Cole Canyon Farms - Doin' The Damn Things!

Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms in Montana again. I think for like the fifth time maybe.  Good afternoon, Morgan. How are you? Good afternoon, good afternoon. Yeah, we've gotten to chat quite a bit since we met a few years ago over those little groovy goats. So I'm excited to be back on. 00:27 It's funny how podcasting can create friendships, real friendships.  Yeah. Yeah. It's  actually really honestly the digital age. It's crazy how we can create friends that we don't even see in person, but they, they're a real friend. It's I, mean, there's pros and cons to digital, but that is one of the things I love about it. Like the community I've made and met and the people like you I've gotten to meet have really shaped Cole Canyon farm. 00:55 to what it is today, honestly.  Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that. How is the weather in Montana today? It's hot.  We've been in the 70s. I'm not even kidding you. Like, I had shorts on and this is like unbelievable for Montana  to be this warm. So I think it's like 70 today with light breeze. So it's a good, you know, a good day to start spring cleaning and getting all of the, you know, future projects we have done. How's your weather? 01:24 It is partly sunny. is 68 degrees. Feels like 68 degrees. I'm looking at my weather app right now and there's hardly any wind today. So that's a nice change from Saturday. Saturday, the wind was blowing so hard. was making the house creek. man. Yeah, it does that to our house. We've had like, so it's windy where I'm at, right? So I'm not ever shocked by wind, but in the last few years, we were seeing more and more gusts. I remember when like 01:50 75 mile per hour gusts were huge a few years ago and now this is the second time in the last six months we've had 90 plus mile per hour gusts here. Yeah,  I,  this, I don't even know what to say. I've talked, I talk about the weather on every single episode and I am literally out of things to say except that it's just weird. It is the apps never correct. Like we had rain last night. We could hear it cause we live in a middle, like a metal tin boot. 02:20 like 10 house, you Yeah. And I could hear it and my husband, it was like, I don't know, we got in a bed kind of late last night because I went to the auction, the horse auction. So I had a lot to film in on about.  Did not come home with anything, side note, good thing on that. But, you know, we heard just this light pattering and I was like, is that hail? Because like that would normally like snow hail season as this season, right? Yeah. And we were like, no. 02:46 No, actually that it's sprinkling outside and the app never updated never said we had precipitation nothing. So I bought uh I think it's a hydrometer or whatever where you stick it outside. I need to figure out the real name for it, but I just called the rain catcher,  but it will tell me how much rain we're getting because I think to be honest with you, they're not they're not as accurately recording what's going on and being a farmer. That's super important. So 03:13 because the digital age has changed and we can't rely on these apps anymore as much as we did for weather, I'm having to learn  the old ways, which is always good, right? Like if the electricity goes out, you need to know how to do this. But I've started turning rain myself, so it'll be interesting. I need to look at what we got last night, but I don't think it was enough to even register, honestly, Mary. But yeah, we've had  strange weather here too. 03:37 Yeah, I'm at the point where if I want to get kind of an idea of what the weather is going to be in a few days, I will catch the morning news.  Yeah. They seem to be more accurate than the weather apps.  And if I want to know what the weather is right now, I literally step outside.  Yeah, that's how I am too. Like we live kind of on an outlook, right? So the storms whip around us because we're on the top. We're kind of on like it's called a rim out here, but it's like a fat uh kind of a flat  plane that's in the middle of 04:07 Some canyons right there's canyons in the middle of it where it popped up. Well, you know it'll if it goes around us left  If it goes around us left then Will sometimes get rain but if it goes right which is into Laurel the city Yeah, then we don't ever see it So you can almost stand on the flat and it'll say that it's you know, hailstorming and it's not where we're at 04:35 We don't even have any hail or snow, nothing coming. But in town, they're getting like beaten with golf ball size, literally golf ball size pieces of hail. So I'm, I'm like you, I just walk outside and I try to look, you know, and see if there's any storms blowing in. But you just, don't know. I pack enough clothes, I guess, with me for any type of weather. I've got bibs, I've got jackets, I've got shorts, I've got t-shirts in the truck, right? Like, yeah. 05:01 just changes often, so you just go with the flow, but it is gonna make farming interesting this year. So I think having,  like you said, just some idea of where to look for reliable stuff is important. It is, and it's so funny because  I listen to a lot of podcasts about podcasting and everybody's like, don't talk about the weather, it's boring. But anytime I ask someone who is farming, homesteading, ranching, it's not boring. 