HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS
INTRO TO LAND NAVIGATION WITH MIKE ADKINS
Charlie Mike Adkins, a native West Virginian, retired from
the U.S. Army Special Forces in 2013 after 23 years of service. He served as an infantry paratrooper in the 509th
Parachute Infantry Regiment (Fort Polk, LA) and the 3/505th
Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (Fort
Bragg, NC) before being selected for Special Forces and being assigned to the 7th
Special Forces Group (Fort Bragg, NC and Eglin AFB, FL).
After retirement, he worked as a security contractor inside
the U.S. and overseas. Additionally, he spent two years teaching Human Behavior
Pattern Recognition & Analysis (Profiling) to various elements of the US
Army conventional forces, US Army Sniper School, Colombian Special Forces, and
the United States Secret Service, but primarily units from United States
Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), including the U.S. Army Special Forces
and U.S Navy SEALs.
Charlie Mike also ran a training company for eight years,
teaching primitive survival & bushcraft, land navigation, Kidnapping
awareness & escape, Children’s survival, and a trauma management course.
Charlie Mike is married with three daughters and two
grandchildren and lives on his own piece of Almost Heaven in West Virginia.
Homestead Protection With Scott Willey
Scott Willey is the founder and lead instructor of Tennessee-based Paladin Tower Tactics. Scott is a combat veteran who served as an infantryman and paratrooper in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza Italy. After the military, he led a full-time career in law enforcement for over eight years where he was assigned to the patrol division and SWAT team. He is a Tennessee POST certified firearms instructor, a CQB instructor (certified through Lead Faucet Tactical), a red dot pistol instructor (certified through Modern Samurai Project), a TN Armed Guard Certified Instructor, and a graduate of the FBI Firearms Instructor Course. Scottis currently assigned to a SWAT team in middle Tennessee as a Reserve Deputy and is also head pastor of a church God led him to plant and minister to in Clarksville.
Website https://paladintowertactics.com/
Digital Privacy With Sean Patrick Tario
Sean Patrick Tario is a technology infrastructure executive and digital privacy advocate with 20+ years experience, co-founder of MARK37.COM and CEO of Open Spectrum Inc. He authored "Industry Playbook: Data Center Colocation," produced "I Love Data Centers Podcast," and appeared on 100+ shows discussing digital privacy. His career includes appointments to NC State Board of Science Technology and U.S. District Export Council under two Commerce Secretaries. As a seed investor, he achieved 10x+ returns and co-founded RightForge (now AmericanCloud.com) that hosted Truth Social. Sean advocates for digital sovereignty, helping Americans reclaim independence from Big Tech surveillance.
Website https://www.mark37.com/KSL
Enos Zook
Trapping
Enos started having a real passion for the outdoors at a young age and started trapping a few coons out of the sweet corn patch when I was 6 years old and I was hooked for life, fast forward to now I trap and manage predator populations for hunting leases and cattle farms and I recently took it a step further and started a wildlife nuisance control business where I catch critters of all types in many different situations. I have a total of 30+ years of trapping experience and it’s a great way of protecting your home, homestead, food and can also be used as a survival tool.
Dakota Lobato From Better Built Dogs
Teaching Pets and Protectors
Prepping to Unleash Potential
Dakota Lobato is a protector with a background in firearms training, weapons based combatives, radio communications, and dog training teaching everything from pets to police K9 teams.
Tasha Forrest is a Mama bear cosmetologist with a background in training service dogs, pet dogs and has received competition obedience awards.
Together they make up the core of Better Built Dogs, a dog training company helping to teach dogs and their handlers to "unleash" their full potential together all over the country.
Fermentation Workshop With Dana Russell
Dana traded her pharmacy tech career to be a full-time, Jesus lovin’, homesteader with a passion for wellness and teaching others how to reduce dependency on industrial systems. Some days that is fermenting and canning, while other days that’s seed starting and gardening. She has dreams of one day being fully sustainable and never returning to the grocery store again!
Metal Forging With Mike Key And Kim Breed
Experience the Exhilarating Art of Metal Forging at Our Festival Workshop.
Homestead Thru A Permaculture Lense with Ryan Steva
I work with individuals and families who want greater independence, healthier food, and practical systems that actually work. Through hands-on consulting and wholeistic design, I help people move from “someday” ideas to functioning homesteads.
I haven’t always done this. A health crisis in my 20s forced me to question everything, how our food is produced, how our land is managed, and how dependent most of us have become on fragile, manipulated systems. What began as a personal search for healing became a long-term commitment to helping others walk out their journey to independence and stewardship.
