ASCEND: Women, Wilderness, and the Will to Provide: Homesteading & Gator Wrangling (Ep 763)

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Discover how modern women are reclaiming ancestral skills—from raising and processing their own meat to handling unexpected encounters with Florida gators.

Host Bethany Beathard sits down with Tiffany Sanders, homesteader, hunter, nurse, and nuisance‑gator responder, to explore what self‑sufficiency really looks like in today’s world. Tiffiny shares firsthand stories from the field, including the wildest gator call she and her husband ever responded to, how her children got involved, and what it’s like navigating communities that protect nuisance wildlife.

The conversation shifts into the heart of Tiffiny’s work: empowering women to take ownership of their food sources. From home butchering and dispatching animals humanely to growing nutrient‑dense produce, she teaches women that you don’t have to be “born” into homesteading to thrive in it. Her background as a nurse opened her eyes to the connection between diet and health—and sparked her drive to grow and raise food intentionally.

Together, Bethany and Tiffany dig into the historical roots of women feeding their families, the rise in self‑sufficiency post‑COVID, and why today’s homesteaders are simply rediscovering what women have always done.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The wild reality of nuisance‑gator calls—and how Tiffiny ended up in the middle of one neighborhood’s “gator protection squad”
• Why nursing school led Tiffiny to grow, raise, and process her own food
• How women historically provided for their families through gardening, preserving, and animal harvesting
• Why more women are learning dispatching and butchering skills today
• The importance of humane, low‑stress animal processing on small homesteads
• How COVID reshaped food security and sparked a self‑sufficiency movement
• Garden staples Tiffiny never goes without—especially her obsession with red potatoes
• Why perfection isn’t the goal—intentionality is

Follow along with Bethany for more homesteading conversations, practical skills, and stories from women who live close to their roots.

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