05:30 It's really interesting to hear everybody's take on what they've got going on and what it's doing. Yeah, it literally, I mean your whole life as a farmer is based on an amount of rain that's going to come down if you don't have irrigated land. And  we sadly have to haul every drop of water on and off this property, know, like there's, it's not an option for us. My leach field is green with three or four inches of grass already, which is crazy. The horses love it, you know? So 05:57 I think it's going to be great for the animals. They've had a rough swing this year. know my animals really need some extra TLC after going from 70, not even kidding you, down to one degree in less than 24 hours. That's really a big swing. So I think, you know, it's important to watch the weather because of that, but just knowing how to adapt to it. that's something that I'm actually planning my whole life around is all these weather changes, like building more greenhouses this year. 06:27 Yeah. Trying to  make more wind blocks. Like that's a whole thing. We've been looking up the Texas Ys.  They're like in Texas, they're known for it. You get a lot of wind there, right? So it's like a Y shape, but they use it for cattle and horses. We've been trying to plan how many of those we're going to need because if not, my poor horses, it doesn't matter where they stand in a shelter, they're going to get, you know, soaked. 06:53 with how much wind we have in the unpredictability. can't go put sheets on them, you know, because I don't know when it's going to rain.  exactly.  All right. So let's let's go back to when you and I first talked. When you and I first talked, you were Groovy Grazies, Grazies Montana, and you were raising  goats and taking the goats to parties and things. And the last time we talked in January, end of January,  you had gotten a couple of horses. So 07:23 What I'm wondering about is how you got into horses because that really wasn't on the radar for a while. Yeah. So I'm a horse girl. I'm a I'm a covert horse girl. That's what my husband calls me. Right. Because  Andy made fun of horse girls growing up. It's actually funny. One of the girls that I'm going to buy hay from this year, she knew Andy growing up and I was like, I turned him into a horse girl.  So he's like almost completely also turned into a horse girl himself. uh 07:52 But I was writing when I was nine actually, ah wild fact about me.  When I was little, ah Mike Baumgartner was my trainer out in Texas and he was like an Olympic  candidate. He actually taught the first girl ever  who was legally blind in death back in like the  1980s or  90s. I'd have to look it up, I haven't in a while to do dressage. So  I did weekly lessons and work. 08:21 my hind end off for Mike Baumgartner so I could do extra lessons with him and  I fell in love with horses. My mom gets bit by horses. When she comes out here, she's gonna get bit by every single horse I guarantee you I have on this property.  Not because my mom does anything weird, it's just her energy. I think they know she's scared of her, right?  But yeah, I've been writing since I was nine and then, so Mike Baumgartner, then uh I got into hippotherapy. 08:50 um Hippo, sorry, hippotherapy with the horses. um It's uh working with kids and adults on the spectrum,  nonverbal, some kids didn't move. ah And we were using horses to be a form of therapy. And I did that, uh she's almost like kind of like my mom, Tara, actually, out in Texas. And I was going to become an instructor for that. And then we moved to Arizona. So right, like my whole childhood, I was just immersed. 09:18 emerged into riding and being around horses. They were kind of my calm spot. then Arizona, I got really, really sick. January 11th, I can tell you the day of 2020. was riding before that, I was riding some Western Pleasures out there with Heather Meyer. So people are horse people, they'll know her. She won some world competitions in Western Pleasure and I was riding some really high end horses and just learning the ropes of that after being in the military. So the military was my big like kind of Hades on. 09:47 on writing because in Japan they don't have anything but ponies out there and on the island. So,  you know, I came back uh after my divorce, went to Arizona, wrote for Heather Meyer for a little bit, um learned a lot from her. And then I got sick and stopped writing literally for six years. Just Mary woke up one day and couldn't do the thing that kept me sane.  Oh, yeah, it was rough. So that's why I didn't even talk about it. That's why I wasn't even on the radar. So that's why I'm giving you that backstory. Like, yeah, that's fine. 10:17 I never thought I was gonna ride again.  I had a hysterectomy at a young age and I'm very open about that ah because it's a lot of things, a lot of women are having to deal with that. And honestly, it has to do with the chemicals that we're exposed to. So like that's a whole nother tinfoil hat thing we could go down to, but right. So I had a hysterectomy  and didn't ride. And then I got cleared a year ago. So actually it's coming up. 10:42 I didn't really talk about the one horse I had because he wasn't on the property a bunch and he wasn't really involved in the business. But  I've had horses my own for about a year now, but I've changed out obviously quite a bit  when I've had as we're trying to figure out the direction of them. But horses are my hobby. So they will never pay for themselves.  