The Original Crew: Catching Up with Dale and Lisa Goodwin
There are guests who feel like family the second they walk back into the room. Dale and Lisa Goodwin are that kind of people for me. They were some of my very first guests on the Changing Earth Podcast, going back a decade or more, back when they were hosting The Survivalist Prepper. This month they joined Chin and me again for Episode 498, and it felt less like an interview and more like sitting around the table with old friends who never really left the trail.
If you have been listening for a long time, you already know their voices. If you are newer here, this episode is a warm door into what real preparedness looks like after the honeymoon phase. You will hear less panic, more lifestyle, and more neighbors with chainsaws in the truck.
You can listen to the full conversation on the Changing Earth Podcast wherever you already stream.
The Original Crew Walks Back In
Chin was back with me this month after I flew solo on a recent interview, and the four of us fell right into that old rhythm. Dale still has The Survivalist Prepper patch stuck on his truck. I still have the patches and goodies they sent years ago. We laughed about how long it has been, about how podcasting eats time, and about how the community keeps changing under our feet while the friendships stay put.
Dale is not running the old show day-to-day anymore. He has poured that energy into a YouTube channel called Bug Out Location, built around the same practical basics as his website. He shared that he is almost at 100,000 subscribers there, after years of grinding on the older channel with far fewer. Lisa has shifted into her own creative lane with DIY Diva, plus an Etsy shop for the craft work she loves. Different lanes, same heart. They are still out there teaching, building, and living it.
AI Spam and the People Still Doing the Work
One of the first hard turns in the conversation was the flood of AI content. Dale called it the new spam. Where old prep sites used to blare scare tactics and sales pages, you now get endless AI channels regurgitating wilderness and first-aid articles, whether the source material was right or wrong. Real creators trying to share hard-earned perspective get drowned out. Lisa pointed out that it is not just prepping. News channels, audiobooks, and music feeds are filling up with the same synthetic noise.
We talked about how that warps trust online. Fake pages that look real. Video that keeps getting better. Guardrails that may not hold. None of us claimed to have a crystal ball. What we did agree on is simpler. Live each day. Keep your backups. Keep your plans. Keep talking to real people who have actually done the work.
What Mature Prepping Looks Like
If there is a theme that ran through the whole hour, it is this. Preparedness, after enough years, stops being a panic hobby and becomes a way of living.
Dale talked about fear merchants who feed on the next catastrophe every month, and how he refuses to build his channel that way even though it would probably grow faster. Once you have watched enough predicted disasters fail to land, you start focusing on what you can actually control. My side of the table matched that. Early on, it is water tablets, checklists, and a racing heart. Later, it is agility. You keep the EVAC plan. You keep the car kits. You store what you will actually eat, rather than filling shelves for the photo. You throw away less expired food because you stopped buying for the fantasy and started buying for dinner.
Dale still believes a bug out bag is a solid idea for beginners. His own bag mostly feeds truck munchies, but the car kits have earned their keep. I shared our move toward Texas, when a wreck closed the road for hours, and we were stuck in the middle of the mess with cooler food, water, and cheese. We were not thrilled. We were ready enough to wait it out without melting down. That is the quiet win of a lifestyle you have already built.
They also talked about the everyday emergencies that never make the news. A rough month. A medical hit that keeps someone home from work. A freezer full of beef you bought when prices were lower. Food storage that carries a family through real life is often more useful than a fantasy bunker.
Water, Wells, and Power That Actually Works
Dale’s big project of late is solving the Achilles' heel that many well owners know all too well. When the grid drops, you may be sitting on millions of gallons underground with no way to lift it. Their well is deep, hundreds of feet down, so a hand pump is not a casual fix.
He finally had a transfer switch installed. He is clear that he is not the house electrician, and Lisa would not forgive a DIY disaster. With the switch in place, he can plug in an EcoFlow Delta Pro 3, flip a limited set of breakers, run lights and the fridge, fill water jugs, then shut it back down so the energy is not wasted. They have about 800 watts of solar right now, which he said is closer to half a day than a full day depending on how carefully they ration. The goal is more panels. The win already in hand is optional well power instead of hoping the grid comes back before the stored water runs out.
