Baby Lambs, Chicken Tractors, and Why I'm the Most Paranoid AI Enthusiast You'll Meet

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Hey there Builders!

Sunday afternoon, I stood in the field and watched a ewe separate herself from the herd. She started stretching. Acting uncomfortable. We knew what was coming.

Then not one but two baby lambs hit the ground. Naturally. Out in the open. No vet. No intervention. Just a mama doing what mamas do.

The second one came out and the mother was too locked in on the first to give it attention. It was cold. We had to step in and make sure that little one got warm and bonded with the momma.

That same day I came home and found the cat dragging a baby bunny in our bedroom. It died in my hands.

That's life out in the county. It arrives and it leaves, sometimes in the same afternoon.

And you learn to hold both without looking away.

Why You Should Give All the Cares:

• Your Protein Portfolio: 8 people showed up in the rain to build infrastructure that feeds families, not algorithms.

• The Paranoid AI Enthusiast: I helped 3 people set up Claude this week, and what I found should concern you (even if you love AI like I do).

• Rising Moon Festival: DJ Tru-ah is on the lineup. Early bird tickets are live. This one's different from any festival you've been to.

Saturday Morning, 8 People, Pouring Rain

6 families showed up to build a 75-bird chicken tractor. That's my investment strategy right now.

Someone in the comments of my mini-viral Bilderberg expose posts asked me: "If the world really works like this, what's the best investment you can make?"

I used to think about that in terms of money. Stocks, crypto, assets. But the more I learn about how power consolidates at the top, the more I realize the most valuable thing you can build is a network of people you trust with your life.

You can't buy that. You have to build it. Slowly. On purpose.

Our mutual aid group pooled funds to buy materials. The goal: raising our own meat birds so we control what goes into our food. Not corn-fed garbage. Not antibiotic-laced feed from a factory system. Clean food we raised ourselves.

The kids were there. They held attention for about 20 minutes before wandering off (classic), but they contributed.

They saw their parents building something with their hands alongside other families. That part matters more than the tractor.

We put in 5 solid hours. About 70% done. And the whole time I kept thinking about why this works better than anything else I've tried.

You cannot build community when you need it. If you wait until the economy cracks or the supply chain breaks or your neighborhood floods, the relationships aren't there. The systems aren't tested. The trust isn't earned.

This is infrastructure. It just looks like a chicken coop on wheels.

I put together a mini course on starting a mutual aid group from scratch. Less than an hour of material.

Cause you can’t build community when you need it.

The Most Paranoid AI Enthusiast You'll Meet

People keep calling me an AI hype man. They're not paying attention to what I'm actually building.

This week I helped 3 clients get set up with Claude. One had months of strategy, product ideas, and your memory frameworks trapped inside ChatGPT with no real way to get it out. Another said "Shut your mouth" when Claude started cleaning up files on her laptop and flagging emails that needed follow-up. Actually doing stuff (not just chatting about stuff).

I'm building a hybrid setup. Open source models running locally for everyday work. Zero data leaving my machine. When I need the heavy lift, I tap the cloud models through the API, get the output, bring it back, keep working locally.

There's a version of using AI that makes you a hostage to the system. And there's a version that makes you more free. I think most people are building the wrong one.

My Chatbot to Coworker workshop walks you through this. If you want hands-on help, jump on my calendar to check out your set up and discuss 1:1 help.

Speaking of paranoid, next week I'm giving my first public talk at LinuxFest Northwest. "10 AI Dangers You Will Face in Your Lifetime."

If you're in the Pacific Northwest, this is the biggest geek fest around and I'd love to see you there. Sunday, 4:00 pm, CC 236

Rising Moon Festival: July 17-19, Bellingham

I've DJ'd a lot of places. Rising Moon is one of my favorite. It’s got that backyard feel, hanging with artist and amazing people. Kids running around, people actually talking to each other.

Less than 20 early bird tickets left. Grab yours: https://www.risingmoonfest.com/

Tech Corner

• Claude Code Got a Facelift: Claude just redesigned their desktop experience. Multiple sessions side by side, integrated terminal, file editing, HTML and PDF preview, drag-and-drop layout you can arrange however you want. If you're already using Claude Code, this is a significant upgrade. If you're not, the new interface is probably the best on-ramp yet.

• Viral Content Framework (Coming Soon): I tested some content over the weekend and I'm packaging up the framework I used. It's for people who want to create social media posts that actually get seen, shared, and engaged with. Coming to my email list next week. Stay tuned.

Today’s Takeaways:

1. Build Before You Need It: Community, food systems, mutual aid, none of it works if you wait until crisis hits. Start now.

2. Own Your Setup: If your entire business IP lives inside someone else's platform, you don't own it. Get your data out and build on your own terms.

3. Bellingham Builds Its Own Culture: Rising Moon is proof of what happens when real people build something for real people. Grab your early bird tickets before they're gone.

I love reading the responses to these newsletters.

Hit reply and tell me what landed this week.

What are you building right now?

What clicked? Even one sentence, I read every single one.

Stay dangerous and keep building,

Joshua | The Holistic Tech Wizard

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