They will. I mean, they can. Later on, I'm going to breed. 11:09 I've got to throw a bread  off the track. I'm going to breed to my friend Shire that's registered and I'll get a registered baby and that'll move us down the path. like, eventually maybe they'll kind of cover themselves, but they are truly a hobby. So I always tell people like,  you got to decide on your items if it's a hobby or if it's a farm, right? And horses are a hobby for right now. um We do want to get into driving and stuff, but yeah, so that's kind of my background. um I'm a covert horse girl, not your typical horse girl. 11:38 and I'm turning Andy into a horse girl himself. He's doing so good with training the babies and gentling him up. And he's seeing the quietness that you have in your brain. Have you ever been around a horse, Mary? Have you ever been? I have. Yes, I have. OK, so are you a horse girl? I got to know now. I am not a horse girl. I would have loved to have been a horse girl, but no one I knew when I was growing up had horses. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was a city girl, right? So it's funny. A lot of people don't know that about me. 12:08 Well, I mean, like people that listen to this do, but like a lot of people just assume, you know, that I came from the country and everyone had them, but no, we drove like, I want to say it was like 30 or 45 minutes, one way to Mike Baumgartner's place. And I did that once or twice a week. And that was the only way I could ride. then I, mean, Texas, everyone rides out there or has a horse at a stable. So because I was a horse girl already riding, I just kind of found the rest of the horse girls. So that was really. 12:38 of my thing. yeah, so my program right now  is my son's paint,  Liberty. She was born on 4th of July, which is really cool. But he  wanted a really bad so I was bidding at the auction house, which is now my new favorite. uh It's the cheapest thing I can, well, if I don't bring anything home Mary, it's the cheapest. But um you know, I go, take coffee, I buy a drink and a little snack and I go and I'll sit there all day and 13:08 And just watch, I mean, it's interesting to understand the horse market, especially if I want to make this not a hobby. I need to understand that. But yeah, I'm going to be offering weaning startings.  I'm going to work with my friend, Hannah Jones, ah to start understanding how to do the missing link. I've ridden,  I've never had a baby this young or ever really, right? Baby horses, never. I've never gotten experiences. So this is all first. And I've done basic groundwork on horses that have been trained. 13:38 but never like started. So Hannah's gonna kinda help me start them. But I do plan  on being able to help friends consign their horses and ride them and stuff. Cause not everyone wants to go ride in the auction house. Me personally,  it doesn't bother me, right? um So that's kinda like how that'll play in a coal canyon farm. And eventually we do plan on having some like horse driven, my husband's obsessed with it, horse driven like a... 14:06 hay balers, swathers, things like that. He's gone down a whole thing because how diesel's like five bucks here almost. he's going down this whole path because we believe everything here at Cole Canyon Farm has to work for itself. So I still do goat parties, by the way. It's called  agri tourism, by the way. I didn't know that. So like I'm so behind on the time. So I caught up to that wording. was like, all right, cool. But um we're only dedicating 14:35 Friday, like Fridays and Saturdays, I have an employee that I've hired. Not an employee, like kind of like a subcontractor. She'll come and help me. And then if she wants to host her own parties, she can use the name and stuff. I got to look into it, right? Like I'm still in the works of like getting insurance fully done because of our expansion, making sure my employee is under there or she has to be a 1099 contractor, making sure I do the right thing for her. And then... 15:04 we have the sheep, so we've expanded. So we're still doing groovy grazers that helps the goats pay for themselves. I'm still milking them. I'm about to start milking today actually, because I've had some babies  and they're past their two week stage where I don't really want to milk them. So I've got some does I'm going to milk finally, and I'll sell my milk for that.  I'll have to get tested. Everyone needs to know that if you buy goat milk, you need to ask them. It's not the... 15:31 It's not a requirement in every state and it's not really even a requirement in Montana, but a good breeder should have biosecurity screening  down to CL. And if you don't know what CL is, you can totally look at my page. I'm going to put together some courses for that, like basics of buying that'll just be free  information for people.  But CL can be zoonotic and then like making sure if tuberculosis,  fever, mastitis rate. So I'll send off my pathogens. 15:59 My stuff for pathogen testing it'll come back. I'll start selling I do sell at 30 a gallon I encourage all of your listeners to do the cost if you were selling it ten fifteen dollars a gallon You are not breaking even it may feel like it but in the long run you are not Yep I believe it.  