woman. Yeah, they might not have been.

What we would do is, or what I would do is call, like, the party lines and stuff off of other phones. But our phones still had that party line system that if you picked it up just right, you could still pick up the neighbors from down the street. Because our whole block was originally a party line. Wow. Yeah. But what you got me thinking about is if you have phone line, you could, run you could if you had a cool community of people you could run a phone line like a oh like my own individual landline yeah like you could definitely i'm sure you could do that now the now the privacy

you'd have to learn about i wouldn't know how to put privacy just make it a party party line it would be a party it would be a land party line essentially yeah yeah well that's what they used to be was party yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's something see you got the got the wheels turning yeah there's something yeah there's something something there. But it's nice to be able to have that communication because it's like when the power went out, our landlines still worked. And we could tell the neighbors, hey, are you out down there? And yes, we're out here. You know, we didn't. I mean, we still at rotary phones. I loved my rotary phones. I don't think we ever had a row. I mean, I used to my grandma. We had the green. We had the green rotary phone that was attached to the kitchen. So if you wanted to sit anywhere, you had to grab the chair right next to the oven and be able to be able to. We were definitely cordless for most of my life. I remember being cordless. Oh, you were wealthy.

Geez. I remember sneaking the phone up in the bedroom and all that talking to girlfriend. Yeah, no. I mean. Yeah, I remember those days. Those was the days. But, yeah, that thinking outside the box is one of the thing that gets lost when you depend on chat, GBT, for everything. That whole conversation about, let's run an phone line and let's figure.

that out. That stuff goes away with AI. But what's to tell you the amount of misinformation that's being obtained from it that's being told of fact? I mean, we've already seen it with so many words being misspelled and chat p.T

telling you, oh, but it is spelled this way. I was like, no, no, it's not. So what happens when people just take it for its word and now are... What happens when those people are teachers? In the classroom? I think we're already seeing some of that. We've found people who are too obsessed with the digital age. Yeah. I mean,

this is going to be in our school, no matter how, well, not, maybe not our schools, but, you know, our public school system is going to suffer it. They are going to suffer it because whether it's right or wrong, it's going to be there. And there's no way, like the way that, I don't want to talk bad about teachers, because there's some really great teachers, but there's a mentality with public school teachers where it's like, we deserve. more money and we need to do less work. Not like it's a, it's sort of a, yeah, you know what I'm saying. I get what you're saying because you have those teachers you will go above and beyond and

are amazing. And then you have those teachers. It's like, why are you even in this work if you don't like kids and you don't want to. Like, because growing up, our teachers all want it to be teachers. They had the passion and the drive. And now it's people who are like, what are you doing? Why are you recording yourself about what you're wearing in school? You should be teaching our children, not shaking your ass.

It's that simple. It's really that simple. Or why did you get into teaching if you hate kids so much? Right. I never understood that. And I can't say we didn't have teachers who just hated kids. And I'm like, is your life really that miserable? This was the only job you could get?

You know, but I don't. Yeah, but you learned. You learned and you got disciplined and that was that. You know what I mean? And then you moved into the next year and you were like, man, Mrs. Richie was rough. Glad that grades over. But at least you could read. Now you go through that and you come out and you're like, well, I still don't know how to add.

I'm in fifth grade. Right. Well, and then there's the whole debate of, you know, teachers. Schools used to supply stuff where we thought and come find out was the teachers paying out their own check. Now as parents, we supply everything for the school. And it's like, you know, I wouldn't be a little bit of a mess. I feel like the school itself should be supplying certain things and not requiring teachers. They should get a hell of a lot of money here in Virginia.

I'll tell you that much. They get a good chunk of money. Oh, my God. Every tax that comes up is for the schools. Every tax. That's why I can't believe they came out. The schools are as poor as they are. Oh, my God.

