Ask The Expert: Community and Preparedness with Rhonda Beyreis

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Welcome amplify you family. Welcome back. I am Braden here today with Rhonda Beyreis. Rhonda is living in our utopian dream of out on the acreage. She's living off the grid, and Rhonda is on a mission to help us regain some of the lost knowledge that we have of how to survive, how to thrive, and how to grow community around us for continued support in challenging times. Rhonda, welcome to the show, we're very excited to have here.

Thank you so much for having me, Brandon, I appreciate being here.

Pleasure pleasure to have you read it, you are a Amazon Best Selling Author, with a book you've just released called demise of the city, off grid living for fast changing times, tell us a little bit about this story and how it came to be.

So I look at the way the world has really changed in the last five years. And it's been one heck of a ride. And as we look at the world, and what's going on around us, there really is going to be a demise in the city. Because of the fact that there's shortages of food, there's power grid going down, and water shortages all over, we look around us. And we can see that things have changed in a way that is just unbelievable things that we only dream of maybe happening in a movie, but we're right in the middle of it. When I think about the demise of the city and the shortages and how many mouths are feed and how many things are going on around each individual person, it's really important for skills to be given. And I realized that a lot of those skills are going to the grave with great grandparents and grandparents and it is now time to pick up our bootstraps and learn how to be sustainable in fast changing times.

Absolutely important skills, some of those things we've been taking for granted for many years, we've let technology sort of run its course. And we need to figure out how to survive on our own without that technology help

When you look at that situation, most people are have been programmed to, you know, go to school, get good grades, and from there, go to college. And then they've got that college debt hanging around their news. And then they end up being in an environment that is not outside. It's not out in nature. It's not learning how to grow food. It's not. It's not like it used to be people are more in an enclosed environment. So with all of that said, it's really important to take a different look at life and get out and get out of the box, I would say and look to what's going on in your future and kind of ride that wave in a different angle.

Yeah, and Ron, uh, you are really emphasizing the importance of nurturing a community around you and what you do. Tell us a little bit more about your approach with this.

Sure. So right now what we're doing is we're building our community slowly, but surely, we've been doing it since 2010. And how we do that is we offer off grid environment, boot camps where people come and they learn the skills that are lost. And as we're growing and doing these events, we're also building more housing and we're creating a community to where it's going to be completely sustainable. There's going to be a time when people are going to need a place to go and things are gonna get a little wonky. And people are really looking, how do we do things differently and we're, we're building that community, it's important. What is something that some of

the podcasters in our community can do to start to grow and nurture those relationships around them?

Well, the most important thing for each individual is really to get to know your neighbors. I mean, this let's take a look at life in itself. So many people live in gated communities, they don't know their neighbors and it's all enclosed, but yet they're all by themselves. And I used to live in a neighborhood that we would walk our dogs everybody knew everybody. It was a nice beautiful acreage, the trees went over this the street it was just great. But the great thing was is everybody said hello everybody knew who everybody was. Christmas time it was luminaries and you go from house to house and have a hot drink and socialize with your neighbors or summertime. It's a chili cook off and you have a lot more races. I mean it was just a different invite. Ironman, that type of environment, an individual can start, you know, spearheading in their own neighborhoods so that they know their own people. And so they can lean on one another instead of, if something happens that they are divided, and they're against each other community is where you really need to be, especially if you're living in the city, take the time to get to know your people, maybe start a community garden, you know, find out what people are doing and how you can be there for one another community is so important, not just in your neighborhoods, but even in your business environment, it's very important.

Absolutely. Now you're hosting a show through restream. That is posting on YouTube. And you are supporting the growth of community through this, this streaming. Tell us a little bit about your approach with that.

So the guests that I have had on my restream events is are people that are really focusing on gardening, or they're focusing on natural remedies, or how a business can be done through gardening, or how to take your business and be able to shoot it off from maybe living outside the city and kind of creating some other way of looking at life in a different fashion. When I run these, it gives people education, it gives them a different point of view, because we're so focused and been steered in one direction that when you take it into another facet, it really opens up the mindset, and I bring on people that are really focusing on, you know, how are they living their life a little different than the norm. And how's that been a success, so people can look and do things differently.

So you're helping role model different approaches to everyday life. I absolutely love that. That is so cool. So our I've heard that you are accepting guest applications to be on your show what would make an ideal guest for a conversation like that.