Yeah people undervalue it. That's a hobby. If you want to be a hobbyist do that. I'm not a hobby 16:27 I am a cottage farm that are selling the extras and if I'm going to sell them and my family's not going to consume it, then it needs to be worth my time, right? Because cottage farms, you're allowed to sell your excess. So the goats are still milking. We had sheep. I had  every you drop a baby.  My first year breeding. I'm so proud of myself because sheep is a learning curve.  How many babies? Okay, so tragic story. 16:55 But Betty, the one I talked about, because she's like kind of the most important horse here um because of her like role in our whole program eventually. But she's going to make painted pretty mules eventually.  which is our gold mules. I have Betty hits the sheep two weeks before she's due. They're like playing in the field and we're throwing hay, right? So like I'm setting the stage so you understand. So they she runs her over the sheep  and we like checked out the sheep. She seemed fine. Betty was fine. 17:25 But like Betty stepped on it and like with the wool kind of like rolled it and it's because they were staring at me with the hay, but super excited, right?  So that  one did have a dead on arrival uh ram. And it was really kind of sad because it had crushed parts of the baby when she stepped on it. I'm glad my U is okay.  And I didn't even like, there's nothing you can do at that point, right? So sad part of farming, that's the reality of it. One of them was born dead. I do know why, which is important when you farm too. 17:55 So one ram, then we had two healthy rams born and then two ewes. So I've had five babies, four alive, one dead. So that's a really good ratio because these are first time moms. So I think we talked about it  two episodes ago where we were talking about the changes and why we're moving to sheep. So these sheep  were bred  at nine months old. They have now dropped after a year. So it's five months, right? So they're about a year. 18:24 year and a half. They have now  had their babies.  So now these babies will grow up and then they will then be bred this year. All of them will be re-bred. So now next year I'm moving in with seven ewes into breeding season, the end of the season, right? So next year I'll drop seven different ewes. I will butcher one of the lambs,  one of the rams. I have to pick the two because my current ram is a shy eater. I did not know this was a thing about sheep. 18:53 that some sheep are shy and they don't want to eat in front of  other animals. So he like literally was withering away. I, because I never saw him eat. I just didn't ever think anything of it because I would catch him kind of by the pile. But because we've been outside a lot more, he wasn't eating.  So I had to move him in with like a really tiny little buck that I have. He weighs like  seriously no more than 30 pounds. So I've got my ram. 19:17 in there with this little Nigerian dwarf buck and their best buds and that goat taught him to eat. But because he has this like undesirable trait shy eating, we will process him also. So I'll process two lambs this year, which we will probably put honestly, both of them into our freezer because of the fact that food, right, food scarcity, diesel going up, just kind of the writing on the walls. I'd rather have some meat in there and not the excess.  lamb is really yummy. 19:47 Oh my goodness, I breed cheviyat and I encourage people to look at them. They're such an under underrated sheep because they only get up to like 120 pounds as a you, maybe 160 as a ram. they were they're from England and they are meant to graze. They're specifically made to grass grass finish. And I don't want anything that needs to be corns or fed really heavily because I'm I that's more input. 20:15 It's not even because of like how unhealthy it is that you eat all the soy and stuff through the animals, but literally because it's more input, right? So that's why I picked these cheviyats. So they're really interesting breed, even though they're smaller. I am getting them sheared this Thursday. So I'm gonna, I'll get to learn about the wool. We'll eventually process that, right? So the sheep really are just kind of coming along as the backbone because Groovy Grazers doesn't pay for itself. And that's where I had to decide. 20:43 are we gonna continue down the road, which you and I had kind of talked about on the, a few episodes ago about changes and when we came out with Cole Canyon Farm. Graziers is great. Pivot was a big word in that one, Yeah, exactly. We pivoted, right? So Groovy Graziers is great, but to make it sustainable, it's only got a six month season. It's not really worth it because it's a lot of work and time off the farm for myself. Each visit, if it's an hour long, it's a minimum of three hours off the farm.  If it's a two hour visit, 21:12 now you're talking four hours off the farm, right? So it was becoming like a job where nothing was getting done at home, but now we have a lot going on. So another pivot that my son wanted to do was we got pigs. So not only are we now doing sheep, we've got the Nigerian dwarf for milk and parties. We have pigs. My son bottle fed a pig, which was really a good thing for him.  And he decided he wanted to get into them. So we're making a pig pen because I didn't know this, but pigs are like called mortgage lifters. 21:42 Yes. Have you ever heard that? Yes. I have never heard that, Mary. Yeah, they're they can be the backbone of a homestead or a farm too, just like the sheep can.  Yeah. So like we got those guys now. Get it.  