Well, they shut two down this year because they were moldy and rat infested. I bet you the school board CFO or whoever is driving a really nice Bentley. Oh, yeah. Oh, you know that. All that administration money is good. Yep, good and consistent because nobody seems to get fired either. But that's a whole other story, Jay Ferg. Here's something on a prepping aspect real quick that I don't think we consider is the fact of teaching our own children. That's a big one. It's not just the prepping lifestyle of teaching my school. child to run around in the woods and watch a step. But it's also like I am his first educator. So right now ABCs, colors, numbers.

Now we're working on word recognition and writing. And it's like he's, yes, he's three, but it's like it starts at home. We are the basis. And how we talk and how we speak to each other is also a very learned behavior. Now, is he going to probably pick something up in school that I'll have to smack the tar out of him for? Yes, the kids do that. Deep programming. But kids are sponges.

And the fact that we are allowing our kids to become dependent on AI technology and chat, CPT, what are we doing to these sponges? They're not absorbing anything. They're not gaining any wrinkles in their brains. So, you know, they need the wrinkles. I really think a goal for all parents should be to send your kid to school able to read. I don't think it's, you know, not like expert level, but, you know, sending the school being able to read because I think it puts them over a big hump. It does, but you've got to also think things are different in the sense.

Like, for me, we didn't learn to read until kindergarten first grade. We didn't learn to write or even our ABC still kindergarten. And then when my kids came about, they had to have already known 100 let words before kindergarten. Yeah. And you had to earn 4K. which I get. But at the same time, I was a very young mom. So I was thankful for 3 and 4K because I did not have the teaching ability for my children.

And it's nothing against them. It was me. And I'm now of a mental mindset of, okay, I understand he needs to understand certain things. He's 3. Next year we'll probably look into a 4K program just so he can get social interaction. And then he's getting more of what I can't provide. Yeah. I think that's a good idea.

I like it. My mom taught me to read before I went to school, and I just feel like it's a good way to set them up. If you can, you know what I mean? Yeah. If you have the time and the capability, I think it's a good goal. But not all of the far.

Because then they can get themselves out of trouble, you know what I mean? You can get yourself. You can start to discern, like, plus then kindergarten's real easy for them, too. Well, I always said I was one of the people. I was never gifted with the ability to be a teacher. Sorry, he wants to turn. That's true.

That's not a true statement, listeners. I am a good teacher for life skills. How to crochet every freaking grammar and everything else. I am someone who can teach my kids' life skills. I can teach them how to balance a ledger. I can teach them how to process chickens and animals. I can teach them how to plant and start their seeds or even cook a meal. Like I'm working on creating more cookbooks for my girls, the recipes they enjoy and like that I'm writing them into separate books.

So as they get older, they have their own books of recipes. And then I can teach the life skills. I don't have God's gift to teach pants to teach English and well, I can do math. But I'm not great with English. No, I get it. I get it. Yes. Well, Jay Ferd, I think we've done the deed here this morning.

Folks, follow the Phoenix if you want a real taste of real life and real homesteading and real preparedness. If there's anything about Jordan, the Phoenix, it's you get the real thing. You know what I mean? That is what you get to Jordan. I can't sugarcoat. It worked. It didn't work. It sucked.

It was great. You know, you get the real take. So I appreciate you as per usual. You know, you're in irreplaceable part of PBM. That's what you are these years, Jayford. I've tagged it that my last podcast is now streaming to my YouTube. We'll see how long it is before I get imploded. But I now have stream yard now linked to YouTube so we can start posted on there as well.

That's phenomenal. All right. So look for her over there too, Phoenix Survival on YouTube. And listen, guys, Instagram, follow her. You're in here. You're watching or you're watching the rebrand. play Phoenix underscore survival follower here on Instagram then you can see her live here as well well you'll see her live here anyway because we'll sneak right in on the PBN page but oh there is a

workaround to that we'll talk about that let me end the show okay all right see you folks thanks for everything hey grand finale tomorrow night nine p.m. Dave Jones and Maria the end of the month when you're off the grid or working in real winter conditions the basics matter more than anything Heat Force Pro was designed around a simple idea. One product, doing more than one job. Heat Force Pro turns a single heat source into three essentials, providing warmth, a place to cook, and generating USB power through high-temperature thermoelectric technology

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