And a person that is the medical person, person that is a gardening person, a person that does alternative businesses and how they can take what they're doing specifically in business and do that away from being stuck in the city, maybe doing it from a offshoot site or whatever I mean, through the internet, we have so much going on to where we don't have to be going to a nine to five anymore. And so when you highlight something like that, where a person can live out of the city and have a business that's thriving, those are really good guests. For me. I've had people that to talk about decluttering their life. I mean, we are people have stuff. And sometimes when we're overloaded with so much we can't even think properly, let alone figure out what we're doing with all of our stuff. And so it's just different types of things that can help a person in their life or lifestyle that I'm looking for.

Right, so people who have a different approach. Okay, now, talking about having an experience of decluttering. And getting away from it all, you host retreats on your property. Tell us a little bit about those.

I do. One of the things I spoke earlier is that a lot of the skills and skill sets are disappearing with those that are going to the grave. And so what we've done is we have created an off grid environment where people can come up for five days unplugged from society, learn the skills hands on and I'm talking about figuring out what solar really means and how is it a detriment or a benefit to you. Understanding how to do dehydrating and canning and freeze drying all of these are hands on classes, so that a person is using all of their skills, whether they're using it just by visual but they're also hands on and getting it that way. We teach about fire safety firearm safety, we set up a shooting range we also have fire building debris shelters, we have a great food we create community, they come in they build a yurt or living in yurts or tiny homes. I've got chefs coming in to prepare the food. It's it's a really amazing event people leave here with a changed life. They learn their skill sets, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. And when it comes to a community, think about the city in itself. You've got attorneys, and you've got police officers and you've got moms and you know, it could go on and on. But when you're building a community, those skill sets are important. People need to know how to garden and how to, you know store food and how to live a life that's off grid. I mean, all of the skill sets you need a doctor you need somebody knows how to do it has animal husbandry, I mean, all of the skill sets are just a little different. But that is creating a community and as people come to our events, their five days they unplug, and they get to really understand who they are and what it means to be sustainable.

Well, I can only imagine the level of self development that happens when you unplug from some As modern conveniences as, as a facilitator of these events, what are some of the transformations you've seen with people attending?

I have seen people come in meek and afraid and not knowing what to do, they leave empowered. And they find that, you know, I, I always watch somebody do you can't even but I didn't realize I could do it myself. And it wasn't as hard as it looked like it could be, or going out onto the property. I mean, it's 680 acres. And so we have a wilderness guide that takes people out, and they have to find their way back. No one's ever gotten lost. But I mean, it's taking that time to get out into nature and find clues so you don't get lost. So you can work together. I mean, people really get to find out who they really are. And what are you afraid of, there's really nothing to be afraid of, it's just a different mindset. And when it's the aha moment that isn't powering, just to me to see people really leave here with a change lifestyle.

Amazing. It just brings to mind the idea that sometimes you have to lose yourself, or you have to get lost in order to find yourself. And I could just see 680 Acres is a great place to get lost and find some skill sets and learn a little more about who you are and how to survive. Yes, it is. That's incredible. Throughout this sounds like an incredible opportunity to come to your space to learn these skills, and to have what sounds like a once in a lifetime experience. For those that may be a little far away, or maybe unable to commit to that amount of distance and time. What do you recommend we do at home in our own space in our own communities, what are some steps that we can take to start building those connections and learning these important skill sets?

I think one of the most important things a person can do is to take a plant is plant season right now. So go get an herb or Swiss chard or something, take a plant and start tending that plant and let it produce for you so that you can see how nice it is to have something fresh. And that leads into a little bit more where people can actually start growing a little bit of a garden, if you live in an apartment, you could put a pot on your steep step, whatever you want to call it and start growing something that way, or just maybe put some herbs in the window and start tending a plant. When you do that, it starts to change something inside of you. It's like, wow, it wasn't that hard. And for community wise, if you have a neighborhood where you can work together, they'd be really smart to take a yard and maybe change out the flowers and the shrubs and put in some food. So that you can also see how important having that connection with the food and with your table and with your neighbors and all that stuff. Growing that so that you do have that community connection. I always challenge people with that, because it's important. Looking into solar, people always say, well, the city will they're gonna give us free solar, and it's going to be this and that. But the situation with that is that you're still connected to their grid. So you might want to invest in a solar generators or solar smaller generator, a bigger one, depending, like for my son, he had his wife was nursing and they had two babies, and you know, they need a refrigerator and they need all these things, it's important to figure out what it is that you need at the time of your need to have the right size generator. So it might be a little more investment, because you're having to do a refrigerator. Or if you're looking at maybe I just need something for my little electronics just in case something goes down. Well, you can buy a smaller one as well. Depending on the needs for yourself and your family. There's always important to have your flashlights with their batteries all up, keep and get extra batteries or maybe get some of those oil lanterns just in case the power goes out and you're in the dark. How are you going to feed your animals you have extra water may be stored to where you're storing the water in a proper manner with the proper things in it to keep the algae and the mold from growing so that you have that little bit stored away so that you can take care of your needs for your family or your pets. I mean, we have to always look at what is happening around us. We realize that the train track is still going to go forward and sooner or later is going to fall off the rails. So when it does, you are prepared in whatever fashion that you can get yourself involved in.