My friend gifted us those New Zealand rabbits. I think we might have maybe talked about them, but they've had their first litter. And  one, people want to buy them because you can breed them in the backyard. I'm going to do a whole course on how to feed your family. 22:11 supplementing with like the rabbits. You can't eat just rabbits. There's a whole syndrome because they have no fat on them.  But there's a way that people can produce beyond chicken at their home and use that as fertilizer. So that's something we're kind of getting into. I had done rabbits before, but I can't eat chicken. you  know, the year just, we're kind of in cute coming to the end of Q1 after April. And so, well, we're into 22:36 We were, you know, Q1, whatever. I'm just like kind of lost on the Qs. I've got to look back through them. But I know that Q1, I think ends in April or something.  And I sat down proactively and I was trying to get together what we spent the most money on.  And it was obviously beef, right? Even though I'm buying locally from somebody, which I recommend someone trying to find that or buy a half a beef or something. I buy it by the month. Butcher boxes for my friend here locally.  so beef was such a big number. Well, I did the math on rabbits, right? So I did how much feed? 23:06 how much space, how much to build the cages. And I was like, well, with how much I'm buying beef, I can cut that out by half, because I used to have chicken in there. And then it got replaced by beef and raised these New Zealand rabbits. And people are buying them for trios for a hundred plus here, non-paper, just meat rabbits.  That's income. That's good income, actually, like really good compared to the output of a rabbit. So we're also doing that. So I'm really focusing on items that are going to produce for the farm. 23:36 that are smaller scale. Like I don't have grass puppy money. That's what I call cows, the grass puppies. I do too. Yep. Yeah, I don't have that kind of money. I'm sorry. For a bottle calf out here, Mary, they're going for over a thousand, a thousand five hundred. Yeah. And a year or two ago, they were going for what? Four or five hundred.  They would take them out back at the auction house, the bum calves, if they couldn't get rid of them. Like if you want to be really like very stark and serious on this podcast, that's the reality of it. 24:04 They were begging people to take them.  Now they're little cash cows, literally cash cows, you know, like,  so I don't have that kind of money, but that's okay. Neither do I have that kind of water, cause I have to haul it, nor do I have that kind of like workhorse with the horses. You've got to have horses if you're moving cattle or doing anything with them and any source of like making money off of them.  It's just the reality of it or four wheelers.  So Montana can't really use four wheelers.  We're pretty rugged out here. 24:33 That's what we've been up to, right? Like I just launched my website. That's another big thing that happened. We're going to start doing courses. I have to change the date because I just realized I'm going to be the key speaker,  a keynote speaker. So one of the ones that are listed at Earth Day and it's like not in a big auditorium. It's just outside, but I'm going to get to make posters and talk about it. So and have like a set time. So because I got invited to do that. 24:58 I'm going to be moving the mini garden course that I'm doing. It's called Garden versus Grocery Bill because let's  be honest, that's how we all feel. ah Right now, yes, we do.  Yeah, so I'm going to move it. It was going to be March 18th, but I'll probably move it, um you know, like one weekend back or move it to a different day. I was going to do it on Saturday, but that's coming up. You can  sign up for free. It's just a free course I'm putting on. um 25:24 online and I'll have like a printout. mean, my very own printouts lately, like how I plan my garden, like deconstructing my own ways. like, since we last spoke in January, I don't think I've actually pulled my head up to breathe at all.  was going to say you've taken on a lot in just the last two months. Yeah, but I've worked less. Like, I mean, I haven't like taken a breath as in like leaving for vacation or like 25:53 taking a lot of time off of social media or posting or reaching out to people.  But I've taken days off. I take Saturday and Sunday off every week now. I'm a farmer, I can pick my time. Monday through Friday is great, right? We're still doing things on Saturday and Sunday, but it's family time and Sunday is a rest day. So  I wasn't doing that before. You and I talked about Melanie being my coach. She's still my coach, which is awesome. uh 26:21 and has been helping a lot, but her biggest thing was like, rest when you need to rest and work when you're inspired. And lately, like I've been doing that. So I just feel really inspired lately to get all these things done. And like some of it,  it's  more aimed at the farm. So having somebody that can help me means that I don't always have to leave, but then like bartering, right? I can barter with my employee for time on the farm too. Like, hey, you know, can I? 26:50 have you help me here and then you can take these goats for this party and I don't need a fee at all. Like there's, don't know if that's, you can do that. I don't know, I'd have to check right with a tax person, but  that's kind of our