Over the weekend, we had all sorts of community happenings at the holler homestead and it got me to thinking about meeting in person and how important that it. I will share some of these thoughts as well as stories of our first ever open house on today’s podcast. Feedback  I want to thank you for your openness about your debt and perseverance regarding paying things off.  In December/January you said something in a podcast that made me think how foolish I’d been the past five years with credit cards, car and motorcycle loans.  After buckling done the past six months and accelerating pay downs, I’m paying off CC monthly now, paid off my car, and today made my last motorcycle payment.  With all that’s going on, I’m now free to focus on mortgage pay down, crypto, and savings.  I’m still enjoying your coffee and will look on your site about becoming a member to show my appreciation.  Tales from the Prepper Pantry Beets and pickles are done for 2021 Getting low on jars of all things (explain why) Weekly garden meal prep for easier living Freeze Dryer Access Project -- thoughts from listeners? Operation Independence Membership Portal Upgrades Slowly Rolling Out Main topic of the Show: Why Meet In Person? This past 18 months, meetings have increasingly been over computers and phones as folks have sought to avoid air travel and reduce exposure to the virus. As a result, kids know how to virtually attend school, adults who never could get their computers’ webcams to work suddenly know zoom and toms meetings are held virtually. It has become a matter of preference in many cases to just avoid getting together in person and handle meetings over web conferencing systems. But is this the best way? How many of you have been to that awkward ZOOM birthday party or wedding? And how many have noticed an uptick in “weird” happenings where people kindo of lose their minds and hurt other people out and about in society? Continued isolation is making us crazy and it is no surprise. We are herd animals. We crave finding people we can relate to, we can be comfortable with. This is why those “loner libertarians” get so excited when they can throw a liberty fest -- like Porcfest in New hampshire each June. It is that feeling of well-being when you bother to get together in person. That is why when people want to come visit the Holler Homestead, I try very hard to make it work. And this year, those requests were up tenfold, so we decided to do a little test this weekend: What if we have an open house day here and just tell folks, here are the hours, stop by. No big agenda. No big personality speakers. Just come hang out and we will likely be doing homesteady stuff. Little did I know that there would be 68 chickens to process that day, derailing other demo concepts we had in mind. And yet people came -- about 20 of you in fact. Including a surprise visit from John and Amanda Willis who can now confirm that my little country road is very very rural. That’s ok - it looked like their car could handle it. Things we learned and enjoyed... Someone will always show up an hour early - that’s why we started at 10am Many hands make light work of chickens Next time, I will hire someone to do the food and beverage so that Jenni and I are not pulled away from guests There are fun people who bring fun things: Seeds to trade, John’s Iced Tea, Angel and Kerry’s finger foods A more set Demo Schedule will happen next time so people can time their visit -- it gets hot here in the summer and not everyone wants to bake in the sun for 5 hours But the biggest thing was thing: Y’all talked and talked and talked to each other. And then you talked some more. Even most of the introverts were just happy to be in person and talk about shared interests. But why is meeting in person so important? You build rapport and trust (Willis story) You can end up out of your space an on neutral ground (Barb Story) Words alone do not communications make. 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7