Absolutely. Rwanda I grew up in on a fault line. So I grew up with emergency preparedness preparing us for that earthquake that will eventually happen. All of this emergency preparedness has been for a couple of hours. How do you survive a couple of hours How do you survive maybe a day, but what I'm hearing is you're telling people how to survive beyond just not just an earthquake but an entire collapse. There's the self sufficient survive All guy that you're putting together here for us, how do we get back to our roots? How do we tend to ourselves and our own needs. Without those outside conveniences,

it's time to take a look at what your grandparents did. To me, I feel like we're going as we go farther in the future, we're going backwards in time, I've always said that, it's just like, we just have to look at it. And so I would suggest a person looking at all the things that they used to use back in the 40s, back in the 30s, you know, during the Great Depression, what did those people actually do, so that they can survive? What was going on around them? Do you realize that some of the best skills a person can have is like being a seamstress, gotta fix the tattered clothes, you're not going to be able to possibly go buy clothes. But wouldn't it be nice to have those skills to fix the clothing, the people that had money that were actually would trade barter, barter trading would be the people that could fix a fence or knew how to go out and work a field or, you know, those types of skills, that skill set is important. And so taking a look at what you can do to create a different type of skill set. So when the time does come, you can still feed your family or still maneuver or fix whatever's broken.

Absolutely, skills become a commodity, when necessary.

You know, when you say that in 1994, they took away those skill sets out of school, I remember going to home economics, sewing class, pottery class, auto mechanics, shop class, those were all completely taken away. And what's really sad is that that is the skill sets that we need to survive the future. These are things that we need on top of gardening, but they've created the mindset of having to get that education, which has taken everybody farther into debt. And so that skill set that we used to have, we need to pull back and grab again,

interesting, interesting, it's like those basic essential skills have now become a specialized skill in which you have to pay to acquire. And so bringing that education back to those fundamentals, I have to say, My takeaway is that the independence survival and success can start with a simple planting of a seed, and watching that grow and recognize that we have control, to nurture grow, some things that will help us in our survival and sustaining. That's absolutely beautiful image in my mind that it all starts with a simple seed. It does. As beautiful, as if you were to plant a seed for your community today, what would you play?

Honestly, tomatoes? Yeah, there's a huge tomato shortage, and people just don't understand that. And they don't last that long in a can. So you can create botulism, if you don't use it up properly. You can dehydrate tomatoes, you can freeze dried tomatoes and have that lasts a long time. You can powder tomatoes by grinding them up and then make that a base for a super base for any type of food. Tomatoes are really, to me, they're good vitamins, and they're going extinct.

Smart. That's a good choice. Rhonda, we are learning how to be sustainable as individuals, and I can't thank you enough for getting us started on this conversation. If our audience is interested in a little bit more from you, they can check out your YouTube channel, which is Rhonda virus. Yes. And then we have your book available on Amazon called the demise of the city off grid living in fast changing times. And for more information on your retreat across your beautiful property, they can visit thearkofsustainability.com.

Yes, and the Ark is AR K not AR C. Sometimes people get that mixed up and then they're like, I don't see your website. It's Yes, thearkofsustainability.com ARK.

Fabulous. Thank you for that. Any final words for our audience today?

Let's do this together, get your communities together, figure out how you can be sustainable. Someone if not just yourself is counting on you. Fabulous.

Thank you Rhonda. Appreciate your time.

Thank you so much for having me, Braden.