plan is to be spending more time on the farm and then we see the food scarcity. So I think I just feel really inspired lately because of that right there. Like  that's a main driver for me, especially being a veteran. Like Americans not eating and going hungry is like, 27:21 I could stand on a soapbox for hours on that one. Like it's really, it's really disappointing to me that we have that um catastrophe in America. So if I can feed people and make some money off and make some scratch, you know, to feed my animals and feed my family, then I'm absolutely going to do it. So that's why I think we've just expanded into just meat animals. It's there's a market for it. There sure is. And Morgan, this is my podcast and I get to say this because I am the one will get in trouble  for it. 27:51 Not you. Yeah. People going hungry in this country is absolute bullshit. It  is. I am upsetting. I am  livid  about what is happening in our country right now. And I don't want to get into politics. I don't want to blame anybody in particular, but we all need to stop and look at our lives and figure out what the heck we're doing.  Absolutely. There's no left and right here. 28:20 This is Americans helping Americans guys. Like I have the chills saying that, but like my mom's not from this country. My mom's from Iraq,  right? Like I grew up with a very realistic like view that there were kids in this world not eating. If there's  one single person going to sleep at night in America that is starving because they've been denied help, not the ones that don't want help, but denied help makes me as a veteran. 28:50 Question what did  I  serve for? Yeah, and I will stand on that soapbox and some people don't like it They tell me that I shouldn't have that view that I should know better as a veteran. Well, yeah, I do know better and that's why I'm upset Yeah, I think there's an awful lot of upset in the world right now and I eat not just in America, but in the world and It's so  hard 29:18 And I had a day last week, I didn't do a whole lot of interviews last week, I just didn't. And I had a day where I was like, do I want to keep doing this because I feel like I'm just screaming into the void. Yeah, but you're not.  then I decided that yes, I still want to keep doing this. And I just want to keep pounding on the fact that we all have the right to grow our own food. We have the right to get to know our local growers and producers and support them. 29:48 uh And my husband and I, as long as the garden does well this summer,  we'll be donating food to the food shelf. So yes, we are going keep going. Yeah, and you can get tax write-offs, by the way, for donating by pounds.  And like if you want to go become a master gardener, like that's one way that you can donate your time. I recommend Master Gardening course. I went through my local extension office and I did it. I didn't take the test because I know that we want to consult. 30:15 people across America and having  that title kind of I Couldn't use it as like a talking point, right? And then it also makes things more conflicting  and I would have to donate hours So for me, it just didn't make sense to get the Master Gardener title But I think for folks that are just looking for a way to help their community Like you can donate food and keep the Master Gardening title and then you're a part of a really cool group or organization without having to search far 30:45 or trying to find something to do that you can do in a group, can garden alone, but having access to the books that they hand out. Like my book is specifically for Montana down to when to plant and when to start harvesting.  Nice. That is fabulous. That helps. Yeah. So like,  I think for me and my focus on my farm that like I wanted to talk about was just expansion and how we're securing our animals, how we're securing our food. Like  I'm worried about food. 31:15 I will  not have my family go hungry by choice, if that makes sense, right? Like if there's catastrophes, you know, that happened, then it is what it is. But like having to report every year how many head of sheep I have and horses and then get charged for them locally, like for my property taxes is unacceptable.  Having to notify people when I put in a well. 31:42 Okay, like I can understand some of it, but like having to have your water tested or them like I've heard of people getting in trouble for not testing their water, you know enough times or whatever and it's expensive Like we shouldn't it's not why is it a pay to play in America? Like it's a pay to live in America like it's  uh The boys describe it my husband and son describe it as like a video game. That's free to play But all the upgrades you have to pay for so like if you want to harvest your water in some states you can 32:10 You got to do it illegally. That's not okay. Yeah. You know, like, and then all these data centers, Montana has 11 coming. am pissed about that. Yeah.  I,  I have all kinds of  opposing opinions about AI. Yeah. Because  some of what AI does is really good. Some of it is really terrible. Yeah. Like  I personally don't. 32:41 Yeah, I there are some of it. It's built into everything. I'm so tired of everything I used by force having AI somewhere in the background and it not being announced. But then there are some great things that you can use AI for. Like my website builder, I typed in what type of website I needed help with, and it just is going to pull and it did pulled from basics that were like that. Now I went in and had to adjust every single thing in there to be custom. 