Malerie Knop on Microgreens
Malerie Knop has built her life around nourishing her family and living the farm life, deeply committed to real, whole foods and a simple, intentional way of living. Her passion for nourishing her family—and her desire to leave the traditional 9‑to‑5 so she could work from home and homeschool her boys led her to start Barefoot Microgreens back in 2021, a small farm business focused on growing fresh, nutrient‑dense microgreens year round. What began as a way to feed her own family quickly grew into a mission to make living foods accessible to others. Today, she supplies microgreens to coffee shops, restaurants, health food stores, CSAs, farmers markets, and neighbors who value fresh, local produce.Along the way, she has helped several families launch their own microgreens businesses through her book, Tiny Greens, Big Dreams, which guides beginners step‑by‑step into growing and selling microgreens with confidence.Malerie also teaches others how to grow their own microgreens at home through her hands‑on Made Simple grow kits, empowering families to take part in their own food production. Her work expanded even further when she partnered with His Saving Grains, bringing Crushed Grains and Whole‑cell Crushed Coffee to households seeking more life‑giving foods.She lives on a 5 acre farm with her family, where they raise much of their own meat, raise egg laying chickens, meat birds, and sheep. When she’s not tending to plants, animals, or homeschooling, Malerie can usually be found in the kitchen cooking wholesome meals—or outside, barefoot, enjoying nature.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/18Qkt4i8Sh/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/barefootmicrogreens?utm_source=qr&igsh=MTdubWEycTBkZmQ3cQ==
Suzanne Shires
Backyard Medicine Garden
Tincture Making 101 and Advanced Tincture Making with Leslie Gossett
Leslie is an herbalist, naturalist, forager, and educator. Her mission is to support people in finding their way back to the wisdom of our ancestors. She started the School of Earth and Awe to teach people how to recognize that natural food and medicine are abundantly available all around us. She offers classes, workshops, and consultations.
You can find her teaching schedule at www.schoolofearthandawe.com/events
Darren Strong
Chicken Processing
Eleven years ago, I partnered with Billy Bond to restore an abandoned farm in Northeast Kansas. During that time, we developed highly efficient methods for processing livestock. Since then, we have successfully processed our own meat every year and have taught thousands of others how to do the same with chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, and pigs.
I enjoy sharing these skills and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my experience might be of value to you or your community.
Sourdough Workshop with Jane Clarke
Jane has been baking her whole life, but found sourdough as an adult and fell in love. Sourdough can be overwhelming and intimidating, and she wants to support and empower people to discover how accessible and versatile it can actually be. Jane lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and two children whom she homeschools. She teaches nature education classes for pre-schoolers through Nashville Nature Explorers, as well as mending classes and sourdough baking classes. In her free time she loves to hike, read, knit, and bake!
Canning with Lawrence McCoy
Over the years, Lawrence has cultivated his canning skills to one end...becoming self sufficient. He has made providing for his family, in any circumstance, a top priority. Food preservation is what he is most passionate about and he'd love to share his canning skills with you.
Bruce DeVries The Importance of Biochar on the Homestead
Bruce grew up in Colorado, skiing, and working ranches. He moved to the oil fields of west Texas at the age of 22 and realized he was lost and in need of a savior. After accepting Jesus as his savior and he was baptized a few weeks later. The following Fall he headed to LA for Bible college to pursue a new calling as a minister of the Gospel. Five years later, and the day after graduation, he married my wonderful wife, Darla and moved to Houston, TX to work as an associate Pastor. The next few years they moved to various places in Texas and Colorado, then, in 1992, landed in Nashville TN.
Over the last 40 years Bruce worked as a school teacher, principal, farrier, contractor, and leather shop owner/farmer. He opened his own leather shop north of Nashville. He is constantly improving his skills and expanding his leather working craftsmanship. Bruce and his wife wants to make genuine leather products that will last a lifetime and beyond.
At DeVries Custom Leather we strongly believe "if you can dream it, we can build it."
Baking With Fresh Milled Flour
Barbra-Sue Kowalski
Discover the flavor and nutrition of freshly milled flour. In this interactive workshop, we’ll grind whole wheat berries into flour and use it to make simple, delicious recipes. You’ll learn why fresh-milled flour makes such a difference in baking and how easy it is to bring this traditional skill into your own kitchen.
BEE KEEPING WITH GREG NEW
Greg has been involved in farming and sustainable agriculture since the 7th grade and has continued to pursue it throughout his life. He served 25 years in the U.S. Army, including 17 years in Special Forces with 11 combat deployments, and later worked as a military contractor and instructor in human behavior analysis and special operations training. Since settling in Tennessee with his wife in 2007, they've built a diversified homestead featuring bees, heritage hogs, chickens, fruit, and berries. Certified master beekeepers, they manage two bee yards and operate a handcrafted skincare business, Honey B Goodness. They are active in their church, where Greg teaches Sunday school and leads the security team, and they are committed to building a local barter and mutual assistance network.
www.honeybgoodness.com