That lesson was stress-tested the hard way.
Two Weeks Without Power
Dale and Lisa were at Prepper Camp when a major storm came through their area. The storm passed over their home while they were away. They ended up with about two weeks without power. Lisa teleworks, and she did not miss a day because their setup held. Water was the hard part. She collected rainwater in outdoor buckets and used it to flush toilets so they would not burn through potable water supplies. Now, with auxiliary power for the well, that chapter looks different. Dale still found a way to grill pizza through it. Only a couple of trees came down on their property, which felt lucky given what others faced.
Back at camp, the story got even more human. People were set up for camping, which helped. Vendors were delayed. Flooded woods pushed swarms of bees into the mix. We had to cut our way out. Dale left a camper behind until the roads made sense again, and it was nearly a month before he went back for it. Someone had Starlink so families could get a message out. Someone made breakfast. Neighbors became a temporary village.
Community Is a Prep
Dale said something I want every listener to sit with. Community and the help of others matter, even when everybody is away from home, and nobody has their full stash. At Prepper Camp, people showed up with chainsaws in their trucks. Roads got cut that would not have opened otherwise. There was a pregnant woman on one of those roads who got out because of that work. Lisa joked that she would totally pack her chainsaw. Dale admitted he would never have thought to bring one. That is the kind of detail you only learn by living through it with people who already think that way.
Preparedness is gear. It is also the person who will get muddy with you when the trees are down.
Chicken Coops, Fire Ants, and Concrete Floors
Because no Changing Earth catch-up is complete without the homestead rabbit holes, we wandered into chicken talk. Dale teased me about bougie chickens, and I owned it. Texas taught me a few expensive lessons.
Metal bins for feeders keep mice out of the main stores. I concreted the coop area around the feeder after losing a favorite chicken to fire ants on bare dirt. Ants have to crawl across concrete instead of nesting underfoot. Mice cannot burrow up under the feeder as easily. Cleanup is a hose instead of a shovel. I put diatomaceous earth heavily inside the coop because you cannot use toxic ant killer near the birds. Ant killer stays outside the coops only. The concrete stays fully shaded so the Texas heat does not cook chicken feet. It took work. It is worth it every time I walk out there.
Lisa swapped stories about cleaner kennel setups and the constant dance of pests, weather, and systems that actually fit the place you live. That is the other half of mature prepping. You stop copying someone else’s mountain property plan and start building for your own dirt, ants, HOA drama, shade needs, and water rules.
Wish Lists, Gloves, and Getting Outside
Near the end, we drifted into Christmas and homestead wishes. Dale has been deep in energy
content, solar, and power stations. His gift idea was not just a ready-made power station, which he called a bit of a cheat, but a smaller learning kit with a panel, charge controller, and wiring so someone actually understands how the pieces talk to each other before they need them. Lisa’s annual quest is a good pair of heavy-duty winter gloves she can still work in, especially through mud season. Chin floated fun that gets people off the couch, like a little minibike someone might find used for a couple hundred bucks. The point under the jokes was the same. Skills, tools you will use, and reasons to get outside still beat another scroll session.
Come Sit With Us
Episode 498 is a reunion, a reality check, and a reminder that the people who have been doing this for a long time often sound calmer, not louder. Dale and Lisa still show up with humor, practical systems, and a clear-eyed view of what matters when the lights go out. Chin and I were glad to have them back.
Listen to The Original Crew with Dale and Lisa Goodwin on the Changing Earth Podcast. Find the episode at ChangingEarthSeries.com or on your usual podcast app (Libsyn episode link). If you want more stories about families learning to live well when the world gets hard, the books in The Changing Earth Series start with Day After Disaster and are available in Kindle Unlimited, with signed copies at ChangingEarthSeries.com.
Dream. Survive. Thrive.
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