33:11 But that AI usage, okay, whatever. Like I don't have money for a web designer. If I had money for a web designer, I'd go pay somebody, but I just don't, right? As a small business that's trying to help people. So that's where like, I have leniency, but when there's big companies using AI posters, get out of here. They can afford an artist. exactly. You know, so I don't want to, I don't want to make this an hour long episode. already at 33 minutes. Yeah, you're good. But 33:40 What I wanted to tell you is I am really freaking proud of you. Thank you. For all the things that you're working on just in the last two months. I mean, I knew you were a go-getter because your catchphrases do the damn thing. Yeah. But, darlin', my god, you are, you are kicking ass and taking names. Yeah, I just want to leave a mark on this world. I'm going to leave this world with only my name. Nothing, none of my worldly possessions, just my name. 34:09 So I want everyone to know that like when they hear, right, like my name, they're like, oh, Morgan Cole. Yeah, she did this. Oh, yeah, I learned this from her and it did this for my family. Right. Like, yeah, I'm not here. I could care less about money. I'll be honest. Like, I know I need it. I know I do. But like at the end of the day,  I want to do the thing that I wanted to do in the military, which was make Americans lives better and not even just Americans, anyone's life better. Right. Like I just wanted. 34:39 there to be  a world that could coexist. And if me being on this platform doing what I'm doing right now is what I'm supposed to do, I am so here for it. Like I will always do the damn thing. And that has been my thing. And so I'm seeing such a huge gap online with needing information that's correct, not AI generated  and full of crap that doesn't mean anything actual real world experience. 35:07 because we used to all sit around and do it, then that's what I'm gonna do. And I'm proud of you too, because I know there are days where I wanna give up farming, but then I remember it and like your podcast does matter. I mean, it  does help people. Like I like the new podcast. I love everything that you're doing, but I think it's so hard for everybody like goes through this where they lose sight of what they're doing because they don't feel that they're making a big enough wave. 35:34 just because they don't see it. Like I guarantee you, like you found out today, you're a huge reason why I've shifted the way I have. I've listened to podcasts that you've personally hosted and been like, oh yeah, actually if I did things this way, or listen, they're doing it this way and they're getting really good success, let me try that. Like having that community that you build has been priceless. And like, I have met some of the followers on here. Some of them have messaged me, right? 36:02 So connecting people I think is your skill and I think you're really, really damn good at it. And I think you're really good at getting your word out there. Even if the people are silently listening to you, I think you just don't realize, Mary, how many people depend on listening to your episode. Like when you post them, they used to barely get 120 views after a week. You have 100 plus views on some of these episodes the first day you post them. Uh-huh, it's crazy, isn't it? 36:30 Yeah, I've seen it grow. So I'm proud of you too. But like also know that I'm sure there's more people that you've touched their lives or changed their lives in a way that you have no idea. And like me personally, I think it would be really cool if people under this episode could post like, what have you learned off of Mary's episodes? What have you learned from another homesteader? Because I want to learn, I want to learn what they may have picked up on that I missed. So like,  I think that 36:56 Continuing to do what you're doing, even if you keep interviewing some of us over and over again, there's so much. And I mean over and over again, like, but through time, right? To see the changes, the literal changes that we make as farmers is also very important. So like, I never mind clearing an hour of my day to come on here and answer questions that you have or tell you about what we're doing. Because I think this is like the reality of how we're all going to learn if we want to learn real information. Yeah. 37:24 Thank you for saying all of that. And I actually love sitting down to chat with you  every six months. is very short turnaround on this one, but  I love talking with you because  I  know  when we did the first episode where you were at. Yeah. And I've had four times now to see where you're going to through what you're doing now. 37:53 And I feel like it's a series. It's not just one episode. It's five episodes. It's a series. Yeah. Maybe you should like group it out in that. Maybe people you interview a bunch, because then people can like tune into this episode, but then they may not realize that was Groovy Grazers before. If they listen to Groovy Grazers that we turned into Cole Canyon. Like that may be even something for you to like expand on, you know, because you're good at that. You're good at showing the changes and showing the like evolving of us as 38:23 cottage farmers and homesteaders because there is so much involving pivoting, changing. These are all key words we've talked about.  And I think that's why people are drawn to farming and homesteading and ranching because it's never boring.  mean,  it may hurt like hell when things go wrong. It may make you higher than a kite when things go right, but it's never boring. 38:47 No, no, no, there's like literally nothing ever boring in my life. Like if someone asked me what I'm doing, I probably have some crazy story or they're catching me at a horse auction. I'm like, yeah, can't text right now. I'm watching horses go through at, you know, a minute, 30 seconds a piece here at BLS auction, right? Like  never do I have a boring day in my life. There are some days where I'm cussing at the sky, really pissed at my life because of some things that have popped up, you know, but then there are days like today where I'm like, 39:16 I walk around, things are a lot cleaner, we're getting things finished, we're buttoning up some projects, and I'm like, damn. Three years ago, there wasn't crap out here. There was literally a tin-like building that my husband lived in with a studio and a little horseshoe dirt mound, and now I have four horses and a pony, and I'm breeding a mare this year, and I've got pack goats, and I've got a pig for... 39:44 goodness sake, I've got baby sheep, they're so cute. Oh my god, they're so cute. You're gonna have to include that on the preview. I'll send you specifically the picture. It's smiling. Sheep are so cute, right? But like, had I given up when I wanted to, I would never get to experience this life. I wouldn't get to experience my kid riding around on a horse. You know, I wouldn't get to experience all these things that I wanted in my childhood, but now I'm able to give them. And my parents just, they didn't want to the country life. Fine. 40:12 but I wanted to live this life, so I'm gonna do the damn thing. like, everyone listening, you can farm, and I call it farming, right? Because you're producing stuff. You can actually profit off of an acre or less, and that's something else I'm gonna be going into on a whole fricking course because too many people think because they're in town on a quarter acre or less, they can't produce their own food. But there are ways, and I think... 40:37 that these types of podcasts are going to be the way that Americans will continue to feed themselves. And I think you got to remember that. Like you're helping people actually feed themselves. Yeah, I'm trying and I'm, I'm so thankful for all the people that have talked with me to share how they're doing it.  Um, real quick. Yeah. I understand what you're saying about when you first moved there, there was nothing cause, uh, you knew about how we put up the hard side of greenhouse. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. 41:07 or we're planting seed, we have planted seeds in there this year. We have no  seedling trays on our kitchen table this year. Everything is being planted in greenhouse. way. I remember that being like a huge stress for you too. You're like, there's everything everywhere  in my house.  like,  I remember when you got to eat some strawberries out of the greenhouse. Last spring, yep. Yeah, you were so excited about that. We're going to be building some tunnel greenhouses where 41:35 you know, winter, you'll winter it normally, we get a lot of snowfall. like, well, and you've been getting snow too. So everywhere, everywhere has been getting snow. But you know, like that's something I'm going to be working on. So I can't wait because I was telling my husband, I was like, oh, I can't wait to tell Mary when  I eat my first strawberries out of my greenhouse, because my husband builds them. That's something he like professionally has done um for dispensaries and stuff. yeah, I'm it's gonna be exciting. I think we should definitely check back in at least six months. 42:04 This fall.  Yeah, this fall. See where we're at. I'm like fully booked for May already with goat parties. Yeah.  So in April is filling up. So I think like it'll be really cool to see what changes are next. You never know. Maybe I'll find a unicorn.  If you do, I want pictures.  Oh, I will totally send you pictures. Maybe if it has wings, it's a Pegasus. Maybe I'll fly and come see you. That'll be my new transport with gas these days. 42:33 Wouldn't that be great?  Yeah. Thanks for having us on. I appreciate you so much. And  if any of the listeners feel like compelled um to reach out to me or if you have questions, like please do. Like that's that's my favorite thing to do is answer questions or help people get started on their journey or try and find hang ups, you know, that they're having because I think that human connection is so precious  and we don't I mean, we all take it for granted. So like, please reach out, ask questions like I encourage you. 43:02 to connect with us. Yep, absolutely. Your website is coalcanyonfarms.com. Yep, .com. has an S on it. So Farms with an S, because we will eventually be buying more. So it's Farms. And then Facebook is Coal Canyon. And then Instagram is Coal Canyon Farms. OK, awesome. As always, you can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Morgan, I love you. 43:31 Keep up the good work. proud of you. I love you too. I'm so proud of you. I'll see you in, well, we'll say six months, but let's see where  we're at next time we meet up, okay? All right. Thank you. Bye.